Cultural Heritage—Eight Credits

The dominant culture of the United States has its roots in the history and development of “Western culture” and its interplay with “non-Western” societies. For good or for ill, Western culture is now having an increasingly global impact.

Hope students, whether or not they see the dominant culture of the U.S. as “home turf,” benefit from knowing and critically reflecting upon the cultural heritage of Western civilization.

Whatever path a student chooses in meeting this requirement will provide an introduction to some of the central events, questions and concerns that have shaped Western culture. Students will gain an understanding of historical movements, as well as significant literary and philosophical texts. Through discussion and writing, students are encouraged to develop an informed evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the Western cultural legacy which will contribute greater self-understanding.

The overall idea of the Cultural Heritage requirement is to give you an introduction to three humanities disciplines (literature, history, philosophy) through just two courses, and in a way that includes both the ancient world (CH1) and the modern world (CH2).

The Cultural Heritage requirement may be fulfilled by taking IDS 171 and IDS 172, or by taking one of these interdisciplinary courses in combination with a Cultural Heritage course from English, History, or Philosophy. During fall 2008 there is also one interdisciplinary course that covers two disciplines: IDS 174, a CH2 course that includes only literature and history, can fulfill the requirement along with a CH1 course that includes philosophy (IDS 171, 175, or 177 or Philosophy 230).

Students may also fulfill the requirement with a combination of three single-discipline courses, one each from English, Philosophy, and History, two of which must be 4-credit CH1 and CH2 courses; the third may be a 4- or 2-credit course from the third discipline. For a complete list of options for fulfilling this requirement, see the college catalog under “Degree Program” (pp. 109-110). If you have questions, contact Prof. Curtis Gruenler, Director of Cultural Heritage.

Spring Semester 2010

INTERDISCIPLINARY COURSES COVERING LITERATURE, HISTORY, AND PHILOSOPHY

IDS 171-01: Tragedy, Comedy, Democracy (CH1)
James Allis
MWF 8:30-9:20

IDS 171-02: Tragedy, Comedy, Democracy (CH1)
James Allis
MWF 9:30-10:20

In Greece, the fifth century B.C. begins with a war (the Persian Wars), which Athens was instrumental in winning, and it ends with a war (the Peloponnesian War), which Athens lost. Throughout this time, Athens develops a flourishing, contentious democracy which contributes to a period of great innovation and turmoil. We see experimentation in self-government, military innovations, new and extraordinary approaches in art and architecture, significant advances in mathematics and science. In this atmosphere of freedom and power, there emerged the literary forms known as tragedy and comedy.

In this class, while looking at the history of 5th century Greece and the rise of Athenian democracy, we will explore the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripedes, and the comedies of Aristophanes. We will investigate how these dramatic forms are used to consider such basic human concerns as freedom, its possibilities and its limits, what in our lives we control and what we don't control, the nature of human responsibility, the relations between gods and humans, the relations between men and women, the uses and abuses of power, the promises and dangers of sex and love, the struggles to realize justice, conflicts between duties to family and duties to city, what makes for a happy life. And throughout the course, we will ask, what, if any, connections might exist between the struggles of the Greeks 2500 years ago and our efforts to live today in 2009.

IDS 171-03: Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages from Virgil to Dante (CH1)
Curtis Gruenler
MWF 11:00-11:50

During the 1500 years between the birth of Christ and the Renaissance, the world as we know it today took shape through changes such as the rise of Christianity and Islam, the invention of romantic love, the formation of modern nations, and the interaction of Christian and classical thought. Yet even though this is such a formative time for our own culture, people saw the world much differently that we do. We will try to imagine medieval life and understand medieval thought through the lenses of history, literature, philosophy, and to a lesser extent theology, music, and art. Transporting ourselves to the past can give us a new perspective on the present and on big questions like what makes a good life, what it is to love, and how people can live together well in communities and nations. This will happen most powerfully through our encounter with great texts from this time such as Virgil’s Aeneid, Augustine’s Confessions, Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy, philosophical works by Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas, the Lays of Marie de France, and above all Dante’s Divine Comedy, which we will read almost in its entirety. Students will write several short papers, one longer essay, midterm and final exams, and a commonplace book.

IDS 171-04: Real Life and the Good Life from Classical Times to Christian (CH1)
Joseph LaPorte
MW 2:30-3:50

IDS 171-05: Real Life and the Good Life from Classical Times to Christian (CH1)
Joseph LaPorte
MW 4:00-5:20

In this course, we will be keeping our eyes on ethical questions, particularly those pertaining to sex and gender, power, and still more broadly, how to live well. The readings for this course are in large part classics, texts that have through the ages been regarded as masterpieces that transcend their own times, and that have something important to say to people of various times and cultures. We will be looking at literature, philosophy, and history as well as some theology; we will be covering these disciplines as they apply to classical Greece and Rome, and then as they apply into the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Because the course proceeds chronologically, we can see in a powerful way how later authors build on earlier ones. Something that particularly excites me about the course is the way it illustrates how Christianity, which became the dominant religion in the West, was born in a classical world and how Christians came to incorporate classical learning and culture from ancient Greece and Rome.

IDS 171-06: Freedom, Justice, and the Good Life (CH1)
Dianne Portfleet
TR 9:30-10:50

This course will focus on 4 specific time periods in history: 5th-century B.C. Greece, 1st-century Rome, beginnings of Islam and its expansion, and Dante's Florence. In each of the historical, philosophical and literary readings, we will be focusing on the themes of freedom, justice and the good life. The last half of the semester will be spent reading the Dante’s complete Divine Comedy and expanding on all of the ideas introduced in the earlier writings.

IDS 171-07: Twin Pillars of Western High Culture (CH1)
Gloria Tseng
TR 12:00-1:20

IDS 171-08: Twin Pillars of Western High Culture (CH1)
Gloria Tseng
TR 3:00-4:20

This course will examine the Western cultural heritage from three angles: examples of the Judeo-Christian religious tradition; examples of the Greco-Roman philosophical and literary traditions; and the historical development of the emergence of a geographical and cultural West.  The first half of the semester will focus on the first two angles of the course, with assigned readings of primary texts from the Judeo-Christian and the Greco-Roman tradition.  It will also provide a broad historical outline of the history of Mesopotamia, the ancient Greek city-states, and the Roman Republic and Empire.  The second half of the semester will focus on the historical developments that went into the making of a geographical and cultural West from the Roman Empire to the beginning of the Renaissance.  We will examine the twin historical developments of the institution of the Church and the institution of the national monarchy, and the primary texts assigned for this portion of the course will reflect the twin concerns regarding the relationship between the temporal and the spiritual on the one hand and that between the Christian and the pagan on the other.

IDS 172-01:  From Reformation to Revolution (CH2)
Janis Gibbs
MWF 9:30-10:20

The theme of this interdisciplinary humanities course is “From Reformation to Revolution.”  The dynamic which will guide our investigation is change.  Change is an important dynamic in human societies.   At different times in history, men and women have developed ideas, technologies and movements which have challenged prevailing authorities, shifted people’s understanding of the truth, and changed the world.  Changes can be minor, or they can be radical.  They can improve existing institutions, or replace them entirely.  We sometimes call changes “reforms.”  If the changes are profound enough, we call them “revolutions.”  How do people foster change?  How do they react to calls for reform?  What transforms reformation into revolution?  What leads people to develop revolutionary changes, or to adopt them?  How and why do other people resist reform or revolution?  How can people transform the extraordinary energy of revolutionary movements into the energy required to build and maintain new institutions?  Do we use the term “revolution” too easily?  What is a “reform”?  When does a change become revolutionary?
 
We will study a series of changes between the late fifteenth century (i.e. late 1400s C.E.) and the early 19th century (1800s C.E.). Major topics include the Protestant and Catholic Reformations, the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment and the French Revolution.   While we will not consider all of the important, or even all of the revolutionary, changes that have occurred during this period, we will be looking at a variety of kinds of change:  religious, political, intellectual, technological, social—and of course, combinations of these kinds of change, since none of them exist alone.
 
