Department of Interdisciplinary Studies
Humanities (GUH) 3710
Fall 2003
Introduction to Cultural Studies: The “Great Ideas,” Values, and Today’s Political Conflicts
Instructor: Ronald Aronson (o: [313] 577-0828; fax: 577-8585;h: [248] 548-7370)
Course texts: William Bennett, The Book of Virtues (Simon and Schuster, 1996); Colin Greer and Herbert Kohl, A Call to Character (Harper, 1997); Mortimer Adler, Six Great Ideas (Touchstone, 1997); Sigmund Freud, An Outline of Psychoanalysis (Norton); Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism and Human Emotions; Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto (Verso, 1998)
The class meets Wednesday, 6:00-9:40pm
Office Hours: I will be available at least one hour before class every week. Please make an appointment to see me during that time.
General Education Requirement:
GUH 3710 fulfills the University General Education requirement in Philosophy and Letters. PL courses enhance understanding and enjoyment, while developing the fundamental skills of analysis, interpretation, and evaluation, and applying them to primary philosophical and literary materials.
Course Plan:
This upper-division class will begin by discussing today’s political arguments over values. Then we will ask how and whether values are connected to ideas, and especially the “great ideas.” What is the difference between ideas and values? How do our society’s “Great Ideas” find their way into political arguments today? What does it mean to talk about “Great Ideas”? Whose ideas are these? Who or what makes them great? Which ideas are included and which excluded, and what is the canonization process? After exploring truth, reason, and science, we will discuss several major ideas, including those associated with Freud, Marx, and Sartre.
Student responsibilities and Requirements
The Contract. As students you have a right to expect that your instructor will come to class prepared, treat you with respect, and conduct class in a scholarly manner. Being learners and not consumers, students’ growth and development entail a corresponding commitment: coming to class prepared, treating the instructor and fellow students with respect, and taking all aspects of class participation seriously. Students are required to be punctual and to attend every class session in full. Participation entails active involvement in class discussion and all activities, scholarly demeanor, and respect for the classroom process and the opinions of others.
The purpose of this course is to help students develop their capacity to think. As a course focusing on ideas, its lifeblood is class discussion. This is a collective process, requiring tolerance, openness, and careful listening. Each participant has a right to expect this of the others.
Grading procedures. Attendance and participation are calculated as 25% of the total final grade, and this figure is subject to deductions for absences, lateness, missed assignments, and inappropriate behavior. Any student absent three or more times will be dropped from the course and given the grade of “X.” Missed assignments must be made up, including viewing any missed videos. Each missed class not made up counts as ½ grade. IN THE EVENT OF ABSENCE, CONTACT ME AS SOON AS POSSIBLE FOR THE MAKE-UP ASSIGNMENT. Because much of the course involves active learning, be sure to keep up with any session you miss.
Writing. The ISP is a writing-intensive program, and students’ written work is graded both for form and content. The grade on written assignments will be 75% of the final grade, and close attention will be paid to writing mechanics. Assigned papers include:
(1) First week’s paper (2%)
(2) Short papers on readings as assigned (10%)
(3) A 4-page paper (3 pages for 3-credit students) on values (10%)
(4) Papers (length to be assigned) on Adler, Freud, Marx, and Sartre (33%)
(3) A 6-page final paper (4 pages for 3-credit students) on ideas and values (20%)
Note: Late papers will be accepted up to two weeks late but will be downgraded one full mark.
Grades on papers.
A = Excellent (A is equivalent to 4.00 HPA; A- equivalent to 3.67). Well-written and well-argued with a clear thesis statement, sustained focus on the thesis, plenty of well-developed examples, and use of relevant readings from the text. May contain original ideas or insights.
B = Good (B+ 3.33 HPA; B 3.00; B- 2.67). A strong presentation but may not adequately develop one or more of the above areas.
C = Average (C+ 2.33 HPA; C 2.00; C- l.67). Shows understanding of the issues and readings, but a thin presentation, weak in key areas or does not touch upon key points. May also have writing problems.
D = Poor but still passing (D+ 1.33 HPA; D 1.00; D- 0.67). A cursory presentation lacking in examples and support from the text, and or serious writing problems. May show inadequate reading or reflection.
E = not acceptable (E or F = 0.00 HPA). Inadequate effort.
R = Returned for revision. Automatic for D and E papers until the final week.
Final Grades. ALL course requirements must be fulfilled to receive a final grade in the A to C minus range. Students who do not complete all course requirements will receive a grade in the D to E range, or, where insufficient work has been done to assign a grade and at the instructor’s discretion, a student may be given an “X.”
A student who is unable to complete the final assignment but has completed most of the course work and has notified the instructor of his or her intention to complete the remaining work by a given date may, at the instructor’s discretion, be granted an “I” until the work is made up and a final letter grade assigned. At the end of one year, the University regards the “I” as a “W” and the course must be retaken. Extensions are difficult to obtain.
Plagiarism, Citation and Rough-Draft Policies. Plagiarism is not tolerated at Wayne State University; students who pass off the work of others as their own will receive a failing grade. Whether quoting, summarizing, paraphrasing, or alluding, you must provide proper documentation of sources following Trimmer's Guide to MLA Documentation (4th edition) or the MLA Handbook (Fifth Edition). Since one of the most important sites of learning is the margins of papers. I encourage rough drafts and ongoing discussion of papers by E-mail
SCHEDULE
9/3 Introduction and first assignment: Values Today
Tips for studying
Discussion: Note-taking; journal for questions and reactions
How to preview next week’s reading
9/10 From Ideas to Values: Why the Values-Talk Today?
