MODULE OUTLINE
Modern Liberal Arts
University of Winchester
Semester 2
LA 2012 Spirit: in ruins
LA 2012 Spirit: in ruins
Friday 2:00 – 4:00
MB2
Rebekah Howes
Module Learning Outcomes
Show engagement with primary sources
Show a knowledge of theoretical perspectives and/or works
Show an understanding of abstract concepts and ideas within theoretical perspectives
Show an ability to work with theorists and their concepts in various forms of assessment as appropriate
Show evidence of engagement with texts and ideas concerned with the idea of Spirit in the western
philosophical tradition
Introduction
This module introduces students to the difficult and contested notion of Spirit in the Western
tradition, with particular emphasis on the period of Enlightenment and the French Revolution. By
looking at the metaphysical, political and even musical dimensions of spirit we explore in what sense
it might express and generate some of the most profound of human experiences and ideas. By
thinking philosophically about these experiences we will in turn explore questions concerning the
significance of spirit in and for some of the most difficult, painful and controversial episodes of
human history. But we cannot do this without also understanding ways in which it has been an
instrument of collectivism, individualism, and exclusion in the course of its own development.
Weekly sessions/Readings/Wider reading
Week 1
Reading
Harris, H.S. (1995) Phenomenology and System Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc
Hegel, G.W.F. (1977) Phenomenology of Spirit, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Tucker, R.C. (1978) The Marx-Engels Reader, London: W.W. Norton
Week 2 ‘Because we suffer we acknowledge we have erred’
Reading
Harris, H.S. (1995) Phenomenology and System Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc
Hegel, G.W.F. (1977) Phenomenology of Spirit, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Wider reading
Bates, J. (2010) Hegel and Shakespeare on moral imagination, New York: SUNY Press
Hegel, G.W.F. (1975) Aesthetics Volume I, Oxford: Clarendon Press pp 8-9
Sophocles Antigone http://www.bartleby.com/8/6/antigone.pdf
Sophocles (1974) Antigone, trans. R. E. Braun, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Steiner, G. (1984) Antigones : The Antigone myth in Western literature, art and thought, Oxford:
Clarendon Press
Plutarch (1973)The Age of Alexander, Nine Greek Lives, London: Penguin
Rose, G. (1996) Mourning Becomes the Law, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Week 3
Reading
Rose, G. (2009) Hegel Contra Sociology, London: Verso pp132-139
Week 4 French Revolution
Reading
Andress, D. (2005) The Terror, Civil War in the French Revolution, London: Little, Brown
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, 1789
http://www.conseil-constitutionnel.fr/conseil-constitutionnel/root/bank_mm/anglais/cst2.pdf
Cassirer, E. (1951) The Philosophy of the Enlightenment, Princeton: Princeton University Press
Eagleton, T. (2005) Holy Terror, Oxford: Oxford Uni Press
Hegel, G.W.F. (1967) Hegel’s philosophy of Right, Oxford: Oxford Uni press
Hegel, G.W.F. (1956) Philosophy of History, New York: Dover Publications
Pippin, R. (1991) Modernism as a Philosophical Problem, Oxford: Blackwell
Wider Reading
Andress, D. ‘Liberty, Unanimity, and the Paradoxes of Subjectivity and Citizenship in the French
Revolution’ in Halfin, I. (ed) (2002) Language and Revolution: Making Modern Political Identities,
London: Frank Cass Publishers, pp 27-46
Cassirer, E. (1981) Kant’s Life and Work, New haven: Yale University Press
Comay, R. (2010) Mourning Sickness: Hegel and the French Revolution (Cultural Memory in the
Present) Stanford University Press
Condorcet (2012) Condorcet: Political Writings, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Diderot, D. (1992) Diderot: Political Writings, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Faubion, J.D. (1995) Rethinking the Subject: An Anthology of Contemporary European and Social
Thought, Boulder: Westview Press
Foucault, M. ‘What is Enlightenment?’ in Rabinow, P. (1984) (ed) The Foucault Reader, New York,
Pantheon Books, pp. 32-50.
http://sites.sdjzu.edu.cn/zhangpeizhong/what%20si%20enlightenment.pdf
Furet, F. (1981) Interpreting the French Revolution, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Furet, F. (1992) Revolutionary France, 1770-1880, Oxford: Blackwell
Gay, P. (1973) The Enlightenment: an interpretation, Vol.2, The science of freedom, London:
Weidenfeld and Nicolson
Harris, H.S. (1995) Phenomenology and System Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc 72-3
Heffernan, J. A. W, (1992) Representing the French Revolution: literature, historiography, and art
London: University Press of New England
Hegel, G.W.F. (1999) Hegel Political Writings, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press pp197-224
Israel, J. (2001) Radical enlightenment: philosophy and the making of modernity, 1650-1750, Oxford:
Oxford University Press
Kant, I. (1956) Critique of Practical Reason, London: Macmillan, pp. 30-5, 57, and Conclusion.
