Say "Ancient Greece", and the words conjure up timeless images of shining white temples among olive trees, bronze-armored heroes, and bearded philosophers discussing the nature of the universe. Our popular vision of the ancient Greeks makes them seem both familiar and irrelevant to the modern world. In fact, however, Greek culture is deeply alien to our own, and at the same time surprisingly relevant. On the one hand, ancient Greek society is just as confusing, shocking, and easy to misinterpret as any other culture is for an outside observer -- even more so, because we are separated from it not only by space but by time. On the other hand, we have the Greeks to thank for much of the way we think today about politics, art, science, and the meaning of life.

This course will survey the world of the ancient Greeks from the dawn of the city-state to the rise of Macedon (ca. 800 - 350 B.C.), focusing on their cultural achievements (literary, artistic, intellectual) and on their religious, social, and political world. Attention will be paid to understanding both the Greek "mentality" in the world of the polis through literature like Homer, Sophocles, Thucydides and Plato, and the realities of their public and private lives. We shall explore the relationship between freedom and slavery, democracy and empire, political systems, and the individual and larger community. Special attention will be paid in this section to issues of gender and sexuality. We shall also examine the Greeks' emphasis on human knowledge and achievement (in art, literature, and politics as well as on the battlefield) within the context of a polytheistic religious world, as well as within its broader Mediterranean context.

There will be two half-hour exams, one midterm examination, and one comprehensive final, as well as periodic short quizzes.

This course carries a Global Cultures flag and fulfills the Visual and Performing Arts requirement.

This course explores the changing role of human psychology in the history of political thought through the study of classic texts in philosophy and psychology. In roughly chronological order, we will examine several key philosophers’ accounts of the deepest human concerns—justice, happiness, and love—and the potential political life has to fulfill those yearnings. In the final part of the course, we will study Darwin’s evolutionary theory of human mental faculties in The Descent of Man, Freud’s theory of unconscious psychological drives, and current theories of evolutionary psychology. We will discuss how these different views of human nature suggest different approaches to politics and ethics.

We will read selections from the following works:

• Plato The Republic, The Symposium 
• St. Augustine: The Confessions, City of God 
• Hobbes The Leviathan 
• Rousseau Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
• Nietzsche Beyond Good and Evil
• Darwin The Descent of Man 
• Freud Civilization and its Discontents
• And selected articles on evolutionary psychology

This course explores the changing role of human psychology in the history of political thought through the study of classic texts in philosophy and psychology. In roughly chronological order, we will examine several key philosophers’ accounts of the deepest human concerns—justice, happiness, and love—and the potential political life has to fulfill those yearnings. In the final part of the course, we will study Darwin’s evolutionary theory of human mental faculties in The Descent of Man, Freud’s theory of unconscious psychological drives, and current theories of evolutionary psychology. We will discuss how these different views of human nature suggest different approaches to politics and ethics.

We will read selections from the following works:

• Plato The Republic, The Symposium 
• St. Augustine: The Confessions, City of God 
• Hobbes The Leviathan 
• Rousseau Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
• Nietzsche Beyond Good and Evil
• Darwin The Descent of Man 
• Freud Civilization and its Discontents
• And selected articles on evolutionary psychology

This course explores the changing role of human psychology in the history of political thought through the study of classic texts in philosophy and psychology. In roughly chronological order, we will examine several key philosophers’ accounts of the deepest human concerns—justice, happiness, and love—and the potential political life has to fulfill those yearnings. In the final part of the course, we will study Darwin’s evolutionary theory of human mental faculties in The Descent of Man, Freud’s theory of unconscious psychological drives, and current theories of evolutionary psychology. We will discuss how these different views of human nature suggest different approaches to politics and ethics.

We will read selections from the following works:

• Plato The Republic, The Symposium 
• St. Augustine: The Confessions, City of God 
• Hobbes The Leviathan 
• Rousseau Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
• Nietzsche Beyond Good and Evil
• Darwin The Descent of Man 
• Freud Civilization and its Discontents
• And selected articles on evolutionary psychology

This course explores the changing role of human psychology in the history of political thought through the study of classic texts in philosophy and psychology. In roughly chronological order, we will examine several key philosophers’ accounts of the deepest human concerns—justice, happiness, and love—and the potential political life has to fulfill those yearnings. In the final part of the course, we will study Darwin’s evolutionary theory of human mental faculties in The Descent of Man, Freud’s theory of unconscious psychological drives, and current theories of evolutionary psychology. We will discuss how these different views of human nature suggest different approaches to politics and ethics.

