Philosophy and the Integration of
Knowledge
RELP
3577H/Honors 3501 Fall 2002 MW
2:00-3:15 ADM 402
office: 313
Administration Bldg,
hours: T 10-11,
3-5; W 4-5; TH 11-12 (most) , 3-4; F 2-4 (in lib); & by appt.
phones: 637-4229 office; 636-9666 home; 637-4428 dept office (secretary)
email:
Course summary:
This course explores modern intellectual
interconnections among the various disciplines and thus among different bodies
of knowledge. The culture often seems a
hodge-podge of unconnected or barely connected beliefs, areas of thought,
values, theories, and compartmentalized disciplines. The thesis of our course is that a culture
has unity and an integrity, produced and governed by
very general intellectual commitments.
Why is it that modern mathematics and modern music have moved in
such similar directions? Why do we find
some of the same theories proving influential in art and science? Why have modern dance and modern architecture
incorporated similar ideas? What
philosophical concepts and principles are woven throughout the culture? There are fascinating questions, tantalizing connections, that are rarely the subject of our ordinary
disciplinary study. Can we learn to
engage in integrative thought? It is
extremely important to be able to think across disciplinary boundaries.
We will be examining our Western cultural landscape, but
focusing mostly on the 20th century, in order to discover these integrating
ideas. Some of these ideas govern only a
limited range of knowledge and of disciplines; others govern a wider
range. Yet others govern the entire
culture, and we will find that these ideas are philosophical ones. We will learn something about the role of
philosophy in the culture. And we will
try our hand at searching for integrating ideas.
This course tells one long intellectual story. Do not be misled by the seemingly disparate
topics we will cover. You must keep in
mind the story of the course as the semester goes on.
Class structure will
be mostly lecture, with some guided question-and-answer and some open
discussion. There will also be some
slides, music, film, and other means of presentation.
Requirements and
grading:
1) Attendance is
required. During class I may call on you
for relevant material and/or for your response.
So you must keep
up with the readings, that day's class, and the ongoing course. Be mentally active and prepared. Your
participation in class--asking and answering questions, raising relevant
issues—can affect your grade by 1/3 of a grade.
2) An out of class (roughly 90 minute)
film that we watch as a group in late November and that we discuss
afterwards. You will be graded on your
oral contribution, including quality of insight, ability to connect ideas,
ability to identify ideas in the film, as well as manner of oral presentation
(clarity, use of reasons, audibility, critical but cooperative interaction with
others, etc). 10% of your grade
3) A take-home essay midterm, given out Monday, Oct. 7th
and due Wednesday, Oct. 16th. 25% of your grade
4)
Short writing assignments, usually about a half page or a page. They will help you grapple with the ideas and
will help me gauge how much you are understanding. I will drop your lowest grade out of
these. Late assignments will not be
accepted. You may use extra short
writing assignments to gain extra credit. TOTAL
of writing assignments: 15% of your grade
5) An 8-10 page paper on a topic you and I agree
on. You might want to build this paper
out of one of the short writing assignments.
Due the last day of class. 20% of
your grade
6) A comprehensive, essay, final exam. 30% of your grade. Exam date: Friday, Dec 6, 3:30-5:30pm. Blue book required.
The amount of writing is relatively low for
an Honors course in the Humanities. This
is to allow you more time to read. Since
there is a much reading in this course, I want you to put considerable effort
into it. If we can stay on schedule, you
will find that the larger blocks of reading tend to be given on Wednesdays, so
that you have about 5 days before the next class on Monday. Also, your short essays will tend to be
assigned on Wednesdays to be due the next Monday.
Here is what the grades mean:
"A"
"B" Good mastery
"C" Satisfactory
achievement
"D" Less than
satisfactory achievement
"F" Unsatisfactory
achievement; Failure to achieve minimum
competency
I will employ plus/minus
grades.
Texts:
1) A coursepack of readings.
2) The Humanities: Cultural Roots &
Continuities, Vol II: The Humanities
& the Modern World, 6th Edition, by Witt, et al. (
(coursepack abbreviation: “Witt”)
3)
The Culture of Time and Space: 1880-1918, by Stephen Kern (Harvard University
Press, 1983). We’ll discuss its
availability. (coursepack abbreviated “Kern”)
4) Recommended readings
Essays,
though, can be about that day's class or the next class.
I expect you to do the assigned readings
carefully. Some are easy and accessible on your first attempt. Others are taxing and may require multiple
readings. Try this strategy for a
difficult reading: read it quickly to get the gist; then carefully for details;
then normally, fitting details into overall picture.
Take some notes on what you read; I will
lecture on only what is essential to cover in class. You are responsible for all major ideas in
the readings, even if not discussed.
Lectures can cover material not in the readings--another reason to
attend.
Most students take sketchy notes. Perhaps they think that they cannot both take
notes and listen, or perhaps they do not appreciate the value of taking
notes. Learn to write while you
listen. Not only can it be done, it
enhances your grasp of what is being said.
Take as many notes as you can, without losing too much of what is
said. Your notes are an invaluable resource
both for understanding the course and for the final exam.
Absences and
violations:
I will check attendance at the start of
class. If late, speak with me;
persistent lateness counts as absence.
After two absences, further ones lower your final grade by 1/3, then
2/3, then a grade. Missing more than 1/4
of classes (7) for other than a sustained emergency is automatic grounds for an
"F" in the course (or an "I", depending on circumstances),
regardless of your other grades. Sleeping and other mental non-attendance count as an absence. Missing the day before or
after vacation counts double.
When absent, you are responsible for missed assignments and classroom
material. Get notes from a
classmate. If you still have questions,
contact me. Falsifying an emergency to
skip class or an assignment violates the Honor Code.
Schedule of
---------------------------------------------------------------
Mon Aug 26 SYLLABUS; INTRODUCTION
1)
quote by
Werner Heisenberg
2) Preface; and "Introduction: The Evolution of Chaos", Chaos
Bound, by N.
Katherine
Haynes, pp.xi--iii, 1--4
3) "Philosophy
and the Integration of Knowledge" by Seth Holtzman
4)
"The Revolution in Western Thought", Beyond the Post-Modern
Mind, by
Huston
Smith, pp.3--15
5) Kern, Introduction: pp. 1 -- 9
----------------------------------------------------------------
Wed Aug 28 ORGANIZING &
GOVERNING IDEAS; LEVELS; SYNTHESIS
6) Witt, pp.6--12, 59--72, 119--22, 214--6,
316--8, 369--73, 455--6, 519--21
7) "The Vision of the Modern
Age", The End of the Modern Age, by
Allen Wheelis,
pp.3--25
8) Preface,
Introduction, and Chapter 1: The Crisis of Contemporary Culture" The
Sciences and the Humanities by W.T. Jones, pp.vii, 1--25
9)
Forward & Introduction, Ideas Have Consequences, by Richard
Weaver, pp.v-vi, 1--17
10)
"Is the Modern Western Mind Deranged?",
Philosophy and the Modern Mind,
E.M.