Kant, I. (1990) Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals, New York: Macmillan Press, pp. 29-33, 38,
44-57.
Kant, I. (1991) Kant, Political Writings, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, ed. Hans Reiss, pp.
64-72.
Marx, K. ‘Class struggle in France: The Paris Commune’ in Tucker, R.C. (1978) The Marx-Engels
Reader, New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2nd Edition
https://www.sas.upenn.edu/dcc/sites/www.sas.upenn.edu.dcc/files/uploads/condorcetintroduction
final-2-1_0.pdf
Proudhon, P. (1969) Selected writings of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, London: Macmillan
Proudhon’s Confessions of a Revolutionary, 1849 at:
http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/proudhon/1849/government.htm
Scurr, R. (2006) Fatal purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution, London: Chatto & Windus
Tocqueville, Alexis de, (2008) The Ancien Régime and the Revolution, London: Penguin Classics
Wordsworth, W. “The French Revolution As It Appeared To Enthusiasts At Its Commencement”
1809 http://nunsfretnot.livejournal.com/2130.html
Sewell, W.H. (1980) Work and revolution in France: the language of labour from the Old Regime to
1848, New York: Cambridge University Press
Voltaire, (1994) Voltaire Political Writings, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Wahnick, S. (2012) In Defence of the Terror: Liberty or Death in the French Revolution, London: Verso
Week 5
‘That which produces the general good is always terrible’ (Saint-Just) The Terror
Reading
Comay, R. (2010) Mourning Sickness: Hegel and the French Revolution (Cultural Memory in the
Present) Stanford University Press
Robespierre, M. ‘On the Principles of Revolutionary Government’; ‘On the Principles of Political
Morality that should guide the National Convention in the Domestic Administration of the Republic’;
‘Extracts from Speech of 8 Thermidor Year II’; ‘On the Trial of the King’ p59 in Zizek, S. (2007) Virtue
and Terror: Maximilien Robespierre, London: Verso
Zizek, S. (2007) Virtue and Terror: Maximilien Robespierre, London: Verso
James Gillray and the French revolution: http://guliverlooks.wordpress.com/2014/03/31/the-workof-james-gillray
Wider Reading
Arendt, H. (1963) On Revolution, London: Faber pp.13-52
Burke, E. (2001) Reflections on the Revolution in France, California: Stanford University Press pp 183192
Furet, F. (1981) Interpreting the French Revolution, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Tilly, C. (1993) European revolutions, 1492-1992, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing chapter 1
Michael Freeman “Revolution as a Subject of Science,” in O’Sullivan, N. (1983) Revolutionary Theory
and Political Reality, St. Martins Press, pp.23-40
Harris, H.S. (1995) Phenomenology and System Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc
Israel, J. (2001) Radical enlightenment: philosophy and the making of modernity, 1650-1750, Oxford:
Oxford University Press
Scurr, R. (2006) Fatal purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution, London: Chatto & Windus
Tocqueville, Alexis de, (2008) The Ancien Régime and the Revolution, London: Penguin Classics
http://www.marxists.org/history/france/revolution/robespierre/ excerpts from some of
Robespierre’s speeches
Fanon, F. (1990) The Wretched of the Earth, London: Penguin pp 35-95 on violence
Week 6 The Guillotine
Reading
Foucault, M. (1977) Discipline and Punish, London: Penguin, chapter 1, also pp 13, 15, 16
Hugo, V. (1976) Les Misérables, London: Penguin Books
Outram, D. (1989) The Body and the French Revolution, New Haven and London: Yale University
Press
Week 7 Victor Hugo: wretchedness and revolution
Reading
Robb, G. (1997) Victor Hugo, London: Picador
Hugo, V. (1976) Les Misérables, London: Penguin Books
Week 8 Victor Hugo: ‘93
Reading
Hugo, V. (2011) Ninety-three, S.I. Merchant Books
Hugo, V. (1976) Les Misérables, London: Penguin Books
Wider Reading
Grossman, K. M. (2012) The later novels of Victor Hugo: variations on the politics and poetics of
transcendence, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Hugo, V. (1976) Les Misérables, London: Penguin Books
Maurois, A. (1956) Victor Hugo, London: Jonathan Cape
Week 9
Mozart and the Sound of Enlightenment
Reading
Ballantine, C. (1984) music and its social meanings, New York: Gordon and Breach, Science
Publishers, Inc
Subotnik, R. R. (1996) De Construct Ive Variations, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press ch 1
