Contemporary Civilization
C1101, Section 29
TR 11:00-12:50 Kent 522C
Professor Brad Abrams
IAB 1230, TH 2-4, 854-6287, bfa4@columbia.edu
Required Texts:
*Plato. Defence of Socrates, Euthyphro, Crito. Oxford/New York: Oxford UP, 1997.
Plato. Republic. Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett, 1992.
Aristotle. The Politics. Oxford/New York: Oxford UP, 1995.
Holy Bible. New Revised Standard Version. Oxford/New York: Oxford UP, 1989.
Al-Qur'an. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1984.
St. Augustine. City of God. London/New York: Penguin, 1972.
Niccolo Machiavelli. Selected Political Writings. Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett, 1994.
Hans J. Hillerbrand, ed. The Protestant Reformation. New York: Harper, 1968.
*Thomas More. Utopia. Mineola, NY: Dover Thrift, 1997.
René Descartes. Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy. Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett, 1993.
Thomas Hobbes. Leviathan. New York: Norton, 1997.
John Locke. The Political Writings of John Locke. New York: Mentor, 1993.
*Montesquieu. Persian Letters. New York: Penguin Classics, 1993.
Contemporary Civilization Reader. New York: American Heritage, 1997.
* - denotes readings available at Labyrinth Books (112th between Broadway and Amsterdam)
SYLLABUS
8 September. Introduction and organizational meeting.
10 September. Plato. “Defence of Socrates” and “Crito.” In: Plato. Defence of Socrates…
15 September. Plato. Republic. I-II. [P]
17 September. Plato. Republic. III-IV. [P]
22 September. Plato. Republic. V-VII. [P]
24 September. Plato. Republic. VIII-X. [P]
29 September. Aristotle. Politics. I, II:1-5, VII:1, VIII:1. [P, Book I]
1 October. Epicurus. “Letter to Herodotus,” “Letter to Menoeceus,” “Principal Doctrines” and
Vatican Sayings.” In: CC Reader.
6 October. Bible. Genesis: 1:1-9:17, 11:31-13:18, 15:1-18:33, 21:1-23:20, 25:7-25:10. Exodus: 1:1-6:13, 7:1-11:10, 13:17-14:31, 15:22-20:18, 31:18-34:35. Leviticus: 25.
8 October. Bible. Matthew, Romans.
13 October. Augustine. City of God. I: Preface-1, IV:1-4, VIII:1-12, XIV, XIX. [P, Book XIV or XIX]
15 October. Al-Qur'an. 1, 114, 112, 75, 68, 63, 56, 26, 17, 2-4.
20 October. Midterm Exam
22 October. Machiavelli. The Prince. [P]
27 October. Luther. “Preface to the first volume of Latin writings,” “The Freedom of a Christian Man,” “On Governmental Authority,” and “Friendly Admonition to Peace concerning the Twelve Articles of the Swabian Peasants,” and “The Twelve Articles of the peasants.” In: Hillerbrand. [P, “On Governmental Authority”]
First paper due.
29 October. Calvin. “The Institutes of Christian Religion.” In: Hillerbrand. [P]
3 November. Election Day. No meeting. Get out and vote.
5 November. “The Anabaptists.” Part III of Hillerbrand.
10 November. De Sepulveda. `Democrates Alter…,” de las Casas. “Apologetic History of the
Indies” and “Thirty Very Juridical Propositions.” In: CC Reader.
12 November. Galileo. “Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina.” In: CC Reader.
17 November. Descartes. Discourse Concerning Method. [P]
19 November. Descartes. Meditations on First Philosophy. [P]
24 November. Thomas More. Utopia. [P]
26 November. Thanksgiving holidays. No meeting. Eat turkey.
1 December. Hobbes. Leviathan. Introduction through Chapter 16. [P]
3 December. Hobbes. Leviathan. Chapters 17-21, 29-30, 32-3, 46, 47, Review. [P]
8 December. Locke. Second Treatise. Chapters 1-9, 18-9. [P]
10 December. Montesquieu. Persian Letters. Readings TBD.
Second paper due.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
1. ATTENDANCE: The whole of CC is designed for you to the opportunity to meet and discuss the readings. If you fail to attend, you harm not only yourself but also your classmates. For this reason, more than three unexcused absences will lower your grade. Also note that four unexcused absences are grounds for dropping you from the course.
