Plato's Symposium

Before you read: imagine yourself at a late night party with some close friends. You begin talking about love. You find that each of you speaks about love in a different way. Jot down some notes about what you would say about love.

After you read: Consider both the structure and content of the reading. Come to class prepared to discuss the following questions, and post some thoughts on them in your first Journal entry in the Blackboard Journey course:

Structure: The characters in the Symposium are exploring a weighty topic together. How did they interact with one another? Is the ”symposium” an effective means of education? Why or why not? Is this a real conversation, or is it just a literary device of Plato's?

Content: Which of the speeches was most different from your own imagined discussion regarding love? How was it different? Which one was closest? In what way?

There are three main goals of the journal assignment.

1. To provide opportunity for reflection and integration of the course material at a personal level.
2. To provide a place to practice and improve your writing skills.
3. To have regular contact with the professor regarding your thoughts and ideas about what you are learning.

It is up to you to decide on what you want to write about for each entry. However, you must choose to discuss something related to the course. This means you can reflect on what you are learning from reading the assigned text, or from class discussion, or from your discussing the text with your classmates. Whatever you choose, we should be able to tell that you are taking the course when we read your journal entry. Also, work hard to avoid simply summarizing the reading. You can do that in your reading notes. The point of the journal is to think about the material and to let us know what you're thinking. What are you learning? We often suggest some questions in the syllabus; these questions are not necessarily the ones we want you to answer in your journal, but are suggestions as to what kind of questions you want to work with. What questions occur to you, and what insights have you gained through engagement with the course material? This is also the place that you can consider the implications of what you are reading/learning, and ways that these texts might intersect with your own life and community.

We expect you to write as cogently as possible in your journals. Of course, we expect you to write in formal English, with complete sentences; this is not a text message. We also expect to see improvement in your critical thinking and writing skills over the course of the semester reflected in your journals. We will provide regular feedback including suggestions on ways to improve. Please read this feedback and use it to strengthen your work.

You should write your journal entries in Word and then cut and paste them into the Journey Blackboard site. Do this by clicking on the button marked Journal that is listed on the left of the Blackboard site for our course. After clicking on Journal, click on the Create Journal Entry for the appropriate date and paste your work into the window. Please don't "attach" it to the entry. Be sure you are posting for the right date!

Read before class:

• Plato, Symposium 

In the Honors class we will continue this discussion of the Symposium. Do the various speakers in the text learn from each other? What do you make of Aristophanes' account of the nature of love? What is he really describing? What do you make of Socrates' speech? Remember, they are all speaking of eros, which does mean "love" in the sense in which we use it, but also means "desire." We will see various understandings of this idea through the semester; what do you make of Socrates' account? Is is about "love" or "desire"? Is there a difference? Socrates' speech is one of the seminal texts in the history of thought, and we will see these ideas time and again; what do you make of it?

You might want to take a look at this version of Aristophanes' speech.

First writing assignment due.

Continued discussion of Plato's Symposium

What do the various characters in the discussion have to say about what it means to be human? Is desire essential to their understanding of human experience? Is "love" in our sense essential to their understanding? What is the basis of my relating to others? Does love/desire bring me outside myself? Is that a good thing? Why? How do we develop human community on this basis? What do you make of the "platonic ascent" from seeing beautiful things and persons to contemplating Beauty Itself? Do you recognize this ascent from other contexts?
What to you is the most valuable insight you have had from thinking about the Symposium?

• Heritage of World Civilizations, pp. 4-28  (1-23 in the 9th edition)
• Atrahasis, Myths from Mesopotamia, pp. 1-38
• Enuma Elish (The Epic of Creation), Myths from Mesopotamia, pp. 233-277

First essay assignment: Choose one of the origins stories we are studying, other than the texts from Genesis. What does this story tell the ancient audience about the world? How should the listener live in the world as a result of this knowledge? Formulate a clear thesis, and support your argument with textual evidence. This paper should be about three pages in length. Click on this link for our guidelines on how your papers are to be graded. This assignment is due on September 20.

Setting the questions: The Second Vatican Council's decree ”Nostra Aetate”

This groundbreaking document from the fourth session of the Second Vatican Council in 1965 represents a dramatic reformulation of the Catholic Church's understanding of other religious traditions. Its section on the Church and the Jewish people was largely drafted by Seton Hall professor Monsignor John M. Oesterreicher.
The questions of meaning that this document raises in its first section are the central themes of this course as well: what does it mean to be human? What is the meaning and purpose of life? As you read it, reflect on your own religious and cultural understanding of the "others", whoever they may be. To what extent do you think this document sets an agenda for finding common ground with others? To what extent do you see it as problematic? Why? How much of it strikes you as "news"?

Before you come to class, write a paragraph or two in your Journal, giving your first answers to some of these questions. After class, go back to your Journal and add a paragraph or two on how your thinking has changed as a result of our discussion.

Read before class:

• Nostra Aetate

Foundation Stories

Who are we and where do we come from? What do these stories tell us about the self-understandings of the people who told these stories, and of those who collected them? What do they say one should do? What do they say it means to be human? How should society be organized? Why?

Genesis 1-11 is a collection of stories that biblical scholars have named “the primeval history” because they are stories about ancient origins. Note that this part of the Bible is not called “primeval” because it is the oldest part of the Bible. In fact, most scholars think that this collection of stories did not come together in its current state until after the Babylonian exile of the Judeans, perhaps in the 5th or even 4th century BCE. To be sure, the material here draws on earlier versions of some of these stories. For instance, the story of Adam and Eve in the garden may have been told in the 10th century BCE. On the other hand, the seven day creation account of Gen 1:1-2:4a likely dates to a later period. This means when we read Gen 1-11, rather than thinking of it as a straightforward account of the origins of the universe, we should consider what the storytellers and the later compilers of this material wanted to say about the nature of the world, of humankind, of the God/human relationship, and so on.

Read before class:

• Heritage of World Civilizations, pp. 64-68 (56-61 9th ed.)
• Genesis 1-11
• Hesiod selections (in Course Documents on Blackboard)

Socrates' Apology

Socrates (469-399 B.C.E.) was Plato's teacher. In the course of great civil unrest in the years following Athens' defeat in the Peloponnesian War, he was brought to trial on charges of introducing foreign gods and of leading the youth of Athens astray. The Apology was apparently composed not long after Socrates' death; it presents itself as Socrates' defense against the charges levied against him, and his speech to the jury after he was found guilty. (The "apologia" is the formal reply to charges, the speech for the defense; it's not an "apology" in the modern sense of expressing regret for wrongdoing.) He was sentenced by the jury to execution. The text indicates that Plato was present at the trial; other dialogues suggest that Plato himself was also present at Socrates' death. The issues of truth and justice that the death of Socrates posed remained central issues in Plato's thought.

Do you think Socrates was "wise"? Why? What might "wisdom" be? What passages in his speech strike you as particularly noteworthy? What's there that surprises you? Why? Socrates says (38a) that "the unexamined life is not worth living for men." Do you agree with him? Why or why not? What if he is right? What do you think of his reaction to his impending death? Why? What do you make of Socrates' final comment? How does Socrates know what he knows? Can you know that way? Should you? What should you do? How can you get to the transcendently true? How do you know? What can we learn from Socrates' search for truth?

Before you come to class, write two or three paragraphs in your Journal in Blackboard with your first reflections on today's reading.

Read before class

• Plato's Apology, Crito (The Last Days of Socrates)

Recommended additional reading:

• Plato, Euthyphro, Phaedo

Foundation Stories: Vedic Ritual and Epic Knowledge

Who are we and where do we come from? The Rig Veda was composed somewhere between 1700 B.C.E. and 1100 B.C.E.; it consists of a number of hymns which were recited as part of rituals for centuries before they took written form, probably in late antiquity. The Rig Veda gives us insight into ancient Indian thought about the nature of human life and of human society; it also stands as a foundation of later Indian thought on these and many other topics. We might ask: who am "I" in the Vedic texts? What does one do? What is the goal? Does the Rig Veda give a different understanding of the world than the other texts we have been reading? How? In what way is it different?  What is the place of Agni, the god of fire and fire sacrifice?  of Varuna, the god of water, sky and law?  What does Purusha say about your place in the universe?   How does the Rig Veda's world look different from yours? How is it similar? What is the nature of the similarities you see? 

Outside of the Vedic textual traditions, other streams of stories and myths were circulating and developing in India from the late first millennium, BCE into the late millennium, CE. These collections incorporated folk traditions, local histories, and new cults focused on minor gods from the earlier Vedic corpus, particularly the god Vishnu. These traditions were compiled in the great epic poems of India, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. In these massive collections, new ideas rubbed shoulders with classic Vedic ideals, and their stories would in turn become the feeder stories for the next generation of Hindu texts, the Puranas (c. 300 to 1000 CE).

A good example of this is this excerpt from the Mahabharata (Book 3, "Vana Parva", section 189). The story is set within the overall narrative of the period of the virtuous Pandava brothers’ exile in the forest for 13 years (and before the actual war that occasions the Bhagavad Gita). There, their righteous submission to the austerity of such exile, as well as their heroic bearing in general, wins for them a visit from the great sage Markandeya, who is celebrated for his encyclopedic knowledge and wisdom. They ask him many questions about the origin of the world, the nature of reality, and the essentials of upright behavior. Here, they ask for a description of the current world age, the fourth of four that are part of the eternal cycle of creation and dissolution of all things in Vishnu, the supreme being, who gave this revelation to the sage. Note the cosmic pessimism about the future of this age, when all things will devolve into "mleccha", which is basically undifferentiated scum.

What are the characteristics of the four ages (yugas) and how are they related? What is the real crisis of the Kali Yuga, according to Markendeya? How does it relate to the Vedic tradition? How does the Indian understanding of time as endlessly cyclical, with neither absolute beginning nor absolute end, change your understanding of these texts ?
 
Read before class:

• Heritage of World Civilizations, pp. 28-35 (23-30 9th ed.)
• Hymns from the Rig Veda
• Mahabharata excerpt

Part of this class will be devoted to the formulation of a good thesis statement. Come to class with the thesis you are planning to use for your next paper, so that you can get feedback on your thesis before you begin writing. The "Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking" may help you work your way towards a thesis on the text you have chosen. You are encouraged to critique each other's papers while you are still writing. If you are having problems, consult one of your professors, or go to the Writing Center.

Further discussion of questions raised by Plato in the Apology and the Crito

How does Socrates know what he knows? Can you know in that way? Do you see yourself as a "self" in the same way as Socrates did? Should you? What does it mean to be an educated person? Can you separate job skills from yourself? Is it enough to become a "professional"? How can your education contribute to the non-professional part of your future? What will you do with the rest of your life?

