IDS 2931 and IDS 4932:
Honors Flagler Scholar Seminar
In the Philosophy of Education
The Flagler Scholar Seminars
are designed to fit into the special design of the
The Flagler Scholar Seminars
(IDS 2931 and IDS 4932) are designed to offer students in the Flagler
Scholarship Program integrated, interdisciplinary study providing meaningful
coherence for their courses of study. The organizing ideals of the Flagler
Program—leadership, courage, vigor, integrity, scholarship—will be key themes
in the study of course materials. In this sample sequence of the Flagler
Scholar Seminars, you will explore the life experiences and philosophies of
individuals who have distinguished themselves in the annals of education and of
those who have become extraordinary authors living outside of established
educational norms.[1]
In IDS 2932 last year we concentrated on educational
biography, autobiography, and
related issues, in order to envision our own educational paths in light of
those who have blazed the trails of education before you. Students wrote a
series of essays in response to course materials, culminating in your own work
in progress: an educational autobiography.
Like IDS 2931, IDS 4932 will be conducted mostly by
discussion. Our talks together will focus on educational philosophy, in light
of the readings and of our own life-experiences. In each semester you will be
required to write a series of critical and personal essays in response to the
assigned series texts and films. You will be expected to participate in weekly,
one-hour seminar discussions of the texts. Additional time may be assigned for
viewing films, going to lectures, and taking field trips outside of normal
class hours. You will be asked to integrate your own personal perspectives,
including your formal education, extracurricular experiences (like Outward
Bound), as well as your family and social lives into a coherent argument
representing your educational philosophy.
Key questions will include: What are the goals of education? Is personal development, including “good”
character, an important element in education?
What is the relationship between study in an academic or professional
discipline and the ethical precepts guiding human action? What constitutes a
learned person? Is there a difference between knowledge and wisdom? Is there a
relationship between financial “success” and intellectual accomplishment? When,
if ever, will you consider yourself to be a genuinely “educated” person?
Finally and centrally for our globalizing world: do different cultural,
gendered, and personal perspectives change the fundamentals of knowledge,
wisdom, and education? Your final essay in this class will necessarily be a
work in progress, as you will be expected to carry it forward beyond the
temporal limits of the class, and in some cases perhaps to publication. The
principal function of this assignment in terms of the Flagler Scholarship
Program is to ask you to shape your educational philosophies throughout your college career and your life
into a meaningful whole. Our primary
text will be Voices of Wisdom: A
Multicultural Philosophy Reader. Based on the fundamental perspective
presented here, each of you will develop her or his own perspective on
education, focused on his or her chosen (or prospective) field of study. How do
different cultural or philosophical outlooks affect various fields of study?
What are the assumptions about knowledge, values, and education that underlie
your field of interest? How does your
own philosophy of education, based on your studies and on your personal
experience, shape your goals in pursuing your studies?
Group project: the class will construct a CD-ROM in which each member presents his/her
perspective on education and goals in studying at the
The Flagler Scholarship
Seminars, I & II, will amount to a total of four credit hours over each student’s four years of undergraduate
study. A seminar will typically be taken
each fall during undergraduate study.
Students enrolled in this
course agree to abide by the Honors College Honor Code. Please review this important document: http://www.fau.edu/divdept/honcol/students/honorcode.html.
Primary Readings will be selected from the following
text: Voices
of Wisdom: A Multicultural Philosophy Reader
Web Resources:
A good online collection of
European Philosophers: http://www.wadsworth.com/philosophy_d/special_features/works.html
African Philosophy
Resources: http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~janzb/afphil/
African Philosophers: http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~janzb/afphil/afphilos.htm
American Philosophy: http://www.fred.net/tzaka/american.html
Aristotle, De Anima (“On the Soul,” Book 1, online: http://www.knuten.liu.se/~bjoch509/works/aristotle/soul.txt
---. Nichomachean
Ethics: http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.html
Caliban’s Reason:
Introduction to Afro-Carribean Philosophy: Ebook: http://80-www.netlibrary.com.ezproxy.fau.edu/urlapi.asp?action=summary&v=1&bookid=70796
check out from our library by EZProxy
Confucius, Analects: http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/texts/analects.txt
Dhammapada, online, http://eawc.evansville.edu/anthology/dhammapada.htm
Didascalicon
of Hugh of St. Victor: http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/hugo.html
or http://www.intratext.com/X/LAT0506.HTM
: English (see FAU Library for hard copy)
Diotima: Materials for the
Study of Women and Gender in the Ancient World: http://www.stoa.org/diotima/
Feminist History of
Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-femhist/
Feminist Philosophy: http://www.directory.net/Society/Philosophy/Feminist_Philosophy/
Internet
Islamic Philosophy Online: http://www.muslimphilosophy.com
Islamic Studies: http://www.arches.uga.edu/~godlas/
Latin American Philosophy: http://www.routledge-ny.com/rep/articles/latiname.html
Native American Philosophy
of Culture and Critique of Eurocentrism: http://www.mayanastro.freeservers.com/
Philosophy of Education
(multicultural): http://www.molloy.edu/academic/philosophy/sophia/TOPICS/education.htm
Philosophy on the Internet
(multicultural): http://www.zeroland.co.nz/philosophy.html
Plato,
Republic: http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.html
Rig Veda, introduction, online: http://campus.northpark.edu/history/WebChron/India/RigVeda.html
; selections, http://campus.northpark.edu/history/Classes/Sources/RigVeda.html
Upanishads, introduction, online, http://campus.northpark.edu/history/WebChron/India/Upanishads.html ; selections, http://campus.northpark.edu/history/Classes/Sources/Upanishads.html
Specific Assignments: (due each semester):
1)
A series essays (critical or personal) in
response to the assigned readings, typically 300-500 words in length: 50% of final grade.
2)
A CD-ROM Project to be completed by the end of the term and shaped by study of the
assigned texts in light of personal experience:
25% of final grade. As noted
above, you will develop your own perspective on education, including your
proposed program of study at the
3)
Participation in seminar discussions and activities (in-class writing, regular
class attendance, viewing films, going to retreats or on field trips,
attendance at speakers’ engagements, concerts, and so on): 25% of final grade.
1)
IDS 2931
and 4932 are cross-listed, so that students will share projects; both seminars may have the same
topic during a given term, with assignments graduated to fit the
freshman/sophomore and the junior/senior level. Cross-listing will encourage
upperclass(wo)men to provide mentorship for students at the lower level. It
will also build community among the Flagler Scholars in residence at the
Table of Contents
Part I: INTRODUCTION.
1. What is Philosophy?
A Definition of Philosophy. What is Rationality? Why Study Multicultural
Philosophy? Joseph Prabhu: "The Clash or Dialogue of Civilizations?"
Does Philosophy Bake Bread? Bertrand Russell: "On the Value of
Philosophy." Reading Philosophy.
Part II: ETHICS.
2. How Should One Live?
Introduction. The Buddha and the
3. How Can I Know What Is Right?
Introduction. The Categorical Imperative. Immanuel Kant: "Groundwork of
the Metaphysics of Morals." Utilitarianism. John Stuart Mill: "What
Utilitarianism Is." Revaluation of Values. Friedrich Nietzsche:
"Beyond Good and Evil and On the Genealogy of Morality." Care versus
Rights. Joy Roeger-Mappes: "The Ethic of Care vis-à-vis the Ethic of
Rights." Moral Relativism. David Wong: "Relativism."
4. What Makes a Society Just?
Introduction. God and Justice. Majid Khadduri: "The Islamic Conception of
Justice." Capitalism and Exploitation. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels:
"Manifesto of the Communist Party." The Original Position. John
Rawls: "A Theory of Justice." Our Obligation to the State. Plato:
"Crito." Civil Disobedience. Martin Luther King, Jr.: "Letter
from
5. Is Justice for All Possible?
Introduction. Universal Human Rights. René Trujillo: "Human Rights in the
"Age of Discovery"."United Nations Universal Declaration of
Human Rights. Racism and Feminism. bell hooks: "Ain't I a Woman."
Globalization and Justice. Benjamin R. Barber: "Jihad vs. McWorld."
Terrorism and Morality. Bat-Ami Bar On: "Why Terrorism is Morally
Problematic." Justice and the Land. Aldo Leopold: "The Land
Ethic."
Part III: EPISTEMOLOGY.
6. Is Knowledge Possible?
Introduction. Sufi Mysticism. Al-Ghazali: "Deliverance from Error."
Is Certainty Possible? René Descartes: "Meditations I and II."
Empiricism and Limited Skepticism. David Hume: "An Enquiry Concerning
Human Understanding." Should We Believe Beyond the Evidence? William K.
Clifford: "The Ethics of Belief." William James: "The Will to
Believe." Classical Indian Epistemology. D. M. Datta: "Knowledge and
the Methods of Knowledge." Afrocentric Feminist Epistemology. Patricia
Hill Collins: "Toward an Afrocentric Feminist Epistemology."
7. Does Science Tell us the Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth?
Introduction. The Growth of Scientific Knowledge. Karl R. Popper:
"Conjectures and Refutations." Scientific Revolutions. Thomas S.
Kuhn: "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions." Feminism and
Science. Elizabeth Anderson: "Knowledge, Human Interests, and Objectivity
in Feminist Epistemology." Japanese Views of Western Science. Thomas P.
Kasulis: "Sushi, Science, and Spirituality." Science and Traditional
Thought. Kwame Anthony Appiah: "Old Gods, New Worlds."
Part IV: METAPHYSICS.
8. What Is Really Real?
Introduction. The Dao. Laozi: "Dao De Jing." Platonic Dualism. Plato:
"The Republic." Nondualism. Shankara: "The Crest-Jewel of
Discrimination." Subjective Idealism. George Berkeley: "The
Principles of Human Knowledge." Pre-Columbian Cosmologies. Jorge Valadez:
"Pre-Columbian Philosophical Perspectives." So What Is Real? Jorge
Luis Borges: "The Circular Ruins."
9. Are We Free or Determined?
Introduction. We Are Determined. Laura Waddell Ekstrom: "Arguments for
Incompatibilism." We Are Free. Jean-Paul Sartre:
"Existentialism." Karma and Freedom. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan:
"Karma and Freedom." We Are Both Free and Determined. Raymond M. Smullyan:
"Is God a Taoist?"
10. What Am I?
Introduction. You Are Your Mind. René Descartes: "Meditation VI." You
Are an Embodied Self. Eve Browning Cole: "Body, Mind, and Gender."
You are a Computing Machine. Bruce Hinrichs: "Computing the Mind."
You are not a Computing Machine. John Searle: "Can Computers Think?"
11. Who Am I?
Introduction. There Is No Self. Buddha: "False Doctrines About the Soul
and the Simile of the Chariot." Down With the Ego. Derek Parfit:
"Divided Minds and the Nature of Persons." Where am I? Daniel C.
Dennett: "Brainstorms." Social Identity. Gloria Anzaldúa: "How
to Tame a Wild Tongue." Gender Identity. Deirdre (Donald) N. McCloskey:
"Crossing."
12. Is There a God?
Introduction. Arguments for God's Existence. St. Thomas Aquinas: "The
Appendix I: Glossary.
Appendix II: Pronunciation Guide.
[1] Different professors may, of course, select their own courses of study to fulfill the requirements of both IDS 2932 and IDS 4932, each time the sequence is taught.