COURSE OBJECTIVES

• To gain an understanding of the issues involved in viewing the individual in social context.

• To gain insight into the philosophical issues involved in understanding parts (individuals) and wholes.

• To understand the varying conceptions of liberty and of the balance of liberty and order in significant modern theories of social and political organization (including utopian speculation).

• To develop sensitivity toward the tension between individuality and conformity in American culture.

• To understand the aesthetic philosophies which view the artist as social being, rather than autonomous genius.

BOOKS REQUIRED

• Reflections on Revolution in France (Ed O’Brien), Burke, Penguin Putnam, 1968 # 12771
• On Liberty (Ed Shields), Mill, Pearson Educ. (Prentice Hall), # 5283
• News From Nowhere, or, Epoch of Rest, Morris, Broadview Press, 2003, # 49312
• Rights of Man (intro Foner), Paine, Penguin Putnam, 1984, # 12786
• Walden Two (reissued ed.), Skinner, (please verify with campus bookstore: Hackett Pub., 1976, # 5189,)
• MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Paper, Joseph Gibaldi and Walter Achtert (Modern Language Association) Note: This book is required for all HUX Courses. 

COURSE ORGANIZATION

Students will read this entire syllabus and the essays presented in it along with the readings in purchased texts. Study questions to aid in understanding the reading are presented in the syllabus; they are aids to reading only and are not to be turned in to the instructor. Written assignment questions (and times for submission) follow this timeline.

ASSIGNMENTS

Each assignment is due in the instructor's mailbox during the week indicated below. Count Week 1 as the first week that classes begin and Week 15 as the final week of the term. Trimester dates are listed at the upper left hand corner of your registration form.

All papers must be typed, with footnotes and bibliographies where appropriate, and mailed in before the assignment deadline. Send in an extra copy, marked "For HUX Files," and keep a copy for yourself. Also, keep a copy of the title page of the paper returned by the instructor which contains your grade, comments, and date. Send a self-addressed, stamped (with adequate postage) envelope for the return of each assignment. If you do not fully understand the assignment or need help, telephone the instructor during office hours, or mail in your questions.

All students will present three essays for this course, selecting from topics listed below:

MIDTERM

Write a 4-5 page essay on ONE of the following topics. Paper is due at the end of WEEK 8.

1. Write an essay in which you order or arrange the models of society studied - Burkean conservatism, democracy, liberalism, socialism, anarchism - between Toennies' polar models of Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft. (Be sure to compare and contrast the models with each other as well.)
2. Write an essay on the views of individual liberty in each of the models discussed. What constitutes this liberty and how is it secured and maintained in society?
3. Write an essay on the ways in which individual interests and the interests of society are reconciled or brought into harmony in each of the models discussed. What are these interests (individual and social) as the models portray them?
4. Write an essay on the differing views about the relationship of individual freedom and private property ownership in the democratic-liberal tradition on the one hand and the socialist-anarchist tradition on the other. (Be sure to describe the ingredients of individual freedom in the absence of private property in the socialist-anarchist tradition.)

FINAL

Write two 4-5 page essays; choose ONE essay topic from the options under "A" and ONE from the options under "B"; both papers are due at the end of WEEK 15 (or earlier if you like).

Write an essay on ONE of the compare-and-contrast themes suggested below.

1. Compare and contrast the views on labor, leisure, and creativity in News from Nowhere and Walden Two.
2. Compare and contrast the balance established between liberty and equality by Morris and Skinner in their two utopian societies. Suggested reading: Chapters 5-7, George Kateb, Utopia and Its Enemies. Schocken paperback.
3. Compare and contrast the views of Morris and Skinner on governance and social control in their utopias.
4. Compare and contrast the views of Morris and Skinner on education, history, science, and the growth of knowledge in utopia.
5. Compare and contrast the ways in which the interests of the individual and those of society are brought into harmony in the utopian societies.

Write an essay on ONE of the themes suggested below or on a theme of your choosing that comes within the scope of the ideas in the next paragraph.

Using the principles derived from your reading, look at the art and the society around you. Does the artist serve any real function? Is his product of any value beyond luxury ornamentation? Can we lead our lives without him or his product? What connects the artist to society? Focus your answer on one area of the arts, considering a broad definition to the term art. Consider painting, sculpture, architecture, city planning, music, literature, and advertising as possible art forms. Consider the examples given below, but do not feel you must write only according to these models. These are provided as suggestions to help orient your thinking:

1. Architecture: How would Ruskin's theories of the relation of architecture to society apply today? Does the architect serve society or create to bolster his own ego or to further the narrow interest of big business? Suggested reading: Modern Movements in Architecture by Charles Jencks, who discusses the complexities of contemporary architectural developments and their relation to society, especially with politics.
2. Handicrafts: Morris called for the handicraft as a means to create a good life for the worker. Consider the many independent handicraftsmen working today. Jewelers, potters, sandal and handbag makers work in small shops and sell their wares on the streets. Consider them and compare their life-styles with the designers for large factories that mass-produce the same goods but for large quantity sale through large department stores. Can one say that one type of artist is serving society but the other is not? What are the relative merits of each situation? Suggested reading: Craft Horizons Magazine, a periodical devoted to modern handicrafts; Social Radicalism and the Arts by Donald Drew Egbert, who discusses the Bauhaus, the experimental German art school that developed the aesthetics of machine production of craft wares.
3. Music: Many musicians have accepted technology as a fact of life and have created electronic music. Such artists include John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Yannis Xenaxis. Some claim they are benefiting society by making us aware of the realities of the machine with its sound and speed. Others contend that the music is unlistenable and disturbing, provoking malaise and even violence as does the machine itself. What are the merits of these positions? Suggested reading: The Bride and the Bachelors by Calvin Tomkins, who talks about five avant-garde artists, including John Cage, explaining their theories and creations; Composers of Tomorrow's Music by David Ewen, who talks about the electronic music of Stockhausen and Xenaxis.
4. Sculpture/Painting: Look at the art of either contemporary Russia or China. Consider the Communist insistence that art should serve society. Look at the socialist-realist style that attempts to persuade the viewer through story-telling. What are the merits of such art? Suggested reading: Mao Tse-Tung's Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art wherein he states the aesthetic position of Communist China; Rent Collection Courtyard, a picture book showing a life-sized social realist sculpture in modern China; Donald Drew Egbert's book, Social Radicalism and the Arts, wherein both the arts of Red China and Russia are discussed.
5. Literature: Study the perceptions of African writers about their role in the new societies of Africa. What are the elements of a literature of commitment? Suggested reading: G.D. Killam, ed., African Writers on African Writing (a collection of essays by African writers on their role); Per Wastberg, ed., The Writer in Modern Africa (Report of an African-Scandinavian Writers' Conference, 1967, on the theme "the writer in the modern African society, his individuality and his social commitment.").

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