NCD/Fundamentals/93*

Fundamentals: Issues and Texts

Program Chairman: Leon R. Kass, HM E482, 702-8571

Program Coordinator: Joseph C. Macfarland, C 327, 702-7144

Departmental Secretary: Delores A. Jackson, C 330, 702-7148

Program of Study

The Fundamentals program is designed to enable interested students to concentrate on certain fundamental questions of human existence and certain fundamental books that articulate and speak to these questions. It seeks to foster precise and thoughtful pursuit of basic questions by means of (1) rigorous training in the interpretation of important texts, supported by (2) extensive training in at least one foreign language, and by (3) the acquisition of the knowledge, approaches, and skills of conventional disciplines: historical, religious, literary, scientific, political, and philosophical. By focusing on basic issues and texts, it offers an alternative to the more disciplinary and methodological emphases of other undergraduate programs.

Rationale. There are fundamental questions that any thoughtful human being must seriously confront sooner or later, for example, Socrates' "What is?" questions: What is man? What is god? What is justice? or, alternatively but similarly, Kant's questions: What can I know? What ought I do? What may I hope? Such questions and others like them are often raised in the Common Core, not only in humanities and social sciences but also in the physical and biological sciences. Some students, engaged by such fundamental questions, wish to continue to explore them more thoroughly and deeply. This program enables these students to concentrate on basic questions and seeks to provide them with the wherewithal to address them on a high level.

That wherewithal is to be found in the fundamental or classic texts (literary, philosophic, religious, historical, and scientific) in which the greatest minds and teachers articulate and examine the basic questions, often in different and competing ways. These books are both timeless and timely; they not only illuminate the persisting questions of human existence but also speak to our contemporary concerns, especially as they are both the originators and the most exacting critics of our current opinions. Accordingly, these texts serve best not as authorities but as friends who present us with rich alternatives at the highest level and hence with the most provocative material for reflection.

This program emphasizes the direct and firsthand experience and knowledge of major texts, read and reread and reread again. Because they are difficult and complex, only a small number of such works can be studied. Yet the program assumes that intensively studying a profound work and incorporating it into one's thought and imagination prepares one for reading any important book or reflecting on any important question. Read rapidly, such books are merely assimilated into preexisting experience and opinions; read intensively, they can transform and deepen experience and thought.

But studying fundamental texts is, by itself, not enough. Even to understand the texts themselves, supporting studies and training are necessary: a solid foundation in at least one foreign language and in disciplines and subject matters pertinent to the student's main questions are essential parts of the concentration program. Knowledge of the historical contexts out of which certain problems emerged or in which authors wrote; knowledge of specific subject matters and methods; knowledge of the language in which a text was originally written, as well as an understanding of the shape a given language imparts to a given author or language as such to thought as such; fundamental skills of analysis, gathering evidence, reasoning, and criticism; different approaches and perspectives of conventional disciplines. All these are integral parts of the educational task.

Individual Program Design. Genuine questions cannot be given to a student; they must arise from within. For this reason, a set curriculum is not imposed upon the student. It must answer to his interests and concerns, and begin from what is primary for him. One student may be exercised about questions of war and peace, another about the nature of man, a third about science and religion, a fourth about freedom and determinism, a fifth about distributive justice. Through close work with a suitably chosen faculty adviser, the choice of texts, text courses, and supporting courses for each student is worked out in relation to such beginning and developing concerns. Beginning with a student's questions and interests does not, however, imply an absence of standards or rigor; this program is most demanding.

Application to the Program. Students should apply in the spring quarter of their first year to enter the program in their second year; the goals and requirements of the program are best met if students spend three years in the concentration. Applications may, however, be made during the second year as well. Each student is interviewed and counseled in order to discover those students whose interests and intellectual commitments would seem to be best served by this program. Students are admitted on the basis of the application statement, interviews, and previous performance.Program Requirements

A. Course Requirements.

1. Required Introductory Sequence (2). A two-quarter sequence, open to second- and third-year students, serves as the introduction to the concentration. It sets a standard and a tone for the program as a whole by showing how texts can be read to illuminate fundamental questions. Each course in the sequence is taught by a different faculty member; each course is devoted to the close reading of one or at most two texts, chosen because they illuminate the great questions and powerfully present important and competing answers, and because they might contain the truth about, for example, nature, the soul, community, art, or the best way to live. Students should learn a variety of ways in which a text can respond to their concerns and questions and can compel consideration of its own questions and concerns.

2. Elected Text Courses (6). The central activity of the concentration is the study and learning of six classic texts. Late in the second year, each student, with the help of a faculty adviser, begins to develop a list of six texts. The list grows gradually during the following year; a final list of six should be established early in the fourth year. This list should contain fundamental works in the area of the student's primary interest, but should include works which look at that interest from diverse perspectives. The texts selected are usually studied in seminar courses offered by the faculty of the program or in courses cross-listed or approved for these purposes. Some books may, however, be prepared in reading courses or tutorials (independent study), if appropriate. Students write term papers in each of their text courses. These are carefully and thoroughly criticized by the responsible faculty members. The books taught come from a variety of times and places, East and West, and the selections reflect both the judgments and preferences of the faculty and the different interests and concerns of the students. Normally, six text courses are required for the degree (in addition to the introductory sequence). At the end of the fourth year, students take a Fundamentals examination on the books they have selected (consult following section on Fundamentals Examination).

3. Foreign Language (6). Each student in the program is expected to achieve a level of competence in a foreign language sufficient to enable him to study in the original language (other than English) one of the texts on his examination list. Achieving the necessary competence ordinarily requires two years (that is, one year beyond the College general education requirement) of formal language instruction (with an average grade of B- or better) or its equivalent. In addition, each student must show that he has in fact used foreign language skills in studying one of the fundamental texts. In some cases, a student who has successfully completed at least one year of formal language instruction may arrange to study his chosen text in a tutorial or reading course with a member of the faculty, thereby concurrently developing further his language competence, and may petition to have such work count toward the fulfillment of the foreign language requirement.

4. Elected Supporting Courses (4). Appropriate courses in relevant disciplines and subject matters are selected with the help of the advisers.

5. Electives. Please refer to the Four-Year Curriculum section, under the Sample Programs heading (consult following section on Sample Programs).

B. The Junior Paper. The junior paper occupies a unique and highly important place in the program because it provides the only opportunity for the student to originate and formulate a serious inquiry into an important issue arising out of his work and to pursue the inquiry extensively and in depth in a paper of about twenty to twenty-five pages. At every stage in the preparation of the paper, the student is expected to work closely with his faculty adviser. Normally, students elect to register for one course of independent study in the quarter in which they write and rewrite the paper. Acceptance of a successful junior paper is a prerequisite for admission to the senior year of the program.

C. Fundamentals Examination. Sometime in the spring quarter of the senior year, each student is examined on the six fundamental texts he has chosen. Preparation for this examination allows students to review and integrate their full course of study. During a three-day period, students write two substantial essays on questions designed for them by the associated faculty. The examination has a pedagogical intention, more than a qualifying one. Its purpose is to allow students to demonstrate how they have related and integrated their questions, texts, and disciplinary studies.

Summary of Requirements

Concentration 2 introductory sequence

6 elected text courses

2 - 3 second year of a foreign language

4 elected supporting courses

- junior paper

- Fundamentals examination

14 - 15

Grading, Transcripts, and Recommendations. The independent study leading to the junior paper (New Collegiate Division 299) is best evaluated in faculty statements on the nature and the quality of the work. In support of the independent study grade of Pass, both the faculty supervisor and the second reader of the paper are asked to submit such statements to student files maintained in the Office of the New Collegiate Division. Other independent study courses may be taken on a Pass/No Pass basis (New Collegiate Division 299) or for a "quality grade" (New Collegiate Division 297); students must write a term paper for any independent study courses taken for a "quality grade." Students should request statements of reference from faculty with whom they have worked in all their independent study courses.

At the student's request, the registrar can include the following statement with each transcript:

The New Collegiate Division works with a small, selected group of students. There is less emphasis on letter grades than in other Collegiate Divisions and greater emphasis on independent work (New Collegiate Division 299), including substantial papers submitted at the end of the junior and senior years. Students do some substantial portion of their work in close association with a tutor or tutors, and this work is graded Pass/No Pass only. Grades are supplemented with qualitative statements available from the Master, New Collegiate Division, The University of Chicago, 5811 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60637.

