Western Civilization Syllabus

 

 

Instructors

HONORS 120: COLLOQUIUM IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION
Fall 2007

*Other office times available by appointment.

Required Texts:

Lynn Hunt, et al., The Making of the West, A Concise History, Vol. 1, (2nd Ed.) wrapped with Lualdi, Sources of the Making of the WestSarah Lawall, et al.
Norton Anthology of Western Literature, (8th Ed.) Vol. I
Louis Pojman, Classics of Philosophy, Vol. I
The Letters of Abelard and Heloise, second edition
Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, Signet Classic
Occasional Handouts
Readings on the WEB

Course Description

By examining some of the most influential literary, philosophical, scientific and religious texts, together with art and music, from the Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, and Reformation periods, we will explore the ways that people lived during each of these historical epochs, and the ways they thought about themselves and about their relations with one another, the gods, the state, and the physical world. The Hunt text will provide us with a general background for each period we cover, but most of the other texts consist of primary sources translated into modern English. The main focus of class discussions will be on the primary source readings, as these provide the most direct windows into the periods we will be studying, as well as an opportunity to develop your own skills of critical analysis, synthesis, and communication. Your active (and regular) participation in class discussions is expected. Students are responsible for all material presented in class, including changes in dates of examinations and papers. Students are expected to abide by the College's honor code, and any failure to do so may result in expulsion from the course with a failing grade.

Course Structure

Lectures and Discussion Sections
During the first class hour each morning, when the entire class convenes together, material will typically be presented in a lecture format, with opportunities for questions and brief discussion throughout. The second hour each day, during which only 20 students will meet together at a time, will be conducted as a discussion -- i.e. students are expected to help sustain the exploration of the assigned material through their own contributions in a more informal setting. Lecture and discussion sections will have distinct reading assignments, usually but not necessarily related.

Films
Over the course of the semester, approximately three films will be shown outside of class. These are optional but recommended and will enable you to answer extra-credit questions on the exams. Times and places of showing will be announced early in the semester. When possible, the videos will also be made available for viewing in the Honors Center for a few days afterwards.

Student Group Presentations
Early in the semester you will be assigned (based on your own choices) to one of the Greek Plays in the Norton text. As a member of a group of about ten students, you will read this text and devise a 15-20 minute group presentation. The texts will be paired, so that two groups will give presentations during the same class.

Quizzes
There will be roughly a dozen unannounced short quizzes interspersed throughout the course, devoted to the material assigned for the lecture for that day. There will be no make-up quizzes under any circumstances. We will, however, drop the two lowest quiz grades (or missed quizzes) in computing a semester quiz average.

Response Papers
You will be required to write four response papers throughout the semester. One must be handed in during each third of the semester (marked by the exams). These are short (approximately one page, typed and double spaced) papers on one of the readings for a particular day and due at 9am, before the start of the day's lecture. The goal of the response paper is to identify a pertinent issue that is raised by the reading or to ask questions about the reading that you think are worthy of further discussion. Papers will be graded on an A, B, NG scale. If you receive an NG, you must submit another paper. Response papers given a passing grade cannot be rewritten.

Examinations
There will be two (2) two-hour exams during the semester, plus a final exam. Although the individual exams will not be cumulative, some comparative questions will be included. All exams will be primarily essay questions, with matching, definition, or multiple choice questions comprising no more than a fourth of the total grade. A short handout on potential exam topics will be distributed a week in advance of each exam.

Paper
There will be a required analytical essay of approximately 8 pages (double-spaced and typed). This will be mainly an analysis of primary sources, drawing either on assigned readings, additional readings, or a combination of both. Suggested topics will be distributed during the semester. You are encouraged to suggest your own paper topics, but you should consult with one of the instructors about these before writing the paper. Papers are due at the beginning of discussion session on November 9.

Class Attendance and Participation
Active participation is expected. Regular and punctual attendance is required. Irregular attendance will detract from your class participation grade. A class roster may be used for keeping attendance records.

Grading
Your course grade will be computed as follows:
Quizzes 10% Exam 2 15%
Group Presentation 10% Paper 20%
Class Participation (Including Response Papers) 15% Final Exam (Exam 3) 15%
Exam 1 15%

Calendar of Reading Assignments

Abbreviations:

L: Lecture section
D: Discussion section
A&H: The Letters of Abelard and Heloise
HIST: Hunt, Making of the West
LIT: Lawall, Norton Anthology of Western Literature
Marlowe: Doctor Faustus
PHL: Pojman, Classics of Philosophy
Src: Sources of the Making of the West
WEB: Internet site

8/22 Wednesday
1L: Introduction-Physical Basis of Civilization: Ancient Near East (JN)
HIST: xxxiv-xxxvi
D: Meaning of Civilization

8/24 Friday
2L: Cosmopolitan Bronze Age (BG)
>HIST:2-32
D: Genesis, Gilgamesh & Hammurabi
LIT: 18-26 and 34-53
Src: 1.1
Handout

8/27 Monday
3L: Homeric Epic (MS)
HIST: 33-44
D: Odyssey
LIT: 100-106, 206-239 & 287-301

8/29 Wednesday
4L: Greek Hoplites in the Persian Wars (JC)
HIST: 45-61
D: Odyssey
LIT: 301-365

8/31 Friday
5L: Classical Greek Theatre (AA)
HIST: 61-83
D: Odyssey
LIT: 428-495

9/3 Monday
6L: Socrates & Plato: How Should We Live? (CC)
HIST: 73-78
D: Trial of Socrates
PHL 2(Apology & Crito) pp.28-47

9/5 Wednesday
7L: Thucydides and Political Realism (AS)
HIST: 83-89
D: Herodotus & Thucydides
LIT: 792-816

9/7 Friday
8L: Plato & Aristotle: What Can We Know? (CC)
HIST: 90-106
D: Plato & Aristotle
PHL 2 (pp. 74-87 & 181-185) & 3 (pp. 267-288 and 289-298)

9/10 Monday
9L: Comedy, Circuses & Colosseums (AA)
HIST: 106-127
D: Stoics & Epicureans
PHL 4 & 5 (pp. 352-368)

9/12 Wednesday
10L&D: Student Presentation of Greek Plays

9/14 Friday
11L&D: Student Presentations of Greek Plays

9/17 Monday
12L: Roman Republic (BG)
HIST: 128-169
D: Aeneid
LIT: 926-974

9/19 Wednesday
13L: Roman Empire at War & at the Altar (SP)
HIST: 170-195
D: Aeneid
LIT: 974-1023
Src: 5.1

9/21 Friday
EXAM ONE (Review, Review, Review)

9/24 Monday
15L: Origins of Christianity (SP)
HIST: 195-235
D: Plotinus and Gregory
PHL 7 (pp. 385-390)
Src: 7.4
WEB: Gregory_Biblical_Exegesis

9/26 Wednesday
16L: Fall of the Roman Empire or Birth of Medieval Europe? (JN)
HIST: 235-257
D: Tacitus
WEB: Tacitus - Germania, Pt. 1

9/28 Friday
17L: Sex & the City (SP)
D: Augustine Creates Shameful Sex & Sin
LIT: 1113-1130 and 1023-1039

10/1 Monday
18L: Muhammed and the Origins of Islam (BG)
HIST: 258-275 & 296-309
D: Koran
LIT: 1148-1173
Src: 7.2-3

10/3 Wednesday
19L: Beowulf: History or Nostalgia? (MS)
HIST: 275-296
D: Beowulf
LIT: 1174-1247

10/5 Friday
20L: Medieval Drama and Spectacle (AA)
HIST: 309-337 & 346-352
Src: 9.2
D: Boethius & Augustine on Free Will & Predestination
PHL 8 (pp.393-408) & 9 (pp. 421-428)

10/8 Monday
21L: The Crusades (JC)
HIST: 338-369
D: Song of Roland
LIT: 1247-1260 & 1270-1305

10/10 Wednesday
22L: Monastic & Cathedral Schools (JN)
HIST: 369-383
D: Abelard & Heloise
A&H: 3-43 & 211-223

10/12 Friday
23L: The Feminine Dark Ages (MS)
LIT: 1843-1868
D: Abelard & Heloise
A&H: 47-89

10/14-10/16
FALL BREAK

10/17 Wednesday
24L: Courtly Culture of Song & Romance (AS)
HIST: 367-369
D: Chretien's Perceval
LIT: 1325-1355

10/19 Friday
25L: Romanesque to Gothic (JN)
HIST: 373-377 & 415-423
Src: 10.1
D: Percival and the Fisher King
LIT: 1355-1374

10/22 Monday
26L: Aquinas: Faith and Reason (CC)
HIST: 409-415
D: Arguments for the Existence of God
PHL 11, 12 & 13 (pp.433-453)

10/24 Wednesday
27L: First European Revolution (JN)
HIST: 384-411
D: Dante
LIT: 1456-1478

10/26 Friday
28L: Courtly Love & Paolo & Francesca (MS & JN)
LIT: 1478-1481
D: Dante
LIT: 1481-1506

10/29 Monday
29L: Medieval Popular Religion (SP)
D: Dante
LIT: 1546-1576

10/31
Wednesday - EXAM TWO (Review, Review, Review)

11/2 Friday
31L: Black Death and the Crises of the 14th Century (JC)
HIST: 424-448
Src: 11.1
D: Boccaccio
LIT: 1598-1630 & Handout

11/5 Monday
32L: Renaissance Humanism & Neoplatonism (CC)
HIST: 448-463
D: Boccaccio & Petrarch
LIT: 1631-1641, 1894-1902
WEB: Petrarch on Boccacio and Ficino

11/7 Wednesday
33L: Chaucer: Writing from the Edge of History (MS)
LIT 1696-1718
D: Chaucer
LIT: 1718-1732

11/9 Friday
34L: Was there a Renaissance for Women? (AS)
D: Chaucer (Paper Due)
LIT: 1732-1769

11/12 Monday
35L: Machiavelli: How to Rule (CC)
HIST: 517-531
D: Machiavelli & Pico (Two Sides of the Renaissance)
LIT: 1945-1961
Src: 11.3

11/14 Wednesday
36L: New Perspective in Renaissance Art (BG)
D: Erasmus & Northern Humanism
LIT: 1919-1945

11/16 Friday
37L: Printing, Propaganda, & Protestants (JC)
HIST: 472-479
D: Everyman & Luther on Salvation
LIT: 1821-1843
WEB: Martin Luther: On the Bondage of the Will

11/19 Monday
38L: Spread of the Reformation
HIST: 479-497
D: (Panel discussion presenting views of Calvinists, Anglicans, Unitarians, Catholics, Anabaptists) Struggles over Belief
Src: 12.1-3

11/21-11/24
THANKSGIVING BREAK

11/26 Monday
39L: Marlowe and Elizabethan Theatre (AA)
Marlowe: 1-22
D: Marlowe
Marlowe: 40-96

11/28 Wednesday
40L: Origins of the Atlantic World & Slave Trade (SP)
HIST: 463-471 & 567-577
D: Marlowe
Marlowe: 97-133

11/30 Friday
41L: Witch Hunting & Crises of 17th Cent. (JC)
HIST: 498-521
D: Galileo, the Church & the Scientific Revolution
Src: 12.5 & 6

12/3 Monday
42L: Montaigne and a Return to Skepticism (AS)
D: Montaigne and Skepticism
LIT: 2178-2199

***FINAL EXAMINATION: Monday, December 10, 9:00 a.m.**