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There
is a lot of reading for this course, and a lot of writing, as it fulfills the
"Humanities with Writing" Gordon Rule requirement. The rough rule
for college courses is that you spend 3 hours of study outside of class for
every hour in class; for the typical 3-credit course, that means about 9
hours of "home" work per week. So, for this online course during
the regular school year, you should be prepared to devote at least 12 hours a
week to it. For a summer semester, the pace is twice as fast.
You should not be registered for it if you have not taken
ENC 1101 and ENC 1102 or their equivalent! You will NOT be able to meet the
essay-writing demands without having the competence required for ENC 1101 and
ENC 1102.
If the WebCT/FIU Online system crashes, you can find this
syllabus and the course calendar at www.fiu.edu/~harveyb,
via the link at the top of that page.
Prof. Bruce A. Harvey, Director of FIU's Humanities
Program at the Biscayne Bay Campus, has designed the content and structure.
I’m Jeremy Rowan, a professor in the History
department at the University Park Campus, and am in charge of student
interaction, assessing exams and papers, and administering this course in
general. All questions pertaining to course matters should be directed to me
through the WebCT/Blackboard email module.
If you need to discuss course matters in person, visit me
during my University Park Campus office hours listed below. Please email me
to specify a time.
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Instructor:
Jeremy Rowan,
Ph.D.
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Course
Design Professor:
Bruce A. Harvey, Ph.D.
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Office: DM 399 University Park Campus
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Office:
AC1 378 Biscayne Bay Campus
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Office
Hours: by
appointment
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Office
Hours: by
appointment
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Phone: (305) 348-4791
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Phone:
(305) 919-5254
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FIU
E-mail:
rowanj@fiu.edu
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FIU
E-mail: harveyb@fiu.edu
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Welcome to Online HUM
3306:
History of Ideas, from the Age of Enlightenment to the Age of Anxiety!
I have high ambitions for
what you will obtain from enrolling in HUM 3306. Many of you will have signed
up with the notion that you're just completing an FIU requirement, but I hope
that by the time you conclude the class you will have opened your minds and
hearts to fascinating realms of human inquiry as expressed in the works
you'll be reading. Ideally, how you see the world, and your identity within
that world, will be richly and complexly transformed.
The readings will span political philosophy, economic theory, biology and
psychology, as well as fiction and poetry.
We'll be tracking a set of key issues and themes: the confident emergence in
the 17th & 18th century (called the "Age of Reason" or the
"Age of Enlightenment") of a non-dogmatic, rational approach to
social problems and nature's mysteries; the struggle in the 19th century to
maximize individuality and interiority (the "Romantic Era") in the
face of widespread economic alienation (the "Industrial Age") and
de-humancentric discoveries such as Darwinian evolution; and finally, in the
20th century, the persuasive sense of unease--whether from global conflict,
the loss of local community, or philosophical angst.
This course primarily studies European intellectual history, but there
remains an entire globe of cultures extending beyond that which has developed
in the West. And so you are encouraged, once you have taken this course, to
take other Humanities courses at FIU (either online or classroom-oriented)
that will round out your interests in and understanding of other, diverse
cultural traditions.
I look forward to an intellectually exciting semester with you!
--Yours, Dr. Jeremy Rowan
- To increase your knowledge
about key thinkers of the post-Renaissance (16th-century) Western world and
their historical contexts.
- To help you understand their
significance to our contemporary moment.
- To improve your ability to
analyze and reflect critically on sophisticated, complex texts.
- To develop your skill and
pleasure in communicating ideas via effective, mature prose.
- To develop your ability to
use critically, in analytical argumentation, secondary materials as they
relate to primary materials.
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MAJOR & CURRICULUM OBJECTIVES TARGETED
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This course satisfies one
of FIU's University Core Curriculum "Humanities with Writing"
requirements. As a 3000-level HUM course, it also serves as a Humanities
Major or Minor course and may satisfy elective requirements for other
majors. Contact Prof. Harvey if you have a question.
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TEXTBOOKS
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You
must use the editions specified, as assignments and review notes will be
keyed to their page numbers. Click on the author names or book covers to
get additional publisher information.
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The Second Treatise of Government,
John Locke,
Dover Publications; New Ed edition, August 2002,
ISBN: 0486424642
This is the social-political text that all the Founding Fathers read
before devising the U.S.