Honors. Honors are awarded by the Fundamentals faculty to students who have performed with distinction in the program. Special attention is paid to both the junior paper and the senior examination. In addition, honors depend on the student's grades, especially in the concentration; 3.25 is roughly the floor, but because some course work may be ungraded, the grade point standard cannot be stated precisely.

Advising. Each student has his own faculty adviser, a member in the program chosen from those with whom the student works most closely. The adviser closely monitors the student's choice of texts, courses, and language studies, allowing for the gradual development of a fitting and coherent program. The faculty adviser supervises and is one of the readers of the junior paper and is responsible for approving the final list of texts for the Fundamentals examination. The program coordinator is available for advice and consultation on all aspects of every student's program.

Sample Programs. The following sample programs show, first, a plan of a four-year curriculum, locating the concentration in the context of Collegiate requirements, and, second, illustrative courses of study within the concentration itself, indicating possible ways of connecting fundamental questions and interests to both basic texts and standard courses. These programs are merely for the purpose of illustration; many, many other variations would be possible.

Four-Year Sample Curriculum. Courses that meet College requirements are labeled (C). Courses that are underlined fulfill requirements of the Fundamentals concentration. The Fundamentals concentration program comprises from fourteen to fifteen courses, over and above the twenty-one courses constituting the College-wide general education requirement. Yet of these fifteen courses, only five are true requirements, that is, fixed courses that must be taken and, usually, at a prescribed time: the two-quarter introductory sequence is strictly required and prescribed for the student's first year in the program and, in most cases, a second year of foreign language study (in the language of one's choice) is also prescribed. All the remaining ten courses (text and supporting courses) are truly elective, and are freely chosen by the student with advice from his faculty adviser. Students interested in Fundamentals are well advised to take the Humanities Common Core and foreign languages in their freshman year.

First year Humanities Common Core (C) 3

Social Sciences Common Core (C) 3 Physical Sciences or Biological Sciences 3 Common Core or Mathematics (C) Foreign Language I (C) 3

Subtotal 12

Second year Introductory Fundamentals Sequence 2

Physical Sciences or Biological Sciences 3

Common Core or Mathematics (C)

Foreign Language II 3

Civilization Sequence (C) 3

Text Course 1

Subtotal 12

Third year Text Courses 3

Supporting Courses 2

Physical Sciences or Biological Sciences

Common Core or Mathematics (C) 2

Electives † 2

Subtotal 9

Fourth year Text Courses 2

Supporting Courses 2

Musical or Visual Arts (C) 1

Electives † 4

Subtotal 9

Total 42

†Normally students take one unit of independent study to write the junior paper and another to prepare for the Fundamentals examination.

Questions, Texts, and Supporting Courses. All Fundamentals students, working with their advisers, develop their own program of study. Since students come to Fundamentals with diverse questions, they naturally have diverse programs. The following programs completed by Fundamentals students may serve as examples of study in the concentration.

One student asked the question, "How does telling a story shape a life?" She studied Homer's Odyssey, Augustine's Confessions, Shakespeare's Winter's Tale, Goethe's Autobiography, Saint Teresa's Life, the Bhagavad-Gita, and studied in supporting courses, Reading and Writing Poetry (Fundamentals), Myth and Literature (German), Autobiography and Confession (Divinity School), and Comparative Approaches to Psychotherapy (Psychology).

A second student asked a question about the ethics of violence, "Is there a just war?" He read Thucydides' Peloponnesian War, Aristotle's Ethics, the Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel of Matthew, the Bhagavad-Gita, Machiavelli's The Prince, and Weber's "Politics as a Vocation," and studied in supporting courses, World War II (History), The Military and Militarism (sociology), Introduction to Indian Philosophical Thought (South Asian Languages and Civilizations), and Introduction to the New Testament (Early Christian Literature).

A third Fundamentals student investigated the question, "Is the family a natural or a cultural institution?" His texts were Genesis, Homer's Odyssey, Aristotle's Politics, Aristophanes' Clouds, Sophocles' Antigone, and Rousseau's Emile. In supporting courses, he studied The Family (Sociology), Men and Women: A Literary Perspective (Fundamentals), Political Philosophy of Locke (Political Science), and Sophocles (Greek).

