Sem V Syllabus 2009

GREAT BOOKS SEMINAR 5 FALL 2009 Michael DeGruccio, 518 Flanner Hall. M 3-4, W 3-4 & by appt Contact: office 631-7767; home 243-5319 (before 9 pm); [email protected]

Schedule: We will follow the reading schedule below. Because some of the reading assignments are significantly longer than others you will need to budget your time accordingly. Attendance: If you are ill or something urgent comes up you must let me know before class that you will be missing. I excuse three absences. Any more will begin to cut away at your grade unless you can offer proof of significant illness or emergency. Your grade will reflect the quality of four things: your discussion questions and regular participation in class (30%); the first short group paper (15%); the second short essay (15%); your thought pieces (20%) and the oral exam final (20%). Questions: for every class, each student will post a question on our blog about the readings. Posts will need to be up by 11am for credit. Questions should get at central tensions or problems in the reading and supply us with a page number or short quote to supply grist for class discussion. I will be particularly pleased with questions that are partial responses to other questions, or even better, questions that challenge or modify a question posed in the posted thought piece(s) for that day. Participation: Our discussions will take many roads—some more productive than others. In this class you will pose questions, hold forth, debate, interrogate, and take sides with one another. I will be along for the ride, taking special notice of students who engage others’ questions and comments— who ask their peers questions, continue with follow-up questions,

and restate the arguments of others before they launch into their own related interpretation. Throughout we will remain moored to the readings. But I also want your comments to be moored to the ideas of your peers as much as possible. Thought Pieces: The course is broken up into five thought piece periods. You will need to turn in one thought piece for four periods. You are welcome to do a piece for any reading within four periods, but it must be turned in before class on the day of that reading. (You may want to print a copy for yourself just as a reference for class discussion.) Your piece does not need to be formal or stuffy. Instead I want to see sharp, pithy writing that is evocative (note, I don’t say provocative), suggestive, and fair. Avoid book summaries or thumbs-up-or-down reviews. Instead explore a particular passage of the readings that poses certain intellectual or moral problems. Make sure to briefly connect the passage to questions or tensions central to the text. You are also encouraged to make connections with past readings, if possible. Each thought piece will be 425-500 words (about one and a half pages, double spaced). There will not be space for mincing words--no fluff. Your piece should read like an op-ed article in a respectable newspaper or magazine, meant to engage an intellectually curious reader with concision and verve. Please include the word count at the end. You may quote large chunks or start off your piece with a paragraph, or several lines from the readings, but this won’t be part of the final word count. There is no need for formal citation but you must point the reader to a particular part (or parts) of the reading with page numbers in parentheses. You will be graded on

substance and style. NO late pieces will be accepted. Posted Pieces: Two of your four thought pieces over the semester will be posted on the blog by 9am the morning of the relevant discussion. We will assign the days to post your pieces beforehand. First Essay: 3-4 page essay, group project will be due by Sept 25. More on this later. Second (short) Essay: TBA Honor Code: Stealing ideas in this course is doubly despicable as the point of this seminar is for students to develop skills of assimilating and working through complex ideas (not simply aping the conclusions of others). All work for this course is governed by the Honor Code and its pledge “As a member of the Notre Dame community, I will not participate in or tolerate academic dishonesty.”

M

Sep 28

Teachings of the Compassionate Buddha, Intro; Book One, Parts I, II, and III.1,2,6,7; Book Two, Part IV W Sep 30 Hegel, The Philosophy of History, pp. xl-79. [last day (tp) 2] F— Oct 2--- first essay project due, to be posted on blog by noon. M Oct 5 Hegel, The Philosophy of History, pp. 103-10, 412-57 W Oct 7 Kierkegaard, Philosophical Fragments, Preface and I-II M

Oct 12

W

Oct 14

W Aug 26 Tolstoy, War and Peace, Bks 1-3 M

Aug 31

W

Sep 2

M

Sep 7

W

Sep 9

M

Sep 14

W

Sep 16

M

Sep 21

W

Sep 23

Tolstoy, War and Peace, Bks 4-8 Tolstoy, War and Peace, Bks 9-11 Tolstoy, War and Peace, Bks 12-15, both Epilogues Confucius, Analects, Bks. 1-3 [last day thought piece (tp) 1] Confucius, Analects, Bks. 4-9 The Way of Lao Tzu Bhagavad Gita, Introduction and Sections 1-9 Bhagavad Gita, Sections 10-18 and Appendices

Kierkegaard, Philosophical Fragments, III and Appendix Kierkegaard, Philosophical Fragments, IV, Interlude, V. [last day (tp) 3] FALL BREAK

M

Oct 26

Newman, The Idea of the University, Preface, Discourses 1-5

W

Oct 28

Newman, The Idea of the University, Discourses 6-9

M

Nov 2

W

Nov 4

Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Author's Intro and chs. 1-15 Tocqueville, Democracy in America, chs. 16-17 and 22-41

M

Nov 9

W

Nov 11 Melville, Moby Dick,

Melville, Moby Dick, I-XLII XLIII-C

M W

M

Nov 16 Melville, Moby Dick, CICXXXV [last day (tp) 4] Nov 18 Thoreau, Walden, "Economy" through "The Village" Nov 23 Thoreau, Walden, "The Ponds" through "Conclusion"

F

M W

Dec 5 -------Second essay due, in PLS mailbox before noon. Dec 7 Dec 9

THANKSGIVING M W

Nov 30 Mill, On Liberty, I-II Dec 2 Mill, On Liberty, III-V

Review TBA

Darwin, The Descent of Man, Introduction and Chs. I-III Darwin, The Descent of Man, Chs. IV-VII, Gen Summary, and Conclusion. [last day (tp) 5]