HONORS 110-301/ Fall
2009/ Dr. William McCarthy
“Seeking the truth”
This class will explore the quest for meaningful
truth and its significance in religious, judicial, psychological, scientific
and philosophical realities throughout history and the present. This has been the major concern of
theologians, scientists and philosophers across all human history. In pursuing truth and knowledge for ourselves
we will enter personally into one of the most essential preoccupations of
humankind.
Dr. William McCarthy, UNCW Department of History
226 Morton, 962-3313; mccarthyw@uncw.edu
Peer mentor: Chris
Anstine, cna3617@uncw.edu
Check this syllabus on BLACKBOARD
periodically for updates.
In this class, we will have the chance to discuss
the nature of knowledge, the life of the mind, the concept of a university, and
how a university education changes individuals and affects the future. The class is designed to introduce honors
students to the college experience by direct involvement in scholarship,
service and leadership activities. This class will include guest speakers,
workshops/ field experiences, collaborative learning and independent
scholarship. There will be an emphasis on discussion and there are required
student projects.
You will be spending about four years (or more if
you decide to go to graduate school here) in this particular institutional
setting. Like any other aspect of the social world, it is to your advantage to
understand the institutional settings you are in and how they work. College is
a major part of your life history and this course will help you get the most
out of that experience. In addition, an important component of the Honors
experience is the development of community through academic, cultural, and
service events. Thus, as part of this seminar, you are expected to
participate in on- or off-campus experiences related to this.
Catalog Description: Introduces the honors student
to the college experience by direct involvement in research, service and
leadership activities. The nature of knowledge; the concept of a university;
how a university education changes individuals and affects the future. Includes
field experiences, collaborative learning and independent scholarship. Emphasis
on discussion; required student projects.
_______________________________________________________
Course
objectives:
·
To examine the concept of the university,
including your goals and expectations.
·
To learn more about UNCW- its organization,
mission, and traditions.
·
To examine the impact of modern higher
education on students in the
·
To explore the meaning of being an educated
person and an honors student.
·
To foster involvement in UNCW and the local
community by exploring service and cultural opportunities.
Course Readings:
For
each discussion we’ll have something to read.
There are many
selections,
but they are not designed to be lengthy or burdensome;
two
or three per discussion to get into the topic.
Readings will be available EITHER
on-line or at the Randall Library
electronic
reserves page. Note that some readings
are
articles,
some are brief on-line articles, some are web pages,
some
are chapters in books. Check carefully.
If for some reason, the links do not
work, use the author’s name and
title to find the reading.
ABC News, CIA’s Harsh Interrogation
Techniques, Nov 18, 2005
“A Heretic’s Final Journey”
Adler, Mortimer, Six Great Ideas, ch 8, “The Pursuit of
Truth”
Angier, Natalie, “Men, Women, Sex and Darwin”
Beah, Ishmael, A Long Way Gone
Bernstein, S., “Getting it done: notes on
student fritters”
Cannon, Carl M., “Untruth and Consequences”
Coming Out Stories on rslevinson.com
Dawkins, Richard, “Why I am Hostile Toward
Religion”
DiPaolo, Rosemary, biography and curriculum
vitae
Fox, Gunnar, Kick Ass in College
Gibbs, Nancy, “The Confession Procession”
Goleman,
“Know Thyself”, ch 4 of Emotional
Intelligence
Group
hug website: anonymous on-line confessions
Halwes,
Dr. Terry. “The Terrible Truth about Truth”
Kidder,
Tracy, Mountains Beyond Mountains
Loeb, Paul, the Soul of a Citizen
Lunsford, Andrea, et. al. Everything is an Argument
Nichols, Jennifer, “Getting Time on Your
Side”
Postsecret.blogspot (on-line confessions)
Schall, James, V., “A Certain Lightness in
Existence”
Schweitzer,
Albert, On the Edge of the Primeval
Forest
Smith,
David Livingstone, “Natural-Born Liars”
Smith,
Wilfred Cantwell, “On the Comparative Study of Religion”, in Walter H. Capps,
Ways
of Studying Religion
Stanford
University website
“Think-a-rete
web page,” Famous self-awareness quotes
Tompkins,
Jane, A Life in School
Tredway,
Linda, “Socratic Seminars”
UNCW Faculty Panel “I Cannot Tell a Lie”
United Nations Convention Against Torture
Weil, Elizabeth, “What if It’s (Sort of) a
Boy and (Sort of) a Girl?”
