Humanities 101; CRN 13488
Fall 2005
MWF 12.00-12.50 pm; 100 Willamette
M. C. Wilson (mwilson@darkwing.uoregon.edu)
Office: 815 PLC; MWF 10-10.50am (346-4155)
    Website: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~mwilson/Homepage.html

GTFs


Kimberly Colburn   kimberlycolburn@gmail.com
Nicholas Phillips   nphilli2@darkwing.uoregon.edu
Amy Story   astory@darkwing.uoregon.edu
Elizabeth Wages    ebarber@darkwing.uoregon.edu


Aims of the Course


The humanities study human life through specific forms of artistic and cultural production and practice.  This study is intended to lead its students to assess critically their own way of life and ideals, which stand within the tradition of past ways of life as well as in contrast to them. The course will deal with five ways of life that have influenced the way we live now: the Jewish life depicted in the Hebrew Scriptures, the life of the Homeric hero, the civic life of the Classical Greek, the imperial life of the Roman, and Christian life described in the Gospels.

Book List

The Harper Collins Study Bible
New Revised Standard Version
    0-06065527-5
Homer, Iliad, trans. Lattimore
    0-226-46940-9
Sophocles, Antigone, trans. Grene
    0-226-30792-1
Portable Greek Historians
    014015065X
Great Dialogues of Plato
    0451628276
Roman Poetry; trans. D. Wender
    0-8093-1694-3
Vergil, Aeneid
    0553210416
Rule of St. Benedict
    0814612725

Other material available on line
 

Course Arrangements and Evaluation

 
Regular attendance in lecture and sections is expected.  Though I will not take attendance in lecture, attendance in section will be taken and participation will count for the final grade. The means of evaluation are the following:
    
1. Write two 4-5 page papers:  (15% each)
2. Nine quizzes in lecture period (20%)
3. Participation in section (10%)
4. Attendance in section (5%, entirely forfeit upon more than three absences)
5. Final exam (35%)

Late assignments will be graded down a third of a grade per day, e.g. an A- paper, if one day late, will receive a grade of B+.  If you cannot make a deadline, be sure to discuss the matter with your GTF well in advance.

According to University of Oregon policy, Academic dishonesty is a serious offence, which can result in failure of the course or expulsion from the university.  Be careful not to copy papers from the internet, use other students' work or cheat in examinations.  Be careful, too, not aid in others' cheating.  All offences will be pursued to the full extent of punishment.
    
This is a big class, and for this reason especially I would be delighted to make your acquaintance personally and talk about your classical or wider intellectual interests.  I am available during office hours, or, if these should not be convenient, we can make arrangements to meet at a special time.

Week 1 (Sept 26-30): Introduction
    M  Aims of course (Power Point file) 
    W  Introduction to Genesis 1.1-5
       Summary of the Contents of Genesis
        http://www.bible.org/netbible/index.htm
        OR http://www.biblegateway.com/cgi-bin/bible
    F  Genesis 1-11

Week 2 (Oct 3-Oct 7): The Way of the Covenant
    M  Genesis 12-25
        Quiz Oct 3
    W  Genesis 26-50
    F    Exodus 1-20 (Summary of Contents)
 
Week 3 (Oct 10-Oct 14) Heroic Way of Life
    M Introduction to Iliad (Summary of Contents)
        Quiz Oct 10
    W Iliad 1
    F Iliad 6, 9,16

Week 4  (Oct 17-Oct 21) Heroic Way of Life
    M Iliad 16, 18
        Quiz Oct 17
    W Iliad 22-23  
    F Iliad 24   First Paper due Oct 21

Week 5 (Oct 24-Oct 28)  The Political Animal
    M   Herodotos: Thermopylae (Portable Greek Historians pp. 140-157)
        Quiz Oct 24
    W  Thucydides, Funeral Oration of Pericles (Portable Greek Historians pp. 265ff)
    F   Sophocles Antigone

Week 6  (Oct 31-Nov 4) The Political Animal
    M  Plato, Apology; Republic VI.504b-VII.519 (pp.302-319)       
        Quiz Oct 31
    W  Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, On Highmindedness (text)
    F  Parthenon-Acropolis (NO READING)
   
Week 7 (Nov 7-Nov 11)  Imperium……
    M Polybius, Roman Constitution (Portable Greek Historians pp. 473ff §§2-4; 11-18; 53-57; so, you go to page 473 of the Portable Greek Historians; there you'll find a section called 'The Roman Constitution; along the left margin you'll see numbers starting with 2; those are the section numbers.  I want you to read sections 2-4, 11-18 and 53-57)
        Quiz Nov 7
    W  Vergil Aeneid 2
    F  Vergil Aeneid 4
       

Week 8 (Nov 14-Nov 18)  …… and its Discontents
    M Vergil Aeneid 6
        Quiz Nov 14
    W Catullus Wender’s selection
    F  Propertius Elegies Wender’s selections
        Ovid, Amores     Wender’s selections


     Roman  Town Planning

Week 9: (Nov 21-Nov 25) Christianity
    M Gospel according to Matthew
        Quiz Nov 21
    W   Gospel according to Matthew
             Paper #2 due Nov 23
    F   Thanksgiving Holiday    

Week 10: (Nov 28-Dec 2)  Christianity
    M   Paul's Letter to the Galatians
        Quiz Nov 28
    W  Rule of Benedict
    F   Conclusion


Final Exam Dec 8 Thursday 10.15am