FYS 30 -- Fall, 1999

EVOCATIONS OF FRIENDSHIP FROM PLATO TO BUDDY MOVIES

"I get by with a little help from my Friends"



WEEK

TOPIC

TEXT

I Introductions all around You and Me
II

 The experience of solitude:

A prelude to Friendship?

 Storr, Thoreau, Merton, Gibran
III Friendship and Morry Mitch Albom

PAPER I DUE
IV Friendship and Marriage John Bayley, Lois Braverman
V Friendship and Politics Aristotle, Beiner
VI Conversation: The Essential Dynamic of Friendship Stewart, Rorty
VII Conversation Continued Johnson, Goffman, Beckett

PAPER II DUE
VIII Preparing to Read Plato and Buddy Movies White, Sobchack
IX Plato Plato
X Plato Plato

PAPER III DUE
XI-XVI Evocations of Friendship in Philosophy and Film Philosophers on Friendship

Films on Friendship

EXAM WEEK F INAL PAPER DUE

PORTFOLIOS DUE

SEMINAR OBJECTIVES AND OUR WAY OF PROCEEDING:

I see our seminar ( as I see intellectual history, as I see the University) as part of an ongoing conversation about what it means to be human being. Significantly the most important aspects of what it means to be a human being remain ( and probably always will remain) open to our continuing questioning through conversation. So in regard to the subject of our seminar, namely friendship, we are joining a conversation that may be said to have begun with Plato and that continues on through contemporary film ( still, of course, including Plato, and all that came in between). The objective of the Seminar, then, is to join, participate in, add to, and most importantly enjoy the ongoing conversation on the nature of friendship.

The texts and films I have chosen can be seen as " conversation starters." I chose them because they were particularly evocative to me of what friendship might be. But these texts and films are not there for you to "learn" and somehow "know." ( "Not that there's anything wrong with that," as Jerry Seinfeld once said in another connection). They are presented to you for you to respond to, possibly relate to your own experiences of what friendship is , and most importantly for us to build on.

Typically, I will ask you to begin to respond to the text by posting on e-mail, or writing a short paragraph or two guided ( but not bound by) some questions. Those e-mails and jottings will provide a linkage between your individual conversations with the text and our conversation together in the seminar. Together with "notes" from class, the e-mails and jottings will also provide you with the raw materials for your papers. I see your papers as also linked to the other " moments" in our conversation and I expect them to reflect that linkage.

I will also ask you to save your jottings and e-mails for inclusion in your final "portfolio" which will comprise a summary reflection of your learnings this semester not only about friendship, but also in relationship to the various communication skills which comprise the academic version of the human conversation. I have tried to structure the course in such a way as to give you an opportunity to practice and develop your capacities in as many of these skills as possible.

GRADING: