Detailed schedule and class resources

Thursday, August 27 at 10:15am

Introductions. Scheduling of course selection meetings for Friday if necessary. Discussion of syllabus and expectations. Then walk to Rubendall Hall in Weiss for a plenary session at 10:45 AM.

Notes:

1. Please bring Writing Analytically to every class.
2. For every class that has a required reading, you must bring to class some written or typed notes about the reading. Sometimes, this webpage will provide study questions to guide you in creating these notes. If no study questions are provided, you must still bring some notes about a few things you consider interesting, unusual or notable in the reading.
3. Many of the study questions used in these resources incorporate the suggestions of other Dickinson professors. They are acknowledged by their initials: [CS] for Prof. Claire Seiler; [MS] for Prof. Melinda Schlitt; [TP] for Prof. Ted Pulcini; [HC] for Humanities Collective as a group.

Saturday, August 29 at 10:15am

Preparation:

• Read books 1, 6 and 9 of the Iliad.
• Be prepared (with written or typed notes) to answer the following questions:
  1. (Book 1) Is Achilles a hero or a spoiled brat? [MS]
  2. (Book 6) Why does Hector fight? [MS]
  3. (Book 9) Why does Achilles not fight? [MS]
  4. (All books) Note at least two different similes or metaphors, and explain what they might tell us about the Homeric world. [CS]

In class, we will try to apply "The Method" (Writing Analytically, pp26-27) to Achilles' big speech in book 9 (lines 312-441):

• As a fun initial investigation (not a substitute for reading the text carefully and noticing repetitions with your own brain!), create a word cloud of the speech. Use a web search to find out how to create a word cloud. The of the speech is available as achilles-book9-speech.txt. (Note: This text is from Cowper's 1849 translation, obtained from Gutenberg.org -- it's out of copyright so we are free to download and use it. Of course this translation is extremely different to the Lombardo we are using in class.)
• Now apply The Method: 1. repetitions; 2. strands; 3. binary oppositions; 4. choose and amplify; 5. anomalies.

Nice word clouds, everyone!

Monday, August 31

Preparation:

• As always, do the required reading and bring written or typed notes of a few things you consider interesting, unusual or notable. If you want more detailed directions on this, use the "Notice and Focus" methodology described on pp24-25 of Writing Analytically.
• Try to make a drawing of the Shield of Achilles as Hephaestus forges it in Book 18, lines 515-652. Bring your sketch to class. [CS]
• Read over assignment A1---we will discuss any questions about the assignment in class.

Optional: check out the incredible variability in translations of the Iliad.

Here's a selection of our own interpretations of the Shield of Achilles.

Friday, September 4

Preparation: Study questions for the reading:

1. What method for determining the truth of historical events does Thucydides claim he is employing? [HC]
2. What explains the origins of the war, according to Thucydides? [HC]
3. Why are the Spartans doomed to suffer defeat, according to Pericles? [HC]

Monday, September 7

Preparation: Study questions for the reading:

1. What effect did the plague of Athens have on the moral character and public spirit of the people of Athens? [HC]
2. What is Cleon's main complaint against the Athenian assembly? [HC]
3. Compare the section on the "Civil War in Corcyra" (starting on p. 89) to the section on the plague in Athens (starting p. 46). Note the similarities and differences. [HC]

Remember, this class is a plenary session in Stern.

Friday, September 11

Preparation: Bring written or typed notes detailing several strange/revealing/interesting aspects of the reading. Your notes must include elements from both book 2 and book 4 of Plato.

Don't forget that you need to complete the academic integrity tutorial by September 21. It would be a good idea to get it done this week.