We will read selections from the following works:

• Plato The Republic, The Symposium 
• St. Augustine: The Confessions, City of God 
• Hobbes The Leviathan 
• Rousseau Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
• Nietzsche Beyond Good and Evil
• Darwin The Descent of Man 
• Freud Civilization and its Discontents
• And selected articles on evolutionary psychology

Among all the influential texts found in the Bible, none has had such an enormous impact on world history and culture as the Book of Genesis has. This may be somewhat surprising: given the fact that Christianity is the world’s largest religion, one might expect that one of the Gospels of the New Testament would be the most influential. Yet Genesis, with its tales of the strange world that existed before the Flood and its recounting of the exploits—sometimes morally questionable—of Israel’s patriarchs, exercised such a hold on the imagination of the earliest Christians that many New Testament writings can actually be seen as extended ruminations on the implications of the Genesis narrative…as can many other great works of literature and art from antiquity to the present. This course will explore the incredibly diverse ways that human beings have sought to make meaning out of this book. We will begin by devoting a significant amount of the semester to a close reading of Genesis in its entirety—just us and the text (mostly). We will then sample some of the most significant early interpretations of Genesis. These will include retellings of parts of Genesis from early Jewish and Christian apocryphal writings; creative and influential readings of Genesis from ancient interpreters the Apostle Paul and Augustine of Hippo; and the use of Genesis narrative in the Quran, the foundational scripture of Islam.

What, according to the Bible, is required of us? What is our response to the deity? What is our place in the cosmos? With these questions in mind, this course seeks to cultivate both an understanding of the Hebrew Bible (the Christian Old Testament) and the New Testament and how biblical writers and subsequent interpreters grappled with notions of divine command and human obligation. We pursue this aim through close readings of the biblical texts themselves and the reception of biblical figures, themes, and ideas among its many interpreters.

We begin by examining the historical sense of the Hebrew Bible as a product of the ancient Near East. We will then examine the practice of biblical interpretation among the competing Jewish ideologies at the turn of the Common Era, out of which emerged the early Christians and their writings. The last part of the course will highlight some of the major Jewish and Christian interpreters of the Bible in the pre-modern and modern periods and how, through their own view of “scripturalism”, these interpreters understood and formulated responses to questions of human nature, humanity’s relationship to the supernatural, and the meaning of life.

What, according to the Bible, is required of us? What is our response to the deity? What is our place in the cosmos? With these questions in mind, this course seeks to cultivate both an understanding of the Hebrew Bible (the Christian Old Testament) and the New Testament and how biblical writers and subsequent interpreters grappled with notions of divine command and human obligation. We pursue this aim through close readings of the biblical texts themselves and the reception of biblical figures, themes, and ideas among its many interpreters.

We begin by examining the historical sense of the Hebrew Bible as a product of the ancient Near East. We will then examine the practice of biblical interpretation among the competing Jewish ideologies at the turn of the Common Era, out of which emerged the early Christians and their writings. The last part of the course will highlight some of the major Jewish and Christian interpreters of the Bible in the pre-modern and modern periods and how, through their own view of “scripturalism”, these interpreters understood and formulated responses to questions of human nature, humanity’s relationship to the supernatural, and the meaning of life.

Check back for updates.

This course surveys the central beliefs and patterns of life of living religious traditions of Asia. It will focus particularly on the basic texts or narratives of these traditions; on their classical expressions and essential histories; and on the concepts of humanity, the world, and the divine that are distinctive of each. In addition, the course will explore not only what people believe religiously but also what they do religiously. Part of the course, therefore, will consider the ways of life and rituals of the different communities. Not all Asian traditions can be covered in a one-semester survey. The traditions chosen originated in Asia, have large numbers of adherents, possess particular historical significance, and represent different cultural areas. The religions studied in the course will include: Hinduism, Buddhism, South Asian Islam, Confucianism, Daoism, and Shinto.

