Schedule 
Humanities 121 and Philosophy 231
Spring, 2007

“Text” refers to the Western Humanities Vol. II: The Renaissance to the Present 5th Edition.
“Reader” refers to the Readings in Western Humanities Vol. II: The Renaissance to the Present 5th Edition.
   

Week One

1/16-1/18


Course Introduction

Tuesday

Introduction to Class. A discussion of the main concepts and themes that we will explore in our examination of the material for this course. There will also be a brief overview of Western history and culture before 1400.

Thursday

A) The Western European Debt to the Islamic World
B) The Rise of the Ottoman Empire
C) The Beginnings of the Italian Renaissance

Viewing: Islam: Empire of Faith, Part 3

Readings: Text, Chapter 11 

Week Two 1/23-1/25

The Renaissance: 1400-1560

A (new) Vision of Humanity

Tuesday

A)    The Socio-Political Configuration of Europe in the 15th & 16th     Century –Nation States and Discovery
B)     The Intellectual Movements of the Early Renaissance –Humanism, History and the revival of Platonism.
C)    The Art of the Italian Renaissance.. 

Readings: Text, Chapter 12

1st ARP due (Links for "The School of Athens" are included).

Alberti's Notebooks

Art History Resources on the Web
Web Gallery of Art

Art Cyclopedia
 

Thursday

Readings: Text, Chapter 13 on the Northern Renaissance

Readings: More, selections from Utopia (Reader 27-30) Machiavelli, selections from The Prince ( Chapters 8, 14-19, 21 and 25 available on the web.)

Notes on Machiavelli
Notes on More

 

Week Three 1/30-2/1


Europe in the Larger World and a New Foundation for Philosophy

Tuesday

Events in Spain and the Western Hemisphere

      A) The Reconquista and the Expulsion of the Muslims and the Jews
B) Genocide in the Americas
C) The Debate in Spain
D) Spanish literature

Readings:  Selections from Bartolome de Las Casas, Juan Gines de Sepulveda,and Francisco de Vitoria (photocopies from instructors)

Readings: "Account of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, 1492" and  extracts from the journal of Christopher Columbus (Coursepack)

Readings: Cervantes (Reader 92-96) 

Second ARP due

Thursday

Descartes and the Foundations of Modern Philosophy

Readings: Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy, 1-3

Study Guide for the First Exam distributed

  

Week Four 2/6-2/8


Descartes: A New Foundation for Philosophy

Tuesday

  
Descartes Continued


Readings: Meditations, 4-6

 

Third ARP on Descartes due

Thursday

Exam 1
_______________________

Introduction to the Reformation

A)
    The History of the Reformation –Luther, Calvin, and the Splintering of the Universal Church.

B)     The Counter-Reformation –The Jesuits and the Inquisition.

C)    Late Mannerism

Readings: Text, remainder of Chapter 13,  Martin Luther (Reader 89-92) and  "95 Theses" and  "On Christian Liberty" (found at: http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/wittenberg-luther.html)  More details about this assignment are found in the notes below.

Notes on the Reformation, Luther, and Milton
 

Week Five 2/13-2/15

The Reformation

A (new) Vision of Religion

Tuesday

 

The Reformation in England  

 

Readings: Milton’s Paradise Lost, Books 1 (all), Book 2 (1-625), Book 3 (1-415), Book 4 (1-113 and 288-535) and Book 5 (561-907)

Fourth ARP on Milton due

Discussion of Milton, Luther, Calvin, et. al. Primary emphasis on Milton.
 

Thursday

Milton Continued

 

Readings: Paradise Lost, Book 9 (all)

_____________________

Introduction to the Baroque
A) Absolute monarchies
B) Baroque art and architecture
C) Baroque music


Readings:  Text, Chapter 14 and Sister Juana Ines de la Cruz and Aphra Behn (Reader C14 )
Listening: Bach and Vivaldi 

Baroque Art from Art History Resources on the Web

Baroque Art Site of Interest

Link to Andrea Pozzo's Work

 

Week Six 2/20-2/22

The Baroque Era (1600-1715)

A (new) Conception of Nature and the Development of Liberalism

Tuesday

      A
)    How to organize knowledge: breaking down barriers between disciplines and scholastic authoritarianism.
B)     The Newtonian World –the nature as a machine.
C)    Rationalism and Empiricism: The Search for a Universal (Human) Science

Readings: Text, Chapter 14 and Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan (Coursepack)

5th ARP on Hobbes due

Thursday

     Continue discussion of Hobbes' Leviathan in the Coursepack.

