FIRST-YEAR SEMINAR
What is Enlightenment?
The Science, Culture and Politics of Reason
During the Fall semester
of First Year Seminar, students focused on the constructive agenda of
“Enlightenment.” The authors read gave
life to Kant’s dictum, "Have the courage to use your own reason!" to
describe the world they saw and how they thought it should be. The Spring semester begins with the eventful
culmination of Enlightenment thinking, and then explores the complex and
ambivalent re-evaluation of the Enlightenment’s ideals throughout the 19th
and 20th Centuries. Readings
and discussions will show how Enlightenment thought was challenged by its encounters
with different cultures and traditions, as well as its own limitations. Throughout the semester, we will contrast
different approaches to the challenges faced during these historically and
intellectually tumultuous times. We
will also look forward in time, reflecting on how the spirits of Enlightenment
and Revolution are present in our modern world.
The core reading list for
the Spring 2008 semester will be:
Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
Immanuel
Kant: Groundwork for the Metaphysics of
Morals
William Blake: The
Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Mary Shelley: Frankenstein
Friedrich Nietzsche:
Also Sprach Zarathustra
Karl Marx: Essay on Estranged Labor, and The Communist Manifesto
Max Weber: Selections from The Protestant Ethic and the
Spirit of Capitalism
Albert Einstein: Relativity, along with
Werner Heisenberg: The
Development of Philosophical Ideas Since Descartes
in Comparison with the New Situation in Quantum Theory
Sigmund Freud:
Civilization and Its Discontents
Virginia Woolf: To the Lighthouse
Ralph Ellison: Invisible Man
Beyond the reading
assignments, students and faculty will explore revolution and the limits of
reason in other ways. Seminar discussions
and extensive writing throughout the semester will challenge us all to actively
engage in addressing difficult questions, rather than to take the writings of
any our predecessors as the last word on a subject. Weekly symposia will supplement our text-based studies with
lectures and other presentations that will focus on historical, artistic, and
scientific perspectives of the ideas raised in the course.
Students will be asked to
read Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man during the month of January for
discussion later in the semester. Many
of the issues brought to life in this novel will resonate throughout the
semester.
REGISTRATION
FOR FIRST YEAR SEMINAR:
You will receive a separate registration card for First
Year Seminar after registration for other courses on which you will list five
choices. The card should be returned to the Office of the Registrar by Monday,
December 17th. We will place
you in the highest available option, and send a note in campus mail before the
end of the semester letting you know which section you are in. Each seminar is limited to 16 students.
All first year students enroll in a seminar section and are required to attend the Monday afternoon symposia.
|
PROFESSOR |
SECT |
CRN |
SCHEDULE |
||||||
|
Ismail Acar |
IA |
18158 |
Mon |
|
Wed |
|
|
3:00 -4:20 pm |
OLIN 306 |
|
Leon Botstein / Susan Rogers |
B/R |
18060 |
|
Tu |
|
Th |
|
1:00
-2:20 pm |
OLIN 201 |
|
James Brudvig |
JB |
18458 |
|
|
Wed |
|
Fr |
10:30
- 11:50 am |
OLIN 307 |
|
Franklin Bruno |
FB |
18004 |
Mon |
|
Wed |
|
|
10:30
- 11:50 am |
OLIN 107 |
|
Rebecca Chace |
RC |
18449 |
Mon |
|
Wed |
|
|
12:00
-1:20 pm |
OLIN 303 |
|
Rebecca Chace |
RC2 |
18454 |
Mon |
|
Wed |
|
|
3:00 -4:20 pm |
OLIN 303 |
|
Noah Chasin |
NC |
18030 |
Mon |
|
Wed |
|
|
3:00 -4:20 pm |
PRE 101 |
|
Olivia Custer |
OC |
18443 |
Mon |
|
Wed |
|
|
1:30 -2:50 pm |
HEG 300 |
|
Olivia Custer |
OC2 |
18444 |
Mon |
|
Wed |
|
|
3:00 -4:20 pm |
HEG 300 |
|
Matthew Deady |
MD |
18157 |
|
Tu |
|
Th |
|
9:00 - 10:20 am |
OLIN 101 |
|
Gerard Dapena |
GD |
18481 |
Mon |
|
Wed |
|
|
7:30 -8:50 pm |
OLIN 101 |
|
Helena Gibbs |
HG |
18026 |
Mon |
|
Wed |
|
|
10:30
- 11:50 am |
OLIN 303 |
|
Helena Gibbs |
HG2 |
18027 |
Mon |
|
Wed |
|
|
1:30 -2:50 pm |
OLIN 303 |
|
Stephen Graham |
SG |
18459 |
Mon |
|
Wed |
|
|
12:00
-1:20 pm |
OLIN 304 |
|
Donna Grover |
DFG |
18291 |
Mon |
|
Wed |
|
|
9:00 - 10:20 am |
OLIN 304 |
|
Augustine Hungwe |
AH |
18479 |
Mon |
|
Wed |
|
|
9:00 - 10:20 am |
OLIN 107 |
|
Augustine Hungwe |
AH2 |
18480 |
Mon |
|
Wed |
|
|
3:00 -4:20 pm |
HEG 106 |
|
Michael Ives |
MI |
18482 |
Mon |
|
Wed |
|
|
3:00 -4:20 pm |
OLIN 309 |
|
Tamar Khitarishvili |
TK |
18201 |
|
Tu |
|
Th |
|
10:30
- 11:50 am |
OLIN 306 |
|
Marie-Helene Koffi-Tessio |
MK |
18460 |
Mon |
|
Wed |
|
|
10:30
- 11:50 am |
OLIN 304 |
|
Edie Meidav |
EM |
18455 |
|
|
Wed |
|
Fr |
10:30 -
11:50 am |
OLIN 309 |
|
Peggy Peoples |
PP |
18446 |
|
Tu |
|
Th |
|
1:00 -2:20 pm |
PRE 101 |
|
Peggy Peoples |
PP2 |
18447 |
|
Tu |
|
Th |
|
2:30 -3:50 pm |
PRE 101 |
|
Kristin Scheible |
KS |
18448 |
|
Tu |
|
Th |
|
1:00 -2:20 pm |
HEG 300 |
|
David Shein |
DS |
18445 |
|
Tu |
|
Th |
|
4:00 -5:20 pm |
OLIN 301 |
|
Jane Smith |
JS |
18468 |
Mon |
|
Wed |
|
|
7:00 -8:20 pm |
RKC 200 |
|
Paul Stephens |
PS |
18487 |
|
Tu |
|
Th |
|
10:30
- 11:50 am |
OLIN 310 |
|
Paul Stephens |
PS2 |
18486 |
|
Tu |
|
Th |
|
2:30 -3:50 pm |
OLIN 101 |
|
Robert Weston |
RW |
18518 |
|
Tu |
|
Th |
|
2:30 -3:50 pm |
OLIN 308 |
|
Michelle Woods |
MW |
18456 |
Mon |
|
Wed |
|
|
12:00
-1:20 pm |
OLIN 306 |
|
Michelle Woods |
MW2 |
18457 |
Mon |
|
Wed |
|
|
3:00 -4:20 pm |
ALBEE 106 |