Gens 146: Antiquity and Modernity

Professor Patrick Frierson

The class meets Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 10 am in Olin 155.

My Office Hours are 2:30–3:30 pm on Tuesday, 11–12 am on Wednesday, and 9–10 am on Thursday.

I can be contacted at frierspr@whitman.edu

A copy of this syllabus is available on my webpage under “Courses” http://people.whitman.edu/~frierspr

“Antiquity and Modernity” is a two-semester exploration of the formation and transformation of some western world views (ways of understanding nature, society, the self, and the transcendent). The course will focus on the World of Antiquity and the Modern World. Attention will be given not only to the continuity in the transition of dominant world views, but also to competing and alternative visions. The course will examine some of the important individuals and events which have significantly shaped, reshaped, and challenged these world views. In this process, revolutions in thought and society, encounters between peoples and cultures, and perspectives on "us" and "them" will constitute major objects of study. The study of primary sources, discussion, and writing will be emphasized. The two semesters will be taught as a single year-long course, with the first semester a prerequisite for the second. The P-D-F grade option may not be elected for this course. Three class meetings per week.

Gens 146, for which this syllabus is designed, is the second half of this year long course.

Course Requirements

4 Short Papers (5% of final grade each): During the first three weeks of the semester, I have assigned 5 papers on specific questions. You are required to write at least four of these. If you write all five, the lowest score will be dropped. A few ground rules on papers (most of these apply to these short papers as well as longer ones later in the semester):

1. Answer the assigned question.

2. Your grammar must be perfect. For each day, I will give you some pages from Diana Hacker’s A Pocket Style Manuel (available in the Bookstore). You should ensure that you are familiar with the grammatical principles laid out on those papers, and you should write your paper in conformity with them. Papers that make mistakes from the assigned pages (or pages assigned for a previous day) will receive a 0 and must be revised. (This revision will not result in a change to the score, but it will allow you to pass the class.) Papers that make other grammatical mistakes will receive a 0 and may be revised for grammar. If the revision resolves all grammatical problems, the revised paper will be graded. For students having difficulties with grammar, I highly recommend making use of the web page associated with A Pocket Style Manual. This web page can be found at http://dianahacker.com/pocket.

3. Use the text. You are required to include references to relevant points in the text. These references can be quotations, and you should use quotations whenever the specific language of the author is important for your argument. The references may also simply be page numbers referencing the pages that confirm your interpretive points. You should use page numbers when quotes are not necessary and would make the paper excessively long.

4. Brevity is beautiful. In these papers, you should say as much as possible as concisely as possible. If I get two papers with the same amount of substantive content, the one that is shorter will get the better grade. If I get two papers that are the same length, the one that is able to say (and defend) more in that length will get a better grade.

5. For some general advice about writing papers (oriented towards philosophy papers, but useful for most of the papers you’ll write here), see The Philosophy Writing Tutor (online).

The paper topics are as follows:

Paper 1: Defend the following thesis: “Although Machiavelli’s The Prince seems to be at best amoral and at worst deeply immoral, in fact it is the best example of moral exhortation ever written to a prince.” (From Hacker, pay particular attention to chapters 14 and 15, pp. 48-54.)

Paper 2: What advice would a 21^st century Machiavelli have for (a) a CEO, (b) the next prime minister of Iraq, (c) a Professor at Whitman, or (d) Othello; and what purpose would a 21^st century Machiavelli have in writing for such a person? (You should answer only one of these options, and you should use at least one recent example to illustrate your argument.) (From Hacker, pay particular attention to chapter 17 a-e, pp. 64-68.)

Paper 3: Which character in Othello is the most (or least) Machiavellian? Why? (From Hacker, pay particular attention to chapters 17 a-j, pp. 64-72.)

Paper 4: Topical Paper. Choose one of the following topics: “Evil,” “Gender,” “Knowledge,” or “Love” as the topic of your paper. Formulate a question focused on Othello that deals with your topic; then formulate a clear, complex, controversial, and interesting thesis and defend that thesis. (In Hacker, you may use chapters 25 and 28 for help on moving from a topic to a question to a thesis. You should also pay particular attention to chapters 29, 30, and 31 for grammatical/stylistic guidelines on the use of sources (pp. 115-127).)

Paper 5: Choose either the 4 rules described in Part 2 of the Discourse (p. 11) or the “provisional code of morals” described in Part 3 and explain how the use of these rules would have affected Othello’s actions (for better or worse).

