Syllabus

University Studies 317/320

The Great Conversation:

Nature and Technology

Spring 2001

(US 320 Regular Section #84265, US 317 Honors Section #84723)

Fridays, 1:25-4:25, Glocker 228

Instructors

Bruce MacLennan (maclennan@cs.utk.edu) and Linda Bensel-Meyers (lbenselm@utk.edu)
 
 

Course Web Page: http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/Classes/US320

Syllabus: Description - Readings - Course Listserv

Description

University Studies 320 is the fourth semester of The Great Conversation, a six-semester sequence of courses devoted to the study of the Western Canon (from Homer to Freud) and based on the assumption that the Western worldview makes assumptions and poses issues that can be historically traced. Because the sequence is taught over a three-year span, not all students will take the courses in the same sequence. Some students may begin with the "moderns" and then continue with the classics. Some students with a focused interest may take but a single semester of the sequence.

US 320 covers the period from Montaigne (16th cent.) to Nietzsche (19th cent.). Many of the works we will be discussing this semester deal with nature and technology. These include Bacon (New Atlantis), Shakespeare (Tempest), Rousseau (Origins of Inequality), Goethe (Faust), Shelley (Frankenstein), the Romantics, Emerson (Nature) and Darwin (Origin of the Species).

The purpose of the course sequence is to engage students in the "Great Conversation," the ongoing exploration of the key ideas in the Western tradition. Among these are some of the polarities that characterize the assumptions underlying the Western worldview:

Typically, each class will begin with a verbal quiz, asking students to identify individuals or issues dealt with in the day's reading. Usually this is followed by some orienting remarks by one of the faculty leading into a discussion of the reading. The class ends with the identification of some issues posed by the reading to which students will be expected to post email responses, initiating an emulation of the Great Conversation.

Students will be expected to hone their ability to follow another's argument in the class discussions and in the email exchanges. In addition they will be assigned several one-page papers, which will be closely edited by the faculty for clarity and consistency. The students will also write a 2500 word term paper, the topic of which will be either chosen from a list or proposed by the student and approved by the faculty.

Midway through the semester the students will be involved in a "practice forum." Basically this is an oral examination lasting about fifteen minutes. The forum will begin with a student stating briefly his or her topic and thesis. He or she will then respond to questions posed by the faculty and by fellow students. At least two questions will be based on the student's term paper topic and at least two from a list of questions (made available in advance) dealing with issues raised by the course. The same pattern will be followed in the "final forum" that ends the course.

No grade will be assigned for the practice forum. Fifty per cent of the grade will be based on the term paper, 25% on the final forum performance and 25% on the quality of participation during the course of the semester.

By petition the US 310-320 sequence can satisfy Part I of the Arts and Sciences Humanities requirement (two-course package in literature or philosophical perspectives). US 317 is an honors section of US 320.

The Office of Disability Services and the Campus Disability Monitors have asked us to pass the statement along in our syllabi: Students who have a disability that require accommodation(s) should make an appointment with the Office of Disability Services (974-6087) to discuss their specific needs as well as schedule an appointment with one of us during our office hours.

Readings

  1. Montaigne [1580-92]: Essays selections
  2. Francis Bacon [1627]: Essays and New Atlantis
  3. Shakespeare [c. 1611]: Tempest
  4. Milton [1644]: Areopagitica
  5. Voltaire [1759]: Candide
  6. Rousseau [1754]: Discourse on Origins of Inequality
  7. Goethe [1808, 1832]: Faust (Pt. I & Pt. II) selections
  8. Romanticism [1789-1832]: Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Byron, Keats, Scott, Schiller, Novalis, Poe, Longfellow,...
  9. Shelley [1818]: Frankenstein
  10. Emerson [1836]: Nature
  11. Nietzsche [1883-92]: Thus Spake Zarathustra
  12. Darwin [1859]: Origin of Species selections

Course Listserv

To get on the course listserv, send mail to listserv@listserv.utk.edu (note that there is no "e" at the end of "listserv"). The body of the message should be:

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This page is http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/Classes/US320/syllabus.html
Bruce MacLennan. Last revised 01/11/02, 12:04 PM