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Philosophy [clear]
| Title | Offering | Standing | Credits | Credits | When | F | W | S | Su | Description | Preparatory | Faculty | Days | Multiple Standings | Start Quarters | Open Quarters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Ruth Hayes, Kevin Francis and Amy Cook
Signature Required:
Winter
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 11 Fall | W 12Winter | Humans have a complex, intricate, and paradoxical relationship with other species. We are animals and we define ourselves against them. We celebrate our kinship with animals and use them as laboratory specimens. We create animal characters and infuse them with human qualities. We befriend animals and we eat them. In this program, we will integrate perspectives from the arts, sciences and humanities to explore such seeming contradictions in our understanding, representation and treatment of animals. In fall quarter, we will study animal form, function and evolution. Students will practice observational approaches to learning about animals, including drawing, laboratory dissection and field study. They will also study animal morphology, comparative anatomy, and biomechanics as a foundation for animating the locomotion of different kinds of animals. Students will explore evolutionary biology as a framework for understanding the biological parallels between humans and animals. Finally, we will examine how artists and writers have represented animals in images, stories and films. In winter quarter, we will shift our focus to human and animal neurobiology, cognition, emotion, and behaviour. As we study these topics, we will investigate how scientists and artists anthropomorphize animals in their work and explore the implications of this practice. Consider the scientist who empathizes with a chimpanzee's elation or an elephant's sadness or a dog's pain. Does this empathy provide valuable insight into the experience of another species or simply reveal the ability to project one's own sentimental fancies onto another creature? And how do we test these intuitions? Or consider animators who create films populated with animal characters. Why do they select particular species to represent specific human qualities? And how do these fictional representations of animals affect how we treat real animals? In each of these cases, we risk putting ourselves in dialog with anthropomorphized versions of animals without recognizing the full extent of our own narcissism. During both quarters, students will participate in lectures, seminars, labs and writing workshops. They will learn how to analyze several types of media, including books and films, and will be expected to develop and improve their writing through a variety of assignments. This program will also encourage students to reflect on their own assumptions and attitudes about other species. During fall quarter, art workshops will emphasize the development of basic skills in drawing and animation. During winter quarter, students will continue developing these skills and will also explore their own scientific and/or creative approaches to representing animals. | art, animation, science and education. | Ruth Hayes Kevin Francis Amy Cook | Mon Wed Thu Fri | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter | ||
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Rebecca Chamberlain
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 8 | 08 | Day and Evening | Su 12Summer Session II | This intensive course will explore a variety of cosmological concepts from mythology, literature, philosophy, and history, to an introduction to astronomy, archeo-astronomy, and theories about the origins of the universe. We will employ scientific methods of observation, investigation, hands-on activities, and strategies that foster inquiry based learning and engage the imagination. This class is focused on field work, and activities are designed for amateur astronomers and those interested in inquiry based science education as well as those interested in doing observation-based research or in exploring literary, philosophical, cultural, and historical Cosmological traditions.Students will participate in a variety of activities from telling star-stories under the night sky to working in a computer lab to create educational planetarium programs. Through readings, lectures, films, workshops, and discussions, participants will deepen their understanding of the principles of astronomy and refine their understanding of the role that cosmology plays in our lives through the stories we tell, the observations we make, and the questions we ask. Students will develop skills and appreciation for the ways we uncover our place in the universe through scientific theories and cultural stories, imagination and intellect, qualitative and quantitative processes, and "hands on" observation.We will visit Pine Mountain Observatory, and participate in field studies at the 25th Anniversary of the Oregon Star Party. This year’s celebratory events include a presentation by a Space Shuttle Astronaut and workshops with mentors, scientists, storytellers, and astronomers. We will develop a variety of techniques to enhance our observation skills including use of star-maps and navigation guides to identify objects in the night sky, how to operate 8” and 10” Dobsonian telescopes to find deep space objects, and how to use binoculars and other tools. We will be camping and doing field work in the high desert for a week. (first session): A few students will have the opportunity to attend an invitational research conference at Pine Mountain Observatory, July. 15-20 (first session). They must 1) be enrolled in the class or have prior experience and 2) work with the instructor to complete an independent study contract prior to the first session of summer quarter. Since a limited number of students will be able to participate this year, students will be selected based on their background, qualifications, and interests. Research sessions are still to be determined but may include photometry, astrometry, spectroscopy, or Binary Star Research. Students must have the ability and interest to camp and do fieldwork in the high dessert for a week. A planning meeting will be held on campus July 11, 6-10 pm. Contact the instructor ASAP if you are interested. | Rebecca Chamberlain | Wed | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Summer | Summer | ||||
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Charles Pailthorp and Matthew Smith
