IDS 261-W: Western Civilization and Culture I

IDS 261-W: Western Civilization and Culture I MWF

Fall 2008

For Monday – Wednesday Schedule, click here

For Tuesday – Thursday Schedule, click here

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. Five 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

Schedule:

Wed - August 27 Introduction to the Course

The Political Unit

Fri - August 29 Introduction: Is the U.S. the best government? Or what is the best form of government? (cows)

Wed - September 3 Presentation # 1

Fri - September 5 Plato, Republic

Mon - September 8 Aristotle, Politics

Wed - September 10 Pope Gelasius I and Augustine, City of God

Fri - September 12 Machiavelli, The Prince

Mon - September 15 Presentation # 2

Wed - September 17 Hobbes, Leviathan and Locke, Second Treatise on Government

Fri - September 19 Declaration of Independence, Declaration of the Rights of Man, Federalist # 10, U.S. Constitution

Mon - September 22 Rousseau, Social Contract

Wed - September 24 Presentation # 3

Fri - September 26 Thoreau, "Civil Disobedience"

Mon - September 29 Marx, Communist Manifesto

Wed – October 1 Port Huron Manifesto and Black Panther Platform

The Economic Unit

Fri – October 3 Introduction: Should the person who takes out my appendix live better than the person who takes out my trash? Or what is economic justice?

Mon - October 6 Plato, Republic; Plato, Laws; Aristotle, Politics

Wed - October 8 St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa contra Gentiles and Summa Theologica, and Qur'an selection on Usury

Fri - October 10 Presentation # 1

Mon - October 13 Locke, Second Treatise on Government

Wed - October 15 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

Fri - October 31 Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath

Mon - November 3 Galbraith, The Affluent Society

The Social Unit