English 167H: The Ethical Gangster: Especially Juicy Moral Dilemmas and
the Moral Psychology that Underlies Them
Tuesday & Thursday 1:15pm - 3:05pm
200-305
Professor Blakey Vermeule
Office: 325 Margaret Jacks Hall
Office hours: Tuesday Thursday 3:15-4:45
e-mail: vermeule@stanford.edu
Teaching Assistant: Dan Kim
e-mail: dankim12@stanford.edu
“Capitalism is the legitimate racket of the ruling class”---Al Capone
Since the 17th-century, stories about gangsters—hardened, often violent
criminals who build networks of criminal activity and operate outside the norms of
ordinary society—have magnetized poets, fiction writers, and filmmakers.
It is a striking and perhaps unappreciated fact of modern literature that much
very direct moral talk—talk about moral dilemmas, talk about how to behave in
ethically challenging situations, talk about serious ethical compromises and
lapses—gets presented to us through gangster fiction—not just crime fiction, but
fiction about organized crime. Why should this genre, in particular, be so fruitful
for the dramatic staging of ethical challenges? In this course we will address the
question of why gangster fiction has been so popular and what its popularity can
tell us about characteristically modern ethical dilemmas and core issues in moral
psychology.
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The class will consider such topics as when and under what conditions we root
for evil; the so-called puzzle of imaginative resistance (dating to Hume, who
claimed that we resist fictional scenarios that challenge our moral intuitions much
more readily than we resist scenarios that just seem implausible); how moral
dilemmas—especially those involving the greatest good for the greatest number-are framed with reference to competing interest groups; and why tribes (and their
breakdown in the modern world) are an especially fruitful background for the sorts
of fictional scenarios that prime our ethical intuitions. These core issues include the
nature of justice and injustice, what it means to live an ethical life, whether moral
psychology is fixed or changes in relation to circumstances, the relative nature of
good and evil, and the difference between gangsters and successful legitimate
politicians who use similar methods.
Watch
Chase, David. “The Sopranos” (Selections)
Coppola, Francis Ford. “The Godfather” and “The Godfather 2”
Glazer, Jonathan. “Sexy Beast”
Kazan, Elia. “On the Waterfront”
LeRoy, Mervyn. “Little Caesar”
Newell, Mike. “Donnie Brasco”
Scorsese, Martin. “The Departed”
Scorsese, Martin. “Goodfellas”
Tarantino, Quentin. “Pulp Fiction”
Read
Baumeister, Roy. Is There Anything Good About Men? How Cultures Flourish by
Exploiting Men (2010)
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Bloom, Paul. Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil. Crown, 2013.
Greene, Joshua David. Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap between Us
and Them, 2013.
Henry Fielding, Jonathan Wild (Selections)
John Milton, Paradise Lost (selections)
Course requirements
1 Active reading, attendance, and participation in class—both in lecture
and section
2. 7 400 to 500 word papers, due at the rate of slightly less than one a week.
3. A take-home final examination due at the end of the regularly scheduled
examination time for this class
Schedule of Readings and Assignments
Week 1
Omerta
Tuesday April 1
Introduction to Class
Thursday April 3
Read Baumeister, Chapters 1-3;
Watch “Little Caesar” in class
Week 2
Omerta continued
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Tuesday April 8
Read Baumeister, Chapters 5 through 8
Watch “On the Waterfront”
Thursday April 10 Baumeister chapters 9 and 11 (10 is optional);
“Waterfront” discussion continued
Week 3
Good and Evil
Tuesday April 15
Read Paul Bloom (first quarter)
Watch “The Departed”
Thursday April 17
Read Bloom (second quarter)
“Departed” discussion continued
Week 4
Good and Evil continued
Tuesday April 22
Thursday April 24
Week 5
Read Bloom (third quarter)
Watch “Sexy Beast”
Read Bloom (finish)
“Sexy Beast” discussion continued
The Godfather and His Legacy
Tuesday April 29 Watch “The Godfather”
Thursday May 1
Week 6
Watch “The Godfather Part 2”
The Godfather and His Legacy continued
Tuesday May 6 Watch “Goodfellas”
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Thursday May 8 Watch “Donnie Brasco”
Week 7
God and Satan
Tuesday May 13 Read Milton Books 1 and 2
Thursday May 15 Read Milton Book 3; Fielding (Selections)
Week 8
Tribes and Tribal Ethics
Tuesday May 20 Read Greene (first quarter);
Watch “The Sopranos” (selections)
Thursday May 22 Read Greene (second quarter)
Sopranos continued
Week 9
Tribes and Tribal Ethics continued
Tuesday May 27 Read Greene (third quarter); Sopranos (selections)
Thursday May 29 Read Greene (finish)
Sopranos continued
Week 10
Tuesday June 3
Wrap up: Tarantino, comic genius
Watch “Pulp Fiction”
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Grading:
I am going to be doing the grading on a point system. You can decide how much
effort to put into this class based on what kind of grade you want.
