HUM 3302
FOUNDATIONS OF WESTERN CULTURE II
UH-DOWNTOWN SPRING SEMESTER 1998
CRN 20133, Tuesday and Thursday 5:30pm to 6:45pm, N-612.
COURSE DESCRIPTION:This is a survey course of the major intellectual contributions to Western Culture from
the Renaissance to the present. We will incorporate a variety of disciplines in our
study. There is some philosophy, some politics, some science, and some
psychology. According to the UH-D Catalog, Humanities 3302 Foundations
of Western Culture II is a "philosophical study of major literary, historical,
artistic, and scientific events and personalities that have contributed to the ideas
of the present."
The key word here is philosophical. We will read a series of short excerpts from some of the major works of Western culture. You the student will critically analyze the works' contributions to our modern culture. Not all of these contributions, however, are necessarily positive. As a student in this course, you must be willing to evaluate both your cultural heritage and your own world view objectively and critically.
INSTRUCTOR INFORMATION
Dr. Hagen S-1050 221-8116. I will hold office hours in the Arts and Humanities Multimedia Lab, 950-N. Hours TBA.
MATERIALS
Tierney, B., and J. Scott. (1984) Western Societies: A Documentary History Volume II (New York: Alfred Knopf).
One of the works listed below (your choice), which must be read in its entirety.
- Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy.
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract and Discourse on the Origin of Inequality.
- Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations.
- Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species.
- Sigmund Freud, On the Interpretation of Dreams.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
- Write four short essays on an assigned topic. These are double-spaced. Two page minimum, three pages maximum. The topics are based on the selections from Tierney & Scott, and must follow the format specified in handouts you will receive in class. If you turn in more than four I will drop the lowest grade(s). Each one of the four is worth 10%. That's 40% of your total grade.
- A prospectus of your final exam paper. The prospectus is nothing more than an introductory paragraph -- with thesis statement -- and a bibliography. Your paper will based on a thorough and careful reading of the work you will have chosen from the list above. 15% of your grade.
- One take-home final exam in the form of a term paper, 6-12 pages in length, following a format specified in handouts you will receive in class. Your paper is 30% of your total grade.
- One subjective evaluation by your professor on the extent to which you attended, participated in and contributed to class discussions. 15%
The success of this course like this one depends crucially on regular and active participation on the part of the students. For that reason class attendance is mandatory. If you are absent twice during the semester your grade will not suffer. For every additional absence your professor will deduct five points per absence from your final grade. Final grades are determined as follows:
- 90% - 100% A
- 80% -89% B
- 70% - 79% C
- 60% - 69% D
- 0% - 59% F
TENTATIVE LIST OF ACTIVITIES
Don't worry! These are not entire books. The following are either excerpts from books, or short documents such as letters and news conferences. These readings will inform our discussions in class.
WEEK 1 (1/20): Introduction and Background. Readings are handouts from the professor.
- Read the syllabus for HUM 3302 in its entirety.
- Martin Luther, from The Ninety-Five Theses.
- Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre.
- Edict of Nantes.
- Descartes, from Discourse on Method.
- Copernicus, from Commentariolus.
- Galileo, from Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina.
- Hobbes, from Leviathan.
- Bossuet, from Politics Drawn from the Very Words of the Holy Scripture.
- Saint-Simon, from Memoirs.
- Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
- W.L. Lewis, from The Splendid Century.
- Louis XIV, from Letter to His Heir.
- Voltaire, from The Age of Louis XIV.
- Colbert, from Memoranda and Correspondence.
- Marquette, from Voyages.
- Serra, from Letters.
- Gaspesian Chief, from Touch the Earth (handout).
- from Red Jacket (handout).
- from Dine Bahane (handout).
- Adam Smith, from The Wealth of Nations.
- Thomas Malthus, from First Essay on Population.
- John Locke, from Second Treatise of Civil Government and An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.
- Condorcet, from Progress of the Human Mind.
- David Hume, from A Treatise Concerning Human Nature.
- J.-J. Rousseau, from The Social Contract.
- Louis XV, from Sessions of the Scourging.
- Remonstrance of the Parlement of Bordeaux.
- Sieyes, from What is the Third Estate?
- The Fall of the Bastille.
- The August 4th Decrees; The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen; The Civil Constitution of the Clergy; Declaration of the Rights of Women.
- Napoleon Bonaparte, Proclamations.