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Program | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 11 Fall | Power can be as direct as a blow to the head or as subtle as the lyrics of a song. The dimensions of power, the way it operates in the world to constrain choices and provide opportunities gives shape to our daily lives. This program will examine different ways philosophers and theorists have understood power and assessed how it is deployed in politics and practice.We look forward to close study of works by: Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Christopher Hill, Karl Marx, Adam Smith, David Harvey, Michel Foucault, Steven Lukes and others.Each student will be expected to gain authority over a controversy currently found in the news. The choice of controversies will be limited to a selection made by the faculty or suggested by a group of students. Each person will conduct their own inquiry into the chosen controversy, but each must find a small group whose members will support one another’s work. A preliminary list of possible areas: homelessness, reproduction, social revolutions, global warming, global economy, diminishing middle-class expectations, immigration, initiative campaigns, campaign finance, land policies, intellectual property and technology, collective bargaining... For others, follow the news. This work will culminate in a 15 pp. essay and a formal presentation of all work that meets a high standard.This program is an excellent choice for students new to Evergreen and for those returning to undergraduate study after a period of work or travel.Faculty will take care to introduce students to collaborative, interdisciplinary work, and research topics will be designed to make sense from a practical, applied perspective. Our understanding of power and how it is deployed will be directed towards the consequences of power in our daily lives and how our choices can help shape these outcomes. | history, philosophy, political science, law, journalism, politics and government, and public policy. | Charles Pailthorp Matthew Smith | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall | ||||
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Cindy Beck and Jamyang Tsultrim
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Course | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 4 | 04 | Weekend | S 12Spring | Interest in Eastern philosophy and the influence of contemplative practice on the body has been growing over the past few decades. This class will explore Eastern models of the theory of knowledge, particularly traditional epistemological models of cognition based on Indo-Tibetan studies. Class material will look at the effect these practices have on neurological function by studying neuroanatomy, brain plasticity, and the connections between sensory input and our emotions, thoughts, and actions. Students will learn to analyze constructive emotions and thoughts and their influence on mental stability. Students will also learn methodologies for influencing and improving mental development and function. Hands-on workshops, readings, and discussions will emphasize class concepts and help students learn to integrate Western science and Eastern philosophy. | Cindy Beck Jamyang Tsultrim | Sat | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | ||||
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Ryo Imamura
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 8, 12 | 08 12 | Evening and Weekend | Su 12Summer Session II | Western psychology’s neglect of the living mind, both in its everyday dynamics and its larger possibilities, has led to a tremendous upsurge of interest in the ancient wisdom of Buddhism which does not divorce the study of psychology from the concern with wisdom and human liberation. We will investigate the study of mind that has developed within the Buddhist tradition through lectures, readings, videos, workshops, and field trips. Students registering for 12 credits will attend a meditation retreat and complete a research paper on meditation. | Buddhist Studies, Asian psychology, consciousness studies, psychotherapy, social work | Ryo Imamura | Fri Sat Sun | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Summer | Summer | |||
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Stephen Beck
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Course | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 4 | 04 | Evening | F 11 Fall | In this intensive writing course, students will learn how to critically evaluate persuasive writing as well as how to write well-reasoned, persuasive writing of their own. Students will study both formal and informal reasoning, apply what they learn to selections of writing drawn from popular and academic sources, critique the arguments in those sources, read and critique each other's writing, and develop their own abilities to give good reasons in writing for their own views. Credit will be awarded in critical reasoning. | Stephen Beck | Tue | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall | ||||
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Jamyang Tsultrim
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Course | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 4 | 04 | Weekend | W 12Winter | Jamyang Tsultrim | Sat | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter | |||||
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Cheri Lucas-Jennings
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Program | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 11 Fall | This program will explore the broad conditions that shape environmental health, both for humans and within the ecosystem context. We will be moving across and between questions of science, public policy (from municipal to international) and social justice: examining the workings of non-governmental organizations. With the use of regularly scheduled lecture, seminar, work shops and field trips, we will dedicate ourselves to bridging the understanding among scientific, policy and social perspectives. The program goals is to examine emerging strategies and solutions for ecological sustainability - from regional, community-based monitoring to UN negotiations. By means of a small group, quarter-long research project on a topical issue the chemical, biologic and physical risks of modern life will be considered, with an emphasis on industrial pollutants. We will examine models, evidence and debates about the sources, causal connections and impacts of environmental hazards. We will be learning about existing and emergent regulatory science in conjunction with evolving systems of law, regulation and a broad array of community response. This introductory, core program considers problems related to public and environmental health in a broader context of the key frameworks of population/consumption and sustainability. Throughout the program, students will learn from a range of learning approaches: computer-based analysis and collaboration with regional experts, officials and activists. : ? Website: | public policy; communications; political science; planning; public health; law; social welfare; environmental and natural resources | Cheri Lucas-Jennings | Tue Wed Fri | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall | |||
