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Fundamentals: Issues and Texts Courses

Courses preceded by an asterisk (*) will be part of the required introductory sequence in 1995-96.

203. Human Nature and Human Good: Rousseau's Second Discourse (=SocTh 331). PQ: Consent of instructor. In the Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality among Men, Rousseau presents an evolutionary account of human life, in principle compatible with the Darwinian account which it anticipated. Rousseau uses his naturalistic history of man to ground his teachings about ethics and politics. By means of close reading and discussion of the Second Discourse, we examine his teachings about human nature and human good, both for their own intrinsic worth and also as a revealing instance of the attempt to connect morals and politics to the study of dumb nature. L. Kass. Winter.

204. Autobiography I: Rousseau (=Hist 545, SocTh 552). A close reading of Rousseau's Confessions that investigates the conception of personality. K. Weintraub. Winter.

205. Autobiography II: Goethe (=Hist 546, SocTh 553). A close reading of Goethe's From My Life (Aus meinem Leben: Dichtung und Wahrheit) that investigates the conception of personality. K. Weintraub. Spring.

207. Aquinas on God, Being, and Evil. This course considers sections from Saint Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica. Among the topics considered are whether God exists; the relationship between God, existence, and the real; and the origin and nature of evil. S. Meredith. Winter.

208. James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. In this course we consider James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and several related stories from Dubliners. Among the main issues addressed are Joyce's concepts of art and beauty; the sources of these concepts in mythology and theology; his conception of the afterlife and mortality; the themes of exile and remorse, and their relationship to art; and his use of irony and rhetoric. S. Meredith. Winter.

211. Classics in the Study of Religion: E. Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (=RelHum 292). A close reading of Durkheim's major work on religion and a consideration, through several specific examples, of the Durkheim tradition in religious studies. J. Z. Smith. Autumn.

213. James Joyce's Ulysses. In this course we consider James Joyce's Ulysses. Among the themes considered are the problems of exile, homelessness, and nationality; the mysteries of paternity; the mystery of maternity; the meaning of the Return; Joyce's epistemology and his use of dream, fantasy, and hallucination; and Joyce's experimentation and use of language. S. Meredith. Spring.

214. Whitehead's Adventures of Ideas. This seminar pursues a close, critical reading of Whitehead's Adventures of Ideas. Attention focuses on the relation between Whitehead's social and political affirmations and his distinctive cosmological and metaphysical proposals, including the relation between politics and religion. F. Gamwell. Spring.

219. Milton's Paradise Lost (=Hum 208, Id/Met 219/319). This course is based on a close reading of Milton's Paradise Lost with emphasis on the poem's redefinition of heroic virtue and on the text's engagement with issues of family, politics, history, psychology, and theology. W. Olmsted. Winter.

220. Cervantes's Don Quixote (=Hum 220). This course is based on a close reading and analysis of the text. Discussions focus on problems of textual analysis and interpretation as well as on questions of literary theory, fictional form, and narrative technique. Reading and discussion are in English. Those competent to do so are urged to read the text in Spanish. G. Haley. Winter.

222. Church and State: Marsilius's Defender of the Peace (=LL/Soc 222). When Marsilius of Padua addressed the long standing tension between secular and ecclesiastical powers, this medieval Aristotelian not only attempted to redefine the Church, rejecting its "plenitude of power" and advocating ecclesiastical poverty, he also effected a radical departure from Aristotelian politics by making a primary criterion of legitimate government the consent of the governed. We investigate the connection between the problem of Church and State and Marsilius' proto-republicanism. J. Macfarland. Spring.

225. Tacitus: On Liberty and Autocracy in the Roman Empire (=ClCiv 270, Hist 217, LL/Soc 225). The substance of this course is an intensive reading of Tacitus's Life of Agricola and Annals concerning the Roman empire in the first century after Christ. The primary issue for discussion is the historian's view of the tension between the noble citizen's desire to lead a constructive public life and the compulsion to obey the emperor. R. Saller. Spring.

226. Political Philosophy: Kant (=PolSci 312). A discussion and investigation of Kant's works that connect his practical philosophy with his doctrine of metaphysics. J. Cropsey. Winter.

229. Freud's Interpretation of Dreams (=Psych 242, SocSci 234). Freud understood The Interpretation of Dreams to be his most important work, and few texts have had such significance for contemporary social theory. This course provides an opportunity for a close reading of this text, focusing on Freud's theory of thought. B. Cohler. Winter.