- Andrew Ure, The Philosophy of Manufactures.
- Factory Rules in Berlin.
- William Wordsworth, The Excursion.
- Freidrich Engels, from The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844.
- Louis Blanc, from The Organization of Labor.
- Adam Smith, from The Wealth of Nations.
- David Ricardo, from On Wages.
- V.I. Lenin, from What is to be Done?
- Bismarck, from On State Socialism.
- Clemenceau, from Strikes, Trade Unions, and Socialism.
- Karl Marx, from The Communist Manifesto.
- Ben Turner, from About Myself.
- from The French General Confederation of Labor Charter.
- Anna Maier, from Autobiography.
- William Morris, from How I Became a Socialist.
- from The Revolution of 1905.
- Alexandra Kollantai, from Communism and the Family.
The Week of March 16 is Spring Break
WEEK 9: Darwin (3/23).- from The Descent of Man.
- from The Origin of Species (handout).
- Herbert Spencer, from Progress, Its Law and Cause.
- Auguste Comte, from A General View of Positivism.
- John Maynard Keynes, from The Economic Consequences of Peace.
- Sigmund Freud, from Thoughts for the Times on War and Death.
- Joseph Stalin, from Results of the First Five-Year Plan.
- Max Belov, from The History of a Soviet Collective.
- from Purges: The Official Explanation.
- Benito Mussolini, from The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism.
- from Autobiography of an Anti-Semite.
- George Orwell, from Looking Back on the Spanish War.
- Neville Chamberlain, Statement to the Press.
- Adolf Hitler, Speech to the Reichstag.
- W.H. Auden, September 1, 1939.
- Alexander Werth, from The Last Days of Paris.
- Hirohito, Declaration of War on the United States and Great Britain.
- FDR, Request for A Declaration of War on Japan.
- Winston Churchill, Announcement to the House of Commons
- Harry Truman, on the Use of the Atomic Bomb at Hiroshima.
- Luiba Daniel, from Deposition on the Stutthof Concentration Camp.
- from The Charter of the United Nations.
- from Minutes of the Yalta Conference.
- FDR, from Letter to Joseph Stalin.
- Alexander Werth, from The Last Days of Paris.
- from Minutes of the White House Conference.
- Joseph Stalin, from Letter to President Truman.
- Winston Churchill, from Speech at Fulton, Missouri.
- Stalin, reply to Churchill
- Harry Truman, from a speech.
- John Foster Dulles, testimony.
- George C. Marshall, speech.
- Nikita Kruschchev, from Public Speech and Secret Speech.
- from Statement of the Soviet Government, October 30, 1956.
- LBJ, from News Conference (July 28, 1965).
- J. William Fulbright, from Speech (April 2, 1970).
- Mohandas Gandhi, from Satyagraha.
- Kwame Nkrumah, from I Speak of Freedom.
- Eva Peron, from History of Peronismo.
- Philip Toynbee, from The Fearful Choice.
- Edward Teller, from Legacy of Hiroshima.
- E.F. Schumacher, from Small is Beautiful.
- Hannah Arendt, from The Origins of Totalitarianism.
- Albert Camus, from The Rebel.
- Daniel Cohn-Bendit, from The French Student Revolt.
- Rote Armee Faktion, from The Urban Guerrilla Concept.
- Simone de Beauvoir, from The Second Sex.
FAQs
Q: What format do you accept for essays and term papers?
A: Either MLA or APA is acceptable. Your papers must be typewritten and double-spaced. You should consult your style manual carefully.Q: I don't know how to type. Will you accept handwritten papers in my case?
A: No.
Q: My typewriter ribbon broke while I was typing. Since this is an emergency, will you accept a handwritten paper?
A: No.
Q: My computer's printer broke down and I...
A: No.
Q: I did my entire paper on a word processor, but when I was going to turn it in I realized that I forgot to include the bibliography, so I just wrote that out by hand. Is that okay?
A: No.
Q: I don't know how to use a word processor. Can I use a typewriter?
