Skip to Content

Required textbooks:

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:

  1. Aug. 20: Introduction. No reading.
  2. 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).
  3. 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.
  4. 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!

  5. 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).
  6. Sept. 10: Let Nature be your Teacher. Reading: Rousseau, Emile, Book II (77-94 (top), 98-108, 112-125, 156n, 157-63).
  7. Sept. 12: Making a Scene. Reading: Emile, Book III, pp. 165-75, 184-208.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. Sept. 24: Victor Goes to College. Reading: Frankenstein, Volume 1.
  11. Sept. 26: The Education of Monsters. Reading: Frankenstein, Volume 2.
  12. Oct. 1: Responsibility. Reading: Frankenstein, Volume 3.
  13. 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!

  14. Oct. 15: Making Yourself into a Work of Art. Reading: Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray; "The Decay of Lying"; "The Critic as Artist".
  15. Oct. 17: Morality vs. Art. Reading: Wilde, "Pen, Pencil and Poison"; McGinn, "The Picture: Dorian Gray".
  16. Oct. 22: Masters and Disciples. Reading: Wilde, "The Disciple".
  17. Oct. 24: It Is the Spectator, and Not Life, that Art Really Mirrors. Reading: Review The Picture of Dorian Gray (whole book).
  18. Oct. 29: Slavery and Education. Reading: Douglass, Narrative of the Life, chs. 1-9.
  19. Oct. 31: Teaching the Reader. Reading: Douglass, Narrative of the Life, chs. Preface, 10-11, Appendix.
  20. Nov. 5: Ontogeny of Manners Recapitulates Phylogeny of Manners. Norbert Elias, The Civilizing Process, pp. 47-92.
  21. Nov. 7: The Formation of the Modern Personality. Norbert Elias, The Civilizing Process, pp. pp. 97-109, 121-35, 161-78.
  22. 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.)
  23. Nov. 14: Teaching Concepts to Yourself: Can You Have a Private Language? Reading: PI 244-274, 350--351, 381, 610.
  24. 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.

  25. 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.)

  26. Nov. 26: Philosophical Therapy, Seeing-as, and Slabs. PI 1-32, 597, 599.
  27. 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.
  28. Dec. 3: Ways of Thinking and the Limits of Argument. No new reading.
  29. Dec. 5: A Pragmatic Paradox. No new reading.