Lab Report (10% of final grade): During our study of Descartes, Harvey, and Le Mettrie, we will be examining the nature of the heart. If possible, I will arrange to have actual (animal) hearts available for study, and we will also be watching short online videos of open heart surgery and the dissection of a human heart. During this time, you will be expected to develop your own account of the how the human heart functions based only on what you experience or think for yourself (i.e. don’t look up anything about how modern science thinks the heart works, and don’t be overly influenced by your own previous knowledge from biology classes, etc). You will write up this account in a “lab report,” one that should look more like a 17^th century tract than a modern day lab report. In your lab report, you should start with your background assumptions, your philosophy about how science should be done, why it is important, etc. Like Descartes, you should be using your account of the heart to illustrate your philosophy. You should then turn to your detailed account of the operation of the heart (see Descartes and Harvey for models of such detailed accounts). If appropriate, you should conclude with further philosophical implications of your analysis. By the end of the lab report, you need to have both presented and defended both your general philosophical approach and your specific claims about the heart. (You may use pictures if appropriate.) You must also specifically defend your approach and your claims about the heart vis a vis Descartes, Harvey, and Le Mettrie. (In other words, you need to explain why your general approach to science and your specific account of the heart is better than their alternatives.) 1000-2000 words. Due September 26.

Essay 1 (15% of final grade). For this assignment, you should write a “Prize Essay” answering the question “What is Enlightenment?” In your essay, you should specifically address at least one other thinker’s answer (or possible answer) to the question, and you should make use of at least 3 of the texts we have read (including both Rousseau and Kant) in defending your answer. 1000-2000 words. Due October 10.

Essay 2 or Dialogue (15%): For this assignment, you must write either an essay or a dialogue in which you discuss a Marxist perspective on Wuthering Heights. You can choose any specific thesis statement that you would like, but your essay or dialogue should include answers to the following questions: What would Marx notice about the novel? How might he use it to advance his agenda? How might he criticize it? What is lost in a Marxist reading of the novel? Especially if you are writing a dialogue, you should also include how Marx might disagree with other figures we have read this semester in his interpretation of the novel. Finally, you must begin your essay or dialogue with a quotation from one of the works of Romantic poetry that we read this semester, and you should add a brief footnote (or endnote, if you would rather that I not read it until after I have read the paper) explaining why the quotation is an appropriate one for your essay/dialogue. 1500-3000 words. Due November 6.

Final Project (30%): For your final project, you should address one of the following questions:

· What is the human being?

· How does the 20^th (and early 21^st) century stand apart from the history of Western thought (as presented in Core)? In particular, who best captures the way that the 20^th century stands apart from the rest of Core: Kafka, Frayn/Heisenberg/Bohr, or Morrison?

· How does the 20^th (and early 21^st) century fundamentally depend on the previous history of Western thought? Again, who best shows this continuity, Kafka, Frayn, or Morrison?

· (If you would like, you may address a question of your own. In order to be eligible for this option, you must email your question to me no later than November 27^th.)

Your final project may take one of two forms. You may either write a substantial paper (at least 2500 words) or you may design and create a collage. In either case, you must make substantial use of at least four figures we have studied in Core. At least two must be from the final three figures we study (Kafka, Frayn, and Morrison), and you may use figures from the Fall semester. If you choose to make a collage, you must include an artist’s statement of at least 600 words.

Participation and Periodic Short Assignments (10%+ of final grade): You are required to be present for every class and to come to class having done the assigned reading closely and carefully (in many cases, this means reading and rereading the assigned texts). Over the course of the semester, I may also assign short assignments, either in class (quizzes, etc) or as homework. These short assignments will count towards participation. In addition to counting as 10% of your grade, I also reserve the right to modify final grades based on course participation.

Extra Credit: Find links for web site. As you will see in the timeline below, there are links for various texts with interesting tidbits. These links are taken directly from the General Studies website (with some slight modifications). Some of the assignments, however, do not have links. If you send me a link for a particular text and it seems suitably good, I will pass it on to the Core Coordinator. If it gets chosen for the main General Studies website (you have a pretty good chance of this, I think), you’ll get some extra credit.

Procedure for turning in papers: Papers are due at 9 AM on the day that they are due. Papers must be emailed to me at frierspr@whitman.edu by this time. (If you have trouble with your email, you may turn in a hard copy of your paper in class, but you must still email me a copy by the end of the day on the day on which the paper is due.)

Papers must be emailed to me in .DOC (Word) format. If you have a Mac, be sure to save your paper in a PC friendly format. When you send you paper to me, you should save the paper with the following title format: [FirstName LastName PaperNumber]. For example, when I turn in the third paper on the syllabus, I will entitle the document “Patrick Frierson Paper 3.doc”. I would entitle the lab report “Patrick Frierson Lab Report.doc”. Papers turned in with any other name will be considered late.

With the exception of the final project, for which I will consider giving extensions, I do not give extensions. Late papers will have their scores immediately reduced by one point and reduced by another point every 12 hours.

Grading Procedure: See my grading criteria.

