GREAT BOOKS SEMINAR 5
FALL 2009
Michael DeGruccio, 518 Flanner Hall. M 3-4, W 3-4 & by appt
Contact: office 631-7767; home 243-5319 (before 9 pm); degruccio.1@nd.edu
Schedule: We will follow the reading
schedule below. Because some of the
reading assignments are significantly
longer than others you will need to budget
your time accordingly.
Attendance: If you are ill or something
urgent comes up you must let me know
before class that you will be missing. I
excuse three absences. Any more will
begin to cut away at your grade unless
you can offer proof of significant illness or
emergency.
Your grade will reflect the quality of four
things: your discussion questions and
regular participation in class (30%); the
first short group paper (15%); the
second short essay (15%); your thought
pieces (20%) and the oral exam final
(20%).
Questions: for every class, each student
will post a question on our blog about the
readings. Posts will need to be up by
11am for credit. Questions should get at
central tensions or problems in the
reading and supply us with a page number
or short quote to supply grist for class
discussion. I will be particularly pleased
with questions that are partial responses
to other questions, or even better,
questions that challenge or modify a
question posed in the posted thought
piece(s) for that day.
Participation: Our discussions will take
many roads—some more productive than
others. In this class you will pose
questions, hold forth, debate, interrogate,
and take sides with one another. I will be
along for the ride, taking special
notice of students who engage
others’ questions and comments—
who ask their peers questions,
continue with follow-up questions,
and restate the arguments of others
before they launch into their own
related interpretation. Throughout we
will remain moored to the readings. But I
also want your comments to be moored to
the ideas of your peers as much as
possible.
Thought Pieces: The course is broken up
into five thought piece periods. You will
need to turn in one thought piece for
four periods. You are welcome to do a
piece for any reading within four periods,
but it must be turned in before class on
the day of that reading. (You may want to
print a copy for yourself just as a reference
for class discussion.) Your piece does not
need to be formal or stuffy. Instead I want
to see sharp, pithy writing that is
evocative (note, I don’t say provocative),
suggestive, and fair. Avoid book
summaries or thumbs-up-or-down reviews.
Instead explore a particular passage of the
readings that poses certain intellectual or
moral problems. Make sure to briefly
connect the passage to questions or
tensions central to the text. You are also
encouraged to make connections with past
readings, if possible. Each thought piece
will be 425-500 words (about one and
a half pages, double spaced). There
will not be space for mincing words--no
fluff. Your piece should read like an op-ed
article in a respectable newspaper or
magazine, meant to engage an
intellectually curious reader with concision
and verve. Please include the word
count at the end. You may quote large
chunks or start off your piece with a
paragraph, or several lines from the
readings, but this won’t be part of the final
word count. There is no need for formal
citation but you must point the reader
to a particular part (or parts) of the
reading with page numbers in
parentheses. You will be graded on
substance and style. NO late pieces will M Sep 28 Teachings of the
be accepted. Compassionate
Buddha, Intro; Book
Posted Pieces: Two of your four thought One, Parts I, II, and
pieces over the semester will be posted III.1,2,6,7; Book Two,
on the blog by 9am the morning of the Part IV
relevant discussion. We will assign the
W Sep 30 Hegel, The Philosophy of
days to post your pieces beforehand.
History, pp. xl-79.
First Essay: 3-4 page essay, group [last day (tp) 2]
project will be due by Sept 25. More on F— Oct 2--- first essay project
this later. due, to be posted
on blog by noon.
Second (short) Essay: TBA M Oct 5 Hegel, The Philosophy of
History, pp. 103-10,
Honor Code: Stealing ideas in this course 412-57
is doubly despicable as the point of this W Oct 7 Kierkegaard,
seminar is for students to develop skills of Philosophical
assimilating and working through complex Fragments, Preface
ideas (not simply aping the conclusions of and I-II
others). All work for this course is
governed by the Honor Code and its
M Oct 12 Kierkegaard,
pledge “As a member of the Notre
Dame community, I will not Philosophical
participate in or tolerate academic Fragments, III and
dishonesty.” Appendix
W Oct 14 Kierkegaard,
W Aug 26 Tolstoy, War and Peace, Philosophical
Bks 1-3 Fragments, IV,
Interlude, V. [last day
M Aug 31 Tolstoy, War and (tp) 3]
Peace, Bks 4-8
W Sep 2 Tolstoy, War and Peace, FALL BREAK
Bks 9-11
M Oct 26 Newman, The Idea of the
M Sep 7 Tolstoy, War and Peace, University, Preface,
Bks 12-15, both Discourses 1-5
Epilogues
W Sep 9 Confucius, Analects, Bks. W Oct 28 Newman, The Idea of the
1-3 [last day University, Discourses
thought piece (tp) 6-9
1]
M Sep 14 Confucius, Analects, Bks. M Nov 2 Tocqueville, Democracy
4-9 in America, Author's
W Sep 16 The Way of Lao Tzu Intro and chs. 1-15
W Nov 4 Tocqueville, Democracy
in America, chs. 16-17
M Sep 21 Bhagavad Gita, and 22-41
Introduction and
Sections 1-9 M Nov 9 Melville, Moby Dick, I-XLII
W Sep 23 Bhagavad Gita, Sections
10-18 and Appendices W Nov 11 Melville, Moby Dick, XLIII-C
M Nov 16 Melville, Moby Dick, CI- F Dec 5 -------Second essay
CXXXV [last day (tp) 4] due, in PLS mailbox
W Nov 18 Thoreau, Walden, before noon.
"Economy" through
"The Village" M Dec 7 Darwin, The Descent of
Man, Introduction and
M Nov 23 Thoreau, Walden, "The Chs. I-III
Ponds" through W Dec 9 Darwin, The Descent of
"Conclusion" Man, Chs. IV-VII, Gen
Summary, and
THANKSGIVING Conclusion. [last day
(tp) 5]
M Nov 30 Mill, On Liberty, I-II
W Dec 2 Mill, On Liberty, III-V
Review TBA