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Stephen Beck and Joli Sandoz
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 8 | 08 | Evening and Weekend | F 11 Fall | What's the right thing to do when as an employee you witness illegal actions? Whose interests should take priority in pricing and hiring decisions? What choices can you make when your supervisor tells you to ignore company policy? Employees sometimes face situations such as these that suggest a conflict between being a good employee and being a good person. We will study several approaches to ethical decision making and, through intensive writing and seminar discussions, use these approaches to clarify issues faced at work. The shared vocabulary and frameworks we develop will allow us to talk and think about ethical issues and write and share personal workplace ethical statements. Program work will also include reading several Washington State laws related to ethics and exploring issues, choice points, and the roles of moral reasoning and moral leadership at work.The program will meet on Wednesdays in conjunction with the course . (You may enroll either in for 8 credits or for 4 credits, but you may not enroll in both.) will meet additionally as a program on five Saturdays to deepen our understanding of ethical issues through writing, role-playing, playing and analyzing board games as framing ethical strategies, and other hands-on activities. In addition, we will focus part of each Saturday meeting on building and strengthening strong college-level writing skills to prepare students for more advanced work.Credit will be awarded in philosophy (ethics) and ethical decision making. | business, ethics | Stephen Beck Joli Sandoz | Wed Sat | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall | |||
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Joseph Tougas
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Program | JR–SRJunior - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 12Spring | This upper-division program will focus on philosophy of language and phenomenology, covering the work of Wittgenstein, Husserl, Arendt, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Foucault, Derrida and other 20th century European thinkers. Students will be expected to have some familiarity with the European philosophical tradition, and some experience reading and analyzing dense philosophical texts. The activities of the program will include close reading and analysis of primary texts within the context of their composition and the writing of reflective, argumentative and synthetic essays in response to those texts. Students will be encouraged to explore connections between the theories developed in the program readings and their own social, political and personal concerns. Students will have the opportunity to participate in an optional field trip to the American Philosophical Association conference in Seattle, April 5-7. | philosophy, psychology, social sciences, culture studies, and literary theory. | Joseph Tougas | Mon Wed Thu | Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | |||
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Marianne Bailey, Olivier Soustelle, Judith Gabriele, Steven Hendricks and Stacey Davis
Signature Required:
Spring
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 11 Fall | W 12Winter | S 12Spring | ...man is struck dumb...or he will speak only in forbidden metaphors... Friedrich Nietzsche, "On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense" Nietzsche's critique of traditional Western values--dismantling absolutes of God, Truth, Self and Language--opened up an abyss. "Only as an aesthetic phenomenon," Nietzsche argued, would "human life and existence be eternally justified." Meaning and Self would be individually crafted, as the artist crafts a work, in the space of a human existence. Life, as Rimbaud wrote, must be remade.Inspired by this notion of remaking life along aesthetic lines, we will study literature and creative writing, critical theory and philosophy, art history and music as well as French language. Students will participate in lectures, films and workshops, and choose between seminar groups in literature and critical theory or history. Each will develop a substantive individual (or group) project, and will be able to study French language at the Beginning, Intermediate or Advanced level.To better understand Modernist and Postmodernist avant-garde, we will focus on outsider works of art and ideas in 20th century France and the post-colonial world. Like the Decadents and Symbolists, modernist artists go in quest of a pure artistic language "in which mute things speak to me," as Hofmannsthal wrote, beyond concepts and representation, privileging passion over reason. This quest is influenced by worldviews and works from the broader French-speaking world, which refocuses art on its ritual origins, and on its magical potential. "Art", in the words of Martinican poet and playwright Césaire, "is a miraculous weapon."In fall and winter, we will study aesthetic theories and works from Primitivism and Surrealism to Absurdist Drama, Haitian Marvelous and Oulipo; and writers such as Mallarmé, Jabès, Artaud, Beckett, Blanchot, Derrida, Sartre, Irigaray and Foucault. We will look at historical and cultural change from WWI through the student riots of 1968 and the multi-cultural French-speaking world of today.Key themes will include: memory and the way in which it shapes, and is shaped by, identity; concepts of time and place; and the challenges and opportunities for French identity brought by immigration. We will focus on French social, cultural and intellectual history from the 1930's to the present, exploring the myths and realities of French Resistance and the Vichy Regime during World War II; the legacy of revolutionary concepts of "universal" liberty, equality and fraternity as France re-envisioned its role in Europe and the world from the 1950s to the present, including uprisings from 1968 through today; and the impact of the Franco-Algerian war on contemporary France and the post-colonial Francophone world.In spring, students have two options. They can travel to France, where they will participate in intensive language study, perform cultural and art historical fieldwork, and pursue personal research on a "quest" of their own. Alternatively, students may remain on campus to undertake a major personal project, springing from ideas, writers and artists in prior quarters. This is an excellent opportunity to complete a substantive body of creative or research oriented work, with guidance from faculty and peer critique. | Marianne Bailey Olivier Soustelle Judith Gabriele Steven Hendricks Stacey Davis | Mon Wed Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter Spring | ||
