| Program Covenant |
| Catalog Description |
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I.
Spring Quarter Assignments (most recent to earlier)
I. Weekly writing
Guidelines for discussion and writing
Requirements for rewritten essays
II. Spring Quarter Assignments (most recent to earlier)
June 8:
Program potluck at Chuck's house: 2304 Walnut Rd NW. 11 am to 2 pm or
so. Bring a memorable quotation from our reading -- something you'd
like everyone to remember
June 6:
Portfolios due at 9:30am. This includes: four short essays from spring
quarter; pre-seminar writing; self-evaluations from earlier quarters;
self-evaluation for all quarters enrolled (single document); anything
else that show you at your best. In the morning, we will seminar on The
Plague.
June 1 & 8:
If you are serving on a LH panel, come prepared with questions about the
testimony you will be hearing. Read the written testimony beforehand,
of course.
May 30:
Written testimony for your LHP project is due at 9:30am. Please bring eight
copies (for the panel and faculty).
We will seminar on Camus, The Plague. Bring copies of the text
and your notes. In addition, bring two copies of a pre-seminar writing
on Camus, using the guidelines handed
out at our first class on April 3.
May 23-24:
We will seminar on Arendt, The Human Condition. Read the Introduction,
Prologue, and Chapters I, II, and V (everything up through p. 78, and
pp. 175-247; possibly a little more will be added later.) Bring copies
of the text and your notes. In addition, bring two copies of a pre-seminar
writing on Arendt, using the guidelines handed
out at our first class on April 3. Stephen Engel has offered further
suggestions about readings in The Human Condition.
May 23:
Drafts (a first and final draft) of your final essay are due at
9:30am.
May 11:
Bring four copies of a proposal (and outline, if possible) for the essay
you will writing in week seven. In the morning we will work in small
groups, developing your proposals further. Then, during break, we will
ask you to finish up any revisions and bring a copy (for your seminar
leader) to the writing workshop at 1pm.
May 8-9:
We will seminar on Foucault, Discipline and Punish. Read pp. 3-131,
195 - 228, and 293-308. Bring copies of the
text and your notes. In addition, bring two copies of a pre-seminar writing
on Foucault, using the guidelines handed
out at our first class on April 3.
May 5:
Pick one of the following entries, or set of entries, from the index
to Justice
as Fairness: A Restatement, review all the passages listed, write
a synopsis of Rawls' use of this concept, and show it's importance in his
position on social justice:
| Citizens: |
| Difference principle: |
| Equality: |
Fair equality of opportunity: |
| Moral powers, two: |
| Politcal conception of justice: |
| Primary goods: |
Public justification: |
| Reasonable pluralism: |
| Veil of ignorance: |
| Well-ordered society: |
May 4:
In place of writing groups, we will discuss Rawls and Nussbaum on "primary
goods"
and the "thick, vague description of the good." Reread (or
read) Nussbaum's essay, "Aristotelean Social Democracy." We'll
be working up the comparison of the two positions these theorists have
come to.
May 1-2:
We will seminar on Rawls,Justice as Fairness , Parts I-III, preface
- p. 134. Bring copies of the text and your notes. In addition, bring
two copies of a pre-seminar writing on Rawls, using the guidelines handed
out at our first class on April 3.
April 27:
Rather than an arts workshop, we will continue our work with Selznick,
Chapters 12 and 13.
April 24-25: We will seminar on Selznick, The Moral Commonwealth , Chapters 9, 10, and pp. 310-318. Bring copies of the text and your notes. In addition, bring two copies of a pre-seminar writing on Mill, using the guidelines handed out at our first class on April 3.
April 24:
Topic for this essay:
In the Manifesto Marx outlines a theory of social change that depends upon a combination of class formation through economic transformation and political revolution on the part of leading classes. This revolution will bring on an era of greater freedom, moral development, and social improvement. Mill, who is nearly an exact contemporary of Marx, also seeks a world of moral development, social improvement, and greater freedom yet the vehicle of such a social transformation rests on very different grounds.
How do Marx's and Mill's understandings of “greater freedom, moral development, and social improvement” differ.
Compare either the process of social change in Mill and Marx:
For Marx, consider the whole of the Manifesto but especially pp. 208-22 for his discussion of process.
For Mill, Much of On Liberty can be read as an argument about how society develops and changes. Chapter 3 is particularly interesting in that regard. Also in Utilitarianism, pp. 247-50 and 264-68 speak to the processes of social change.
or the goals of social change:
To get into the differences between Mill and Marx with respect to the goals of social change, read Marx pp. 99-110 and look carefully at Marx’s critique of estranged labor;
Mill continually has an ideal of society in mind, and offers a critique of “unprogressive” or static society. Find particularly vivid passages in which his ideals show.
April 17-18:
We will seminar on Mill, On Liberty, Chapters I - III, pp. 5-76, and Utilitarianism,
Chapters I - IV, pp. 233-276 (Chapter IV has been added,
on April 15). Bring
copies of the text and your notes. In addition, bring two copies of a pre-seminar
writing on Mill, using the guidelines handed
out at our first class on April 3.
April 14: Two topics for the Marx essay (pick one):
I. “What’s so bad about ‘Estranged Labor’?”
The capitalist mode of production wasn’t the first to require miserable work, and let’s allow that there always will be some jobs we’d like to avoid. Marx has something other than misery in mind as the condition of "Estranged Labor.”i. What is it?
ii. Why is it so bad?
iii. How would work differ in Marx’s classless society? (on a space available basis)Work closely with pp. 69 ff. Two paragraphs on p. 76, beginning with, “In estranging man from nature…” and concluding with “Life itself appears only as a means to life” seem particularly important. Explain what Marx is talking about. Perhaps it would help to call on other thinkers, by way of comparison or contrast.
II. Marx, along with a number of the thinkers we have read this year, argues that we humans can only realize our best possibilities through membership in a “republic,” understood either literally or figuratively. Compare Marx, in this respect, to one other thinker. Work closely with comparable texts.
April 10-11:
We will seminar on Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, pp.
7-92, and Communist Manifesto, pp. 203-243 . Bring copies of the text
and your notes. In addition, bring two copies of a pre-seminar writing on Marx,
using the guidelines handed out at our first
class on April 3.
April 7:
Complete and distribute your 2-4 page essay on Cicero by 5pm. You can
distribute the essay by email and post it on web-x. Topic: "Where
does Cicero stand on the relationship between Religion and the State?"
April 6:
Come to Sem 2 E2105 at 1pm with ideas for your Legislative Hearings Project.
We will form into groups and work out times for the groups to meet throughout
the quarter.
April 6:
Read Sophocles, Oedipus Rex, and Aristotle's Poetics in
preparation for our Arts Workshop.
April 3-4 :
We will seminar on Cicero, The Republic,
pp. 2-75 and The Laws, pp.
97-128 (or the entire volume). Bring your copies
of the text and your notes.