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Core III:
Historical Perspectives on Human Nature
Fall 2004
Dr. Victoria
Weiss
Office: Hearst
313
Phone: (404)
364-8393 [on campus, Ext. 8393]
e-mail:
vweiss@oglethorpe.edu
Office Hours:
Monday through Friday 2:30-5:00 PM
[Tuesdays 2:00-3:00 PM in Café
Oglethorpe]
Purpose of the
Course:
“Culture is an ocean in which we
swim, and, despite the efforts of
study and the
wonders of technology, we remain. . . fish and not
oceanographers.”
--Donald R.
Kelley, Faces of History
Understanding
one’s culture surely depends upon knowing one’s history.
But what exactly does it mean to know one’s history? If it
were your job to record for posterity what is happening in
the world at this moment and create a document recording
that history, what would you include? What would you leave
out? Would you focus on the origins of important ideas?
Record the actions of certain individuals? Focus on the
beliefs of or disagreements between various peoples? Even
if you could define the scope of your account, as Kelley’s
quotation above suggests, it is unlikely that you would be
able to see beyond your own belief system or prejudices.
And therein lies the starting point for this third year of
the Oglethorpe Core Curriculum.
The Core begins
in the freshman year by exploring the question of what it
means to be an individual in our Western culture. While the
process of acculturation in other parts of the world often
means learning to find one’s place within the larger
society, in the West, we place a high premium on developing
a sense of the individual self. How do we go about forging
a sense of self? Do we have a public self and a private
self—a “face” we show to others that may or may not be who
we really are? What do we prize about the individual
exactly? In Core II, the consideration of what it means to
be human in the West widens. This sophomore Core course
explores what happens when individuals begin to decide how
they will live—or ought to live—in a society. What sort of
community ought they attempt to create? How can all of
these individuals together pursue the “good life”?
In Core III, that
exploration of society widens still further. Core II
explores what happens when individuals begin to determine
the kind of society in which they wish to live. Core III
explores a cultural understanding of who we Westerners are
by considering the stories we tell ourselves about who we
are. In many cases, this means contemplating, or attempting
to make sense of, “pre-history”—a time for which we have no
written records, a time which has given rise to myths, to
rituals, to fanciful explanations for the artifacts,
customs, our physical surroundings all in an attempt to
explain who we are and what has shaped us. Sometimes the
“stories” we have are strangely at odds with the physical
evidence, yet the explanations persist. Most importantly,
they form the basis of a common understanding and
appreciation of a people who feel a connection with one
another. These are some of the ideas we will be exploring
in this course.
Evaluation: Your
grade will be determined by your performance on two papers,
a research paper (and its supporting assignments), periodic
quizzes, and a final exam. Those of you with recalcitrant
printers or cranky computers will be happy to know that
papers will be considered to be on time if they arrive at my
office by 5:00 PM on the date they are due. Late papers
will be lowered one half of a letter grade for every
calendar day they are overdue.
Two papers (20%
each) = 40%
Research paper +
supporting assignments = 30%
Quizzes
= 10%
Final
exam
= 20%
Attendance: I
take attendance at the beginning of each class. Class
attendance is expected. Those students who miss ten (10)
classes or more can expect to have their course grade
lowered. Those who miss fifteen (15) or more (the
equivalent of five weeks of the term) will be assumed to be
no longer taking the course and can expect a final grade of
FA (failure because of absence).
Honor Code: I
assume that together we are members of an intellectual
community that has honesty as its common bond. Your pledge
on your written work means that the ideas contained therein
are yours unless they are clearly identified as someone
else’s in the text of your paper.
When
you make use of ideas from other sources—books, web sites,
journal articles, films or TV, etc.—make sure that you
acknowledge your sources, even when they are paraphrased
(i.e., put into your own words) in the body of your paper.
Unacknowledged borrowing of either ideas or exact words will
be considered a violation of the honor code and will be
dealt with accordingly.
I do
not grade work which has not been pledged. All written work
for the course must bear the following honor code statement,
signed using your student number:
I pledge that I
have neither given nor received any unauthorized aid on this
assignment.
[your student number]
[Please remember
to use your student number rather than your name to identify
your work.]
Incompletes: The
grade of incomplete is given only in rare and extraordinary
circumstances. If some emergency keeps you from completing
the final exam for the course, it is your responsibility to
contact me so that we may formalize in a written contract
(1) what work you must complete; (2) when that work will be
completed; (3) what grade will be earned if you do not
complete the work by the date specified in the contract.
This is University policy regarding incompletes.
Texts: All of
these texts (except for the handout reader) may be purchased
in the University bookstore. Please know that the OU
Bookstore pledges to match the price of other local
bookstores.
Herodotus, The History. Trans. David Grene. University of
Chicago Press
Thucydides, The Pelopponesian War. Trans. Steven
Lattimore. Hackett Press
Livy,
The Rise of Rome. Trans. T. J. Luce. Oxford University
Press
Aristophanes, Lysistrata. Dover Press
The
Story of David (I & II Samuel). Trans. Robert Alter.
