In this Senior Blount course you are asked to think about your worldview. Some of the key questions will be: What is a worldview? What is your worldview? How did you acquire your worldview? How does your worldview compare to those of others? How is your worldview evolving? How should your worldview be evolving? How do your plans for your future (next year, 10 years from now, etc.) relate to your worldview?

There are two main components to the course. In the first half we will read and discuss texts which provide examples of different worldviews and/or provide accounts of how worldviews may evolve. The major point of these readings (and our discussion of them) is to help you think critically about your own worldview. There will be a midterm exam over the readings after we finish them.

In the second half of the course we will focus on your Independent Projects, which are meant to be significant expressions of your worldviews. There is considerable flexibility in the subject and form of the Independent Projects, to accommodate your individual worldviews, interests and future plans. In the last weeks of the semester, each of you will give an in-class presentation of your Independent Project (40-50 min). For those who are interested, you may also give a presentation at a Freshman Convocation near the end of the semester (for extra credit!).

Readings:		E. O. Wilson:   Consilience Thomas Kuhn:   Structure of Scientific Revolutions Fyodor Dostoevsky:   "Grand Inquisitor" William Shakespeare:   King Lear Steven Pinker:   The Blank Slate
Grading:		Participation (20%) The participation portion of your grade will be based on the quality and quantity of your contributions to discussion. "Quality" refers to the relevance and insightfulness of your comments. "Quantity" refers to your attending and freely commenting throughout class (but without monopolizing the discussion). There will be reading quizzes in the first ten minutes of class. Midterm Exam (30%) You will be given a list of essay questions one week prior to the exam. You will be asked to write in-class essays on two or three of the questions. Independent Project (30%) There will be two components to your grade: First, your project will be evaluated in terms of its design and execution. Second, it will be expected to relate significantly to your worldview and the issues raised in the readings and discussion. Project Presentation (20%) You will lead a discussion of the design and execution of the project, describe how it relates to your worldview and engages issues raised in the readings and discussion.

I. What is a Worldview?

The concept of a worldview is introduced, as well as why history suggests there are such things as worldviews, the components of worldviews, and the implications of having worldviews.

6 January		Introduction & Overview
13 January		Kuhn - Ch. I:   Introduction: A Role for History Ch. IX:   The Nature and Necessity of Scientific Revolutions Ch. X:   Revolutions as Changes in Worldview   (pp. 111-129) Ch. XIII:   Progress Through Revolutions Postscript 6 -   Revolutions & Relativism   (pp. 205-207)

II. The Scientific "Consilient" Worldview

We discuss the increasingly influential worldview that is based on science, what it tells about us and our world. We start with Wilson's framework and look at puzzling phenomena that confront this worldview such as mind and the mental, culture, and values.

20 January

Wilson - Ch.1:   The Ionian Enchantment Ch. 2:   The Great Branches of Learning Ch. 4:   The Natural Sciences Ch. 5:   Ariadne's Thread   (pp. 72-88) Gould:   "The False Path of Reductionism" (handout)

Mind and the Mental

27 January

Draft Proposal Due (2-3 pages) Pinker - Ch.1:   The Official Theory Ch. 2:   Silly Putty Ch. 3:   The Last Wall to Fall

Culture

3 February

Pinker - Ch. 4:   Culture Vultures Wilson - Ch. 8:   The Fitness of Human Nature Pinker - Ch.20:   The Arts

Values

17 February		Pinker - Ch.15:   The Sanctimonious Animal Ch. 16:   Politics Ch. 17:   Violence
?? February		video showing of King Lear - TBA
24 February		Pinker - Ch.18:   Gender Wilson - Ch.12:   To What End?   (pp. 291-307, 325-326)

III. Political and Religious Worldviews

We discuss worldviews more indirectly (but more personally) as expressed through two literary works. What are the consequences of adopting a particular worldview?

3 March		Shakespeare - King Lear
10 March		Dostoevsky - The Grand Inquisitor - all chapters, plus Intro
17 March		Midterm Exam
24 March		Project Outline Summary Due (5-6 pages) Progress Reports
31 March		Spring Break
7 April		Presentations (3-4)
14 April		Presentations (3-4)
21 April		Presentations (3-4)
28 April		Presentations (3-4)
4 May (Wed)		Independent Projects due (5pm) 1/3 of a grade per day penalty thereafter

The subject and form of your Independent Project is very flexible, but subject to approval. It must relate to a significant aspect of your worldview, an aspect very important to you. It may be a paper, a play, a photo essay, dance project, scientific or scholarly research project, etc. There must be a substantial written component, however, even if your project is not primarily textual.

The expected size of your project depends on its nature: a play or a research paper needs to be 15-20 pages (double spaced). A primarily non-written project needs to be accompanied by 10-15 pages of motivation and explanation.

Your class presentation is an opportunity for you to explain your project to us in 40 minutes. This may seem like a daunting amount of time to be responsible for, but you will probably find it is actually too little, especially if you are getting feedback. Particularly if you have little or no experience in giving presentations, you need to think carefully about how to budget your time. You may want to incorporate some of the feedback you get into the final project you hand in.

Freedom and the Individual - (considering different social contracts as possible bases for a coherent worldview)

Soul Searching - (a fictional account of developing a personal worldview)

Behind the Music: A Look at Music's Influence on My Life (incl. video interviews)

Catholics & Saints - What's the Big Deal? (classifying Catholic saints)

My Worldview through the Movies

What is Art? And Who Gets to Decide?

Awaiting Daybreak - My Alabama Beginnings (describes need for State constitutional reform)

From Methodism to Agnosticism in Four Short Years

There & Back Again - My Journey through the Realm of Fantasy

Confusion: An Immigrant Child's Dilemna

Defending Jesus - (the trial of Jesus from a modern legal perspective)

Reproductive Genetic Modification: A World(view) Apart From Eugenics

Evolutionary Sexual/Mating Habits

God's Place in the Classroom?

Aztecs and Christians: A Comparison of Two Sacrificial World Views

The American Worldview of Voting

What Do We Mean When We Say 'Intelligent'?

Violence and Worldviews

Antiquarian: A Play in One Act

Lynching: The American Holocaust

The Individuality of a Human Clone: A Dualist and Reductionist Perspective

How I See the World: The Daughter of a Nazi Defines Her Worldview

Melville's Worldview

Realization of an Artist - Walter Anderson

Religion and Religiosity as Moderators of Just World Beliefs

Performance of Life: the Worldview of Martha Graham

The Mahler Marriage: Doomed by Ideals

All for Naught and One for Self -Collective and Individualstic Worldviews

Apples and Amish: A Journey to Understand Technology and Society

The Beginning of Human Life

The Evolution of Love

Curandismo and Catholicism in Northern Peru: Heresy or Syncretism

Historic Architecture: A Reflection of the Past and an Inspiration fot the Future

Indecision: Narrowing it All Down

Moving Forward and Away: Poetry in My Life, Through My Life and Out of My Life