How can we construct a just society? What makes society just? What do these two texts say about the citizen's responsibility to the law? about your responsibility to yourself?

Read before class:

• Plato's Apology, Crito (The Last Days of Socrates)
• Aristophanes, The Clouds

Foundation Stories: The Upanishads

The Upanishads as texts were conceived and preserved within the main Vedic schools, but represent a philosophical shift away from the strict ritualism of sacrifice of the classic Vedic tradition. Although many Upanishads are indeed ancient, the Katha Upanishad is now held to be mid to late 1st millenium BCE, dating from somewhere between 500 and 200 B.C.E. It gives us a different ancient Indian thought about the nature of human life and of human society. What do "I" learn from death in the Katha Upanishad? What does one do? What is the goal? What is the nature of the self, of the "I" that this text propounds? How does it differ from other understandings of the self that we have already seen?

Read before class:

• Heritage of World Civilizations, pp. 56-60 (49-52 9th ed.)
• Katha Upanishad
• Excerpt from the Chandogya Upanishad

Foundation Stories: Exodus

The Book of Exodus contains the stories that constitute the foundation myth of the Hebrew people, comparable in intent to the American stories of the Revolution. They tell of events which can probably be dated to the mid-13th century B.C.E., but whose meaning is to be found in the ongoing life of the people. They have their origins in oral storytelling, and probably did not take written form until about the 6th century B.C.E.
What do these stories teach about what it means to be "us"? What picture of the divine do they convey? How do they present themselves as guides to the ongoing life of the community?

Read before class:

• Exodus, chapters 1-15; 19-24

Before you come to class, write two or three paragraphs in your Journal in Blackboard with your first reflections on today's reading.

Heroes and Models: The Bhagavad Gita: How does one act? What basis does one have for choosing a way of action?

What is this story about? What do you find most surprising about it? What do you find hardest to understand? What do you find surprisingly familiar? Why? What does the storyteller want you to do? to think? What does Krishna say the self is? Why is self-understanding important? How does one get there? What in Krishna's teaching do you find agreeable? What of it do you find difficult? How does Krishna's teaching differ from others we have seen? How is it similar? How does it critique the worldview of the Vedas and the Katha Upanishad?

Read before class:

• Heritage of World Civilizations, pp. 152-153 (146-147 9th ed.)
• Bhagavad Gita, chapters 1 -6
• Listen to the Gita chanted in Sanskrit.

The Bhagavad Gita: How does one act? What basis does one have for choosing a way of action? Discussion continued

How does Krishna reveal what he himself is? What does Krishna say the self is? How does that understanding of the self serve as a basis of action? Why is self-understanding important? How does one get there? What in Krishna's teaching do you find agreeable? What of it do you find difficult? How does Krishna's teaching differ from others we have seen? How is it similar? How does it critique the worldview of the Vedas and the Katha Upanishad? How does it respond to the worldview espoused by the Buddha? How does the Gita understand That Which is Ultimate? What consequences does it suggest that follow from that understanding?

We will spend the entire morning in discussion of this key text.

Before you come to class, write a few paragraphs in your Journal with your reflections on the Gita.

Read before class:

• Heritage of World Civilizations, pp. 321-324 (138-147 9th ed.)
• Bhagavad Gita, chapters 7-18 
• "I am become Death, destroyer of worlds" video

First essay due. Bring two paper copies to class.

Heroes and Models: Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh is the protagonist of a number of ancient Mesopotamian stories which appear to have been widespread in the ancient Near East. What does the story say about the difference between civilization and the wild? What is the natural world? What is the importance of friendship in the story? What do you make of Gilgamesh's reaction to the death of Enkidu? What do you make of the flood story? What does "immortality" mean?

Read before class:

• The Epic of Gilgamesh, Myths from Mesopotamia, pp. 39-125 

Ancient Heroes and Anti-heroes: The Iliad

Gilgamesh and Achilles raise the question of what it means to be a "hero." In what sense do they represent a cultural ideal? What kind of ideal do they represent? Are they meant to be imitated? revered? Why?

Read before class:

• Heritage of World Civilizations, pp. 86-94 (74-87 9th ed.)
• The Epic of Gilgamesh, Myths from Mesopotamia, pp. 39-125
• The Essential Iliad, Books 1-3, 6

Heroes and Models: The Iliad

Who is the hero? What is a hero? Is the hero an "I"? In what sense is Achilles the hero of the Iliad? Is Achilles responsible for his wrath? Who are the gods in the story? Why does the poem begin with Achilles' wrath, but conclude with Hektor's funeral rites? What in this poem made it the story all Greeks knew and remembered? What part of the poem do you find most compelling? Why?

Read before class:

• The Essential Iliad, Books 9, 14, 16, 18-24

Heroes and Models: The Odyssey

What in this poem made it so precious to the Greeks? What made Odysseus such a culture hero? What does that tell us about the people who treasured this poem? What values does it convey, and how?

Read before class:

• The Essential Odyssey, Books 1-13

Heroes and Models: Abraham and Ruth

The story of Abraham is another ancient origins story; Abraham is in the Hebrew, Christian and Muslim traditions the archetypal figure of the obedient servant of God. His journey of faith is presented as a model for believers to follow, in all three traditions. Ruth is similarly presented as a model woman. A non-Hebrew, she nevertheless chooses to remain with her late husband's family and people, and so becomes an ancestor of King David.
What lessons are meant to be drawn from the stories of these two people?

