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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.
COURSES OFFERED FOR SPRING 2009INTERDISCIPLINARY COURSES COVERING LITERATURE, HISTORY, AND PHILOSOPHYIDS 171-01: Power, Freedom, and Leadership (CH1) One way to begin to explore such concerns (rather than reading contemporary discussions of leadership, most of which are pretty vacuous, even those on the bestseller lists) is to investigate various works from the Western tradition. A number of the great works of the Western cultural heritage raise basic questions about human life and human struggles to figure out how we humans might try to live our lives. They investigate the possibilities and limitations of human freedom, human power, human responsibility, human justice, and in so doing, they give us some of the most thoughtful and interesting considerations of leadership we have. In this course, we will investigate life in ancient Athens under the leading figure of Pericles, and how Pericles contributes so significantly to the greatness of Athenian civilization. We will also consider the odd figure of Socrates, and how he offers profound challenges to Periclean leadership, challenges so disturbing that the Athenians eventually put Socrates to death. What is a good and flourishing life? How does one begin to live well and help others live well? Who is the true statesman, and what is genuine leadership? We will explore the Roman republic and its decline into civil war, the reigns of Julius and Augustus Caesar, and the model of leadership embodied in the figure of Aeneas in Virgil's Aeneid. How is power to be exercised? What are the duties of human life, and how are we to act when duties conflict with our ever present desires? What might be the roles of suffering in life? What are the demands of leadership? What are the limits of power and responsibility? We will then move to a study of Machiavelli and The Prince, and examine Machiavelli's challenge to classical conceptions of virtue, justice and power. We will then consider Shakespeare's contributions to this conversation about power and leadership through a reading of Richard II, Henry IV Parts I and II, and Henry V. Can cruelty be well-used? Does one have to be cruel in order to exercise leadership? What makes for bad leadership? How might one learn to be a better leader? What are the costs of leadership? In reading and exploring these works from the Western tradition, we will try to relate the material to national and international concerns of today, and perhaps more importantly, to the questions and concerns in each of our particular lives right now. What are your thoughts and feelings, questions and concerns about freedom and responsibility, right and wrong, power and leadership in your life, and how might your questions and concerns relate to the questions and concerns of the people and events we study? What are your specific hopes and fears about where you might wish to exercise leadership in your life and where you might not wish to exercise leadership? What together might we find out about ourselves, our worlds, and the possibilities and limitations in our efforts to figure out how we might live our lives?
IDS 171-02: The Middle Ages (CH1) IDS 171-03: The Middle Ages (CH1)
IDS 171-04: Citizenship and the Good Life (CH1)
IDS 171-05: Real Life and the Good Life, from Classical Times
to Christian (CH1) 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 and art; 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, where there is special emphasis on Florence. 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 171-07: Freedom, Justice, and the Good Life (CH1) 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 171-08: Twin Pillars of Western High Culture
(CH1)
IDS 172-01: From Reformation to Revolution
(CH2) Imagine an age of religious commitment, violent warfare, political change,
literary innovation, and philosophical revolution. How would you know
what to believe when everywhere the winds of change were blowing? How
would new ideas and new technologies affect your life? This course begins
in the late fifteenth century, as scholars and thinkers all over Europe
challenged old ways of knowing and thinking. We will study works of literature,
history and philosophy from the European renaissance, through the religious
reformations of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, to the intellectual
and political revolutions of the eighteenth century. We will talk about
great books and great ideas in literature, history and philosophy, and
we will think and write about the influence of these books and ideas
on the lives of ordinary people. The period between the late fifteenth
century and the late eighteenth century is called "early modern," and
in it, we find the roots of many of the characteristics of the world
we recognize today. We may also find some things that, to our eyes, look
decidedly strange. This course concentrates on the European cultural
heritage, but since no part of the world exists in isolation from the
rest, we will consider Europe in a world context. IDS 172-02: Revolutions: Inside and Out (CH2) IDS 172-03: Revolutions: Inside and Out (CH2) In this course, we will begin by considering three major revolutions
that occurred at the dawn of the modern period. We will consider Galileo
and the Scientific Revolution, Luther and the Protestant Reformation,
and Descartes and the Modern Philosophical Revolution. This spirit of
revolution often brought about a renewed emphasis on the individual,
but it also had profound implications for how to understand our place
in the world. Consider, as we will, Voltaire's satire of many traditional
Christian beliefs, Kant's attempt to derive morality from a non-religious
foundation, or the French Revolution's bloody conclusion. What happens
to us when our culture "comes of age"? IDS 172-04: Authority and the Individual (CH2)
INTERDISCIPLINARY COURSES COVERING LITERATURE AND HISTORY IDS 174-01: Reading and Writing the New World
(CH2, CD4) IDS 174-02: Reading and Writing the New World
(CH2, CD4) Narrative story-telling is one of the important modes of writing both literature and history. This course will focus on narratives written about and read within the Iberian Atlantic World – a new world created by the European discovery of the Americas in 1492. We begin with the historical narrative of the Spanish Empire, which from the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries discovered, conquered, or ruled large expanses of Europe, Africa, and the Americas. The readings that follow this introduction include: the travel narratives of the Spanish, Portuguese, and other European explorers and conquerors; the sacred narratives written by Jesuit missionaries in sixteenth-century Mexico; and the early natural histories of the New World. In addition, the course concludes by reading Don Quixote, the seventeenth-century Spanish novel that in the narrative of the protagonist embodies one perspective on the rise and decline of the Spanish Empire. Through these readings and related writing assignments, we will examine the components of narrative structures and assess their value as literary and historical texts.
