A&S 3-66
T/TH 12:30-1:45
Dr. Deborah Vess
e-mail: dvess@mail.gcsu.edu
PERSONAL SAFETY: In the event of a fire alarm signal students should exit the building in a quick and orderly manner through the nearest hallway exit. First and Second floor classes should exit through ground level exits; Third floor classes through nearest stairwell to a ground level exit. Do not use elevator. Third floor stairwells are areas where disabled people may communicate with rescue workers. Be familiar with the floor plan and exits of this building.
REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS: Edgar Knoebel, ed., Classics of Western Thought, vol. III: The Modern World, and Donald Gochberg, ed., Classics of Western Thought, vol. IV: The Twentieth Century. In addition, you will be asked to read various assignments on reserve at the library.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course will survey the major themes in European intellectual and cultural history since 1500 C.E. We will focus on important intellectual and cultural contributions of the early modern and modern world, including major trends in philosophy, literature, social and political thought, and the arts in Europe. We will also study the impact of great ideas on the shape of history. Our theme for the course is "Protest, Reform, and Revolution." We will study intellectual and cultural revolutions, industrial and technological revolutions, and social and political revolutions. The period since 1500 C.E. is a period in which there were many changes, all of which contributed to the shape of the modern world in which we live. Our study will be based on the analysis of primary source texts.
GRADING POLICY/COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
book review/analysis
Students will also be required to write one analytical paper between 6-8 pages in length on a major work related to themes of the course. Students will present the intellectual, cultural, and political background of the work, its major tenets, primary secondary views on its significance, and offer their own assessment of the work's value. The paper will be worth 20 percent of your grade. Papers should be from 6-8 pages in length, double spaced, typewritten, 1 inch margins on either side and on the top and bottom, and 10 or 12 point font. Footnotes and bibliographies should be in Chicago style.
Web Crossing Discussions and In-Class discussions
There will also be some computer, Internet, and Web Crossing discussion assignments for the
course, which will be completed in the computer lab. Students will be required to participate in
an on-line discussion forum, and to respond to a question related to the topics for each week.
These assignments are worth 10 percent of your grade. No credit will be given for late entries.
Questions for the week will be posted by Monday of each week.
Special Activities
There will be three special class debate projects this semester. Participation is mandatory. Failure to prepare and participate in your team's assignment will result in a "zero" for that activity. Make-ups are not possible. Please consult the syllabus for dates. Participation will count as 10 percent of your grade.
Exams
There will be two midterms and a final exam in the course. Each of the midterm exams and the
final will count as 20 percent of your grade; the final exam is worth 20 percent of your grade.
The exams will consist primarily of essay topics and short essay-style identifications.
MAKEUPS: The TENTATIVE date for each exam is listed on the syllabus. Makeups for exams
will be administered only in the most extreme circumstances and will consist entirely of essay
questions. If you must miss an exam, you must contact me PRIOR to the exam and arrange a
makeup time if you are permitted an excused absence. If you do not contact me, you will NOT
be allowed to makeup the exam, and will receive a "zero" for that unit. In the event that you are
permitted to make up the exam, the make-up will be administered on the make up exam day,
May 7, 1999. The professor assumes no responsibility for scheduling makeups. You are
responsible for scheduling your makeup exam for the makeup exam day, May 7, 1999. No
more than one missed exam will be made up UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES; if you miss
more than one exam, you will receive a zero for that grade. NO EXCEPTIONS WILL BE
MADE TO THIS POLICY. PLEASE DO NOT ASK THAT AN EXCEPTION BE MADE
IN YOUR CASE.
GRADUATE STUDENTS (HIST 5285): Graduate students will complete a major research
project in addition to the course requirements stated in the syllabus. Topics will be chosen in
consultation with the instructor.
ELECTRONIC/COMPUTER RESOURCES:
Dr. Vess's World Civilization Virtual Library (http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~dvess/dvess.htm). This is my home page for all the courses I teach; you will find a link there for this course. We will use it this semester for various assignments, and you may use it to further explore many of the topics we will discuss. It can be accessed from any terminal at the College or from your home.
ATTENDANCE POLICY: You are responsible for all material presented in class lectures and discussions, and from films, transparencies and other media resources; please be aware that this sort of material is difficult, if not impossible, to make up. This syllabus contains only a partial listing of classroom resources which will be used. The instructor assumes NO RESPONSIBILITY whatsoever for providing you with missed notes, etc. Please DO NOT call or come by and expect me to teach you the material you missed or to show you a film you missed. The syllabus provides you with information as to topics covered. If you are not present I cannot teach you, and since we will often be exchanging ideas in discussion, the class will be deprived of your input. PLEASE attend regularly. Students who accumulate more than four absences in this course prior to midterm of the course will be dropped from the roll by the instructor. After midterm, March 1, you will receive an "F" for more than five total absences during the semester. There will be NO EXCEPTIONS to this policy, regardless of the reason for the absences. If you have missed five times, you have missed over two weeks of the course. In my estimation, missing this much of the course of the course would naturally entail failure, so please abide by this policy.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: Cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated. Any attempt to present ideas from a textbook or other source as one's own, such as copying answers during exams or using unattributed information in a paper, is considered cheating. If caught cheating, you will receive a "O" the first time and an "F" in the course and referral to the Dean of Arts and Sciences for further offenses. There will be no exceptions to this policy.
The outline which follows is a TENTATIVE outline only. We may at times, move ahead or fall
behind our schedule. For this reason, it is crucial that you attend regularly. It is YOUR
responsibility to know where we are in the course. Regular attendance and participation in the
discussions, lectures and completing the readings are a must for success in this course.
THE LAST DAY TO DROP THE COURSE WITHOUT ACADEMIC PENALTY IS MARCH 3 ,
1999.
*Discussion of the philosophy of history and major focal points of the course
January 12 The Renaissance: Rebirth and Renewal
Readings: Paul Oscar Kristeller,
"Renaissance Humanism" and Jacob
Burckhardt, "Civilization of the Renaissance
in Italy" on reserve
January 14 The Reformation: Protest and Reform
Readings: Martin Luther, "Freedom of a
Christian" on reserve
January 19 The Scientific Revolution: Empiricism and the Church
Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Bacon
Readings: "The Trial of Galileo" on reserve.
Galileo, "Dialogue Concerning the Two
Chief World Systems" (Classics)
Bacon, "The New Scientific Method"
(Classics)
January 21 special activity: Galileo on Trial
students will divide into teams and present their respective positions.
January 26 Foundationalism
Descartes
Readings: Descartes (Classics): Meditations
and Discourse on Method
January 28 The Glorious Revolution and Natural Law
Readings: Locke selections, Smith, Hobbes
(All in Classics)
February 2 The Enlightenment and Revolution: Democracy and Individual Freedom
Readings: Declaration of Independence
(handout), de Tocqueville (Classics), Mill
"On Liberty" (Classics), Mill, Utilitarianism
(Classics)
*special activity: class debate on the merits of democracy and utilitarianism
February 4 The Enlightenment: Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity
Readings: Condorcet, Robespierre (on
reserve), Marat (on reserve), Declaration of
the Rights of Man and Citizen (handout),
Burke, "Reflections on the Revolution in
France" (Classics)
February 9 The Enlightenment and Religion
Readings: Pascal (Classics), Thomas Paine The Age of Reason (on reserve), Voltaire Encyclopedia (on reserve), David Hume (argument from design) class handout
February 11 The Industrial Revolution
Film excerpt: Germinal
February 18/23 Romanticism: Art, Music, Poetry, and Literature
Readings: Rousseau, "On Education", "On
the Origin of Inequality Among Men"
(Classics), Romantic Poetry (Classics),
Faust (Classics)
February 25 Realism in literature and art
Readings: excerpts from Charles Dickens
March 2 Transcendentalism in literature, philosophy, poetry, and art
Readings: Thoreau (Classics), Whitman,
"Song of Myself" on reserve
March 4 Nationalism
Readings: Herder, on reserve
March 9 Darwin, Religion, and the Higher Criticism
Readings: "On the Origin of the Species" (Classics)
March 11 Religion in Crisis: Nietzsche and Dostoevsky
Readings:The Genealogy of Morals
(Classics), The Brothers Karamazov
(Classics)
March 16 Hegel and Marx
Readings: Reason in History (Classics)
Marx and Engels (Classics), Pope Leo XIII
(Classics)
March 18 Imperialism, Colonialism, and Racism
Readings: Kipling (on reserve), Chinua Achebe Things Fall Apart (excerpts on reserve), Gandhi (speeches on reserve)
March 22-26 Spring Break
March 30 The New Psychology
Readings: Jung (Classics III), Freud excerpts on reserve; Breton, "Manifesto of Surrealism," in Classics IV
April 6/8 World War I and the Russian Revolution
Readings:Lenin "Imperialism and State
Revolution" and "Modern Poetry" from
Classics
April 13 Feminism
Reading: Virgina Woolf "A Room of One's
Own" and Simone de Beauvior "The Second
Sex"
April 15 World War II and Totalitarianism
Reading: Totalitarianism in Classics IV;
Hitler in Classics III
*special activity: debate on war ethics
April 22 Existentialism and The Human Malaise
Reading: Sartre, Classics III; The Human
Malaise in Classics IV
April 27 Technology
Readings: Technology section and
Prospects and Portents in Classics IV
*special activity: Utopian projects
April 29 What now?
Readings: Maslow, Peak Experiences in Education," Kandinsky, "Concerning the Spiritual in Art", Stravinsky, "Poetics of Music," Classics IV
