Honors Intellectual Traditions I

Course Description and Syllabus

Fall 2006

Honors College

See my Web page for all Syllabi: http://wise.fau.edu/~dwhite

(Please note: this syllabus is subject to regular updates; you should check this online version weekly.)

OFFICE HOURS: T & R 2-4 PM, W 2-4

The Honors Intellectual Traditions sequence is designed to offer insights into the diverse cultural heritages that have shaped the contemporary world. The course of study is interdisciplinary and multicultural in perspective. It is writing intensive (each semester satisfies 6,000 words of the Gordon Rule writing requirement) and based on the study of primary sources in translation. Course contents may be varied from year to year so as to represent a wide variety of traditions. The constituent courses need not be taken in sequence.

In HUM 2210, Honors Intellectual Traditions I, we will study examples of the philosophy, religion, literature, music, and visual arts of Europe from Ancient Greece through the Middle Ages. We will, however, consider European culture as part of a multicultural world by comparing major Western works those of the Middle East, India, China and Japan. We will study a cross-section of ancient cultures, focusing on literature, philosophy and art. We will read the Odyssey by Homer in comparison with the Bhagavad-Gita, for example, to understand the Greek and Indian epic traditions. We will study examples from Greek art history, to understand the key elements of the Hellenic intellectual tradition, and go on to compare them with Hindu arts and aesthetics, including sculpture, architecture and music, in light of India’s intellectual heritage. Furthermore, we’ll consider the condition of Greek women as represented in Sophocles’ play Antigone, as compared to that of Indian women as represented in Kalidasa’s play, Shakuntala (pdf.) or Shakuntala (html) or Sacontala. We will compare Greek philosophy, evidenced in Plato’s Phaedo and Aristotle’s De Anima (On the Soul) with the Indian philosophy as represented by the Bhagavad-Gita as well as the Vedas and Upanishads. Our study will then expand to consider Egyptian and Hebrew cultures, to enrich our appreciation of the complexity and sophistication of the ancient world. We will go on to compare Virgil's Aeneid, especially as it reveals Roman political and social ideals, with the Analects of Confucius, as it expresses the social philosophy of early China; and we’ll read the Lotus Sutra as an example of Chinese Buddhism. We will further compare the Chinese and Roman traditions in lyric poetry, as well as the philosophies of the Taoist Tao Te Ching and Epicurean Odes of Horace. We’ll further compare Augustine's Confessions: English (Confessions: Latin) , a landmark of early medieval Christianity, to Islamic literatures dramatizing the idea of the soul seemingly caught between time and eternity. Thus we’ll study the Islamic philosopher Al-Ghazzali’s Deliverance from Error in light of the religious tradition stemming from the Qur’an and reflect not only on Augustine’s work but also, again in this context, on the Lotus Sutra and Bhagavad-Gita. Finally, we will consider Japanese literature, philosophy and art, together with their medieval European counterparts. Hence we will focus on Basho’s The Narrow Road to the Interior along with Dante's European pilgrimage in the Divine Comedy Both works sum up the quest for a meaningful human life in a distinctive cultural synthesis. The Humanistic Tradition, vols. 1-2, by Gloria Fiero, will help to provide chronological and thematic perspectives on the human condition from a global perspective, especially through the visual arts. Assignments will range from critical essays to creative writing; they will be in-class and out-of-class. Writing processes will be emphasized and written assignments will be evaluated for both composition and content.

Course Requirements and Grades:

1) A series of reading responses (essays): 50% of final grade: a series of critical essays, personal essays, and fictional writings reflecting assigned materials.

2) A final essay: 20%: a critical paper providing arguing a thesis coherently based on analysis of primary sources.

3) Class Presentation(s): 20%: each of you will volunteer to present an assigned text for the day; you will provide an outline or summary of the text for class discussion.

4) Class participation, including discussion & attendance: 10%: you must attend every class, be prepared, and participate in discussion.

Writing Requirement: 6,500 words

1) Reading responses and the final essay will be graded in terms of content and composition: handling of sources, clarity of argumentation and/or thematic development, grammar, mechanics, style and diction will typically be the criteria of evaluation. In-class writings will be graded holistically for content—how well they reflect a knowledge of a given assignment and how significantly they address a given topic—though composition will also be considered.

2) There will be a series of reading responses, written in and out of class, totaling a minimum of 5,000 words; please see syllabus for due dates and formats.

3) Class presentation(s): each person will select a reading or art work to present to class; basically, you will lead the class discussion of the work.

4) The final essay will be at least 1,500 words in length; it will be in lieu of a final examination.

5) Writing formats may vary with the assignment, from expository, to dramatic dialogue, to film script, to personal narrative.

Attendance and Participation:

Regular attendance and participation in class activities are required. They are essential to maintaining the best learning environment for all participants. Accordingly, as indicated above, they are worth 10% of your final grade.