Readings:

The principal required texts are W. Oxtoby, R. Amore, and A. Hussain, World Religions: Eastern Traditions (4th or 5th edition); R.K. Narayan, The Rāmāyaṇa; Ashvaghosha, The Buddhacarita: The Life of the Buddha (available on Canvas); B. Watson, Zhuangzi: Basic Writings; Basho, The Narrow Road to the Deep North (also on Canvas). Additional readings will also be posted on Canvas.

Grading:

The major written assignments will be four short essays on assigned reading and two exams.

Description: This course is an introduction to philosophy through problems that arise within religion. The course investigates four different attitudes that have been held about the relation of human beings to God. First is an ancient view according to which God's existence is presupposed and all events are interpreted as expressions of God's will. Second is a medieval view according to which the existence of God and his various attributes are suitable subjects for proof and argument. Third is a modern view according to which God exists but little is known about him through reasoning. Fourth is a contemporary view according to which God is assumed not to exist; the questions whether anything has any value and whether human life has a meaning will be asked. Although the course is divided historically, our goal will be to identify what is true or false, rational or not rational about the views expressed in each.

Note: This is not a course in World Religions.

Please check back for updates.

This course will use violence as an analytic category to study the last 500 years of history.  Historians typically explain the rise of the state, capitalism, modernity, or even the “rise of the West” in this period. Instead, this course deploys this block of time to understand violence, examining how its practices and norms have changed over time.  Violence can be difficult to describe and locate, and this course will not propose a closed definition of violence. Instead it uses an interrogative and open-ended approach, one that begins with a tentative understanding of violence as a practice inherent to certain social formations.  In this way we approach racism, anti-Semitism, class and gender violence.  It will also pay attention to the modern state and its monopolization of violence through the police and law, which reduced violence such as crime.  At the same, the modern state unleashed historically unprecedented killing in the world wars and genocides of the twentieth century. The course will also seek to understand violence outside of its physical forms, such as that existing in language and gender norms, as well as the “slow violence” of poverty and environmental degradation.  Ultimately, the course seeks to better locate the relationship between violence and power as it reveals itself in history.  Thus, political violence, the violence of war, civil wars, revolutions, and revolts will be of particular concern.

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Selected readings in this course will be distributed electronically

GRADES:

Midterm                     30%              

Final Exam                 30%

Writing                       30%

Participation              10%

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Examines the history of Christian philosophy through classic Christian thought, concerning what can be known and how people should live.

Dante: Spring 2020

The Divine Comedy offers a remarkable panorama of the late Middle Ages through one man's poetic vision of the afterlife. However, we continue to read and study the poem not only to learn about the thought and culture of medieval and early modern Europe but also because many of the issues confronting Dante and his age are no less important to individuals and societies today. Personal and civic responsibilities, governmental accountability, church-state relations, economics and social justice, Dante's influence on artists and other writers, benefits and limitations of interdisciplinarity—these are some of the themes that will frame our discussion of the Divine Comedy. Although you will read the poem in English, a bilingual edition will enable you to study and learn famous lines in the original Italian. The course is taught in English and contains flags for Writing and Global Cultures.

Danteworlds (http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/): In addition to detailed entries, audio recordings, and study questions, this Web site contains hundreds of images from works by Sandro Botticelli, an anonymous 16th-century artist, John Flaxman, William Blake, Gustave Dorè, and Suloni Robertson.

Through close reading, class discussion, and the use of Danteworlds, you are expected to identify and explain the significance of major characters, references, and ideas in Dante's Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise) and Vita Nuova. You will be tested on this ability in responses to study questions (a low-stakes writing assignment) and two in-class exams. An essay, which you will rewrite and expand based on my feedback, will assess your ability to support an interpretation of a specific aspect of Dante's poetry with detailed textual analysis and scholarly research. A peer-editing activity will help you to revise and edit your own work. I expect you to have read the assigned cantos and reviewed the corresponding material in Danteworlds (including the study questions) before class.