A fourth student, interested in natural right and natural law, read Genesis, Plato's Republic, Aristotle's Ethics, Rousseau's Second Discourse, Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws, and the Federalist Papers. In supporting courses, he studied Machiavelli to Locke, Rousseau to Weber, and the Political Philosophy of Plato (all Political Science).

A fifth asked the question, "What is marriage?" and concentrated on these texts: Genesis, Homer's Odyssey, Sophocles' Antigone, Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and Goethe's Elective Affinities, and took, as supporting courses, Contemporary Ethical Theory (Philosophy), History of American Women (History), The Family (Sociology), and Sex Roles and Society (Psychology).

These programs indicate the diversity of issues and books Fundamentals represents. They are intended to suggest the cohesion of the individual program's texts and supporting courses within the context of a broad question. Obviously, many, many other programs could be devised.Faculty

The faculty of the Fundamentals program comprises humanists and social scientists, representing interests and competencies in both the East and the West and scholarship in matters ancient and modern. This diversity and pluralism exists within a common agreement about the primacy of fundamental questions and the centrality of important books and reading them well. The intention is for the students to see a variety of serious men and women presenting their approach to and understanding of books which they love, which they know well, and which are central to their ongoing concerns. The members of the Fundamentals faculty are

BERTRAM COHLER, William Rainey Harper Professor in the College; Professor, Departments of Psychology (Human Development), Education, and Psychiatry, and the Divinity School

WENDY DONIGER, Mircea Eliade Professor, the Divinity School, Department of South Asian Languages & Civilizations, Committee on Social Thought, and the College

CHARLES M. GRAY, Professor, Department of History and the College; Lecturer, the Law School

DAVID GRENE, Professor, Committee on Social Thought

W. R. JOHNSON, John Matthews Manly Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Classical Languages & Literatures, Committee on the Ancient Mediterranean World, and the College

AMY A. KASS, Senior Lecturer, Humanities Collegiate Division

LEON R. KASS, Addie Clark Harding Professor, Committee on Social Thought and the College

JOHN MACALOON, Associate Professor, Social Sciences Collegiate Division

STEPHEN C. MEREDITH, Associate Professor, Department of Pathology

WENDY RAUDENBUSH OLMSTED, Associate Professor, Division of the Humanities and the College

JAMES M. REDFIELD, Professor, Department of Classical Languages & Literatures and Committee on Social Thought; Associate Chairman, Committee on the Ancient Mediterranean World

WILLIAM SCHWEIKER, Assistant Professor, the Divinity School and the College

NATHAN TARCOV, Professor, Department of Political Science, Committee on Social Thought, and the College; Director, John M. Olin Center for Inquiry into the Theory & Practice of Democracy

KARL JOACHIM WEINTRAUB, Thomas E. Donnelley Distinguished Service Professor, Department of History, Committee on Social Thought, Committee on the History of Culture, and the College

Courses

Courses preceded by an asterisk (*) will be part of the required introductory sequence in 1997-98.

204. Rousseau's Confessions (=Fndmtl 204, Hist 545, SocTh 552). A close reading of Rousseau's Confessions that investigates the conception of personality. K. Weintraub. Winter.

205. Goethe's Poetry and Truth (=Fndmtl 205, Hist 546, SocTh 553). A close reading of Goethe's From My Life (Aus meinem Leben: Dictung und Wahrheit) that investigates the conception of personality. K. Weintraub. Spring.

207. Aquinas on God, Being, and Evil. This course considers sections from Saint Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica. Among the topics considered are whether God exists; the relationship among God, existence, and the real; and the origin and nature of evil. S. Meredith. Winter.

213. James Joyce's Ulysses. Class limited to twenty students. In this course we consider James Joyce's Ulysses. Among the themes considered are the problems of exile, homelessness, and nationality; the mysteries of paternity; the mystery of maternity; the meaning of the Return; Joyce's epistemology and his use of dream, fantasy, and hallucination; and Joyce's experimentation and use of language. S. Meredith. Spring.

214. Introduction to American Political Thought: Benjamin Franklin (=Fndmtl 214, LL/Soc 214, SocSci 258). From year to year different writers and themes are chosen for study from the political thought of the early American period up to 1865. This time we examine the political and economic thought of Benjamin Franklin. R. Lerner. Autumn.

