Requirements *** Grading policy *** Contact

INTRODUCTION: The Origins of Humanism and the idea of Posthumanism

Seminar # 1 January 8

Primary readings:

Francis Petrarch, Familiar Letters, I, 1; I, 9; XXI, 12.

Francis Petrarch, Letters of Old Age, II, 1.

Secondary readings:

Ronald G. Witt’s "Petrarch, Father of Humanism?" in In the Footsteps of the Ancients. The Origins of Humanism from Lovato to Bruni, 2000), pp.230-291.

Francis Fukuyama, "Being Human," in Our Posthuman Future. Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution (2002), pp.105-177.

PART ONE: The Human as imago Dei

*** Lecture # 1 January 14: Knight Library Media Services, Studio A *8:30 -10:30 -PierCesare Bori,: "The image of God from Pico and Las Casas to Locke"

Seminar # 2 January 15

Primary readings:

- Bartolomé de Las Casas, A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies (1552) http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/20321

Secondary readings:
- Pier Cesare Bori, Pluralità delle vie. Alle origini del Discorso sulla dignità umana di Pico della Mirandola. Milano: Feltrinelli, 2000, pp.35-72.

-Roger Ruston, "Freedom and the Gospel," "Defender of the Indians", in Human Rights and the Image of God. London: SCM Press, 2004, pp.119-156.

Seminar # 3 January 22

Primary readings:

Francisco De Vitoria (c. 1480 or 1483 –1546), De Indis De Jure Belli (1532). http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/De_Indis_De_Jure_Belli

Secondary readings:

Roger Ruston, "Salamanca: Francisco de Vitoria," in Human Rights and the Image of God (2004), pp.65-98.

PART TWO: Philosophical Interpretations of Humanism and the Problem of History

Seminar # 4 January 29

Seminar led by Prof. Steve Shankman (Humanities Center)

Readings

Emmanuel Levinas, Humanism of the Other. Urbana and Chicago: Illinois UP, 2006, pp.1-69. *This book is on reserve.

Emmanuel Levinas, “The Rights of the Other Man,” in Id. Alterity and Transcendence. New York: Columbia UP, 1999, pp. 145-149.

*** Lecture # 2 :January 30:Knight Library Media Services, Studio A *8:30 -10:30 -Claudia Alvares (Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades Tecnologias, Escola de Comunicação, Artes e Tecnologias da Informação, Lisboa, Portugal), 'Rethinking Humanism in a Post-Colonial Context'

Readings:

Claudia Alvarez "Slavery and the New World: What is Human?"; "On White Mythologies: The Antihumanist Argument" in Humanism after Colonialism. Oxford-Bern-Bruxelles-Frankfurt am Main-New York-Wien: Peter Lang, 2006, pp.59-150.

Seminar # 5 February 5

Readings:

Seminar led by Prof. Leah Middlebrook (Romance Languages-Comparative Literature)

Walter Mignolo,"The colonization of memory" in The darker side of the Renaissance : literacy, territoriality, and colonization. Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, c1995, pp.123-216.

Lecture #3: Friendly 225: Peter Kuon (Universität Salzburg, Österreich), Humanism and Posthumanism. Anthropological Reflections in the Texts from the Survivors of the Nazi Concentration Camps.

Seminar # 6 February 12

This seminar is going to be led by Prof. John Lysaker (Department of Philosophy).

Readings:

-Jean Paul Sartre, Existentialism is a Humanism, New Haven-London: Yale UP, 2007, pp. 17-54

- Martin Heidegger, "Letter on Humanism," in Id. Basic Writings, David Farrell Krell (Ed.). San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1993, pp.213-265 .

PART THREE: Renaissance Posthumanism: Questioning anthropocentrism

Seminar # 7 February 19

Primary readings:

- Leon Battista Alberti, "Fate and Fortune," "The Dream" and "The Deceased" in Dinner Pieces. Binghamton, N.Y. : Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies in conjuction with the Renaissance Society of America, 1987, pp. 23-27; 66-69 and 99-124.

-Giordano Bruno, The Ash Wednesday Supper. The Hague : Mouton, 1975, 63-165.

Secondary readings:

Elisabetta Tarantino, "Ultima Thule: Contrasting Empires in Bruno’s Ash Wednesday Supper and Shakespeare’s Tempest." 201-225 in Giordano Bruno: Philosopher of the Renaissance, ed. by Hilary Gatti (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002).

Seminar # 8 February 26

Primary readings:
The new science of Giambattista Vico. Translated from the 3d ed. (1744) by Thomas Goddard Bergin and Max Harold Fisch. Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell University Press , 1948. Selections:

Explanation of the picture placed as frontispiece to serve as introduction to the work: § 1-30.

The guiding ideas:

a) The civil world has been made by human beings: §331; §349;§ 342.
b) Religions, marriages and burials: § 332-333.
c) The divine Providence: §341; §§135-136; 141 (“human choice”); §342 (divinari; jurisprudence; the metaphysical level); §§27, 30, 38 (examples).

