Senior Humanities 2010

Good Food

Here is an open forum for comments arising out of our work on food and sustainability. 

For Wed, 02 Dec, please read Chapt 12 in the Worcester packet.  For Friday please read the chapter "Feeding the Giants" by Fernandez-Armesto.  It's likely that there will be a lecture to listen to as well for Friday.

Week #12  Sustainability

 

Drawing on your reading of Chapter 12 in Donald Worcester’s The Wealth of Nature, how would you differentiate his position on sustainable development from one of the other perspectives or positions he discusses in the chapter?

 

Hard copy due in class on Friday, 04 December.

 

To The Lighthouse

Short bio of Virginia Woolf with photos of the house in Cornwall where she summered.  TTL is set elsewhere (Isle of Skye). 

A thoughtful lecture that might help those who are having trouble understanding Woolf's style and its implications.  Not required of you, but provided as additional background should you struggle with the novel itself.

My plan is to focus on Part I on Monday, Part II on Tuesday, Part III on Wednesday.

Week #11 Woolf

 

“She could see it all so clearly, so commandingly, when she looked:  it was when she took her brush in hand that the whole thing changed.  It was in that moment’s flight between the picture and her canvas that the demons set on her who often brought her to the verge of tears and made this passage from conception to work as dreadful as any down a dark passage for a child.  Such she often felt herself—struggling against terrific odds to maintain her courage; to say:  “But this is what I see; this is what I see…”” (19)

 

 

Two options for this week’s paragraph:

 

a)  identify Lily’s “demons” that create “terrific odds” as she pursues her vision;

 

b)  discuss a specific moment where Lily’s painting is featured and explain the significance of that moment.

Expository #3 and Portfolio Instructions

Draft of expository #3 due on Monday, 07 December.

Fall term portfolios due on WEDNESDAY, 06 JANUARY 2010.  Here are the instructions for preparing your portfolio.  Download Fall Term Portfolio Instructions

Rousseau

Rousseau on

Liberty

            In class we have remarked on how difficult Rousseau’s prose can be at times and that part of our challenge as readers is to paraphrase his sentences so that we can follow his argument about the origins of inequality.  This exercise gives you a chance to show that you’ve learned how to follow Rousseau’s argument.

            On page 62, Rousseau responds to another thinker, Pufendorf, as part of his exposition on liberty.  “Pufendorf says that just as one transfers his goods to another by conventions and contracts, one can also divest himself of his liberty in favor of someone.  That, it seems to me, is very bad reasoning…” 

Please explain Rousseau’s response to Pufendorf’s position using your own words.

A hard copy of this paragraph is due on Friday, 13 November.  A second point can be earned by posting the paragraph to our course weblog by 8 AM on Friday, 13 November.

 Please also use this thread for comments about Rousseau, posting paragraphs, and so forth.

 

Download Rousseau Worksheet