1. Seven 400- to 500 word papers.
Instead of writing the standard two papers over the course of the quarter, I
will ask you to write a short (roughly 2 page double spaced) paper (almost)
every week. You can pick which seven weeks in which to write papers
depending on your own schedule.
These papers will be due on Friday of each week by 5 pm. Please send a copy
both to me and to the TA. If the paper is not turned in by 5 pm on Friday, we
will consider that you have not written a paper for that week, unless you
have a very good reason, one that you have given us in advance.
These papers will be graded either Pass or High Pass.
Pass = 7 points
High pass = 9 points
So if you get a High Pass on all seven papers, you will get 63 points for this
section of the course.
If you get Pass on all 7 papers, you will get 49 points for this section of the
course.
If a paper is more than two days late with no excuse proffered in advance,
you can’t get a HP on it.
2. Presence/Active participation in lectures and sections (which doesn’t necessarily
mean talking--just being awake and alert and intellectually present) in each class
will be worth 3/4 of a point.
There are 19 lectures and 9 sections for a total of 28 classes. You may skip
one class without penalty. After that every unexcused absence will reduce
your point total for the class by ¾.
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So if you show up at 27 classes, you will get 20 points for this section of the
class (well really 20.25--and I promise if you show up to all classes to give you
that extra ¼ point).
3. The take home final will be graded Pass or High Pass.
Pass = 14 points
High Pass = 17 points
How this works: if you are happy with a B in the class, you can write seven papers
with a grade of Pass (which means writing the papers up to a decent standard),
come to all lectures and sections, and write the take-home final with a grade of
Pass. This will give you 83 points. (49 + 20 + 14).
If you want a higher grade, you can put effort into making your papers and the
take-home final excellent. I will explain what this means in class.
If you are happy with a lower grade, you can skip classes and even skip writing one
of the papers should you choose.
Required Texts (Available in the Bookstore, although all of these are also
available as electronic books).
Baumeister, Roy. Is There Anything Good About Men? How Cultures Flourish by
Exploiting Men (2010)
Bloom, Paul. Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil. Crown, 2013.
Greene, Joshua David. Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap between Us
and Them, 2013.
Copies of the films will be placed on reserve in Green Library.
I will supply one copy to the class every week so you can take it and watch it
together on your own.
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Please also subscribe to Netflix or to some other video rental site (iTunes, Amazon,
Google Play etc.)
CourseWork: Other required readings will be announced along the way and
available via the “Materials” section of our CourseWork site. Please also check the
CourseWork site for announcements regarding readings and assignments, and for
supporting materials and links.
Policies and Expectations
I have a strict no gadget policy including laptops. Please switch off phones and
other electronics. I will consider exceptions to this rule in cases of compelling need.
The Honor Code applies to all the work for this class. Here is a link to the Honor
Code
http://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/communitystandards/policy/honor-code
If you require any particular accommodation or assistance in taking this class,
please speak to me at the earliest possible point. If you have a letter from the
Office of Accessible Education, please send this to me.
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