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Lisa Sweet, Andrew Reece and Rita Pougiales
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 11 Fall | W 12Winter | Making meaning of our lives and the world we inhabit is the essence of being human. Through knowledge, stories and images, we manifest what it is we hold most sacred and essential in our lives. Religion, through its liturgy, music and imagery, reflects what a people hold to be essentially human. Our work will address questions like the following: What are the fundamental mysteries humans address through religious practice and expression? What are the stories being told through artistic and written material? What is the experience of the artist creating sacred images? What are the meanings that have endured over centuries? How is it that sacred images and texts provide direction for us? Our inquiry into meaning-making will center on Christianity, one religious tradition that has been a wellspring for expressions of spiritual and moral meaning, as well as a source of insight and understanding that has inspired magnificent artistic creations and sacred texts. In fall and winter, we focus on the first thirteen centuries of the tradition, from the life of Christ to the end of the Medieval period, during which the story of Christ's life, death and resurrection helped transform the Roman Empire into Europe and "the West." During this time, Christians, like Muslims and Jews a "people of the Book," gave the world some of its most inspired, and inspiring, books: the New Testament, the works of Anselm and Augustine, Dante's , and others, which will form part of our curriculum. The role of images in religious practice will form another part of our study. We'll consider the functions of icons, reliquaries, church architecture and devotional images, created solely to express and link us to the sacred. We'll consider the strategies image-makers employed to interpret scripture and early theology, as well as the anxieties and iconoclasms provoked by images that attempt to depict God. Through readings, seminars and lectures, we'll explore the history of images and objects made before the the concept of "Art" as we understand it today was established.In spring, the focus on the history and culture of Christianity through the 14th century will be directed toward more focused topics addressing meaning-making and Christianity. Students will have the option of continuing in the program in one of the following focused, full-time disciplines or themes: recent developments in theology and philosophy (Andrew), communities of faith (Rita), or studio-practice in printmaking (Lisa). Spring components of the program will be open to both continuing and newly enrolled students. | medieval history, religious studies, art history and community studies. | Lisa Sweet Andrew Reece Rita Pougiales | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall | |||
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Andrew Reece
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 12Spring | Can we know God? Or, for that matter, does such a being exist, and, if so, how do we relate to it (or Her, or Him)? What is the distinction between faith and reason? Between philosophy and theology? Morality and religion? How can one live a life of intellectual and moral integrity and a life of faith? Do the two imply one another, or are they in conflict? These are the central questions of this program, and in our inquiry we will raise many more, about belief, dogma, doubt, divinity, language, ritual, and meaning-making. Our ability to raise, refine, and resolve these questions will be strengthened by our study of classic texts in the philosophy of religion from authors including Anselm, Aquinas, Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Martin Buber, and Paul Tillich. This program was originally planned as the third quarter of the program, which was a study of the Christian movement from its origins in Judaism and Greco-Roman culture to the time of Dante. Partly for that reason, the authors selected are Christian and Jewish; however, this is a study not of apologetic theology but of philosophy of religion. That is, the theories we will encounter do not necessarily defend a particular religious perspective, nor do they demand from readers extensive familiarity with scripture. The points of view they share are not limited to those who share their faiths. Reading, discussion, and writing will be our sole modes of inquiry, and we will go about them with a level of seriousness and intensity that cannot be understated. Students will participate in book seminars and writing seminars on every text, and they will respond to every text in essays. Peer review and revision will also be a significant component of our work together. | Andrew Reece | Mon Tue Thu Fri | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | ||||
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Nancy Koppelman
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Contract | JR–SRJunior - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 12Winter | Individual study offers the advanced, highly disciplined student the opportunity to pursue a self-directed and self-constructed syllabus. The work may be completely academic in nature, or may be combined with an internship. Students interested in pursuing such work in American Studies are invited to contact me. I specialize in American history before 1920, particularly social history, industrialization, economic history, American literature, popular culture, pragmatism, and the history of technology, and how all these topics intersect with ethical concerns of the modern era. I am interested in working with students who want to study American history and culture in an effort to understand contemporary social, cultural, and political concerns. (Students interested in this offering are also encouraged to consider enrolling in , where they can pursue a major independent project as part of an ongoing learning community.) Students with a lively sense of self-direction, discipline, and intellectual curiosity are encouraged to contact me via e-mail at koppelmn@evergreen.edu. | Nancy Koppelman | Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter | |||||
