Honors
130-001
Conceptions of Self
Spring 2006
Professor Zagarri
Office: Robinson B-371B
Phone: x31256
Email: rzagarri@gmu.edu
Office hours: Mondays,
This course will
explore various philosophical, psychological, and historical conceptions of
self. After discussing major historical changes in the Western concept of self,
we will turn to specific examples from the
Books (all required):
Jacobus, Lee, ed. A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers, sixth ed., (Bedford/St. Martin’s Press).
Andrews, William, ed. Classic American Autobiographies (Signet Classic).
Larsen, Nella. Passing (Penguin Books).
Boylan, Jennifer Finney. She’s Not There (Broadway Books).
Grealy, Lucy. Autobiography of a Face (Harper Trade).
STUDENTS SHOULD BRING
Date: Topics and Assignments:
January 23 Overview
January 25 Writing
About the Self
January 30 NO CLASS
February 1 The Self of the Old Testament
Writing assignment due: Using the previously assigned essays in Mind Readings to provide an analytical framework, write a short autobiography (5-7 pages, typed, double-spaced) in which you describe the most important elements in your own sense of self. How do the circumstances of your birth (place of origin, family, race, religion, nationality, gender, etc.) contribute to this notion? How has your sense of self changed over time? What things do you “pay attention to,” as one of the author s put it, and what do these things say about your sense of selfhood? What personal possessions and collective identities make up an important part of your being?
February 6 Plato and the Ancient Ideal of the Self
February 8 The Scientific Revolution and
the Mind/Body Problem
February 13 The Enlightened Self
February 15 Freud
and the Idea of the Subconcious Self
February 20 Materialist Notions of the
Self
February 22 Alternative Tradition of
Selfhood: Buddhism and the East
February 27 Memory and Selfhood
Film:
Memento
March 1 Memory and Selfhood
Discussion of Memento
Take-home Exam Due
March 6 Autobiography as a Genre
March 8 The Historical Construction of the Self
Film: An Occurrence at
SPRING
BREAK
March 20 Self-Fashioning in the
Eighteenth-Century
March 22 Self-Fashioning in the
18th-Century
March 27 Individualism in the
19th-Century
March 29 The Self in Slavery and Freedom
April 3 The Social
Construction of Race in the early 20th Century
April 5 The Social
Construction of Race in the early 20th Century
LARSEN PAPERS DUE
April 10 Advertising and
the Modern Self
Reading: “Advertising and the Good Life in a Consumer Society” (handout)
April 12 Consumption and
the Modern Self
Reading: April Witt, “Acquiring Minds: Inside
America’s All Consuming Passing,” Washington
Post Magazine,
April 17 Do Animals have
Selves?
April 19 Bodies and Selves:
Appearances
GREALY PAPERS DUE
April 24 Bodies and Selves:
Gender and Sexuality
Film: Southern Comfort
April 26 Bodies and Selves Gender and
Sexuality
Discussion
of Southern Comfort and She’s Not There
BOYLAN PAPERS DUE
May 1 Challenges to
Human Selfhood: Computers, Robots, and
Cloning
675—687, 736-751
May 3 Knowing
Oneself and Others
FINAL EXAM: May 10, 1:30 pm
Grading:
Class participation: 20%
Autobiography: 10%
Mid-term exam (take-home): 25%
Analytical essay (on either Larsen, Grealy, or Boylan): 15%
Final exam (in-class): 30%
All students are expected to abide by the university’s Honor Code. This means that students’ work must be their own on papers and exams. GMU defines plagiarism as “presenting as one’s own words the work, or the opinions of someone else without proper acknowledgement.” If you have a question about whether or not something is plagarism, ask your instructor. Suspected violations of the Honor Code will be turned over to the university’s Honor Board. For further information, see http://jiju.gmu.edu/catalog/apolicies/honor/html.