This course is basically a course in epistemology. Epistemological questions ask “How do we know what we know?" In other words, this class is an investigation of the meaning and limits of knowledge with respect to the nature of mind and reality. These issues are pursued through several different but interrelated fields of study, including literature, art, philosophy, comparative religions and science. This interdisciplinary,12-unit course considers the human "need to know" as fundamental, evolutionarily successful, and the basis of all human learning (including all Hutchins classes).
1) To explore the boundaries of knowledge, and experience unfamiliar worldviews directly.
2) To understand the role of science in shaping the modern worldview; to explore the relationship between science and religion; to confront the limits of human knowledge.
3) To examine the historical, political, and psychological aspect of religion, within the context of an effort to understand that which we only know through faith.
4)To understand the significance of the spiritual impulse in changing personal perspectives, producing insight and meaning, and illuminating human endeavors. To consider human nature itself as something that is never completely defined, as part of the unknown.
5) To investigate the human impulse to create meaning and knowledge through narrative.
6) To explore our creativity through art, ritual, and myth in an attempt to reach into the unknown.
7) To develop greater critical skills in the seminar process through identifying and wrestling with key ideas, concepts and issues in the assigned readings, raising relevant questions, articulating complex connections, and building on the ideas of others.
8) To write with coherence, depth, style, and passion.
9) To take risks, be creative, and have fun.
You must choose your assessment mode (Letter Grade or Credit/No Credit) when you register, and if you wish to change it you must do so before the deadline (check with Admissions and Records). At the end of the semester there are five possible assessment marks.
• A letter grade A-F. Although you will be graded somewhat “holistically” (taking into account your overall performance and your specific strengths and weaknesses that may not be easily quantified) a rough guide to the value of each component of your overall total is:
- Written Work (Essays/Prep/Response Papers) = 30%
- Seminar Participation = 20%
- Research Paper = 20%
- Creative Project = 20%
- Portfolio = 10%
| A | > 93 % |
A- |
90-92.5% |
B+ |
87-89.5% |
B |
83-86.5% |
B- |
80-82.5% |
C+ |
77-79.5% |
C |
73-76.5% |
C- |
70 -72.5% |
D |
60- 69.5% |
F |
< 60% |
• Pass (CR) – this means that you have completed the course requirements in good faith,will receive credit for the course, and will be continuing in the program.
• Pass on Probation—this means that you will receive credit, but will need to work on one or more aspects of your performance in order to remain. If you receive two probationary passes in a row, you must leave the Hutchins program.
• Terminal Pass – this means that you will receive credit for the course, but must leave the Hutchins program and continue in the Sonoma State GE program.
• Fail (NC) – this means that you did not complete the course requirements, cannot receive credit for the course, and must leave the program and continue in the Sonoma State GE program.
In addition to the remarks on your transcript, no matter what your grade mode is, your professor will briefly meet with you at mid-term and you will receive a written evaluation and numerical evaluation at that time and at the end of the semester.
The Unknown and the Unexpected:
This syllabus is subject to change, sometimes on very short notice.
Attendance: It is important that you attend all classes punctually and remain throughout. Late arrivals, early or frequent departures, and absences will always impact your status in the program, and more than six absences (seminar or symposium) for any reason may result in you receiving “no credit” for the course. Arriving over ten minutes late and/or leaving early will count as one-third of an absence. Furthermore, using electronic devices during class time (seminar or symposium) is disallowed and will count as an absence. If there are difficulties or concerns, please bring them immediately to the attention of your instructor.
Participation: The quality of the seminar is primarily the responsibility of the students. Appropriate participation includes doing the assigned readings and taking notes, coming to class prepared to discuss the material, being respectful of your colleagues’ feelings and ideas, listening carefully at all times, contributing to the dialogue without excessive dominance or pervasive silence, engaging critically with the material and the world around you, having fun and learning to learn. Participation during film screenings is equally crucial. Specifically, this entails paying close attention and taking notes during film screenings. This will also allow you to reengage with your thoughts and impressions from the original screening when considering the film later on, either in your writing or in seminar discussion.
Portfolio: You need to collect, in a three-ring binder, all the writing you will do in this course (your notes, response papers, essay drafts, etc.) and the reflection/ assessment forms, available for download on the Hutchins web page. You will be asked to assess this Portfolio on an ongoing basis, as well as those of the preceding three semesters in your final paper, an intellectual autobiography tracing the development of your thinking in the Lower Division. At the end of the semester, you will turn in your portfolio with all of your written work for the entire semester.
Writing Assignments: All assignments must be completed in a timely fashion and be word- processed, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins and borders, and in a standard 12 pt. font. You may be asked to rewrite essays that the instructor feels have not met minimal requirements. You should have in your possession Diana Hacker’s Pocket Style Manual (also available on-line) for reference, as well as the class generated writing criteria for assessing your essays and those of your peers. You are responsible for correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, and formatting in all of your work. All assignments are due at the beginning of class. Late work will not be accepted except under extraordinary circumstances, in which case be sure to contact your instructor (either in person, by phone, or by email) before the assignment is due. (Note: last-minute printer problems do not constitute “extraordinary circumstances.”) Consistently late work will affect your final grade.
The writing assignments for this class consist of: 1) Daily Connection Papers and 2) Essay Drafts. Daily Connection Papers should include your thoughts, your questions, your reflections and your associations (your “connections”) – essentially all ruminations regarding the assigned reading. You should make specific reference to the assigned texts, and include relevant page numbers and quotations. They need to be at least one page in length. You need to have a Daily Connection Paper for each class. These will not be collected, but your professor will check to make sure you’ve brought one to class. They must be saved, however, and included in your portfolio at the end of the semester.
Essay Drafts should focus on one or more of the course themes and texts. Essays will go through at least two revisions. You may be asked to complete additional drafts if the instructor feels your writing still needs improvement. While there is no set page length for these essays, the second draft of each essay should be at least three full pages in length. In composing these essays, you need to adhere to the MLA Format and include a Works Cited page. Specific due dates for Essay Drafts are listed below.
Collegiality: Collegial and respectful behavior toward the professor and toward your student peers is vital to the success of each seminar and is required. As students will be leading seminar discussions in this course, it is especially important to show respect to the facilitator and to be a respectful participant in each seminar discussion. The instructor has the right to determine if and when a student is being disruptive and to ask that student to leave the seminar for that day. If the student refuses, it is appropriate to refer the student to campus authorities. Repeated incidents may result in permanent removal from the course.
Disability Services: If you are a student with a disability and you think that you may require accommodations, you must register with the campus office of Disabled Student Services, located in Salazar Hall 1049, phone 664-2677. DSS will provide you with written confirmation of you verified disability and authorize recommended accommodations. This authorization must be presented to your instructor before any accommodations can be made.
Plagiarism: Students are expected to be honest in meeting the requirements of courses in which they are enrolled. Cheating or plagiarism is dishonest, undermines the necessary trust upon which relations between students and faculty are based, and is unacceptable conduct. Students who engage in cheating or plagiarism will be subject to academic sanctions, including a lowered or failing grade in a course; and the possibility of an additional administrative sanction, including probation, suspension, or expulsion. www.sonoma.edu/uaffairs/policies/cheatingpolicy.htm
One purpose of doing a research paper is to help you increase your research skills by doing further investigation on any of the topics covered by this syllabus including the authors of your texts, films, guest speakers, etc. A second purpose is to help you gather information that supports your creative project. Sometimes the research and the creative project cannot be correlated and that is acceptable.
You may choose a topic that has not been covered up to the point the Research Paper is due. Your research paper must be seven pages including the bibliography, and have a balanced variety of sources, books, journals, periodicals, and web sites. There are many sites in the Internet to guide you through a research paper and we will be discussing the process during tutorials. These are two usefule websites: Introduction to Research Guide for your research: http://www.crlsresearchguide.org/00_Introduction.asp, and How to Evaluate Web Sources: http://libweb.sonoma.edu/web/eval.html
Part I: One 4-Page Essay to Prepare for Project: Begin by reviewing the texts you read, the papers you wrote and projects you made, the symposia and the field trips. Your essay should refer to at least ten (10) texts or activities we have covered. Then ask your self: “Self, from all this intellectual labor on the Unknown, which outstanding feeling, idea, or concept has impacted me the most?” or “How do I explore the unknown?” This then should become the topic or thesis of your essay and the third step is to ask your self: “Self, what kind of project would illustrate this one major feeling, idea, concept I have defined?” Now you are ready to do your project.
TIP on how to prepare for this essay throughout the semester: As you go through the various reading and writing assignment and other activities, write yourself a note on or about those particular experiences in the course that resonate with you, that have relevance, a special meaning. Write: “This is something I might want to explore further.”
Part II: The Creative Project Now that you have distilled the ideas or concepts, issues or problems that are important to you, pick one and give it material, artistic, or practical representation. Going beyond the physical world, beyond empirical reality, your creative project should be a MATERIAL REPRESENTATION of your understanding or experience or concept of the ineffable (look it up!). Here are some possibilities.