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Leonard Schwartz
Signature Required:
Winter
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Contract | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 12Winter | contract proposals in the area of poetics for the winter quarter. This could include literary studies of modernist figures or examinations of avant-garde movements. It could also involve projects in literary theory, continental philosophy, or theories of language. | Leonard Schwartz | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter | |||||
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Leonard Schwartz
Signature Required:
Spring
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Contract | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 12Spring | contract proposals in the area of poetics for the winter quarter. This could include literary studies of modernist figures or examinations of avant-garde movements. It could also involve projects in literary theory, continental philosophy, or theories of language. | Leonard Schwartz | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | |||||
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Kevin Francis, David Paulsen and Rachel Hastings
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 12Spring | What does our ability to speak and understand language reveal about the human mind? How much of our knowledge of language can be attributed to an innate language capacity and how much is dependent on individual experience? How are children able to develop a detailed and abstract understanding of their native language at a very young age? And how did human language evolve in the first place? In this program we will study theories of cognition, brain structure, and consciousness as they relate to the complex phenomena of language evolution, acquisition and use.We will explore diverse kinds of evidence that shed light on the evolution of language, including recent work in evolutionary biology, animal behavior, neurobiology, cognitive neuroscience, and the evolutionary genetics of language. To understand the nature of linguistic processing we will look at the structure of language and ask what capacities must be present within human cognition in order for us to produce and understand human languages. We will study the ideas of Noam Chomsky and others who argue for a "universal grammar" as an explanation of rapid language acquisition and similarity among languages. We will also examine the parallels between human language and communication in other animals. Finally, we will reflect on the strategies adopted by scientists to reconstruct events in the deep past.Program activities will include seminar, lectures and workshops. We will devote significant time to providing background material in linguistics, evolutionary biology, and cognitive neuroscience that pertains to the evolution of language. We will read scientific and philosophical material that addresses fundamental questions about consciousness, the relationship between mind and brain, and the relation between cognition and the human capacity for language. As part of this program, students should expect to participate actively in seminar, write several essays, and complete a final research project. | biology, cognitive science, linguistics, philosophy and psychology. | Kevin Francis David Paulsen Rachel Hastings | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | ||||
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Lawrence Mosqueda
Signature Required:
Spring
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Program | JR–SRJunior - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 12Spring | "I am not a Marxist." -Karl Marx "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles." -Karl Marx "Sit down and read. Educate yourself for the coming conflicts." -Mary Harris (Mother) Jones If one believes the current mass media, one would believe that Marxism is dead and that the "end of history" is upon us. As Mark Twain is reported to have said upon news accounts of his demise, "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." The same, of course, is true for Marxist Theory. Few Americans have read more than , if that. Very few "educated" people have a clear understanding of Marx's concept of alienation, the dialectic, historical materialism, or his analysis of labor or revolutionary change. In this course we will examine the development of Marx's thought and Marxist Theory. We will read and discuss some of Marx's early and later writings as well as writings of Lenin and others. We will also explore concrete examples of how "dialectics" and "materialism" can be applied to race and gender issues. At the end of the program, students should have a solid foundation for the further study of Marxist analysis. | social science and law, and education. | Lawrence Mosqueda | Tue Thu | Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | |||
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Jamyang Tsultrim
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Course | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 4 | 04 | Weekend | F 11 Fall | This course will emphasize mindfulness psychology as a clinical tool as well as a method of professional self-care. Recent research has proven the effectiveness of mindfulness training to treat conditions such as stress and pain, addictions, chronic depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and other health conditions. Students will explore the similarities and differences between various mindfulness clinical approaches and gain practical skills to help alleviate the psychological suffering of others while maintaining emotional balance and professional ethics. Students will have opportunities for personal practice, observational learning, and the development of counseling skills through role-play, reading, and discussion. | Jamyang Tsultrim | Sat | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall | ||||
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Leonard Schwartz, Martine Bellen and Trevor Speller
