Spring 2005 03 credits M/W 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 Portfolio
10%
oral presentation
20%
academic journal writing
40%
paper writing assignments
5%
poster presentation
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 and a final paper) 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. There will be 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)
January
19: Introduction to the course.
January
24: Introduction to the Service
Learning Component
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
January 26: Community Based Learning Site Orientation
January 31: 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
February
2: Paper Writing Seminar
Paper I topics
distributed
Deadline
for completion of 2 CBL hours in addition to orientation
February 7:
February 9: Academic Journal Reflection Question: Describe one reason why you do not think the
machine described by the author is thinking.
February 14: 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
Deadline for Completion
of 10 hours on site
Community Based Learning
Portfolio Due
February 23:
February 28:
Paper II due
March 2:
Deadline
for completion of at least 10 CBL hours
March 7: 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?
March
9:
.
March
14:
Academic Journal
Reflection Question: Is it ever your choice to live as if you are playing an
infinite game instead of a finite game?
Explain.
March
16:
March 30:
April 4: Paper III topics provided
Academic Journal Reflection Question: What is
the author suggesting? Why would we think that God is a Taoist?
April 6: 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.)
April
11: Paper III due
Film:
Gattica
April 18: Guided
Reflection on CBL: To what extent is the main character in Gattica free? What about the other characters? To what extent are the children at Beacon House
free?
April
20: Academic Journal
Reflection Question: Are we forced to reflect on our lives when we tell stories? Is this reflection valuable? Explain.
April 25: Academic Journal Reflection Question:
What point is Nozick making about
fictional characters?