Sociology 319
Winter 2003
First Paper (15 points)
Select one of the following topics and write a paper on this topic. If you wish to select a different topic, check with me first. The paper is to be approximately five printed double-spaced pages.
Do not rely on quotes to make the arguments for you, and explain concepts and ideas in your own words. Where you do use quotes or references, these should be properly cited. If you use only the text, this may be cited like (Turner, p. 47). When using other sources, complete citations should be provided in footnotes or at the end of the paper in one of the standard referencing styles. Provide a bibliography of the sources you have used. While the notes on the internet and on reserve in the University Library are for your use in this class, do not use these notes for specific reference sources for the paper.
Avoid using "man" and "he" in the generic sense, except where they are part of a direct quote. Otherwise, if you use "man" or "he" I will assume you are referring to males only.
Men speak of blind destiny, a thing without scheme or purpose. But what sort of destiny is that? Each act in this world from which there can be no turning back has before it another, and it another yet. In a vast and endless net. Men imagine that the choices before them are theirs to make. But we are free to act only upon what is given. Choice is lost in the maze of generations and each act in that maze is an enslavement for it voids every alternative and binds one every more tightly into the constraints that make a life.
Durheim, Emile, “Individual and Society,” http://www2.pfeiffer.edu/~lridener/DSS/Durkheim/DURKW2.HTML, September 15, 2002
Paul Gingrich
January 10, 2003
Return to Sociology 319