Fort Douglas Honors Center
Instructor: Dr. Brian Kubarycz
knairb@hotmail.com
http://ensarkosis.blogspot.com/
Intellectual Traditions 3:
The Development of The Human and Its Other
Course Overview and Purpose: Irrespective of how certain students or other instructors may view the Intellectual Traditions courses, I do not consider them a Great Books series. I have little or no interest in teaching you either universal moral truths or objective facts. Nor do I intend to indoctrinate you in all that is great and noble from our cultural heritage. The purpose of this Honors class is to break down your prejudices, open your mind and imagination, make you simultaneously a more critical and a more sensitive reader – not only because it will help you in the future but more importantly because it is worth doing now, and simply for its own sake.
Traditionally, the struggle to develop the self, generally, and for its own sake—a process which the Germans called Bildung—is the very essence of university studies. It is the reason students, traditionally, choose to attend a university, instead of a conservatory, academy or technical school. This belief in the inherent value of a Liberal Education lies at the very heart of the Honors College and its curriculum. The Honors College was created precisely as an alternative to the extreme Utilitarianism which has overtaken so many other departments and programs at the university, which can understand education only in terms of what it is good for. Stubborn resistance to the free pursuit of knowledge will affect you adversely, both in and out of school, in ways you may not yet recognize. I will do my best to present our readings in ways which are both interesting and relevant. However, their immediate application to your major, in most instances, will not be readily apparent. Confusion is a normal and healthy response to what is new; intolerance, disdain and bigotry are not. These latter attitudes will damage you intellectually, emotionally and socially both in this class and in the real world – though quite honestly I don’t distinguish between the two. This course should NOT be considered preparation for real life; it is real life, and so your failure to treat it as such will have real consequences. High grades in Honors result from the active pursuit of a genuine education; which is to the say, conversely, that the mere pursuit of high grades generally does not lead to a genuine education, or even high grades in many instances. Students will do well to consider the difference between these two attitudes throughout the semester. I certainly will.
Course Methods: This course will include a great deal of visual art, some of it very challenging to understand and appreciate. To confront that challenge this art presents is one of the greatest opportunities this class will offer you. However, this class will not be taught from a textbook or slideshows. You won’t be required to memorize lists of names and dates. Instead, we will use the historical and intellectual contexts of texts and art works as a training ground in which to begin mastering a set of concepts, sensibilities and critical skills. These we will take out into the field. My hope is to engage, as much as possible, with unknown written and visual texts, from both the past and present, as if they were archeological artifacts or biological specimens. We want to examine art objects before they have been removed from the dig site, before they have been cleaned up and packaged in textbooks, before they have been tagged and dated and reconstructed in museum displays; i.e., caged in zoos. Our aim, then, will be to observe embodied meanings still in their “wild” state. And, further, we will attempt to take a step back, to become self-critical and investigate whether this goal of unmediated encounter might in fact be merely a dream. A clearer understanding of the 19th-century institutions which first domesticated art and brought it before the public, institutions in which we ourselves now live, will help us in this task.
Historical Background: The 19th century, that century from whose ideas we will attempt, provisionally, to free ourselves, is an era generally associated with philosophical positivism and experimental science. This mindset, from a progressive standpoint, might appear a natural continuation of the Enlightenment’s ongoing project of disseminating empirical truths, popularizing scientific knowledge and clearing away noxious superstitions. It is the 19th century, after all, which first produced what we today recognize as modern biology and medicine. Surgical anesthesia, for example, was first introduced in 1846. This same era introduces a variety of public utilities (gas and electrical lighting, as well as modern sewers), the locomotive engine, the telegraph and the telephone, and the photograph. Further, this moment in gives birth not only to a variety of technologies and utilities, but also a number of public institutions we now take for granted: hospitals, prisons, military bases and public schools. In our studies, we will want to consider the significance of the university’s participation within this constellation of social forms which combine to produce what historians have called a “total social fact”, or “disciplinary regime”.
Concurrent with the expansion of increasingly sophisticated technologies of production and communication, this same era marshaled together unprecedented forces of mass consumption. It is at this moment in history that we witness not only the birth of the restaurant, but also the birth of the department store and the modern museum. At approximately the same moment, then, both food and art become popular commodities, objects of a mass desire. What could be the source of all this hunger, all this want? And, again, how does the university, an institution dedicated to the mass-production of knowledge, participate in a culture of mass-consumption? In a self-critical turn, then, we will want to examine the extent to which the university does not simply discover or transit knowledge, but actually manufactures and mass-produces knowledge, just as it manufactures and mass-produces “units of intellectual labor” called college graduates.
Participation: University courses demand that both teachers and students share the responsibility of working toward insight and understanding. This course will be no exception. I will explain key texts as clearly as possible. You, in turn, must complete the readings, so that my explanations can find a ground in actual writings, as well your thoughtful comments and questions. Also, you must also participate verbally in class discussions. I will depend upon you to provide much of the course content, by asking clear questions and making helpful comments. I do not intend to teach you true meanings which inhere is a text. Even less will I attempt to convey mere information you can simply memorize. Insights into texts and objects will come into being as we intelligently and imaginatively discuss them. You will remember these insights not because they are authoritative, but rather because you participated in their creation and witnessed the moment of their birth, all of which is intimately connected with the full theory of Bildungs, or linguistic development and intellectual growth. To truly to learn and successfully complete this class, you must participate actively and alertly in class discussions. Just hanging out, smiling and listening and others talk is not sufficient to earn an A. Please feel free to discuss your current standing with me at any time.
