WH181-024

Western Heritage in a Global Context

Spring 2006

Instructor: Jianqiang Zhao Office: SHA 110, Ext. 8438.  Class Time: MWF 9:30am-10:35pm Office hours: Mon.1-7pm, Wed. 4-5 (by appointment only), Fri. 1pm-3pm (by appointment only)   Home Page

Index

	Course Description		Assignments
	Time and Locations		Texts
	Lecture Notes		Exams
	Grading Poliy		Calendar

Time and Locations:

CLASSES	MWF 9:30am-10:35pm
LOCATION:	SHA 114

Texts:

A Brief History of Time, Hawking (Bantam)

Communist Manifesto, Marx (International)

Macbeth, Shakespeare (Signet)

The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Basho (Penguin)

Night, Wiesel (Bantam)

On The Road, Jack Kerouac (Penguin)

The Prince, Machiavelli (Dover)

A Room of One’s Own, Woolf (Harvest)

Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston (HarperCollins)

Things Fall Apart, Achebe (Doubleday)

Western Heritage in a Global Context II (EckerdCollege)

A Writer's Reference, Hacker (St. Martin's)

A World of Art, Sayre (Prentice Hall)

Study Guides, Support Material and Major Texts

Study Guide: Reading for Power, syllabus pp. 1

Study Guide: What is Freedom?, syllabus pp. 7 

Major Text:  John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, syllabus pp. 10

Major Text:  Aung San Suu Kyi, Freedom from Fear, syllabus pp. 16

Study Guide:  Understanding The Declaration of Independence, syllabus pp. 19

Major Text: The Declaration of Independence, syllabus pp. 21

Major Text:  The Declaration of Sentiments, syllabus pp. 24

Study Guide: The Communist Manifesto, syllabus pp. 28

Study Guide: What is Nature?, syllabus pp. 32

Major Text: Charles Darwin, Recapitulation, syllabus pp. 39

Major Text: Charles Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle, syllabus pp. 46

Major Text: Wilson, The Florida Keys Experiment, syllabus pp. 59

Study Guide: Nature & Beauty in Romantic Poetry, syllabus pp. 71

Major Text: William Wordsworth, Two Part Prelude, syllabus pp. 75

Major Text: William Wordsworth, Ode: Intimations of Immorality

from Recollections of Early Childhood, syllabus pp. 79

Major Text: William Wordsworth, Lines, syllabus pp. 84

Major Text: John Keats, Ode On A Grecian Urn, syllabus pp. 88

Major Text: John Keats, Ode On Melancholy, syllabus pp. 90

Course Description:

The goals and objectives of WHGC are many, and you should be clear about the expectations we have about what students may gain from this course. During the two semesters of WHGC we hope that you will achieve the following objectives:

Content Objectives:

• To introduce you to many of the influential ideas and thinkers of the Western tradition in conversation with those of non-Western traditions.
• To introduce you to important works in the Western tradition as well as those from non-Western origins.
• To develop your understanding and appreciation of some of the major historical, intellectual and artistic transitions (paradigm shifts) that characterize human civilization in the West and globally
• To explore the evolving understanding of social relationships in Western and non-Western contexts.
• To explore the evolving understanding of sacred and transcendent beliefs in human civilization.
• To explore the evolving understanding of Justice, Truth and the human individual in the Western tradition in the light of understanding from non-Western traditions.

Skill Objectives:

• To improve your ability to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize complex ideas.
• To improve your ability to communicate effectively in writing.
• To improve in your ability to communicate orally and to properly use and research information resources.

Affective Objectives:

• To motivate you to learn more about Western traditions in the future.
• To motivate you to learn more about the Western tradition in a global context that recognizes the value and influence of many other traditions and cultures.

Lecture Notes:

Examinations:

There will be one midterm and one final exam during the semester.

Examination Schedule
Date of Exam	Material Covered
Friday, Mar. 17
Wednesday, May 17, 8-11am

It is expected that you will adhere to the code of academic integrity and that all work on examinations will be your own.

Grading Policy:

Your final grade in the course will be based on the following:

quizzes 20%, class discussion 15%, homework 30%,  midterm: 15%,   final exam: 20%.

