Course Form
I. Summary of Proposed Changes
Dept / Program
Philosophy
Course Title
Emerson and Thoreau
Prefix and Course #
Short Title (max. 26 characters incl. spaces)
Emerson and Thoreau
Summarize the change(s) proposed
New, Permanent Course
II. Endorsement/Approvals
Complete the form and obtain signatures before submitting to Faculty Senate Office
Please type / print name Signature
Requestor:
Paul Muench
Phone/ email :
x2351
Program Chair/Director:
Paul Muench
Other affected programs
Jill Bergman,
English
Dean:
PHL 331
Date
Chris Comer, CAS
Are other departments/programs affected by this
Please obtain signature(s) from the
modification because of
Chair/Director of any such department/
(a) required courses incl. prerequisites or corequisites,
program (above) before submission
(b) perceived overlap in content areas
(c) cross-listing of coursework
III: To Add a New Course Syllabus and assessment information is required (paste syllabus into
section V or attach). Course should have internal coherence and clear focus.
Common Course Numbering Review (Department Chair Must Initial):
YES
NO
Does an equivalent course exist elsewhere in the MUS? Check all relevant disciplines if
x
course is interdisciplinary. (http://www.mus.edu/Qtools/CCN/ccn_default.asp)
If YES: Do the proposed abbreviation, number, title and credits align with existing course(s)? Please indicate
equivalent course/campus. 
If NO: Course may be unique, but is subject to common course review. Be sure to include learning outcomes
on syllabus or paste below. The course number may be changed at the system level.
See attached syllabus. The requested course number is presently not being used in the MUS.
Exact entry to appear in the next catalog (Specify course abbreviation, level, number, title, credits,
repeatability (if applicable), frequency of offering, prerequisites, and a brief description.) 
U PHL 331 Emerson and Thoreau 3 cr. Offered intermittently. Prereq., upper-division standing or consent
of instr. Emerson and Thoreau as philosophers. Reading and interpretation of selected works.
Justification: How does the course fit with the existing curriculum? Why is it needed?
In the previous academic year (2010-11), the Department of Philosophy reorganized its upper-division course
offerings with the aim, in part, of distinguishing more sharply between courses that are appropriate for a
general, upper-division audience and those that are intended primarily for philosophy majors and
graduate students. 300-level courses are now, for the most part, designed with a general audience in
mind while 400-level courses are aimed at majors/minors of philosophy. This course will increase
the department’s 300-level offerings, allowing us to better serve the university at large. It was
successfully taught as an experimental course in the autumn semester, 2010.
Are there curricular adjustments to accommodate teaching this course?
N/A. This will be rotated into the instructor’s regular course load.
Complete for UG courses (UG courses should be assigned a 400 number).
Describe graduate increment - see procedure 301.30
http://umt.edu/facultysenate/committees/grad_council/procedures/default.aspx
Complete for Co-convented courses
Companion course number, title, and description (include syllabus of companion course in section V)
See procedure 301.20 http://umt.edu/facultysenate/committees/grad_council/procedures/default.aspx.
New fees and changes to existing fees are only approved once each biennium by the
Board of Regents. The coordination of fee submission is administered by
Administration and Finance. Fees may be requested only for courses meeting specific
conditions according to Policy 940.12.1 http://mus.edu/borpol/bor900/940-121.pdf . Please indicate whether this course will be considered for a fee.
If YES, what is the proposed amount of the fee?
Justification:
IV. To Delete or Change an Existing Course – check X all that apply
Deletion
Title
Course Number Change
From:
Level U, UG, G
Co-convened
To:
Description Change
Change in Credits
From:
To:
Prerequisites
1. Current course information at it appears in catalog
(http://www.umt.edu/catalog) 
YES
NO
x
From:
To:
Repeatability
Cross Listing
(primary
program initiates
form)
Is there a fee associated with the
course?
