| title | author | department | |
|---|---|---|---|
Introduction to Contemporary Civilization in the West, Part I |
Manan Ahmed |
History |
We are asked to read a wide swath of (largely) European intellectual history in this year. The readings constitute a "canon" that is, in some ways, a fairly stable nexus of texts and thinkers, since the late eighteenth century. The pedagogical impact of these texts begins at Columbia in 1919, as "An Introduction to Contemporary Civilizations." At the outset this course was a "design" course--e.g., "How to produce many and cheap goods without sacrificing human nature?" or to think about "Human Traits and their Social Significance". By 1928, it became a "Great Books" course and it has more-or-less maintained that structure to this day.
The particular version of CC which we will study together this year is a mixture of these two originary impulses of CC. I am interested in broad and basic questions, and I want us to study in depth the textual production of specific authors and moments in order to answer these questions. The set of questions for this semester: "How do we understand Origins?" The claim of "origins" are not only central to Nationalisms as they developed in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, but also to contemporary ideas of ethnicity and race. Speaking directly about origins, allows us to investigate how communities are imagined, endowed with powers to govern or subjugate, how individuals are conceptualized within said communities. It links us to questions of ethics, law and justice. What does political theory imagine as its origins? What about Good Governance? We will approach these questions with an intellectual openness-– first by attempting to “see things their way” and next by tracing the meanings such texts can provoke in various historical presents. This will help us avoid the trap that these texts form a singular set of meanings or values about our present and guide us away from any hegemonic accounts of the texts.
As a historian of intellectual traditions in the Indian Ocean world, I will highlight the ways in which textual transmissions across geographies and traditions remain intertwined and imbricated throughout human past. I foreground the text and I ask that we read it both to get a fair understanding of the issues and mentalities present in the text but also to raise the basic set of concerns within the text to our own political and public lives (note that this is distinct from asking the question of the relevance of the present to our pasts). Our effort must to be try and raise what it means to think critically and ethically not just in these “canonical” texts but in our experiential existence.
While we will read all of the texts on the CC syllabus, this course has additional readings spanning Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic medieval political thought. We will pay close attention to the intersections of these literary cultures with Greek and Latin. We will read more than your average CC section, but we will enjoy greater rewards than your average CC section.
As members of Columbia’s Morningside campus, we acknowledge that those of us located in Manhattan are on the territory of the Lenape and Wappinger peoples. Indigenous people from many nations live and work in this region today. Some of us are in other parts of the American subcontinent. Many indigenous communities have lived in and moved through this place over time. I ask you to research the indigenous histories of your land and share it with our class. Our digital infrastructure is also grounded in the same theft of land and resources under colonialism. We acknowledge and pay respect to the native elders past and present, and recognize their active presence and their futurity, reposed in the generations present and those to come.
There are four short papers for this class. You will be given a concept to research and write within 48 hours. All papers must be emailed by the end of the due date. Please ensure that you are actually attaching the paper. Use either .doc or .pdf or .txt format for the files. Late papers will not be accepted. There are no mid-terms or finals. In addition, you will be asked to a material object paper and a manuscript paper.
Class participation requires your active participation. Some basic rules: come to class on time, do not disrupt the class, put your phones on silent, turn off all computing devices. As a discussion seminar, this course survives only if you come to every class, and participate by doing the readings, listening and commenting in class, turning in the assignment and seeing me during my house hours. All of this constitutes 10% of your grade. Discussion means attentive and respectful listening, short and timely speaking, and creating a cordial and warm atmosphere wherein all are invited to test their ideas and impressions.
Please read everything before class. Take notes in the margins of the text; underline key sentences and paragraphs, annotate; write out what feels extraordinary, questionable, pleasant, or remarkable (and remark it out loud in class). Attendance and participation is required.
“Students are expected to attend every session of their Core classes. Students who miss class without instructor permission should expect to have their grade lowered. Repeated unexcused absences will result in a failing grade or a withdrawal from the class. In the event that a student must miss a class due to religious observance, illness, or family emergency, instructors may strongly encourage (though not require) that students complete additional assignments to help make up for lost class participation. Whenever possible (in the case of religious holidays, for example), students should provide advance notification of absence.
Columbia College is dedicated to the highest ideals of integrity in academia. Therefore, in Literature Humanities and Contemporary Civilization, any instance of academic dishonesty, attempted or actual, will be reported to the faculty chair of the course and to the dean of the Core Curriculum, who will review the case with the expectation that a student guilty of academic dishonesty will receive the grade of “F” in the course and be referred to dean’s discipline for further institutional action.
We want to build a community of readers and thinkers in this class - who are able to work collectively and collaboratively. I am setting my assessment goals on two paths: firstly, I want to make sure we are doing close-reading of the texts, and secondly, I want to ensure that we are critical and engaged thinkers. With those goals, I ask that you do two forms of regular production in the class - short form writing and research oriented presentation. The details are under the "Assignments" tab on your left.
