All assignments and the final exam (an essay synthesizing your understanding of the course materials) are submitted online.

HUM 3306 will be a demanding course, with lots of reading and writing (the "Humanities with Writing" Gordon Rule requirement mandates three substantial writing assignments). 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 more than 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 FIU Online/Blackboard 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.

All routine questions pertaining to course matters should be directed to me through the Blackboard email module.  In urgent situations, email me both via Blackboard and via my FIU email address.  If you need to discuss an issue in person, email me or leave a message at my office phone, and we’ll set up a mutually suitable time at the Biscayne Bay Campus

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 those that have 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. Bruce A. Harvey

• 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.

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 should not be registered for this course if you have not taken ENC 1101 and 1102 or their equivalent!  

For more information about prerequisites, click here.

This course satisfies one of FIU's University Core Curriculum "Humanities with Writing" requirements. As a 3000-level HUM course, it may also satisfy an elective requirement for a variety of majors and minors.

Instructor E-mail and phone: For routine course questions email me, Bruce A. Harvey, via the course's Blackboard email module. I will usually respond within 2 days in respect to individual questions. For unusual/emergency situations, you may use also my FIU email address, harveyb@fiu.edu, or call or leave a message on my office phone #: 305-919-5254.  

Classmate E-mail: The Blackboard email module allows you to contact other students taking the course, but please respect privacy issues--do not divulge inappropriate private matters and do not solicit others to do so.  

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.

Incompletes: University policy is that these can only be given in the case of a health or family emergency, and that only one outstanding assignment is allowed to permit the incomplete being granted.  In terms of above, 75% of the course work must be done to get an Incomplete.

Late Submissions: Late essays will be accepted only under extraordinary, documentable emergencies.  Otherwise, for every day late, an essay will be docked a notch (i.e., B to B-). 

All Assignments Required:  The four assignments above must be turned in to receive a passing grade in the course.  Grades are calculated (you access them via Turnitin) in the standard 100-0 scale:  100-96=A+/95-93=A/92-90=A-/89-86=B+/85-83=B/82-80=B-/ and so on.  A not-turned-in assignment will receive a zero.

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 and try to emulate the spontaneous dialogue during discussion in a traditional classroom. Discussion cues may occasionally 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--a page a week--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.  Simply summarizing (in “plot” summary fashion) is not appropriate.  You do not need to be argumentative or combative, but you should make analytical or suggestive points to which others can respond.

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 is accessed as a Blackboard module.  There will be 4-7 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 thru Turnitin 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 and the Turnitin submission site 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.  Papers will be submitted thru Turnitin, to be explained within the paper instruction guidelines.  Feedback and your letter grade or numeric equivalent will be sent via Turnitin.

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.  This also will be submitted via Turnitin.

Revisions: Because of the short summer term, you do not have time to revise your two major essays effectively.  However, an upward tendency in the sequence of your grades from 1^st essay to 2^nd essay on to the synthesis essay exam can positively affect your final grade, especially in borderline cases (in between a C- and C, say!).

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 = due dates) class to observe a religious holy day of his or her faith.

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).

The Turnitin site filters for plagiarism.  It and other means make it 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.