2. Full and exact entry (as proposed) 
3. If cross-listed course: secondary program & course
number
4. If co-convened course: companion course number, title, and description
(include syllabus of companion course in section V) See procedure 301.20
http://umt.edu/facultysenate/committees/grad_council/procedures/default.aspx.
5. Is this a course with MUS Common Course Numbering?
http://www.mus.edu/Qtools/CCN/ccn_default.asp
If yes, please explain below whether this change will eliminate the course’s common course
status.
YES NO
6. Graduate increment if level of course is changed to UG. Have you reviewed the graduate
Reference procedure 301.30:
increment guidelines? Please check (X)
space provided.
http://umt.edu/facultysenate/committees/
grad_council/procedures/default.aspx
(syllabus required in section V)
7. Other programs affected by the change
8. Justification for proposed change
V. Syllabus/Assessment Information (must include learning outcomes)
Required for new courses and course change from U to UG. Paste syllabus in field below or attach and send
digital copy with form.
See attached syllabus.
VI Department Summary (Required if several forms are submitted) In a separate document list course
number, title, and proposed change for all proposals.
VII Copies and Electronic Submission. After approval, submit original, one copy, summary of
proposals and electronic file to the Faculty Senate Office, UH 221, camie.foos@mso.umt.edu.
Revised 8-23-11
Philosophy 391
Prof. Paul Muench (pronounced “Minch”)
University of Montana
Fall 2010
office: LA 155 office hours: T 12:30-2, W 2-3:30, or by appointment
mailbox: LA 101 email:
office phone: (406) 243-2351
______________________________________________________________________________
Emerson and Thoreau
Monday/Wednesday, 12:10-1:30 p.m., Liberal Arts 146
Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau have long been celebrated as writers
who helped to establish a distinctively American literature. In the process, however, their
significance as philosophers has often been overlooked. In this course we will read a
number of Emerson’s essays (including “Self-Reliance”) and then undertake a close
reading of Thoreau’s Walden. Our goal will be to try to recover the sense in which
Emerson and Thoreau are, first and foremost, philosophers who seek to equip their
readers with the tools for a better life.
Course Requirements
1.
2.
3.
Attendance/Participation
Short Papers
Longer Papers
10%
20%
70%
Course Objectives
After completing this course, you should be able to think and write critically about
several philosophical texts written by Emerson and Thoreau. You will be able to
articulate what you find valuable about a given text and also able to offer reasons and
appeal to textual evidence to support your individual judgments. You will also be given
the opportunity to apply some of the ethical insights expressed in these texts to your own
life.
Readings
Books
These books are required and can be purchased at the UM bookstore (it may also be
worth checking the prices at www.amazon.com or www.bookfinder.com); they are on
two hour reserve in Mansfield Library.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Emerson, Nature and Selected Essays, ed. Larcer Ziff (Penguin, 1982; ISBN 978-014-243762-9).
Thoreau, Civil Disobedience and Other Essays (Dover Publications, 1993; ISBN 0486-27563-9).
Thoreau, Walden (Dover Publications, 1995; ISBN 0-486-28495-6).
Thoreau, Walden: A Fully Annotated Edition, ed. Jeffrey S. Cramer (Yale University
Press, 2004; ISBN 0-300-10466-9).
Page 1 of 9
Additional Required Readings (Course Packet)
PDFs of additional individual readings will be made available in Blackboard. If you want
to print out all of the required readings, I will make available a PDF of the entire Course
Packet. I suggest that you print this file at Campus Quick Copy and have it bound.
Double-sided printing costs $0.13 per page. The file is formatted to be printed doublesided with the pages being flipped on the long edge (portrait).
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
Robert Sattelmeyer, “Thoreau and Emerson,” Cambridge Companion to Henry
David Thoreau, ed. Joel Myerson (Cambridge University Press, 1995), 25-39.
R. W. B. Lewis, “The Case Against the Past,” The American Adam (University of
Chicago Press, 1955), 13-27.