Additional or alternative readings
possible. TBA.
Your final grade for the course will be based on the following:
|
General Class Participation/Attendance |
10% |
|
Major Written Assignments (2) |
30% Topics and due dates tba |
|
Leading Discussion |
5% |
|
Journal |
20% Brief reaction to all readings (or one per
class if there are multiple); one personal entry and one NY Times comment per
week. Collected and checked four
times. |
|
Dream Job Presentation |
10% |
|
Final Reflective Paper |
15% |
|
Service Projects/Reactions- 2 |
10% (2% each reaction) |
|
Cultural Activities/Reactions- 3 |
Your
grade for this course is entirely performance-driven based on the quality of
your work and participation and in this course. This means that you are not in
direct competition with each other for grades. Instead, you are in competition
with yourself in terms of how well you learn and apply the material from the
course.
I use
a 10 point grading scale with + if your percentage ends in 7, 8, or 9 and - if
your grade percentage ends in 0, 1 or 2; So 88= B+, 91= A-.
Honor Code
Students are expected to adhere to all
aspects of the honor code at all times.
It is also expected that individual difference will be respected under
all circumstances.
Cultural
and Service Requirements
As
a requirement of the Honors Freshman Seminar, we offer you the opportunity to
learn about cultural and service/volunteer activities in the
|
Cultural
Activities: 3 cultural activities and reactions required Fall semester/
2 more required Spring semester |
Service/Volunteer
Projects- 2 service projects and reactions required Fall semester |
Course Calendar:
Week I.
Thurs Aug 20 Meet
in MORTON 100 Introduction to Course
Get-to-know-you.
Go
over hand-out
Week II.
Tues Aug 25 Introduction,
What is a seminar? Review course
syllabus for clarification.
Meet
in S&B 207 Read
Lunsford, et. al., “Everything is an Argument” and
“Fallacies
of Argument”. Randall Library e-reserve
Read
Linda Tredway, “Socratic Seminars” Randall Library
e-reserve
Begin
powerpoint presentations: “Who Am I?”
Workshop
sign-ups.
Thurs Aug 27 Summer
reading discussion Ishmael
Beah, A Long Way Gone
Meet
in S&B 207 Continue
powerpoint presentations: “Who Am I?”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Week
III.
Tues, Sept
01 Summer reading discussion Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone
Meet
in S&B 207
Thurs, Sept 03 Theme
day #1: James V. Schall, SJ, “A Certain
Lightness in Existence”,
WHAT
IS TRUTH introduction
to The Life of the Mind
Meet
in S&B 207 http://www.isi.org/books/content/394intro.pdf
"What is truth?" --UNCW faculty
panel
http://www.uncw.edu/shsm/panels/truth.pdf
The quest for
truth—Stanford page
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/truth/
Introduce time diary project.
Begin ten day time diary; complete by Sept 17
discussion.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Week
IV.
Tuesday, Sept 08 History of the Academy U
of Louisville guy essay
Meet
in S&B 207 history
of “the” university rdg
Submit
questions for Chancellor
Thursday, Sept 10 Chancellor de Paolo Chancellor
de Paolo’s cv
http://www.uncw.edu/chancellor/biography.html
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Week V.
Tuesday Sept 15 Theme #2: Dr.
Terry Halwes,” The Terrible Truth About Truth”
SEEKING
TRUTH VIA SCIENCE http://dharma-haven.org/science/terrible-truth.htm
Meet
in S&B 207
Thursday, Sept 17 Time Management Brief
discussion of reactions to Chancellor dePaolo’s talk
Meet in S&B 207 Read
Fox, Kick
Ass in College, ch 9: “Time
Management”;
Nichols,
“Get Time on Your Side”;
Bernstein, “Getting it
Done: Notes on Student Fritters”
Time
Diary: Keep a detailed record of activities for ten days.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Week
VI.
Tuesday Sept 22 workshop presentations
Location
tba
Thursday Sept 24 workshop presentations
Location tba
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Week
VII.