For the homework: class discussion notes 50%, 4 commentary papers 25%, a research paper 15%, a focused paper 10%.

You can check your grades here.

Calendar – WH181-024, 2006 Spring:

· Tue., Jan. 31 Fall semester begins at 8:00 a.m.

· Fri., Mar. 17 Midterm Examination.

· Mon, Mar 20-27 Spring break.

· Fri., May 12 Last day of classes

· Wed. May 17 Final Exam 8:00 - 11:00 am

Nine Lectures:

· Wednesday, Feb. 1, The Power of Imagery, Professor Arthur Skinner

· Monday, Feb. 6, What is Power, Professor W. Kelly

· Monday, Feb. 27, A conversation with Elie Wiesel,

· Friday, Mar. 3, What is Freedom? Declaration of independence & Declaration of Sentiments? Professor A. Brunello

· Monday, Apr. 3, Art and Nature, Professor Arthur Skinner and Professor Kirk Wang

· Wednesday, Apr. 12, What is Nature? Darwin & Hawking Professor B. Forys & Professor A. Cox

· Monday, Apr. 24, Nature & Beauty in Romantic Poetry, Professor S. Denison

· Monday, May 1, Sacred Art and Sacred Space, Professor Arthur Skinner and Professor B. Ransom

· Wednesday, May 10, Music and Beauty, Professor J. Epstein

Assignments:

We will have weekly homework. The homework assignments associated with material discussed in class should be completed as soon as possible.  Students should spend about three hours out of class for every hour in class. This amounts to 1.5 hours per day (on average) for this course.  Use this time to review class notes, read and work carefully through the text, and prepare discussions in class.

I encourage you to work in groups but prepare your writing in your own words. Further, you will acknowledge group work and editing assistance as part of your documentation of the work. Please realize that in ALL writing and oral presentations at this college, and in all of academic life, respect for others' ideas is ALWAYS acknowledged by attribution and standard citations of sources. If you do not know what constitutes plagiarism, see Diana Hacker, Writer’s Reference, section R3, and the EC Book , or http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/plagiarism/main.html and then please talk with me about any details.

I will expect you to pledge all your assignments in accordance with the Eckerd College Honor Code: in its full form, we state: On my honor, as an Eckerd College student, I pledge not to lie, cheat, or steal, nor to tolerate these behaviors in others. One short way of affirming that your work follows the honor principles is to state, Pledged, with your signature, on every assignment. DO NOT PLAGIARIZE: to do so is to steal other’s intellectual property and to lie to your professor. The consequence is to fail the course.

No late homework will be accepted.  You should check the WHGC web every day.