Plato, Apology, 3rd ed., trans. G. M. A. Grube (Hackett, 2000), 19A-23B.
Stanley Cavell, “Emerson,” Cities of Words (Harvard University Press, 2004), 19-34.
Russell B. Goodman, “Ralph Waldo Emerson,” American Philosophy and the
Romantic Tradition (Cambridge University Press, 1990), 34-57; 139-144.
Walter Harding, “Thoreau’s Reputation,” Cambridge Companion to Henry David
Thoreau, ed. Joel Myerson (Cambridge University Press, 1995), 1-11.
Edward Waldo Emerson, Henry Thoreau as Remembered By a Young Friend (Dover
Publications, 1999).
Walter Harding, “Five Ways of Looking at Walden,” The Massachusetts Review 4:1
(1962), 149-162.
Kelly Dean Jolley, “Thoreau as Philosopher,” Reason Papers 21 (1996), 3-4.
Kelly Dean Jolley, “Walden: Philosophy and Knowledge of Humankind,” Reason
Papers 21 (1996), 36-52.
Kelly Dean Jolley, “Wittgenstein and Thoreau (and Cavell): The Ordinary
Weltanschauung,” Reason Papers 19 (1994), 3-12.
E. B. White, “A Slight Sound at Evening,” Twentieth Century Interpretations of
Walden, ed. Richard Ruland (Prentice-Hall, 1968), 27-33.
E. B. White, “Henry Thoreau,” Twentieth Century Interpretations of Walden,
ed. Richard Ruland (Prentice-Hall, 1968), 113-114.
Blackboard
This course has a site on Blackboard (https://login.umt.edu/cas/login). For more
information on how to access Blackboard, go to http://www.umt.edu/ce/bbuserguide.
Email
Any email that I send to the class will be sent to your university email address via
Blackboard. If you use another email address (such as gmail or yahoo), please forward
your university email to this other account. For directions on how to do this see
http://www.umt.edu/it/email/umconnect_faq.aspx (click, “How do I forward my
UMConnect mail to an external email account?”).
Accommodation for Disabilities
Whenever possible, and in accordance with civil rights laws, the University of Montana
will attempt to provide reasonable modifications to courses for students with disabilities
who request and require them. Please feel free to set up a time with me to discuss any
modifications to this course you may require. For more information, contact Disability
Page 2 of 9
Services for Students (http://life.umt.edu/dss), located in the Lommasson Center, room
154.
Attendance and Participation
Your attendance and participation are crucial for the success of this class and will play a
significant role in determining whether or not our time together proves to be intellectually
challenging and fulfilling. As many of you probably know, it is a university requirement
that you attend all class meetings for courses in which you are enrolled
(http://www.umt.edu/catalog/acad/acadpolicy/default.html#attendance). In my
experience, students also get the most out of those classes that they regularly attend. In
this course I will take attendance. Everyone may miss three classes, no questions asked
(and no justifications/explanations required). After that, each absence will reduce your
attendance/participation grade by 10% (that is, 1% of your final grade). If you have to
miss a class, it is your responsibility to hand in ahead of time any work that is due and to
obtain any new assignments that are handed out.
Participation has many facets and might be compared to citizenship. Those who
are good classroom citizens are those who do three things: (i) come to class prepared,
having read and thought about the assignment; (ii) take an active role in class discussions,
sharing their critical insights and raising questions that help to generate further discussion
and reflection; (iii) take an active role in learning the names of and respectfully listening
to their fellow classmates, and in helping to foster a learning environment where all feel
welcome to participate and respected as fellow inquirers regardless of the extent to which
we may or may not happen to agree about a given topic under investigation.
Short Papers
You will be required to write five short papers, each of which should be no longer than
one single-spaced, typed page (with normal margins and 12 point font size). These
assignments will be worth 20% of your final grade. I will count the four best short papers
you submit. Short papers cannot be handed in late.
Longer Papers
You will be required to write two longer papers, the first on Emerson, the second on
Thoreau. The Emerson paper should be about 5-6 pages and will be worth 30% of your
final grade. The Thoreau paper should be about 7-8 pages and will be worth 40% of your
final grade. Longer papers that are handed in late will normally be penalized one-third of
a letter grade for each day that they are late.
The Art of Reading
Reading, like writing, is an art that can only be acquired through extensive and intensive
practice. In general, you should plan to read each assignment for this course two times
before you come to class: (i) read it through once to get a sense of the overall shape of the
discussion and what the chief issues and questions seem to be; (ii) read it a second time,
reading more slowly and with an eye to how the different parts hang together. As
Thoreau put it, “To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble
exercise, and one that will task the reader more than any exercise which the customs of
the day esteem. It requires a training such as the athletes underwent, the steady intention
almost of the whole life to this object. Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly
Page 3 of 9
as they were written. […] [T]his only is reading, in a high sense, not that which lulls us as
a luxury and suffers the nobler faculties to sleep the while, but what we have to stand on
tip-toe to read and devote our most alert and wakeful hours to” (“Reading,” Walden).
Plagiarism/Academic Dishonesty
I will not tolerate cheating or plagiarism or other forms of academic dishonesty in this
course. In addition to being a violation of the University of Montana Student Conduct
Code (http://life.umt.edu/vpsa/student_conduct.php), cheating and plagiarizing also harm
your fellow students by giving you an unfair advantage, and harm you since you thereby
fail to take yourself seriously. While I think it is pretty self-evident what cheating is,
people are not always clear about what plagiarism is. To start, plagiarism can be defined
as a form of intellectual stealing and cheating. The Latin root means “to kidnap” and
vividly captures what is at stake: when you plagiarize you steal someone else’s
intellectual child and pretend that you are its true parent. Specific examples of plagiarism
include: (i) incorporating material from somewhere else (a book, an article, a website, an
encyclopedia entry) without properly documenting this (and thereby giving the true
author credit for her or his work); (ii) handing in work that you did not do (e.g., by
purchasing a paper on the Internet or downloading text that you simply insert into your
own paper or borrowing a paper that another student wrote). In general, the first instance
of cheating or plagiarism or other forms of academic dishonesty will result in a failing
grade (“F”) for the course. Any instance of cheating or plagiarism or other forms of
academic dishonesty is also subject to University sanction. If you have any questions
about whether or not something might constitute plagiarism, please feel free to contact
me; see also http://www.library.ualberta.ca/guides/plagiarism.
Schedule of Readings and Written Assignments
(Subject to change with advance notice)
CDOE = Civil Disobedience and Other Essays
CP = Course Packet (available in Blackboard)
NSE = Nature and Selected Essays
α = Alpha group short paper due
β = Beta group short paper due
γ = Gamma group short paper due
δ = Delta group short paper due
Week 1
M 8/30
Introduction
W 9/1
Background
(1) Sattelmeyer, “Thoreau and Emerson,” Cambridge Companion to
Henry David Thoreau, 25-39 (CP #1)
(2) Lewis, “The Case Against the Past,” The American Adam, 13-27
(CP #2)
Page 4 of 9
Week 2
M 9/6
No Class (Labor Day)
Part One: Emerson
W 9/8
(1) Emerson, “The American Scholar,” NSE, 83-105
(2) Plato, Apology, 19A-23B (CP #3)
Short Paper #1 Due
Week 3
M 9/13
Emerson, “Divinity Address,” NSE, 107-127
α: Short Paper #2 Due
W 9/15
Emerson, “Self-Reliance,” NSE, 175-203
β: Short Paper #2 Due
Week 4
M 9/20
(1) Emerson, “Self-Reliance” (cont.)