The axioms:

a) The nature of institutions: V (§129-130); VI (§131); VII (§132); VIII (§134); LVIV (§238); LXV (§239)
b) From the conceit of nations to the poetic truth: I (§120); XXII (§§161-163); XXXV-XXXVII(§§184-186); XXXIX (§189); XLVII-XLIX (§§204-210); L (§§211-212).
c) Imaginative universals and poetic characters: XLIX (§209).
d) Language and poetry: XVII (§151); LX (§231); §§928-931
XLVIXLVI (§§202-203); XLII-XLIV (§§193-200); §3 (Hercules).
e) The common sense and the natural right: XI-XIII (§§141-146); LXX (§248); LXXXII (§§263-64)
f) The rhythm of history: LXIII-LXVIII (§§236-245); 165-166.

Secondary readings:

Ernesto Grassi, Heidegger and the question of Renaissance humanism. Binghamton, N.Y. : Center for Medieval & Early Renaissance Studies, 1983, pp.9-30; 49-76.

Giuseppe Mazzotta’s Cosmopoiesis: The Renaissance Experiment. Toronto : University of Toronto Press, 2001, pp. XI-XVI; Id. “Universal History: Vico's New Science between Antiquarians and Ethnographers” in Massimo Lollini And David Castillo (Eds). Reason and Its Others. Italy, Spain, and the New World. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2006.

PART FOUR: A Posthuman Literature and Philosophy?

*** Lecture # 4 March 3: Knight Library Media Services, Studio A at 4:00: Christopher Celenza (Johns Hopkins University), "What Does it Mean to be Human? The Classical Tradition and the Problem of Humanity"

Seminar # 9 March 4

Primary readings:

Robert Pepperell "What is Posthumanism?" "The Posthuman Manifesto," in The Posthuman Condition. Conscousness beyond the brain. Bristol [Eng.] ; Portland, Or.: Intellect, 2003, pp.155-172; 177-187. . Previous ed.: 1995 has the title: The Post-human condition.

N. Katherine Hayles. "The semiotics of virtuality: mapping the Posthuman;" "Conclusion: what does it mean to be Posthuman," in How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics, 1999, pp.247-291.

Secondary readings:

Donna Haraway, "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century;" , "Situated Knowledges", in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York; Routledge, 1991), pp.149-181. [http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Haraway/CyborgManifesto.html}

http://www.robertpepperell.com/post-human.htm [This site accompanies the new edition of Robert Pepperell's book, The Posthuman Condition: Consciousness beyond the brain. It includes a
number of posthuman references, resources and additional materials to supplement the book.

CONCLUSION

Seminar # 10 March 11

Presentations

Requirements

1) Readings accompanied by written electronic forums which provide an opportunity for analysis and discussion (20%). The electronic forums consist of one page statement to be posted by each group on the 4 topics suggested by the teacher in the course site. A first draft of this statement is due on week #5; the second and final draft is due on week #5. Graduate students are required to do all the readings; for undergraduate students only primary readings are mandatory.

2) Participation in class and in working groups. This include writing in the Wiki associated to the course one page weekly report on the meetings of the groups outside the classroom (30%)

3) One paper (6-8 pages for undergraduate and 10-12 pages for graduate (30%). A paper proposal (One page) iis due on week #7 (10%).

4) One presentation (10%)

GRADING POLICY FOR THE ESSAY

Scores

• Excellent Essay:             A- (90-93) A (94-97) A+ (98-100).

• Good Essay:                         B- (80-83) B (84-87) B+ (88-89).

• Satisfactory Essay:             C- (70-73) C (74-77) C+ (78-79)

Criteria for each category

-The thesis is clear and developed logically and coherently, using vivid and concrete detail and appropriate evidence to back up the argument (20%);

-This essay makes a fluid, reasoned, well-supported argument (10%);

-It includes pertinent quotations from multiple sources (10%)

-Each paragraph is coherent and begins with a topic sentence that presents a point of your argument and relates to your thesis (10%);

-It is well-organized: it includes an introduction, a body and a conclusion, and features smooth transitions (10%)

-Evidences varied sentence structure, fresh diction, strong voice, appropriate tone, and something memorable and original (5);

-This writing interests its audience in what you have to say. It invites reading (10%);

-There are only insignificant grammatical and mechanical errors, if any (5%)

• Unsatisfactory Essay (D-,D, D+). The writing detracts from the essay’s thesis and may make reading difficult. The essay will have a thesis that is insufficiently supported with specific detail. The thesis itself may not be suitable to the audience or the scope of the assignment, or the thesis and argument of the essay may not be in agreement. Organization may be sketchy or inadequate. There are such errors in grammar, mechanics, logic, sentence structure, or organization that the controlling idea of the essay is obscured rather than clarified, or the ideas themselves lack careful thought. The essay may not be the assigned length.

• Unacceptable Essay (F). This essay has no discernible thesis and thus no structure stemming from it. Serious grammatical and mechanical errors abound. There is no attempt to identify or reach an audience with this writing. Unacceptable writing also includes writing that is plagiarized in part or as a whole.

Contact

maxiloll@uoregon.edu

It is easier to communicate with me via e-mail than by telephone: You may write me an email with any questions you may have about the course. Office hours: F (2:00-4:00)

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