Common Core Requirements
Syllabus--Perspectives on the Individual
Fairleigh Dickinson University
UNIVERSITY CORE I
PERSPECTIVES ON THE INDIVIDUAL
SYLLABUS, FALL 1996
Texts: Thomas G. West,
"Slow Words, Quick Images: An Overview"
in Core I book.
Margaret Atwood. The Handmaid's Tale.
Mason. Gilgamesh. Mentor.
Plato. Euthyphro, Apology, Crito. Translated
by Church. Macmillan.
The Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel
according to Matthew, in Core I book.
Pico della Mirandola, from "Oration
on the Dignity of Man," in Core I book.
Michel de Montaigne, from "On the Education
of the Young," in Core I book.
Wordsworth. "Tintern Abbey," and "Ode:
Intimations of Immortality from Recollections
of Early Childhood," in Core I book.
Freud. Civilization and Its Discontents.
Norton.
Tillie Olsen. Tell Me A Riddle. Dell.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Ballantine.
Elie Wiesel. Night.
Style Manual for Papers:
Diana Hacker. A Pocket Style Manual.
Boston: Bedford Books/ St. Martin's
Press, 1993.
Assignments and Grades:
25%: Daily grade: includes
classroom participation and journal
assignments.
Journals are to be
turned in regularly. Sometimes the topics
may be assigned, but if an assignment
is not given, the journal is to be done
on the subject matter of the course,
on readings, videos, class discussions.
If they are written on a computer or
a typewriter, they should have one inch
margins and fill more than one page.
If they are hand written they must fill
at least two pages. A journal need not
be all on one topic. You may stop and
start as often as you wish.
- 40%: Papers.
- 15%: Midterm.
- 20%: Final exam.
Please note the university's
policy on cheating, plagiarism, and
other violations of integrity.
(Complete statement in the FDU Undergraduate
Studies Bulletin.)
By a crude mathematical formula,
it can be suggested that what students
teach students should be one-third of
an undergraduate education, what professors
teach students should be another third,
and what each student does alone in
the library, the laboratory, and the
study should be the remaining third;...
Jeroslav Pelikan, The Idea
of the University: A Reexamination (New
Haven: Yale UP, 1992): 61.
Most people, when asked to
generalize, make claims that are false
to the complexity and the content of
their actual beliefs. They need to learn
what they really think. Martha
Nussbaum, The Fragility of Goodness:
Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and
Philosophy (New York: Cambridge UP,
1986): 10.
PART I: BIOLOGY AND PERSONALITY
1. Class Lecture: Orientation.
Assignment: Read "Slow
Words, Quick Images. . . ."
2. Video: The Search
for Mind
Focusing Questions:
(1) Why are the anthropologists so impressed
by the simple figure of a man painted
on the French cave wall? How does the
picture relate to what the cave man
actually saw? Could a chimpanzee have
painted it? (2) Is man essentially different
from or like the rest of the animal
kingdom according to Charles Darwin's
theory of the descent of man? (3) "Ed"
says that his condition, autism, "means
to be different from other people."
How is he different in his relationship
to other people? Is the source of his
behavior cultural (poor parenting) or
biological (brain damage)? How does
he compensate for his difficulty? (4)
What do "Joe" and "Ed" have in common?
How do they differ? What effect does
the severance of the corpus callosum
have on the way Joe processes information?
Explain in terms of the brain structure
why Joe is unable to name an object
that he sees but is able to draw it.
Is it a conscious process? (5) Clive
Wearing, the musician, has sustained
damage to his temporal lobe. What specific
effect does this injury to his brain
have on hos his mind functions? By what
process is he able to "remember" how
to play the piano and sing?
3. Class Lecture and Discussion:
SWQI
Focusing Questions:
(1) What functions are usually associated
with the left hemisphere of the brain?
the right hemisphere? Can each hemisphere
function separately? Do they interact?
What evidence is offered by West for
the distinctions in modes of thought?
(2) What is a naturally occurring neurological
variation in the human brain? How does
it manifest itself? Is it inherited?
Is this processing difference advantageous
or disadvantageous to the individual?
to society? (3) In addition to natural
variation of brain structure and development
among individuals, in what other ways
can differences occur? Do the case studies
presented in the video The Search for
Mind confirm or contradict the idea
of specialization of hemispheres? (4)
If a tennis coach told you to think
of your tennis racquet as a hammer when
you serve a ball, might it help you
to serve well? Is there any manipulation
of images, either material or conceptual,
that has helped you to learn something?