215. Spinoza: Ethics, Politics, and Religion (=Fndmtl 215, Hum 221, Id/Met 315). Spinoza has been acknowledged as one of the founders of the modern tradition of constitutional democracy, the mode of interpretation that came to be known as the higher criticism, and an ethical mode that can be and has been reinvestigated as a more sophisticated form of psychoanalysis. Furthermore, Spinoza is careful to distinguish but also indicate the mutually supportive relations among the ethical, political, and religious enterprises. These various concerns, among others, are explored through the reading of his Ethics and his Theological-Political Treatise. D. Smigelskis. Autumn.

219. Milton's Paradise Lost (=Fndmtl 219, Hum 208, Id/Met 319). This course is based on a close reading of Milton's Paradise Lost with emphasis on the poem's redefinition of heroic virtue and on the text's engagement with issues of family, politics, history, psychology, and theology. W. Olmsted. Winter.

221. Dante in Translation. A comprehensive study of the Divine Comedy, with some reference to the minor works. Allegory, classical models, and poetic innovation are among the primary issues discussed. All work in English. P. Cherchi. Winter.

223. Myths and Symbols of Evil (=Fndmtl 223, Hum 212, RelHum 223). This course examines in depth Martin Buber's Good and Evil and Paul Ricoeur's Symbolism of Evil. There are a few brief lectures, but emphasis is on seminar discussion and student participation. A. Carr. Winter.

226. Political Philosophy: Hegel (=Fndmtl 226, LL/Soc 292, PolSci 312). PQ: Consent of instructor. The text for the quarter is Hegel's Philosophy of Right. J. Cropsey. Winter.

*227. Required Introductory Sequence: The Odyssey. PQ: Required of new Fundamentals concentrators; open to others with consent of instructor. We do a close reading of The Odyssey with special attention given to the following issues as they arise in the poem: the meaning and importance of travel, heroes, politics, and leadership; the role and importance of stories and story telling; relations between parents and children; and what it means and takes to achieve home. All readings in English. A. Kass. Winter.

228. Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina (=Fndmtl 228, Hum 242). A close reading and discussion of two magnificent novels about extraordinary women. Both break the bonds of convention, love passionately, and die tragically. The novels are a reflection of the status of women in the nineteenth century, as well as a timeless comment on love, marriage, and society. Madame Bovary is one of the jewels of French literature, and Anna Karenina is one of the pinnacles of Tolstoy's literary art. E. Wasiolek. Autumn.

235. Darwin's Romantic Biology (=CFS 385, Fndmtl 235, Hist 250/350, HiPSS 258, Philos 326). Lack of recognition of the impact of the Romantic Movement on the development of Darwin's thought abetted the usual (but arguably incorrect) assumption that his theory eviscerated nature of moral and aesthetic value, and rendered man but another machine grinding out self-advantage. We read Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle and Origin of Species, and parts of the Descent of Man. R. Richards. Autumn.

236. Selected Topics: The Kamasutra and The Laws of Manu (=DivHR 321, Fndmtl 236, SoAsia 257). We discuss religion, sex, and politics in ancient India based on readings in the Kamasutra and The Laws of Manu. All readings in English. W. Doniger. Winter.

238. Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre (=Eng 220, Fndmtl 238). These two novels by Emily and Charlotte Brontë were both published in 1847. The focus of the class is on careful reading and study of their art and an evaluation of its relation to their times. We may also make film versions by Laurence Olivier and Orson Welles available for study. S. Tave. Winter.

239. Classics in the Study of Religion: M. Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion (=Fndmtl 239, RelHum 292). A close reading of Eliade's major work on religion and a consideration, through several specific examples, of the Eliade tradition in religious studies. J. Z. Smith. Autumn.

244. Shakespeare's Black Comedies: Measure for Measure and Troilus and Cressida. PQ: Fourth-year standing recommended. W. Doniger, D. Grene. Winter.

246. The Radicalism of Job and Ecclesiastes (=Fndmtl 246, Hum 235, JewStd 235). Both Job and Ecclesiastes dispute a central doctrine of the Hebrew Bible, namely, the doctrine of retributive justice. Each book argues that a person's fate is not a consequence of his or her religio-moral acts and thus the piety, whatever else it is, must be disinterested. In brief, the authors of Job and Ecclesiates, each in his own way, not only "de-mythologizes," but "de-moralizes" the world. The students read the books in translation and discuss their theological and philosophical implications. H. Moltz. Spring.

