Current Readings, assignments, miscellaneous notes:
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June 21, 2005 (2:58 pm)
The third essay assignment is up on Moodle and is due in on Monday at the beginning of class. It was handed out in class today.
Current Readings and Materials:
Ruth Benedict’s classic articulation of the case for moral relativism is up on Moodle, and was assigned to have been read by now. The comparison of theory-based justifications of moral judgments and what in fact we usually do to justify our moral judgments (based on our discussions of cases) exists only as class discussion now past. It is a crucial piece of the course nevertheless.
More examples have been added for the topic on judgments in issues of sexual behaviors–Example 5 is a separate written account, and Example 6 is an oil portrait of Aline Charigot by Renoir. Many of these same examples are relevant to issues regarding subjectivity. Make sure you have read all of them and have stared at the painting.
A large book of photos by Robert Mapplethorpe is on reserve. Please look through it by Wednesday and be ready to share comments in class.
We watched the movie Kinsey in class today and will discuss on Wednesday.
Two readings regarding Alfred C. Kinsey are linked on Moodle. One gives the Kinsey Institute’s summary of his main findings, especially in the first two large books, Sexual Behavior in the American Male and Sexual Behavior in the American Female. The other provides more historical and cultural background, and a more or less independent assessment. Kinsey is still reviled periodically in the media and the academy, and so appraisals of his work set the stage for a wonderful test of critical thinking skills. Two biographies have appeared within the last decade–one by James H. Jones in 1997, and another based on interviews with largely the same cast of characters by Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy, who comments that “Jones belongs to what one might call the Kenneth Starr school of biography.” Skim these as much as you need to feel you understand the movie, which was in part occasioned by and based on Gathorne-Hardy’s book.
I handed out a parody by Walt Kelly of the Kinsey research project, published in his daily cartoon strip in 1953.
A short summary of an argument for the claim that love (and by implication many of the feelings we have regarding sex) is subjective, is up on Moodle and was handed out in class. Several of the current essay assignment questions will require thinking about this reading.
June 9, 2005 (8:52am)
Write the second essay, due Monday at beginning of class.
(Assignment directions and topics were handed out in class and are up on Moodle.)
Current readings:
Essay on problems with doing philosophy via definitions; as a help with Second Essay Prompt 3 and Prompt 1, but also as summary of parts of our current discussion, up on Moodle, as soon as possible.
Essay on Progress in Philosophy (a book mss. Preface), as a help with Second Essay Prompt 2, on Moodle, for Tuesday.
Exchange with an essay on First Essay Prompt 2, as a help in composing your own essays, handed out in class, at your leisure.
Our anthology of quotes re: sex and love, on Moodle, by Tuesday. Read for and note favorites and disagreements and be ready to share comments with the class.
You should have finished Plato’s Symposium but still remember it well enough to discuss. Ditto the Freud handout.
I’ve put up on Moodle the quiz over Freud’s “Observations on Transference-Love” with a key.
Tuesday June 7, 2005, 1:39 pm
Quiz tomorrow over the reading by Freud, “Observations on Transference Love” –five questions, multiple choice, no picking of nits. Discussion to follow.
Be ready to discuss the final speech of the Symposium, given by Alcibiades, and to discuss the problem of how to respond to the question, What is love, really? (And the question, what is sex, really?)
Second essay assignment will be handed out Wednesday, tomorrow, due in on Monday the 13th at beginning of class.
The anthology of quotes, not quite in final form, is up on Moodle. Please read and note favorites and disagreements.
Wednesday, June 1, 2005 (1:41pm)
Read Plato’s Symposium for Thursday, June 2nd. This dialogue is our entry regarding questions about defining love. As a result, we’ll be working on two topics for a while. One is the naturalness/morality of sexual practices, and the other is on how to address the question, “what is love, really?”
The photocopy of Freud’s “Observations on Transference Love” is missing pages and needs fixed–it has been postponed.
Read “Progress in Philosophy” (on Moodle) for Monday (it may help with Question 3 of the first essay assignment, besides making sense of our goals in the present discussion.)
Read other handouts, including Aristophanes and McCullers (on front and back of one page, also up now on Moodle); the grading criteria worksheet attached to the syllabus (also on Moodle); the list of candidates for natural or unnatural sexual practices (on the back of the first essay assignment); and two sample essays (on Moodle), one good and the other not, as models for your examination..
Write the first essay, due on Monday, June 6th.
A handout, “Examples for Discussion” will be supplied on Thursday and is up on Moodle.