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CSUDH Habermas UWP

California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: June 6, 2001
Latest update: August 30, 2001
jeannecurran@habermas.org

Undergraduate Theory Readings
Week of September 3, 2001: Week 2

Discussion topics for Week 2:

1. What do the figures of the Dalai Lama and Rambo represent for Fellman? (See Definition of Adversarialism and Paradigm shift.)

2. On pp. 6-7, Fellman says "Brief discussions of adversary rituals are woven throughout my book. I use this term to refer to practices like blaming, hurting, avenging---mundane, familiar behaviors by which people oppose each other. I had thought of calling these actions routines but decided on rituals to underscore what I see as the stereotyped, unreflective, familiar, comfortable ways in which adversarialism is reinforced in everyday life." Ethnomethodology and conversation analysis are areas of sociological theory that would apply to this paragraph. Can you imagine definitions for them based on what Fellman says here? (Consider both "mundane" and "unreflective, familiat, comfortable.")

3. How do you feel about the quote: "[I]t is best to do to another what will strengthen you even as it will strengthen him [sic]---that is, what will develop his best potentials even as it develops your own." Erik Erikson, p. 19 of Rambo and the Dalai Lama. In what ways does the quote alter the familiar Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you?" (Consider

   • Readings:

     • Tuesday, September 4, 2001:
       • Introduction to Gordon Fellman's Rambo and the Dalai Lama Teaching and Review Essays online for Rambo and the Dalai Lama
       • When Dictionaries Don't Work Adversarialism, a Definition. Online.
       • Hardcopy reading: Fellman, Rambo and the Dalai Lama, Chapter 1: On Cruelty and Social Change. pp. 3 - 8 and Chapter 2: To Overcome or Not to Overcome: That is the Question. pp. 9 - 16. and Chapter 3: Oh to be Torn 'twixt Love and Duty. pp. 19 -22. An analysis of High Noon.

     • Thursday, September 6, 2001:

       • Discussion Questions on Rambo and the Dalai Lama
       • Hardcopy reading: Fellman, Rambo and the Dalai Lama Chapter 4: Two Paradigms: The Adversarial Paradigm: pp. 23 ff., The Mutuality Alternative: pp. 25 ff. A Paradigm Shift: pp. 34 ff.

     • Some Suggested Measures of Learning: jeannecurran@habermas.org:

       • Give an explanation in your own words of what Fellman means by a paradigm shift.
       • Explain your understanding of Erik H. Erikson's quote at the start of Chapter 3 of Rambo and the Dalai Lama: "[I]t is best to do to another what will strengthen you even as it will strengthen him [sic]---that is, what will develop his best potentials even as it develops your own." p.19. (Can you explain why Fellman put a [sic] in the quotation?)
       • Give an explanation in your own words of what Fellman means by adversarialism.
       • Answer one of the discussion questions in your own words.
       • Your own choice of measurement.