1. A map of social theories, 1000-2000 by Alan Macfarlane

[ayabaya]

Thanks. It is Montesquieu.

Alan 

[TheMusicPowPowPower]

Interesting lectures, watched this and the one on Emile Durkheim so far, thanks Alan! Just wondering; who was the great theorist concerned with reaction and equality at 12:05? I coudn't understand what was said.

[gingerbreaddynamite]

wonderful.

thank you for all your informationliberationinternetp­ersuits

[amburgerzz]

240p.... we meet again

[Incognitoification1]

Brilliant, thank you.

[premenstruals]

somebody is just coughing to death 

[jabbadu431]

Yes, Western civilization was inferior to the rest of the world, hence the successful expansion and imprinting of Western ideals throughout the world.

[rangulo]

liking the lectures! can anyone help me with the name of the book he quotes as "one of the great books in anthropology" around 6:18? I cant seem to understand what he says there!

[rangulo]

@rangulo got it... The Nuer

[universalsailor]

The Nuer by Evans-Pritchard -- see Wiki

[jauatkales]

Thank you, it's perfect for preparing for an exam in the Formation of the Sociological Thought

[llshih]

Thanks for making the lectures available. Prof Macfarlane's lectures are excellent!

[dalpaugh]

Extremely edifying. Thank you.

[OnderRoseExperience]

it would be great if you could put in a transcript, too.

thanks for posting!

[UsmannicWorld]

@OnderRoseExperience

I second your opinion.We would be highly grateful man if you also try to put up a transcript too :)

[ayabaya]

@UsmannicWorld

Thanks. I might do this when I have a moment. In the meantime, have a look at my website (google Alan Macfarlane) - publications - theoretical methodology - last item (I can't paste a URL here I am afraid). Alan

[rashidkazmi91]

exclusive......... really...........

[sayhi87]

I can't hear anything is there any problem with the sound?

[drgdrf]

What a deadly boar.

[rtofield]

good you realise you have a boring lecture style.maybe try not speak in 5 minute sentances

[ispiseco]

excellent!!!

[littleledup]

thank you very very much for uploading your videos Sir. Its a treasure you found through years of arduous research, dedication and thinking, and you have passed this torch of wisdom to us, we couldn't have asked for more. Thank you once again.

[mujahedeen1987]

Boring

[liopowers]

The complexity of social/humal/physical interconnections are not to be categorized and seperate. They are to be studied as influencial flows efecting realizations and actions. We myst search for regularities at those interdepented values that cannot act seperately neither can be seen as one.

[RobSSBB]

@liopowers I 100% agree with you, I am studying sociology at undergrad level. I have noticed how interconnect all aspects of sociology are and that they must simultaneously be treated separately and as connected. We must search for the patterns that exist and see things which are interdependent of being a totality or objective or separate and subjective. Bourdieu got this right with field and habitus, in my view.

The structure/agency debate is a very interesting one to me

[barbarabell2011]

This professor and this lecture series has saved me from having to read about 46 pages of my Introductory to Sociology. I love studying sociological concepts but having to read them gets boring. I convert this to mp3 format and listen to it while I am going about my daily tasks and the information is stored. Thanks for your contribution to my education. Awesome!

[C3461397]

I like this guy!

[jessafulton]

whoever posted these lectures, THANK YOU! you have helped me on the way to passing social theory in a major way!!

[stillbarkin]

the sound has gone on this video- would anyone know why? thanks for posting the series i have sound on number 2

[deafencryption]

@stillbarkin his microphone is rubbing against things i beleive

[blutaconcanvas]

does anyone know if that sheet he was talking about is available anywhere?

[toprob20]

Awesome vid. I just took a similar course at my own university. So very interesting.

And why? for gods sake is there a sociological flamewar in the responses?? Just listen, everyone knows that a persons opion plays a large part with all lectures. I think ppl watching this can interpret this...

[EditorialResponse]

Evolution is exponential? Do you ever listen to yourself?

[fruitsofnews]

why am i having sound issues?

[HoodwinkPictures]

7:40 - what's the name of the book he mentions?

[rogerf7777]

Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn, Do not take MacFarlane's view of it at face value. He cleverly sets up Kuhn as a straw man to knock him down. To begin with Kuhn says social science don't have paradigms. In other words, social science is pre-paradigmatic. which is more polite than saying it is not yet science.