2. PARTICIPATION: CC courses are discussions, not lectures. This means that your active and informed involvement in the class is crucial. You are expected to do the readings completely and carefully, and, moreover, to think about them before class, such that your participation in the discussion is intellectually stimulating. This also makes the class much more rewarding and enjoyable. I expect everyone to come with at least three questions/comments on the readings for each session. These may be points with which you particularly agreed, with which you particularly disagreed, or points that made no sense to you. As the moderator, I reserve the right to call on you at any time and ask you to present one of your prepared comments. I reserve to right to make this requirement a written one, and ask you to begin handing in your questions at the beginning of class.
3. PRESENTATIONS: Once during the semester, you will be expected to act as a sort of chairperson (or co-chairperson) for the session. This entails an especially careful reading of the materials and the assumption of a leading role in the class. You will be expected to talk for ten minutes or so about the work in question, to present topics for discussion and to answer questions raised by your classmates.
4. PRÉCIS: You will be required to submit a written, one-page précis for 10 of the 15 works above that are followed by a “[P]”. This should consist of (a) a few sentences describing the starting position and aim of the author's argument, (b) an outline-format explication of the most important steps in that argument, and (c) a few sentences on how successful you believe the author was in proving what he or she set out to demonstrate. The goal of the précis is to get you to become consciously aware of the structure that arguments take, such that you can both begin to reproduce the logical structures themselves, and see them almost subconsciously in the materials you read for other classes. I will present you with a précis of the “Crito” for use as a model.
5. PAPERS: Two short (5-6 pp.) papers will be assigned. I will present a set of possible paper topics about two weeks before the due date. At the same time, I will hand out a sheet explaining what I am looking for in your paper. You are encouraged not to pick one of the suggested topics. I am leaving the choice in your hands in order that you have the opportunity to write about works and issues that interest you, not me. I will, of course, discuss topics with you either during office hours or via Email.
6. MIDTERM: The midterm will cover the material through the Al-Qu'ran, and will be organized in the following manner: a) choose eight of twelve quotations, and tell me the author and work; b) choose four of those eight, and tell me in a paragraph the significance of the relevant quotation for the work in question and its broader significance; c) answer one of two essay questions.
7. FINAL: The final will have the same format as the midterm. Parts a) and b) will cover only materials read after the midterm, but the essay questions -- you will have to choose two out of four -- will be cumulative.
8. GRADE CALCULATION: Class participation
(including presentation): 30%
Précis: 10%
Papers: 20%
Midterm: 15%
Final: 25%
9. PREPARING FOR CLASS: Many of the works we'll be reading are difficult. Therefore I would advise leaving a reasonably large amount of time for preparation. Some things (say, perhaps Descartes) you may need to read more than one time. I have tried to keep the more difficult readings shorter where possible.
I strongly recommend marking the texts where important arguments are made, or where you violently agree or disagree with the author (or if he/she seems to be making no sense). Assuming you purchase them, these books are your property - mark them up. When paper time comes, you may very well find that the questions and ideas you scribbled in the margins add up to a theme you might address. A good idea is to both mark the text for important or valuable passages, but also take notes on a separate pad of paper. Much of this you should be doing to prepare your précis. This is just advice -- develop your own system for learning the structure of a text and developing (and remembering) your responses to it.
After reading a text, however, your job isn't done. The only way to be prepared for class, and for this to be a lively and intellectually exciting experience, is to sit and think about the arguments both as you read them and after you have finished. Take the time to digest the work, think about what you agree with or disagree with, and why this is the case. From here, coming up with three things to say should be a piece of cake. Then all you have to do is show up, and talk about what's on your mind.
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