College Seminar 001
Nature and Culture
Curtis Bowman
Thomas 121
cubowman@nous.phil.upenn.edu
http://www.phil.upenn.edu/~cubowman
Course Description
In this seminar we will study some of the ways in which the concepts of nature and culture have been used to interpret and criticize the world around us. In the Western intellectual tradition the distinction between nature and culture is both a tool for understanding what it is to be human and a framework for judging social institutions, relations between men and women, and the ways in which Western and non-Western societies differ from one another. Since culture is commonly understood to be a realm of freedom constructed in opposition to our natural condition, we say that culture advances at the expense of nature. But some thinkers have argued that many of our cultural achievements are really forms of domination; some have expressed doubts about the possibility (or even the desirability) of establishing a realm of freedom for everyone; and some have questioned how successfully Western notions of culture can be applied to non-Western societies.
We will explore these and other questions with the help of readings drawn from philosophy, literature, and anthropology. Readings will include Rousseau's "Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts," The Communist Manifesto, Thoreau's Walden, Conrad's The Secret Agent, Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman, and essays by Immanuel Kant, Thomas Malthus, Emma Goldman, Max Horkheimer, Marshall Sahlins, Sherry Ortner and Susan Muller Okin.
Required Texts
Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent (Oxford)
Thomas Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population (Oxford)
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (Oxford)
Susan Moller Okin (with respondents), Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women? (Princeton)
Marjorie Shostak, Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman (Vintage)
Henry David Thoreau, Walden and Resistance to Civil Government, 2nd ed. (Norton)
Additional readings in the form of articles will either be handed out in class or put on reserve.
Readings
Section I: Basic Concepts
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, "Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts" (handout)
Immanuel Kant, "Idea for a Universal History With a Cosmopolitan Intent" and "An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?" (handouts)
Thomas Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto
Section II: Doubts About Culture as a Realm of Freedom
Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Emma Goldman, "Anarchism" and "The Psychology of Political Violence" (on reserve)
Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent
Max Horkheimer, "Reason Against Itself: Some Remarks on Enlightenment" (on reserve)
Section III: Feminism, Cross-cultural Understanding, and Multi-culturalism
Marshall Sahlins, "The Original Affluent Society" (on reserve)
Sherry Ortner, "Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?" (on reserve)
Marjorie Shostak, Nisa
Susan Moller Okin et al., Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?
Course Requirements
After the first week of class, on every Tuesday for the next six weeks students will hand in a short essay (500-800 words) on topics assigned on the preceding Thursday. Conferences on these papers will be held after the second, fourth, and sixth assignments have been handed in. Once all six essays have been discussed in conference, students will revise one of their choosing into a longer essay (800-1200 words). This revision will be the first grade in the class, and will count towards 20% of the course grade. (Although the initial six assignments receive no grade, all of them must be handed in; failure to hand in all of them will result in a failing participation grade.)
At regular intervals for the rest of the semester students will write three papers (1000-1500 words) on assigned topics. Conferences will be held after drafts of the first and second of these papers have been handed in. If time permits, we will also have conferences for the last paper. Each of these three assignments will count for 20% of the course grade. Class participation will count towards 20% of the course grade.
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This page last modified on September 4, 2000.