Lecture, three hours; discussion, two hours. Course 21A is enforced requisite to 21B, which is enforced requisite to 21CW. Limited to first-year freshmen. Introduction to key issues in humanities and social sciences through reading of prominent social theories of past four centuries. Consideration of writers from Rousseau and Wollstonecraft to Foucault and Beauvoir in historical context and from perspectives of academic specialties for which their work is fundamental. Letter grading.