Signature Required:
Winter
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 11 Fall | W 12Winter | This two-quarter program will examine the ways in which poetry and music are influenced by philosophy, and the other way around. The concentration is on a poetry devoted to the idea of myth, where myth can transform, or impeach, or pass into hoax; indeed, the subject of literary hoax and its relationship to fiction will be crucial. Some of the pairings of poets and philosophers that might be included are Fenellosa and Pound, Hobbes and Rochester, Locke and Defoe, Coleridge and Schelling, George Eliot and Ludwig Feuerbach, Walter Pater and Wilde and Swinburne, The Black Mountain Poets and Jed Rasula’s ideas on Ecopoetics, the Afro-Caribbean poet Kamau Brathwaite’s writing and thinking, Schopenhauer, the Symbolists and Richard Wagner, as well as Nietzsche's . In fall quarter we will embark on a viewing/listening of Wagner's , while winter quarter will feature a study of the Russian Futurists and their influence by, and struggle with, Marxist theory. Theories of myth to be considered include Roland Barthes , Edward Said’s , Kamau Brathwaite’s , and Nathaniel Mackey’s . The program will contain both a critical and creative component, which means we will both study texts and incorporate a poetry writing workshop into the program for those inclined to explore the language of poetry through constraint based writing exercises. There will be frequent guest speakers. | literature, writing and publishing. | Leonard Schwartz Martine Bellen Trevor Speller | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter | |||
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Stephen Beck and Karen Hogan
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 12 | 12 | Evening and Weekend | W 12Winter | S 12Spring | In this program we'll explore the connections between human evolutionary biology and ethics. What are our ethical or moral values, and where do they come from? Is it correct, as evolutionary psychologists would argue, that our fundamental ethical values are innate and function to facilitate social interactions? In what sense, if any, are ethical claims correct or incorrect; and if they are, how can we justify them? Are we evolutionarily unique among Earth’s species and, if so, does that uniqueness give us special moral obligations towards other species? We will study the fundamentals of biological evolution, and we’ll read and discuss classic and modern works on moral and ethical philosophy. Credit will be awarded in biology and ethical philosophy. | Stephen Beck Karen Hogan | Tue Wed Sat | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter Spring | |||
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Kathleen Eamon
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 8 | 08 | Day | Su 12Summer Session II | In this intensive five-week program, we will read Freud's in its entirety, using textual analysis, writing, and conversation to understand what it means to claim that the "interpretation of dreams is the royal road to the unconscious," watching closely how Freud forges a new path between physiological-scientific explanations of dreams, on the one hand, and mythic, religious, and popular belief in their deep meaning, on the other. This work is foundational not just in psychology and philosophy but also in understanding contemporary approaches to film, aesthetics, and literature. | Kathleen Eamon | Tue Tue Wed Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Summer | Summer | ||||
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Richard Benton
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 12Winter | For two thousand years Jews and Christians agree on some issues and disagree on others. For 1300 years, Muslims have entered into this discussion. What issues do these monotheistic religions agree on? What do they differ about? How do they identify the “orthodox” believer of their own faith, in contrast to the “unbeliever” of another faith? In this program, we will ask the following questions: What makes someone Jewish? Christian? Muslim? How have they interacted? Often these religions ask the same questions; their answers separate them from each other.Each religion depends on writing as the divine expression of belief. Jews depend on Written Torah and Oral Torah. Christians hold the Written Torah, or Old Testament, as inspired, as well as the New Testament. Muslims proclaim the superior status of the Qur’an, while the Bible (Torah and Gospel) lie subordinate to it. Yet all of these writings refer to the other works. Moreover, each religion has produced a body of interpretation. Jews read Midrash, Christians, commentaries, and Muslims, the Hadith. These interpretations further develop the lines that distinguish the community of “true believers” from the “unbelievers” or “apostates.”We will read and interpret the above sacred texts and their interpretations to develop literary and philosophical sensitivities. These texts lie at the basis of all the religious thought of these groups. Knowledge of and ability to interpret sacred texts provide the foundation of grasping the interactions of later periods. Students will also acquire knowledge and develop appreciation for how individuals understand their historical circumstances. We will read secondary literature that describes religious life in various historical contexts. Each student will develop a research project in which they learn how to interpret a religious text from the inside—from the point of view of the text—and learn how to distinguish text from personal interpretation. | Richard Benton | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter | |||||
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Richard Benton