Constitution.
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The Life of Olaudah Equiano,
Olaudah Equiano,
Dover Publications, January 1999,
ISBN: 048640661X
A marvelous account of one African’s journey from idyllic
childhood, through the horrific Middle Passage, to the U.S. and England. Equiano’s story
asks: what does it mean to the “self” when the self is defined
in economic terms?
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Frankenstein,
Mary Shelley,
Pocket; Reissue edition, April 27, 2004,
ISBN: 0743487583
A classic monster story, critiquing
techno-obsessions.
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The Communist Manifesto,
Karl Marx,
Oxford University Press, USA;
New Ed edition, July 1998,
ISBN: 0192834371
Karl said, “Workers of the world,
unite!” In these days of huge profits for Big Oil, his ideas are
provocative.
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The Origin of Species,
Charles Darwin,
W. W. Norton & Company; 2nd Abridged edition, February 2002,
ISBN: 0393978672
You may (or may not) be persuaded
that we are descended from monkeys after reading what Darwin wrote in his
seminal, iconoclastic scientific volume.
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Civilization and its Discontents,
Sigmund Freud,
W. W. Norton & Company; Reissue edition, July 1989,
ISBN:0393301583
Another revolutionary thinker who
gave a blow to our self-satisfaction by revealing we are not in control of
ourselves as much as we may think.
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You do not need to bring
to this course previously-gained historical or literary or philosophic
knowledge, but it will demand strong intellectual commitment. Also, as the
course is a 3000-level one, it assumes mastery of skills learned in ENC 1101
and 1102 (the Freshman Composition sequence).
You will NOT be able to meet the essay-writing demands without having the
competence required for ENC 1101 and ENC 1102.
For more information
about prerequisites, click here.
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COMMUNICATING WITH THE INSTRUCTOR
&
BEING IN DIALOGUE WITH YOUR ONLINE CLASSMATES
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·
Instructor E-mail and phone: For assignment submissions and
other routine course questions email me, Jeremy Rowan, via the course's
Blackboard email module. I will usually respond within 2 days in respect to
individual questions. Essay feedback will take between 7-14 days. For
unusual/emergency situations, you may use my FIU email address, jeremy.rowan
@fiu.edu or call or leave a message on my office phone #: 305-348-4791.
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Instructor Conferences: I will always be happy to meet
with you during office hours (listed above) to talk more about the readings,
assignments, or other course matters. It's best if you email me beforehand to
specify a time.
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Classmate E-mail: The Blackboard email module allows you to contact
other students taking the course, and you should feel free to do so. But
please respect privacy issues--do not divulge inappropriate private matters
and do not solicit others to do so.
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Discussion Forum: The discussion forum--a Blackboard module--is a
mandatory part of the course in which you respond to and discuss question
cues or topics pertinent to the intellectual issues in our authors and texts,
posed by me or your classmates.
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Course Requirements
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Weights
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Academic
Discussion Forum
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25%
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Essay
#1
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25%
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Essay
#2
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25%
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Final
Essay Exam
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25%
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Total
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100%
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Incompletes: University
policy is that these can only be given in the case of a health or family
emergency, and only one outstanding assignment is allowed to permit the
incomplete being granted.
Late Submissions: Late essays will be accepted only under extraordinary,
documented emergencies. Otherwise, for every day late, an essay will be
docked a notch (i.e., B to B-).
All
assignments must be turned in order to receive a passing grade in the course.
Academic Forum: This is crucial to
making the online learning experience match the benefits of a
“real” classroom. It is designed to provide for relatively
uninhibited student interaction and, at the same time, to give you a chance
to convey your understanding of the material and your being on
"top" of it on a weekly basis.
You should participate/contribute in respect to each of our major authors or
texts, but you should avoid looking upon the Academic Forum as merely busy
work. Rather, imagine the spontaneous dialogue during discussion in a
traditional classroom. Discussion cues occasionally will be provided by me,
but you should also post initiating topics that especially interest you
and/or respond to other students that have initiated topics.
Online courses require academic maturity: you are being asked to show real
engagement with the materials, from the beginning to the end of the
semester. Very roughly: a total of 2000 words
(equivalent to 8 pages double-spaced) for the entire semester would indicate
active involvement, but each of you will have a different style--some
of you will post long meditative paragraphs, others will offer more
quick-fire insights, and still others will have sidebar discussions with
another student or two, etc.
