Modernity Syllabus

Whitman College - Spring 2007
Mitch Clearfield

skip to: [ description ] [ texts ] [ high-tech ] [ requirements ] [ academic honesty ]

Antiquity & Modernity is a year-long exploration of the formation and transformation of some Western worldviews - conceptions of what is most fundamental and important in human life, both as it is and as it ought to be. We will explore ways of understanding nature, society, the self, and the transcendent. Attention will be given not only to the continuity within the dominant worldviews, but also to competing and alternate visions. The course will examine some of the important individuals, texts, and events that have significantly shaped, reshaped, and challenged these worldviews.

During the first semester, we explored four of the principal roots of Western culture: ancient Greece, Rome, the Hebrew Bible, and the New Testament. We concluded with Augustine’s attempt to synthesize and build on aspects from each of these sources. During the second semester, we will look at various events and ideas that extended and challenged the dominant worldview issuing from Western antiquity. These include the “constructive” projects of the Enlightenment, modern science, and Romanticism, as well as the “deconstructive” projects that called those into question. We will conclude with Toni Morrison’s Beloved, which will provide an opportunity for reflecting on both the constructive and the deconstructive projects in a contemporary context.

This class is “core” not only in texts and ideas but also in skills. This class will be an intensive exercise in careful reading, thoughtful reflection, enlightening conversation, and clear writing. Our goal as a group is to help each other further develop and refine these skills.

* * A good dictionary (you can’t understand the readings if you don’t know what the words mean!)

• Applebaum, Stanley, ed. English Romantic Poetry: An Anthology. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1996.
• Darwin, Charles. The Origin of Species. Rev. ed. Ed. Philip Appleman. New York: Norton, 2002.
• Descartes, René. Discourse on Method. 3rd ed. Trans. Donald Cress. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1998.
• Hacker, Diana. A Pocket Style Manual. 3rd ed. New York: Bedford / St. Martin’s, 2000.
• Ibsen, Henrik. Four Major Plays: Vol. I. Rev. ed. Trans. Rolf Fjelde. New York: Signet, 1992.
• Kant, Immanuel. Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals. 3rd ed. Trans. James Ellington. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1993.
• Locke, John. Second Treatise of Government. Ed. C.B. Macpherson. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1980.
• Marx, Karl. Wage-Labour and Capital & Value, Price and Profit. New York: International, 1976.
• ----- and Frederick Engels. The Communist Manifesto. New York: International, 1948.
• Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York: Plume, 1987.
• Mozart, Wolfgang. Don Giovanni. Ed. and Trans. Burton Fisher. Miami: Opera Journeys Publishing, 2005.
• Nietzsche, Friedrich. On the Genealogy of Morals. Trans. Walter Kaufmann and R.J. Hollingdale. New York: Vintage, 1989.
• Shakespeare. The Tragedy of Othello the Moor of Venice. Ed. Russ McDonald. New York: Penguin, 2001.
• Voltaire. Candide, Zadig, and Selected Stories. Trans. Daniel Frame. New York: Signet, 1961.

• I will often distribute important announcements, reminders, and clarifications through e-mail. It is your responsibility to check your account every day.
  
  
• We will continue to use the e-mail list-server from last semester. Messages sent to gens145e_06fa@whitman.edu will still be forwarded to everyone in the class.
  
  
• The main General Studies website (http://www.whitman.edu/general_studies) has a variety of useful information and links.
  

Preparation and Participation — 34% of your final grade
To prepare for class, you must carefully read (and often re-read) the assigned texts before class, as well as reflect on their meaning and significance, both on their own and in relation to the other texts we’ve read. There are also specific questions for you to answer before each class, listed in the schedule of readings. These questions relate to issues that I expect us to discuss in class. However, if there are other issues that you think are important, you are always free to pose and answer your own daily question.
You must bring class some sort of written answer to that day’s daily question – however, the exact format of each answer is entirely up to you (paragraph, bullet-points, etc.). Your answers will not be graded separately, but will factor into your overall grade for preparation and participation.
Preparation and attendance are crucial, but they are only starting points. In class, you are expected to be an active and productive participant in our conversations and other activities. More details about expectations and grading standards are available here. Note that your participation grade will be determined in part by a process of self-evaluation.

Brief Essays — 34% of your final grade
After our discussion of each text, you will write a brief, very focused essay relating in some way to that text. This series of essays will give you the opportunity to work out specific reflections on the readings and class discussions during the course of the semester. More details are available here.

Paper — 15% of your final grade
Around the middle of the semester, you will compose one moderate-length paper exploring some particular connection among any three of the texts that we’ve read up to that point. Since this assignment will be a bit larger than any of the papers that you wrote in the fall, there will be several required steps to the writing process, with my feedback and guidance at each point. More details will be distributed at least a week before the first step is due.

Final Project — 17% of your total grade
At the end of the semester, you will complete some kind of final project, synthesizing ideas from at least four different texts, and providing an indication of their ongoing significance. The exact format is up to you to determine – it could be an analytical paper, informal reflection, dialog, short story, work of visual art, or anything else that you think would effectively communicate your ideas. I will meet with each student toward the end of the semester to settle the details of your project.

* NOTE: You cannot pass the class if:
1. You miss more than 8 class meetings for any reason.
2. You miss the paper, the final project, or more than 3 of the brief essays for any reason.
3. You fail any one of the main grading components (participation, brief essays, paper, final project)..

All of the work that you submit in this course must be entirely your own. Of course, you can seek help in a variety of ways as you prepare your papers. So it is permitted (and even recommended!) for you to: consult additional readings, search for material on the internet, discuss your ideas with other students, exchange notes with other students, or read and discuss drafts of each other’s papers. If you do use someone else’s words or ideas in your written work, you must give proper acknowledgment. (Guidelines for citation can be found in Hacker’s Style Manual.)

Plagiarism will not be tolerated in any form. You have signed a statement indicating that you understand and will abide by the College policy on plagiarism. Any student caught plagiarizing will automatically fail the course, and may face more severe penalties from the College. (For more details, see the Student Handbook.)