CONTEMPORARY CIVILIZATION II

REQUIRED TEXTS

Contemporary Civilization Reader. Sixth Edition. (American Heritage)
Hume. An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals. (Hackett)
Rousseau. The Basic Political Writings. (Hackett)
Wollstonecraft. A Vindication of the Rights of Women. (Dover)
Kant. Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals. (Hackett)
Mill. On Liberty. (Hackett)
Smith. Wealth of Nations. (Hackett)
Tocqueville. Democracy in America. Penguin/Mentor)
Marx. The Portable Karl Marx. (Penguin: Viking Portable)
Darwin. The Origin of Species. (Penguin)
DuBois. The Souls of Black Folk. (Dover)
*Soren Kierkegaard. Fear and Trembling. (Princeton)
Nietzsche. On the Genealogy of Morality. (Cambridge)
*Freud. Civilization and Its Discontents. (Norton)
De Beauvoir. The Second Sex. (Vintage)
Hayek. The Road to Serfdom. (Chicago)

Most of these works are, or will soon be, available at the university bookstore and on reserve in Butler Library. The two with asterisks have been ordered, and will shortly be in stock at Labyrinth Books. There will also be some additional readings, marked as "CCs" on the syllabus, which either be handed out to you or will be placed on reserve in Butler under my name.

N.B. I reserve the right to make slight alterations in the readings, perhaps adding an article here, or dropping one somewhere else.

ASSIGNMENTS

19 January: Introduction.

PART I: THE ENLIGHTENMENT

A. Society

21 January: Kant. "What is Enlightenment?" CC Reader. 73-9.

Michel Foucault. "What is Enlightenment?" In: Paul Rabinow, ed. The Foucault Reader. 32-50. CCs

26 January: Rousseau. "Discourse on the Origin of Inequality." In: Basic Political Writings 25-82.

28 January: Rousseau. "On the Social Contract." In: The Basic Political Writings. 141-227.

2 February: Wollstonecraft. A Vindication of the Rights of Women. 6-78, 124-34, 145-54. Rousseau. "Sophie" From: Emile. CCs

B. Morality

4 February: Hume. An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals. 13-88.

9 February: Kant. Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals. 1-48.

C. The Enlightenment in Practice? Two Revolutions

11 February: "Writings of the American Revolution." CC Reader. 81-124.

16 February: "Readings from the French Revolution." CC Reader. 125-61.

D. Mill’s Philosophical Liberalism and Smith’s Economic Liberalism

18 February: Mill. On Liberty. 1-73.

23 February: Mill. On Liberty. 73-113. Mill. The Subjugation of Women. CCs

25 February: Smith. Wealth of Nations. 1-13, 17-22, 30-57, 67-83.

2 March: Smith. Wealth of Nations. 116-22, 127-31, 166-205.

Part II: The Enlightenment Questioned

A. Economic and Biological Determinism

4 March: Hegel. Philosophy of History. "Introduction." CCs

9 March: Marx. "From ‘On the Jewish Question,’" "From The German Ideology," "Manifesto of the Communist Party" and "Marginal Notes to the Program of the German Workers’ Party (Section I)." In: The Portable Karl Marx. 96-114, 162-95, 203-41, 533-45.

11 March Midterm.

16 March and 18 March: Spring Break. No meetings.

23 March: Marx. "From Economico-Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844," "From Value, Price and Profit," and "From Capital, Volume I: Preface, Chapters 1, 31 and 32." In: The Portable Karl Marx. 131-52, 394-432, 432-61, 478-93.

25 March: Tocqueville. Democracy in America. Sections 2, 3, 10, 26, 29, 31, 42, 52-7.

*26 March: First Annual CC Lecture: Garry Wills. 11:00, location TBA.

30 March: Darwin. The Origin of Species. 114-72, 435-60.

1 April: Gobineau. "Selections from The Inequality of Human Races." CC Reader. 163-206. DuBois. The Souls of Black Folk. 1-35, 99-125.

B. Religious Debates in a New Key

6 April: Kierkegaard. Fear and Trembling. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1983. "Preface," through "Problema II." 5-81. CCs

8 April: Nietzsche. On the Genealogy of Morality. Essays One and Two. 1-71.

13 April: Nietzsche. On the Genealogy of Morality. Essay Three. 72-128.

C. Heirs of the Nineteenth Century Critiques

15 April: Freud. "The Origin and Development of Psychoanalysis." CC Reader. 207-36. Freud. Civilization and Its Discontents.

20 April: De Beauvoir. The Second Sex. 267-327, 679-732.

22 April: Sartre. "Existentialism and Humanism" and "Marxism is a Humanism." CCs. Camus. "The Myth of Sisyphus." CCs

Part III: Two Recent Social Theorists

27 April: John Rawls. "Justice as Fairness." In: A Theory of Justice. 3-117. CCs. DRAFT OF PAPER DUE

29 April: Foucault. Selections TBD. CCs
EDITORS’ REMARKS ON DRAFTS DUE

4 May: PAPERS DUE IN MY OFFICE BEFORE 5:00.

7 May, 1:10-4:00: Final Exam.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

1. ATTENDANCE: The whole of CC is designed such that you all have 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 two unexcused absences will lower your grade. Also note that four unexcused absences are sufficient 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 carefully and think about them before class, such that your participation in the discussion is intellectually stimulating. 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.

3. PRESENTATIONS: Twice during the semester, you will be expected to team up with another student to act as sort of chairpeople for the session. This entails an especially careful reading of the materials and the assumption of a more leading role in the class - both answering questions raised by the class and presenting topics for discussion.

4. POSITION PAPERS: Instead of last semester’s precis, this time I’ll have you each write five one-page (do not go longer) position papers. These should be argumentative papers, critically engaging at least one aspect of the text you are discussing. You should root out contradictions, of course, but I want you to argue with the texts. If a work we read upsets you, think hard about why it does, and engage the text in a short paper. These will be graded based on the level of competence you show in your understanding the author, and the cogency and plausibility of your arguments against him/her.

5. LONGER PAPER: This paper will be 10-12 pages in length (this means 12-point font with 1" margins, etc.). It will be on a topic of your own choosing, drawing on any of the materials we will have read in the semester. Of course, I will be glad to discuss paper topics with you, but the final decision is yours. A few pointers: better papers will address at least four works, show a significant amount of thinking about the texts used, have a clear argument (probably thematically based) that is your own, and show intellectual or stylistic creativity. You may use secondary sources, but are not required to do so. If you do, they – like all of the primary texts to which you refer – must be cited in a complete and consistent manner.

6. MIDTERM: The midterm will cover the material through Smith, 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 blue-book page or two 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 cutoff, but the essay questions -- you will have to choose two out of four -- will be cumulative.

8. GRADE CALCULATION:

Class participation:	30%
Position papers:	10%
Longer paper:	20%
Midterm:	15%
Final:	25%

9. PREPARING FOR CLASS: Most 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 Kant) 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.

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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Last modified: Thursday, January 27, 2000

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