Read before class:

• The Story of Abraham, Genesis 12-25
• Ruth, chapters 1-4

Heroes and Models: The Self and the Polis

Read before class:

• Odyssey, Books 16-24
• Greek lyric poetry (in Blackboard)
• Heritage of World Civilizations, pp. 94-101 (87-91 9th ed.)

We will also be beginning your preparation for our midterm exam.  Go to the class site on Blackboard and find "Midterm Exam Material" on the menu.  In that wiki, post names, places, things, ideas, themes from the first half of the Colloquium (the big class section) .  We will refine that list in the class of October 2, and begin developing essay questions for the exam.  Come to class with potential essay questions in mind. 

Second essay assignment: close reading and analysis of a text. Choose one of the following texts and analyze the main themes in this text, paying attention to the context, language, tone, voice, metaphors, meaning contained in it. Out of this analysis, develop and argue a thesis about the meaning of one of these themes. This paper should also be about three pages in length; you are encouraged to critique each other's writing before handing it in. This assignment is due on October 25.

• Iliad, Bk. 9, lines 415-441
• Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 11, stanzas 19-23
• Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet I, iv (pp. 55-56)

The Buddha and Buddhist teachings

Siddhartha Gautama (traditionally 566 - 486 B.C.E., although some modern scholars date him about a century later) is known to us as the Buddha, the Awake One. At his enlightenment at the age of 35, he came to understand what he taught as the Four Noble Truths: that all life is suffering (dukkha), that the cause of suffering is desire, that suffering can be ended, and that the way to end suffering is the Noble Eightfold Path: right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right meditation. This "Middle Way", between bodily indulgence and harsh physical asceticism, focuses on the concentration of the mind to a proper understanding of reality. He spent the rest of his life teaching this dharma (truth, teaching, thing); his teachings were collected orally after his death, and much later reduced to writing. During his lifetime, he gathered thousands of followers, who adopted his mendicant style of living; these bhikkus (monks) were his first sangha, or community.

The three texts for this class purport to represent the actual teaching of the historical Buddha, who was roughly a contemporary of Socrates. "Buddha" means literally "awake"; these teachings explain how life looks when you are truly awake to the real. 

What in these texts do you find challenging? What is utterly unfamiliar to you? What are you comfortable with? How do these texts differ from your own understanding? Why? What do these texts want you to think? to do? How do they accomplish this? What do they take for granted that you do not? What difference does this make in your ability to grasp them? Who are "you" in these texts? How should you act? Why? How are the Buddha's answers similar to those we have seen? In what ways is the Buddha critiquing earlier Indian ideas, such as we have already seen? How are they different? What does suffering mean? How does one find meaning in it? What is freedom? What is important in life? In what ways is the Buddha's teaching a critique of social norms? How does his teaching challenge your own self-understanding? Why?

Before you come to class, write a few paragraphs in your Journal with your first reflections on today's reading.

Read before class:

• The Buddha's Deer Park Sermon
• The Buddha's Fire Sermon
• The Buddha's Parable of the Arrow
• Heritage of World Civilizations, pp. 61-63 (53-56 9th ed.); 321-327 (138-145 9th ed.)

The Buddha and Buddhist teachings: The Heart Sutra

About the beginning of the Common Era, the monastic form of Buddhist teaching was challenged by an interpretation of the Buddha's teaching which focused on the availability of the Buddha and his teaching to the larger community, and not only to those who adopted the monastic life. This "greater vehicle," the Mahayana, also developed the ideal of the bodhisattva, the enlightened being who postpones his own entry into nirvana for the sake of the enlightenment of all sentient beings. In this light, the Buddha is a permanent presence, and enlightenment is a possibility for all who seek to uncover their own buddha nature. It is, by and large, the Mahayana form of Buddhism which moved into China, Korea and Japan. A further expansion of the Mahayana, the Vajrayana, or "Diamond Way," became the basic form of Buddhism in Tibet. The Mahayana text for this class explores the subtler metaphysics and ethics of this branch of Buddhist thinking.

The Heart Sutra is a rather later Buddhist composition, dating from somewhere in the early centuries of the Common Era, perhaps as early as 100 C.E. Notice that in this text the Buddha is not the speaker, but is a silent presence approving what is said. The speaker is Avalokiteshvara (Chenrezig in Tibetan), a disciple of the Buddha who emerges in later Buddhist thought as the boddhisattva (the person who perfectly realizes an ideal) of infinite compassion. It is important in reading this text to note who the speaker is: what is taught in this text is the foundation of compassion.

What do you find most compelling in this text? What is most unfamiliar? How is it like other texts we have seen? How is it different? What does the text take for granted? Note that the text explains that all aspects and objects of human knowing are "emptiness" (shunyata): form, feeling, cognition, conception and consciousness (the five "skandhas" or "heaps") are all equally empty, and that their emptiness is not other than what they are. How does that shape what it says? What does the text say about the meaning of the universe? about the meaning of life? about you? How does its understanding of the nature of reality shape its ethical teaching? What does this text have to say about the meaning of the individual? about how you should act? about why you should act? What is freedom? How does one find meaning in suffering? How does one find the transcendent in one's life? What is true human community? How does compassion emerge as a consequence of this teaching?

Read before class:

• The Heart Sutra
• The Heart Sutra in a different version
• The Heart Sutra chanted in Tibetan
• The Dialogues of King Milinda, chapter 1

If you are really ambitious, you can tackle Nagarjuna's (c. 150-250 C.E.) analysis of these ideas in his Exposition of the Enlightened Mind (Bodhichittavivarana).  The essence of his argument is spelled out in his Sixty Verses (Yuktishastika): since all things arise dependently, out of causes and conditions, everything, even nirvana, is ultimately devoid of reality.  "Shunyata" is the noun form of "shunya", "empty", which is the word Indian mathematicians used to form the concept of the "zero"; note that Greek and Roman mathematics does not have the concept of zero, which came into the West through the Arabic translations of Indian mathematical texts in the 9th century and the Latin translations of those texts in the 12th.  Nagarjuna argues that "emptiness" is not the same as nihilism, since nihilism must posit that nothingness is real: a real destruction would require a real thing to be destroyed, and a real subject to observe it.  Neither is the case.

You may find helpful the images and explanations at this site, as well as the linked page here.

The Gospel of John

What should you do? Why should you do it? How do you know? How should you behave toward others? What responsibility do you have toward them? Why? How is what Jesus has to say similar to what we have seen before? How is it different? How does what Jesus do reveal what he has to say? What does that have to say about how your actions reveal who you are?

Before you come to class, write a few paragraphs in your Journal with your first reflections on today's reading.
Read before class:

• The Gospel of John, 1, 3:16-21, 5:19-47 and 11:1-27

The Self and Community 

The Athens of the Classical Age experienced a series of threats, successes and defeats which raised questions of individual and social responsibility in forms which are still compelling to us. Read their accounts of the Persian War as background to their debates. Who am "I" in all of this? Who am "I" in the face of death? What are "my" responsibilities? How do the Athenian answers compare to those reflected in the Katha Upanishad? How do they differ from the answers we saw in Homer? in Pindar? in Sappho? How does your own sense of self differ from any and all of these? How is it similar? Do you recognize in your experience the kind of responsibility to the community that Pericles appeals to? What do you conclude from your answer? What is your reaction to Pericles' description of Athens? Does Pericles' description of Athenian democracy coincide with the reality that Thucydides describes? What lessons does Thucydides suggest in his descriptions of the Mitylenean debate? In the Melian debate? In his description of the Sicilian disaster?

Read before class:

• Heritage of World Civilizations, pp. 101-118 (87-104 9th ed.)
• Herodotus, On the Persian War (in Blackboard)
• Thucydides, On the Peloponnesian War (in Blackboard) 

The Gospel of John

The long speech Jesus gives at this meal is an extended meditation on what it means to be a follower of Jesus. How does Jesus' action at the beginning of this story shape the meaning of what follows? How should one act toward oneself? toward others? Why? How does Jesus speak of his Father? How is that meant to be a model of how the follower should act? What should you do?

Read before class:

• The Gospel of John, chapters 13-17, especially chapters 13 and 14  
  

The Self and the Polis: Tragedy as katharsis

Aristotle says, in the Poetics, that "Tragedy is, then, a representation of an action that is heroic and complete and of a certain magnitude--by means of language enriched with all kinds of ornament, each used separately in the different parts of the play: it represents men in action and does not use narrative, and through pity and fear it effects relief to these and similar emotions"(1449b). He uses the word "katharsis" (translated here as "relief") to describe the ultimate effect of tragedy. What is the "katharsis" (relief, purification, clarification) in the plays of the Oresteia? What kind of knowledge gives this "clarification"? How does this way of knowing differ from "philosophical" knowing?

Read before class:

• Aeschylus, Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides

The Gospel of Luke

The Gospel of Luke is one of the "synoptic" Gospels, so called because they, seen together, contain much of the same material. The author himself discusses his compositional technique in the opening verses. What does he tell you about the origins of this text?

Luke is one of the two Gospels to tell stories of the birth of Jesus, although his and Matthew's versions are very different from each other. What does he mean to say about Jesus with his version of the story?

Who is this Jesus, as Luke depicts him in the stories he tells about his activities? What does he want you to think about him? What message about the present time is carried in the final chapter?

Read before class:

• Luke, 1-4; 6, 8, 11, 15, 22-24

The Self and the Polis: the question of justice: politics as a moral enterprise

The Athenian experiment in democracy forced many to reconsider the role of the individual in society. Plato's Socrates is one of the first characters in literature to take seriously the motto of the Delphic oracle to "know thyself." What does that Socrates have to say about personal responsibility in the Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito? Is that the same message we find in the early part of the Republic? How do these understandings of the self compare to the emerging sense of the self reflected in the Katha Upanishad?

As you read the Republic, think about the following questions:

1.  How are we to take Socrates' suggestion that we shift the discussion from the individual to the community (368e-369b)? Is it simply a matter of seeing justice more clearly? What else is at stake in this move?
2.  Why is Plato so concerned with education (paideia) of the young (literature and gymnastic)? And why does he want to exercise such strict control over the poets? (How might Euripides' and Aristophanes' plays have fared in Plato's new polis?
3. Correlate the great foundation myth (414d-415c) to the class structure and the parts of the human soul. Does Plato get these right? are any important things missing?
4. What finally does Plato claim that justice is and how does he arrive at this definition? Do you see problems with his definition?
5. Socrates claims that three waves must be endured in order for this new polis to come into existence: the equal education of men and women, the new kinship structure and the philosopher ruler. What are the main lines of each proposal, and how are these three connected?
6. Plato's notion of the forms (ideas) plays the central role in the education of the philosopher rulers with the highest form being that of the good. What are the ways that Socrates attempts to explain the form of the good (sun, divided line and cave)? Do these make sense; do you see problems with any of these analogies?
7.  Will the guardians be happy?
8.  What problems does Plato have with democracy? Are his criticisms cogent? Do you see any relationship of his criticisms with problems today?
9. Why does Plato end his text with the story of Er? Do you see any connection to the earlier story of the ring of Gyges? - - - Does the story of Er fit at the end? What purposes, if any, does it serve?

