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, Marshall Sahlins, Sherry Ortner and Susan Moller Okin.
Required Texts
Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent (Oxford)
Diana Hacker, A Pocket Style Manual, 3rd ed. (Bedford/St. Martin's)
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)
John Shand, Arguing Well (Routledge)
Marjorie Shostak, Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman (Vintage)
Henry David Thoreau, Walden and Resistance to Civil Government, 2nd ed. (Norton)
The Rousseau essay will be handed out on the first day of class. The other articles will be available in a bulkpack that students will purchase.
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?" (bulkpack)
Thomas Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population (selections)
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" (bulkpack)
Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent
Max Horkheimer, "Reason Against Itself: Some Remarks on Enlightenment" (bulkpack)
Section III: Feminism, Cross-cultural Understanding, and Multi-culturalism
Marshall Sahlins, "The Original Affluent Society" (bulkpack)
Sherry Ortner, "Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?" (bulkpack)
Marjorie Shostak, Nisa
Susan Moller Okin et al., Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women? (selections)
Course Requirements
In the first few weeks of the semester students will hand in four short essays (600-800 words) on assigned topics. Conferences on these papers will be held after the second and fourth assignments have been handed in. Once all four essays have been discussed in conference, students will revise one of their choosing into a longer essay (1200-1600 words). This revision will be the first grade in the class, and will count towards 20% of the course grade. (Although the initial four assignments receive no individual letter grade, all of them must be handed in; failure to hand in all of them will result in a failing participation grade.)
During the rest of the semester students will write two papers (1500-2000 words) on assigned topics. Conferences will be held after drafts of the first and second of these papers have been handed in. Each of these two assignments will count for 30% of the course grade. Class participation will count towards 20% of the course grade.
Policies concerning papers
(1) Any student requiring an extension should arrange for one in advance of handing in the paper. Papers without an extension will be considered late and penalized accordingly. In the case of the first four assignments, an appropriate amount of one's participation grade will be deducted in proportion to how long the paper is overdue. In the case of the three assignments that will receive a grade, a letter grade will be deducted for every week or fraction thereof that the paper is late.
(2) Papers must be printed when they are handed in. E-mail attachments will not be accepted.
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This page last modified on August 29, 2001.