This course is also an introduction to three disciplines within the humanities—history, philosophy, and literature—and to the connections and distinctions between them.  We will use a variety of sources to discuss reformations, revolutions, and the people who made them, joined them, resisted them, and were swept up by them.  Literature, philosophy and history give us different, though related, ways of understanding the process and the experience of reform and revolution in human history.

IDS 172-02: Perspectives on Science from the Enlightenment to the Present (CH2)
Jonathan Hagood
MWF 9:30-10:20

IDS 172-03: Perspectives on Science from the Enlightenment to the Present (CH2)
Jonathan Hagood
MWF 11:00-11:50

What is science? How have society and culture shaped science? How has science in turn shaped society and culture? This course examines a variety of perspectives from the 17th-Century Age of Reason to the present day. We will read leading philosophers’ texts on the nature of science, examine historical case studies in detail, and explore how literature helps us better to understand changing perspectives on science. In particular, we will read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; key works in the development of detective fiction by  Voltaire, Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Dorothy Sayers, and Raymond Chandler; and the classic dystopian novel, Brave New World. We will also examine the history of René Descartes’ bones, tracing the wanderings of the literal skull and bones of Descartes through three and a half centuries as well as the metaphorical remains of the French philosopher and founder of the scientific method.

IDS 172-04: Revolutions and Revolutionaries (CH2)
John Cox
MWF 11:00-11:50

Everyone knows that the United States originated in a political revolution, but do we know where the revolution came from? The idea of a revolution as a good thing has a history, and that history will be the focus of this course. Did everyone think revolutions were good? Who did, and who didn't, and why? How did religion, science, and philosophical reflection contribute to revolution? What did literature have to do with it? Focusing on three disciplines (history, literary criticism, and philosophy), this course will explore the origin, meaning, and continuing vitality of revolution in modern western European and American history.

IDS 172-05: Enlightenment, Revolution, and Romanticism (CH2)
Anthony N. Perovich Jr.
MWF  1:00-1:50

IDS 172-06: Enlightenment, Revolution, and Romanticism (CH2)
Anthony N. Perovich Jr.
MWF  2:00-2:50

While the French Revolution was one of the major events of modern history, the buildup to it and the fallout from it are of equal interest, and all three will be examined in this course. This section of IDS 172 is a “three-discipline” interdisciplinary course: it will focus on European history, literature, and philosophy from the middle of the seventeenth century to the middle of the nineteenth century. Special attention will be paid to the intellectual movement known as “the Enlightenment,” to the Revolution itself and the Napoleonic period that ensued, and to the Romantic movement that sprang up alongside the Revolution and continued beyond it. Figures to be read or studied will include Voltaire, Kant, Goethe, Napoleon, and Hegel. The connections of the main themes of this course to other cultural and historical developments, such as the Scientific Revolution, the American Revolution, and the rise of nationalism, will also be explored.

IDS 172-07: Do the Right Thing! (CH2)
Julie Kipp
TR 9:00-10:50

From the Enlightenment period to the present day people have pondered the characteristics of a civil and rational society and asked the questions: What does it mean to do the right thing? Is this the best of all possible worlds? To a large extent, however, these questions have been driven without consideration for those who have been excluded from Western concepts of civil society and from the very category of “the rational human.” This course will explore the development of Western thinking on these issues, both through an examination of canonical authors in the Western canon and through a substantial consideration of marginalized voices and positions. The course is interdisciplinary in nature, which is to say that we will work as historians (using primary source materials like newspapers, editorial cartoons, medical writings, and first-person narratives as well as literary and philosophical texts from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries) as well as literary scholars (focusing on close readings of texts and formal issues as well as on their historical significance) as a way to explore historical change across the last three centuries and the strengths and weaknesses of our Western cultural heritage as well as its relation to non-Western cultures. One of the primary goals of this course is to prompt students not just to think about what it means to them to “do the right thing,” but to consider ways to translate their ideas into concrete actions. To this end, students will be asked to develop over the course of the semester a service project, the results of which will be presented to the class orally at the end of the semester.

