further sub text names and summaries
Weber (1904-05)
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism [Set Text] — Argues that Calvinist Protestant theology — particularly the doctrine of the 'calling' and predestination — provided the ethical foundations for the spirit of modern rational capitalism in the West.
Weber (1895)
'The Nation State and Economic Policy' in Political Writings, ed. Peter Lassman & Ronald Speirs [Set Text] — Uses the displacement of German agricultural labourers by Polish workers in East Prussia to argue that economic policy must serve national power interests, not abstract economic principles.
Weber (1919)
'The Profession and Vocation of Politics' in Political Writings, ed. Peter Lassman & Ronald Speirs [Set Text] — Defines politics as the pursuit of power, distinguishes three types of legitimate rule (traditional, charismatic, legal-rational), and argues the true political vocation requires balancing an ethics of conviction with an ethics of responsibility.
Weber (1917) (SET)
'Parliament and Government in Germany under a New Political Order' in Political Writings, ed. Peter Lassman & Ronald Speirs [Set Text] — Diagnoses the failure of the German parliamentary system under Bismarck and argues that a strong, functioning parliament is essential both to check bureaucratic power and to select genuine political leaders.
Weber (1917)
'Suffrage and Democracy in Germany' in Political Writings, ed. Peter Lassman & Ronald Speirs — Makes the case for equal universal suffrage in Germany as a political and moral necessity, attacking the Prussian three-class voting system as feudal, unjust, and incompatible with the modern state.
Weber (1907-10)
The Protestant Ethic Debate: Max Weber's Replies to his Critics, ed. D.J. Chalcraft & A. Harrington — Weber's responses to critics Fischer and Rachfahl, defending and clarifying the thesis of the Protestant Ethic — particularly its methodology, its causal claims, and its relationship to material conditions.
Weber (1922/1968)
Economy and Society — Part I Ch.3 (Types of Legitimate Domination); Part II Ch.11 (Bureaucracy); Part II Chs.5.4, 9.1, 9.3-5 (The Nation) — Presents Weber's systematic typology of legitimate rule (traditional, charismatic, legal-rational), his analysis of bureaucracy as the defining organisational form of modernity, and his account of the nation as a community of political sentiment.
Mill (1843)
A System of Logic, Book VI: 'The Logic of the Moral Sciences' [Set Text] — Argues that human behaviour is subject to causal laws and that the moral and social sciences can be placed on a rigorous scientific footing, establishing the methodological foundations for all of Mill's later political thought.
Mill (1838)
'Bentham' in Mill on Bentham and Coleridge, intro. F.R. Leavis [Set Text] — Praises Bentham's method of analytical reform while criticising his impoverished psychology, neglect of national character, and failure to account for the moral dimensions of human life beyond utility.
Mill (1840)
'Coleridge' in Mill on Bentham and Coleridge, intro. F.R. Leavis [Set Text] — Rehabilitates the conservative tradition through Coleridge, arguing that stable societies require education, loyalty, and a balance between permanence and progress — dimensions Benthamism ignores.
Mill (1859)
On Liberty [Set Text] — Advances the harm principle as the sole legitimate basis for restricting individual freedom, arguing that liberty of thought, expression, and individuality are essential both to human development and social progress.
Mill (1869)
On the Subjection of Women [Set Text] — Argues that the legal subordination of women is unjust and socially harmful, grounding the case for full equality in associationist psychology — women's apparent nature is the product of conditioning, not innate difference.
Mill (1848)
Principles of Political Economy, Book V Ch.11: 'Grounds and Limits of the Laisser-Faire Principle' — Establishes a principled framework for state intervention, distinguishing authoritative from non-authoritative interference and carving out exceptions to laissez-faire for education, natural monopolies, and the protection of those who cannot protect themselves.
Mill (1861/1863)
Utilitarianism — Defends and refines the utilitarian principle, introducing qualitative distinctions between pleasures, grounding moral motivation in social sympathy, and arguing that justice is ultimately underwritten by utility.
