CONTEMPORARY CIVILIZATION II
Fall
2004: MW 11:00-12:50 in 206 Broadway Residence Hall
REQUIRED
TEXTS
Hume. An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals. (Hackett)
Rousseau. The Basic Political Writings. (Hackett)
Wollstonecraft. A Vindication of the Rights of
Woman. (Dover)
Burke. Reflections on the Revolution in France. (Hackett)
Tocqueville. Democracy in America. (Hackett)
Mill. On Liberty. (Oxford)
Smith. Wealth of Nations. (Modern Library)
Darwin. On the Origin of Species. (Broadview)
*Marx. The Portable Karl Marx. (Penguin: Viking Portable)
*Søren Kierkegaard. Fear and Trembling. (Princeton)
Nietzsche. On the Genealogy of Morality. (Vintage)
Freud. Civilization and Its Discontents. (Norton)
DuBois. The Souls of Black Folk. (Dover)
N.B.
I reserve the right to make slight alterations in the readings, perhaps
adding an article here, or dropping one somewhere else.
ASSIGNMENTS
PART I: THE ENLIGHTENMENT
A. Morality
13 September:
Kant. Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals. Preface and
Sections One and Two. [P]
15 September:
Hume. An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals. 13-88.
[P]
B. Rousseau and Political Theory
20 September:
Rousseau. “Discourse on the Origin of Inequality.” In: Basic
Political Writings 25-82.
[P]
22 September:
Rousseau. “On the Social Contract.” In: The Basic Political
Writings. 141-227. [P]
C. The Enlightenment in Practice? Two Revolutions and Responses to Them
27 September:
The American Revolution:
The Federalist
Papers. Numbers 1, 6, 9, 10, 15, 47, 48, 49, 51. Also read in this volume
“The Declaration of Independence” and “The Constitution of the
United States.”
Selections from
“Notes on the State of Virginia.” CCWeb.
Anti-Federalist
Papers. Handout.
29
September: The French
Revolution and Women:
Wollstonecraft. TheVindication
of the Rights of Woman. 117-97, 252-64, 277-88 [P].
“The
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, 1789,” “Preface
to the Constitution of 1793,” “Anarchical Fallacies.” CCWeb.
“Preface to the
French Constitution of 1793.” CCWeb.
4
October:
Mill. “On the Subjection of Women.” In: On Liberty and
Other Essays. 471-532, 557-82.
“‘Remember
the Ladies’: Abagail Adams vs. John Adams” and “Selected Letters
from the Adams Family Correspondence” In: Rossi. Feminist Papers,
7-15. Available online at https://www1.columbia.edu/sec/cu/lweb/eresources/ebooks/rossfemi/.
Olympie
de Gouges. “The Rights of Woman.” CCWeb.
6
October.
Counter-Revolution and the Birth of Conservatism.
Burke.
Reflections on the Revolution in France. 1-33, 41-5, 51-4, 59-94,
118-22, 140-51, 217-8. [P]
11 October.
The French Meet the Americans.
Tocqueville. Democracy in America. Selections TBD..
13 October:
Mill. On Liberty. [P]
18 October:
Smith. Wealth of Nations. 1-18, 24-32, 62-99, 360-80,
455-463 (“in other uses”), 747 (first ¶), 754 (“A shepherd”)-758
(“over a militia”), 766-771 (“none at all”), 838 (“Were there
no”)-846 (end of Article II), 853 (“In every civilized society”)-
855 (bottom of page). [P]
PART II: THE ENLIGHTENMENT AGAINST ITSELF
A.
Determinism: Historical, Biological and Economic
20 October:
Introduction: Hegel. Philosophy of History.
“Introduction.” Handout.
25 October:
Midterm
27 October.
Darwin. On the Origin of Species. Introduction, Chapters 3,
4, 14 (pp. 95-8, 132-77, 379-98).
Darwin.
“The Descent of Man.” From Chapters 3 and 21. (pp. 525-33, 549-61).
Draft of Paper #1 due.
1 November:
Election Day. No class, but go out and do your duty. Drafts
returned as agreed upon.
3 November:
Marx. “From Economico-Philosophical Manuscripts
of 1844,” “From Value, Price and
Profit,” “Theses on Feuerbach,” and “From Capital,
Volume I: Preface, Chapters 1, 31 and 32.” In: The Portable Karl
Marx. 131-52, 394-432, 432-61, 478-93. [P]
Paper #1 due.
8 November:
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. [P]
B. Religious Debates in a New Key
10
November: Søren
Kierkegaard. Fear and Trembling. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1983.
“Preface,” through “Problema II.” 5-81. [P]
15 November:
Nietzsche. The Genealogy of Morals. Essays One and Two. [P]
17
November: Nietzsche. The
Genealogy of Morals. Essay Three. [P]
PART III: THE DILEMMAS OF MODERNITY
A. Heirs of the Nineteenth Century Critiques
22 November:
Freud. Civilization and Its Discontents. [P]
24 November:
Sartre. “Existentialism and Humanism.” On Reserve.
De Beauvoir. The Second Sex. 3-60, 267-81, 597-628. [P] On
Reserve.
29 November:
DuBois. The Souls of Black Folk. 1-35, 99-125.
DuBois. “The Souls of White Folk.” CCWeb.
Draft of Paper #2 due.
1 December:
Woolf. Three Guineas.
Drafts returned.
B. Concluding Texts
6 December:
John Rawls. “Justice as Fairness.” In: A Theory of Justice.
3-117. CCs. [P] On Reserve.
11 December:
Michel Foucault. Selections from Discipline and Punish: The
Birth of the Prison. On Reserve.
Paper #2 due.
17 December:
Final Exam. 12:30-3:30.
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. In the
past I have been lenient on this, but stopped last time around. You have
been warned.
2. PARTICIPATION:
CC, as I envision it, is a discussion, 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. In addition, you will need to post
on the Courseworks site and in an e-mail to all members of the class,
including me, questions for discussion no later than 12:00 noon on the day
preceding the discussion.
4. PAPERS: You
will be required to write two 5-7 page papers during this semester.
Creativity and intellectual suppleness will be rewarded. Going further
than comparing/contrasting two authors is the first step in this. Better
papers will address a theme, contain material from several texts, and have
an argument (i.e. not just X says this, Y says that). Authorial
intrusion is certainly permitted, as long as the paper remains rooted in
the texts we read. The first paper should cover material before the
midterm, the second from the midterm to the end. I encourage you to talk
to me about your topics. For the second paper, if you use two authors from
after the midterm, you will be allowed to use one from before the midterm.
5. PRÉCIS: You
will be required to submit a written, one-page
précis for 5 of the 14 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. Once you have completed five, you may submit additional
précis: I will count only the five highest grades.
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 one of the two essay
questions -- you will have to choose two out of four -- will be
cumulative.
8. GRADE CALCULATION:
Class participation:
30%
Papers 2 X 10%
Précis 10%
Midterm:
15%
Final:
25%
10. 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 (sic. I obviously mean word-processing document). 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: Wednesday, August 25, 2004
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