(2) Cavell, “Emerson,” Cities of Words, 19-34 (CP #4)
γ: Short Paper #2 Due
W 9/22
(1) Emerson, “Circles,” NSE, 225-238
(2) Emerson, “Experience,” NSE, 285-311
δ: Short Paper #2 Due
Week 5
M 9/27
(1) Emerson, “Experience” (cont.)
(2) Emerson, “Fate,” NSE, 361-391
α: Short Paper #3 Due
W 9/29
Emerson, “Fate” (cont.)
Emerson Paper Topics Handed Out
β: Short Paper #3 Due
Week 6
M 10/4
No Class
Goodman, “Ralph Waldo Emerson,” American Philosophy and the
Romantic Tradition, 34-57; 139-144 (CP #5)
W 10/6
Emerson, Nature, NSE, 35-82
γ: Short Paper #3 Due
Week 7
M 10/11
Workshop Emerson Paper
W 10/13
Emerson, Nature (cont.)
δ: Short Paper #3 Due
Page 5 of 9
Part Two: Thoreau
Week 8
M 10/18
(1) Thoreau, “Walking,” CDOE, 49-74
(2) Harding, “Thoreau’s Reputation,” Cambridge Companion to Henry
David Thoreau, 1-11 (CP #6)
Emerson Paper Due
W 10/20
Week 9
M 10/25
W 10/27
(1) Thoreau, “Walking” (cont.)
(2) Emerson, “Thoreau,” NSE, 393-415
(3) Edward Emerson, Henry Thoreau as Remembered By a Young Friend
(CP #7)
Thoreau, Walden
(1) Thoreau, “Economy,” Walden
(2) Harding, “Five Ways of Looking at Walden,” The Massachusetts
Review 4:1, 149-162 (CP #8)
α: Short Paper #4 Due
Week 10
M 11/1
(1) Thoreau, “Economy” (cont.)
(2) Jolley, “Thoreau as Philosopher,” Reason Papers 21, 3-4 (CP #9)
(3) Jolley, “Walden: Philosophy and Knowledge of Humankind,” Reason
Papers 21, 36-52 (CP #10)
β: Short Paper #4 Due
W 11/3
(1) Thoreau, “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For” and “Reading,”
Walden
(2) Jolley, “Wittgenstein and Thoreau (and Cavell): The Ordinary
Weltanschauung,” Reason Papers 19, 3-12 (CP #11)
γ: Short Paper #4 Due
Week 11
M 11/8
Thoreau, “Sounds” and “Solitude,” Walden
δ: Short Paper #4 Due
W 11/10
Thoreau, “Visitors” and “The Bean-Field,” Walden
α: Short Paper #5 Due
Week 12
M 11/15
Interlude: Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience,” CDOE, 1-18
β: Short Paper #5 Due
W 11/17
Thoreau, “The Village” and “The Ponds,” Walden
γ: Short Paper #5 Due
Page 6 of 9
Week 13
M 11/22
Thoreau, “Baker Farm,” “Higher Laws,” and “Brute Neighbors,” Walden
δ: Short Paper #5 Due
W 11/24
Week 14
M 11/29
W 12/1
No Class (Thanksgiving Vacation)
Thoreau, “House-Warming” and “Former Inhabitants; and Winter
Visitors,” Walden
Thoreau, “Winter Animals” and “The Pond in Winter,” Walden
Thoreau Paper Topics Handed Out
Week 15
M 12/6
(1) Thoreau, “Spring” and “Conclusion,” Walden
(2) White, “A Slight Sound at Evening,” Twentieth Century
Interpretations of Walden, 27-33 (CP #12)
(3) White, “Henry Thoreau,” Twentieth Century Interpretations of
Walden, 113-114 (CP #13)
W 12/8
Thoreau, “Life Without Principle,” CDOE, 75-90
Week 16
M 12/13
Conclusion
W 12/15
Thoreau Paper Due
Page 7 of 9