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 12Spring | This is a repeat of the winter quarter program; students who took in winter may not enroll in this program.For two thousand years Jews and Christians agree on some issues and disagree on others. For 1300 years, Muslims have entered into this discussion. What issues do these monotheistic religions agree on? What do they differ about? How do they identify the “orthodox” believer of their own faith, in contrast to the “unbeliever” of another faith? In this program, we will ask the following questions: What makes someone Jewish? Christian? Muslim? How have they interacted? Often these religions ask the same questions; their answers separate them from each other.Each religion depends on writing as the divine expression of belief. Jews depend on Written Torah and Oral Torah. Christians hold the Written Torah, or Old Testament, as inspired, as well as the New Testament. Muslims proclaim the superior status of the Qur’an, while the Bible (Torah and Gospel) lie subordinate to it. Yet all of these writings refer to the other works. Moreover, each religion has produced a body of interpretation. Jews read Midrash, Christians, commentaries, and Muslims, the Hadith. These interpretations further develop the lines that distinguish the community of “true believers” from the “unbelievers” or “apostates.”We will read and interpret the above sacred texts and their interpretations to develop literary and philosophical sensitivities. These texts lie at the basis of all the religious thought of these groups. Knowledge of and ability to interpret sacred texts provide the foundation of grasping the interactions of later periods. Students will also acquire knowledge and develop appreciation for how individuals understand their historical circumstances. We will read secondary literature that describes religious life in various historical contexts. Each student will develop a research project in which they learn how to interpret a religious text from the inside—from the point of view of the text—and learn how to distinguish text from personal interpretation. | Richard Benton | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | |||||
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Brian Walter and Rachel Hastings
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Course | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 4 | 04 | Day | F 11 Fall | Mathematicians seek deep truths about a purely formal world, one that may or may not have much to do with the physical world we inhabit. Through our readings, seminar discussions, and writing assignments, we’ll explore that connection, the existential status of mathematical objects (What is mathematics? Do mathematical objects actually exist, and if so, where? Are mathematical systems discovered or created?), and surrounding issues as we learn more about modern mathematical practice.This course coincides with the seminar portion of the Mathematical Systems program, so students in this course will share seminars with students in that program. | mathematics, philosophy, philosophy of science | Brian Walter Rachel Hastings | Tue | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall | |||
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Donald Foran
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Course | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 4, 6 | 04 06 | Day | Su 12Summer Session II | This will involve reading short stories by writers like Flannery O'Connor, Raymond Carver, Alice Walker, Eudora Welty, Don Chaon, and others, then crafting our own stories, with particular attention to structure, imagery, tone, and theme. Students taking the course for six credits will have additional reading and writing assigned. Some videos will be screened featuring stories by Faulkner and Carver. | Donald Foran | Tue Wed Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Summer | Summer | ||||
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Joseph Tougas and Ulrike Krotscheck
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Program | FR–SOFreshmen - Sophomore | 16 | 16 | Day | F 11 Fall | W 12Winter | In this full-time lower-division program, we will investigate how and why humans, throughout history, have taken to the sea to explore the limits of their known world. What were the motives and the consequences of these, often dangerous, ventures? We will focus on some specific case studies (the ancient Mediterranean, the Pacific Northwest, the Chinese empire, the Polynesian islanders, and the Atlantic during the age of sail), and learn about some theories of economic and cultural exchange over long distances. Some of the questions we’ll be addressing include: How did humans figure out the navigational and boatbuilding technologies needed for overseas exploration? What were the prime motivators for overseas exploration? What new kinds of knowledge were gained through this travel, and what is the relationship between the material goods and the ideas and ideologies that were traded? How do modern archaeologists and historians go about piecing together answers to questions like these? We will read texts on archaeology, ancient history and philosophy, anthropology, and marine studies. In addition to historical and scientific accounts, we’ll read works of literature, seeking an understanding of the age-old connections between human cultures and the sea. We will consider the religious, philosophical, and scientific practices that grew out of those connections—practices that are the common heritage of coast-dwelling peoples around the globe. We will also work on reading, writing, and critical thinking skills which will facilitate students' transition into advanced college-level work. In order to test our theories in practice, we will have opportunities to become familiar with the local coastal environment and its rich cultural history. This will take the form of a three-day field trip to the Makah Museum and other sites of historical and archaeological interest on the Washington coast. | history, archaeology, philosophy, and the humanities. | Joseph Tougas Ulrike Krotscheck | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO | Fall | Fall Winter | |||
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Stacey Davis
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SOS | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 4, 6, 8 | 04 06 08 | Day | Su 12Summer Session II | Students will work independently, studying the social, political, gender, and intellectual trajectories of the French Revolution from 1789 through the Terror and the Napoleonic Empire. To understand the origins of the Revolution, students will read philosophy and political theory from Enlightenment authors like Voltaire, Rousseau, and Montesquieu. Students will share a reading list in common and have the option to meet periodically for book discussions as a group and with the faculty member. Students enrolled for more than 4 credits will complete a library research paper on one aspect of the Enlightenment or the French Revolution. | Stacey Davis | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Summer | Summer | |||||
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Leonard Schwartz
Signature Required:
Spring