230. Hegel's Philosophy of Right (=Hum 247, Id/Met 269/369). The course first focuses on "translating"--becoming more familiar with--what is to many the peculiar language of Hegel, a language which has set and still sets the most important boundaries and questions for many thinkers, not merely about politics but also about economics, sociology, and jurisprudence. More importantly, a concern with particular arguments and the general strategies of his argument understood broadly is also stressed and pushed as far as time and student interest permit. In particular, once some comfort with the language is attained, a somewhat critical stance is adopted, if for no other reason than to guard against the possible bewitchment by what is probably be for many a somewhat new language of thought. D. Smigelskis. Autumn.

238. The Last Supper and the Sistine Ceiling (=ArtH 170). Class limited to twenty-five students and not open to students who have taken ArtH 178. This course examines in depth two works of visual art famous enough not to need further identification than found in the above title, yet still subject to considerable controversy. The premise here is to explore (with the analogy and metaphor of text in mind) how visual artists created levels of meaning and communication in the mature Renaissance, and what tools of analysis and understanding are available to us in the late twentieth century. The course is meant for students without background in art history (though others are welcome) in the belief that exploring a couple of works of great complexity can serve as an excellent introduction to "seeing," "understanding," "responding" to visual art. The course concentrates on primary sources, which means exploration of the relevant writing and preparatory drawings of Leonardo and Michelangelo, but, above all, close looking at the Last Supper and the Sistine Ceiling. Secondary sources are used to examine critically the range of methods available for interpretation. C. Cohen. Spring.

*239. Politics in Literature: Tragedy. PQ: Common Core humanities sequence. This course explores the nature of tragedy and what tragedy reveals about the nature and limits of political life. We read closely and discuss one Sophoclean tragedy (Oedipus Tyrannos) and one Shakespearean tragedy (King Lear or Antony and Cleopatra or Macbeth). A. Kass. Autumn.

*240. Plato's Crito and Related Texts. This course involves a close reading of the Crito, together with a few further brief texts concerning the grounds and extent of obligation to obey the law and "abide the sentence of the law." C. Gray. Winter.

242. The Gospel of John. Class limited to ten students. The Gospel of John presents Jesus as the incarnation of divine light and truth, "the word become flesh." As such, John's portrayal of Jesus invites us to ponder enduring theological, metaphysical, and ethical questions, including the relationships between the divine and the human, the immanent and the transcendent, and the wise and the good, as well as such ideas as freedom, sacrament, and mortality. Through a close reading of the text, we endeavor to enrich our understanding of these complex and interwoven themes. R. Gunderman. Autumn.

246. The Radicalism of Job and Ecclesiastes (=Hum 235, JewStd 235, NCD 277). Both Job and Ecclesiastes dispute a central doctrine of the Hebrew Bible, namely, the doctrine of retributive justice. Each book argues that a person's fate is not a consequence of his or her religio-moral acts and thus that piety, whatever else it is, must be disinterested. In brief, each book not only demythologizes but "de-moralizes" the universe. The students read Job and Ecclesiastes in translation and discuss the nature of such a universe and ask what kind of God did Job and Ecclesiastes worship. H. Moltz. Spring.

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248. Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise (=PolSci 353, SocTh 472). This course covers Spinoza's account in the Theological-Political Treatise of the relations between theology, philosophy, morality, and politics; his interpretation of the Bible; his doctrines of divine law, natural law, natural right, and civil right; and his arguments for religious toleration and the freedom of philosophizing. N. Tarcov, H. Fradkin. Winter.

253. Martin Luther: Two Treatises. Close reading of The Freedom of the Christian and The Commentary on Galatians. B. Brown. Winter.

256. Aristotle's Politics (=Hum 256, Id/Met 216/316). Special attention is given to the problems Aristotle thought important to consider and why they continue to be problems which are worthy of attention. Of particular interest is the manner in which politics is distinct from but interrelated with many other enterprises and the shaping of the inquiry as a deliberation which is meant to eventuate in choices by the readers. Another more recent text in the same general tradition, most probably J. S. Mill's On Representative Government, is read for comparative purposes. D. Smigelskis. Spring.

262. Kant: Ethics, Politics, History, Religion (=Hum 245, Id/Met 270/370). Kant's writings on the practical are often called formalist and deontic. This reading is usually based solely on the Grundlegung (the English title of which is normally either Fundamental Principles or Groundwork), an early "critical" work written for a very specific purpose. The assumption in this course is that Kant is much more interesting than this reading indicates and than attention to the Grundlegung alone allows. Some of the course readings consequently are his Metaphysics of Morals, Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone, and various essays on "history." These in combination provide subtle and consciously interrelated reflections on the problems of practice. D. Smigelskis. Spring.

265. Hobbes's Leviathan (=LL/Soc 265). Close reading of the Leviathan, with emphasis divided as nearly as possible among the book's several concerns: philosophical underpinnings, political theory, and religion. C. Gray. Spring.

266. Beckett's Trilogy. Reading and analysis of Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnameable with emphasis on the author's critique of modern humanism. W. Johnson. Spring.

Fndmtl 269. The Book of Job. M. Fishbane.

276. Augustine's Confessions and The Life of Saint Teresa (=Hum 207, Id/Met 290/390). The course examines confessions and autobiography as ways of orienting lives and selves toward alteration, focusing in particular on love and discourse as agents of transformation. It consists of a close reading of the texts in English translation. We will spend about seven weeks on the Confessions and about three on The Life of Teresa. Class consists of brief lectures and discussion. Students may choose to write papers on one or both of the texts. W. Olmsted. Autumn.

278. Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (=Philos 375). PQ: Basic course in philosophy. In this course we examine selected parts of the Critique of Pure Reason with a view to achieving a general understanding of the work. Among the parts selected for this purpose will be the "Aesthetic"; the "Transcendental Deduction"; the "Schematism"; the "First Analogy"; the "Second Analogy"; the "Refutation of Idealism" and the "Fourth Paralogism;" and the "Third Antinomy." The course begins with a more general investigation of the nature of Kant's critical enterprise as revealed in the Critique of Pure Reason itself and in other texts. M. Forster. Winter.

281. Heroic Failure: Lord Jim and The Great Gatsby (=Hum 203). This course focuses on a reading of Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. The reading focuses on how narrative techniques construct what is seen and understood and how the narrator is as much told as he is telling. E. Wasiolek. Autumn.

282. The Praise of Folly and Utopia (=Hist 272). These major texts of Erasmus and Thomas More are read and analyzed as documents of Renaissance Christian humanism and as works engaged in a dialogue with one another. H. Gray. Spring.

285. Freedom, Finitude, and Religion: Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and the Question Concerning Morality. We undertake a close reading of Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals and Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling with particular attention to the relations between religion and morality. W. Schweiker. Autumn.

290. Aristotle's Poetics (=Hum 262, Id/Met 252/352). Courses about art are usually concerned with aesthetic and critical questions and rarely pause to consider questions about how to make works of art. Aristotle's Poetics would seem to be, in large part at least, about the latter with the primary focus being certain types of stories. The relation between aesthetic/critical and poetic strategies are discussed. In addition, the text we have is filled with ambiguities. Rather than being a liability, these ambiguities are an occasion to explore various possibilities of what a poetic enterprise might involve. Furthermore, various types of stories either mentioned by Aristotle or which are seeming counterexamples to what he says will also be part of the course readings and class discussion. D. Smigelskis. Autumn.

293. Thucydides (=LL/Soc 293, PolSci 219). This class studies one of the classic guides to domestic and international politics. Themes include: progress and decline; justice and expediency; the role of rhetoric in domestic and foreign policy; the virtues and vices of democracies and oligarchies in domestic and foreign policy; strategy and statesmanship; the causes and domestic effects of war; imperialism and alliances. N. Tarcov. Spring.

294. Handbooks for the Spiritual Life. Wise individuals have often been asked for advice on how to live the most fulfilling lives; many have responded by writing handbooks which outline the proper approach to life. In this course we examine three of these works: Seneca's Letters to Lucilius; Augustine's Enchiridion of Faith, Hope, and Love; and Erasmus's Enchiridion Militis Christiani. Our discussions concentrate on what constitutes the ideal life for each writer and how they think it can be achieved. K. O'Brien. Autumn.

296. Freud and Nietzsche (=GS Hum 383, German 392). This course pursues a comparative analysis of the genesis, structure, and implications of Freudian and Nietzschean thought. Special attention is paid to issues of individual and cultural identity (sexual, disciplinary, professional, religious, political), as they emerge from the close reading of two texts: Freud's Moses and Monotheism and Nietzsche's On the Advantages and Disadvantages of History for Life. Participants are asked to present their understanding of, and reaction to, some aspect of these texts seminar-fashion in the concluding part of the course. Texts in both English translation and the original German. S. Jaffe. Winter.

297. Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France. While study of the Reflections, almost inevitably, considers the nature and sources of its rhetorical power, the course also examines the extent to which Burke's text can be seen as a systematic statement of political doctrine. Students are encouraged to acquaint themselves with some of Burke's targets (e.g., Bolingbroke, Richard Price) as well as his answerers (e.g., Paine, Arthur Young), but a close reading of the Reflections itself is the objective of the course. E. Rosenheim. Autumn.

Other courses of interest:

BioSci 284. The Quest for Human Nature. R. Gunderman. Autumn.

German 375. Poetry of the Jews and/or Germans. S. Jaffe. Autumn.

Philos 387. Marx. D. Brudney. Autumn.

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