IDS 172-08: Do the Right Thing! (CH2)
Jennifer Young

There is a fine line between patriotism and marginalization. How might reading Voltaire challenge one’s views on modern day issues such as the Patriot Act? Note the demarcation between beautiful-stupid people and ugly-smart people. Who defines beauty? Who determines unattractiveness? Where does God fit in? What might Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing have to do with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein? How does Kantian philosophy relate to raptivists like KRS One or Mos Def? We will discuss works by philosophers, artists, and writers, all within the framework of identity, ethics, and behavior. Course material will mainly focus on the 1790s to present day. Students will participate in various experiments and investigation projects. Come ready to be active.

IDS 172-09: Authority and the Individual (CH2)
Marla Lunderberg
TR 12:00-1:20

How do you define yourself as an individual?  And how do you relate to the many different authorities in your life?  When someone (parent, spiritual leader, government authority or dorm resident director) lays down a rule, do you respond positively?  Break it as a matter of principle?  Toe the line but grumble?  Do you react differently to different kinds of authority?  When two kinds of authority conflict, how do you respond?

In this course, we will examine how others have seen their relationships to the many authorities in their lives.  We'll cover a great range of time and a great variety of kinds of thinking, from Luther's distinctions between spiritual and secular authorities, to Shakespeare's exploring the power held by colonial authorities, to Confucian emphasis on family ties.  We'll cover texts from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, from literature, history, and philosophy, from Western and Asian traditions.  We will consider texts as they relate to their particular moment in history and as they relate to each other.

Perhaps you'll see yourself in some of these thinkers.  Perhaps you won't.  Yet whether you agree or disagree with them, digesting what they have said can allow you to examine closely what you think.

INTERDISCIPLINARY COURSE: LITERATURE AND HISTORY

IDS 174-01: Indigenous: Native American Literature and History in (What Came to Be Called) North America (CH2)
Jesus Montano
MW 6:00-7:20

Chronologically our course begins at the height of the Aztec Empire and proceeds through the colonial period, the ages of nation building and manifest destiny, and finally ends in the Now. In order to avoid the pitfalls of a straight linear chronology, however, our route will begin in modern Mexico with the Zapatista and other indigenous movements. We will proceed back into history, going through the nationalism and colonial periods all the way back to the eve of the Conquest in Mexico. At this point we will venture across the Border, and while staying in the past, we will explore Native American creation stories and the various ways in which people made sense of their relationships to each other, to the world, and to the divine. We will continue on this road, traveling from the early period of contact with Europeans toward the US colonial period and then to the era of expansion and Manifest Destiny. Our course will end by examining modern Native American authors who look back toward the past as a way of discussing modern US issues. The goal of our travels is to understand our cultural inheritance, sometimes through the lens of Western European thought and culture but most time in juxtaposition to it, through the disciplines of history and literature. We will look carefully at governmental treaties and historical events, as well as the thoughts and ideas governing both inter-cultural and intra-cultural dialogue.

PHILOSOPHY COURSES

Philosophy 230-01: Ancient Philosophy (CH1)
Jack Mulder
TR 12:00-1:20

In this course we will examine ancient western philosophy, beginning with the Greeks.  Plato, a pupil of Socrates, wrote dialogues in which Socrates often appears as the main character.  They are conversations like the ones that we have, but they are based on a certain question, like “what is justice?”  We will read a number of Plato’s dialogues, and then consider Plato’s own student, Aristotle.  Not only were these two figures enormously influential for the Greek and Roman thinkers that followed them, among them, the Stoics (of whom we will read Epictetus), but their influence extends to two towering figures in the history of theology as well as philosophy, namely St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas.  We will finish the course by considering the philosophical contributions made by these last two figures. 

In this class, we’ll cover the ancient period of western philosophy (and some of the medieval period).  We’ll ask questions like: