This course by Alan Macfarlane was originally presented to second-year students in the Department of Social Anthropology at Cambridge University as a foundation course in the development of social theories. The course covers all of the social sciences, arts and humanities over the last five hundred years and the main paradigm shifts: circularity, progress, Enlightenment.
The lecture titles are listed below. You can find the videos online here.
- Theoretical Systems in the Social Sciences: Nature and Origins
- Theoretical Systems in Social Science: Anthropological Approaches
- Three Major Theoretical Systems: An Overview
- Three Major Theoretical Systems: Structuralism and Causation
- From Circular to Linear Time: The Renaissance 1400-1700
- From Circular to Serial Time: Some Causes of the Change
- The Enlightenment - 1: Nature and Causes
- The Enlightenment - 2: France and the Reversal
- Evolution: The Background
- Evolution: Some Features
- Evolutionism: Social Sciences
- Structuralism: A Portrait
- Structuralism: Social Sciences
- New Evolutionism 1930-1980
- Reflections on the Lectures: December 2012
Cosmologies of Capitalism will be added to our collection, 1,250 Free Online Courses from Top Universities.
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