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SOS | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 12Spring | Poetics involves language as creative functions (writing, poetry, fiction), language as performance, language as image, and language as a tool of thought (philosophy, criticism). Our work will be to calibrate these various activities.Students are invited to join this learning community of culture workers interested in language as a medium of artistic production. This SOS is designed for students who share similar skills and common interests in doing advanced work that may have grown out of previous academic projects and/or programs. Students will work with faculty throughout the quarter; we will design small study groups, collaborative projects and critique groups that will allow students to support one another's work. | literature, publishing, writing, and academics. | Leonard Schwartz | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | ||||
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Stephen Beck and Joli Sandoz
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Course | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 4 | 04 | Evening | F 11 Fall | What's the right thing to do when as an employee you witness illegal actions? Whose interests should take priority in pricing and hiring decisions? What choices can you make when your supervisor tells you to ignore company policy? Employees sometimes face situations such as these that suggest a conflict between being a good employee and being a good person. We will study several approaches to ethical decision making in conjunction with the Washington State Ethics law, case studies, films, and short fiction in order to clarify issues faced at work. This course meets in conjunction with the program . (You may enroll either in for 8 credits or for 4 credits, but you may not enroll in both.) | business, ethics | Stephen Beck Joli Sandoz | Wed | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall | |||
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Ryo Imamura
Signature Required:
Winter
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Program | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 11 Fall | W 12Winter | Western psychology has so far failed to provide us with a satisfactory understanding of the full range of human experience. It has largely overlooked the core of human understanding--our everyday mind, our immediate awareness of being with all of its felt complexity and sensitive attunement to the vast network of interconnectedness with the universe around us. Instead, Western psychology has chosen to analyze the mind as though it were an object independent of the analyzer, consisting of hypothetical structures and mechanisms that cannot be directly experienced. Western psychology's neglect of the living mind--both in its everyday dynamics and its larger possibilities--has led to a tremendous upsurge of interest in the ancient wisdom of Asia, particularly Buddhism, which does not divorce the study of psychology from the concern with wisdom and human liberation. In contrast to Western psychology, Eastern psychology shuns any impersonal attempt to objectify human life from the viewpoint of an external observer, instead studying consciousness as a living reality which shapes individual and collective perception and action. The primary tool for directly exploring the mind is meditation or mindfulness, an experiential process in which one becomes an attentive participant-observer in the unfolding of moment-to-moment consciousness. Learning mainly from lectures, readings, videos, workshops, seminar discussions, individual and group research projects, and field trips, in fall quarter we will take a critical look at the basic assumptions and tenets of the major currents in traditional Western psychology, the concept of mental illness, and the distinctions drawn between normal and abnormal thought and behavior. In winter quarter, we will then investigate the Eastern study of mind that has developed within spiritual traditions, particularly within the Buddhist tradition. In doing so, we will take special care to avoid the common pitfall of most Western interpretations of Eastern thought--the attempt to fit Eastern ideas and practices into unexamined Western assumptions and traditional intellectual categories. Lastly, we will address the encounter between Eastern and Western psychology as possibly having important ramifications for the human sciences in the future, potentially leading to new perspectives on the whole range of human experience and life concerns. | psychology, counseling, social work, education, Asian-American studies, Asian studies and religious studies. | Ryo Imamura | Tue Thu | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter | ||
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Cheri Lucas-Jennings
Signature Required:
Winter
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SOS | JR–SRJunior - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day and Evening | W 12Winter | This program will explore the broad conditions that shape legislation; it will examine models, evidence and debates about the sources, causal connections and impacts of evolving systems of law, regulation, governance and a broad array of community and political responses to wicked social dilemmas facing our state. Students apply to become interns for the 2012 Washington State Legislative session in the fall. Those who are selected work a regular, full week with the legislative office they are assigned to in the winter. Evergreen students also participate in a bi-weekly Seminar with focus on select readings and themes. Journal writings in response to these readings, discussion and experience in the 2012 session are a critically important feature. This is an upper division internship with a possible 16 credits to be earned, when combined with academic reflection and analysis on your work in the legislature. To receive full credit, each student intern will write about the challenges, learning and implications of this work. Students will also be making public presentations about their learning at the end of the session and participate in workshops with larger intern groups from throughout the state. Focused writings submitted to the faculty sponsor on a regular basis will be reflective, analytic and make use of appropriate legislative data bases and all relevant references. Students will develop and submit a portfolio of all materials related to their work as legislative interns and receive evaluation both from their campus sponsor and a legislative supervisor at the capitol. | Cheri Lucas-Jennings | Wed | Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter |
