PHIL 109(F) Blinding Knowledge: The Humanities Reconsidered (Same as English 109)

To know the truth, our tradition teaches, is the basis for freedom; and freedom is intrinsically a good, desirable thing. The benefits of knowledge seem obvious, yet the religious, philosophical, and political traditions of the West have been deeply preoccupied with its costs. The light of truth may blind our eyes. This course will examine how the problem of knowledge has been addressed in some of the great works in the Western tradition. In particular, we will trace how the metaphors of light/darkness and master/slave have been used in philosophical and literary works concerned with knowledge, morality and power. Beginning with the Bible and various mythological narratives, we will continue with Plato, Descartes, Dostoevsky, Shakespeare, Hume, Hegel, Mary Shelley, Melville, Twain, Nietzsche, Freud, Du Bois, and Ellison. In addition, we will explore films, works of art and music. For example, we will investigate the relationship between master and slave in Hegel's Phenomenology, Shakespeare's Tempest, and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. We will then compare those works with Boris Karloff's film version of Frankenstein. This course is an introduction to some of the crucial themes, techniques, methods, and attitudes of the humanities, and will provide a basis from which students can pursue the humanities at Williams. Team-taught with an enrollment limit of 40, it is open only to first-year students. It will be writing intensive and will require varied projects and oral presentations. The teaching format will be lectures with discussion sections and project meetings. (This course is part of the Critical Reasoning and Analytical Skills initiative.)

Hour: GERRARD and D. L. SMITH