Your Academic Forum participation grade will be worth 25% of the total course
grade. Although a "grading curve" mode of grading is not
mechanically used, you should take note of the responses from your peers.
Those who respond routinely, with more than several sentences here or several
sentences there, and show true insight into the course materials (and write
solid, error-free prose!) should provide you with an "A" zone
example of Academic Forum participation. Those who do not respond to all our
major authors, or respond in a sometimes perfunctory, non-insightful way,
will be in the "B" or lower zone. Sporadic responses will put you
in the "C" or "D" zone; etc.
Your grade for this component of the course will be assessed at the end of
the semester. Should you want to know how you are doing before that, however,
feel free to email me. If you request an assessment, you should provide a
cut-&-pasted document of your significant responses; you are
required to submit such at the end of the semester, regardless.
Decent grammar, proper sentence construction and punctuation, and so on are
expected. Avoid "getting personal"; and please treat others in the
forum as you would wish to be treated!
The Academic Forum will have 5-7 primary discussion groups, divided according
to your last name (A-D, E-I, J-M, N-Q, R-Z, for example), depending on the
number of students enrolled. Please stick to your group and work hard to make
conversation/discussion engaging and intellectually productive. Note: use
common sense in deciding whether to initiate a new discussion-“tree”
or keep your topics/replies under an already-established
discussion-“tree.” It is important to have a good balance between
topics and replies; otherwise the Discussion Forum will become too unruly.
Please routinely cut-and-paste your dated
substantial contributions to the Academic Forum into a "Word" file.
You will be asked to submit this at the end of the semester so that the
totality of your contributions can be accurately assessed. PLEASE READ THE
LAST TWO SENTENCES AGAIN!
Papers: I will give guidelines for the two essays as the semester
progresses, in the right column of the class calendar. The first essay will
be about five pages long, research-free; the second essay will be about eight
pages long, and will require you to consult several provided
secondary/research sources.
Students who get very low grades on their first paper may be asked to use the
FIU Learning/Writing Center resources, which would require, potentially,
several trips to either the BBC or the UP campus.
Papers will be submitted through the "Turnitin" site, which has a
link on this course's main online menu.
Final Exam: This will be a comprehensive essay, requiring you to
demonstrate your synthesis of all the course materials. It will consist of
one or several questions, and be given about a week before the submission
date, which will be April 25.
If you have a disability
and need assistance, please contact the Disability Resource Center (University Park : GC190;
305-348-3532) (Biscayne Bay Campus: WUC139, 305-919-5345). Upon contact, the Disability Resource Center
will review your request and contact your professors or other personnel to
make arrangements for appropriate modification and/or assistance.
The University's policy
on religious holy days as stated in the University Catalog and Student
Handbook will be followed in this class. Any student may request to be excused
from (on-line) class to observe a religious holy day of his or her faith.
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ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT POLICY
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By taking this online course, you promise to adhere to FIU’s Student Code
of Academic Integrity. For details on the policy and procedures go to ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT (Section 2.44).
Intensive auditing (via Turnitin) of the course will be conducted to prevent
academic misconduct. It is very easy to detect plagiarism: SO DON'T DO IT:
YOU WILL BE CAUGHT!!! And, when you are caught, the consequences will be
severe, such as getting an "F" in the course or worse.
If you are tempted to plagiarize out of desperation to get an
assignment in on time, DON'T DO IT; talk to your professor first, in this
class and other classes.
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EXPECTATION OF THIS COURSE
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This
is a fully online course, meaning that all course work (100%) will be conducted
online. Expectations for performance in fully online courses are the same as
for traditional courses; in fact, fully online courses require a degree of
self-motivation, self-discipline, and technology skills that can make them
more demanding for some students.
Tips for Success in your online course, click here.
Online Etiquette, click here.
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Assignments due
dates are given in the right column.
Prof = lectures notes. These also
will often have imbedded within them E-texts which are additional primary
texts or artwork or links to material at other websites, which you should print
out so that you can read and study them.
All E-texts are required reading. The E-texts are also linked separately on
the calendar (i.e. you read the E-texts for a particular week, and then
later review my lecture/review notes that will again reference them).