Is your learning based on discovering
similarities or differences among things?
How might an ability to discern similarities
aid in creative problem solving? (5)
Is your own orientation more left-brain
dominant or more right-brain dominant?
How does your style of learning affect
your view of the world? your values?
your success? (6) Albert Einstein said
that a child-like "associative play"
with images was an important stage in
his discovery of the theory of relativity.
What did he mean by this comment? How
might this process be related to dyslexia?
(7) Does new graphics-oriented computer
technology provide an advantage to visual-spatial
thinkers? in mathematics? in medicine?
Is this change in information processing
progress? Assignment: Read
The Handmaid's Tale
PART II: DYSTOPIA
4. Class Lecture and Discussion:
THT.
Focusing Questions:
(1) The Handmaid's Tale warns us that
we must address certain threats to our
individuality in the present-day USA
if we are to avoid having to face them
in a fully realized way in the future.
Discuss these threats to our individuality.
(2) Aunt Lydia talks of two kinds of
freedom: "freedom to" and "freedom from,"
and warns the handmaids not to underrate
"freedom from." What does each kind
of freedom mean? Give examples. What
does Lydia mean in warning not to underrate
"freedom from?" (3) Offred tells the
commander that what is missing from
Gilead is the opportunity to "fall in
love." Do you agree that this is the
greatest failure of Gilead? (4) Handmaids'
names are composed of "of," followed
by the names of their commanders. In
our own society, the majority of married
women adopt their husbands' names. Discuss
similarities and differences between
the two practices. (5) Do you agree
with Professor Piexoto that "our job
is not to censure [practices in Gilead],
but to understand [them]"? (6) Is Offred
a heroic individual? Why or why not?
(7) The Handmaid's Tale presents us
with a dystopia in which individuality
is largely crushed. Which one of all
your freedoms today now seems more precious
as a result of reading The Handmaid's
Tale.
5. Classroom Lecture and Discussion:
THT.
Assignment: Three-page
paper due, class 10.
6. Class Lecture and Discussion:
THT.
Assignment: Read Gilgamesh.
PART III: SOURCES OF THE SELF
7. Class Lecture and Discussion:
G.
Focusing Questions: On
Gilgamesh: (1) Heroes provide one perspective
on the individual, since heroes serve
as exemplary individuals or models of
conduct. Gilgamesh is one of the first
heroes in world literature. How does
he exemplify heroic behavior? (2) Other
perspectives on the individual are provided
by consideration of those factors that
shape our identities. Enkidu first appears
in Gilgamesh as a wild man, totally
outside human society. How is he socialized
into human society? What role does his
friendship with Gilgamesh play in Enkidu's
socialization? (3) as Enkidu lies dying
he bitterly complains that the temple
prostitute "Made me see things as a
man, and a man sees death in things"
(49). To what extent is awareness of
mortality a distinctive human train?
(4) In their adventures together, Gilgamesh
and Enkidu defeat the monster Humbaba.
Exactly what is Humbaba? Do you think
this figure, at least in some respects,
symbolizes some natural phenomenon?
You may wish to reread the descriptions
of Humbaba on pages 29 and 38. (5) As
Gilgamesh and Enkidu approach Humbaba's
forest, Gilgamesh is described as being
"revitalized by danger" (35). To what
extent is a person's individual development
enhanced by confronting danger or adversity?
Are challenges and hardships essential
to building character? (6) The death
of Enkidu drives Gilgamesh into a frenzy
of grief. To what extent do extreme
pain or bereavement isolate or "desocialize"
an individual? (7) Gilgamesh's search
for Utnapishtim and the secret of immortality
is an early example of the heroic quest.
While there are possible elements of
a real journey in Gilgamesh's quest,
it is easy to see this quest as a symbolic
journey that brings Gilgamesh to a deeper
understanding of human mortality. Which
elements of the journey seem to you
to be the most realistic? Which elements
seem the most symbolic? Little is said
in the text about Gilgamesh's behavior
and actions after his return. How would
you imagine him to have been changed
by this journey? (8) The story of Utnapishtim
is clearly similar to the biblical account
of Noah and the Ark. What are the similarities
between the two stories? What important
differences are there? (9) What can
you infer from Gilgamesh about the religious
beliefs of the ancient Mesopotamians?