Timeline of Readings

Aug	28	Machiavelli, The Prince, chapters 1-11.
	29	Machiavelli, The Prince, 12-20.	Paper 1 due
	30	Machiavelli, The Prince, 21-26.
Sept	4	Shakespeare, Othello, Acts 1 and 2. This site from the Vatican highlights the role played by the Vatican Library in the Renaissance.	Paper 2 due
	5	Shakespeare, Othello, Acts 2 and 3. If you are interested in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival check here.
	6	Shakespeare, Othello, Act 3. Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet is an interesting site to visit.	Paper 3 due
	11	Shakespeare, Othello, Acts 4 and 5. Here is an ultra-condensed version of Othello from Book-A-Minute Classics.	Paper 4 due
	12	Shakespeare, Othello, Act 5.
	13	Descartes, Discourse on Method, parts 1-3. This site at St. Andrews has some background on Descartes and his work in math and physics.	Paper 5 due
	18	Descartes, Discourse on Method, parts 4-6. Here are some notes about Descartes and the Legacy of Mind/Body Dualism, from Bryn Mawr.
	19	Descartes, Discourse on Method, parts 5-6. Check out this video of the dissection of a heart.
	20	Harvey, On the Motion of the Heart, 1-2; 7-14. Check out this video of vivisection of a frog and this 1930’s video on the operation of the heart. (Beware…the latter video has a commentary that might instill in you prejudices that could interfere with making your own judgments about the nature of the heart.)
	25	La Mettrie, Man a Machine (entire).
	26	La Mettrie, Man a Machine	Lab Report Due
	27	Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, I. Here is a short biography of Rousseau from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Oct.	2	Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, II. Here is an excellent electronic edition of the "Discours", but it is all in French, so be forewarned
	3	Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, pp. 1-18.
	4	Kant, "What Is Enlightenment?" (entire). You can listen to a podcast from Learn Out Loud here. Steven Palmquist has a catalogue of Kant web resources .
	9	Mid-Semester Break J
	10	What is Enlightenment/Comparison Day. For fun, check out the explanation of leap days at NASA.	Essay 1 Due: “What is Enlightenment?”
	11	English Romantic Poetry: Wordsworth: "I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud", "My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold"; Keats: "Bright Star". Here is a collection of four Images of Romantic Art
	16	Wordsworth: "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey". Here are several pages of pictures of the ruins of Tintern Abbey
	17	Keats: "Ode to a Nightingale", "Ode on a Grecian Urn", "Ode on Melancholy"; Wordsworth: "On Mutability"; Shelley: "On Mutability." The Perseus Project at Tufts has a fine collection of Classical Greek vases, for instance this Attic Red piece from the collections of the Harvard Art Museums, dated to about 440 BCE, showing a satyr chasing a maenad.
	18	Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, pp. 54-97. Here is Dina Felluga glossary of Marxist terms at Purdue might be helpful.
	23	Marx, Theses on Feuerbach, pp. 98-101; Preface to a Contribution on the Critique of Political Economy, pp. 209-13. Here is The Marx/Engels Internet Archive
	24	Communist Manifesto, complete. Here is the text of an 1879 Chicago Tribune article on an interview with Karl Marx
	25	E. Brontë, Wuthering Heights, ch. 1-5
	30	E. Brontë, Wuthering Heights, ch. 6-12
	31	E. Brontë, Wuthering Heights, ch. 13-20
Nov.	1	E. Brontë, Wuthering Heights, ch. 21-29
	6	E. Brontë, Wuthering Heights, ch. 30-34	Essay 2 or Dialogue Due.
	7	Kafka, Metamorphosis, ch. 1-2.
	8	Kafka, Metamorphosis, ch. 3
	13	Frayn, Copenhagen, Act I. For more information on Frayn and his play, including an interview, check out PBS' Copenhagen page.
	14	Frayn, Copenhagen, Act II.
	15	Catch up day.
		THANKSGIVING BREAK
	27	Morrison, Beloved, pp. 3-51 (to the end of the carnival). Check out the Kentucky Underground Railroad site for some historical background (courtesy of Kentucky Educational Television).
	28	Morrison, Beloved, pp. 52-124 (Beloved's dress in the water). Here is a page from "Voice of the Shuttle" on minority voices in literature written in English
	29	Morrison, Beloved, pp. 125-195 (end of section one). Here is the text of "My Bondage and My Freedom" by Frederick Douglass.
Dec.	4	Morrison, Beloved, pp. 199-277 (end of section two). The Library of Congress has an on-line "resource guide for the study of black history and culture" at this site entitled "The African-American Mosaic".
	5	Morrison, Beloved, pp. 281-end. "Bartleby" has the text of W.E.B. DuBois' The Souls of Black Folk.
	6	Final Review. From the Secretary of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, here is an essay on liberal education and its enduring relevance to society.	Final Projects Due