Monday, September 14

Preparation: Study questions for the reading (all courtesy of [HC]):

1. (Book VIII) Having established the most ideal constitution in Book IV (the kingship or aristocracy), what are the remaining four constitutions described here? What are their counterparts in the soul of the individual? How are they related to each other, and the "parts of the soul" established in Book IV (rational, spirited, appetive...)?
2. (Book VIII) Which passages rang true for you? With which ones did you strongly disagree? (choose a couple of each)
3. (Book X) What is "imitation" as it is presented here? How is this relevant to his discussion of poetry, and what does this latter discussion add to his previous treatment of poetry?
4. (Book X) How and where does the topic of justice/injustice re-enter the discussion?
5. (Book X) Near the end of this final book of the Republic is an account of the Myth of Er: why is it there?

Groups for peer review and discussion with Writing Associate Taylor Hunkins:

• Group 1: Brendan, Max, Alex, Andy
• Group 2: Michaela, Chris, Connor, Paul
• Group 3: Jenn, Amanda, Nate, John
• Group 4: Josh, Sarah, Penelope

Friday, September 18

1. Book 14: Apply the "notice and focus" methodology from Writing Analytically (p24) to Book 14. Note that this goes beyond what we have done in previous classes. You need to not only find interesting/strange/revealing aspects, but rank them in order of importance and state why they are interesting/strange/revealing.
2. Book 19: Augustine suggests that even though we cannot have happiness in this life, it doesn't follow we should kill ourselves or turn away from the world. But when we do participate in the functions of the world, problems still make themselves felt. How does Augustine use the duties of a judge to contribute to his argument there can be no true happiness on earth (444-445)? [TP]
3. Book 19: What's the difference between the kind of peace pursued by the heavenly and by the earthly city, and to what extent do they work together to achieve their separate ends (464)? [TP]

Some useful information for our discussions:

• Top 20 words in Book 14: man, god, flesh, sin, good, soul, according, should, lust, body, love, evil, live, fear, himself, men, our, nature, desire, other
• Top 20 words in Book 19: god, peace, life, man, good, men, own, other, body, may, soul, virtue, such, our, nature, true, supreme, city, people, should

Slides from the discussion on assignment A1 feedback/improvement are available.

Monday, September 21

Friday, September 25

• The required reading is the Foreword and Cantos 1-13 of the Inferno. Our class discussion will focus on Cantos 1-6, so Cantos 7-13 can be skimmed fairly lightly.
• My suggestion for how to read Dante:
  • Before you read each Canto, read a plot summary of what is going to happen in that Canto. The main Wikipedia article on the Inferno is perfectly fine for this.
  • Read the Canto carefully.
  • Go to Dante worlds, and read some of the background information about the characters and imagery in the Canto.
  • Make some notes about what was interesting or revealing in that Canto.
• Optionally, check out another excellent resource: World of Dante.
• The specific discussion questions/activities for class are:
  1. Choose one scene in Canto 5 or 6. Draw a sketch of the scene, labeling the main elements and clearly stating what lines in the text describe your scene. The sketch does not need to be elaborate -- don't spend more than about 10 minutes on it. But also, try to do it completely from your own imagination and reading of the text. Do not search online for ideas and especially not for images.
  2. What's the rhyme scheme of the Italian orginal? What's the rhyme scheme of the English translation? Is there any difference? (Don't look online for the answers. Figure it out for yourself.)
  3. How many lines are there in the Italian version of Cantos 1, 2, and 3 respectively? How about the English translation? Note that lines occur in groups of three called tercets. How many tercets are there in each of the first three Cantos? (Calculate it for both Italian original and English translation.)
  4. So far you have read Homer/epic poetry, Thucydides/history, Plato/philosophy, and Augustine/theology. To which of these does Dante seem closest, and in what way(s)? (there may be more than one answer to this). [MS]
  5. How real a voyage does Dante wish us to believe this is? What are the "realistic" elements, and what purpose do you think they serve? [MS]

Please sign up for an additional library session using the online sign-up sheet. Attendance at an additional library session will form part of your participation grade for the course.

Thanks for the interesting sketches from Canto 5 and 6. Here are a couple of the impressions of Cerberus (Canto 6).