Norton
Ibn Khaldun, The
Muqaddimah. Trans. Franz Rosenthal. Ed. N.J.Dawood.
Princeton/Bollingen Press
Handout/Reader
Aug.
25 Introduction to Core III
Aug.
27 Western history begins with Herodotus—We and
“the Other”
Book I: 1-91 (pp. 33-77);
Aug.
30 Herodotus, History,Book I: 95-130 (pp. 79-95);
141 (p. 98-99)
Sept. 1
Herodotus, Book I: 152-169 (pp. 102-110); Book II: 1
(p. 131); Book V:
30-38 (pp. 367-371);
Sept. 3
Herodotus, Book V: 48-51 (pp. 374-76); 97-126 (pp. 400-409);
Book VI: 94-124 (pp. 446-458)
Sept. 8
Herodotus, Book VII: 1-60 (466-491); 100-152 (pp. 501-521)
Sept.
10 Herodotus, Book VII: 153-end (pp. 521-556);
Book VIII: 1-39 (pp.
557-70)
Sept.
13 Herodotus, Book VIII: 40-125 (pp. 570-602)
Sept.
15 Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, Book I ,
1-113 (pp. 1-54)
Sept.
17 Thucydides, Book I: 114-145 (pp. 54-71); Book
II: 34-65 (pp. 90-108)
Sept.
20 Thucydides, Book III 36-85 (pp. 145-172)
Sept.
22 Thucydides, Book V: 84-end (pp. 294-301); Book
VI: 8-32 (pp. 310-23)
Sept.
24 Thucydides, Book VII: 20-87 (pp. 368-407)
Sept
27 Simone de Beauvoir, “Early Tillers of the
Soil” and “Patriarchal Times
and Classical
Antiquity” from The Second Sex (handout reader)
Sept.
29 Aristophanes, Lysistrata
Oct. 1 Paper One
due by 5:00 PM. [Drop off at Hearst 313.] CLASS MEETS IN
THE LIBRARY with Tricia Clayton, OU research librarian!
Oct. 4 Livy, The
Rise of Rome, Book I: 1-26; 49-60 (pp. 1-33; 58-70)
Oct. 6 Livy,
Book II: 1-33 (pp. 71-105)
Oct. 8 Livy,
Book II: 34-65 (pp. 105-139)
Oct.
11 Columbus Day Holiday!
Oct.
13 Livy, Book III: 26-59 (pp. 167-202); Book IV:
1-6 (pp. 217-24); 12-20 (pp. 230-39)
Oct.
15 Livy, Book V: 1- end (pp. 282-341)
Oct.
18 Alter, ed., The David Story, I Samuel: 1-17
(pp. 1-100).
Oct.
20 Alter, ed., I Samuel: 17-end (pp. 101-92)
Paper Two due by
5:00 PM. [Drop off at Hearst 313.]
Oct.
22 Alter, ed., II Samuel: 1-14 (pp.
195-282)
Oct.
25 Alter, ed., II Samuel: 15-end and I Kings 1 &
2 (pp. 283-384)
One-page research paper report due in class!
Oct.
27 From the handout reader: excerpt from St.
Paul’s letter to the Romans; St. Augustine, “Six Ages in
Biblical History”; “The Symbolic Meaning of Jewish History”;
“The Two Cities in History”; “Critique of Cyclicism”
Oct.
29 Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of the Kings of
Britain, selections (handout reader), Book VI, pp. 93-115;
Book VIII, pp. 129-145.
Nov. 1 Geoffrey
of Monmouth, Book VIII-IX, pp. 145-167.
Nov. 3 One-page
research paper report due in class! Lessons on doing
research!!
Nov. 5 Simone de
Beauvoir, “Through the Middle Ages to Eighteenth-Century
France” from The Second Sex (handout reader)
Nov. 8 Chaucer,
“The Merchant’s Tale” from The Canterbury Tales (handout
reader)
Nov. 10
The Book of Margery Kempe, excerpts (handout reader)
Nov. 12
One-page research paper report due in class! More info on
what the paper ought to look like!
Nov. 15
Luther, intro info + “The Freedom of a Christian” (handout
reader)
Nov. 17
Ibn-Khaldun, The Muqaddimah, pp. 5-48.
Nov. 19
Ibn-Khaldun, The Muqaddimah, pp. 91-117.
Nov. 22
RESEARCH PAPER DUE BY 5:00 PM!
Thanksgiving Holiday
Nov. 29
Ibn-Khaldun, The Muqaddimah, pp. 123-142; 146-47.
Dec. 1
Ibn-Khaldun, The Muqaddimah, pp. 149-171.
Dec. 3
Ibn-Khaldun, The Muqaddimah, pp. 269-273; 281-82; 285-95;
299-337.
Dec. 6 Review.
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