 
Read before class:

• Plato, Republic, Book 1-3

Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" from the Republic

Unlike the Apology, which was probably written shortly after Socrates' death, the Republic is a much later work, and the "Socrates" here may or may not accurately represent the historical Socrates; he is certainly the mouthpiece of Plato's own thought. The Republic is a lengthy discussion of the nature of justice (clearly a sore point for Plato, who was present at Socrates' trial); the "Allegory of the Cave" is a discussion of the nature of the kind of knowledge that will bring about a just society.

Do you recognize the kind of thinking Plato is describing? Do you recognize the "cave"? Do you live there? Do your friends? How do you recognize what is real? How can you tell the real from the false? How can you tell? What are you doing at university? How do you connect your education with your future? Does that education imply obligations to others? What might they be? What should you do? Why? How?

Before you come to class, write a few paragraphs in your Journal with your first reflections on today's reading.

Read before class:

• Plato, Republic, Books 4-7
• You may enjoy this version of the Allegory of the Cave.

Midterm exam for CORE 1101 (hand in take-home exam)

NOTE: This assignment must be handed in no later than class on November 1!

The exam will consist of your five-page essay answer to this question:

Nostra Aetate poses a number of basic human questions about the meaning of life. Choose two of the readings we have done and analyze how they address one of these questions.




Plato's Republic
 
Read before class:

• Plato, Republic, Books 8-10

Second essay due in paper form. 

Plotinus: Tractate on the Beautiful (Peri tou Kalou)

Plotinus synthesized the fusion of Stoic and Platonic thought that was the preoccupation of the Alexandrian philosophers of his time. His development of the ideal of the Beautiful and the One in a neoplatonic "monotheism" is both the culmination of ancient Greco-Roman philosophy and the bridge to the philosophical treatment of the idea of God which develops in Christian thought. At the same time, he also appears to reflect the influence of the Indian philosophers in the Alexandria of his time; notice the echoes of Buddhist teaching in the Tractate, particularly in the way in which he effectively denies intrinsic (or absolute) existence to the things of our experience.

Is Plotinus consistent with Plato in his understanding of knowledge?
How does Plotinus argue to the existence of a transcendent Beauty? Is his argument similar to Diotima's?
Is that Beauty the same as the Christian God?
What is the purpose of human existence in a Plotinian world?
How does Plotinus' philosophical approach reflect the social and political world of the third-century Empire?
Do you recognize Plotinus' footprints in Christianity today? In Islam?

Read before class:

• Reread Socrates' speech in Plato's Symposium; in some ways, Plotinus is commenting on this text in the Sixth Tractate.
• The Tractate on the Beautiful (annotated version)
• For more of Plotinus' work, you can follow this link: Plotinus, First Ennead (Scroll down to find the sixth tractate; if that link does not go all the way to the sixth tractate, click on the text-only link at the top of the page. That version gives you the entire Ennead.)

The Self and the Polis: Tragedy and Comedy as social katharsis

The Greeks found in their dramas a way of coming to understand a number of conflicts that remained unresolved at the very core of their civilization; the plays they continued to demand give us insight into the nature of these conflicts. Indeed, some of these conflicts can be seen in our own world; perhaps they are inherent in human civilization. In any event, audiences to this day continue to find understanding in these plays. What is the "katharsis" (relief, purification, clarification) in Antigone, in Bacchae? What conflicts do they dramatize, and how do they illuminate them? What kind of knowledge gives this "clarification"? How does this way of knowing differ from "philosophical" knowing? How do these plays enrich the discussion of Justice? How do they illuminate the conflicts which gave rise to Justice as a problem?

The comic stage was another format in which the tensions in classical Greek society became visible (and risible). It was not an accident that a standard dramatic performance concluded with a comedy. Why are these plays still hilarious? What do they tell us about our society? What do they tell us about the Greeks? How does Euripides' treatment of women differ from Aristophanes'? Why? How are they similar?

Read before class:

• Sophocles, Antigone
• Euripides, Bacchae (in Blackboard)
• Euripides, Medea (in Blackboard)
• Aristophanes, Lysistrata
• Aristophanes, The Clouds

Midterm exam for the Journey course due at class today.

Augustine's Confessions

The Confessions is the first autobiography in Western history, and it remains a classic of psychological introspection. Augustine is a writer of unparalleled skill; pay especially close attention to the beginning and the ending of each book, for they summarize his thoughts.

How does Augustine understand the meaning of human life? How does he know this? Who is his partner in the dialogue in this work? In what way is this familiar to you? In what way is it different from texts we have seen before? What difference does it make in your understanding of the text?

What do you take away from his description of his childhood? Does it resonate with your experience? How? What are the various meanings of "confession" as Augustine uses this term to apply to this book?

Augustine writes this book as a long, extended conversation with God: what importance and meanings can be attached to this form; how would it have been different without this dialogical character? What kind of education did he receive, and what did he think of it?

Before you come to class, write a few paragraphs in your Journal with your first reflections on today's reading.