247. Kant's Ethics (=Fndmtl 247, Philos 312). PQ: At least one prior philosophy course required; Philos 210 recommended. In this course we read Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals alongside related passages from his critical and popular or pragmatic works with an eye toward understanding Kant's moral philosophy. We pay some attention to recent scholarly and critical work on Kant's moral philosophy. C. Vogler. Winter.

249. Gandhi (=Fndmtl 249, PolSci 245/359). Course readings deal with Gandhi's life (including his autobiography), texts that articulate his thought and practice, and critical and interpretative works that assess his meaning and influence. Topics include nonviolent collective action in pursuit of truth and justice, strategy for cooperation and conflict resolution, and alternatives to industrial society and centralized state. L. Rudolph. Autumn.

251. Machiavelli's Discourses (=Fndmtl 251, Hist 228). This course focuses on Machiavelli's political and historical thought, and on the interpretation of ancient and modern history he articulated in the Discourses, with attention also to some of the sources, such as the works of Livy and Polybius, on which he drew. H. Gray. Winter.

253. Dewey's Philosophical Psychology (=Educ 209/509, Fndmtl 253, HumDev 509). This seminar features an in-class discussion of two of Dewey's major texts, Experience and Nature and Art as Experience, plus a small number of his articles. The focus is on Dewey's treatment of several concepts that have played a central role in psychology (for example, mind, intelligence, imagination, experience, and perception). P. Jackson. Autumn.

256. Aristotle's Politics (=Fndmtl 256, Hum 256, Id/Met 316, LL/Soc 278). Special attention is given to the problems Aristotle thought important to consider and why they continue to be problems that are worthy of attention. Of particular interest is the manner in which politics is distinct from but interrelated with many other enterprises and the shaping of the inquiry as a deliberation that is meant to eventuate in choices by the readers. D. Smigelskis. Autumn.

257. Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales (=Eng 155, Fndmtl 257). PQ: Knowledge of Middle English or Chaucer's poetry not required. We examine Chaucer's art as revealed in selections from The Canterbury Tales. Our primary emphasis is on a close reading of individual tales, although we also pay attention to Chaucer's sources and to other medieval works providing relevant background. C. von Nolcken. Winter.

258. The Federalist Papers (=Fndmtl 258, Hum 258, Id/Met 372, LL/Soc 279). This text is the first sustained commentary on the U.S. Constitution. It assumes that the Constitution is not self-interpreting. As such, it is read in its entirety as an introduction to the problems and possibilities of both the specifics talked about and the more generic features of a certain type of text. In addition, it is argued that much of what is provided, especially in the first fifty-one of the total eighty-four papers, is meant to be relevant to an appreciation of considerations appropriate to the making more generally of certain kinds of practical decisions. Context for these activities is provided as needed in the form of background data, as well as some other text of the same period that deal with the same kinds of problems and activities. D. Smigelskis. Spring.

261. Educational Import of Emerson's Essays (=Educ 370, Fndmtl 261). This seminar focuses chiefly on Emerson's Essays, with supplementary readings from other Romantics. P. Jackson. Winter.

263. Philosophy and Religion in Pagan Thought (=Fndmtl 263, Hist 210/310). The central text for this course is Cicero's On the Nature of the Gods, but writings by Plato, Plutarch, Lucian, and Julian the Apostate are used as well. The theme is how ancient philosophers and intellectuals understood, "demythologized," and differed with each other about the traditional pagan religion. (Analogies with modern confrontations between the intellectuals and Judaism-Christianity are at least implicit.) C. Gray. Spring.

265. Hobbes's Leviathan (=Fndmtl 265, LL/Soc 265). In a close reading of Hobbes's Leviathan, we explore the connections between his psychology, his political teaching, and his treatment of divine law and religion, so that his political teaching can be understood in the light of his other concerns. We also consider Hobbes's relation to Aristotle and Aristotelianism (St. Thomas and Marsilius) to appreciate his innovations in the study of politics. J. Macfarland. Spring.