Monday, September 28

Preparation: before class, you are required to complete the following online tutorials (each of them takes only 5 to 10 minutes), available from the library's tutorials page:

• "Finding Books in the Waidner-Spahr Library" (all 3 modules)
• "Distinguishing Among Source Types"

Friday, October 2

• The required reading is Cantos 14-24 of the Inferno. Our class discussion will focus on Cantos 14-19, so Cantos 20-24 can be skimmed fairly lightly.
• No study questions are provided for today. Instead, make a note of at least one interesting/strange/revealing thing in each of Cantos 14-19.
• One more resource you may find helpful: on Moodle there is a canto-by-canto summary, broken down by line numbers, of the main events in the Inferno. It's taken from Robert Hollander's edition of the Inferno and the filename is "Hollander Summaries - Inferno.pdf".

In class, we will spend some time on the exercise on page 234 of Writing Analytically, "Try This 11.2: Qualifying Overstated Claims". There's no need to prepare in advance for this.

Monday, October 5

Friday, October 9

1. Find Prospero's reference to the "liberal arts". What are the similarities and differences between Prospero's idea of liberal arts, and our own idea of the liberal arts at Dickinson (which is, after all, a liberal arts college)?
2. Find a word that is used at least three times in Act I. (Do not choose a common word like "the" or an obviously uninteresting word like "Prospero".) Note the line numbers of the three occurrences and write out the meanings of these lines in plain English. What is the significance of the word that you found? How does it connect to the themes of The Tempest?

Monday, October 12

1. Consider Prospero's famous "revels" speech (IV.i.146-163). Does this speech lead to the two cities of Augustine? Are there any other connections to readings from earlier in the semester? [MS]
2. Think about the workings of justice in the play. How would different characters define it? Does justice rule in the end? Whose justice? [MS]
3. In one or two sentences of your own words, summarize the significance of the Montaigne and Strachey essays as they relate to The Tempest.

Friday, October 16

Monday, October 19

Friday, October 23

1. Why is Descartes "delighted most of all in mathematics" (p4)?
2. What is the "first principle of philosophy" developed on page 18? [MS]
3. According to Descartes (pages 31-33), what distinguishes men from "beasts"? [MS]
4. Use Banner to print out a copy of your "degree audit". Print out and bring a hard copy of your degree audit to class. Turning in your degree audit will form part of today's participation grade.

Please take the class survey.

Monday, October 26

Friday, October 30

1. Do the four required readings, as described in the syllabus. Off-line versions of the documents are available on Moodle. Online links are provided here for convenience, all courtesy of The Founders' Constitution:
   • Samuel Adams, The Rights of the Colonists, 20 Nov. 1772 (Note that you are only required to read certain excerpts of this speech. The Moodle version contains only the excerpts you are required to read, whereas the link provided here contains the whole speech.)
   • Declaration of Independence
   • 1789 letter from Jefferson to Madison
   • James Madison, Federalist, no. 51
2. As usual, make notes on the readings, including at least one interesting/strange/revealing item about each of the four readings.
3. Also bring to class your notes on Monday's plenary session, for use in some brief participation grading.

Class survey results are available.

Monday, November 2

The required readings are as stated in the syllabus, but our class discussion will focus on the following two components:

• Excerpts from Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations.
• The Communist Manifesto, by Marx and Engels. Our discussion will focus on Parts I and II (pages 14-27 of the PDF linked here).

Preparation: Make notes on the excerpts described above, and prepare answers to the following study questions:

1. How does Smith's discussion of human nature and the differences among people (end of Book One, chapter II) fit with Plato's? (The relevant Plato extract on specialization is available.) Are people naturally "fit" for some task or another? [MS]
2. Does Smith really want no regulation at all? Indeed, what sort of regulation is necessary for even Smith's vision to be realized? Would Smith agree that "Greed is Good"? [MS]
3. If Marx were alive today, how do you think he would define "bourgeois" and "proletarian" within US society? Give some specific examples of which US residents would be in each category.
4. Consider the list of 10 specific communist policies listed near the end of section II of the manifesto. Of these 10 policies, which would be considered "communist" today? Which would be considered "socialist"? Which would be considered reasonable by a majority of US congressional representatives?