Required Texts: (you must use the editions of these texts ordered for the class)

            Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso (Trans. Allen Mandelbaum)

            Vita Nuova (Trans. Barbara Reynolds)

Recommended Text (also ordered for this class): The Complete Danteworlds: A Reader's Guide to the "Divine Comedy" (Raffa)

Canvas: We will use the CANVAS learning management system to organize and provide course content on-line. When you log in to Canvas (http://canvas.utexas.edu/) and select the course, you will have access to the syllabus, assignments, lecture presentations, grades, and a discussion forum. You will be required to submit most assignments on-line using Canvas. For assistance, consult the student tutorials (https://utexas.instructure.com/courses/633028/pages/student-tutorials) or contact support staff (https://utexas.instructure.com/courses/633028).

Assignments and Computation of Grade:

10%: 1500-word essay on the Inferno (credit for successful completion)

25%: Rewrite and expansion of this essay incorporating scholarly research (graded)

5%:   Annotated bibliography of research sources (credit for successful completion)

5%:   Peer-review (credit for successful completion)

10%: Responses to study questions in Canvas Discussion Forum (credit for successful completion)

30%: Two in-class examinations  (graded: 15% each)

15%: Classwork and participation                    

Attendance Policy: Your attendance, which obviously influences your classwork and participation grade, is expected at all class meetings. You are expected to arrive on time to class and to stay for the entire lesson. Repeated late arrivals to—or early departures from—will count as absences. For every class that you miss (for whatever reason) after the fifth absence, your classwork and participation grade (on a 100-point scale) will be reduced by 5 points.

Late Work: Late work will lose a full letter grade for each day it is late except in the case of documented emergencies (e.g., serious illness, death in the family), religious holidays (see university policy below), or university-sponsored events (with prior notification).

Writing Flag: This course carries the Writing Flag. Writing Flag courses are designed to give students experience with writing in an academic discipline. In this class, you can expect to write regularly during the semester, complete substantial writing projects, and receive feedback from your instructor to help you improve your writing. You will also have the opportunity to revise one or more assignments, and you may be asked to read and discuss your peers’ work. You should therefore expect a substantial portion of your grade to come from your written work. Writing Flag classes meet the Core Communications objectives of Critical Thinking, Communication, Teamwork, and Personal Responsibility, established by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Global Cultures Flag: This course carries the Global Cultures flag. Global Cultures courses are designed to increase your familiarity with cultural groups outside the United States. You should therefore expect a substantial portion of your grade to come from assignments covering the practices, beliefs, and histories of at least one non-U.S. cultural group, past or present.             

Grading and Plagiarism: All graded assignments will be marked on a 100 point scale and converted to letter grades consistent with university policy:

A (94-100) = 4.0, A- (90-93) = 3.67, B+ (88-89) = 3.3, B (84-87) = 3.0, B- (80-83) = 2.67, C+ (78-79) = 2.3, C (74-77) = 2.0, C- (70-73) = 1.67, D+ (68-69) = 1.3, D (64-67) = 1.0, D- (60-63) = 0.67, F (below 60) = 0.0

Plagiarism, intentional or not, will result in an automatic F on the assignment—the numerical grade (0-59) depending on the extent of the plagiarism and the quality of the non-plagiarized portion of the essay—as well as possible disciplinary action. For the definition of plagiarism, see: https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/rhetoric/RHE%20306/plagiarismcollusion.php

For the University's policy on academic integrity (including plagiarism), see: http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/conduct/academicintegrity.php

Authority: Acceptance, Acquiescence and Assertion: Moral Agency in Greek Tragedy

Readings

• Aeschylus: The Oresteia
• Sophocles: Philoctetes
• Euripides: Iphigeneia at Aulis

This course is flagged as one that explicitly discusses issues of practical ethics.  In the plays we will read, three protagonists are placed in situations where they are asked to do something about which they clearly have ethical misgivings.  Orestes is told to kill his mother by Apollo, to avenge the murder of his father; Neoptolemus is pressured to lie, cheat and steal by Odysseus so that Troy might fall; Achilles is asked by the Greek army, and eventually by Iphigeneia herself, to stand by and let a young girl be sacrificed, again so that the Greeks can destroy Troy.  It is my fervent hope that none of you ever find yourselves in exactly these situations, but it is eminently conceivable that at some point in your lives you will face an ethical dilemma or challenge in which your values will conflict with what you are encouraged to do by an authority you consider infallible, by a mentor, or by peer pressure. We will spend a session after concluding each play brainstorming as many such contemporary situations as we can as a class.  Each student will then have a week to produce a “pre-script” of how they would behave in one of the situations we have agreed are a close analogy to the situation in the play. 