Students enrolled in this course agree to abide by the Honors College Honor Code. Please review the terms of this important document: http://www.fau.edu/divdept/honcol/students/honorcode.html

Required Texts:

Ames, Roger T., Analects of Confucius

Basho, Matsuo, The Narrow Road to the Interior, trans. Sam Hamill

Burton, Watson, trans., The Lotus Sutra

Fiero, Gloria, The Humanistic Tradition, vols. I & II, 5^th Edition

Haleem, Abdel, trans. The Qur’an

Homer, The Odyssey, W. Shewring, trans.

Miller, Barbara S, The Bhagavad-Gita

Plato, Phaedo, David Gallop, trans.

Online Sources:

Art and Art History links for teachers: http://www.hudmark.com/schoolnet/art.html

Art and Architecture of Greece: http://harpy.uccs.edu/greek/greek.html

Buddha & Plato: http://wise.fau.edu/~dwhite/courses/BuddhaPlato.htm

Diotima: Materials for the Study of Women and Gender: http://www.stoa.org/diotima/

Egyptian Art: http://www.memphis.edu/egypt/

Islamic Art: Islamic Art at Los Angeles Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art: Islamic Art, Islamic Art & Architecture

Plato: a map of his Dialogues

Plato: a short biography

Resources for Studying Islam: http://www.arches.uga.edu/~godlas/

Arabic Calligraphy: http://www.sakkal.com/ArtArabicCalligraphy.html

Mosques: http://www.islamicity.com/Culture/MOSQUES/Asia/default.htm

Islamic Philosophy Online : http://www.muslimphilosophy.com

What do we actually know about Mohammed? Current scholarship on early Islam

Liber de Causis / “The Book of Causes”; liber de causis – Über die Erste Ursache, arabisch-lateinisch-deutsch

Japanese Art and Western Influence: http://www.euronet.nl/users/artnv/Japart.index.html

Japanese History: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e641.html

Japanese Traditional Art (drama, literature, visual arts): http://kanzaki.com/jinfo/jart.html

The Perseus Project (Greek and Roman texts): http://www.perseus.tufts.edu

The Rig Veda: http://www.wwnorton.com/college/history/worldciv/workbook/ralprs5a.htm

Hindu Art: http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_pictures/

Modern Chinese Art: http://kaladarshan.arts.ohio-state.edu/exhib/gug/intr/innovintr.html

Huntington Archive of Buddhist and Related art: http://kaladarshan.arts.ohio-state.edu/

Virtual Museum of Japanese Arts

SYLLABUS

Week

1 August 22-24: Course introduction. Prehistory: Fiero I, 1-18: Prehistory and the Birth of Civilization: compare creation tales, Fiero. pp. 16-18. The Cave at Lascaux;

2 August 29-31: Ancient Egyptian literature, Fiero, I, pp. 17-44; Akhenaten’s “Hymn to the Aten [Sun Disk]”; The Leiden Hymns, Egyptian Art: http://www.memphis.edu/egypt/ ; Epic of Gilgamesh; Greek culture; early Greek cultural history: art, sculpture, architecture: geometric and organic designs in vase painting and architecture: Fiero I, pp. 67-78; Olympian Gods: http://web.uvic.ca/grs/bowman/myth/gods.html; begin the Odyssey. In-class response 1.

3 September 4-6: Homer’s Odyssey, Greek lyric poetry: selections from Sappho. Archaic Greek art: vase painting, sculpture, architecture. National Archaeological Museum, Athens: http://www.culture.gr/2/21/214/21405m/e21405m1.html; Fiero, I, chs. 4-5; In-class response 2.

4 September 12-14: Greek Drama: Aeschylus, Agamemnon, Sophocles, Antigone. Classical Greek art: vase painting, sculpture, architecture. Fiero I, chs 4-5, pp. 79-122. Aristotle, Poetics. The Ancient City of Athens: Architecture. Outside Response 1 Due.

5 September 19-21: The twilight of classical Greece: Plato, the Phaedo. Hellenistic civilization, arts, ideas. Selection from Aristotle, De Anima, book 1, book 2, part 1; also see Aristotle's Psychology; Fiero I, chs. 4-5. pp. 122-128.

6 September 26-28 Rome, the Rise of Empire: Politics and Culture: A Cross-Cultural Perspective, ancient Rome and China Peoples and social orders: Fiero, I Ch. 6, pp. 129-157 Virgil, Aeneid or Aeneid (Internet Classics Archive), Books I & II. Outside Response 2 Due

7 October 3-5: China, the Rise of Empire: Confucius, from the Analects. Fiero I, ch. 7, pp. 158-170; comparisons of Chinese and Roman literature, art, architecture, philosophy, statecraft. In-class response 3.

