This course examines how the rationalism of the enlightenment affected European social thought through the nineteenth century, specifically through Nationalism, Socialism and Liberalism. We also examine the impact of Darwinism and technological progress on the European imagination, ending with an examination of the backlash against rationalism in the early twentieth century. The course begins and ends with a discussion of the position assigned to women in these various social theories.
Required
Where possible, required readings have been sought on the internet (I). However, students may wish to buy paper copies of texts available online since paperbacks can be obtained very cheaply through amazon.com.
John Stuart Mill On
Karl Marx Communist Manifesto (I)
Nietzsche On the Genealogy
of Morals
Thomas Paine The Rights of Man (I)
Borges
“Kafka and his Precursors”
Mary Baker Eddy Science and Health (I)
Sartre
Essays in Existentialism, Part II.
Freud On
the Interpretation of Dreams (I)
Friedrich Nietzsche Genealogy of Morals (I)
Friedrich Nietzsche Beyond Good and Evil (I)
Friedrich Engles The Principles of Communism (I)
Ernest Hemingway “A Clean Well-lighted
Place” (I)
Thomas Kuhn The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (I)
Wollstonecraft Vindication of Rights of Man
Carl Jung Memories, Dreams, Reflections
Viginia Woolf A Room of One’s Own
Jules Verne The Mysterious
Mary Shelley Frankenstein
Franz Kafka The Trial
Goethe Faust
- - -
- note!
Be sure to get Walter Kaufman’s
Nietzsche Beyond Good and Evil
- - -
- translations
for Goethe and Nietzsche!
Grading
System:
Three take home exams, five
pages each: 20%
each. The final exam is no different from the mid-terms, though the
questions
in the final will return to authors discussed in the beginning of the
course.
Fifteen-page research paper: 40%. Students must submit electronic
copies of all
work, since work will be spot-checked for academic dishonesty. Papers
are
considered “on time” if the electronic copy arrives in my inbox before
Attendance is mandatory. Students get one free absence. The second absence costs you 3% off the final grade. All subsequent absences cost you 6% off your final grade. Students who miss more than 8 sessions cannot pass the course.
Week 1 Introduction to class.
W
Intro
to class
F
Week 2 Enlightenment and Revolution: Replacing the monarchical principle with “national brotherhood.”
M
Thomas
Paine The Rights of Man (Only read
part 1)
(online:
http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/1776-1800/paine/ROM/rofm04.htm).
W
Discussion:
Mary Wollstonecraft Vindication of the
Rights of
Declaration
of the Rights of Man http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/rightsof.htm
Declaration
… Rights of Woman http://members.aol.com/agentmess/frenchrev/wmanright.html
F
Nations
and States
Week 3 Herder: The cultural content of nationalism (or lack thereof).
M
Johann Herder Ideas
toward a Philosophy of History (from
Adler, Menze, eds .,128-149,
W
Herder, cont.
178-184, 187-208. Also read the texts from
the following patriotic songs:
F
Patriotic
texts: Students bring two patriotic songs
to class (should predate 1850).
Arndt: “Where is the German fatherland?”
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/arndt-vaterland.html
The Marseillaise
http://www.marseillaise.org/english/english.html
Petõfi “Rise up, O Magyar!”
http://www.oocities.org/rassendyll.geo/sandor.html
Week 4 Marxism: social classes as historical actor in competition to the nation
M
The
Background to Marx: Excerpt from Hegel Introduction to lectures on Philosophy of
History
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/hegel.html
W
Marx
The Communist Manifesto
http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/classics/manifesto.html
F
Engles
The Principles of Communism
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm
Week 5 The Liberal Response: “The Greatest Good for the Greatest Number”
M
Discussion:
John Stuart Mill On
W
Utilitarianism
practice session (in class discussion, no homework)
F
Benjamin
Disraeli “Utilitarian follies”
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/disraeli-utilitarianfollies.html
Week 6
M
Charles
Darwin On the Origin of Human Species
(chapters 1, 3, 4, 14)
http://www.literature.org/authors/darwin-charles/the-origin-of-species/
Harun
Yahya “A Brief History of the Theory of Evolution.”
http://saif_w.tripod.com/interesting_articles/brief_history_of_theory_of_evolution.htm
Stephen
J. Gould “Evolution as Fact and Theory”
http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/gould_fact-and-theory.html
Optional:
watch the movie Inherit the Wind
F
Thomas
Kuhn The Structure of Scientific
Revolutions Chapter 9
http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/us/kuhn.htm
Take home exam 1: Rationality (five
page essay)
Week 7 Fantasies of Science
M
“Scientific”
Religion? Mary Baker Eddy Science and
Health, chapter 1
http://www.mbeinstitute.org/SAHI/1875ch1.htm
W
Jules
Verne The Mysterious Island (whole
book)
F
Positivism
and social Darwinism, the “corruption of science.” George Orwell “James
Burnham
and the Managerial Revolution”
http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/o/o79e/part40.html
(Five
page essay due!)
Week 8 Psychology
M
Discussion:
Freud On the Interpretation of Dreams
(start with “the method of interpreting dreams”,
read to end)
http://www.bibliomania.com/2/1/68/115/frameset.html
Optional:
watch the movie “Forbidden Planet”
W
Carl
Jung Memories, Dreams, Reflections¸
ch. xxx (hand out Meyers-Briggs tests)
F
Discussion
of Meyers Briggs tests. History of IQ testing.
M
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Faust, part 1. (Walter
Kaufman’s bilingual edition).
W
Faust, continued.
F
Shelley
Frankenstein (Be sure and read the
book, the movie is different.)
Week 10 Nietzsche: nobility as transcendence?
M
Friedrich
Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals,
“Good and Evil, Good and Bad” (~ 20 pages)
http://users.compaqnet.be/cn127103/Nietzsche_on_the_genealogy_of_morals/on_the_genealogy_of_morals.htm
Optional:
Watch the film Rope.
W
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil,
“Peoples and
Countries, What is Noble?”
http://users.compaqnet.be/cn127103/Nietzsche_beyond_good_and_evil/
F
Discussion:
Vitalism: Nietzshe as proto-Nazi
Take home exam 2 Nietzsche and
Freud (five page essay)
M
Kafka
“The Trial”
W
Borges
“Kafka and his precursors”
F
(Don’t
forget: five-page paper due!)
M
Discussion:
Sartre Essays on Existentialism part
II (75-186)
W
Camus
“The Myth of Sisyphus”
http://english.uindy.edu/english_331_docs/camus.htm
F
Hemingway
“A Clean Well-lighted Place”
http://www.online-library.org/fictions/cleanplc.htm
Week 13 Feminism
M
Question
and answer about research papers
W
Virginia
Woolf A Room of One’s Own (1)
F
Room
of one’s Own (2)
Due in Class on Friday: Research
Paper (15 pages)
Week 14 Instead of a summary: Women in the writings of selected “Dead White Males”:
M
Engels
The Origin of the Family, Private
Property, and the State “The Monogamous Family”
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1884/origin-family/ch02d.htm
W
J.S.
Mill On the Subjection of Women
http://www.constitution.org/jsm/women.htm
F
Nietzsche
Beyond Good and Evil “Our Virtues”
http://users.compaqnet.be/cn127103/Nietzsche_beyond_good_and_evil/bge_ch7_our_virtues.htm
Take home final exam: feminism (5 page
essay)