What attitudes to the Mesopotamian gods
appear in the story? See, for example,
Utnapishtim's comments to Gilgamesh
on pages 78-79. What beliefs, if any,
about an afterlife seem to be implied
in the story?
8. Class Lecture and Discussion:
G.
Assignment: Read Plato's
"The Apology" and "Crito."
9. Class Lecture and Discussion:
A&C
Focusing Questions: (1)
Socrates claims that "An unexamined
life is not worth living. What is an
"examined life"? How is examining one's
life related to being an individual
in our culture? Is living an examined
life always desirable? Is it possible
to examine everything about our lives?
Do you accept Plato's suggestion that
the more heroic individual is the reflective,
independent thinker rather than the
warrior? (2) What role does reasoning
play in freeing us from the domination
of traditional myths and social demands?
What is the community's interest in
controlling dissent? (3) Socrates claims
that his sole "wisdom" consists in the
realization that he is not wise. What
does he mean? Is his behavior during
his trial and imprisonment consistent
with this claim? (4) It is sometimes
argued that Socrates committed a form
of suicide. In what sense, if any, is
this true? Optional Video:
The Death of Socrates.
10. Class Lecture and Discussion:
A&C.
Assignment: Read the
Sermon on the Mount. First three-page
paper due.
11. Class Lecture and Discussion:
SOM
Focusing Questions:
(1) The beatitudes (5:3-10) are considered
a proclamation of a new approach to
the good life. Would Gilgamesh have
accepted these notions of goodness?
Would he have rejected them all, accepted
some? What about Socrates? (2) Do you
see any similarities between Socrates's
attitude toward the gods and Jesus'
attitude toward God? (3) In these sayings
there is a heavy emphasis on heaven
and hell. What value do you think this
has for the formation of a self? Is
it necessary? Is it good? Is it harmful?
(4) There is also a strong emphasis
on an interior goodness that goes beyond
outward good behavior. Is this important,
valuable? or does it impose an impossible
ideal? (5) Similarly, what do you think
of such well-known ideas as turning
the other cheek? loving your enemies?
and so on. Do they have any validity
or are they unreal or even unjust notions?
(6) Jesus' insistence that we not be
anxious about food and clothing sounds
like Socrates's insistence than men
not be anxious about acquiring honors
and possessions. In what ways are they
the same? different? Assignment:
Read Pico della Mirandola,
"Oration on the Dignity of Man." First
paper returned; revision due in class
14.
12. Class Lecture and Discussion:
Pico.
Focusing Questions: (1)
What is the importance for the individual
human person of having a particular
place in the "Great Chain of Being,"
that is, in the immense natural world,
from atoms to galaxies? (2) In what
way does Pico de la Mirandola's understanding
of human nature differ from the duality
we saw Gilgamesh between man as animal
(Enkidu) and man as God (Gilgamesh)?
(3) In what way do human persons differ
from the rest of nature in Pico de la
Mirandola? Is Pico's a legitimate way
to define the relationship in today's
science-governed understanding?
13. Class Lecture and Discussion:
Pico's world in art.
Focusing Questions: (1)
Can you list six or seven details you
noted in the pictures shown in the class?
(2) Does what's in the foreground always
seem more important than what's in the
background? (3) What of Pico's ideas
did you find in the slides shown in
the class? (4) Do these pictures say
something to us even if we don't know
who exactly who the characters are?
(5) How much does knowing the society
in which art is produced determine our
ability to understand art? (6) Do the
pictures you've looked at seem to have
a purpose? If you answer yes, then what
is it that the slides teach? (7) Speculate
on why art becomes so important after
the early Renaissance. Is there a sense
in which the Renaissance invents art?
(8) Write one journal page on one of
the slides describing as carefully as
you can as many of the details as you
can remember.
14. MIDTERM
Assignment: Read Montaigne
on Education.