11)
Summary Theses of pre-modern and modern world views, by E. M. Adams
Essay
#1:
Both Adams and Wheelis note ideas, values and concepts
definitive
of the modern
West. Briefly present and discuss some.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Mon Sept 2 PHILOSOPHY: PRE-MODERN VERSUS MODERN
12) Witt, pp.124--31, 134--5
13) "Modern Science:
The First Four Hundred Years", The
Wholeness Principle, by
Anna
Lemkow, pp.57--64
14)
"The Birth of Modern Scientific Consciousness", The Reenchantment of the
World,
by Morris Berman, pp.13--35
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Wed Sept 4
COMMONSENSE
AND MODERN MECHANISTIC SCIENCE
15)
The Harper History of Painting, by
David Robb, pp.1--6, 35--9, 49--65, 76--81, 88--9,
94--6, 102B--3, 109--14, 138--9,
143, 149--52, 154--8, 166--71, 189--93,
197--9,
269--71, 276, 288--94, 322--4, 381--2, 414--7, 427--37, 482--91,
504--7,
519--21, 550--3, 585--93, 609--11, 624--35, 641--3, 645--67,
673--5,
681--3, 693--5, 706--9, 719--27
16) Witt,
pp.24--30, 34--43, plates I-XXII, 139--47, 225--8, 263--4, 288--90, 297--301
17)
Stevens,
"Goya's 3rd of May"
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Mon Sept 9 VISUAL
ART (up to the mid-1800s)
18) "Modern Science: The First 400
Years", & "The Theory of Relativity", The
Wholeness
Principle, by Anna Lemkow, pp. 65--6, 73--7
19) Chapters 5--8, The Universe and Dr.
Einstein, by Lincoln Barnett, pp.37--67
20) "Space-Time",
The Tao of Physics, by Fritjof Capra,
pp.161--71
21) "The Lay Reaction: 'A Mystic Universe'", Relativity
Theory, ed. L. Pearce
Williams
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Wed Sept 11 BREAKDOWN OF MECHANISTIC
SCIENCE (1800-1905)
22) Kern, chapter 1: pp. 10 -- 35; chapter 2: pp. 36 -- 64
23) excerpt on "Un Chien Andalou", French
Cinema: The First Wave, 1915-1929,
by Richard Abel, pp. 480--6
Essay
#2:
What ordinary beliefs does Einstein's theory of
special relativity
challenge?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Mon Sept 16 “AN ANDALUSIAN DOG”; MAKING CONNECTIONS
24) "The Art of Listening"
25) "Twentieth-Century Music and the Past", Twentieth--Century
Music: An
Introduction,
by Eric Salzman,
pp.1--6
26) Introduction to
Contemporary Music, by Joseph Machlis,
pp.11--7, 22--3, 32--4,
40--1, 47--50, 53--4, 59--62, then
pp.653--5
27) Witt,
pp.161--8, 274--77, 283
28) "Some Remarks on Value and Greatness
in Music", Music, the Arts, and Ideas:
Patterns
and Predictions in 20th Century Culture, by Leonard B.
Meyer,
pp.22--41
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Wed Sept 18 MUSIC (up to 1800)
29) Witt,
pp.147--52
30) "An Anatomy of the World, John
Donne, pp.1091--7
31) Witt,
pp.159--60 (Elegy XIX), 178--82
32) "The Sick Rose", by William
Blake
33) Witt,
pp. 290--1, 294--7, 301--5, 307--15
34) "
35) Witt,
pp. 345--7
36) "The Broken Center: A Definition of the Crisis of Values in
Modern Literature",
by Nathan A. Scott, pp.178--200
37) "On the Teaching of Modern Literature", Beyond
Culture, by Lionel Trilling, pp.3--27
Essay
#3:
In what ways do we first see modernity influence literature?
Consider form (the whole work & inside
the work),tone, and content.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Mon Sept 23 LITERATURE (up to 1900)
38) Witt,
pp.19--23, 147--8, 171--5, 340--3
39) "The Idea of a Modern
Architecture in the Nineteenth Century" and "The
Search for New Forms and the Problem of
Ornament", Modern
Architecture
since 1900, by William J. R. Curtis, pp.20--31, 52--63
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Wed Sept 25 ARCHITECTURE AND CITY PLANNING (up to
1900)
40) Witt,
pp.131--3, 136--7, 170, 218--25, 248--9, 254--63
41) The Idea of Man, by Floyd W. Matson, pp.148--53
42) Witt,
pp. 270--2, 285--8, 324--32, 373--9, 381--3, 457--61, 493--8
43) "The Philosophical Grounds of the Present Crisis of
Authority", by E. M. Adams,
pp.3-24
44) "Distinction and Hierarchy", Ideas Have Consequences, by
Richard Weaver, pp.35--51
45) Kern, Chapter 8: pp. 211 -- 240
Essay #4: Discuss the influence of modernity on political
thought. Which
assumptions and
forms did modernity overturn or transform?
