UH 280: Contextual Understanding in the Arts and Humanities
Fall 2009 •David Shier
Fall 2009 Office Hours
Mon, Tue, Wed & Thu 9:00-10:25
and by appointment
Syllabus
Materials from Class Meetings
Note: This is not intended to be a complete set of lecture notes, but a resource that will keep you from needing to take overly-detailed notes of class overheads, powerpoints, etc.
- Brief overhead notes on Clifford and on James' "Will to Believe"
- Study Guide for Exam
- Instructions for research project/paper
Assignments
| DATES | ASSIGNED |
| Aug. 25 | Read Louis Menand's introduction to the "Pragmatism" volume. |
| Sep. 3 | Read Peirce: "The Fixation of Belief" and "How to Make Our Ideas Clear." Link to public domain versions of these papers online can be found here:"How to Make Our Ideas Clear" and "Fixation of Belief" |
| Sep. 8 | Read James: "What Pragmatism Means" and "The Will to Believe" |
| Sep. 10 | Read James: "Pragmatism's Conception of Truth" Read Russell: "William James' Conception of Truth" |
| Sep. 15 | Read Dewey's "Theories of Knowledge" |
| Sep. 17 | Read Dewey's "I Believe" and "The Need for a Recovery of Philosophy" |
| Sep. 22 | Read Rorty's "Philosophy as a Kind of Writing" (only section 1 required) Read the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on Rorty (see link below, or link to SEP on my homepage) |
| Sep. 24 | Read Haack's "Vulgar Rortyism" (linked below) Read Rorty excerpt from Contingency, Irony and Solidarity |
| Sep. 29 | Read Bernstein, "Pragmatism, Pluralism, and the Healing of Wounds" |
| Oct. 1 | Exam (in class) |
| Oct. 6 | Read Dewey's "Experience, Nature and Art" |
| Oct. 8 | Read Shusterman, Ch. 1. Focus primarily on what he says about Dewey's aesthetics. |
| Oct. 13 | Read Shusterman, Ch. 2 Read Danto's "Art, Philosophy, and the Philosophy of Art" (see below) |
| Oct. 15 | Read Ortega y Gasset's, "The Dehumanization of Art" (see below) |
| Oct. 20 | Read Shusterman, Ch. 8 (and see the optional Shusterman reading below) WRITING ASSIGNMENTS 3 & 4 (Take-home): Due in class Tue. 10/20 |
| Oct. 22 | Read Shusterman, Ch. 6 & 7 |
| Oct. 27 | Read Dewey (see below), Art as Experience pp.1-11, 36-39 (top), and 48-56. To be written in class 10/27: WRITING ASSIGNMENT 5 |
| Oct. 29 | Read Holmes, "The Path of the Law" |
| Nov. 3 | Read Holmes, from "Privilege, Malice and Intent" and from "Ideals and Doubts" Read Dewey, "My Philosophy of Law" (see below) |
| Nov. 5 | Class cancelled |
| Nov. 10 | Read Posner, "A Pragmatist Manifesto" Assignment #8: Consider the view of law that Posner articulates in the 8 theses on pages 423-425. Compare/contrast this view with Holme's concept of the law from our class readings. (Suggested length: 1-2 double-space pages.) |
| Nov. 12 | No new reading. Continue discussion of legal pragmatism. |
| Nov. 17 | Writing Assignment #10 (due in class) |
Additional readings
- Betrand Russell, "William James' Conception of Truth"
- William James, "Two English Critics" (Optional)
- CNN Commentary, "Open Your Minds, America" (Optional – Relevant to Peirce and "The Fixation of Belief")
- Link to full text of Clifford's "The Ethics of Belief" (Optional)
- Link to Haack's "Vulgar Rortyism"
- Link to SEP entry on Rorty
- Link to Rorty's Contingency, Irony and Solidarity (Ch. 8 from the last paragraph of p.175 through p.178)
- Link to Danto's "Art, Philosophy, and the Philosophy of Art"
- Link to Ortega y Gasset's "The Dehumanization of Art"
- Link to Shusterman's "Art in Action, Art Infraction" (Optional: Sort of compact version of parts of the book's main lines)
- Link to Dewey's Art as Experience, Ch. 1&3
- Link to Dewey's "My Philosophy of Law"
Instructions for research project/paper (including some sample topics) are available here.
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