15. Class Lecture and Discussion:
Montaigne
Focusing Questions:
(1) Since education, for Montaigne,
is obviously a privilege of the aristocrat,
which of his ideas are valid in a democratic
society, which not? (2) Montaigne thinks
the teacher should make his pupils exercise
their own powers; the teacher should
not do all the talking but also listen
to the students. Is this valuable or
a waste of student time? (3) Montaigne
suggests we are all so different that
it is impossible for us to learn the
same set of lessons. Is this so? If
so, what good is a university education,
or school education in general? Perhaps
we should all be self-educated like
Malcolm X and Benjamin Franklin. (4)
Montaigne says students must make an
idea their own by examining it and applying
it from every angle. Is this possible
in the hurried world of contemporary
college education? (5) He also says
that students must accept nothing on
the basis of authority and that if they
make an idea truly their own they need
not remember where they got it. Is this
practical advice in a highly technological
information age where factual knowledge
is so crucial? (6) Is Montaigne right
in suggesting that travel to other countries
is ideal for education? Do you agree
with his reasons? (7) Do you agree with
Montaigne that parents are too soft
and a bad influence on education? (8)
In an adversarial system, for instance,
the American legal system, winning the
argument--or the case--is the important
thing. What do you think of Montaigne's
idea that the educated person should
be trained to stop the argument as soon
as he or she recognizes that the other
is right? (9) Montaigne thinks curiosity
is crucial to education. Is this true?
(10) Is there any meaning to the idea
that education should focus on the whole
person, body and mind, or is that simply
an old notion that doesn't fit the modern
university? (11) Students often say,
I know it, but I can't say it. Montaigne
says, if you can't say it, you don't
know it. Who's right?
16. Class Lecture and Discussion:
Montaigne
Assignment: Read William
Wordsworth, "Tintern Abbey" and "Ode:
Intimations of Immortality from Recollections
of Early Childhood."
17. Class Lecture and Discussion:
TA and/or Ode.
Focusing Questions: (1)
What does it means to say "the child
is father to the man"? Is it true? (2)
Wordsworth's natural world is much more
intimate and vivid than the abstract
vision of the cosmos considered by Pico.
In what way does this modify the way
we think of ourselves in relation to
nature? (3) Why is it the child's relation
to nature that is so important in "Tintern
Abbey" and "Ode"? (4) For Wordsworth
the outer self is the social self. Why
does he reject this outer self in favor
of an inner, private self? Is this same
rejection found in any way in Gilgamesh
or in Plato's "Apology" and "Crito"?
(5) Why does Wordsworth find the Socratic
or Platonic ideal of reason inadequate
for the making of a self? Who would
Wordsworth admire more, Socrates or
Gilgamesh? (6) Wordsworth suggests that
we become prisoners as we grow older.
Do we find this experience reflected,
for instance, in Gilgamesh or in Socrates?
Do we find it in our own experience?
(7) Childhood, nature, and the folk
are the sources from which Wordsworth
builds an inner self. How are they related?
Assignment: Begin five-page
paper, due class 22.
18. Class Lecture and Discussion:
TA and/or Ode.
Assignment: Read chapters
III to VII of Freud's Civilization and
Its Discontents.
PART IV: CHALLENGES TO THE SELF
19. Class Lecture and Discussion:
CD, or Video Lecture: Freud, or Socialization.
Focusing Questions: (1)
How does Freud differ from Wordsworth
in his explanation of the struggle between
instinctual drives and the expectations
of civilization? Which one, do you think,
better explains the tension? (2) Wordsworth
sees nature as a refuge from civilization.
How does Freud see it? (3) Does the
struggle between civilization and instinct
contribute to or inhibit personal growth?
(4) What is the difference between Freud's
notion of law and that of Socrates?
(5) How widespread is discontent in
American civilization? What are the
principal sources of this discontent?
Can technology relieve us of these problems?
What does Freud think? (6) What is the
relationship between Freud's theories
and the way the struggle between instinct
and culture has been managed in The
Handmaid's Tale?
20. Class Lecture and Discussion:
CD.
21. Class Lecture and Discussion:
CD.
Assignment: Read Tillie
Olsen's "Tell Me a Riddle" and "I Stand
Here Ironing." Note: The film Tell Me
a Riddle may be shown outside class
time as an optional assignment.
22. Class Lecture and Discussion.
Olsen.
Focusing Questions:
(1) There are many sources of the pain
which Emily has experienced in her life.
Who or what is mainly responsible for
this pain? (2) Does Emily have the freedom
to overcome the difficulties of her
early life? What might Freud say? Pico?
(3) "I Stand Here Ironing" has been
called a work which de-romanticizes
motherhood. Is it? Why or why not? (4)
What are the sources of David's resentment
in Tell Me a Riddle? To what extent
is his gender a factor in producing
his unhappiness? (5) What are the sources
of Eva's resentment in Tell Me a Riddle?
