NOTE: ENGLISH
2000 is taught regularly by various members
of the Department of Languages, Literature, & Dramatic Arts
at AASU. Readings and other course assignments are
determined by the instructor. Please check the online course
schedule (SHIP) for details regarding next semester's course
time(s) and instructor(s). In the meantime, if you're interested in
visiting other online English and philosophy classes, please go to
ENGLISH 2000
ETHICS & VALUES IN LITERATURE
Questions of Character: The Ethics of Authority
|
Our ethical knowledge is aesthetically mediated. . . . To evaluate someone ethically, we
need to be able to analyze his or her character, and fiction still provides the best
conceptual equipment for doing that. . . . The strength of an ethical idea lies in its
applications, in how it plays out. In fiction, we can put an ethical idea
through its paces, testing its ability to command our assent. We can also explore
its alignments, limitations, repercussions. We can face moral reality in all its
complexity and drama. In this course, we will investigate questions of character through studies of selected works of literature and philosophy. |
Unit 1: Introduction to Questions of Character
Mark Twain, Chapter 16 ("Expectations") of The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn
Jonathan Bennett, "The Conscience of Huckleberry Finn"
Philip Hallie, "The Evil That Men Think–and Do"
Martin Gansberg, "38 Who Saw Murder and Didn’t Call Police"
Unit 2: The Nature of Leadership
Dostoevsky, "The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor"
Machiavelli, Chapters 14-18 of The Prince
Plato, excerpts from The Republic
Brief excerpt from Aristotle on slavery
Unit 3: Loyalty and Conflict of Values
Sophocles, Antigone
Plato, Crito
Martin Benjamin, "The Meanings of Compromise"
Unit 4: The Place of Principles
Shakespeare, Julius Caesar (with excerpts on film)
Thomas Hobbes, excerpt from Leviathan
Peter Berger, "On the Obsolescence of Honor"
Unit 5: Wealth
George Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara (with excerpts on film)
St. Matthew, The Sermon on the Mount
Andrew Carnegie, "Wealth"
Unit 6: Responsibility
Joseph Conrad, "The Secret Sharer"
George Orwell, "Shooting an Elephant"
William Carlos Williams, "The Use of Force"
Unit 7: Self-Respect
Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman
Thomas E. Hill, Jr., "Servility and Self-Respect"
Joan Didion, "On Self-Respect"
Lasch, Christopher, excerpts from The Culture of Narcissism
Unit 8: The Authority of Truth
Jonathan Swift, Book Four of Gulliver's Travels
Immanuel Kant, "On the Supposed Right to Lie"
Dietrich Bonhoffer, "Situational Ethics"
Theodore Levitt, "The Morality (?) of Advertising"
Unit 9: Responsibilities of Office
Herman Melville, Billy Budd
Michael Walzer, "Dirty Hands"
Unit 10: Victims and Victimhood
Harry Mulisch, The Assault
Sophie’s Choice (film)
Unit 11: Glass Ceilings
Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House (with film)
Simone de Beauvoir, Introduction to The Second Sex
Judith Thompson, "Hiring Practices and Reverse Discrimination"
English 2000 is taught by Dr. Richard Nordquist.
Armstrong Atlantic State University
Victor 1-10
11935 Abercorn Street
Savannah, Georgia 31419
Phone: 912 921 5991
FAX: 912 921 7339
e-mail: nordquist@mail.com
25 January 2001
January 25, 2001