Path 100: Paths to Knowledge
Instructors: Colin
Cairns, Clive Elliott, William Lewis,
David
Skidmore
Fall/Spring, 2000-2001
Meeting Times: TR 12:30-1:45 in Meredith 234;
W 9:10-10:00pm in Crawford Hall
Skidmore Office Hours: M 12-2, W 1-3, TR 11-12
Elliot Office Hours: TR 10-12:15
Cairns Office Hours: M 9-12, 2-4, R 9-12
Lewis Office Hours: MWF 9-11
The principal aim of this course is to help us to better navigate our way through an increasingly information- and knowledge-saturated society.In pursuing this aim, we will explore the modes of reasoning and inquiry that are typically employed in the production of various forms of knowledge. Among the questions we will examine are: Why do we seek knowledge? How is knowledge created? How should we judge the value and validity of knowledge claims? How should society makes decisions about the uses to which knowledge is put? In seeking answers to these questions, we hope to hone those critical and analytical skills that we allow us to become sophisticated producers/consumers of creative output.
Web Forum:
At various points during the semester, students will be asked to post messages or short papers to a web discussion forum. More information about this aspect of the course will be provided in class.
Click on the following link to go to the Paths web discussion forum:
When posting a message to the web discussion forum, type "paths" (without quotation marks) when prompted for a password.
For a quick guide to using the discussion forum, please click on the following link:
For further help with how to use the discussion forum, please click on the following link:
Grading, Assignments and Exams:
There will be three in-class exams, each consisting of short answer questions tied to the assigned readings. See Reading Schedule below for exam dates. Also, students will be asked to prepare short papers to be placed on the course web forum as a basis for group discussion. These papers will not be graded individually, but will instead be packaged as a portfolio. The portfolio will be graded as a whole at the end of the term. For the science section, students will work with their groups on a research project that will culminate in a group paper and class presentation. Finally, class participation will be graded. Details on each of the above will be provided in class.
The various graded assignments in this class will be weighted as follows: Deborah Gordon, Ants at Work
Fall Term
I. Introduction to Course: The Importance of Perspective to Assessing
Truth
8/29: Introduction
Introduce instructors. Overview of course. Discuss definitions
of information, knowledge, truth and wisdom.
8/30: Groups
Discussion questions: Name one thing that you once believed to
be true, but no longer believe so. Why did you once believe this? Why do
you no longer believe it?
Which of the following do you consider reliable sources of accurate
information: teachers, religious leaders, newspapers, the web, textbooks,
parents, peers, scientists, film critics, National Inquirer, etc. How do
we arrive at our sense of which sources are credible?
8/31: Cultures in Conflict: Native Americans and European Settlement
Jane Tompkins, "Indians"
9/5: Galileo's Trial
Students: Visit web sites dealing with Galileo's Trial (see url below
for one suggestion). Prepare one page list of bullet statements summarizing
main arguments of both prosecution and defense. Post papers to group web
forums by Monday, 6pm. Read papers posted by other members of your group
and come to class prepared to discuss.
The Gallileo Project:
http://es.rice.edu:80/ES/humsoc/Galileo//
9/6: Groups
What is "truth?" How is "truth" defined and sought differently from
the perspectives of science, religion and the arts? What messages have
you received from your Drake education about the value of science, religion
and the arts? How does the culture at large view these different types
of knowledge?
9/7: Galileo's Trial
Theodore Lessl, "The Galileo Legend as Scientific Folklore."
9/12: Frames of Reference: Pre-modern Worldviews
Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth. Chapter 1, "Myth and the Modern
World"
9/13: Groups
Discuss favorite myths or fairytales from childhood. What makes these
stories meaningful?
9/14: Frames of Reference: The Modern Worldview
E.O. Wilson, Consilience, chapters 3-4.
9/19: Oral, Written and Electronic Cultures
Web resources:
http://www.law.pitt.edu/hibbitts/or-lit.htm
Kenneth Gergen, The Saturated Self, chapter 1
9/20: Groups
How does medium of communication (oral, print, electronic) affect patterns
of thought? How has internet changed our perceptions about knowledge, time/space,
how we think and communicate, etc.?
9/21: Frames of Reference: The Postmodern Worldview
Kenneth Gergen, The Saturated Self, chapter 4
9/26: First Exam
9/27: Groups
Begin planning for group projects on intelligence:
Science Projects: Perspectives on Intelligence
Students will work in groups to prepare papers and class presentations
on the theme of intelligence. Each group will tackle the topic of intelligence
from a different angle, as indicated below.
Group 1 (Elliott): Animal intelligence (Are some animals intelligent?
How would we know? How do animal intelligence and human intelligence compare
with one another?)
Group 2 (Lewis): Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences (Consider
how K-12 education might be redesigned in light of Gardner's theory of
multiple intelligences.)
Group 3 (Cairns): Artificial intelligence (How would we know if
a machine were intelligent or not? What sort of test could we devise? Will
robots someday become intelligent beings?)
Group 4 (Skidmore): Intelligence testing (What do intelligence
tests measure? Are such tests valid? How are the results of such tests
used and to what purposes, if any, should intelligence tests be put?)
II. Science and Society
9/28: Scientific Practice.
Ian Hacking, chapter 7, "Rocks," in The Social Construction of
What?
10/3: A Scientist at Work
Deborah Gordon, Ants at Work
10/4: Groups
Group science projects.
10/5: A Scientist at Work
Deborah Gordon, Ants at Work
10/10: The Construction of Science: Critical Perspectives
Sandra Harding, "Eurocentric Scientific Illiteracy - A Challenge for
the World Community" in Harding, The Racial Economy of Science
Stephen Jay Gould, "Craniology," in Harding, The Racial Economy of Science
10/11: Groups
More work on projects.
10/12: Science, Society and the Future
Ian Hacking, chapter 4, "The Natural Sciences" in The Social Construction
of What?
10/18: Groups
Discuss Bill Joy, "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us"
10/19: Second Exam.
III. The Arts and Society
10/24: Why Art? Do the Arts have a purpose?
Bertolt Brecht, "Art and Knowledge."
10/25: Groups
Each group to compose a short "manifesto" of what the Arts mean to them.
10/26: Read "manifestos" to class; comment and discussion.
10/31: Illusion/Reality & Individual perception. Show/play:
Susanne K. Langer, "The Work and Its Public"
11/1: Groups
Group reactions: Each writes a short critique.
11/2: Read critiques in class; comment & discussion.
Martin Esslin, "Absurdist Theatre"
11/7: Experiencing Arts: a practical session (Music)
11/8: Experiencing Arts: a practical session (Theatre - in FAC)
W.B. Worthen, "The Theatrical Experience: Seeing & Reading"
11/9: Experiencing Arts: a practical session
11/14: Challenging Art, Morality and Censorship
David Henry - visiting speaker.
Read on-line interview with David Henry: Henry
Interview
"Art, Morality & Censorship" Steven C. Dubin
11/15: Groups
Groups work on science project.
11/16: Subsidy, Governmental vs. Private patronage
Discuss reactions to Henry talk.
Steven C..Dubin, "The Government as Patron"
11/21: Life without the Arts; is it possible?
Give take-home essay on arts section. Due on December 12.
Compose questionnaire on arts.
Thanksgiving Break
11/28: Share Reactions to Arts Events.
Post brief critiques of two arts events on web discussion forum.
During this 5-week period there are a number of Arts events showing
on campus or locally. Students will select one event in each discipline
i.e. concert/recital, play and art exhibit to attend and provide a written
critique. Attendance and critique are mandatory.
Distribute copies of arts questionaires to class.
11/29: Groups.
Groups work on science projects.
During day, each group work booths at different spots on campus (e.g.,
Olmsted, FAC, dorms) to gather responses to arts questionaire.
11/30: Discuss results of questionnaire and conclusions.
12/5: Groups work on science projects
12/6: Groups.
Work on science projects.
12/7: Group presentations of science projects.
12/12: Group presentations of science projects.
12/13: Groups.
Looking ahead to next term.
12/14: Conclusions
Students submit printed portfolio of short web discussion assignments.
Spring Term
V. The Social Construction of Reality (7 weeks)
Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor
Short Paper: Identify a significant metaphor, description, or
name and explore its implications for defining the nature of the situation
and for directing thought and action. Contrast this with at least
one other possible way of representing the situation. For example:
we may say (and believe) that "love is a rose" and a kind of madness that
we "fall" into, but we also believe that love is a battlefield and speak
of the war of the sexes.
Language and Social Context
Short Paper: Write a "mythology" on the order of Roland Barthes.
The idea is to "unpack" the meaning of an ordinary object (toys), product
(soap powders), or social activity (wrestling).
Cultural Interpretation
Short Paper: Identify a distinctive activity, place, or time and
look for the principles that structure the action. You might think
about Thanksgiving dinner, or a toy store, or a high school dance.
The idea is to discern the meaning of the activity for the people involved.
Your goal in this paper is the same as Geertz', "to read over the shoulders
of the natives."
Representation, Understanding, and Action
Group Projects: Application and ExtensionóCurrent Texts
Each group would be assigned a recent book that uses or applies the
idea that social reality is socially constructed and will be responsible
for covering that material for the rest of the class.
Examples:
James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State
Catherin Lutz, Unnaturual Emotions
Christopher Wilson, Cop Knowledge
Joshua Gamson, Freaks Talk Back
Required Books:
Kenneth Gergen, The Saturated Society
Paths Reading Packet
Albert Camus, "The Myth of Sisyphus"
George Page, Inside the Animal Mind, 1999
The Thinking Ape
Howard Gardner, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences,
1983
Howard Gardner, Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice, 1993
Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray, The Bell Curve: Intelligence
and Class Structure in American Life, 1994
Stephen Fraser, The Bell Curve Wars: Race, Intelligence and the Future
of America, 1995
Stephen Jay Gould, The Mismeasure of Man, rev. ed., 1996
List of art quotes (see reading packet).
Rudolph von Laban, "The Dynamics of Art"
Excerpt from a musical work.
Excerpt from a dramatic work.
A painting or sculpture.
Antonin Artaud, "The Theatre, Art & Culture"
W.B. Worthen, "Dramatic Form"
Culture and Language
Metaphor and Meaning
Possible Texts: George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By
AIDS and its Metaphors
Possible Texts: Stanley Fish, "Is There a Text in this Class?"
Roland Barthes, Mythologies
Possible Texts: Clifford Geertz, "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese
Cockfight"
Mike Davis, The Ecology of Fear
Ch. 1: The Dialectic of Ordinary Disaster
Ch. 3: The Case for Letting Malibu Burn
Ch. 5: Maneaters of the Sierra Madre
Ch.. 7: Beyond Blad Runner