HUMANITIES 548
- VALUES AND MORALITY IN 20TH CENTURY THOUGHT

BOOKS REQUIRED

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.

WRITTEN EXAM
(To be done when reading for Section I is completed)

Objective: (10 pts - 2 each)

1. Which of the following would be meaningful for Ayer?

2. Which of the following is/are true for Ayer?

3. Give two examples of analytic statements.

4. Give your own example of a pseudo-synthetic statement which is commonly made when people are talking about morality.

 

Short Answers: (5 points each)

  1. In a paragraph, state the principle of verification and discuss its use by Ayer.
  2. In a paragraph, discuss the significance of the verification principle for morality.
  3. Why does Sartre think that the existence of God is irrelevant to the view he expresses? (One paragraph)
  4. How has the loss of God affected moralities? (One paragraph)

Essay: No more than 5 pages (20 points)

Both Ayer and Sartre attack the ground of moral certainty. Compare and contrast their views. Which of them do you think is strongest? Why? (You should indicate why you think it is a strong attack and why it is stronger than the other.) What is your personal view of this issue? (These questions should give direction to your essay and you should deal with all of them. However, you need not deal with them in the above order.)

SECOND WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT

Choose either A or B. Essays for this section are due in Week 8 of the course.

  1. Your reading for Dr. Henschel’s section implies that the separation of fact and value and the related claim that science deals with fact alone is a false view of fact and value and of science. Assume that this is true. What effects would this view of science have on Ayer’s claims? Does your view of science offer hope for us in our moral or aesthetic plight? If not, why not? Your essay should be 5 pages in length and is due during the FINAL WEEK of the course.
  2. In Section I of the course you read Jerzy Kozinski’s novel The Painted Bird. In this section you read an essay by Professor Mahon which develops criteria which can be used to evaluate works of art. In an essay of approximately 5 pages apply Mahon’s criteria to The Painted Bird. This is an exercise in literary criticism so you are under no obligation to write a favorable review. The point of your essay should be an evaluation of the novel as a work of art.

THIRD/FOURTH WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS: Introduction to Moral Controversies

The remaining weeks in this course are directed to reading and thinking of specific moral issues. The previous portion of the course has been concerned with general questions about the place of value in our lives, and particularly, its relation to knowledge. In Gold’s text, a wide variety of issues are debated from abortion to the treatment of animals. Please read at least the introductions to all of the issues and then select two of the issues which you want to examine in some detail. Then read the whole chapter for each of those issues and write a 4-6 page essay which defines the issue and summarizes the arguments from each of the essays. Please indicate your own position on the issues - with argument of course.

FINAL: Two Writing Assignments:

WEEKLY SCHEDULE OF PROGRESS

Week 1: Read introductions, familiarize yourself with course guide. Read The Painted Bird.
Weeks 2 - 3: Ayer section, readings in course package and in Language, Truth and Logic.
Weeks 4 - 5: Sartre section, readings in course package and The Existential Tradition.

COMPLETE WRITTEN EXAM DUE AT THE END OF WEEK 5.
Weeks 6 - 7: Section II, Parts A & B (The contributions of Professors Henschel and Mahon).
Week 8: COMPLETE SECOND WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT.
Weeks 9 - 14: Section III, the Moral Controversies section including readings in the text. FINAL TWO WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS DUE AT THE END OF WEEKS 11 AND 14.

TO THE STUDENT

As those of you who have tried it must know, beginning an essay of this sort is not easy. There is a vast difference between having an idea vaguely in mind and expressing that idea on paper with the goal of making its meaning and its significance obvious to those who will read the essay. This topic, our confusion about values and morality, is one with such wide implications and serious practical significance that any attempt to deal with it completely in a one-term course is doomed from the start. Yet there must be a beginning and this essay is that beginning.

I will never get to know those who read this course. This is a fact, no matter how much we all resent it. This fact makes designing a course like this even more difficult. The humanities are human. That is, the object of study in the humanities is the work of persons much like ourselves. I am a human being who happens to be a college teacher. My own personal situation is much like yours - I have a spouse, a child, a mortgage, a car, a job, etc., etc. In spite of years of study - or perhaps because of them - I am as confused as anyone about the subject of the course. Every time I read the essays you will be asked to read, I am led to wonder. That wondering is not just professional - it is also personal and practical. I want to live a good life. I am concerned with values and with morality in my daily life. Because of that, and in the interest of revealing myself to you as the designer of this course, the following pages will describe my present situation. Through that description I will try to clarify the particular issues you will be studying.

The above remarks and the following essay were written by Dr. James Liotta, the original designer of this course. In revising it, I originally intended to rewrite these essays partly because Dr. Liotta no longer teaches at Dominguez Hills, nor does he teach in our program. Upon re-reading them, however, I am so taken with the personal style that I believe that they are more effective introductions to the subject of the course than I am likely to write. So, I am leaving them intact. - Dr. Donald Lewis

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