FIRST YEAR SEMINAR

All first year students are required to take two seminars, on in the fall, the other in the spring semester. The seminars are courses in which the student is introduced to the literary, philosophical, and artistic legacies of several interrelated cultures. Works are chosen to represent a wide range of intellectual discourse, from poetry, drama, and fiction, to history, philosophy, and polemic.

Fall 2002 - War and Peace

"War is a violent teacher; by removing the security of day-to-day survival, it causes most of us to develop impulses that are as base as the circumstances around us." Thus did Thucydides draw the lessons of a bloody civil war in the Greek city of Corcyra in 427 B.C., though his words apply equally well to any number of recent conflicts around the world. Like the Enlightenment thinkers who studied him, Thucydides thought of warfare as a great laying bare of human nature, a stripping away of the artifices of social and political convention to reveal the ugly truth. Others however, like the philosopher Kant, have regarded war as a perversion of the human condition, a regression to animal behavior which modern societies must strive to overcome and, eventually, to banish from the globe. The opposition between these points of view remains unresolved today, along with countless related questions, some of which have been given new currency by the geopolitical upheavals of the past year. Now more than ever, we are faced with ethical dilemmas that have a direct bearing on the foreign policy choices that our societies must face: Is there such a thing as a just war, and if so, how is its justness determined? How should citizens of a state at war conduct themselves if they deem that war unjust? To what extent is warfare contingent upon history, such that the mythic struggles of the ancient past continue to replicate themselves across the ages? For how long after a war ends does its legacy endure -- the privileges of the victor, the obligations of the vanquished, or the reparations owed to the victims? Does a nation that constitutes the world's sole military superpower have a special obligation to wage war, to define its terms, or to prevent others from waging it? Is America now "at war"?

Such questions must be addressed from a variety of perspectives, and no easy answers can be achieved. Our core reading list in First-year Seminar will range widely over different historical eras and different kinds of writing, and, in addition, individual section leaders have added their own supplementary readings drawn from their own particular fields of study. Students will be informed

prior to registration as to what these supplementary choices are for each section, and can choose their section accordingly. Readings will be explored in class discussions as well as in analytic writing assignments, the structure of which will again vary from one section to another; but all sections will require at least 25 pages of writing spread throughout the semester. Few sections require tests or quizzes. The course's primary focus will be on the close reading and analysis of these timeless and challenging texts, and on thoughtful discussion

of the issues they raise. To further this discussion, students will be invited to attend several evening events, including lectures, films, and panel debates.

. The core readings have been divided into four thematic groupings, as follows:

1) War and Mythology

. The Epic of Gilgamesh

. The Bhagavad-Gita

. The Biblical Books of Samuel (translated as The David Story by Robert Alter)

2) War and Democracy

Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War*

. Aristophanes, Lysistrata

3) The Case against War

. Immanuel Kant, Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals and "Essay on Perpetual Peace"

4) War and Memory

Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem

Marguerite Duras, The War and "Hiroshima Mon Amour" (film)

 

*Some sections will read an abridged version entitled Thucydides on Justice, Power and Human Nature.

 

REGISTRATION INFORMATION WILL BE PRESENTED AT THE MEETING ON THURS. AUG. 22ND AT 5:00 IN OLIN AUDITORIUM.

 

FIRST YEAR SEMINAR SCHEDULE

 

Professor

CRN

SECTION

SCHEDULE

ROOM

Mario Bick

92080

MB

Mon

.

Wed

.

.

10:00 am -

11:20 am

OLIN 307

Celia Bland

92444

CB

.

.

Wed

.

Fri

11:30 am -

12:50 pm

HEG 300

Leon Botstein &

James Romm

 

92024

 

B/R

.

 

Tue

.

 

Th

.

 

10:00 am -

 

11:20 am

 

OLIN 203

Christopher Callanan

92118

CC

.

Tue

.

Th

.

1:30 pm -

2:50 pm

PRE 128

Mark Cohen

92694

MC

Mon

.

Wed

.

.

11:30 am -

12:50 pm

OLIN 305

Mark Cohen

92695

MC2

Mon

.

Wed

.

.

3:00 pm -

4:20 pm

OLIN 303

Laurie Dahlberg

92423

LD

.

.

Wed

.

Fri

9:00 am -

10:20 am

OLIN 304

Richard Davis

92065

RD

Mon

.

Wed

.

.

1:30 pm -

2:50 pm

OLIN 310

Melissa Demian

92458

MD

.

Tue

.

Th

.

3:00 pm -

4:20 pm

LC 208

Paula Droege

92259

PD

.

.

Wed

.

Fri

10:00 am -

11:20 am

OLIN 107

Peter Gadsby

92432

PG

Mon

.

.

Th

.

11:30 am -

12:50 pm

ASP 302

Donna Grover

92090

DFG

.

Tue

.

Th

.

10:00 am -

11:20 am

OLIN 107

Peter Krapp

92459

PK

Mon

.

Wed

.

.

4:30 pm -

5:50 pm

OLIN 202

Peter Krapp

92460

PK2

Mon

.

Wed

.

.

7:00 pm -

8:20 pm

OLIN 201

Benjamin La Farge

92101

BLF

.

Tue

.

Th

.

8:30 am -

9:50 am

OLIN 309

Natan Margalit

92754

NM

.

Tue

.

Th

.

4:30 pm -

5:50 pm

LC 120

Paul Marienthal

92763

PM

 

Tue

.

.

Fri

10:00 am -

11:20 am

OLIN 202

Greg Moynahan

92261

GM

.

Tue

.

Th

.

11:30 am -

12:50 pm

OLIN 303

Susan Rogers

92438

SR

.

.

Wed

.

Fri

11:30 am -

12:50 pm

ASP 302

Justus Rosenberg

92099

JR

Mon

.

Wed

.

.

10:00 am -

11:20 am

OLIN 305

Leonard Schwartz

92758

LS

.

.

.

Th

Fri

1:30 pm -

2:50 pm

LC 120

Gennady Shkliarevsky

92013

GS

Mon

.

Wed

.

.

3:00 pm -

4:20 pm

OLIN 308

Alice Stroup

92018

AS

.

Tue

.

Th

.

10:00 am -

11:20 am

OLIN 306