This course provides a foundation in classical sociological theory by exploring the work of major social thinkers of the 19th and early 20th century. It will  comprised on the primary texts of influential social theorists who have had an enduring impact on contemporary sociology. Although we will consider the broader intellectual climate and key figures in the development of sociology as adiscipline, we focus on the works of August Comte, Herbert Spancer, Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, George Simmel. In addition to a consideration of the theoretical concepts and frameworks of these six theorists, we will delve into the biographical, intellectual,and institutional contexts within which these authors produced their works. t is important for any graduate student in any discipline to have a solid understanding of the conceptual and historical foundations of that discipline. That is no truer for any discipline than sociology, where the history of our endeavor is predicated on the basis of theoretical responses to what appears on its face to be a simple question: namely, what exactly is the social? The canonical thinkers of the discipline all worked to develop clear conceptions of what actually counted as the subject matter of sociological study (as opposed to political, economic, cultural, psychological, and biological, among other things), and understanding those theoretical conceptions of what makes what we do different from what is done on other floors in social sciences courses is crucial to learning to do good sociological research.