There are also many suggestions in the second half of How God Changes Your Brain on how to, literally, change your self. So remaking your self can be a work of art too. What you need in this case is to document all your exercises, activities and write a Before and After description of your self and a discussion of the changes. This may include keeping a semester-long journal of spiritual acts and experiences. In other words, test Newberg and Waldman’s theory using your self as a subject.
In terms of art and creativity there is a variety of media: assemblage, painting, sculpture, photography, music, dance, video. In LIBS 102 Rebeca Treviño demonstrated how to do assemblage art out of discarded materials or personal objects to represent ideas, concepts, and feelings. You can refresh your memory by going to http://rebecatrevino.blogspot.com/
Other ideas (courtesy of Dr. Hess) are: write a play, compose original music (burning a cd of other people’s music does not count), make a quilt of sacred moments and feelings, compose an atheist/secular humanist manifesto, or create your own religion, make a sculpture expressing existential courage/religious faith, engage in performance art and recording bystanders and your own responses, assembling a cookbook of religious/ritual foods and explaining the connection between them, assembling a video collection of dance performances that represent the unknown, making a puppet show.
No collages, please. You will make an oral presentation of your Creative Project in seminar and exhibit it at the Creativity Fair on Monday, December 10.
Available at Northlight Books (now across from campus)
REQUIRED TEXTS
(In Order of Appearance -- available at Northlight Books now located across campus). NOTE: each 201 instructor has a slightly different list. Make sure you follow this list.
Week 1 – The Personal Quest W 8/21 Introduction to the course and to the seminar members. How to Read a Book. F 8/23 Coelho, The Alchemist |
Week 2 – Primitive Religion M 8/26 Durkheim, Emile Leading Conceptions chap 2 (p64-71),3 (p89-97), Book 2, Chap 1 (p 121-164) in Elementary Forms of the Religious Life) F 8/30 Frith, Making Up the Mind Read in this order: Preface (p. x), Prologue (pp. 1-17) |
Week 3 – Encounters with Spirit M 9/2 LABOR DAY - NO CLASS F 9/6 Sarris, Mabel McKay |
Week 4 – Native American Religion M 9/9 Black Elk Speaks, Introduction - 139. W 9/11 Black Elk Speaks, 140-296. F 9/13 Pomo History, Pomo Cosmology and Vázquez, “Aztec Epistemology” |
Week 5 – African Diaspora M 9/16 Joseph M. Murphy, Working the spirit, Preface - 113 W 9/18 Murphy, Working the Spirit pp. 114– 200. |
Week 6 – Early Modernism M 9/23 Achebe, Things Fall Apart (1st half) |
Week 7 – M 9/30 MIDTERM EVALUATIONS -- individual meetings F 10/4 Foucault, What is Enlightenment |
Week 8 – The Scientific Worldview M 10/7 Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morals, pp. 3- 120 W 10/9 Hawking, The Grand Design, p. 183, Glossary, pp. 5-83. |
Week 9 – Buddhism M 10/14 Hesse, Siddhartha W 10/16 Field Trip to Zen Center F 10/18 Field Trip to Zen Center Tutorial: Tips for Research Project Presentation |
Week 10 – Ancient texts, modern practices M 10/21 The Upanishads (Read aloud orally or mentally) W 10/23 Tao Te Ching (Read aloud orally or mentally) F 10/25 Newberg & Waldman, How God Changes Your Brain, Authors Note, chapters 8-10 and Epilogue. |
Week 11 – On Judaism M 10/28 Daniel C. Matt, The Essential Kabbalah, pp. ix-72. F 11/1 Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, all |
Week 12 – Perspectives on Christianity M 11/4 Harmless, Mystics, Chps. 2 & 3 W 11/6 Harmless, Mystics, Chps. 4 & 5 F 11/8 Harmless, Mystics 7, 10. |
Week 13 – Islam M 11/11 Veteran's Day - NO CLASS Read Kamran Pasha, The Mother of the Believers: W 11/13 Kamran Pasha, The Mother of the Believers, Book Three, pp. 165-264. F 11/15 Kamran Pasha, The Mother of the Believers, Book Four, pp. 265-461. |
Week 14 – Gratitude M 11/18 Cleary, ed., The Essential Koran W 11/20 - F 11/22 THANKSGIVING - NO CLASS |
Week 15 – Rationality and Faith M 11/25 Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love (1st half) W 11/27 Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love (2nd half) F 11/29 Sam Harris, The End of Faith, pp. 11-79. |
Week 16 – Final Reflections M 12/2 Sam Harris, The End of Faith, pp. 153-227 W 12/4 Tolle, The Power of Now F 12/6 Creative Project Seminar Presentations. (First Friday) |
Week 17 – Creative Expressions M 12/9 Creativity Fair, 9:00 – 12:00, Location TBA |