8 October 10-12: Hindu epic literature, literature and philosophy Vedas: Vyasa, Bhagavad-Gita; Visual arts and music in ancient Greece and India; Asian Civilizations: The Artistic Record (India): Fiero I, 41-44 II, 144-151. See Online Resources for additional links on art and cultural history; In-class response 4.

9 October 14-16: 2 Indian religion and philosophy: , introduction, online: Vedas; Upanishads, introduction, onlineselections, Indian drama: Kalidasa, Shakuntala Comparative literature, women protagonists in two traditions: Shakuntala and Antigone. Buddhism: Siddhartha Gotama: Dhammapada ; begin the Lotus Sutra. Comparative philosophy: Socrates, Siddhartha, Arjuna: three philosophic culture heroes; Fiero II, pp. 35-44. Outside Response 3 Due.

10 October 24-26: Rome and China, & India: continued: Poetry and philosophy: Buddhism, Epicureanism and Taoism. Lotus Sutra and Classic Chinese poetry; selections from Horace; Taoism Tao Te Ching; Chuang-tzu or Zhuang-zi; The ideas of nature implicit in Chinese and Roman depictions of humanity and nature: the Greco-Roman Ageometrization@ of the World Picture versus Indian and Chinese; Technology East and West: Amusical ceremonies@ in the rhetoric and technique of Chinese statecraft. Chinese art, Fiero II, pp. 142-163; Chinese Landscape Painting

http://www.chinapage.org/painting.html; calligraphy, http://www.chinapage.org/calligraphy.html and bronzes, http://www.users.bigpond.com/wernerschmidlin/ancientchina.html . Response 5 Due.

11 October 31 – November 2: Hebrew and Christian sources: excerpts from the Hebrew Bible: Job, Psalms, Song of Songs. The Roman tradition meets the Hebrew: selections from The New Testament. Fiero II, 1-16 Augustine, Confessions, Books I-V; Bill Moyers interview with Elaine Pagels: Adam, Eve and the Serpent. Early Christian art: mosaic, sculpture, architecture. Islamic perspectives: selections from the Qur’an; Fiero, II, ch. 10, pp. 45-65; in-class response 5. Medieval Music on the Web; Gregorian Chant MIDI files.

12 November 7-9: The Qur’an,Islam, Muhammad, Mecca, Medina, Shi'a Islam, Sunni Islam, Islamic Art, Metropolitan Museum's Islamic Collection, Islamic Architecture; Comparative religion, philosophy, literature: Augustine, selections from Confessions: English (Confessions: Latin) ; Fiero, II, 16-34: Patterns of Medieval Life, Fiero, II, ch. 11, pp. 66-92. Outside Response 4 Due.

13 November 14-16: Backgrounds: traditional Japanese and medieval European lyric poetry: selections from the Manyōshū, Kokinshū, Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, Pilgrimage, Metaphor, and Symbol: Dante, Inferno, Cantos I—XIII, the development of medieval culture: art, sculpture, architecture, music; roots and basic ideas of Christianity; Fiero, II, 66-91; 92-113. Begin Basho’s Narrow Road to the Interior; Hiroshige Woodblock Prints; Hiroshige's 'Fox Fires by Nettle Tree'; Hokusai Prints: The Great Wave, Thunderstorm, Waterfall.

14 November 21-23 (the 22^nd is a holiday):

Read Dante, Cantos XIV‑XXIII; high medieval culture; polyphonic music, gothic style in the arts; medieval philosophy; economy and society. Basho, Narrow Road to the Interior, complete. The woodblock print and other Japanese arts; Fiero II, 164-70; Cultural Milieu of Lady Murasaki’s Diary, Englilsh Translation of Diary, and The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon Excerpts from the Pillow Book, Portrait of Sei Shōnagon, gender in traditional Japan.: Virtual Museum of Japanese Art.

15 November 28-30: Dante, Cantos XXIV‑XXXIV; Dante and the late Middle Ages, “Christianity and the Medieval Mind,” Fiero, II, ch. 12112-141: The medieval synthesis: excerpt from Paradiso; read Dante’s Divine Comedy in full online; Medieval culture, sacred and secular. Dante’s Ptolemaic Christian Cosmology versus the Vyasa’s Hindu Cosmology. Toward a Multicultural synthesis: diversity and unity in the Ahumanities.@ Comparison of the Christian Morality Play, Everyman (also see Miracle Players' Everyman and Medieval Theatre Database) and the Buddhist Nō Drama: Atsumori: Everyman and Atsumori, Read Tale of the Heike: story of Kumagae no Jirô Naozane; “The Death of Atsumori,” for background. Japanese Art: The woodblock prints of Edo Gallery

November 30: Reading Day

16: December 1-7: Final Examination Period

Final Essay Due by Class Time, December 5th