Wider reading
Andress, D. ‘Liberty, Unanimity, and the Paradoxes of Subjectivity and Citizenship in the French
Revolution’ in Halfin, I. (ed) (2002) Language and Revolution: Making Modern Political Identities,
London: Frank Cass Publishers, pp 27-46
Bowie, A. (2007) Music, Philosophy and Modernity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Brown, M. (2010) The Tooth that Nibbles at the Soul, Seattle: University of Washington Press pp 4-7,
251-298
Donelan, J.H. (2010) Poetry and the Romantic Musical Aesthetic, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press
Kant, I. (2007) Critique of Judgement, Oxford: Oxford Uni Press on music pp156-159
Leppert, R. &McClary, S. (eds) Music and Society, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press pp 68 -75
McGarr, P. (2001) Mozart: Overture to Revolution, Redwords see
http://www.marxisme.dk/arkiv/mcgarrp/1991/mozart/mozart.asp#ch7
Steinberg, M.P. (2004) Listening to Reason, Culture, Subjectivity, and Nineteenth-Century Music, New
Jersey: Princeton University Press chapter 1
Till, N. (1995) Mozart and the Enlightenment, London: W.W. Norton and Company
Week 10 Beethoven
Reading
Adorno, T. (2002) Beethoven: The Philosophy of Music, Cambridge: Polity Press
Adorno, T. (1973) Negative Dialectics, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd
Goehr, L ‘Doppelbewegung: The Musical Movement of Philosophy and the Philosophical Movement
of Music’ in Hermand, J. & Richter, G (2006) Sound Figures of Modernity, The University of Wisconsin
Press, Wisconsin
Hamburger, M. (ed)(1984) Beethoven, Letters, Journals and Conversations, New York: Thames and
Hudson Inc p84-91, 120-121
Sullivan, J.W.N. (1964) Beethoven: his spiritual development, London: Unwin p36-47, 62-67,121-127
Wider reading
Adorno, T. (2002) Essays on Music, University of California Press, California
Adorno, T. (2002) ‘Alienated masterpiece: The Missa Solemnis’ in Essays on Music, California:
University of California Press Ltd
Barenboim, D. (2009) Everything is Connected, London: Pheonix
Matthews, D. (1967) Beethoven Piano Sonatas, London: British Broadcasting Corporation
Lockwood, L. (2003) Beethoven, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Mellers, W. (1983) Beethoven and the Voice of God, London: Travis and Emery
Sachs, H. (2010) The Ninth, London: Random House
Week 11 spirit in ruins
Reading
Bauman, Z. (1989) Modernity and the Holocaust, Cambridge: Polity Press
Durkheim, E. (1984) The Division of Labour in Society, London: Macmillan
Lyotard, J.F. (1979) The Postmodern Condition: A report on Knowledge, Manchester: Manchester Uni
Press
Lyotard, J.F. (1992) The Postmodern explained to children, London: Turnaround
Assessment
Assessment 1: (50%)
1. How do Hegel and Rose explain the fall of Spirit from immediate ethical life to the
equality/law of persons.
(2000-2250 words; deadline: Friday 23rd October Week 5 given to Catherine in the Office by
3.30pm).
Assessment 2: (50%)
1. What is the Spirit of the guillotine?
2. In what way is the tradition of Enlightenment freedom found in the music of Mozart?
3. In what way is the notion of freedom in Hegel and Adorno found in the music of
Beethoven?
(2000-2250 words; deadline: Friday 11th December Week 12 given to Catherine in the
Office by 3.30pm).
Use Harvard Referencing
We attempt always to return work within 3 working weeks (15 days working days).
MODERN LIBERAL ARTS MARK SCHEME
We want you to be very clear about how we will mark your work and that means you must know with each
assessment what you are expected to do. We hope that this does not mean you will feel that you have to write
to a formula. We are trying to build in considerable freedom to your assessments; but as the term ‘liberal arts’
conveys, in every freedom there is a discipline, and in every discipline there is a freedom; together, we hope,
they constitute the struggle of learning.
There are (often but not always) two types of essays in MLA: the first assessment title in a module will most
often be set by the tutor and will be restricted to texts explored in the first weeks. The second assessment title
can be tutor-led, or chosen from a list of titles, or can be negotiated individually; this varies according to the
tutor and the module. This assignment can explore wider issues, employ wider reading, or explore a single
issue in depth. Students will bear some responsibility for the references consulted in the second essay,
increasing through years 1, 2 and 3.
Tutor-set assessments (disciplina)
Student/tutor-set assessments (libertas)
1st module essay
2nd module essay
Marks for
 depth of understanding specialist
terminology
 depth of understanding of set texts
 depth of understanding of ideas/concepts
 evidence by quotation
 answering the question
 correct referencing
 word limit
Marks for
 depth of understanding of texts
 depth of understanding and application of
ideas/concepts
 evidence-based critical arguments
 depth/breadth of reading (depending on
the question)
 answering your own question
 correct referencing
 word limit
Note the difference between essays 1 and 2: the first one is marked only on your understanding of texts; the
second one is marked on understanding, on your own reading, and your emerging critical voice. Be careful
here; being critical does not mean just giving your opinions. It means making a case based on evidence from
your reading, using ideas and concepts from texts. It does not mean you have to fight for one side of an
argument or another… ambivalence will be treated with great respect. But for every essay, remember this: if
we (and you) get the title right, then by answering the question you will be doing exactly what is required.
Over years 1, 2 and 3 the levels of your work are raised by using increasingly challenging texts, ideas, concepts
and writers, and by the way you are able to employ ideas, concepts and writers from other modules across the
degree in increasingly sophisticated ways.
For all essays, then
Depending on the question you will need to




Demonstrate reflection on module material and the wider contexts from across the degree which
might impact upon it
Communicate experiences of texts and ideas as appropriate
Show knowledge and understanding of specialist terminology
Demonstrate requisite research skills in gathering, summarizing and presenting evidence including
proficiency in referencing and academic conventions.
For essay 1
Depending on the question you will need to





Show careful reading of primary sources
Show a knowledge of theoretical perspectives and/or works
Show an understanding of abstract concepts and ideas within theoretical perspectives
Show an ability to work with theorists and their concepts in various forms of assessment as
appropriate
Show evidence of engagement with texts and ideas concerned with issues raised in the module.
For essay 2
Depending on the question you will need to




Show an ability to employ theorists critically in relation to issues
Show an ability to use concepts as critical tools in discussing issues and questions as appropriate
Show an ability to employ theoretical perspectives as critical tools
Therein, to develop a critical voice informed and deepened by appropriate use of theory as
critique.
 Sustain a critical relationship to ideas related to the module
It is often hard to explain in generic terms how any particular essay could have been improved. But, cautiously,
we can say the following:
In general,
a 3rd (40-49%) may have ignored the question, may have not given much evidence of reading, may have clumsy
sentence structure, but will still have made a bona fide attempt at the work.
a 2.2 (50-59%) will have provided evidence of reading, quotations where appropriate, clear sentence structure,
attended to the question or title, but not related the material in ways which synthesise more developed and
complex thinking.
a 2.1 (60-69%) will have evidence of reading through effective selection of quotation, being able to make
specific points, and to relate material together to make broader and/or deeper and more complex
observations. At the higher end, it may have been able to relate material from across modules, or across the
degree as a whole, to synthesise separate ideas and issues into more holistic comments, ideas and problems.
The questions addressed will be getting ever more difficult and important, including those that are asked
without being answered.
a 1st (70-100%) will make a little go a long way. Quotations may carry implications beyond their precise
content; sentences will be clear but able to refine complex ideas succinctly; most importantly, it will be able to
combine the microcosm of its subject matter with the macrocosm of its place in the wider context, and these
contexts will be drawn form the overall, experience of the degree, growing obviously from years 1 to 3. No
inaccuracies of grammar or sentence construction, and no referencing mistakes are expected here. The voice
of the essay will be in control of difficult material throughout. Above all the questions asked and addressed will
be compelling in their difficulty and import.
Module Evaluations (previous year)
This was a new module which introduced students to challenging material. Discussions were
engaging, deep, vibrant and led to wide and challenging questions. Evaluations showed that
students thought the module to be ‘good’, ‘great’, ‘excellent’ and that support was really
helpful. The module showed ‘good continuity across modules’ for one student. Assessment
was ‘relevant to student and module alike’, feedback and resources good, although one
student commented that there were a little too many sometimes and so a bit
overwhelming. Content will change little for next year but due to the difficulty of the first
essay the first three weeks will be extended so that a slower and more helpful approach to
the material can be taken.
Catalogue summary
This module introduces students to the difficult and contested notion of Spirit in the
Western tradition, with particular emphasis on the period of Enlightenment and the French
Revolution. By looking at the metaphysical, political and even musical dimensions of spirit
we explore in what sense it might express and generate some of the most profound of
human experiences and ideas. By thinking philosophically about these experiences we will in
turn explore questions concerning the significance of spirit in and for some of the most
difficult, painful and controversial episodes of human history. But we cannot do this without
also understanding ways in which it has been an instrument of collectivism, individualism,
and exclusion in the course of its own development.