Prof-NOT
READY =
link is not ready (i.e. lectures not updated from previous semesters yet)
Go
= for your curiosity (these are enhancement materials and
websites; not "required")
Instructions = guidelines for papers
or exams
Red text = miscellaneous tips, info.,
and notes as the semester progresses
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Date
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Lectures
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Topic
& ReadingsAssignment Due & Instruction
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Week
1:
Jan 5 - 9
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Prof: Scientific
Revolution & Protestant Revolution
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Before the Enlightenment: The Scientific
Revolution and the Protestant Reformation
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If the
FIU bookstore is tardy in ordering the first (John Locke’s 2nd
Treatise) book, you can find an e-text version below. You may also find
all the books by searching and ordering using www.amazon.com, if you want to try for
used copies.
http://www.liberty1.org/2dtreat.htm#1CHAP
E-text: Great Chain of Being "Wiki" article &
illustration
E-text--Encarta: Scientific Revolution
E-text--Wiki: Reformation
E-text--Encarta: Enlightenment
CLICK
THE "Prof...." LINKS TO THE LEFT FOR MY LECTURE REVIEWS. YOU
SHOULD LOOK AT MY LECTURE SUMMARIES BEFORE, DURING, AND/OR AFTER YOU READ
OUR MAIN AUTHORS (IT'S UP TO YOU, ACCORDING TO YOUR LEARNING STYLE). WITHIN
THE LECTURES ARE LINKS TO E-TEXTS; THE E-TEXTS, FOR CLARITY, ARE ALSO
ALWAYS SEPARATED OUT AND GIVEN DIRECTLY, AS ABOVE.
THE E-TEXTS ARE MANDATORY READING.
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The Enlightenment I: Putting Nature in the Encyclopedia
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E-text: Charles W. Peale painting and Ben Franklin perfection chart
E-text: Linnaeus website (read 1st several paragraphs, and
"Linnaen taxonomy" sections)
E-text: Scientific Revolution Critique
E-text: Diderot Enlightenment Encyclopedia table of contents image
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THE TURNITIN LINK WILL BE EXPLAINED (AND PASSWORD GIVEN) WHEN
YOU GET CLOSER TO THE ESSAY DUE DATES
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Week 2:
Jan 12 - 16
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Prof: Locke
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The Enlightenment II: Possessive Selfhood, Civil
and Political Rights, and the Delights of Property
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Locke, Second
Treatise: Editor’s note & Chapters I-II
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THE TURNITIN LINK WILL BE EXPLAINED (AND PASSWORD GIVEN) WHEN
YOU GET CLOSER TO THE ESSAY DUE DATES
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Week 3:
Jan 19 – 23 (19th
= M.L.King Holiday)
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Locke, Second
Treatise: Chapters III-V, VI (sections 54-58, 60, 70-76), VII (sections
77, 87-91), VIII (sections 95-101, 115-22), IX, X, XVIII (199, 203, 204,
207-210) & XIX (211-212, 219-230, 240-243)
Remember
to contribute to the Academic Forum; and remember to cut-and-paste your
substantial postings in an accumulating file, which you will turn in at the
end of the semester!
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Week 4:
Jan 26 – 30
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The Enlightenment III: Skepticism, Critique,
& the Advancement of Freedom
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Equiano, The Life of...: Editor’s Note or Introduction (not the
Preface written by Equiano himself!!!); Chapters I-III, IV (first several
pages), V, VII-VIII, X-XI, XII (first several pages; last several pages),
& Preface (Preface only makes sense after you've read the narrative)
Be sure
to read Chapter I, II, etc., not just the sections within the chapters,
which are also numbered I, II, etc.
E-text: Equiano--click on several (not all!) of the "next" buttons
for the historical context of Equiano's narrative
E-text: a summary of the intriguing "fabrication" issue of
the early chapters of Equiano's narrative
Read the Paine and Wollstonecraft biographies below. Then sample their
writings in the next two e-texts.
E-text: Tom Paine--biography
E-text: Wollstonecraft--biography
E-text: Tom Paine--sample his writing
E-text: Wollstonecraft--sample her writing (click on any of the
chapters in the link; you don't need to read all)
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Week 5:
Feb 2 - 6
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Essay
Writing Week: Spend this week consolidating your understanding of the
course writers/texts and Prof. lectures and writing your 1st essay due
Friday Feb. 6
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Instructions: For Essay#1 Due Friday Feb. 6 by
Midnight
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Week 6:
Feb 9 - 13
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Prof:
Romanticism
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Bourgeois Spaces and the Sublime: The Romantic
Rebellion & the Discovery of Interiority
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E-text: Rousseau
E-text: W. Blake--Biography (just quickly note the illustration of
Issac Newton on left 1/3rd down!)
