Course Description
and Objectives
This course is an advanced introduction to
three European philosophers who made major contributions to thinking about the
philosophical and practical significance of religion in the modern world: Baruch
Spinoza, Immanuel Kant, and Moses Mendelssohn. In reading
works by these thinkers, questions we will explore include: What is the relation
of religion to reason, or to philosophical thinking? What role might
religion have in the pursuit of moral goodness, or freedom, and what does it
have to look like in order to fulfill this role? How has Scripture served
as a resource for philosophical investigation into such questions? And
finally: In the predominantly Christian context in which the works we will read
were written, how do these thinkers envision the difference between Christianity
and Judaism; and what significance, if any, does this difference have for their
conception of religion?
A core objective of this class is to develop
skills of close reading, textual
analysis, and strong writing. The assignments are
designed for students to use and improve those skills. The course is structured in a way that encourages students to
approach their education as a process that both requires and rewards active
engagement. Because the course
presupposes that successful education requires the active, informed
participation of students, participants are required to complete assigned
readings prior to the course meeting at which they will be discussed, to attend
all sessions, and to participate actively in class meetings.
Preparation for, attendance at, and participation in class meetings are required and will count toward the final grade.
Course Readings
You can generally obtain these in a number of ways - see details for each
title on the syllabus.
You must have your own copy of all the texts to be
discussed--with the same pagination as the edition selected for the class--whether
in book or xeroxed form, so that you can mark them as you read and can be prepared to refer to specific passages in
class.
Course Requirements
- One written summary of a selection from the reading (2-3 pages)
- Two papers (6-8 pages each)
- Attendance is mandatory, since participating in in-class work is
crucial to successful completion of this course. If you need to be
absent from a class session, please notify me, preferably by e-mail, and be
sure to ask a classmate to fill you in on what you missed.
- For
each class, (usually) two students will work together to prepare a 2-3-page well-written
summary or "protocol" of the issues discussed during the
previous class. This protocol
should be e-mailed to the instructor the day before class. Copies
of the protocol will be distributed to all participants and will be read
and discussed at the beginning of class. In
addition to reviewing the material covered in class, the summary should return
to the primary text to fill in any inclarities that may have been left over from
the reading, address problems that class discussion may have raised or left
unanswered, and, if possible, articulate new questions for the weeks to come. The best protocols will be those that do not simply report verbatim and
in sequence everything that was said in class but that organize the material
thematically, highlight points that were significant and leave out aspects that
were less important.
- Participation, including: reading the material carefully ahead of
time and raising points and questions about it in class, work on protocols
and oral presentations, and communicating with
the instructor outside of class about course matters.
-
OPTIONAL: As part of your
participation in this course, you are encouraged to prepare a short (10-15 min.)
oral presentation
on an aspect of the week's reading - as with the protocols, it would be ideal
for two students to work together on presentations. Suitable topics and
ideas for how to do this to be
discussed with the instructor.
Grades are based on Written Summary (10%), First Paper (20%),
Second Paper (25%), and Participation/Protocol/Presentation (45%).
Failure to write any of the assignments (the summary, the two papers, and the
protocol), or 4 unexcused absences from class,
constitute sufficient grounds for earning an "F" in the class.
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McMaster University has a strict policy
concerning Academic Integrity: "Academic dishonesty
consists of misrepresentation by deception or by other fraudulent means
and can result in serious consequences, e.g., the grade of zero on an
assignment, loss of credit with a notation on the transcript (notation
reads: "Grade of F assigned for academic dishonesty"), and/or
suspension or expulsion from the university.
It is your responsibility to understand what
constitutes academic dishonesty. For information on the various kinds of
academic dishonesty please refer to the Academic
Integrity Policy, specifically Appendix 3.
The following illustrates only three forms of academic
dishonesty: 1. Plagiarism,
e.g., the submission of work that is not one's own or for which other
credit has been obtained. 2. Improper collaboration in group work. 3. Copying
or using unauthorized aids in tests and examinations."
Please let me know if you have any
questions on how this policy applies to your work for this course.
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You are advised to retain copies of any written work you
submit for this class, and all your research notes, until you have received an
official grade.
SCHEDULE OF READINGS
September 13 -
class cancelled due to illness
September 20
Baruch Spinoza, Theological-Political Treatise (1670),
trans. Samuel Shirley [purchase book]: Preface, chaps. 1-2.
Alternate translation: Benedict Spinoza, Theologico-Political
Treatise, trans. Martin D. Yaffe [book on reserve]
Background Reading on Spinoza:
Steven Nadler, "Baruch
Spinoza" (2001/2005) in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
[online]: 1. Biography; 2. Ethics: read until the end of the section on
"God or Nature"; and glance at 3. Theological-Political Treatise -
which will be a useful resource to consult as you work through the TTP.
Rebecca Goldstein, Betraying Spinoza. The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us
Modernity (2006), chap. 2 [book on reserve; chapter distributed as handout]:
"In Search of Baruch" - esp. pp. 17-48 (pp. 49 ff. are not so
important for our purposes)
For those who are interested, see additional
materials on the book Betraying Spinoza on the publisher's website
(Nextbook), as well as this interview
with author Rebecca Goldstein.
September 27
Theological-Political Treatise, chaps. 3-5
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Assignment (to be completed by Group 1):
Written Summary of TTP chap. 3.
In preparing this assignment, please consult:
- Hugo Bedau, Thinking and Writing About Philosophy, 2nd ed.
(2002), pp. 7-15 [handout/make a personal copy from the master copy in the
Religious Studies Department office, UH 104 - see top drawer of file
cabinet in the corner]
- Gordon Harvey, Writing with Sources, pp. 1-5; 20
("Abbreviated Citation for Frequently Used Sources"), and 37-38
("In-Text Style for the Humanities") [photocopy on
reserve/handout]
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October 4 - NO CLASS - instructor at a conference
October 11
Assignment (to be completed by Group 2):
Written Summary of TTP chap. 6 (see instructions for last week)
Spinoza, Theological-Political Treatise, chaps. 5-7
October 18
wrap-up Spinoza
| NOTE: the references below are to the marginal
page numbers of Kant's Grounding; these refer to the pagination
of the standard German edition and appear in most English-language
editions of this work. Please use these page numbers in your
citations to this work. |
Immanuel Kant, Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals (1785),
trans. James W. Ellington [purchase book],First
Section:
- marginal pages 393-94 ("...to determine its value")
- 397 (the definition of duty) (optional: read what follows about the
examples)
- 399 ("The second proposition...") - 404 top ("...as the
standard of judgment")
from Grounding, Second Section:
- 413, 2nd paragraph ("All imperatives are expressed...") - 415,
1st paragraph ("...apodeictic practical principle")
- 428, 2nd complete paragraph ("Now I say that man,...) - 429
("...carried out in practice) (optional: read what follows about
the examples)
- optional: 432 ("When we look back...") - 433 ("...as
ends and means")
Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason (1788), trans. Mary Gregor
(Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997) [handout/make personal copy from book on
reserve]: pp. 100-110. German edition here
FIRST PAPER
ASSIGNMENT - due November 6 or November 10. See also Tips
for Writing an Effective Paper.
October 25
Kant, selection from Critique of
Practical Reason, cont'd.
November 1 - class meeting
extended to 9:00 p.m.
Kant, "On the Miscarriage of All Philosophical Trials in Theodicy"
(1791), trans. George di Giovanni, in Kant, Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason and Other Writings
[purchase book/make personal copy from book on reserve] - to
p. 26 (i.e., skip "Concluding Remark")
Supplementary:
- Book of Job
- Michel Despland's alternative translation of Kant's essay can be found
under the title "On the Failure of All Attempted Philosophical
Theodicies" in Despland, Kant on History and Religion (1973)
[book on reserve]: pp. 283-97
November 8
finish discussion of Kant, "On the Miscarriage of All Philosophical Trials in Theodicy"
Kant, Religion within the
Boundaries of Mere Reason (1792/1793), trans. George di Giovanni [purchase
book/make personal copy from book on reserve]:
pp. 109-122 (i.e., Sections III-VI); Section VII: p. 128 ("We have reason to
say...) - p. 129; Division 2: pp. 129-39
MAKEUP SESSION Friday, November 10, 4-6 p.m.
finish discussion of Kant, Religion within the
Boundaries of Mere Reason
FIRST PAPER due November 6 or November 10
November 15
Mendelssohn, Jerusalem, or on Religious
Power and Judaism (1783), trans. Allan Arkush [purchase book]: Section I:
40-45 and 55 ("I will now leave...") -
75; Section II: 77-83 ("However...")
Background Readings:
Julius H. Schoeps, "1783. Moses Mendelssohn writes Jerusalem..."
in The Yale Companion to Jewish Writing and Thought in German Culture,
1096-1996, ed. Gilman/Zipes [handout/make copy from book on reserve or from
master copy in course file in UH 104]
Daniel
Dahlstrom, "Moses Mendelssohn" in Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy (2002) [online] - see esp. the biographical
information at the beginning and Section 6 on "Political Theory."
Alexander Altmann, "Introduction" to Mendelssohn, Jerusalem
[purchase book], pp. 3-13
November 22
Mendelssohn, Jerusalem, Section II: 84 ("I come now...") -
104 ("...a book")
November 29
Mendelssohn, Jerusalem, Section II: 117 bottom - 139 (end of book)
FINAL PAPER due December
11 by e-mail to danahol@mcmaster.ca.
Copyright © 2006 Dana Hollander
(905) 525-9140, ext. 24759* 