---------------------------------------------------------------
Mon Sept 30 POLITICAL THOUGHT IN THE MODERN ERA
46) Dancing, by
Gerald Jonas, pp.72--81, 108--26, 128--35, 150--74, 182--9
47) Witt,
pp.175--178
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Wed Oct 2
DANCE (up to 1900)
48) "Modern Physics", The Wholeness Principle, by Anna Lemkow, pp. 67--73
49) Newtonian vs. quantum physics;
"Patterns of Organic Energy"; "My Way"; The
Dancing
Wu Li Masters, by Gary Zukav, p.41, 48-66, 96-114
50) "Space-Time", The Tao of
Physics, by
Fritjof Capra, pp. 173--87
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Mon Oct 7
MODERN
SCIENCE
(1905 -- 1940)
51) Witt,
pp.51--7
52) "The Threat to Orthodoxy";
and excerpt, A Layman's Guide to Protestant
Theology,
by William Hordern, pp.44--63, 111--4
53) "Man Against Darkness" by W.
T. Stace, pp.65--75
54) "A Setting for Radical Theology", The
Death of God Controversy, by Thomas
55) "Does God Have a Future", A
History of God, by Karen Armstrong, pp.377--99
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Wed Oct 9
RELIGION IN THE MODERN ERA
56) Twentieth Century Painting, by H. L. C. Jaffe, pp.1--6
57) Witt,
pp. 343--5, 350--6,
art plates XXIII--XXXII
58) Ideas", Arts and Ideas, by William Fleming,
pp.401--2
59) "The Mechanical Paradise", The Shock of the New,
by Robert Hughes, p.18
60) "The New Art of the Twentieth Century", Twentieth
Century Painting, by H. L. C.
Jaffe,
pp.9--19
61) "Expressionism and Abstractionism", Arts and Ideas,
by William Fleming,
pp.409--10
62) Witt,
pp. 390--404, 408--14
63) "Unpopularity of the New
Art", The Dehumanization of Art, by
Jose Ortega Y
Gasset
64) "Art: Energy and Attention", The New Art, by W.
S. Wilson III, pp.246--53
65) Art and Anarchy by Edgar Wind, pp.8--11
66) quotes about art and modern art
67) "Egotism in Work and Art", Ideas
Have Consequences, by Richard Weaver, pp.70--91
68) Kern, Chapter 6: pp. 131 -- 180
Essay #5: In #56 (& #60) how do various painters or styles
respond to “the
question of the
essence of reality”? What’s being
questioned?
Why speak of a “will to form”? Why is form a matter of will?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Mon Oct 14 FALL BREAK
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Wed Oct 16 VISUAL ART (1850 -- 1950)
69) Introduction to
Contemporary Music, by Joseph Machlis,
pp.6-11, 17-21, 23-31,
34--9,
41--6, 50--2, 54--9, 63--7
70) Witt,
pp. 291--4, 305--6
71) "Introduction: The Nineteenth-Century Musical
Background", Twentieth-Century
Music, by Robert P. Morgan, pp.1--8
72) Witt,
pp. 415--8
73) Introduction to
Contemporary Music, by Joseph Machlis,
"The American Scene:
Charles
Ives", pp.460---1; "Eric Satie",
pp.213--5; "The European
Scene: Anton Webern",
pp.384--7; "Experimentalists: Edgar
Essay #6: What are the formal conventions of the system of tonality?
What
factors (in it &
outside it) lead to its destruction? (Don’t forget
Meyer’s account of value
in music.)
