HR 300:  Progress and its Critics

Profs. King Dykeman (Philosophy)  and Dennis Hodgson (Sociology/Anthropology) 

Syllabus:  Fall 2008
Office Hours
.. King J. Dykeman 
DMH 316    --   ext. 2854		 Dennis Hodgson 
DMH 214  --  ext. 2785
Monday: --
 --
Tuesday: 1:00 - 2:00 PM 8:30 - 9:30 AM; 10:30 - 11:00 AM
Wednesday: -- 8:30 - 9:00 AM; 10:00 - 10:45 AM
Thursday: --
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Friday: 1:00 - 2:00 PM 8:30 - 9:30 AM; 10:30 - 11:00 AM
and by appointment


Please take this survey about your perceptions of Global Issues/World Future


Our record of your attendance/performance:  HR 300 Class Attendance/Performance Record

Theme of the course:

This course is about the meaning and the definition of "progress."   Is progress an historical reality or an illusion?   Can humankind improve itself or not?  Are we in any sense of the word "perfectible," or are we forever limited?   We begin by examining the work of Condorcet, a firm believer in progress and human perfectibility.  We then examine the work of T. R. Malthus, a critic of Condorcet and all those who believe in human perfectibility, August Comte, and Charles Darwin.  Note that these authors have very different notions of human nature, of the qualities that distinguishes someone as a human person.  We will find that this is generally true of those who believe in human progress and of those who are skeptical of the possibility.

We then chronicle American debates over "progress."  Each generation of Americans has had to deal with issues about the future direction of the nation. The founders' generation had to decide if independence from the king was desirable, what kind of political structure to adopt, what kind of  social structure to foster.  The ante-bellum generation had to debate whether new territories should enter the union as free or slave, and ultimately whether slavery had a place in America.  Those living at the end of the 19th century grappled over who should people America.  The spread of Darwin's ideas made many influential Americans worry about what was happening to the quality of the American "stock."  These worries sparked debates over immigration and women's changing roles.  The severity of the Great Depression raised questions about the adequacy of our political and economic institutions.  The depression generation had to re-envision how Americans should govern and provide for  themselves. Your parents' generation found themselves living in an increasingly interconnected world and had to deal with issues of diversity and cooperation.  They have been debating whether America's preferred future is as a truly multicultural society in a globalized world.

Reviewing America's debates over "progress" should help you to clarify your own beliefs about progress.  It should also prepare you to speculate about what issue will be at the center of your generation's debate over America's future.  You will have an opportunity to address both these themes in your essay and presentation.

Our Expectations:

First and foremost that you have read and understood what these authors are saying - and that when you have not understood, you have taken note of that and then come and discuss your questions with us and with the class.  Second that you are reflecting on the above theme and are willingly to bring up your reflections from time to time in the seminar.  Specifically we expect that you will come to class with questions concerning the text.  These questions can be questions of fact or questions pertaining to the theme of the course.  Fact questions generally should be related to the text, e.g.  "I have been unable to identify this person or this place or the meaning of this term (cite location by paragraph and page #) in the library, with the reference librarian, or on the Internet?"  We like those "questions of fact."  Theme questions might be that at such and such a place (cite location by paragraph and page #) so and so seems to be characterizing human nature as essentially "musical, " what is meant by that?  We'd really like one of each kind of question for each author.  We really expect you to reflect on these texts and to share those reflections with all of us who are in this seminar.

Seminar Readings:


Course Outline: 

PART ONE:  Is Progress Possible?  Is Mankind Perfectible?  European Beginnings:

Late 18th Century 
Condorcet  "The Tenth Stage," from Sketch for a Historical Picture of the The Progress of the Human Mind  (1793 - 1794)
Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834),  excerpts from Essay on Population  (1798). Preface, Chapters 1-2, 8-9, 19.

August Comte:  Excerpts


Charles Darwin:  Descent of Man, Chapter 5

PART TWO:  The American Experiment, The Revolutionary Period:  1750 - 1799 

Benjamin Franklin: "Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind" (1751)
Thomas Jefferson, "Selections from Notes on Virginia and Letters"  (1787 -1816)

  • Extra Material: Library of Congress, The Thomas Jefferson Papers
    • Mercy Otis Warren: "Observations on the New Constitution, and on the Federal and State Conventions"  

  • Extra Material:  Background on Mercy Otis Warren
  • Extra Material:  Mercy Otis Warren:  5  plays and "The Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution"
  • Extra Material:  Review of "The Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution"
  • Extra Material:  Short biography of Mercy Otis Warren.
    • Benjamin Franklin:  "Information for Those Who Would Remove to America" (1784) 

     

    PART THREE:  Questions Concerning Progress, America 1800 -1880 

     Harriet Beecher Stowe,  Chapter 12 from Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)

  • Extra Material:  More about  Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture
  • Extra Material:  Read all of Uncle Tom's Cabin
  • Extra Material:  A brief Biography of Harriet Beecher Stowe
    • George Fitzhugh, excerpts from Sociology for the South  (1854)

  • Extra Material: Link to Documenting the American South
  • Extra Material:  Read all of Sociology for the South
    • Henry David Thoreau  "Life without Principle."

