IDS 261-W: Western Civilization and Culture I MW
Fall 2008
General Description:
This course is structured around a consideration of fundamental cultural questions that speak to present Western culture and have animated Western civilization from its beginning. Students will read and interpret original texts and other cultural artifacts that address these questions. Students will make connections between the liberal arts and science disciplines, as well as between the various aspects of culture in the major stages of Western civilization. This semester will focus on economic, social, and political questions.
Course Objectives:
(1) Students will come to a fuller appreciation of what it means to live in a civilization and culture, primarily through a study of Western civilization and culture.
(2) Students will read and interpret primary sources, that is, original texts and other cultural artifacts.
(3) Students will demonstrate the effective use of the tools (e.g., cause and effect, sense of chronology, multiple causation, continuity and change) needed to understand and evaluate the components of culture.
(4) Students will make connections between the liberal arts and science disciplines, as well as between the various aspects of culture in the major stages of Western civilization.
(5) Students will apply the lessons learned from investigating earlier cultures as a diagnostic tool for comprehending contemporary cultures.
(6) Students will analyze the relative strengths and weaknesses of the cultural institutions that societies have formed in various civilizations and cultures over time.
(7) Students will explain and provide informed discussion of the ideas and concepts that peoples have fashioned to address the larger questions (e.g., how do we know what we know, how have societies been governed) and to give more complete meaning to their lives.
Staff: Dr. Junius Rodriguez, coordinator; Mr. Joris Heise; Mr. Paul Isom; Dr. Loren Logsdon; and Dr. Wesley Phelan
Required Text: Western Civilization and Culture, vol. 1, second edition, Copley Custom Publishing, 2006.
Attendance & Participation:
Since the class is based on discussion, attendance and active participation are crucial. 7.5 points for each unexcused absence will be subtracted from attendance points. Excused absences for school-sponsored events, etc., must be approved prior to the missed class, and unexcused will only be waived for dire and documented occasions.
Participation will be measured against the following standard: if a student attends class with textbook, is prepared, and listens attentively, but says nothing, then he or she can expect no more than a C for the participation points.
Quizzes:
Unannounced quizzes will be brief and designed mainly to test reading preparation for both presentation and discussion days. Some will be open book. Students will drop their two lowest quiz grades out of twelve given (this allowance should cover any zeros due to absences).
Essay Papers
Each student is required to submit three essay papers, about three to four pages (750 to 1,000 words) and worth 100 points each. Topics will focus on unit questions and will require students to analyze or synthesize several of the readings from each of the units. Papers are due approximately three days after we finish each unit.
Political: Monday, Oct. 6
Economic: Monday, Nov. 10
Social: Monday, Dec. 15
Penalty for late papers will be ten (10) points per day subtracted from your total.
Papers must be submitted in both paper and electronic forms (the latter will be stored in a database and examined for irregularities). If you are not familiar with the College's policy on plagiarism, please see the section entitled “Plagiarism” in the Eureka College 2008-09 Student Handbook (to be found at www.eureka.edu/handbook/handbook.asp, under “Academic Integrity”) Our policy in this course is to fail any student for the course who plagiarizes a paper. If you have any questions, please consult your instructor.
Course Grade:
|
Quizzes |
|
100 points |
|
Participation |
|
100 points |
|
Attendance |
|
100 points |
|
Essays |
(3 @ 100) |
300 points |
|
Total |
|
600 points |
MW Schedule:
The Political Unit
Wed - August 27 Introduction to the Course
Introduction: Is the
Wed – September 3 Presentation # 1
Mon - September 8 Plato, Republic and Aristotle, Politics
Wed - September 10 Pope Gelasius, I Augustine, City of God, and Machiavelli, The Prince
Mon - September 15 Presentation # 2
Wed - September 17 Hobbes, Leviathan and Locke, Second Treatise on Government
Mon - September 22 Declaration of Independence, Declaration of the Rights of Man, Federalist # 10, U.S. Constitution
Wed - September 24 Presentation # 3
Mon - September 29 Rousseau, Social Contract and Thoreau, "Civil Disobedience"
Wed - October 1 Marx, Communist Manifesto, Port Huron Manifesto, and Black Panther Platform
The Economic Unit
Mon – October 6 Introduction:
Should the person who takes out my
appendix livebetter than the person who takes out my trash? Or what is
economic justice?
Plato, Republic; Plato, Laws; Aristotle, Politics
Wed - October 8 St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa contra Gentiles and Summa Theologica, and Qur'an selection on Usury
Mon – October 13 Presentation # 1
Wed - October 15 Locke, Second Treatise on Government and Rousseau, Discourse on the Origins of Inequality
Mon - October
20 Adam Smith, Wealth of
Nations
Wed – October 22 Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population
Mon - October 27 Presentation # 2
Wed - October 29 Marx, Das Capital
Mon - November 3 Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath and Galbraith, The Affluent Society
The Social Unit
Wed – November 5 Introduction: Do I need other people? Or how do the structures of society best realize our social nature? and Presentation # 1
Mon - November 10 Sophocles, Antigone
Wed - November 12 Book of Proverbs and Swift, A Modest Proposal
Mon - November 17 Rousseau, Discourse on the Origins of Inequality
Wed - November 19 Christine de Pisan, City of Women and Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Mon - November 24 Presentation # 2
Mon - December 1 Thoreau, Walden, and Nineteenth Century Utopianism
Wed - December 3 Freud, Civilization and its Discontents and Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
Mon - December
8 Friedan, The Feminine Mystique and Martin
Luther King, Jr., Letter from the
Wed - December 10 E. O. Wilson, On Human Nature