----------------------------------------------------------------
Mon Oct 21 MUSIC
(1800 -- 1925)
74) Dancing, by
Gerald Jonas, pp.175--82, 190--228
75) Witt,
pp. 418--420
76) Kern, Chapter 4: pp. 89 -- 108
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Wed Oct 23 DANCE
(1900 to modern and jazz dance)
77) Witt,
pp 320--323, 347--50, 501--02
78) "Introduction: The Modern
Landscape"", The Reenchantment of the World, by
Morris
Berman, pp.1--11
79) "Is the Modern Western Mind
Deranged?", Philosophy and the Modern Mind,
E.M.
80) "Flakes of Fire, Handfuls of Light", Beyond
the Post-Modern Mind, by Huston
Smith, pp.92--5
81) "Introduction: Modernity-Yesterday, Today and
Tomorrow", All That is Solid
Melts
into Air, by Marshall Berman, pp.15--23
82) Kern, Chapter 5: pp. 109 -- 130
Essay #7: What is the feel of modern life from within? What are some of its
problems? Why are cultural critics so disturbed by what
they find?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Mon Oct 28 TECHNOLOGY & SOCIAL THOUGHT
83) Godel, Escher, Bach, by Douglas Hofstadter, pp.10--24
84) Chaos: Making of a New
Science, by James Gleick,
pp.83--110
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Wed Oct 30 MATH:
THE UNDERMINING OF THE FOUNDATIONS
85) "Introduction", Space, Time, and Structure in the
Modern Novel, by
Spencer, pp.iii--xx
86) "Dada", Disappearing Through the Skylight, by
O.B. Hardison, Jr., pp.166--93
87) "Introduction: The absurdity of the Absurd", The
Theatre of the Absurd, by
Martin Esslin, pp.19--28
88) excerpts from "The Bald
Soprano" by Eugene Ionesco, pp.14-23, 37-42
89) Kern, Chapter 3: pp. 65 -- 88
90) Witt,
pp 420--26, 437-8, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Proofrock",
by T.S. Eliot
91) "The
Arts: Poetry", Philosophy of the
Arts, by Morris Weitz, pp.93--107
92) Witt,
pp 384, "Dulce et Decorum Est", by Wilfrid Owen
93) poems #4,
35, 38, 54, 73, 74, by e.e. cummings
94) "
by Wallace Stevens
95) Witt,
pp 429--38, 451--54
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Mon Nov 4
LITERATURE (1900 -- 1940)
96) Kern, Chapter 7: pp. 181 -- 210
97) Witt, pp 404-08, 502--05
98) "Simplicity and Complexity",
The Architecture of the Jumping Universe,
by
Charles Jencks,
pp.17--21
99) "Cubism, De Stijl
& new Conceptions of Space"; "Skyscraper & Suburb",
Modern
Architecture since 1900, by William J. R. Curtis,
pp.148--59, 216--23
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Wed Nov
6 ARCHITECTURE
AND CITY PLANNING (1900 -- 2000)
100) "Forward", "
Larry Dossey, M.D., pp.viii--xi,
98--114
101) "Emptiness
and Form", The Tao of Physics, by Fritjof Capra, pp.209--23
102)Chaos: Making of a New Science, by
James Gleick, pp.3-31,50, 139-41,71, 74-5
103) Preface, Introduction, and
Chapter 1, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for
a Hat
and Other Clinical Tales,
by Oliver Sacks, pp.vii--ix, 3--22
104) Disappearing
Through the Skylight, by O.B. Hardison,
Jr., pp.52-3
105) "Loops
of Space", Discover, Apr 1993, pp.60--8
106) "Corsons Inlet" by A. R. Ammons
107) Kern, Conclusion: pp. 313 -- 318
Essay #8: How has architecture
has changed in response to modernity?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Mon Nov 11 MODERN
SCIENCE (1940 -- 2000)
108) Witt, pp 379--381
109)"Introduction",
Ideology and Insanity: Essays on the
Psychiatric Dehumanization
of Man, by Thomas S. Szasz,
M.D., 1--3
110) "From
the Romantic to the Modern Vision of Self"; then "The Self Under Siege",
The
Saturated Self: Dilemmas of Identity in Contemporary Life, by
Kenneth J. Gergen, pp.18--47, 1--17
111) "The
Changing Psychological Landscape", The
Protean Self, by Robert Jay
Lifton, pp.1-6
112) "The
Unsentimental Sentiment"; "Fragmentation and Obsession", and "The
Spoiled-
Child
Psychology, Ideas Have Consequences, by Richard Weaver,
pp.18--34,
52--69, 113--21
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Wed Nov 13 PSYCHOLOGY: FRAGMENTED, IRRATIONAL, INACCESSIBLE
113) Witt, pp.426--29, 467
114) "The End of the
Renaissance", Music, the Arts, & Ideas, by Leonard Meyer,
pp.68--84
115) "The
European Scene: Electronic Music", Introduction to Contemporary Music,
by Joseph Machlis, pp.426--29
116) John
Cage description and quotes
117) Letters: Charles Berry and John Cage
118) "John Cage and the Art of
Noise"
119) "White
Sound, White Language", Disappearing Through the Skylight, by O.B.