Friday, November 6

The required readings are as stated in the syllabus, but our class discussion will focus on the following excerpts:

• Darwin's Origin of Species: the first six pages of chapter 3, and the first six pages of chapter 4. (A document containing all of chapters 3 and 4 is available on Moodle.)
• Alan Turing's paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence: sections 1, 2, and 6 only. (A document containing the whole paper is available on Moodle.)

Preparation: Make notes on the excerpts described above, and prepare answers to the following study questions:

1. Find a quotation in the Darwin excerpt giving Darwin's definition of the "Struggle for Existence." Rephrase the definition in your own words. How does this differ from the more famous phrase "survival of the fittest"?
2. How would you compare the style of Darwin's prose to that of Descartes? Give at least one similarity and one difference.
3. In section 1 of his paper, Turing describes an "imitation game," which these days is called the Turing test. Turing actually describes two versions of his imitation game. The first version involves three humans. In this first version of the imitation game: (a) Who are the players? (b) What are the rules for winning the game? (c) Who do you think will win on average?
4. The second version of the imitation game involves two humans and a computer (note that Turing often uses the word "machine" where we would use "computer"). This second version is what we commonly refer to as the Turing test today. What are the rules for winning the second version? Who do you think would win in a contest where the computer was played by an existing chat bot such as Cleverbot or Alice?
5. In section 6, Turing rebuts nine possible objections to his belief that a computer program could, in principle, win the imitation game. The objections are numbered (1)-(9). From these nine objections, choose the one objection that you find most compelling. (a) Explain why you believe your chosen objection may be plausible. (b) Which part of Turing's rebuttal to your chosen objection do you believe may be incorrect?

Connections between today's readings and the rest of the course: Below is a useful quotation from a book recommended to me by Dennis Looney, our plenary speaker on Dante. The book is Turing's man: Western culture in the computer age (UNC Press, 1984) by J. David Bolter. The excerpt comes from the opening of his chapter on artificial intelligence. It neatly summarizes the view of humanity as conceived by several of the authors we have studied. Bolter says:

In classical and Christian thinking, man was a made thing, the crown of creation, perhaps, but not the creator. Whatever modern biology has done to stress the continuity of life from microbe to man, we still think of ourselves as the highest manifestation of evolution, or the creative power of nature. In fact, our modern self-appraisal is possibly higher than that of the Platonist or the Christian theologian. They believed in orders of existence beyond our own, the Platonist in ideas and the Christian in angels and God. Dispensing with God as a hypothesis, the modern biologist sees man, and in particular his brain, as the most highly organized matter to be found in the natural world. (p189)

Monday, November 9

Friday, November 13

Monday, November 16

1. Do the same preparation as for the previous class, except this time covering chapters 8, 10, and 14 of Du Bois. (That is, for each of those three chapters, prepare at minimum a 1-2 sentence summary in your own words and one interesting/strange/revealing item.)
2. Choose your favorite sentence from any one of the nonfiction readings we have done this semester, and submit it to the Moodle assignment called "favorite sentence." Be prepared to explain in class why you like the sentence. We will be using these sentences as examples to discuss the idea of good writing.

Friday, November 20

Nice coincidence -- it was Achebe's birthday on Monday and he was featured on a podcast I frequently listen to called The Writer's Almanac: http://writersalmanac.org/episodes/20151116/. (Click the "play" icon to listen to it.)

Monday, November 23

Friday, November 27

Monday, November 30

This word cloud, based on the frequencies of word occurrences in all readings this semester, might be useful in trying to summarize the major themes of the course. The word cloud is also available in zipped svg format, but you will need to download and unzip it to view. (Acknowledgment: word cloud generated using https://www.jasondavies.com/wordcloud/.) For the brave, some more detailed analysis of word frequencies is available: text-analysis.html.

Friday, December 4

Thanks to everyone for playing Ideas Survivor. The voting results for the reading that had the greatest impact on you are available.