At the same time, the course will introduce you to some of the masterpieces of Greek tragedy, works which have had an incalculable influence on Western civilization.  You will learn the social and cultural background of the texts, and discuss some interpretations that have been put forward over two and a half millennia, but the ultimate aim is for you to feel comfortable enough with these works that you are ready to offer your own interpretations of character and action.

We will discuss a limited section of the text each class session in light of study questions I will distribute beforehand.  You should read the text with the study questions in mind before class and be prepared to ask and answer questions on the text.  I appreciate any challenge to any interpretation I introduce as long as the challenge is grounded in the text.  When preparing for the quizzes and the final you should use the study questions as a guide to the sort of questions I might ask, and organize material from the readings, discussions and your own notes accordingly.

Grading

• 3 quizzes (10% each)
• prescription of action in 3 different ethical dilemmas or challenges (10% each)
• cumulative final (40%)

There is no credit for class attendance or preparation. That’s what you should be doing.  You are allowed 4 unprepared days, but after that I will deduct 1 pt. from your final grade for each day you are unprepared.  You may take two of these days as unexcused absences (though it is better to be in class even if you are unprepared).  Any further unexcused absences will result in a deduction of 2 pts. from your overall grade.

This course carries the Ethics flag.

Please check back for updates.

This course invites us to consider real questions of moral leadership proposed by and explored in more
than a dozen major works of ancient, Elizabethan, and modern drama. Thus, this course has two components: the literary and theatrical, on the one hand, and the practical, on the other. While we
examine the literary beauty of these classic plays, the course also asks you to consider actual questions
of moral leadership relevant to our daily lives.

This course invites us to consider real questions of moral leadership proposed by and explored in more
than a dozen major works of ancient, Elizabethan, and modern drama. Thus, this course has two components: the literary and theatrical, on the one hand, and the practical, on the other. While we
examine the literary beauty of these classic plays, the course also asks you to consider actual questions
of moral leadership relevant to our daily lives.

This course explores interesting episodes in the history of science, focusing on questions about what aspects of human behavior are essentially determined by biological factors rather than by experiences and society. Changing beliefs about what is natural have affected how some people are treated, so we will discuss the social consequences of such notions. The course will include the following topics: theories of race, Darwin’s works, evolution in schools and U.S. courts, American eugenics and Nazi science, differences between women and men, IQ testing, the controversy about DNA and Rosalind Franklin, studies of twins separated at birth, genetic engineering, ethical issues on cloning animals and humans, biotechnology, the immortal cells of Henrietta Lacks, designer babies, biology in forensic science. This is a lecture course, with participation encouraged.

This course fulfills a College of Liberal Arts Science Component: Alternative Science & Technology course.

Some readings are in the Course Packet, required, which will be available at Jenn’s Copy & Binding, 2518 Guadalupe St. There are no readings at the Libraries, on reserve, instead, all other readings will be available online through the UT Libraries website or on Blackboard: https://courses.utexas.edu/

Some of the readings: Francis Galton, "Comparative Worth of Races," in Hereditary Genius (1869). Charles Darwin, Descent of Man (1871), "On the Races of Man," and “Sexual Differences." Cesare Lombroso, Criminal Man (1st ed. 1876). Lombroso, The Female Offender (1895). Julien Offray de La Mettrie, Man a Machine (1748). Francis Galton, "Eugenics: Its Definition, Scope and Aims" (1904). Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (1976).

First exam 20%, Midterm Exam 20%, Final Exam 30%, Quizzes 20%, Attendance 10

Please check back for updates.