267-268. The Story of the Stone I, II (=ComLit 510-511, DivRL 562-563, EALC 576-577, Fndmtl 267-268, RelHum 562-563). PQ: Consent of instructor. In this two-quarter sequence on the monumental classic of eighteenth-century China, The Story of the Stone (or Dream of the Red Chamber), lectures and discussion are supplemented by readings in a common core of criticism and student presentations. EALC students are expected to work with original texts and sources, while students with no Chinese may use either the five-volume edition by Penguin or the French translation. A. C. Yu. Autumn, Winter.

276. St. Augustine's Confessions (=Fndmtl 276, Hum 207, Id/Met 390, RelHum 294, SocSci 207). This course consists of a close reading of the text in English translation along with On the Freedom of the Will and The Teacher. We study Augustine's conceptions of philosophy and belief, focusing on his notion of the philosophical life and on his concept of the will. We then relate these conceptions to the ways in which Augustine clarifies and criticizes the culture in which he matured, as he writes about the practices that shaped education, friendship, marriage, sexuality, family, and political vocation. We also devote attention to Augustine's rhetoric and how it influences his search for wisdom and happiness. W. Olmsted. Autumn.

278. The Romance of the Rose (=Fndmtl 278, French 217). The Romance of the Rose, one of the most popular and influential works of the Middle Ages, presents the ideal of French courtly society in a dynamic blend of eroticism and moral philosophy. The story, in the form of a dream vision that relates a young man's introduction to love, also functions as an "art of love" that presents writing as the ultimate form of desire. We study allegory, irony, poetic authority, hybrid genres, the use of classical sources, medieval reading practices, and the earliest French literary quarrel on gender and misogyny. All work in English. K. Duys. Autumn.

279. Faust: Faustbuch, Faust I, and Doktor Faustus (=Fndmtl 279, GS Hum 390, German 374). PQ: Consent of instructor. Knowledge of German helpful. This course compares three classic variations on the Faust-theme: the sixteenth century Faustbuch, Goethe's Faust I, and Thomas Mann's novelistic parable of Germany's temptation and fall in the twentieth century, Doktor Faustus. S. Jaffe. Winter.

285. Virtue and Existence (=DivTh 201, Fndmtl 285, NCD 225). This course explores a basic issue in moral anthropology, specifically the connection between virtue and accounts of human existence. We read two basic texts: Thomas Aquinas's treatise on virtue in the Summa Theologiae, and The Courage to Be by Paul Tillich. Attention is given to how the discourse of virtue, that is, claims about human excellence, is tied to some conception of human existence, and, what is more, the difference contrasting conceptions of virtue and existence make for theology and ethics. W. Schweiker. Spring.

288. Victorian Women and Their Society: A Problem in Writing Lives (=Fndmtl 288, GS Hum 276/376, MAPH 311, Psych 224). We read Freud's cases of Elisabeth von. R and Dora, Jean Strousse's biography of Alice James, and Alice James' diary, with some discussion of the life-history in the social sciences and humanities. We consider how a life story is constructed, questions of "normal" and "abnormal," the balance of vulnerability and coping with adversity, and the interplay of biography and both social and historical forces. Students may do a life-history based on interviews and psychological tests or study a historical figure for the course paper. B. Cohler. Autumn.

290. Aristotle's Poetics and Arts of Storytelling (=Fndmtl 290, Hum 262, Id/Met 352). Courses about art are usually concerned with aesthetic and critical questions and rarely pause to consider questions about how to make works of art. Aristotle's Poetics would seem to be, in large part at least, about the latter with the primary focus being certain types of stories. The relation between aesthetic/critical and poetic strategies are discussed. In addition, the text we have is filled with ambiguities. Rather than being a liability, these ambiguities are an occasion to explore various possibilities of what a poetic enterprise might involve. Furthermore, various types of stories either mentioned by Aristotle or which are seeming counterexamples to what he says are also part of the course readings and class discussion. Finally, other articulations of "arts of storytelling" are used to better appreciate the multiple problems and possibilities involved in this kind of enterprise. D. Smigelskis. Spring.

*291. Required Introductory Sequence: Goethe's Faust. PQ: Required of new Fundamentals concentrators; open to others by consent of instructor. Reading of Faust I and selected passages of Faust II. Emphasis is on the dramatist's conflicted solutions to questions of selfhood and liberty. W. R. Johnson. Autumn.