Core Syllabus

2008-2009 Core Syllabus

The above-linked syllabus specifies the aims, thematic structure, texts, basic assignments and general expectations and standards for Core 101 and Core 102. All sections of the course follow this common syllabus, reading the same texts in the same order, with the addition of one additional text chosen by each individual instructor, who provides information about that additional text as well as a more precise calendar of reading assignments for his or her own section.

It is vitally important – and required – that every student purchase, read, and bring the same edition of each assigned text to class discussions. Effective discussion often requires a close look at certain passages in these texts, and everyone in the class must be able to turn to the same page and see the same words.

The required editions of Core texts for 2008-2009 are the following:

The Shape of Society (Core 101, Fall 2008)

Knowledge, Society, and Culture:

Naguib Mahfouz, Fountain and Tomb (Lynne Rienner)
Plato, Apology and Phaedo (in Five Dialogues, 2d ed.) and Symposium (Hackett)
Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals (Vintage)
Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man (in On Evolution, Hackett)

Re-Imagining Society:

M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj and various essays (in The Penguin Gandhi Reader (Penguin, 2d ed.)
Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (Vintage)
Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto and selections from The German Ideology, Capital, and other works (in Selected Writings, Hackett)
Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth (Signet)

Shaping Lives (Core 102, Spring 2009)

Desire and Human Possibility:

Augustine, Confessions (Hackett, 2d ed.)
William Shakespeare, Othello (Penguin, 2001 ed.)
Chikamatsu, The Love Suicides at Amijima (in Four Major Plays by Chikamatsu, Columbia University Press)
Adrienne Rich, selected poems from Adrienne Rich’s Poetry and Prose (Norton)

Living within Limits: