Office: 389 Holloway Hall
E-mail: mllewis@salisbury.edu
Phone: (410) 677-5020
Office Hours: T/R 1-3:20, and by appointment
Course Texts: Ishmael, Daniel Quinn
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
Ecotopia, Ernest Callenbach
Numerous texts and excerpts available on-line, as indicated on the syllabus. I reserve the right to modify these supplementary texts throughout the semester, as discussion lead us in particular directions.
Course Description and Objectives:
We all carry with us conceptions of what it means to be human. Often, these conceptions are shaped by key organizing ideas – noble savages, sinners made in the image of God, evolved apes with selfish genes, the rational actor or homo economicus, the mob and the masses, supermen and drones. Though seldom consciously analyzed, these organizing ideas carry with them implications for how we all view the past and the future: our metaphors for humanity shape what we believe to be humanly possible.
In this class we will approach the question of defining the nature of humanity by considering classic works from the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. As a scholar of environmental studies, I am particularly interested in how metaphors to explain human nature are used to explain environmental changes in the past and present - do humans despoil our environment like rats in a cage; are we hurtling towards end times; are we one technology away from salvation; are we naturally greedy and self-interested, thus doomed to decline; do we need to just get back to nature and purity; will self-interest ultimately lead us to environmental wisdom? We will spend the last month of class focusing upon how environmental topics are analyzed in scholarly and popular discourse.
Course Requirements:
Attendance: Your attendance is required. You will be responsible for making up any material missed. Please note that, while we all are occasionally forced to be late, a continued pattern of tardiness to class will not be tolerated. Continued tardiness, as well as absences, will of necessity result in a reduction in your participation grade. Please note: Absence is not an excuse for failing to turn in a paper, assignment, or taking a quiz. If you are absent without having already turned in the assignment, you receive a zero.
Preparation: In this class you will have to memorize NOTHING. There will be no late-night cramming for exams, or learning trivia by rote. But, I will expect you to read, and think about what you have read, for every class. Some of the reading assignments are brief, others are longer. The university suggests that you should be spending 3-4 hours out of class for every hour in class; in other words, 9-12 hours a week for a four credit class. You should be able to complete this course’s work in that time, on average (some weeks will require more, others less). Please do not come to class unprepared. It will be a waste of your time, as well as mine. Please note: for an honors class that meets only twice a week, I do not feel that a five or six hour reading/thinking assignment is excessive.
Participation: Your participation in class, or lack thereof, will be noted. Active participation is not optional, but is a precondition for success in this class. Participation does not simply mean attendance – it means asking questions, offering your opinions in class discussions, and coming to class prepared. I will periodically give unannounced reading quizzes. I also will call upon you to participate even if you have not volunteered to do so. I understand that some people are shy and feel that they cannot talk readily in a class discussion. If this is you, please see me immediately. Failure to do so could result in a disastrously low participation grade.
Journals: You will be asked to write an essay every week, due on Wednesday, that considers your reaction to Monday’s assigned readings. I call these your “journal” assignments. We will spend Monday’s class analyzing the week’s readings, and Wednesday’s class analyzing our reactions to them.
Papers: You will write two more extended essays, one due around mid-semester, the other on the date of the final exam. These essays will ask you to draw from all of the course material in analyzing your own opinion on class debates.
Issue Reports: You will be asked to select texts and make a brief presentation on one of four issues identified by the class as key topics for our analysis in April. You will be graded on the quality of the texts selected, and your report.
Mid-Term Essay: 20%
Issue Report/Texts: 10%
Final Essay: 20%
Grading Scale: A 90-100%
B 80%-89%
C 70-79%
D 60-69%
F 59% and below
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Course Schedule
January 26: Introduction
January 28: Due: Write an essay in which you consider how you understand human nature. What makes humans act in the ways that they do? What motivates human behaviors? (Journal assignment no. 1)
February
2, 4: Political Philosophy
Thoreau, Essay on Civil
Disobedience
Madison, Federalist
no. 10
Hobbes, excerpt from
Leviathan
Rawls, excerpt from
A
Theory of Justice
Gleason, notes on Rational
Actor Theory
King,
Letter
from a Birmingham Jail
Journal due on Wednesday
February 4: Supplementary required Lecture at 7:00 pm, Wicomico Room in GUC, on Population and Economic Growth and the Chesapeake Bay
February 9, 11: Anthropology:
Horace Miner, Body Ritual among the Nacirema
Clifford Geertz, Notes on a Balinese Cockfight
Clifford Geertz, excerpt from Common Sense
Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, Anthropologists, Cultural Relativism, and Universal Rights
Donald E. Brown, Human Nature and History
Donald E. Brown, "Universal People," from Human Universals
Journals due Wednesday.
February 16, 18: Biology:
John Alcock, excerpts, The Triumph of Sociobiology, "What Sociobiologists Study"
John Alcock, excerpts, The Triumph of Sociobiology, "Sociobiology and cultural Determinism"
John Alcock, excerpts, The Triumph of Sociobiology, "Sociobiology and Human Culture"
E.O. Wilson, excerpts, Consilience, "Genes to Culture"
E.O. Wilson, excerpts, Consilience, "Fitness of Human Nature"
E.O. Wilson, excerpts, Consilience, "To What End"
Journals due Wednesday
February 23: Psychology:
B.F. Skinner, excerpt, Beyond Freedom and Dignity
B.F. Skinner, excerpt from Walden Two
Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis, "The Divided Self"
Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis, "Changing your Mind"
Steven Pinker, "The Moral Instinct"
Journals due to me via e-mail by FRIDAY.
February 25: No Class Today (Dr. Lewis at ASEH conference) Watch movie as assigned
March 2: Snow Day
March 4: Religion (we will still be talking about Psychology at the start of class. read as much as you can, in order as assigned here, but no worries if you cannot finish for Wednesday)
Bible: Genesis: Creation of Humanity and the Fall (read chapters 1-3)
Paul, Romans Chapter 1
Paul, Romans Chapter 7
Buddha, excerpt from "The sermon at Benares"
Neihbur, excerpt from Children of Light and the Children of Darkness
Albert Einstein, "Science and Religion" (make sure that you read both parts - it requires that you click a link at the bottom of part I and load a second webpage)
Nietzsche, excerpts from The Will to Power
Nietzsche, "Parable of the Madman" from The Gay Science
Bertrand Russell, excerpt from A Free Man's Worship
Journal due on Wednesday, March 11
March 9, 11: Economics:
I am aware of how much you are reading. Judicious skimming of Smith, Carnegie, and Marx/Engels is allowed.
Adam Smith, excerpts from The Wealth of Nations
Andrew Carnegie, excerpts from "Gospel of Wealth"
Marx and
Engels,
Milton Friedman - can't believe I'm doing this, but I'm going to let you watch two YouTube video interviews of Friedman, in sympathy for your reading load: Greed and Self-Interest and the Profit Motive
(If you're just dying for something to read, optional, "The Social Responsibility of Business," by Friedman, or "End Times for Milton Friedman," by Brad DeLong)
Donald McCloskey, excerpts from If You're So Smart
Michael Shermer, "The Prospects for Homo Economicus"
Journal due on Wednesday
March 23, 25: Ishmael¸ Daniel Quinn, completed. Journal AND essay due on Wednesday.
March 30, April 1: Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, completed. Excerpts from King Leopold’s Ghost.. Journals due on Wednesday.
April 6, 8: Ecotopia, Ernest Callenbach, completed. Journals due on Wednesday.
April 13, 15: Ecotopia
April 20, 22: Biodiversity: Overview and Analysis. Reports/journals due on Wednesday.
E.O.Wilson, The Diversity of Life
Farhana Yarnin, "Biodiversity, Ethics, and International Law"
Hope Shand, "Biological Meltdown," from Human Nature
"Causes of Rainforest Destruction"
Thomas Lovejoy "Biodiversity: The Most Fundamental Issue"
April 27, 29: Human Fertility/Cloning/etc. Overview and Analysis. Reports/journals due on Wednesday.
As Octupelets ...
Cloning, Sex ....
Risk Taking ...
Human Rights ...
May 4, 6: Alt Energy/Nuclear Power/Carbon: Overview and Analysis. Reports/journals due on Wednesday.
May 11: Discussion: Metaphors and the Future
Final Paper Due and Final Discussion: Thursday, May 14, 7:00-9:30
Writing Across the Curriculum: Writing across the Curriculum is a nationally recognized initiative that is designed to improve students’ learning through encouraging different types of writing in all university courses. This course is committed to this program, and in lieu of examinations, you will write a series of papers requiring you to engage the course material and formulate your own arguments.
Academic Integrity: