GSTR 221-B (Western Traditions II)
Dr. Jeff Richey,
Instructor (x 3186) and Ms. Kelli
Burton, Teaching Assistant (502-744-7598)
Berea College, Spring 2006 MWF 9, Emery 101
COURSE DESCRIPTION
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
COURSE CALENDAR
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Courses in “Western Traditions” at Berea College center on ideas, social structures,
institutions, technology changes, and beliefs that have shaped Western
cultures. Through study of primary
texts students are grounded in the broad history of Western
traditions.
Concerning traditions, the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre
has written:
All reasoning takes place within the context of some traditional
mode of thought, transcending through criticism and invention
the limitations of what had hitherto been reasoned in that
tradition: this is as true of modern physics as of medieval logic.
Moreover when a tradition is in good order it is always partially
constituted by an argument…. Traditions, when vital,
embody continuities of conflict.
By introducing you to representative writings from modern traditions,
this section of GSTR 221 invites you to explore “continuities of conflict”
in modern Westerners’ changing conceptions of their creator(s), themselves,
and others as part of creation.
Course Goals
• A basic acquaintance with the core intellectual and spiritual traditions
of the West
since 1400
• A basic competence in speaking, listening, reading, and writing about
primary
texts
• A basic facility with library resources for the study of primary
texts
Course Materials
1. Mark Kishlansky, et al, eds., The Western World (Boston: Pearson
Custom Publishing, 2006) (WW)
2. William H. McNeill, History
of Western Civilization: A Handbook, 6th ed. (Chicago and London:
University of Chicago Press, 1986) (HWC)
3. Elie Wiesel, Night
(New York: Bantam, 1982)
4. Various readings available online, as indicated in Course Calendar below (۞) BACK TO TOP
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
• Participation
in all class sessions. The instructor reserves the right to reduce
the final grades of students who miss class. Excuses for absences may be
sought, but may not necessarily be granted.
• Submission of weekly responses to assigned readings, e-mailed
to the instructor most Fridays
beginning on February 10***, and consisting of questions and concerns raised
for you by each week’s assigned readings. Do not summarize the assigned
readings. In order to receive full credit, the text of each e-mailed
response must be no less than 250 words, and should be composed in clear
standard English prose without any mechanical
errors. Each response will be graded pass/fail, and cannot be made up
at a later date.
•Completion of 2 essays, to be chosen from 4 deadline-specific topics. You must write one essay on either topic #1 or topic #2 and one essay on either topic #3 or topic #4. If you earn a B+ or better on your first essay, you will not be required to write a second essay. Further guidelines for these essays are available here.
•Completion of 1 final examination, to be administered from 10-11:50 a.m. on May 18. Further guidelines for this examination are available here.
*** Reading responses are not due during weeks in which you submit an essay.
Course Assessment
Reading responses = 25% of course grade
Essays = 50% of course grade (25% each)
Final examination = 25% of course grade BACK TO TOP
Course Calendar
Week 1
2/3 Introduction to the course
Week 2
2/6 Lecture on
HWC, 345-366 -- see also The Renaissance (۞)
2/8 Seminar on Petrus Paulus Vergerius, “The New Education”(۞)
2/10 Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, “The Dignity of Man” (WW)
READING RESPONSE DUE!
Week 3
2/13 Lecture on
HWC, 382-401 -- see also The Protestant Reformation
(۞) and The Counter-Reformation
(۞)
2/15 Seminar on Martin Luther, “Against the Authority of the Roman
Church” (WW)
2/17 Seminar on Ignatius Loyola, “Thinking with the Church” (WW)
READING RESPONSE DUE!
Week 4
2/20 Lecture
on HWC, 372-379, 409-411 -- see also The
European Voyages of Exploration (۞) and Admiral Zheng's Fleet (۞)
2/22 Seminar on “Letter
of Columbus to Luis de Sant Angel Announcing His Discovery” (۞)
2/24 Seminar on Francis Xavier, “Letter from India,
to the Society of Jesus at Rome” (۞)
READING RESPONSE -- or -- ESSAY ON TOPIC #1 DUE!
Week 5
2/27 Lecture
on HWC, 413-417, 451-487 -- see also The European Enlightenment
(۞)
3/1 Seminar on Galileo Galilei, “Science and Scripture” (WW)
3/3 Seminar on René Descartes, “Cogito, Ergo Sum” (WW)
READING RESPONSE DUE!
Week 6
3/6 Seminar on Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, “From the Preface
to the Novissima Sinica” (۞)
3/8 Seminar on Immanuel Kant, “What Is Enlightenment?”
(۞)
3/10 Video: When Faith Meets Physics (Hutchins Library reserve
Video 215.3 R382) (in class)
READING RESPONSE DUE!
Week 7
3/13 Lecture
on HWC, 567-580, 586-592 -- see also Romanticism
(۞) and Foundations
of Marxism (۞)
3/15 Seminar on Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “The Fall from Nature” (WW)
3/17 Seminar on William Wordsworth, “Ode: Intimations
of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood” (۞)
READING RESPONSE -- or -- ESSAY ON TOPIC #2 DUE!
Week 8
3/20 Seminar on “The People's
Petition” (۞)
3/22 Seminar on Karl Marx, “How Revolution Will Come to Germany” (WW)
3/24 Seminar on Herbert Spencer, “Social Darwinism”
(۞
READING RESPONSE DUE!
Week 9
3/27 Lecture
on HWC, 580-586 -- see also Early Theories of Evolution
(۞)
3/29 Seminar on Charles Darwin, “The Human Animal” (WW)
3/31 Seminar on Josiah Strong, “On Anglo-Saxon
Predominance” (۞)
READING RESPONSE DUE!
4/3-4/7 NO CLASS SESSIONS – SPRING BREAK
Week 10
4/10 Seminar on Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man's Burden”
(۞)
4/12 Seminar on George Orwell, “Shooting
an Elephant” (۞)
4/14 NO CLASS -- GOOD FRIDAY
READING RESPONSE -- or -- ESSAY ON TOPIC #3 DUE!
Week 11
4/17 Seminar on Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “The Grand Inquisitor” (WW)
4/19 Seminar on William Butler Yeats, “The Second
Coming” (۞)
4/21 Seminar on Carl Gustav Jung, “The Spiritual Problem of Modern Man” (WW)
READING RESPONSE DUE!
Week 12
4/24 Lecture
on HWC, 607-615, 631-639, 641-644 -- see also Nazism
and the Holocaust (۞)
4/26 Seminar on Elie Wiesel, Night, 1-62
4/28 Seminar on Elie Wiesel, Night, 63-109
READING RESPONSE DUE!
Week 13
5/1 CLASS CANCELLED
5/3 CLASS CANCELLED
5/5 Review for final examination and course evaluations
ESSAY ON TOPIC #4 DUE!
Week 14
5/8 NO CLASS SESSION -- MEET WITH INSTRUCTOR AS NEEDED
5/10 NO CLASS SESSION -- MEET WITH INSTRUCTOR AS NEEDED