Week of	Assignment
Feb. 01
Feb. 06	For Wed. please summarize each of the seven chapters of Prince (see the syllabus) we’re going to discuss by writing two to three sentences of your own or quoting Machiavelli except Ch. XVIII. Write or quote at least five sentences on Chapter XVIII.
Feb. 13	Write an essay with 200-300 words on the power of imagery after you read this article. Send it to me as an attachment of Word file by Monday’s class. On Monday we will read and act Macbeth. Please bring the text to class. Read this article and this review and write down a guideline for yourself if you were asked to play Macbeth. In particular, describe which aspect of Macbeth’s moral characters you want your audience sees at each of the following scenes: 1.3, 1.4, 2.1, 3.2, 3.4 and 5.3. Hand this in Wed.’s class.
Feb. 15	This semester we will have some writings to do. Check here and then prepare another commentary paper: Read this news and then write your comments. This is due by next Friday. Make sure you keep the following questions in your mind: Why use Power? Who should have Power? Where does power come from? When should it be used? In what sense is power imagined?
Feb. 17	While reading Achebe’s Things Fall Apart you may browse the following web pages to help you understand it better: Igbo Information , A very useful study guide , Introduction to the author, his work and the background , and another brief biography of the author .
Feb. 20	For Monday, write your answers to the following questions and prepare to discuss them in class: 1. According to Machiavelli, how would Macbeth and Okonkwo rate as possible princes? 2. Who has the most desirable Machiavellian traits in Macbeth? 3. What characteristics do you think Shakespeare would consider desirable in a prince? 4. Comment on how The Prince appears to be written from the perspective of the ruler, while Things Fall Apart is written from the perspective of the ruled. 5. Compare/Contrast the loyalty to family vs. society in Macbeth and Things Pall Apart. 6. Comment on the role of the supernatural in Macbeth and Things Pall Apart.
Feb. 22	For Wednesday, prepare your answers to the following questions: 1. The works for this section are inherently negative, why? Does a discourse on power need to be negative? Where is the trust in humanity, where is the hope? 2. One can equate knowledge with power in Machiavelli, Shakespeare, and Achebe. Give examples of this and explain its uses. 3. Reflect on diversity in culture and individuals. Can differences be celebrated without an inherent hierarchy being developed? 4. The end of the innocence: Last semester Odysseus and Moses were “heroes” involved in an odyssey. Macbeth and Okonkwo also have their own journeys this semester, but both lead to a logical outcome. What happened to the myths and miracles of last semester? 5. Where is the line in human ethics? Was there one in Macbeth, Things Fall Apart, The Prince?
Feb. 24	For Friday, prepare your answers to the following general questions: 1. Elie Wiesel has spent the greater part of his life to keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive. Why do you think he has devoted his life to this? (This is a good opportunity to discuss the relationship between freedom and individual responsibility). 2. What is the symbolism of the book title Night? 3. What is the hope of freedom, when genocide is always possible? 4. How could those who participated, organized or benefited from the oppression and genocide of the Jews, Polish, Gypsies, Chinese (1930’s-40’s), Tutsi in Rwanda (1990’s), Muslims in Bosnia (1990’s), etc., allowed such atrocities to take place? How or why did people go along with this? Were they not free to stop the horror? 5. When does the American government interfere and intervene with other societies to alleviate the oppression of peoples or atrocities against human beings? How do we draw the line between helping others and imposing our beliefs on another culture?
Feb. 27	We will discuss “Freedom from Fear” and “On Liberty” Wed. Bring both text to class please. Before coming to class please read “A Brief History of Burma” and answer these questions by underlining your text: 1. What are the limitations? 2. When can liberty become an applicable principle? 3. Who is excluded? 4. What are the three components (of a person’s life and conduct) included? 5. What are the four reasons to apply freedom of opinion? 6. How important are genius, timidity, originality, and eccentricity? 7. Can political systems preserve liberty? 8. What type of environment promotes liberty? 9. What developments affect the preservation of individuality and diversity? 10. Does the author call for action? Does he care? Here are the questions in word file. Freedom is NOT free.
Mar. 6	On Monday we’re going to discuss Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. First read this before Friday. During the weekend please prepare your answers to the following questions and bring them to the class: Chapter One: Pondering the topic women and fiction, Woolf reaches this statement: “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction” (4). Using the first person narrator “I”, Woolf begins to trace her train of thought. First, as visitor to Oxbridge, she describes the magnificent buildings and its physical environment in the men’s colleges, then she compares the luncheon menu at the men’s college with the dinner menu at the women’s college, and raises questions such as: Why is there such a great material disparity between the men’s and women’s colleges? And why is it so difficulty to raise money for the women’s college? What is Woolf’s central thesis in this long essay? (How would you respond to the