     Additional Readings: Text, Chapter 15

 

Week Seven 2/27-3/1

The Enlightenment

 

A (new) Conception of the Role of Reason

Tuesday

Readings: Selections from Locke's Second Treatise on Government

Reading Notes and Assignments for Locke
Notes on Slavery and Reading Suggestions

Study Guide for the Second Exam

Thursday

6th ARP due  on Locke due

Basic Features of the Enlightenment.

      A)    The Power of Reason –The Failure of Faith
B)     Art in the Enlightenment
C)    Power Politics

Read: Text, Chapter 16 “The Age of Reason”

Read: Selections from Hume’s An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (Coursepack) and  begin Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

Week Eight 3/6-3/8

The Enlightenment Continued

 

Tuesday


Attend Cultures Week events for extra credit to make up for absences

Read:  all of Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (available at the bookstore and on the web)

Notes on Hume

7th ARP is due on Amazing Grace or Hogarth is due on Thursday.

 

Thursday

Exam 2  

Continue discussion of Hume

 
Spring Break   ---Time to read Kant and Conrad!
Week 9
3/19-3/23


Revolution?

Tuesday 1) Industrial Revolution
2) Political Revolution
3) Philosophical Revolution

Read: Kant's Perpetual Peace and Chapter 17, "Revolution, Reaction , and Cultural Response"

8th ARP on Kant due

 
Thursday Presentation by Mary Ellen Croteau

Continuation of the discussion of Kant

Read: the selections from Goethe's Faust and Shelley's Frankenstein as well as Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey" and Keat's "Ode to a Grecian Urn" in the Humanities Reader.

Week 10
3/26-3/30

The Triumph of the Bourgeoisie
and
The Challenge of the Working Class

Monday Required Special Event:
Dr. Mardge Cohen, "Caring for Women with HIV: Global and Local Chlalenges"
11:00 am in 1610.....Be sure to get proof of attendance.
 
Tuesday Read: Chapter 18, "The Triumph of the Bourgeoisie"

9th ARP due

 
Thursday Read: "Estranged Labor" and "The Meaning of Human Requirements" in Marx's Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 and the selections from Flaubert's Madame Bovary in the Reader
 
Week 11
4/2-4/6

Capitalism and Imperialism:

Tuesday Marx continued plus the literature of the 19th century

Read:  "Private Property and Communism" from the 1844 Manuscripts and the first two parts of The Communist Manifesto.  Also read Holly's summaries of the theory of alienation and the theory of ideology.  Finally, read the brief selections from Dickens, Douglass and Thoreau in the Reader.

10th ARP due
 

Thursday Read: Conrad's Heart of Darkness

Study Guide for the 3rd Exam

 
Week 12
4/9-4/13
 
Tuesday Conrad continued

11th ARP due
 

Wednesday Special Required Event:

Great Books Symposium on Conrad
12:30 pm in 1610
 
Thursday Exam # 3

Read:  Chapter 19 of the Humanities Text and Chapters 1 and 2 of Mill's The Subjection of Women
 
Week 13
4/16-4/20
 
Tuesday Read: Finish The Subjection of Women

12th ARP due
 
Wednesday Special Event:

Professor David Schweickart speaks on his book After Capitalism
2:00-3:15 pm in 1604
 
Thursday Read: In Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, read the following selections:
Prologue, Book One (Sections 1, 2, 3, 15, 19, 21, 22)
Week 14
4/23-4/27
 
Tuesday Continue Nietzsche....In Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, read the following selections: Book Two (Sections 3, 5, 19, 22), Book 3 (Sections 2, 13), Book 4 (Sections 2, 3, 6, 9, 11, 12, 17, 18, 20).......Also read the selections from Dostoyevsky, Freud, and Kafka in the Reader)

13th ARP on Nietzsche due
 
Thursday Read: Chapter 20 and the first two chapters of Simone de Beauvoir's The Ethics of Ambiguity

Study Guide for the Fourth Exam
 
Week 15
4/30-5/4
 
Tuesday Finish The Ethics of Ambiguity
Thursday 4th Exam

Overview of Western Culture
 
Friday Honors Banquet.....Be there!
Week 16
5/8-5/12
 
Tuesday Final Exam.......Portfolios due
Thursday Party!