IDS 174-03: Indigenous: Native American Literature
and History in (What Came to Be Called) North America (CH2, CD4)
INTERDISCIPLINARY COURSES COVERING LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY IDS 175-01: Homer's Iliad and Odyssey (CH1) With Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, we are presented with two of the great metaphors of life, a battle and a journey. In this class, we will read, in translation, these two epic poems which are sometimes said to have “fed” the Western imagination more than any other works in the last 2700 years. We will begin the course reading the Iliad. The poem has sometimes been described as the greatest war story of all time. Plutarch tells us that Aristotle's pupil Alexander kept the book "with his dagger under his pillow, declaring that he esteemed it a perfect portable treasure of all military virtue and knowledge." Yet while military commanders throughout history have studied this poem of the Trojan War to avoid Agamemnon's errors and to follow Odysseus' tactics, the poem is vastly more than a "war story." With extraordinary rhythms of language and unparalleled metaphors, Homer vividly gives us a “poem of the human condition.” We will explore Achilles’ shame, rage, and withdrawal from human interactions, a culture of honor and glory, the human confrontation with mortality, the relationships between gods and humans, the meaning of courage, the strength of fate and the possibilities for human freedom, the desire for justice and vengeance, the need to keep fighting in the face of certain defeat, acts of friendship, loyalty, and generosity, the heroism of Hector, the complexity and sorrows of war along with the longings for tranquility and peace, the tragedy of Troy, the sorrow of loss, Achilles’ return to battle, the losing and regaining of humanity. Then we will turn to the story of Odysseus’ ten year journey home from the Trojan War in the Odyssey. Here, too, we find much more than a “story of a journey,” though part of the excitement of the work is the wonderful presentation of Odysseus’ adventures and trials. We’ll investigate the meaning of home and the longing for home, the importance of hospitality in an often inhospitable world, the temptation to find release in death and the strength to resist that temptation, relations between women and men, husbands and wives, parents and children, again the relations between gods and humans and the role of fate, the significance of truth, lies, and deception in pursuing one’s goals, the reunion of Odysseus and Penelope and Odysseus’ killing of the suitors to regain his home. Throughout the story, we will see Odysseus’ continuing struggles to move ultimately from chaos to order. All are welcome; no background in Greek language or culture is presupposed.
The only prerequisite is a certain willingness to explore how it is that
in a language we no longer know exactly how to pronounce, this poet Homer,
from a world of which we have but the vaguest ideas, incredibly and wonderfully
found a way to give us these stories of our human lives, containing,
as one recent commentator has put it, “every secret happiness and
every hidden sin."
PHILOSOPHY COURSES Philosophy 230-01: Ancient Philosophy (CH1) This course is an introduction to philosophy through the eyes of the ancient Greek philosophers—a group of thinkers prior to the 2nd Century B.C. whose work marks the beginning of Western Civilization. These were intensely creative times: the thinkers in question founded the first universities, wrote the first scientific textbooks, and helped establish the first democracies. Their philosophical and scientific work challenged a culture steeped in pantheistic social and religious tradition. Our investigation will track their work from its earliest beginnings
in the pre-Socratics through Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and their legacies
in the Academic, Peripatetic, Epicurean, and Stoic schools. Central questions
we'll consider include: "What is the fundamental nature of reality?", "What
is knowledge and what are its limits?", "What is happiness?",
and "What is justice?" Students should expect manageable reading,
lots of writing, lively discussion, and a couple of exams.