To what extent is her gender a factor
in producing her unhappiness? (6) Socrates
is deeply concerned with the formation
of the young. For Wordsworth, childhood
and youth are very important to the
developing self. What is the significance
of Eva's youth in Russia to her own
sense of self at the end of her life?
(7) Does David appreciate this? understand
it? What is it at the end that David
says he had lost? What is it he wishes
he could package for his grandchildren
and all the children of America? (8)
What insights does Olsen give us about
the treatment of the elderly in our
society? (9) Poverty plays a large role
in both these works by Olsen. In what
ways does poverty limit the freedom
of the main characters in both works?
In what ways are such limitations overcome?
(10) Individuality is most certainly
linked to the discovery of meaning in
our lives. How do the main characters
discover or fail to discover meaning?
(11) Critics have claimed that there
is a movement from grief to hope in
both of these works by Olsen. Do you
agree? Assignment:
Second paper due.
23. Class Lecture and Discussion:
Olsen.
Assignment: Read The
Autobiography of Malcolm X.
24. Class Lecture and Discussion:
MX.
Focusing Questions: (1)
In what ways was Malcolm's individuality
denied him because of his race? (2)
Malcolm said his life was a series of
changes. What were the major changes
in his life? How did the various names
and nicknames he had mark some of the
changes. What was the difference between
the childhood of Malcolm X and the childhood
that Wordsworth describes? (3) What
personal experiences made him open to
accepting the teaching that "the white
man is the devil"? What reading in history?
In what way did his hajj change his
attitude? (4) What message did Malcolm
have for African-Americans? For white
Americans? Why did human rights become
his central idea, and not just civil
rights? What were his final spiritual
teachings? (5) Malcolm;'s life can be
seen as a process of mental liberation,
of "decolonizing the mind." How did
his self-education contribute? How did
his break with Elijah Muhammad? (6)
What can Malcolm tell us about the value
of education? (7) What was his attitude
toward women in general, and in particular,
towards Ella, his mother, Betty Shabbaz?
What was his attitude toward Jews? Toward
violence? (8) What would you say about
the claim that Malcolm found himself
through commitment to a higher cause?
(9) How do racial and other group identifications
shape our sense of who we are?
25. Classroom Lecture and Discussion:
MX. Assignment:
Second paper returned for revisions.
26. Classroom Lecture and Discussion:
MX. Assignment: Read
Night. Revision of second paper due.
PART V: THE DENIAL OF THE SELF
27. Classroom Lecture and Discussion:
N.
Focusing Questions: (1)
In what way is the narrator's early
life in Sighet like the early life described
by Wordsworth? Note several elements
of this early life which constitute
the narrator's individuality. Show how
each is taken away from him by his life
in the camps. (2) The relationship of
Eliezer to his father is very important
in the second half of the book. Why?
From this relationship, what lesson
does Eliezer learn about an individual's
potential for good and evil? (3) Just
prior to the Nazi invasion of Hungary,
the Jews of Sighet took comfort against
rumors to the effect that Hitler was
harming European Jews by asking: "Was
he going to wipe out the whole people?.
. . So many millions! . . . And in the
middle of the twentieth century!" The
twentieth century individual, they thought,
was incapable of repeating the atrocities,
the mass murders of the dim past. What
assumptions about the effect of Western
culture on the "twentieth century" individual
are being made here? How have your ideas
about "progress" been affected by this
text? (4) The Holocaust could not have
occurred without the active collaboration
of many ordinary citizens and the silent
compliance of countless others. At the
war crimes tribunal following World
War II at Nuremberg, many Nazi defendants
pleaded the case that they were "just
following orders," that actions taken
against Jews were "legal." Individual
citizens in our own society sometimes
confront laws they find to be immoral.
Give some instances in recent United
States history in which individuals
have refused to obey laws they condemn
morally. Are there any laws which would
prompt your disobedience for ethical
reasons? (5) This course begins with
a dystopia. Toward the close of the
course we have now read a tale of a
lived dystopia. What similarities to
Gilead do you find in the world described
in Night. (6) Imagine that Plato and
Freud are alive and have just completed
reading Wiesel's Night. Compose letters
written by them to Wiesel telling him
how their own thoughts relate to the
tragedy depicted in Night.
28. Classroom Lecture and Discussion:
N.
EXAMINATION WEEK: FINAL EXAM
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