- 10%: Attendance
- 10%: Active Slack Participation
- 30%: Posting responses on Piazza (~1 per class)
- 20%: In-class Presentation on Author (partnered assignment)
- 20%: Canon Today--Podcast/Video Interview (partnered assignment)
- 10%: Digital Archive/Project Report
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Wednesday, September 9, 2020
- Introductions
- Rebecca Futo Kennedy, "On the History of Western Civilization" (2019) (Links to an external site.)
- James Baldwin, A Talk to Teachers (1963)
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Monday, September 14, 2020
- 1_Exodus
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Wednesday, September 16, 2020
- 2_Plato_Republic (Books 1, 2,3,)
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Monday, September 21, 2020
- 2_Plato_Republic (Books 8, 9)
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Wednesday, September 23, 2020
- 3_Aristotle_Ethics (Books 1, 2, 5, 6)
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Monday, September 28, 2020
- 4_Bhagavad+Gita (pg 21-146)
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Wednesday, September 30, 2020
- 5_Arthasastra (Book 1, 3)
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Monday, October 5, 2020
- 6_Augustine_City+of+God (Book 1, 2)
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Wednesday, October 7, 2020
- 7_Qur'an (The Cave)
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Monday, October 12, 2020
- 8_al_Farabi (Parts 1, 2)
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Wednesday, October 14, 2020
- 9_Avicenna_Physics+of+Healing (Book One)
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Monday, October 19, 2020
- 10_Nizam_ul_Mulk_Book+of+Kings (Selections)
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Wednesday, October 21, 2020
- 11_Ibn_Rushd_Aristotle and 12_Maimonides_Guide+for_the+Perplexed (Part 2)
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Monday, October 26, 2020
- 13_Aquinas_Political_Writings (Chap 1, 4, 7)
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Wednesday, October 28, 2020
- 14_Bonfils_Alexander (59-170)
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Wednesday, November 4, 2020 [special election session]
- 002_Ruth_Wilson_Gilmore_Golden_Gulag (Prologue, chps 1+6, epilogue) and 003_Svetlana_Alexievich_Nobel
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Monday, November 9, 2020
- 15_Columbus_Letter and 16_Letter_Portugal_Spain
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Wednesday, November 11, 2020
- 17_Tlateloloco (pg 125-147)
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Monday, November 16, 2020
- 18_Luther_Turks and 19_Luther_Swabian+Peasants
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Wednesday, November 18, 2020
- 20_Machiavelli_Prince (full)
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Monday, November 23, 2020
- 21_Bacon_Persian+Magick and 22_Descartes_Methods and 23_Letters+to+Voetius
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Monday, November 30, 2020
- 24_Hobbes_Leviathan (Part 1, 4)
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Wednesday, December 2, 2020
- 25_Locke_Constitution and 26_Locke_Second+Treatise
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Monday, December 7, 2020
- 27_Rousseau_Social+Contract and 28_Rousseau_Letter
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Wednesday, December 9, 2020
- Presentations on your Canon Today projects (10 mins per team)
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Monday, December 14, 2020
- Conclusion
- ca. 600 BCE: "Exodus," The Bible
- ca. 375 BCE: Plato's Republic
- ca. 340 BCE: Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
- ca. 300 BCE-300 CE: Bhagavad Gita
- ca. 300 BCE-300 CE: Arthasastra
- ca 426: Augustine, City of God
- ca 640: "The Cave", The Qur'an
- ca. 900: al-Farabi, On Plato & Aristotle
- ca. 1000: Ibn-Sina (Avicenna), The Book of Healing
- ca. 1090: Nizam ul Mulk, The Book of Kings
- ca 1150: Ibn-Rushd (Averroes), On Aristotle's Metaphysics and Moses Maimonides, The Guide for the Perplexed
- ca. 1250: Thomas Aquinas, Summa contra Gentiles
- ca. 1370: Immanuel Ben Jacob Bonfils, The Book of the Gests of Alexander of Macedon
- 1493: Christopher Columbus, “Letter of Columbus to Luis de Santangel” (1493)
- 1505: Letter of the King of Portugal Sent to the King of Castile Concerning the Voyage and Success of India
- 1519: The Story of the Conquest as Told by the Anonymous Authors of Tlateloloco
- 1528: Martin Luther, "On war against the Turks," and "The Twelve Articles of the Swabian Peasants"
- 1530: Machiavelli, The Prince
- 1606: Francis Bacon, "A Specimen of the Persian Magick"
- 1637-43: Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method and "Letters to Voetius"
- 1651: Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
- 1669-89: John Locke, "Fundamental Constitution of Carolina," and Second Treatise
- 1755-81: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “Social Contract” and "Letter Written from the Mountain"
- 1963: James Baldwin, "A Talk to Teachers"