CONTEMPOARY CIVILIZATION: FALL
2001
C 7779, Section 26, TR 9-10:50,
401 Hamilton
Kathrin Maurer, 808 Hamilton;
[email protected],
Web page (for syllabus and
assignments):
Bulletin Board:
Office hours: Tuesdays 11-12,
Thursdays 11-12 or by appointment
REQUIREMENTS
1. Attendance
Attendance is required. It is University policy that more than
four unexcused absences are grounds for being dropped from the course.
2. Class
Participation/Reading/ Class Presentation
This is a discussion class,
and it requires the active and informed participation of everyone. All
students are responsible for completing the reading assignments before
the class in which they will be discussed. You are also required to prepare
various homework assignments (i.e. preparing questions, discussion topics etc.)
Each of you will be expected
to make one 10 minute oral presentation with a partner to the rest
of the class that links the day’s reading either to a previous work that we
have read (e.g. comparison between Hobbes and Locke) or to an issue of a contemporary
moral and/or political concern. Attendance, reading assignments, participation,
and oral presentation will count for 25% of the final grade.
3. Written Responses.
In the course of the semester
you will submit 10 written responses answering study and response questions
concerning the week’s reading assignment (see due dates on schedule, absolutely
no extensions!) Questions for the written responses will be posted on my web
page. Your responses should be 250-300 words (i.e. about 3 page typed). You
will not receive individual grades for each assignment. Rather they will be
collected, recorded and will constitute 15% of your final grade. This exercise
will both help me to see how well you understand the works and assist in class
discussions.
4. Midterm
The in-class midterm examination
on October 23 will test everything we have studied up to and including October
18: 20% of the final grade.
5. Three Short Papers
You must write three papers
(5 pages each) for this course. The paper topics will be provided in advance.
You must hand in the papers on time (see class schedules for due dates). Absolutely
no extensions unless I hear from the Health Services or the Dean’s office.
I penalize late papers one half letter grade per day:
20% of the final grade.
6. Final exam
The in-class final
examination (to be taken at some point in the examination period December
14-21) will mainly consist of two essays, one treating the material we will
have covered since the midterm, the other dealing with material from the whole
span of the semester. There will also be shorter identification questions: 20%
of the final grade.
BOOKS TO BE PURCHASED
(Columbia Bookstore)
Plato, Republic
(Hackett)
Aristotle, Nicomachean
Ethics (Oxford World Classics)
Aristotle, Politics
(Hackett)
Bible: New Revised Standard (Oxford)
Al-Qur’an (Amana)
Augustine, The City of God
(Penguin)
Aquinas, St Thomas Aquinas
on Politics and Ethics (Norton)
Machiavelli, Selected
Political Writings (Hackett)
The Protestant Reformation (Harper&Row)
*More, Utopia (Penguin)
(ordered for this class at Labyrinth)
Descartes, Discourse on
Method and Meditations on First Philosophy (Hackett)
Hobbes, Leviathan
(Oxford)
Locke, Political Writings
of John Locke (Mentor)
| Tues. Sept. 4: | INTRODUCTION | |
| Thurs. Sept. 6: | PLATO: The Question of Justice texts: Republic (Hackett) Book 1 |
|
| Tues. Sept. 11: |
PLATO: Justice and Virtue: Model for Psyche &
Polis |
|
| Thurs. Sept. 13: |
PLATO: The Possibility of Justice |
|
| Tues. Sept. 18: | PLATO: Constitutions, Happiness
& Reason text: Republic (Hackett) Book 8-10 [Written Response # 1 due] |
|
| Thurs. Sept. 20: |
ARISTOTLE: Arete, Eudaimonia & Mesotes |
|
| Tues. Sept. 25: |
ARISTOTLE: Moral & Intellectual Virtues |
|
| Thurs. Sept 27: | ARISTOTLE: The
Requirements of Justice: Polis and Citizenship text: Politics (Hackett) Book 1; Book 2 chapters 1-5; Book 3 ch. 1-13 [Written response # 2 due] |
|
| Tues. Oct. 2: |
ARISTOTLE: Model of Nature, Revolution & Stability
|
|
| Wed. Oct. 3: | Paper # 1 Due by 12:00 - Ham 319Dept. Mailbox - NO Exceptions | |
| Thurs. Oct 4: |
BIBLE: Power of God and the Covenant of People |
|
| Tues. Oct. 9: |
BIBLE: New Testament Redemption Laws of Conscience
[Written response # 3 due] |
|
| Thurs. Oct. 11: | ISLAM texts: Al-Qur’an: Suras 1-4, 12, 17, 26, 39, 56, 63, 68, 112, 114 |
|
| Tues. Oct. 16: |
AUGUSTINE: Justice and Original Sin |
|
| Thurs. Oct. 18: |
AQUINAS: Natural Law AL-GHAZALI: Deliverance from Error (CCweb Reader) |
|
| Tues. Oct. 23: | MIDTERM | |
| Thurs. Oct. 25: |
MACHIAVELLI: Civic Republicanism: Virtue, Fortune & Liberty text: Selected Political Writings (Hackett) Discourses (p.81-133, 158-171, 189-194 196-200) |
|
| Tues. Oct. 30: |
MACHIAVELLI: The Power of the One & the Glory of the State |
|
| Thurs. Nov. 1: |
LUTHER: Reformation text: The Protestant Reformation
(Harper&Row) “The Freedom of a Christian Man,” Commentary on St.
Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians” |
|
| Tues. Nov. 6: | ELECTION DAY NO CLASS | |
| Thurs. Nov. 8: | DISCOVERIES: The New World text: Bartolome de las Casas, “Thirty Very Juridical Propositions,” “Apologetic History of the Indies;” Juan Gines de Sepulveda, “Democrates Alter” (CCweb Reader) [Written response # 7 due] |
|
| Tues. Nov. 13: | THOMAS MORE: Utopia text: Utopia (Penguin) |
|
| Wed. Nov.14 | Paper # 2 Due by 12:00 - Dept. Mailbox Ham 319 - No exceptions | |
| Thurs. Nov 15: |
GALILEO: Science |
|
| Tues. Nov. 20: |
DESCARTES: Universal Mathematics of God & Soul
|
|
| Thurs. Nov. 22: | THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY NO CLASS | |
| Tues. Nov. 27: |
HOBBES: The Sovereign State and Civic Order text: Leviathan (Oxford) Part II chapters 17-21, 29, 32, 33, 46, 47 [Written response # 9 due] |
|
| Tues. Dec. 4: |
LOCKE: The Origins of Society and the Laws of Nature
|
|
| Thurs. Dec 6: |
LOCKE: Just Government: Rights & Toleration |
|
| Mon. Dec. 11: | Paper # 3 Due by 12:00 - Dept.Mailbox Ham 319 - No exceptions | |
| Dec. 14-21: | FINAL EXAM | |
| Assignment over intersession: Kant, “What is Enlightenment?” on CCWeb Reader | ||