Reading assignment: Bennett, The Book of Virtues. Read introduction and all chapter introductions, then read selections from all chapters.
Writing assignment: to be announced.
Discussion questions: Why is there so much concern with character today? What does the shift from ideas to values signify? Are Bennett’s virtues human virtues or conservative virtues?
9/17 The Response from the Left: Greer and Kohl
Reading assignment: Greer and Kohl, The Plain Truth of Things. Read the introduction and all chapter introductions and selections from all chapters.
Discussion question: What are the traits of a moral person according to Greer and Kohl? What are the similarities and differences with The Book of Virtues?
9/24 Left-Right Values Debate Continued
Reading assignment: Bennett and Greer and Kohl (pages to be announced). We will focus on a few themes in both books for comparison. Which themes permit most fruitful comparison?
Discussion Question: What is a moral person according to the Right? According to the Left? How does the values debate play out in current political arguments? What political agenda do Greer and Kohl reflect? Bennett? Is there any common ground between Left and Right?
Are values the same as ideas? Or are they different? What does the values debate have to do with the “Great Ideas”?
Paper for next week: choose one. 4 pages (3 pages for 3-credit students).
1. Which of the two values books Bennett’s The Book of Virtues or Greer and Kohl’s A Call to Character, would you select for the education and upbringing of your children (grandchildren, nieces and nephews)? Explain in detail why you would select the one and why you would not select the other.
2. Bennett’s The Book of Virtues and Greer and Kohl’s A Call to Character present us with two different visions, sometimes overlapping, sometimes opposing, of the good person and the good life. Which do you prefer and why?
10/1 Reading assignment: Six Great Ideas, 3-27; paper on values due.
In-class paper or debate on whether/how ideas matter.
Reading/Discussion Questions: What do ideas have to do with values? Why study ideas? Is this philosophy? Is this history of ideas? Is this sociology of knowledge? What is “Cultural Studies”? Why are ideas important? What interests do they serve? Are “great ideas” good ideas?
10/8 Reason and Truth
Reading assignment: Six Great Ideas, 31-55; additional assignment focusing on the question: Was the war in Iraq justified?
Reading/Discussion questions: What is reason? What is truth? Can we know whether the war in Iraq was justified?
In-class paper or debate on whether we can know the truth.
10/15 Science, Reason, and Truth. Was the war in Iraq justified (continued)?
Reading assignment: Six Great Ideas, 56-63; additional assignment to be handed out.
Reading/Discussion questions: What sorts of truth can citizens achieve? How can we determine the truth about a controversial political issue? What is distinctive about science? What kinds of truth does science lay claim to?
Paper assignment 10/22 on “finding out the truth” - 2-3 pages.
10/22 Evolution
Films to be viewed in class.
In-class writing assignment: Summarize the key issue in the Evolutionism/ Creationism debate in your own words (up to two pages - 500 words).
Discussion questions: Are science’s limits built into the enterprise itself or caused by how it is used? In what ways does the idea of God call for being treated as another “Great Idea” and in what ways does it demand being seen as something entirely different? What sort of truth is contained in the Bible?
10/29 The Idea of the Unconscious: 1
Reading assignment: Six Great Ideas, 135-55; Freud, 1-28.
Discussion Questions: Are we free to do as we wish? Under what psychic conditions is this possible? Under what social conditions? What freedoms are we entitled to?
11/5 The Idea of the Unconscious: 2
Reading assignment: Six Great Ideas, 155-63; Freud, 29-64
Discussion questions: How is equality of opportunity to be achieved? Does a capitalist economy serve the common good? Do capitalism and democracy reinforce or undermine each other? What are the implications of Freud’s discoveries?
11/12 The Idea of Socialism
Reading assignment: Six Great Ideas, 164-73; Hobsbawm’s introduction to Marx
Discussion question: What equalities are we entitled to? What is Marx’s attitude towards capitalism? Does Marxism reject or extend the other great ideas we’ve studied? What other “great ideas” are contained within Marxism?
11/19 Socialism, Capitalism, and the Idea of Equality
Reading assignment: Six Great Ideas, 174-85; Marx, The Communist Manifesto
Discussion question: Do racial and gender equality subvert or extend the other great ideas we’ve studied?
Paper: topic for 12/3 to be announced
11/26 THANKSIVING WEEK, DAY SCHEDULED AS FRIDAY: NO CLASS
12/3 Responsibility and Freedom
Sartre, Existentialism
Discussion question: Ten years after writing Existentialism Sartre declared himself to be a Marxist. Was this a natural extension of his existentialism or a contradiction of it?
Paper: topic to be announced
12/10 Final discussion
12/17 LAST CLASS: Final Papers Due
GUH 3540 - Directed Study
This course will expand and deepen the readings, discussion, and reflections of GUH 3710.
Students registered for GUH 3540 will read all of The Book of Virtues and A Call to Character and George Lakoff, Moral Politics, as well as two other books to be selected.
They will also participate in group presentations to the 3710 class on the readings.
The contract and all other appropriate provisions of the 3710 syllabus apply as well to 3540.
Assignments:
1) Expand the 3710 paper on values as appropriate in consultation with the instructor. This will usually involve selecting one theme of each book for closer comparison.
2) Prepare a report, due on October 15, on today’s main popular writers on the Left and Right and their ideas. This will require computer, library, bookstore, newspaper, and television research.
3) Be prepared to read one on each side, followed up by a presentation to the class and a four-page paper comparing them. These are due on November 12.
4) Read and write a four-page paper on George Lakoff, Moral Politics. How does Lakoff help you to understand the differences between Left and Right? The paper is due on December 3. You will make a presentation about Lakoff to the class on December 10.