statement—“a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction”?) How does the author propose to make clear her train of thought that led to this statement? According to the narrator, what is the foundation upon which Cambridge or Oxford was built? How do you respond to the narrator’s comparison between the men’s and women’s colleges in material terms? Or: What seems to strike you the most when you read the narrator’s detailed description of food served at both the men’s and women’s colleges? How would you respond to the statement “fiction here is likely to contain more truth than fact” (4)? Chapter Two: The narrator goes to the British Museum in London to seek truth about women from those "learned and the unprejudiced" experts (25). She discovers that almost all the books on women were written by men, yet however different their opinions may have been, few have much scientific value. Nevertheless, her research makes it clear to her that women have been used for centuries as looking-glasses “reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size” (35). In this chapter, where does the narrator go to visit first and why? Why have men written so much about women? Mention one or two reasons to explain this phenomenon (use those of the author or your own). Why does the narrator think she fails in her attempt to find truth about women from the experts? How do you respond to the narrator’s drawing a face and a figure of Professor von X who engaged in writing his monumental work entitled The Mental, Moral, and Physical Inferiority of the Female Sex? What does this detail tell us about the author’s attitude toward the so-called “learned and unprejudiced” professors? How do you respond to her statement that “women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man as twice its natural size” (35)? How do you interpret these few lines in relation to the rest of the chapter: “London was like a workshop. London was like a machine. We were all being shot backwards and forwards on this plain foundation to make some pattern. The British Museum was another department of the factory” (26)? Chapter Three: The narrator now turns to history to find out under what conditions women lived since the 15^th century. Here the author invents the story of Shakespeare’s “extraordinary gifted” sister called Judith who died young, so as to help the reader understand why no woman wrote any poetry of real significance during Shakespeare’s time. What does the narrator intend to find out by consulting history in this chapter? What were women’s social and economic conditions in England in the time of Elizabeth according to Professor Trevelyan’s History of England? How do you respond to this statement: “Imaginatively she is of the highest importance; practically she is completely insignificant. She pervades poetry from cover to cover; she is all but absent from history” (43)? How do you respond to the story about Shakespeare’s sister Judith (pp. 47-8)? How does her story relate to Woolf’s central statement that “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction”? Woolf says, “It is the nature of the artist to mind excessively what is said about him. Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others” (56). What do you think about this statement?
Mar. 8	On Wednesday we’re going to continue to discuss Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. Please bring your answers to the following questions to the class: Chapter Four: The narrator examines works written by women in the past—from Lady Winchilsea’s poems, Aphra Behn’s plays to the novels of Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, and George Eliot—so as to discover the traces of disturbances that reveal their fear and hatred, as well as social prejudices and obstacles they must have tried to cope with in their literary creation. What does the narrator do in this chapter? According to Woolf, what seems to impede Lady Winchilsea’s achievement in her poetry? (The same questions can also be asked about the four most important female novelists of the 19^th century—Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, and George Eliot—as commented by Woolf.) Why does Woolf say that “with Mrs. Behn we turn a very important corner on the road” (63)? How do you make sense of this statement—“For masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass is behind the single voice” (65)? Consider the following passage: “If one shuts one’s eyes and thinks of the novel as a whole, it would seem to be a creation owning a certain looking-glass likeness to life, though of course with simplifications and distortions innumerable. At any rate, it is a structure leaving a shape on the mind’s eye…. This shape…starts in one kind of emotion that is appropriate to it. But that emotion at once blends itself with others, for the ‘shape’ is not made by relation of the stone to stone, but by the relation of human being to human being” (71). Chapter Five: Now turning her attention finally to the shelves that hold books on a great variety of subjects by contemporary writers male and female alike, the narrator randomly takes down a book called Life’s Adventure by Mary Carmichael and begins reading it while commenting on her writing style, her sensibility, and her narrative, as well as her limitations and weaknesses as a writer. What does the narrator talk about first in this chapter? What does Mary Carmichael have in common with those female writers who came before her and what advantages does she have over them? (Read pp. 92-94) According to Woolf, what great men such as Johnson, Goether and Carlyle also got from women besides “comfort, flattery and the pleasure of the body” (86)? From the historical point of view, what makes female