Read before class:

• Augustine, Confessions, Books 1 through 4 

From Polis to Empire: Aristotle, Alexander and Hellenism

With Alexander's unification of the eastern Mediterranean and western Asia into a single cosmopolitan entity, the thought forms of classical Greek thought became the common language of a wide variety of human societies. The resulting synthesis of Greek, Egyptian and Middle Eastern thought became the basis both of Roman imperial civilization and of the Christian church. We are still the heirs of Alexander.

Read before class:

• Heritage of World Civilizations, pp. 118-129 (104-114 9th ed.); 147-150 (124-126 9th ed.)
• Aristotle: Physics, Book II, parts 1-3
• Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book 1, parts 1-2;   Book 12, parts 7-10 

Deadline for handing in your paper on an object from the Metropolitan Museum.

Augustine's Confessions

 What does Augustine mean by the "disintegrated self"? How is this similar to, or different from, Plato's view of the self? the view of the self in John? in the Gita? in Buddhist thought? Why is he so troubled by the pear-stealing episode? Why is he still brooding over it late in his life? What does he learn from it? What do you make of it? How does his reflection on this episode color his understanding of human action? What should you do?

How does Augustine interpret his boyhood prank in Bk. II and what significance does he attach to it? For about ten years, he was associated with a religious group called the Manichees; who are they, what do they believe and of what importance is this to Augustine? As a young adult, Augustine is perplexed by a number of philosophical issues: what are they and how does he attempt to resolve them? Of what importance are love and sex to him during these early years?

Why does he go to Rome and then to Milan? What ambitions does he have" What is happening in the western Roman Empire at this point? What influence does Ambrose have on him?

Book VII describes Augustine's "intellectual" conversion; pay attention to the importance of "platonist" philosophy and how he sees this in relation to Christian revelation. What are the main features of this aspect of his conversion? How does Plotinus shape Augustine's answers?

Read before class:

• Augustine, Confessions, Books 5 through 7

Before you come to class, write a few paragraphs in your Journal with your first reflections on today's reading.



From Polis to Empire: Aristotle

The ethical and political thought of Aristotle poses a startling contrast to that of Plato, whom Aristotle at one point summarily rejects. Aristotle posits an entirely different set of standards for evaluating human individual and social conduct; the debate between these two radically different points of view define the parameters of Western ethical and political thinking to this day.

How does Aristotle pose the question of "good" actions? Why should one act in this way? What is the purpose of human activity, from his perspective? What is the purpose of human society? How does Aristotle's notion of happiness differ from our contemporary understandings of it?

Read before class:

• Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics Bk I, 1-2, 4, 7;   Bk II, 1, 6;   Bk X, 7-8
• Aristotle, Politics  Bk I, 1-2;   Bk III, 6-7, 9;   Bk IV, 11;   Bk V, 8;   Bk VI, 5

Fourth essay topic (due December 6): This will be your fourth paper in which you argue a thesis based on a critical reading of one of the following texts.  Pay attention in your writing to the language choices in the text.  Like the previous papers, it is to be about three pages in length, and you are encouraged to critique each other's writing before submitting this paper.

• Plato, Republic. The Myth of Er (Bk X, 620a-d)

• Aeschylus, Agamemnon, Clytemnestra's speech: lines 1391-1415

• Vergil, Aeneid, Book II, lines 635-662

Augustine's Confessions

How does Augustine work his way through the question of evil? How does this question go back to the pear tree episode? Do you find his analysis of the question persuasive? Why? How? Does he really answer the question he sets himself? Do you see his alternatives still present in our world today? How does one find the transcendent? How does one imagine it? What does it mean to suffer?

What do you make of Augustine's final conversion? What made it difficult? What made it possible? How did his intellectual struggles pave the way for it? How does one come to a vision of life? How does one understand the meaning of beauty? of truth? How does your own spiritual journey reflect Augustine's? How does one construct community?
Book VIII culminates in Augustine's moral conversion: what are its main features; with what (in himself) is he struggling; how does his conversion finally come about? What is the "vision of Ostia" as Augustine recounts it in Book IX? Throughout the book, what does Augustine consider the problem to be?  How does he conclude it can be dealt with?

Before you come to class, write a few paragraphs in your Journal with your first reflections on today's reading.

Read before class:

• Augustine, Confessions, Books 8 through 10

From Polis to Empire: Philosophical thought in the developing empires

With Alexander's unification of the eastern Mediterranean and western Asia into a single cosmopolitan entity, the thought forms of classical Greek thought became the common language of a wide variety of human societies. The resulting synthesis of Greek, Egyptian and Middle Eastern thought became the basis both of Roman imperial civilization and of the Christian church. We are still the heirs of Alexander. We will begin with more consideration of Aristotle's Politics.

Read before class:

• Aristotle, Politics  Bk I, 1-2;  Bk III, 6-9;  Bk IV, 11;  Bk V, 8;  Bk VI, 5
• Lucretius (in Blackboard)
• Cleanthes, Hymn to Zeus (in Blackboard)

Pope Benedict XVI's Encyclical "God is Love"

Papal encyclical letters are a form of public teaching; usually they are devoted to an examination of a particular question. It is significant that Pope Benedict XVI chose this topic as the subject of his first formal letter. 
As you read the letter, do you find his arguments persuasive? Does his analysis resonate with your own experience? How? Why? What do you find surprising in it? What is not surprising? Given our discussions this semester, does his analysis clarify some of the issues we have been discussing? Does love of God necessarily translate into love of others? Individually? Communally? Why? How? How does his understanding of God ground his vision of human community? How does it suggest a grounding for one's own self-understanding? 

Before you come to class, write a few paragraphs in your Journal with your first reflections on today's reading.

Read before class:

• Pope Benedict XVI's Encyclical God is Love, Part I 

From Polis to Empire: The Roman Republic

Livy on the Roman concept of female virtue, Polybius on the constitution of the Republic.

Read before class:

• Heritage of World Civilizations, pp. 182-193 (175-185 9th ed.)
• Livy selections (in Blackboard
• Polybius selections (in Blackboard)

For a computer-designed view of ancient Rome, go to earth.google.com and download the software to visit Constantine's Rome.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Malcolm X's Autobiography recounts his transformative journey into the leader he became. He raises questions of the meaning of the American experience that continue to challenge us. How does one find meaning in oppression? in suffering? What makes for a truly human community? How does one's vision of the transcendent affect the kind of community one builds? How do our cultural values get in the way of genuine community? How do we get past the cultural presuppositions that prevent the formation of genuine human community? As you read, think about the power of people's attitudes on Malcolm's personal growth and development. What kind of person did he become as a consequence of those attitudes, his own and others'?

Read before class:

• Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, chapters 1 through 9

Before you come to class, write a few paragraphs in your Journal with your reflections on today's reading.

From Polis to Empire: Julius Caesar and the fall of the Roman Republic

Julius Caesar was one in a series of warlords whose private armies continually threatened the stability of the Roman Republic, which was itself collapsing under the weight of administering what had suddenly become a great world empire with institutions developed to rule a modest-size city.

Read before class:

• Catullus, Poems (in Blackboard)
• Vergil, The Fourth Eclogue (in Blackboard)
• Vergil, Aeneid, Book 1
• Heritage of World Civilizations, pp. 193-198 (185-189 9th ed)

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Malcolm X also raises the question of structural oppression. Is it enough to be a good person as an individual? Do our responsibilities go beyond personal goodness? Is it enough to pursue personal happiness? How can we appreciate the humanness of others who are different from us? How can we find common ground with them? What makes this appreciation difficult? How? How does Malcolm X find a grounding for this appreciation in Muslim values? How do those values appear to you? How did his experience at Mecca change him?


Before you come to class, write a few paragraphs in your Journal with your reflections on today's reading.

Read before class:

• Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, chapters 10 through 19

From Polis to Empire: Rome as Republic and as Empire: Vergil and the Aeneid

Vergil's Aeneas is both an epic hero on the model of Achilles and Odysseus, and a type of the model Roman, invented to justify the new imperial despotism of Augustus Caesar. The tensions between Vergil's epic aspirations and the political nature of his commission made his work an enduring classic. Vergil's other poetry also articulates an idealized version of what it meant to be "Roman."

The Odes of Horace are another perennial monument of the Augustan project. Like Vergil, he was patronized by Maecenas, an extremely wealthy Roman who was an adviser to Augustus. Published in 23 B.C.E., they give a rounded picture of the Rome that was settling in to rule the world. The first six Odes of Book III, the "Roman Odes," portray the social, moral, political and religious aims of the new Roman Empire as Augustus would have them accepted. What does it now mean to be a "Roman"?
 
Be prepared to discuss:
1. The driving force of the Aeneid: a divine plan?
2. The intervention of the gods, especially in Books 1 and 7.

Read before class:

• Heritage of World Civilizations, pp. 198-207 (189-198 9th ed.)
• The Essential Aeneid, Books 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 12
• Horace, Odes (in Blackboard)

Course Summary

Final Exam (take-home; due via email by midnight of December 16)

Your final for the Journey of Transformation class consists of two questions focusing on the two autobiographies that we have read. You are to answer both of them.

 1. Write an analytical essay in which you argue a thesis concerning the autobiographies that we have read in the second half of the semester. You are to determine the topic of the thesis and argue it on the basis of the two texts. Below are some questions to consider that are designed to help you develop a thesis and argument. You do not necessarily need to answer all, or any, of these questions, but they are a place to start as you contemplate your topic. Avoid merely giving plot summaries! We are looking for your analytical and critical thinking skills to shine in these essays. The final essay should be no longer than three to four pages. (30 points)
Questions to consider for your analysis:
Are there common elements that run through these stories of transformation? If so, what are they?What are the effects of these transformations in the lives of the subject?In what significant ways do these life stories differ?What difference does it make that these are autobiographies rather than some other genre?How do particular themes that we studied earlier in the semester affect your reading and understanding of these texts? 

 2. Identify one autobiography that has challenged or changed your thinking in what you consider to be a positive direction. How and why was it challenging? Be specific with respect to the text and its effects on your perspective. Your response should be no more than two pages long. (20 points)
 

 

From Polis to Empire: The Stoics

The first century CE brought a renewed interest in philosophy, but with a decidedly different approach. Rather than pondering ideal forms, or causes, the "moral" or "practical" philosophers were concerned with the question, "How should I live?" How do the Stoics? the Epicureans? Do you recognize some of these answers in the world we live in? Who are the Epictetuses of our contemporary culture?

Read before class:

• Epictetus, Enchiridion
• Cleanthes, Hymn to Zeus (in Blackboard)
• Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
• Musonius Rufus on women's education

Come to class prepared to formulate the list of topics, persons, ideas and things for the final examination. We will formulate the questions for the exam in the next class.