This class aims to acquaint the student with the main works of ancient historiography, as well as provide grounding in the central issues with which these works engage. The ancient historians are our first port of call in our quest to understand democracy, tyranny, empire, religion, civil war, and international relations, so it is to these foundational texts that we will turn to enliven our connection with the ancient world. Beyond acquiring basic knowledge of each of the historians and their text, we will explore issues such as: the development and coherence of a historiographical tradition, the value of textual material as historical evidence, the status of prose historiography as an independent work of literary art, and the function of historiography as a space to explore broader questions such as truth, identity, nationalism, ethnicity, and political ideologies. We will conclude by thinking about the unique qualities of historiography, and what distinguishes it from related genres such as biography, historical epic, or historical novels.

This course carries the Ethics flag.

This course introduces students to the variety of poetic genres in the Old Testament. We will examine their forms, functions, and parallels in other Near Eastern literature. The goal of this course is to equip students with the tools to read biblical poetry closely, recognizing its characteristic features and the rhetorical strategies by which the ancient poets communicated with their audience. We will explore the historical and literary setting of each genre of biblical poetry—prayers, wisdom literature, lament, etc.— to determine what distinguishes each category and what stylistic features they share.

The French revolution is one of the most famous events in global history. We have still not resolved the fundamental questions it raises. Why does a regime collapse? How is a new state built? Why are some revolutions peaceful while others become protracted and violent? The human drama of this tumultuous decade and a half is irresistible. How were extraordinary careers made and then lost? How did people take sides? How did ordinary people survive?We will use the French revolution to think about all these questions concretely.

We have three aims. The first is to master the major developments of the revolution itself. The second is to understand how those events have produced classic political arguments about the conditions for democracy, the sources of rights, and the process of historical change.  Third, we consider how the revolution has shaped the world, and how it compares with other revolutions, including ones going on right now.

Texts:

Rousseau, The Social Contract

William Doyle, The French Revolution: A Very Short History

Timothy Tackett, When the King Took Flight

Timothy Tackett, The Coming of the Terror in the French Revolution or R.R. Palmer, 12 Who Ruled.

David Bell, Napoleon, A Biography

Requirements:

• 2 4-5 page take home papers (25% each) (total 50% of grade**)
• 1 comprehensive test (25%)
• group political club assignments (25%).

The heart of this course will be a close reading of key sections of Newton's Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis. The publication of Newton's Principia in 1687 marks a seminal moment in the history of science. In this course, not only will we follow step-by-step the extraordinary course of Newton's "central argument;" we will throughout the semester discuss such philosophical and historical questions as: the nature of motion, the fundamental differences between ancient and modern mathematics, the changing meaning of "physics" from Aristotle to Galileo to Newton, the mathematical uses of infinity and infinitesimals, the ideas of "laws of nature," "hypotheses," "causes," "rules of philosophizing," the concepts of space, force, inertia, instantaneous velocity, etc., and the problem of action at a distance. By the end of this course you will have mastered the fundamental ideas and methods of one of the greatest minds in the history of Western thought.

The advent of Protestantism at the beginning of the sixteenth century is popularly associated with the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of “Modernity.” Martin Luther’s publication of his 95 Theses in 1517 began a series of ideas and events that changed religion, politics, and daily life as they spread. Yet the rise of the merchant class, the advent of the printing press, and the discovery of the New World, as well as a number of the theological ideas now associated with Luther all belong to the achievements of the so-called “Dark Ages.” What, then, do we make of Luther’s reputation as “the last medieval man and the first modern one?” What of his contemporary, the Swiss reformer John Calvin (as anti-Luther as he was anti-Catholic), whose theology undergirds so much American Evangelicalism? This upper-division, undergraduate course examines major and lesser-known works by these and other Reformation theologians in order to answer the question: What did the Reformation change and how did it change it?

The first five books of the Bible—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy—contain well known stories such as the creation of the world, the flood, promises made to Israel’s ancestors, and the revelation of divine law through Moses. Collectively known as the ‘Torah’ in Jewish tradition and the ‘Pentateuch’ in Christian tradition, these five books remain influential in debates about the purpose and nature of the deity (God), the cosmos, law, ritual, ethics, history, family, and nationhood. In this class, we will read the entirety of these five books in translation, investigate the socio-historical circumstances that give shape to these books, and consider how these five books achieve the status of sacred literature. Attention will also be given to the transmission of these five books and its continued significance for its many past and present readers.