Required textbooks:
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, trans. Allan Bloom, Basic Books.
- Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Norton.
- Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick
Douglass, Library of America.
- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oxford.
- Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations,
Blackwell. (If you order this used, any edition from the 2nd on
[1958] is fine; FYI, the facing German-English versions are often
less expensive than the English-only.)
- Norbert Elias, The Civilizing Process, rev. ed.
Blackwell.
You'll be required to bring physical copies of the
textbooks to class.
Most of these books have been in print for quite a while, and you can
save money by finding them used. Be careful, however, to stick with the
recommended editions.
Additional readings will be made available through the
Marriott Library reserve desk. (See Marriott's Course Reserve How to Guide for an intro to using the library
reserves.)
Reading Assignments:
- Aug. 20: Introduction. No reading.
- Aug. 22: Three Myths of Education.
Reading: Hesiod, story of Prometheus from Works and
Days (online reserve). Ovid, stories of Narcissus
and Pygmalion from Metamorphoses (online
reserve).
- Aug. 27: Interpreting Interpretation.
Reading: Kermode, "Institutional Control of
Interpretation"; Stanley Fish,
"What Makes an Interpretation Acceptable?" (online
reserve).
We'll be discussing Hesiod and Ovid, so please bring those
texts also.
- Aug. 29: Philosophical Arguments and Philosophical
Traps.
Reading: Plato,
Euthyphro, Ion. Nozick, "Coercive
Philosophy," in Philosophical Explanations,
pp. 4-8; ; Nehamas, "Platonic Irony," in The Art of
Living, pp. 34-45 (online reserve).
1st paper topics have been distributed -- make sure you
have a copy.
Happy Labor Day -- take Emile to the beach!
- Sept. 5: Education for Democratic Citizenship. Reading:
Rousseau, first Discourse ("Discourse on the
Sciences and Arts"); Emile, Preface (33-35), Book
I (37-53, 62-74).
- Sept. 10: Let Nature be your Teacher. Reading:
Rousseau,
Emile, Book
II (77-94 (top), 98-108, 112-125, 156n, 157-63).
- Sept. 12: Making a Scene. Reading:
Emile, Book
III, pp. 165-75, 184-208.
- Sept. 17: Defusing amour-propre. Reading:
Emile, Book
IV: pp. 211-54 (up to "...in whatever nation");
268 (from
"I consulted the philosophers...") to 270 ("...nothing
useful for practice); 272 (from "I perceive in bodies...")
to 273 ("...a hand that makes it turn"); 275 (from line 7,
"I comprehend that the mechanism...") to 277 ("...I call
God);
286 (from "After having deduced...") to 287 ("...tarry a
bit to clarify it"); 289 (last full para., from "It is not
my design...") to 290 (end first para., "...seek or flee");
315 (from "Reader, I am well aware...) to 344; 354-55.
- Sept. 19: Philophysy! Reading:
Emile, Book
V: pp. 362 ("In his Republic...") to 369 ("...the
evils it has caused us"), 393 ("This is the spirit...") to
396 ("...to tolerate it"), 399 ("Possessing so great a
maturity...") to 402 ("...to look for one"), 410 ("Desire
mediocrity in everything...") to 416 ("...make a romance
of my book"), 450 ("On Travel") to 458 (end of page).
Review Ion 533d-534e, 536a-d.
- Sept. 24: Victor Goes to College. Reading:
Frankenstein, Volume 1.
- Sept. 26: The Education of Monsters. Reading:
Frankenstein, Volume 2.
- Oct. 1: Responsibility. Reading:
Frankenstein, Volume 3.
- Oct. 3: The Lesson. Reading:
Frankenstein -- review whole book.
Optional reading:
McGinn, "Who Is Frankenstein's Monster?"
Have a great Fall Break -- read The Picture of Dorian
Gray on the beach!
- Oct. 15: Making Yourself into a Work of Art. Reading:
Wilde, The Picture of Dorian
Gray; "The Decay of Lying"; "The Critic as Artist".
- Oct. 17: Morality vs. Art. Reading:
Wilde, "Pen, Pencil and Poison"; McGinn, "The Picture: Dorian Gray".
- Oct. 22: Masters and Disciples. Reading:
Wilde, "The Disciple".
- Oct. 24: It Is the Spectator, and Not Life, that Art Really Mirrors. Reading:
Review The Picture of Dorian
Gray (whole book).
- Oct. 29: Slavery and Education. Reading: Douglass, Narrative of the Life, chs. 1-9.
- Oct. 31: Teaching the Reader. Reading: Douglass, Narrative of the Life, chs. Preface, 10-11, Appendix.
- Nov. 5: Ontogeny of Manners Recapitulates Phylogeny of Manners. Norbert Elias, The Civilizing Process, pp. 47-92.
- Nov. 7: The Formation of the Modern
Personality. Norbert Elias, The Civilizing
Process, pp. pp. 97-109, 121-35, 161-78.
- Nov. 12: From Truth Conditions to Teaching
Conditions: How Can You Train Someone to Follow a
Rule? Reading: Wittgenstein, Philosophical
Investigations 82-86, 143-147, 151-219,
319-323. (Numbers without further indications are
section numbers in Part I.)
- Nov. 14: Teaching Concepts to Yourself: Can You
Have a Private Language? Reading: PI 244-274,
350--351, 381, 610.
- Nov. 19: Concepts and Definitions. PI
52, 65-71, 75-80, 87-88, 99-100, 142.
FINAL PAPER TOPICS HAVE BEEN DISTRIBUTED -- MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A COPY.
- Nov. 21: Games and Language Games.
PI 129-133.
PI II:xi, up to sec. 260. (OK, depending on which edition you have: in
the 4th ed., this is pp. 203-225; in the 3rd ed. this is
pp. 193-214 -- up to "...lack of a 'musical ear'"; in the
-- sigh -- 50th Anniversary ed., pp. 165-182.)
Happy Thanksgiving! (Tell your folks you can't help with the cooking
because you have to work on your HUM 1010 paper.)
- Nov. 26: Philosophical Therapy, Seeing-as, and Slabs. PI 1-32, 597, 599.
- Nov. 28: What Kind of Argument Is Wittgenstein Making? Reading: PI Preface; 89-97, 107-108,
115-118, 122; PI II:iv (in the 4th ed., this is II:19-26);
PI II:314 (in earlier editions, this is the para. bridging
pp. 221f, starting "'A new-born child has no teeth.'"); PI
II:xii.
- Dec. 3: Ways of Thinking and the Limits of Argument. No new reading.
- Dec. 5: A Pragmatic Paradox. No new reading.