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Assignments:
- Verbal Participation in Class Discussion (25%)
- Group Lecture Reviews (25%)
- Final Paper – ten pages (50%)
- 2/4, Ella Myers (U of U, Poli Sci), speaking on Rousseau.
- 3/11, Stefan Tanaka (UC San Diego, History), speaking on Nakae Chomin's
- 4/15, Frederick Rhodewalt (U of U, Psychology), speaking on Freud
** All talks will be from 12 – 1pm in the UMFA auditorium. **
The readings schedule will remain flexible, but the reading assignments will proceed in the following order
Introductory Unit—Identifying Preconceptions, Collecting And Honing Tools
Art as Objectified Mind—The Rise of Aesthetics and The University
Wilhelm von Humboldt—"Theory of Bildung"
F.W.J. Schelling—"The Scientific and Moral Function of Universities"
Elinor S. Shaffer—Romantic Philosophy and The Organization of The Disciplines: The Founding of The Humboldt University of Berlin
Canons of Modernity
T.S. Eliot—“Tradition and The Individual Talent,” “The Metaphysical Poets”
A Material Vision: Marxism and Form
Clement Greenberg—“Toward A Newer Laocoon”, “The Plight of The Public”, “The Avant-Garde And Kitsch”
Art As Secular Ritual: The Anatomy Of Sacrifice
Leo Steinberg—“Contemporary Art And The Plight Of Its Public”
Saturn In The Age Of Aquarius: Toward A New Age Of Sense And Sensibility
Susan Sontag: “Against Interpretation”, “Notes On Camp”
Painting As Agony: A Transcendental Aesthetic
Michael Fried: “Art And Objecthood”
Theories of Theater, Ancient and Modern
Berthold Brecht: “On The Epic Theater”
Antonin Artaud: “The Theater and Its Double”
Criticism and The Great Confinement
Douglas Crimp: “The Birth of The Museum and The Death of Art”, “The Museum’s Ruins”
The Structuralist Turn: The Obsolescence Of The Object
Rosalind Krauss: “The Originality Of The Avant-Garde”, “Sculpture In The Expanded Field”
More to follow, from Galileo, Descaretes, Rousseau, Kant, Mill, etc.
Grades:
A Outstanding achievement. Student performance demonstrates full command of the course materials and evinces a high level of originality and/or creativity that far surpasses course expectations.
A- Excellent achievement. Student performance demonstrates thorough knowledge of the course materials and exceeds course expectations by completing all requirements in a superior manner.
B+ Very good work. Student performance demonstrates above-average comprehension of the course materials and exceeds course expectations on all tasks as defined in the course syllabus.
B- Marginal work. Student performance demonstrates incomplete understanding of course materials.
C Unsatisfactory work. Student performance demonstrates incomplete and inadequate understanding of course materials.
D Unacceptable work.
F Failing.
Addendum to The Syllabus:
I had hoped this day would never come, but because of manipulative and unprofessional behaviors which have arisen in the recent past, I am instituting some new policies in all my courses. These policies are not meant to punish anyone in advance for things they may not even have considered doing. They are meant to teach and encourage responsible professional behavior, without which you will go nowhere in either you major or your profession. Additionally, this format is meant to prepare you for applying to graduate school, an ordeal for which you had best gear up as soon as possible.
Please read this document, and make sure you are willing to comply with all these expectations. If you are not willing to do this, please sign up for a different section of the course. Failure to comply with these expectations will result in dismissal from class and a lowered grade.
- Don’t not speak rudely or behave discourteously in class
- Turn off your phone before class starts. Refrain from surfing the net, instant messaging, text messaging and any similar activities during class. If I see you doing any of the above, I will ask you to leave the room for the rest of the period.
- Please use only one name during the semester, that which appears on the official university records. I’m happy to call you by a nickname or something similar in class. But be prepared to make all necessary arrangements so that your all your emails and paper come to me with a name which will allow me to identify you.
- Submit documents in the form of email only, and exclusively in Microsoft Word or Office format. Papers submitted in other formats will not be read and cannot be resubmitted.
- Submit all work on time. Late papers will not be accepted, period.
- Submit all papers with an appropriate document file title: last name, first name, assignment name; i.e.; Jones, Tony – Paper 1
- Never ask me to look at work for other instructors.
- Remember that keeping your scholarship is your responsibility, not mine.
- Unless you believe I made a genuine mistake (it does happen), don’t complain to me about your grades.
- Never attempt to beg, bride or manipulate me in any form.
- Seek appropriate help from me, but don't act helpless; i.e., try before giving up.
- Do communicate with me in a friendly and professional manner.
- Do rely on your peers for help. Do acknowledge peer help when you receive it.
