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Core Humanities Seminar
CHS 1001
Modern Thought

Progress and its Discontents

Dr. Eugene McCarraher

Office: 475 SAC

Office Hours: MWF 10:30-11:30 and by appt.

Office Phone: 519-4796

Course Description

The idea of "progress" has dominated the Western world -- and increasingly the non-Western world -- since the middle of the 18th century. Scientific and technological development, industrialization, the spread of democracy -- these and other historical changes of the last two hundred and fifty years have increased our knowledge of the world, extended the length and health of our lives, and multiplied our material comforts. Thus, most of us believe that "progress" has been unambiguously positive, and hope that it will continue indefinitely. Yet these same processes of modernization have provoked profound and often militant doubt, criticism, and resistance. In this course, we will trace the idea of "progress" from its birth in the 18th century, through its glory days in the 19th, to its tribulations in the 20th.

Texts

The following books are required and can be purchased at the

university bookstore. Purchase them now -- I don't want any sob stories later in the semester about your not having the book.

Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem

W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk

Peter Gay, ed., The Freud Reader

Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

Isaac Kramnick, ed., The Portable Enlightenment Reader Robert Tucker, ed., The Marx-Engels Reader Simone Weil, Oppression and Liberty

On occasion, I will supplement these books with shorter readings in xeroxed form.

Grading and Class Policies

The Core Humanities Program aims to cultivate critical intelligence, clarity and civility in argument, and moral sophistication. To these ends, I will be encouraging informed and vigorous participation in class discussions, as well as assigning essays on each of the books which will, I hope, provoke intelligent and vigorous reflection. Your grade will thus be comprised of class participation (30%), essays (50%), and a final examination (20%).

Bring your book to class. I've noticed that some students consider bringing the materials to be optional. It is not. If you don't bring the books or articles with you, I'll assume you haven't read them, and that seriously erodes your grade for class participation. Also, I reserve the right to give surprise quizzes on the reading if I sense that you haven't been doing it. While some may consider this "high-schoolish," I would respond that, in the event of general, prolonged silence in class, this is the only way I can tell whether or not you've done the daily assignment.

I will assign and evaluate essays in the following manner. I will assign a question on each book, explaining what I'm looking for, how long your answer should be, etc.. Each assignment will specify a date on which the essay is due. Take this draft to the Writing Center; after evaluation there, rewrite it and submit the final version to me on the date indicated. Trips to the Writing Center are mandatory, not optional. Although trips to the Writing Center may seem onerous, even competent or exceptional writers benefit from the detachment an outside critic brings to their work. Also, keep either a disk copy or a photocopy of every essay you write. This protects you from suffering an unjustified accusation and me from making one.

As for plagiarism, I will, of course, assume your integrity when you turn in essays. The first time you violate this trust, your essay will receive a non-negotiable F and you will be reported for your offense. Your second violation will bring an F for the course. Please consult the Learning With Integrity brochure (or just ask me) if you are at all uncertain about the rules governing plagiarism.

You are permitted three unexcused absences and three excused absences during the semester. Any fourth unexcused absence will result in the lowering of your grade by one level; seven unexcused absences will result in failure of the course. If you come to class ten minutes late without an excuse, you will be counted as absent.

Course Schedule

January 15 -- Introduction

January 17 -- Kant, "What is Enlightenment?"

Diderot, "Encyclopedie"

Beaumarchais, Le mariage de Figaro

Condorcet, "The Future Progress of the Human Mind"

January 19 -- Bacon, "The New Science"

Condorcet, "The Utility of Science"

Priestley, "The Organization of Scientific Research"

January 22 -- Locke, "A Letter Concerning Toleration"

d'Holbach, "No Need of Theology, Only of Reason"

Voltaire, "Reflections on Religion"

Gibbon, "The Progress of Superstition"

Paine, "The Age of Reason"

January 24 -- Mandeville, "The Fable of the Bees"

Diderot, "Enjoyment and Tahiti"

Bentham, "The Principle of Utility"

January 26 -- Vico, "The New Science"

Turgot, "On Progress"

Rousseau, "A Critique of Progress"

Voltaire, "A Defense of Modernity"

Condorcet, "The Perfectibility of Man"

January 29 -- Locke, "The Second Treatise of Civil Government"

Montesquieu, "The Spirit of the Laws"

Rousseau, "The Social Contract"

January 31 -- Jefferson, "The Declaration of Independence"

Madison, "Federalist No. 10"

"Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen"

Paine, "The Rights of Man"

February 2 -- Franklin, "Industry and the Way to Wealth"

Hume, "On Luxury"

Smith, "The Wealth of Nations"

February 5 -- Kant, "The Fair Sex"

De Gouges, "The Rights of Woman"

Wollstonecraft, "Vindication of the Rights of Woman"

February 7 -- Diderot, "Who are you, then, to make slaves"

Paine, "African Slavery in America"

Jefferson, "On Indians and Negroes"

February 9 -- Marx, "Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's

Philosophy of Right"

February 12 -- Marx, "1844 Manuscripts," 68-81

February 14 -- Marx, "1844 Manuscripts," 81-105

February 16 -- Marx, "The German Ideology"

February 19 -- Marx, "Capital, Vol. 1," 302-312

February 21 -- Marx, "Capital, Vol. 1," 312-329

February 23 -- Marx, "The Communist Manifesto," 473-483

February 26 -- Marx, "The Communist Manifesto," 483-500 "On the Realm of Necessity and

the Realm of Freedom"

February 28 -- Walter Benjamin, "Paris, Capital of the

Nineteenth Century"

March 2 -- Leo XIII, "Rerum novarum"

Pius XI, "Quadragesimo anno"

March 5 -- March 9 -- SPRING RECESS

March 12 -- Freud, "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality,"

240-279

March 14 -- LIBRARY -- QUEST STRATEGIES

March 16 -- Freud, "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality,"

279-293

March 19 -- Freud, "The Future of an Illusion," 686-706

March 21 -- Freud, "The Future of an Illusion," 706-722

March 23 -- Freud, "Civilization and Its Discontents," 722-747

March 26 -- Freud, "Civilization and Its Discontents," 747-772

March 28 -- Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk, 1-35

Randolph Bourne, "Trans-National America"

March 30 -- Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk, 36-90

April 2 -- Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk, 91-153

April 4 -- Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk, 154-217

April 6 -- Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem, 3-55

April 9 -- Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem, 56-134

April 11 -- Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem, 135-219

April 13 -- GOOD FRIDAY -- NO CLASS

April 16 -- EASTER MONDAY -- NO CLASS

April 18 -- Eichmann in Jerusalem, 220-298

April 20 -- Huxley, Brave New World

April 23 -- Huxley, Brave New World

April 25 -- Huxley, Brave New World

April 27 -- Weil, Oppression and Liberty, 37-83

April 30 -- Weil, Oppression and Liberty, 83-124

May 2 -- Weil, Oppression and Liberty, 156-195

May 5 -- May 12 -- FINAL EXAMINATIONS

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