Course Description: This course will provide the student with an understanding of the rise of the social sciences as an intellectual field. We will cover the history of western ideas embedded in Sociology and take a critical look at the founders of the field and their followers. In this sense we will look upon Sociology as three classical traditions: Marx’s Historical Determinism; Durkheim’s Social Solidarity; and Weber’s Historical and Critical Tradition. In each tradition we will also examine the contemporary sociologists who follow in the line of the founders. As well, we will read feminist and race/ethnicity theorists and end with an examination of new fields of theoretical inquiry, particularly critical and public sociology.