FRS 101(F) Interpreting Human Experience (W)
How we make sense of the world, and of our lives, depends to a considerable
degree on the intellectual methodologies we apply to the task of interpretation.
Freud, for instance, saw selfhood and perception as fundamentally determined
by the structures of the psyche itself; Marx, by contrast, argued that our sense of
reality is conditioned primarily by our material and social circumstances; more
recently, historian of science Thomas Kuhn has emphasized that the underlying
assumptions which shape the very questions we pose as thinkers significantly
influence and limit what data, and thus what reality, we are most likely to observe. This course aims to provide a foundational experience for the liberal arts
education, by engaging with key religious, political, literary, anthropological,
philosophical and psychoanalytic texts with a view to complicating our sense of
the purposes and possibilities of intellectual life and confronting the challenges
of epistemology. Readings will include works by Plato, John Stuart Mill, Marx,
E.M. Forster, Freud, Rousseau, Brecht, Dangarembga, and extracts from the
Bible and the Qur'an. In keeping with the aims of the FRS program, the course
is intended to foster productive connections between what we discuss and debate in class and your broader experiences as students. The course will invite and
promote interdisciplinary connections between core ways of seeing and interpreting the world, with a strong emphasis on improving your critical skills.
Format: seminar. Requirements: regular short writing assignments designed to
hone your reading skills; four papers ranging from 3-5 pages; and active contribution to discussion.
Enrollment limited to FRS students. Enrollment limit: 19 (expected: 19).
Satisfies one semester of the Division I requirement.