[frickenalizethis]

You may want to go back to the book again or check the numerous journal articles devoted to the subject of social science, paradigm change, and Kuhn.

[metal87power]

I don't understand why any science have to got paradigms to be science.

Science should be logical, rational, realistic, and social science that is.

[Descenter]

This idea of Kuhn's has been dealt with by David Deutsch, "Kuhn's theory suffers from a fatal flaw. It explains the succession from one paradigm to another in sociological or psychological terms, rather than as having primarily to do with the objective merit of the rival explanations. Yet unless one understands science as a quest for explanations, the fact that it does find successive explanations, each objectively better than the last, is inexplicable." I have to say that I agree.

[rogerf7777]

Is this another straw man case? Kuhns responds to this criticism in his Postscript to Structures. In the second last page, note: To say, for example, that the sciences, at least after a certain point in their development, progress in a way that other fields do not, cannot have been all wrong, what-ever progress itself may be. One of the objects of the book was to examine such differences and begin accounting for them.

[Descenter]

I don't completely understand your(kuhn's) response. Maybe because I am getting Kuhn's "idea" from macfalrane and deutsch. But Macfarlane seems to support Kuhn's "idea", not knock it down as u say. I do agree(i think) with Deutsch's take on it, but i don't know if he's set up a straw man in Kuhn's case because I haven't read Kuhn. BUT, as Macfarlane presents Kuhn, I believe that Deutsch's explanation of scientific progress is really superior.

[rogerf7777]

Your have to read between the lines. I read Kuhn as saying, in effect, that social science is still in the ideological stage in which practitioners do not agree on what constitutes objective progress, but some social sciences could progress, like natural sciences have generally, to the point where practitioners do agree on basics. Personally I believe that will happen, with a new paradigm of science as a whole, though it has not so far.

[Princesspi]

Thank you for this video!

I wish I could take your class. :D

Camila

[EdgardoJustice]

Nice work. keep it up. dvdf

[1yellafella]

love the people he'll be covering though, my favorite social theorists. sounds like a really fun class... can't wait to listen to the rest of the lectures!

[1yellafella]

surprised how "conservative" he is... he raises the criticisms of Kuhn etc but says that he still feels that way "even though you're not allowed to say that"

[marsCubed]

Saying that this was 'not Marxist at all' is dishonest and wrong. It is precisely what core Marxist logic describes - it is the reason Einstein was Marxist. The terminology may not fit with modern political agendas. However the concept that ideas are material, that they come from the economic and social necessity of evolving and antagonistic groups: defines Marxism. most people have no way of learning this as they are crippled by the propaganda of the right's military complex.

[marsCubed]

There is also a huge difference between Reason and theology not mentioned here, The split happened in pre Socratic times. There is only the trash of religion and the philosophy the natural world. comparing is stupid! this lecturer has a modern liberal (in the worst meaning of the word) fool. he is part of the problem and defeats us all with this wishy washy nonsense. science has always been fought for against the religious. ideologies have different social roots and are not equivalent.

[manculine2008]

good！ thank you！

[Yuengling88]

Yes, thank you dearly.

[Nazireh7]

Excellent, clear & unparalleled explanation & insight. Much thanks!

[beancube2008]

Youth bulge theories have been criticized as leading to racial, gender and age discrimination.

[insettostecco]

Many many thanks from a Birkbeck 1st year undergraduate student.

[lukas8611]

Thanks for lectures thanks for posting. Exactly what I was looking for.

[kantavon]

Thanks a million dear Ayabaya :)for sharing your ripe wisdom along with 'simple made' disciplinary knowledge.

[mettewm]

thanks for sharing.

[Lompheid]

Exceptionally clear

[ProkonsulPiotr]

Rare high quality from youtube - thank you!

[electricinsomnia2]

excellent

[bluesrichard]

Thanks for posting

[gayleannherron]

Although nothing in this was incorrect, this Prof has made a simple concept, such as defining Paradigm and Paradigm shifts in unnecessarily complicated ways with too vague of examples. However, having said that, I love hearing any prof or lecturer discuss paradigm shifts as I love hearing someone quote and explain Thomas Kuhn as he really enlightened (Kuhn) our fields of social sciences (although we still have our heads in the sand 99.9% of the time - especially clincians and practitioners.

[riversideharp]

Thank you for posting this.

[doumao]

Thank you! Professor Alan Macfarlane , you are the best.