Tuesday, Sept 29 Theme #3: Mortimer
Adler, Six Great Ideas, chapter 8, “The Pursuit of
TRUTH
VIA RELIGION Truth”,
Randall Library Electronic reserve
Meet in S&B 207 Wilfred
Cantwell Smith, “’On the Comparative Study of
Religion”,
Randall Library electronic reserve
Richard
Dawkins, “Why I am Hostile Toward Religion”
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/203/story_20334_1.html
Brief
comments on workshops.
Thursday, Oct 01 Theme discussion #4: Famous Self-Awareness Quotes - thinkarete
TRUTH VIA SELF-KNOWLEDGE http://www.thinkarete.com/quotes/by_category/self-awareness/
Meet in S&B 207 Daniel
Goleman, Emotional Intelligence, ch 4
“Know thyself”; Randall
Library electronic reserve
_______________________________________________
________________________
Week
VIII
Tuesday, Oct 06 Fall Break
Thursday, Oct 08 Schedule Advising Review
Student handbook, advising materials
Meet
in MORTON 100
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Week
IX.
Tuesday, Oct 13 Dream job presentations six
minutes per student [emough??]
Meet
in S&B 207
Thursday, Oct 15 Dream Job presentations
Meet
in S&B 207
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Week X.
Tuesday, Oct 20 Theme #5: Natalie
Angier, “ Men, Women, Sex and Darwin“,
GENDER
IDENTITY/SEXUAL ORIENTATION Randall
Library electronic reserve
Meet
in S&B 207 Elizabeth
Weil, NYT Magazine Sept 24 2006,
“What if It’s (Sort of
) a Boy and (Sort of) a Girl?”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/magazine/24intersexkids.html
Coming out of the
closet webpages, eg:
http://www.rslevinson.com/gaylesissues/comingoutstories/blcoming.htm
Finish
up dream job presentations as necessary.
****ESSAY #1 DUE***
Thursday, Oct 22 Meet Honors alums
Meet
in MORTON 100
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Week
XI.
Tuesday, Oct 27 Theme #6 readings
tba
GENERALIZATION
AND STEREOTYPE
***SUBMIT JOURNALS*** (revised date)
Thursday, Oct 29 International Programs
Dr
DiPuccio
Meet
in MORTON 100
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Week XII.
Tuesday, Nov 03 Civic Engagement I Read Bill
Clinton, Giving, chs 2 & 3.
(Randall Library e-reserve)
Meet
in S&B 207
Introduction
Schweitzer Read
Schweitzer, On the Edge of the Primeval
Forest, 1-29.
***ESSAY #2 DUE***
and one internet site
about Schweitzer.
Thursday, Nov 05 Schweitzer Award
Meet in MORTON 100
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Week
XIII.
Tuesday, Nov 10 Civic engagement II Kidder, Mountains Beyond Mountains
Meet in S&B 207
Thursday, Nov 12 Civic engagement III Kidder, Mountains Beyond Mountains
Meet in S&B 207
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Week
XIV
Tuesday, Nov 17 Theme #7: ABC
news, CIA’s harsh interrogation techniques
ELICITING
TRUTH VIA TORTURE http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Investigation/story?id=1322866
“A
Heretic’s Final Journey” web essay, (re Inquisition torture)
http://dim.com/~randl/racking.htm
Look
again at faculty panel re: torture
"What is truth?" --UNCW faculty panel
UN Convention Against
Torture
http://www.hrweb.org/legal/cat.html
***COLLECT JOURNALS****
Thursday, Nov 19 Theme #8: David
Livingstone Smith, Scientific American
LYING http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=natural-born-liars
Meet in S&B 207 Carl M.
Cannon, Untruth and Consequences, Atlantic 2007
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200701/cannon-lying
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Week
XV.
Tuesday, Nov 24 Theme #9: Nancy
Gibbs, “The Confession Procession”,
THE
CONFESSIONAL AGE http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1599689,00.html
Meet in S&B 207 group hug, http://grouphug.us/
Post.secret.blogspot http://postsecret.blogspot.com/
Look
again at SHS panel on public confession
"What is truth?" --UNCW faculty panel
Thursday, Nov 26 Thanksgiving
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Week
XVI.
Tuesday, Dec 01 Wrap up; course evaluation Final paper due
Meet
in S&B 207 Final
cultural/service reactions due
COLLECT JOURNALS
SUNDAY,
Dec 06 Final Exam Gathering Attendance is
required.
Location tba; 4-6 PM