Fall 2004 03 credits T/TH 10:30-11:45
Dr.
Cynthia Chance M273 884-9247
Course
Description:
Required
for all first year students, this course offers students the opportunity to
confront both old and new ideas and issues in a variety of formats to analyze
their meaning and impact on a student’s life.
The
freshman seminar introduces first year students to college level conversation,
analysis and writing in a seminar format.
The focus of this year’s seminar is the concept of identity. Ideally, students
will take an active role in guiding seminar reflection.
In
this section, we will be looking at how identity assumes
self-consciousness. Self-consciousness
is something like the ability to be aware of one’s own mental states. Yet it is more than this, for mere awareness
does not imply a sense of the continuity of one’s experience that we might
think is minimally required for a sense of identity. In the course of our reflections on identity,
we will ask some of the following questions:
Are we more than our bodies? Are
we our thoughts and ideas? Do we have
souls? What does personal survival
mean? Could computers be people? Could animals be people? Do we know ourselves through
introspection? Must we be able to
construct a story of our own lives in order to count as having an identity?
Some of the questions we ask will be disturbing and challenging. Part of the point of the seminar is to push
us all to examine our most deeply held beliefs.
Course
Goals:
Students
will see how complex reflection on the question of identity in a college level
seminar format involves us in interdisciplinary work. Students will learn what we mean by “person”
in the moral sense, how to distinguish moral persons from other sorts of
beings, and what consequences derive from this.
Students will appreciate the difficulty in determining what it means to
be conscious, what self-consciousness is, and what it means to introspect truly
or falsely. Finally, students will have the opportunity to reflect on why our
lives, and the lives of others matter so much to us.
Course
Objectives:
Students
will develop critical reading skills and increase facility participating in
constructive dialogue within the seminar format. Students will develop verbal and written
self-expression skills such as are required for the critical analysis of
complex topics that will support further college level achievement. Students will also improve their ability to
translate experiences outside of the academic environment into intellectual
insights.
Course Requirements:
The
first year seminar is, above all, a serious group conversation that generates
work and growth. For this reason,
preparation for class, attendance and participation are required. Failure to complete any assignment is grounds
for failure of the course. You may not
miss class without a valid excuse. More
than three unexcused absences will be grounds for a lowered grade, missing more
than 1/3 of the class meeting will result in failure of the course. Your grade
is based on attendance and the following requirements:
25%
Community Based Learning Component (includes final paper)
10%
class participation (Feed Forward Folder)
15%
academic journal writing
40%
paper writing assignments (10% each)
10%
oral presentation of one paper
The
service-learning portion of the class requires both service work with a
community partner, and also directed reflection (through the use of portfolio
logs) on that experience. The academic
journal is an ongoing reflection on the readings carried on by the student
before and after class discussion.
Academic journals should be kept up to date and will be collected and
evaluated at the discretion of the professor.
The feed Forward folder should be brought to every class meeting;
students will make comments after each class in this folder. There will be five short papers throughout
the semester. We will be working, in
these papers, on the fundamentals of critical writing and thinking.
Statement
of Academic Integrity:
The
honor system has been a part of the Trinity community since 1913. Under the honor system, it is assumed that
each individual is intellectually honest in her academic endeavors. The sense of trust underlying the honor
system is the glue that holds our community together. The formal articulation of the honor code
states:
“I
realize the responsibility involved in membership in the Trinity College Community. I agree to abide by the rules and regulations
of this community. I also affirm my
attention to live according to the standards of honor, to which lying,
stealing, and cheating are opposed. I
will help others to maintain this responsibility in all matters essential to
the common good of the community.”
You
are responsible for upholding the honor code in all of your work for this
course. If any questions arise in the
course of your work concerning what counts as cheating, please contact me. I will pursue violations of the honor code
vigorously, as is my duty.
The text: The Mind’s Eye, ed. Hofsteter and Dennet,
(Basic Books: 2001)
Section I
What is required in order to have a sense of self,
to be a person, to be conscious? Does
being a person require having a mind or a body or both?
Aug.
31 Introduction to the course.
Sept.
2 Introduction
to the Service Learning Component
(Two weeks to confirm site
selection.)
Academic Journal Reflection Question: What is the significance,
the
author,
of “having no head?”
Reading: “On Having No Head,” by D. E.
Harding, pp.23-30
Sept. 7 Academic Journal Reflection
Question: Is consciousness necessary for personhood? Explain.
Reading: “What is
it Like to be a Bat?” by Thomas Nagel, pp.391-403
Paper I . (Paper I will
require you to research your service community.)
Sept.
9 Work
Day
Sept.
14 Paper I due
Share research papers. Begin service learning commitment and
Portfolio.
Section II
What is thinking? Can machines think? Can animals think? Does thinking require more than operation
according to rules and some form of psychological continuity?
Sept. 16 Academic Journal Reflection
Question: Describe one reason why you do not think the machine described by
the author is thinking.
Sept. 21
Sept. 23 Academic Journal Reflection
Question: Generate a list of examples of humans who might not count as
persons in the moral sense… Now generate a list of examples of non-humans who
might count as persons in the third sense.
Paper
11 topic provided (Paper II will require you to provide a summary.)
Deadline for Completion
of 10 hours on site
Community Based Learning
Portfolio Due
Oct. 5
Paper II due
Section III
Is spirituality required for
personhood?
Oct.
7 Reading: “Spirit,”
by Allen Wheels and Reflection, pp.119-123.
Oct. 12 Reading: Richard Dawkins,
“Selfish Genes and Selfish Memes,” pp. 124-144.
Oct. 14 Academic Journal Reflection
Question: How does the notion that we are each created in the image of God
affect our sense of the importance of each individual?
Paper
III topic provided (Paper III will require an extended definition)
Oct.
19 Reflection on Community Based Learning
Oct.
21 Reading: excerpt from Finite and
Infinite Games
Oct.
26 Reading: excerpt from Finite and
Infinite Games
Paper
Presentations
Section
IV
Do we have free
will? Is free will an important aspect
of our identity?
Nov. 2
Nov. 4 Academic Journal Reflection
Question: What is the author
suggesting? Why would we think that God is a Taoist?
Nov 9 Academic Journal Reflection Question: In what
way does being the author of one’s own narrative imply that one is a free and
responsible agent?
Paper IV topic
provided. (Paper IV will require a
critical analysis.)
Nov
11 Film: Gattica
Nov
18 Paper IV due
Paper
Presentations
Section V
Must
we reflect on our lives to be persons?
Must we introspect truthfully?
Nov. 23 Academic Journal Reflection
Question: How do we exhibit reflectivity when we tell stories?
Nov 25 Thanksgiving Holiday
Nov 30 Discussion of the CBL component
Academic Journal Reflection Question: What point is Nozick making
about fictional characters?
Final
Paper Topic Provided (Paper V will require a critical analysis.)