The Thinking Self Index

English 102B || The Thinking Self || Winter 2016 || TuTh 9:30-10:50|| HG 2310||

What is the self? A simple yet very difficult question. The “self” can be defined as “a permanent subject of successive and varying states of consciousness.” On the other hand, we speak of “a former self” or say "I feel like my old self,” as if the self varies from one time to another. We also speak about "self-construction" and "social construction" of the self. In this course we will read 2 fictions that centralize the representation of a self—Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, 1719 (a fictional travel account) and Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, 1741, (a novel written in letters). We will also study some philosophical treatments of the self by Augustine, Rene Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and David Hume (In addition to the two novels, an Augustine text has been ordered for the course; the rest of the philosophical mateiral will be available in selections from the web).
Students will write one very short paper and one slightly longer paper and take a final. Students will also write informally to discover their own thinking and to participate in the questions of the course. And students should expect to write a draft of the second paper (to be read by a peer).

Course Information || Short Paper Page || Longer Paper Page || Final Page || Mail Archive || Message Board

Site still under construction:)

DATE

If you want to ADD or DROP the course, please see me after class.

In class today
What is listed in this column is the material assigned for this day.

Everything about the course is set up to provide context for your thinking. In fact, the course itself only works if it both invites and requires your thinking.

Supporting Materials

Please always read and think about the study questions.

Description of the English major

Week #1

Tuesday, 1/5

Introduction to course: AJVS
WHAT IS E102B?
Some introductory notes on Augustine, Rene Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and David Hume

Thinking about the self: See SQ Introduction.

Selfie: What does "selfie" have to do with "self"?

Beginning to think about Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719), pp. 47-85.

d-1

--Augustine, Confessions, (397 CE)
--Descartes, Meditations (1641)
See also Montaigne, Essays: "Of Repentance"

Thursday, 1/7

Robinson Crusoe (1719), pp. 85-115
SQ: Robinson Crusoe

If your last name begins with “A” to “C,” write a post on the messageboard: “What kind of self is suggested in the frontispiece?”

If your last name begins with "D" to "F," write in response to one of the posts above. Or choose another illustration and respond to the same question.

Consider the concept and experience of solitude, as expressed in RC and in Appendix D, "Explorations of Solitude."

Let’s take selfies today. If you lived in RC-like solitude, would you take selfies? D-1

Week #2.

Tuesday, 1/12

At the end of today, we will put a bookmark in RC and move to the beginning of Pamela.

Robinson Crusoe (1719), pp. 115-175.

If your last name begins with "G," to "J," please make an entry on the messageboard in response to one of the SQ. If your last name begins with "K" or "L," please respond to one of the entries on the messageboard.

Thursday, 1/ 14

Samuel Richardson, Pamela (1740), pp. 3-64. (to end of Letter XXV).

SQ Pamela

If your last name begins with “M” to “S,”please write an entry, in response to one of the study questions, on the message board.

OR write an entry considering the question "What kind of "self" writes sustained letters?

Short selection from Richardson's Letters Written to and For Particular Friends on the most Important Occasions. Directing not only the Requisite Style and Forms to be Observed in Writing Familiar Letters; But how to Think and Act Justly and Prudently, in the Common Concerns of Human Life: Pamela's conduct book origins

Illustrations of Pamela

Ballad of Pamela, Youtube

Week #3

Tuesday, 1/19

Bookmark Pamela

Samuel Richardson, Pamela (1740), to p. 180.

Thursday, 1/21

Augustine, Confessions, Book II and Book VIII.

If your last name begins with "T" to "Z," please write an entry on Augustine messageboard. See SQ for possible questions to address.

SQ Augustine

Roman History Timeline

Decline of the Roman Empire

Edict of Milan

Christian Classics Ethereal Library
Gutenberg

Week #4

Tuesday, 1/26

Augustine, Confessions, Books X & XI

Thursday, 1/28

Augustine, Confessions, Book X || Book XI

Rene Descartes, Meditations (1641)
Assignment: Meditations 1 & 2

SQ Rene Descartes

Meditations on First Philosophy

Week #5

Tuesday, 2/2

Rene Descartes, Meditations

Thursday, 2/4

Paper #1 DUE
Please turn in early draft as well as final draft.

Robinson Crusoe (1719), pp. 175-205.

We're slowing down , so NB: the same reading assignment is scheduled twice.

Week #6

Tuesday, 2/9

Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719) pp. 175-205

Thursday, 2/11

Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, 205-.272

If you were absent from class Tuesday, 2/9, please respond to SQ #1, #2, or #3 on the messageboard.

Appendix F on the slave trade (in our edition of Robinson Crusoe)

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database

Robinson Crusoe's Brazilian Expedition and The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database

Week #7

Tuesday, 2/16

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1751)
This text is from the Online Library of Liberty.
Another text of Leviathan, from Adelaide

Read as much of the Hobbes assignment below as you can. We will continue with Hobbes on 2/18

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1751) selections
Part I. Ch. I, II (¶ 1, & 2), VI, VIII (¶ 10), XI, XIII, XIV (¶ 1-10, 18, 19, 26, 28, 29, 30, & 31), XV (¶ 1, 2), & XVI.
Part II. Ch XVII, XVIII, Ch. XX (¶ 1-8, 15)

Leviathan title page explained (Norton)

Please read Appendix G on cannibalism.

Defoe, Robinson Crusoe - Finish the novel.