Contemporary Civilization II

 

BULLETIN BOARD

 

REQUIRED TEXTS

 

Contemporary Civilization Reader. Seventh Edition. (American Heritage)
Hume. An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals. (Hackett)
Rousseau. The Basic Political Writings. (Hackett)
Wollstonecraft. Vindications. (Broadview)
Kant. Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals. (Hackett)
Mill. On Liberty. (Hackett)
Smith. Wealth of Nations. (Hackett)
Marx. The Portable Karl Marx. (Penguin: Viking Portable)
Appleman, ed. Darwin. (Norton).
DuBois. The Souls of Black Folk. (Dover)
Nietzsche. On the Genealogy of Morality. (Cambridge)
Burke. Reflections on the Revolution in France. (Hackett)
The Federalist Papers. (NAL/Mentor)
Rossi, ed. Feminist Papers. (Northeastern UP)
Freud. Civilization and Its Discontents. (Norton)
*Søren Kierkegaard. Fear and Trembling. (Princeton)
*De Beauvoir. The Second Sex. (Vintage)

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 should be in stock at Labyrinth Books. You are not obligated to buy them, because they will also be on reserve in Butler. Still, I would recommend buying them. (You will likely find better prices on line.) 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

 

PART I: THE ENLIGHTENMENT

 

5 September: Introduction. *Kant. "What is Enlightenment?" CC Reader. 73-9.

A. Morality

11 September: Kant. Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals. 1-48. [P] Sample Precis.

13 September: Hume. An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals. 13-88. [P]

B. Rousseau and Political Theory

18 September: *Rousseau. "Discourse on the Origin of Inequality." In: Basic Political Writings 25-82. [P]

20 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

25 September: The American Revolution: 
*"The Declaration of Independence," "The Constitution of the United States." (Skim.) and "An Anti-Federalist Perspective: ‘Brutus’ III." In: CC Reader. 175-200.
"‘Remember the Ladies’: Abagail Adams vs. John Adams" and "Selected Letters from the Adams Family Correspondence" In: Rossi. Feminist Papers 7-15.
*The Federalist Papers. Numbers 1, 6, 9, 10, 15, 47, 48, 49, 51. 
Anti-Federalist Papers: Read Online:
Antifederalist No.1,
Antifederalist No. 9,
Antifederalist No.47,
Antifederalist No. 49,
Antifederalist No. 84,
Antifederalist No. 85.

27 September: The French Revolution:
*The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, 1789," "Preface to the Constitution of 1793," "Anarchical Fallacies." CC Reader. 207-32.
"Declaration of the Rights of Woman." In: Wollstonecraft. Vindications. 378-92.
*Burke. Reflections on the Revolution in France. 1-33, 41-5, 51-4, 59-94, 118-22, 140-51, 217-8. [P]

2 October: Wollstonecraft. Vindications. "Vindication of the Rights of Woman." Pages 117-97, 252-64, 277-88. "Vindication of the Rights of Man." Pages 35-44, 53-7, 61-71, 76-82, 91-98.[P]
Rousseau. "Sophie" From: Emile. Read online: Go to "Table of Contents" navigator, and select Book Five. Then read from the beginning (1247) to the end of paragraph 1300.

4 October: "Personhood and Equality":
*Jefferson. "Selections from "Notes on the State of Virginia" and "A Declaration by the Representatives…," Douglass. "The Claims of the Negro Ethnologically Considered." In: CC Reader. 233-69.
"Seneca Falls Convention," "The Akron Convention," "The Kansas Campaign of 1867" and Mill. "The Subjection of Women." In: Rossi. Feminist Papers. 196-238, 413-21, 426-9, 430-70.

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

9 October: *Mill. On Liberty. [P]

11 October: Smith. Wealth of Nations. 1-13, 17-22, 30-57, 67-83, 116-22, 127-31, 166-205. [P]

 

PART II: THE ENLIGHTENMENT AGAINST ITSELF

 

A. Determinism: Historical, Economic and Biological

 

16 October: Review Session. 

18 October: Introduction: Hegel. Philosophy of History. "Introduction." CCs. 

23 October: Midterm. 

25 October: 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. [P]  

30 October: 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]
Draft of Paper #1 due.

1 November: Appleman, ed. Darwin. "The Origin of Species." Introduction, Chapters 3, 4, 15. "The Descent of Man." Chapters 2, 3, 6, 21.
Drafts returned.

6 November: University Holiday. No class. Come if you want, but I won’t be here.
Paper #1 due. 

B. Religious Debates in a New Key

8 November: *DuBois. The Souls of Black Folk. 1-35, 99-125.
"Excerpts from Plessy v. Ferguson." and DuBois. "The Souls of White Folk" and In: CC Reader. 271-85.
Gobineau. "Selections from The Inequality of Human Races." CCs.

13 November: Søren Kierkegaard. Fear and Trembling. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1983. "Preface," through "Problema II." 5-81. [P]

15 November: Nietzsche. On the Genealogy of Morality. Essays One and Two. 1-71. [P]

20 November: Nietzsche. On the Genealogy of Morality. Essay Three. 72-128. [P]

----------------------------------------------------------

REVISED SECTION

PART III: THE DILEMMAS OF MODERNITY

A. Heirs of the Nineteenth Century Critiques

27 November: Freud. "Readings on Sexuality and Personality" CC Reader. 287-346.

29 November: Freud. Civilization and Its Discontents. [P]

4 December: Sartre. "Existentialism and Humanism." CCs
Camus. "The Myth of Sisyphus." CCs

6 December: De Beauvoir. The Second Sex. 3-60, 267-81, 597-628. [P]
Draft of Paper #2 due. 

11 December: John Rawls. "Justice as Fairness." In: A Theory of Justice. 3-53. Note changed pages. CCs. [P] 
Drafts returned. Note: We will spend the first hour discussing Rawls, and the second hour on a brief review for the final exam.

13 December: Paper #2 due. 
Note: I would like to have these on the eleventh, but I will take them without penalty until 4:20 on Wednesday the thirteenth.

15 December: Final Exam. 12:30-3:30.

N.B. The readings marked with an asterisk are available on-line through the URL http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/CCREAD/etscc/ccreadings.htm, but for some, pagination will prove a problem.

 

 

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 semester. 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.

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. 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: Monday, November 27, 2000

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