  • Extra Material:  The Thoreau Reader, additional works of Henry D. Thoreau, 1817-1862
    • Francis Bowen:  "Malthusianism, Darwinism, and Pessimism" (1879)

  • Extra Material: Short Biography of Francis Bowen from Appleton's Encyclopedia, 1886

    • PART FOUR: Doubts about Progress, The Interlude  1881-1920 

    Francis Amasa Walker,  Restriction of immigration (1896)

  • Extra Material:  Francis Amasa Walker Page  --  biography, links to his writings, links to commentary on Walker.
  • Extra Material:  National Origins Quota Acts  --  In 1921 and 1924 discriminatory immigrations restriction laws were passed..

    • Walker discusses the "end of the frontier" and Riis' study of life in late 19th century slums  -- for more:
  • Extra Material: The Frontier in American History  --  Frederick Jackson Turner's famous essay (1893)
  • Extra Material:  How the Other Half Lives:  Studies Among the Tenements of New York -- Riis (1890)
    Theodore Roosevelt, "Birth Reform, From the Positive, Not the Negative, Side"
    Margaret Sanger's rejoinder to Roosevelt (1917)
    Ednah D. Cheney  "The Reign of womanhood" (1897) 

    PART FIVE:  Losing and Using Power, 1920 to 1963 

    Descriptions of the Great Depression:

    John Dewey:  "Creative Democracy" (1939) in The Later Works: Volume 14 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press).

  • Extra Material:  The Center for Dewey Studies
  • Extra Material:  The John Dewey Society

    PART SIX: From Vietnam to the Post Modern: 1960 - 2008...

    Martin Luther King  "The Casualities of the War in Vietnam," (1967) and  "Beyond Vietnam" (1967)

  • Extra Material:  Additional documents written by Martin Luther King
    • Bill McKibben,  A Special Moment in history: the future of population  (1998)
    Bill McKibben,  "Thinking Past Ourselves": (2007)

    Immanuel Wallerstein, "The Eagle Has Crash Landed" (2002)

    Michael Ignatieff, "The Seductiveness of Moral Disgust" (2004)



    PART SEVEN  "What next?"  (Your America) 


    Your thoughts on "progress." 

  • Presentations
    		•
     

    Grading
    5 page essay 10%
    15 page essay and its presentation
    		 30%
    Discussion Group presentation grade
    		 10%
    Midterm Exam 20%
    Attendance
    		 5%
    Final Exam 25%

    Please familiarize yourself with Fairfield University policies on academic honesty listed on pages 25-26 of the catalog.

    5 page essay:

    Write about where you will be 10 years from now  --  what you will be doing and what the world will be like. Discuss what will make you like that, and what will make the world like that.  Will your future be determined by genius, talent, leadership, your education, the educational system, your personality, your character, luck?  What factors will shape the world ten years from now?  Then write about where will you be fifty years from now and what the world will be like.  Again, discuss what factors will bring about this future  -- yours and the world's.

    15 page essay & presentation:

    In this essay you have to offer a clear answer to the question:  Is progress possible?:  Is Man perfectible?  If you answer these questions affirmatively, you have to also identify the major challenge to progress and perfectibility that mankind will have to overcome, and how it will achieve this.  If you answer these questions negatively, you have to also identify what challenges to human progress and perfectibility will overwhelm human attempts to a better life.  On November 25th you need to have a draft of your final essay ready to hand in along with an outline of your presentation.   Final essays will be collected on December 9th.

    Class Organization and Participation:

    The class will be divided into four groups (4-5 people in a group).  A group will be responsible for directing a particular discussion class.  This means that the group will come up with a list of questions: 
    These question have to be submitted by the group at least one hour before class so that they can be duplicated and made available to the rest of the class.

    Each class will begin with a consideration of non-presenters' questions about the day's reading.  These questions will be directed to the presenting group who will be sitting in the front of the class and directing discussion.  The rest of the class will focus on dealing with the presenters' questions.  Profs. Dykeman and Hodgson spend the final 10 -15 minutes of each class presenting background material on the next class's author.

    The discussion group, as a unit, will get a grade for their presentation and questions.
    Class attendance:

    ATTENDANCE -- Your attendance will count as 5% of your final grade.  At the beginning of each class an attendance sheet will circulate for your signature.