E-text: J. Keats--biography (read the "Life" part after
opening paragraph)
E-text: Romantic Era Poems
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Week 7:
Feb 16 – 20
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Romanticism lecture above includes Prof. points on Shelley
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Shelley,
Frankenstein: 1st half.
Read the editor's introduction & chronologies (vii-xxi) before reading
the novel. The editor's introduction provides a very tidy cultural history
of the shift from the Enlightenment to Romantic periods.
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Week 8:
Feb 23 – 27
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Frankenstein: 2nd half
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Week 9:
March 2 - 6
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Prof: Realism
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Bourgeois Spaces and the City: The Rise of
Realism
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This is a
light reading week; so please get started on next week’s reading!
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Week 10:
March 9 - 13
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Prof: Darwin
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Revolutionary Thinkers I: Rewriting the History
of Nature
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Darwin, Origin
of Species: Editor’s Intro. (sections 1, 2, 3, & 5),
Darwin’s Intro., Chapters I-III, Chapter IV (46-53top,
61bottom-65top, 72bottom-74), Chapter VI cut, & Chapter XIV
(115bottom-121)
It is
absolutely crucial that you read the edition ordered for the course; it is
a "great hits" of Darwin's much, much longer treatise.
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Week 11:
March 16 – 20 (Spring Break)
Week 12:
March 23 – 27
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Prof: Marx
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Revolutionary Thinkers II: Rewriting the History
of Social Relations
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E-text: Adam Smith
Marx, Communist Manifesto: Read the editor's introduction; and then
Parts 1 (Bourgeois and Proletarians), 2 (Proletarians and Communists),
& 4 (Position of the Communists...).
Please
note: there aren't many pages to read in the E-text or Communist
Manifesto, but they are dense and will require coordinating with the
Prof. lecture to the left.
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Week 13:
March 30 – April 3
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Prof: Freud
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Revolutionary Thinkers III: The Discovery of the
Unconscious
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Freud: Civilization and its Discontents: Chapters 1-VII
(not Chapter VIII)
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Week 14:
April 6 – 10
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Prof: Big
Summary Thus Far
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Essay Writing Week:
Spend this week consolidating your understanding of the course
writers/texts and Prof. lectures and writing your 2nd essay due Friday
April 10.
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Instructions:
For Essay#2 Due Friday April 10
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Week 15:
April 13 - 17
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Prof:
Modernism in Philosophy and Art
Prof: Fanon
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Modernism: Angst, Aesthetics, and the Abysses of
Horror
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There is
no ordered text for this week. Instead there are e-texts, including an
essay by F. Nietzsche and an essay by F. Fanon. Please take extra care to
navigate your way through the Prof. online lecture and the e-texts so that
you read (and listen!) to everything intended. Thanks.
Read this online biography:
E-text: Nietzsche biography
Read Nietzsche's essay:
E-text: Nietzsche essay--On Truth and Lie--Be sure to read the
"2" page (the "1" and "2" page links are near
the top)
Go here if
above link fails
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Power and its Discontents in the Modern World
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E-text: Frantz
Fanon biography
E-text: Frantz
Fanon speech
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Instructions:
For Essay#2 Due Friday April 10
The
Discussion Forum compilation is due April 17 Friday, BY NOON, via
Turnitin. Cut-and-paste your substantial contributions into a file, either
in the order you wrote them or grouped by author/text, and upload the file
with the title “Forum” to Turnitin.
Instructions: For Final Exam Due Saturday April 25 by Noon
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Week 16:
April 20 – 25 (Finals
Week)
Final Exam Due April 25 by Noon
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Prof: PDF Summary of Course Page One
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To the left is a summary of the readings and corresponding
issues, for the entire semester, on two PDFs.
These will not provide you with a "cheat sheet" short-cut, but if
you read thru them you will be able to test your recognition of the
readings/issues. There are one or two authors referred to on the grids that
were not included this semester--ignore them.
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