creative force so unique? (Consider the second paragraph on page 87) Why do you think the narrator asserts that “a true picture of man as a whole can never be painted until a woman has described that sport the size of a shilling” (90-1)? What does that “spot” refer to by the author? Chapter Six: From her room with a view overlooking some busy streets in London, the narrator sees a scene that eases the mind, and hence she beings the discussion of the androgynous mind. Using Mr. A’s novel as an example, she illustrates how the over-emphasis on virility or femininity can block the fountain of creative energy within the writer. Discuss Woolf’s assertion that a truly creative mind is androgynous. Do you agree or disagree? Why? Which reason or evidence given in this chapter or previous chapters is strong enough to support Woolf’s view on the androgynous mind in creation of art? What is the most important advice to future female writers from Woolf? How do you interpret Woolf’s statement that “she [Shakespeare’s sister] lives in you and in me, and in many others who are not here tonight…” (113)? Or: Why is Woolf so convinced that Shakespeare’s talented sister would have the opportunity to walk among us in the flesh if we worked for her? How do you make sense of the final line in the chapter? (“She would come if we worked for her, and that so to work, even in poverty and obscurity, is worth while.”)Does that seem to contradict her central thesis? Why?
Mar. 10	Prepare your answers to the following questions and bring them to class on Friday. 1. Who is the Communist Manifesto's target audience? What are its aims as a document? 2. Why isn't it possible to eliminate class antagonisms through political reforms that improve the workers' quality of life? How does the Manifesto reply to such reformers? 3. How is the proletariat different from past revolutionary classes? 4. How does the Manifesto reply to people who complain that the elimination of private property violates property rights? What does this suggest about the validity of rights in general? 5. Why is it necessary for Communists to call for a worker's revolution, if they believe that such a revolution is inevitable? 6. How is modern Industrial society self-destructive? Why does Marx believe that the end of modern society will represent the end of all class antagonisms? 7. What is Marx's theory of history? Use this theory to explain the decline and fall of the feudal era. What are the strengths and weaknesses of this theory? 8. Despite Marx's predictions, Communism has not emerged out of Industrial society to become the dominant societal system. Is this fact enough to disprove Marxist theory? Speculate on how Marx would explain this fact, in keeping with the general structure of his theory. 9. It can be very difficult to figure out what Marx believed a Communist society would look like. What hints does he give in the Manifesto about his vision of this future society? 10. How does this vision compare with "Communist" societies that arose in later years (e.g., in the Soviet Union)?
Mar. 13	Prepare your answers to the following questions and bring them to class on Monday. 1. What is Marx's conception of history? What is "dialectical materialism"? 2. What are the Hegelian origins of Marx's thought? 3. Define the labor theory of value and compare Marx's definition with that of Smith. 4. What conditions generated by the industrial revolution was Marx addressing? 5. How does Marx distinguish between "scientific" and "utopian socialism"? 6. Present the central ideas in Marx's critique of capitalism. 7. What does Marx mean by "alienation of the worker"? 8. What program does the Communist Manifesto recommend? What is the vehicle of revolution? 9. Why is the dictatorship of the proletariat inevitable according to Marx? 10. What is Marx's view of religion? The family? Women's place in society? 11. Why does Marx believe that private property leads to estranged labor? 12. Critique Marx's analysis of capitalism and his methodology. 13. What are some contemporary interpretations of Marxism? How has his theory been modified by Engels, Lenin, and Mao? In what ways have Marx's predictions come true, or failed to come true?
Mar. 17	First Midterm
Mar. 20	Spring Break
Mar. 29	After you read the first nine chapters of Hurston's novel please prepare the notes (on 5.5X8.5 paper) and answer the following questions: I. What is main purpose of each of the following three quotes?  Ch. 1 openning: Ships at a distance have every man?s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men. Now, women forget all those things they don?t want to remember, and remember everything they don?t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly. Ch. 2. [Janie] was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the gold of the sun and the panting breath of the breeze when the inaudible voice of it all came to her. She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage! She had been summoned to behold a revelation. Then Janie felt a pain remorseless sweet that left her limp and languid. Ch. 6. ?Listen, Sam, if it was nature, nobody wouldn?t have tuh look out for babies touchin? stoves, would they? ?Cause dey just naturally wouldn?t touch it. But dey sho will. So it?s caution.? ?Naw it ain?t, it?s nature, cause nature makes caution. It?s de strongest thing dat God ever made, now. Fact is it?s de onliest thing God every made. He made nature and nature made everything else.? II.  1. Discuss the role of conversation in Their Eyes Were Watching God. In particular, discuss the effect of Hurston?s narrative technique of alternating between highly figurative narration and colloquial dialogue. 2. Explain the significance of the book?s title. How does it relate to Janie?s quest and the rest of the book? 3. Why is Janie initially attracted to Jody? Why does this attraction fade?