A: I suppose, although I cannot imagine why you would want to. You see, I once gave an assignment which specified four points which students were to address. One student forgot to address the third point. It stands to reason that, since the student had only completed 75% of the assignment, a grade of 75 is the highest he could expect (provided, of course, that the remainder of his paper was perfect!). Regrettably, the student wrote his analysis on a typewriter and had to redo the entire paper. Had he done it on a word processor, he would have only had to reboot and insert the missing part in the appropriate place. The Arts and Humanities Department has a lab with high-quality PCs and your favorite software. Ask the prof for details
Q: I forgot to do one of the four parts of my assignment, and unfortunately I wrote it on the typewriter. Instead of redoing the whole thing, can I just type out part three on a separate sheet of paper, along with a note on where to insert it in the original paper?
A: No.
Q: Do you accept late papers?
A: Well, yes and no. First of all, the policy on accepting papers that are submitted at the specified time--that is, neither before nor after the deadline--is quite straightforward. I guarantee you will receive credit so long as your paper meets the necessary minimum conditions stated in the assignment's guidelines. These assignments are placed in a certain folder, then corrected and graded promptly, usually within a week's time. Those that are submitted early or late are placed in a separate folder and are corrected at the end of the semester, as time permits. In such a case I cannot guarantee credit. If there are only a few assignments in my late folder at the end of the semester there will not be much of a problem in correcting them. On the other hand, if you turn in all or most of your assignments late, then there simply will not be enough time at the end of the semester to correct them, and you will not receive credit. Remember as well that if you turn a paper in late you will not be able to see any corrections which might otherwise have helped you in writing subsequent papers.
Q: I want to a fifth essay in addition to the other four, so that I can drop my lowest grade, but only if I got less than a C on my third essay. My problem is that the professor hasn't returned #3 to me yet, because I turned it in late. How can I solve this problem?
A: By not turning in any assignments late.
Q: But I turned my paper in barely an hour after it was due. Do you consider that on time?
A: No.
Q: What does minimal mean?
A: It means that your assignments must meet certain conditions before it wioll be considered for a grade. If an assignment calls for a minimum of six pages and you turn in an assignment that is not at least six pages, then you will not receive credit.
Q: My final paper is actually five and three quarters pages long. Is that close enough to six pages?
A: No.
Q: Can I bring a rough draft of my paper and have you make some initial comments before I turn in the final version?
A: Absolutely!
Q: If I 1) use huge margins, large print, and triple space, or 2) count the bibliography and/or cover sheet as a page, or 3) pad my assignment with quotes from other sources, will the professor be fooled into thinking that my four page paper is actually six pages?
A: Gee, I don't think that's ever been tried before!
Q: Have students ever expressed disappointment with their grades on papers for this course? If so, why?
A: Almost without exception, students who are disappointed with grades have underestimated the amount of work required to complete a good paper. Sometimes students will read the "six page minimum" requirement, and misunderstand it. They turn in a paper that is exactly six pages, and are disappointed to learn that they have not thoroughly treated the topic they have chosen. Remember that there is a big difference the absolute minimum you can get away with, and an A, which is reserved for excellent work.
Sometimes students write papers without following the simple instructions given on their writing guides. For example, your essay may require you to read a short passage and then do four specific things, e.g.: 1) identify the work from which the passage was drawn, 2) situate the passage in the context of the work from which it was drawn, 3) explain the importance of the passage to the work as a whole, and 4) critique the passage. In previous semesters, students have occasionally ignored the first three parts and jumped directly into their critique. Although the critiques were often excellent, they still constitute only 25% of the assignment. As you doubtless already know, 25% is a low F.
Other times students have not read the works on their reading list thoroughly, and have consequently little or nothing to say in the second part of the assignment, where they are to situate the passage in the context of the work as a whole. If you have completed only 75% of an assignment, you should not expect a grade any higher than 75, which is a C.
Sometimes students will write the paper the night before it is due. The professor will criticize their work because it is not adequately edited. I fear that they read the syllabus, see that one final exam paper is due, and assume that this means they only have to write that paper once. Remember that editing and rewriting are not forms of punishment. When a professor asks a student to rewrite a paper, this does not mean the student is being singled out or criticized. Rewrites are the rule, not the exception.
Q: What is the UHD Writing Coalition?
A: It is a group of concerned UH-D faculty members who would like to improve the writing skills of all UH-D students so that they will be better able to compete in the job market. You will hearn more about them in the weeks to come.
The University of Houston-Downtown adheres to all applicable federal, state, and local laws, regulations, and guidelines with respect to providing reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities. Students with disabilities should register with Disabled Student Services and contact their instructors in a timely manner to arrange for appropriate accommodations.