Marx (1843/44)
'Introduction' to A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, in R. Tucker, The Marx-Engels Reader [Set Text] — Argues that religion is a symptom of real social suffering and that Germany, despite its political backwardness, is uniquely positioned for total revolution — with the proletariat as its vehicle and philosophy as its weapon.
Marx (1844)
Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, in R. Tucker, The Marx-Engels Reader [Set Text] — Develops the concept of alienated labour under capitalism — estrangement from the product, the act of production, fellow human beings, and species-being — and presents communism as the resolution of this alienation.
Marx (1845)
'Theses Concerning Feuerbach', in R. Tucker, The Marx-Engels Reader [Set Text] — Critiques Feuerbach's passive materialism for failing to grasp that humans actively transform the world through practice, culminating in the famous thesis that the point of philosophy is not to interpret the world but to change it.
Marx (1845-46)
The German Ideology, Part I, in R. Tucker, The Marx-Engels Reader [Set Text] — Presents Marx's materialist conception of history — consciousness is determined by material life, ideology serves ruling class interests, and the division of labour is the root of alienation and class antagonism.
Marx (1871)
The Civil War in France, in R. Tucker, The Marx-Engels Reader [Set Text] — Analyses the Paris Commune as the first historical example of proletarian self-government, praising its democratic and anti-bureaucratic measures and arguing the working class cannot simply seize the existing state machinery.
Marx (1843)
'On the Jewish Question' — Distinguishes political emancipation (formal legal equality) from genuine human emancipation, arguing that liberal rights merely entrench the conditions of bourgeois civil society rather than overcoming them.
Marx (1874)
'Conspectus of Bakunin's State and Anarchy' (published posthumously 1920s) — Responds to the anarchist critique of the dictatorship of the proletariat, defending the transitional state as a temporary instrument of class struggle while rejecting Bakunin's voluntarism and anti-political abstentionism.
Marx (1848)
The Communist Manifesto — Analyses the historical development of capitalism and the bourgeoisie, argues the proletariat is the only truly revolutionary class, and calls for international communist revolution to abolish private property and class rule.
Marx (1852)
The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte — Analyses Louis Bonaparte's coup in France to show how class struggle plays out in political life, introducing the famous observation that history repeats itself — first as tragedy, then as farce.
Marx (1859)
'Preface' to A Contribution to a Critique of Political Economy — Concise statement of historical materialism — the economic base determines the legal and political superstructure, and social consciousness is determined by social being, not the other way around.
Marx (1875)
Critique of the Gotha Programme — Attacks the programme of the German Social Democrats for its theoretical concessions to Lassalle, clarifying Marx's own position on labour, distribution, the transitional state, and the distinction between lower and higher phases of communism.
Durkheim (1895)
The Rules of Sociological Method [Set Text] — Establishes the methodology of sociology as a positive science — social facts must be treated as things, studied objectively and explained by other social facts, not reduced to individual psychology.
Durkheim (1893)
The Division of Labour in Society, Book I [Set Text] — Argues that the division of labour is the primary source of social solidarity in modern societies, distinguishing mechanical solidarity (based on resemblance) from organic solidarity (based on interdependence and specialisation).
Durkheim (1890s, published posthumously)
Professional Ethics and Civil Morals [Set Text] — Argues that the absence of moral regulation in economic life produces anomie, and that professional corporations and an expanded but individualistically grounded state are needed to restore social cohesion and ethical order.
Durkheim (1900)
'Sociology in France in the 19th Century' — Traces the development of French sociology and argues that the discipline's mission is civic as well as scientific — to provide the empirical knowledge of social facts needed to address France's crisis of moral integration.
Durkheim (1912)
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life — Argues that religion is fundamentally a social phenomenon — the sacred represents society itself — and that the basic categories of human thought (time, space, causality) are collective representations with social origins.
Durkheim (1895-96, published 1959)
Socialism and Saint-Simon, Ch.6 — Rehabilitates Saint-Simon as the true founder of positivism and sociology, arguing his work anticipates Comte while being driven by the urgent practical question of what social system post-Revolutionary Europe requires.