Philosophy 232-01: Modern Philosophy (CH2) This course is an introduction to philosophy through eyes of the modern philosophers—a group of European men and women writing in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. These were revolutionary times: old models of the universe, medieval accounts of faith, and traditional justifications for morality were all under attack. While the modern philosophers were among the attackers, they did not aim to destroy. They wanted to preserve the contents of tradition (e.g. belief that God exists) but establish these contents on a secure foundation (e.g., reason instead of authority). It remains an open question whether or not they were successful. Our investigation will attempt to track their success (or lack thereof)
with respect to two questions: "What do I know?" and "Why
should I be moral?" Modern philosophers of special interest include
Rene Descartes, John Locke, George Berkeley, David Hume, Immanuel Kant,
Thomas Reid, John Stuart Mill, and Jane Austen. Students should expect
manageable reading, lots of writing, lively discussion, a couple of films,
and a couple of exams.
HISTORY COURSES History 130-01: Introduction to Ancient Civilization (CH1) History 130-02: Introduction to Ancient Civilization (CH1) The course will focus on significant developments in history from its Greek origins through the Renaissance.
History 131-01: Introduction to Modern European History (CH2) This course will focus on significant developments in modern European history from the Renaissance to our own time.
History 131-02: Introduction to Modern European
History (CH2) This course will focus on significant developments in modern European history from the Renaissance to our own time.
History 208-01: World Civilizations II: 1500-Present (CH2, CD4) History 208-02: World Civilizations II: 1500-Present (CH2,
CD4) This history course will consider the development of civilizations since 1500 in a world context. Geographically, the course will include case studies from Africa, Asia and South America, as well as North America and Europe. Themes may include empires, revolutions, industrialization, nationalism, religion, society, warfare, and the development of political institutions. History education students are particularly encouraged to consider this course, since the State of Michigan encourages preparation in world history. All students are welcome to enroll in this new Cultural Heritage offering.
ENGLISH COURSES English 231-01: Literature of the Western World I (CH1) Do you like to read? Are you interested in the literary works that both shape and reflect the values of Western culture? Do you like classes that are a mix of discussion and lecture? Are you intrigued by the possibility of choosing whether the professor evaluates you by the tests you take, or by the writing you do? If the answer to ANY of these questions is “yes,” then consider this course. We will look at three broad time periods (the ancient world of the Greeks and Romans, Europe in the Middle Ages, and the European Renaissance), about twenty-five authors (give or take), and a wide range of epic poems, plays, and poetry. Marvel at the evolution of the epic poem from Homer to Dante, grow sad over the inevitable fates of tragic heroes like Oedipus and Roland, laugh at the bawdy tales of Chaucer, ponder the limits of human reason and the limitations of gender. This course is writing-flagged in the core, so you can expect to write about 10 pages of finished prose, or more if you choose the writing options.
English 231-02: Literature of the Western World I (CH1) The standard path of the mythological adventure of the
hero is a magnification of the formula represented in the rites of
passage: separation—initiation—return:
which might be named the nuclear unit of the monomyth. A hero ventures
forth from the realm of common day into a region of supernatural wonder;
fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won;
the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to
bestow boons on his fellow man. English 231 is a course in the classics: the texts that form the foundation of western—that is, European—literature from the beginnings of written history to about 1600. From Gilgamesh and Homer (the ancient world) through Dante’s Inferno and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (the Middle Ages) to Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus and the plays of the Mexican nun Sor Juana (the Renaissance), we will trace the development of literary expression, learn to surmount its difficulties, and recognize its continuing presence in the way that even we perceive our world and ourselves. Obviously it’s impossible to cover so many centuries with anything like thoroughness, but we make a valiant effort to investigate works either artistically superior or most representative of the culture that produced them. While the contentious climate of postmodern opinion now challenges the whole concept of “the classics,” most students who give these texts a careful reading come to confirm their value as embodiments and transmitters of all that is best in our tradition. To give a thread of continuity to this wide-ranging foray into the literature of the past, we will follow the recurrent themes of nature versus culture, male versus female, and action versus contemplation, and we will confront in particular the mighty archetype, persistent from Gilgamesh to Superman, of the hero’s journey. What gets these heroes going? What do they seek? How do their journeys lead them into the strangest of all regions, the human mind? And can their journeys tell us something, even at the distance of centuries, about the journeys we ourselves must undertake? These are some of the questions that will concern us this semester.
English 232-01: Literature of the Western World II (CH2)
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