Mar. 31	To prepare for Friday’s class I. Please find at least one quote from the book for each of the following themes: 1. Language: Speech and Silence 2. Power and Conquest as Means to Fulfillment 3. Love and Relationships versus Independence II. Please state how Hurston used the following motifs in her novel: 1. Community (Eatonville and the Everglades) 2. Race and Racism 3. The Folklore Quality of Religion III. Find the importance of the following quotes: 1. Ch. 16. It was inevitable that she should accept any inconsistency and cruelty from her deity as all good worshippers do from theirs. All gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering without reason. Otherwise they would not be worshipped. Through indiscriminate suffering men know fear and fear is the most divine emotion. It is the stones for altars and the beginning of wisdom. Half gods are worshipped in wine and flowers. Real gods require blood. 2. Ch. 18. The wind came back with triple fury, and put out the light for the last time. They sat in company with the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against crude walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His. They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.
Apr. 3	For Basho’s book, please prepare your answers to the questions on this page. A useful website is here.
Apr. 10	Complete reading of Basho’s book and finish the questions on this page. You need to submit a short essay with baiku. Here is the requirement.
Apr. 17	For Monday’s discussion, please answer at least FOUR questions below: Why does every human need to understand evolution? What is a pathogen? Are pathogens likely to over-reproduce (make more copies than they need to replace themselves)? Are pathogens likely to vary in virulence and ability to survive various forms of stress? Which variants of each type of pathogen are most likely to leave descendants? Why did the pediatrician always tell your parents to be sure to finish the medicine (especially antibiotics?) Why are certain diseases treated with a drug cocktail rather than a single drug? Do pathogens change through time? Can you name specific cases where human pathogens have evolved? What have been the outcomes? Why are hospitals a dangerous place to pickup a pathogen? What future change(s) in pathogens are currently of great concern to our species? Given the increase in human population size and what you know about the evolutionary process would you predict that there will be more or fewer human pathogens in the future? (Who is doing the talking in the cartoon below?) Would you predict that they will be more or less virulent? Why? Why does every human need to understand evolution?
Apr. 19	For Wed.’s class, think of the following questions and write down your answer to those in Chapter 2 and 3 only. Chapter 1: List the questions that Hawking wants to answer. At the beginning of his book, Hawking gives us various models of the universe. Briefly summarize the models that he attributes to Aristotle and Copernicus. On what fundamental point do both models diverge? What theory did Sir Isaac Newton put forward in his Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica of 1687? Which model of the universe provided that the universe had a natural boundary? In this model, what was on one side of the boundary, what was on the other? What model got rid of that natural boundary? How did Newton’s own theory of gravity contradict his “infinite static model of the universe”? Answer this question by means of the “falling” star example. Why didn’t Newton believe that all the stars in the universe would not fall together at some point? 8. Why does Hawking think that “no one had suggested that the universe was expanding or contracting” before the twentieth century? Who made the discovery that put to rest the “infinite static model of the universe”? What was that discovery” What is the “big bang”? Following the discovery in question #9, what conclusions could be drawn about time itself, at or before the “big bang”? What is a scientific theory? What two basic partial theories describe the universe today? What thumbnail sketches does Hawking give of them? Chapter 2: What were Aristotle’s thoughts on the motion of bodies? Where did our present ideas about motion come from? What is the big difference between the ideas of Aristotle and our present ideas? How was Newton’s own belief in “absolute space” contradicted by his first law of motion? Explain what “absolute time” means? Who believed in this idea? For what kind of bodies do the concepts of “absolute space” and “absolute time” work? For what kind of bodies do they not work? What is the most remarkable thing about the speed at which light travels? “Different observers, moving relative to the ether, would see light coming toward them at different speeds” (19), despite the fact that experiments had verified that the speed of light was the same in all directions. How did Albert Einstein propose to solve the problem presented by the preceding situation? What is the fundamental postulate of Einstein’s theory of relativity? How does this theory put an end to the idea of “absolute time” (and for that matter “absolute space”)? Explain how this works using the “twins paradox” on p. 33. What is space-time? How does Figure 2.2 represent space-time? How does the notion of space-time follow logically from the fact that there is no such thing as “absolute time” and “absolute space”? What does the theory of relativity that Einstein first proposed neglect? How did Einstein’s “general” theory of relativity correct for that neglect? What served as one of the “first confirmations” of Einstein’s general theory of relativity? Before 1915, what general perception did people have about time and space? How did the general theory of relativity change that? Chapter 3: How did Edwin Hubble prove that there were other galaxies? What is the Doppler effect? How does it help to explain that the stars which formed other galaxies were moving away from us? According to Hawking, how is it that one should have been able to deduce the possibility of an expanding universe from Newton’s theory of gravity? How did Einstein at to explain away the possibility presented by his own theory that the universe was expanding? How did the American physicists Bob Dicke and Jim Peebles confirm that the universe looks the same in every direction? What was the Russian physicist and mathematician Alexander Friedmann trying to explain by means of his assumptions about the universe? What are the three different kind of models that obey Friedmann’s two fundamental assumptions about the universe? What are the characteristics of space and time in each model? In order to know which Friedmann model describes our universe, what must we figure out? What feature do all the Friedmann models share? What do mathematician’s call this feature? What do physicist’s, like Hawking, call this feature? What does it mean for physicist’s in particular? Describe at least one of the ats “to avoid the conclusion that” time has a beginning? What problem did Hawking solve in his Ph.D. thesis? How has Hawking changed his mind since writing that thesis?
Apr. 21	To prepare Friday’s class, please write down your answers to the following questions: Chapter 4: What is Scientific Determinism? What’s photoelectric effect? Can you think of any daily application of this? What is wave-particle duality? Is it true that light is wave sometimes and consists of particles at other times? What is the uncertainty principle? What is an atom? Do you know any application of the theory of atoms? What’s your thought on Einstein’s reaction to quantum mechanics: “God does not play dice.”? Are there random elements to the universe? Why quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity do not agree? Chapter 12: 1. What is a “world picture”? How does a “world picture” differ from a theoretical attempt to describe and explain the universe? 2. What were the earliest theoretical attempts to do so? 3. What does every at to know the complete state of the universe at one time have to take into account? (Think of what Laplace was not able to consider.) 4. How has the task of science been redefined by the uncertainty principle? 5. What possibility, regarding our attempts to know the complete state of the universe, arises when Hawking attempts to reconcile quantum mechanics with general relativity? How would you characterize the kind of questions that Hawking asks at the end of the book? Are they religious, mathematical, philosophical, or scientific questions? According to Hawking, why are philosophers no longer able to answer the question of whether the universe has a beginning? What happened in the nineteenth century which foreclosed upon this once vast area of questioning for philosophers? According to Hawking, who was the last philosopher who was capable of asking this question? According to Hawking, what would we need to know to finally know the “mind of God”?
Apr. 26	For Wednesday's class please write in plain language the main ideas for the poem "Two Part Prelude" by William Wordsworth and "Ode On A Grecian Urn" by John Keats. Each one should contain at least 200 words.
May 03	For Wednesday’s discussion please read: A World of Art Craft Media (including Peter Voulkos), pp. 300 – 313 Steel and Reinforced Concrete Construction, pp. 370 – 377 Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water, pp. 378 – 379 Community Life, pp. 380 – 387 Design, pp. 388 – 395 Think of the following questions: Who is a life artist? Do you take photos of your family, yourself, your environment, your world? Do you tell stories? Do you bring them all together onto paper, into your computer, onto a canvas (or some other cool concoction)? Do you create art journals with all kinds of wonderfully interesting pieces of your life and thoughts and emotions? Do you celebrate your life through your art? Can art be both something and nothing? Must art be something? Where does kitsch fall on the something-nothing continuum? What about reproductions? Something Nothing: Unique (one of a kind) Generic (interchangeable) Local geographic ties Lack of local ties Specific to the time Time-less Humanized (meaningful human relationship) Dehumanized Enchanted (magical, mystical) Disenchanted (rationalized)
May 05	To prepare for Friday’s and next Monday’s class please answer the following questions. 1. Is Dean a hero, a failure, or both? 2. What is Sal's attitude toward America? 3. What is Sal's idea of the West compared to his idea of the East? Does this change during the course of the novel? 4. How is On the Road written that is different from earlier, more traditional novels? What kind of effect on does this have on traditional plot? Does the form help to express the themes of the novel? 5. Discuss the theme of race in the novel. Is Sal prejudiced? 6. Discuss the women in On the Road. What kind of problems do Sal and Dean have with women, and how does this affect their actions? 7. Is Sal an honest narrator? Are there any inconsistencies in his narration? If so, what effect do they have on the story? 8.Discuss the theme of jazz music in On the Road. How does jazz music relate to the novel thematically? Formally?
May 08
May 12	Last day of classes.
May ?	Final Exam