Hardison, Jr., pp.244--47
120) "John Cage and the
Aesthetic of Non--Intention" by James Hepokoski,
pp.1--9
121) "Philosophy in
4'33"" by Daniel Herwitz, pp.1--9
122) "Opening the Cage: 14
variations on 14 words" by Edwin Morgan
123) "Anti-Rationality and Aleatory", Twentieth-Century Music, by Eric Salzman,
pp.159--64
124) Witt, pp.499--501, 508
Essay #9: What’s happened to the self in modernity and why?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Mon Nov 18 MUSIC
(1925 -- 2000)
125) Witt, pp.467--71, 505--08
126)"Culture as Nature", The
Shock of the New, by Robert Hughes, pp.334, 342, 344
127) opinion piece by George Will .
128) "Contemporary Art &
the Plight of Its Public", The New Art,
by Leo Steinberg,
pp.205--26
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Wed Nov 20 VISUAL ART (1950 -- 2000)
129) Witt, pp 429--30, 461--67, 475--84, 490, 498,
509--18
130) Borges: The
Labyrinth Maker
by Ana Maria Barrenechea, pp.15--6
131) "Borges
and I"
132) "Continuity
of Parks" by Julio Cortazar
133) "introduction",
Anti-Story, ed. Philip Stevick, pp.ix--xxiii
134) "High
Windows" by Philip Larkin
135) "How
Everything Happens" by May Swenson
136) "do
you remember" by Emmett Williams
137) "In
the Corridors of the Underground: The Escalator", by Alain Robbes-Grillet,
pp.263--6
138) "The
Essay #10: Cage composed 4’33” after seeing Rauschenberg’s “whites”.
Absurdist theater
was alive. You know science’s story. The short
stories for Monday
challenge deeply. Find some ideas that
integrate these
disparate developments.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Mon Nov 25 LITERATURE (1940 -- 2000)
139) "Truth
in Trouble"; "The Emergence of Postmodern Culture", The Saturated
Self,
by Kenneth J. Gergen, pp.81--110, 111--38
140) "Culture
& the Human
.
141) "The
Essay #11: Write an essay on any topic (relevant to the course).
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Wed Nov 27 THANKSGIVING BREAK
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Mon Dec 2
PHILOSOPHY:
REJECTION OF REASON; DISSOLUTION
142) Dancing:
The Power of Dance Around the World, by
Gerald Jonas, pp.228--42
143)"Modern Dance:The Voice of the
Individual", Dancing, by Ellen Jacob, pp.124-37
144) Witt, pp.508 (top left)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Wed Dec 4
DANCE
(CONTEMPORARY)
exam:
Final(ly)
Friday is the cruelest day,
.....ade4umh fa Decileees les
6, 6,
6, VI, see-ix..
3:30
p.. m.. ; pardon
me;
perhaps madam;
piu
more,
Per moriot,
papa mama, dada dada dada
a d DEDSABCZE
blue book
BLUE BUS
BLUE PER
PER REQ
required.