    Attendance Grade
    Number of Missed Classes
    Percent of Attendance Component Earned
    0 or 1 class missed
    Entire 5%
    2 to 3 classes missed
    4%
    4 or 5 classes missed
    3%
    6 classes missed
    2%
    more than 6 classes missed
    (3 weeks of classes!!)
    0%

     

    Mid term examination:

    You will be required to contrast quotations taken from two or more of the authors' works that the seminar has treated up to that class day.  What we are looking for is not an evaluation of which author is right or best but a contrast of the meaning of a concept in the one as distinct from the other.  You will then be asked to specify an audience that you feel might find this analysis important, and to write a paragraph explaining why you would want this audience to read the two pieces.  You will have a class period in which to write this essay.

    Final exam:

    The final will focus on authors read after the mid term.  Two essays will be based on texts that we have read.  The third essay will be based on student presentations other than your own.  Two hour limit, each essay will be equal in value.  We suggest that you take about 40 minutes for each essay.

    Class Schedule
     


    Week Daily Topic
    Sept. 2

    Sept. 5     Dykeman and Hodgson:
    Questions on the reading.
    		 Sept 2 -- Course overview; background for Condorcet (Profs. Dykeman and Hodgson)

    Sept. 5 -- Discussion of Condorcet reading; background for Malthus
    Sept. 9       Group 1
    Questions on the reading

    Sept. 12       Group 2
    Questions on the reading    		 Sept. 9 -- Discussion of Malthus reading; background for Comte

    Sept. 12 -- Discussion of Comte; background for Darwin
    Sept. 16       Group 3
    Questions on the reading

    Sept. 19       Group 4
    Questions on the reading     		.
    Sept. 16 -- Discussion of Darwin reading; backgrund for Franklin

    Sept. 19 -- Discussion of Franklin reading;
    background for Jefferson.
    Sept. 23       Group 1
    Questions on the reading

    Sept. 26       Group 2
    Questions on the reading     		.
    Sept. 23 -- Discussion of Jefferson reading; background for Warren

    Sept. 26 -- Discussion of Warren; background for 2nd Franklin Reading

    Sept. 30       Group 3
    Questions on the reading

    Oct.  3       Group 4
    Questions on the reading

    		.
    Sept. 30 -- Discussion of 2nd Franklin reading; background for Stowe

    Oct.3 -- Discussion of Stowe; background for Fitzhugh
    Oct. 7       Group 1
    Questions on the reading

    Oct. 10       Group 2
    Questions on the reading     		.
    Oct. 7 -- Discussion of Fitzhugh reading; background for Thoreau

    Oct. 10 -- Discussion of Thoreau; background for Bowen
    .

    Oct. 17       Group 3
    Questions on the reading
    		 Oct. 17 -- Discussion of Bowen; background for Walker
    Oct. 21       

    Oct. 24       Group 4
    Questions on the reading     		Oct. 21 -- Midterm Exam

    Oct. 24 -- Discussion of Walker; background for Roosevelt/Sanger readings 
    Oct. 28       Group 1
    Questions on the reading

    Oct. 31       Group 2
    Questions on the reading     		Oct. 28 -- Discussion of Roosevelt/Sanger readings; background for Cheney

    Oct. 31 -- Discussion of Cheney; background for the Depression readings 
    Nov. 4       Group 3
    Questions on the reading

    Nov. 7       Group 4
    Questions on the reading     		Nov. 4 -- Discussion of Depression readings (Anderson, Gold, Kromer); background for Dewey

    Nov. 7 -- Discussion of Dewey; background for King readings.
    Nov. 11

    Nov. 14       Group 1
    Questions on the reading     		.
    Nov. 11 -- Presentations of Long Paper Ideas

    Nov. 14 -- Discussion of King readings ("Casualties" and "Beyond Vietnam"); background for McKibben readings
    Nov. 18       Group 2
    Questions on the reading

    Nov. 21       Group 3
    Questions on the reading     		.
    Nov. 18 -- Discussion of McKibben readings ("Special Moment" and "Thinking Past Ourselves"; background for Wallerstein reading

    Nov. 21 -- Discussion of Wallerstein reading; background for Ignatieff reading
    .

    Nov. 25       Group 4
    Questions on the reading

    		 Nov. 25 -- Discussion of Ignatieff reading;
    Dec. 2

    Please read all presenters' draft papers prior to class.
    		 .
    .Presentation (draft papers, ppoints; final versions due 12/9)
    E-mail comments to authors -- click on mailbox...
    Dec. 5

    Please read all presenters' draft papers prior to class.
    Presentation     (draft papers, ppoints; final versions due 12/9)
    E-mail comments to authors -- click on mailbox
    Dec. 9

    Please read all presenters' draft papers prior to class.
    Presentation (draft papers, ppoints; final versions due 12/9)
    E-mail comments to authors -- click on mailbox
    Final Exam Time:   Friday, December 19th, 9:00 AM

    Questions?

    Send an e-mail to King J. Dykeman
    Send an e-mail to Dennis Hodgson: