Syllabus: The Active Life or the Contemplative Life?
fall 2013
T & Th 9-10:30
Jennifer Summit
English 103H
“There is no shortage of good days. It is good lives that are hard to come by. … Who
would call a day spent reading a good day? But a life spent reading--that is a good
life.”
― Annie Dillard, The Writing Life
Course Description
Which is more valuable: knowledge or know-how? Which is the greater
accomplishment: wisdom or material success? What kind of life is best to lead, an
active life or a life of spiritual or intellectual contemplation? Are the two necessarily
at odds, or can we achieve a balance between them? If so, how?
At their heart, these questions concern the essence of a life well lived. They
also represent two sides of an ongoing debate over the place of higher education
itself: what is it for? Is it valuable because it develops the mind, or because it
imparts practical skills? And what can it teach us about how best to conduct our
lives, not only as workers and professionals but as citizens, community members,
parents and partners?
This course explores an ongoing debate over the relative values of the “active
life” versus the “contemplative life,” a debate that has its roots in classical and
Biblical traditions but remains relevant, even increasingly urgent, today. Together,
we will consider some of the questions that became foundational to the debate: are
we defined by who we are or by what we do? How can we best put our knowledge
to work? What are the characteristics of a truly wise person, and how can an
individual cultivate wisdom through learning? The debate over (or dynamic tension
between) the active life and the contemplative life has played a special role in
literarature, as we will discover as we consider the poets and creative writers who
have made it a central concern. Their work prompts us to ask what role reading and
writing play in the well-lived life, and whether they count as, or support lives of,
action or contemplation.
Ethical Reasoning Ways of Thinking Learning Outcomes:
After taking this class, students should be able to:
-
evaluate competing ethical and moral perspectives and claims
possess a capacity to reason critically about ethical and moral questions, as
well as an ability to make ethical and moral judgments about issues that they
face in their lives
reflect broadly and continuously about the ethical dimensions of their own
conduct
Assignments:
two position papers (2-3 pages each), two response papers (1-2 pages each)
For this assignment, the class will be divided into two groups, As and Bs.
In the “A” week, the A group will be assigned to take a position on an argument
related to the reading (provided in advance: your argument must be framed in favor
of or against the proposition, with evidence from the course materials), while
members of the B group will be paired with A writers and asked to argue against
their positions.
Debate: class members will be assigned to one of two opposing teams in a debate,
held near the end of the term, treating the central question of the class: Which is
preferable, the active or the contemplative life? For this debate, teams should use
arguments informed by our readings and discussions, but they are free to call on
outside materials (literary, cultural, or otherwise) to support their points.
Final paper: We will develop this in steps throughout the quarter (from outline to
thesis to supporting evidence to completion); topics can be selected from several
prompts or designed on your own, in consultation with me. In any case, the paper
will ask you to identify a situation--in literature or a similar cultural artifact, current
or historical events, or your own life or the life of another individual (seen through
memoir, biography, or other documentary sources)--in which a decision or debate
either hinges on a conflict between “active life” and “contemplative life” as we have
come to understand these terms, or redefines them in new ways. Your paper should
reflect an area of sincere and special concern to you (whether in your studies, your
career plans, or your personal commitments) that opens to reflection and analysis
within the terms of the course. Papers will be expected to deliver a well-crafted
argument that considers (seriously) possible objections and alternative viewpoints,
draws on solid evidence, and, through well-developed analysis, presents a
conclusion that is cogent and meaningful.
Schedule:
Module 1: what should I do with my life?
Readings: Po Bronson, What Should I do with my Life?
David Foster Wallace, This is Water: some thoughts, delivered on a significant
occasion, about living a compassionate life (YouTube video)
William Deresiewicz, “Solitude and Leadership”
http://www.utne.com/Mind-Body/solitude-leadership-william-deresiewiczspeech.aspx#axzz2WL8fjP2i
HERI (Higher Education Research Institute) annual surveys of freshmen
9/24: Introduction to class
9/26: discuss Wallace and Deresiewicz
10/1: discuss Bronson
Module 2: which is more virtuous, work or leisure?
The fable of the Grasshopper and the Ant in multiple forms:
Fables by William Caxton, Marie de France, and Jean de La Fontaine (reader)
Leo Lionni, Frederick (1967)
Bernard Suits, The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia
“The Grasshopper and the Ants” (Disney short film of 1934)
A Bug’s Life (Pixar film of 1998)
10/3: discuss fables
10/8: discuss Frederick with Suits, The Grasshopper
10/10: discuss “Grasshopper and the Ants” and Bug’s Life
Module 3: the long (and winding) history of the debate: where do we fit in?
Plato, Republic, Book Seven (reader)
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book Six (reader)
Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (selections)
10/15: discuss Plato
10/17: discuss Aristotle
10/22: discuss Arendt
10/24: discuss Arendt (cont.)
Module 4: action and contemplation: which is sacred, which is secular?
Story of Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38-42)& paintings by Velasquez, de Bloot, Ykens
Thomas Merton, “What is Contemplation?” “What Contemplation is Not,” “Seeds of
Contemplation” and “Everything that is, is Holy” (short essays in reader)
Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath
B.K.S. Iyengar, “What is Yoga?” (reader)
10/29: discuss Martha and Mary with Thomas Merton
10/31: discuss Heschel and Iyengar
11/1: field trip: Stanford Labyrinth, Center for Compassion and Altruism
Module 5: good work: what is it?
Henry David Thoreau, “Economy,” from Walden
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/205/205-h/205-h.htm#linkW5
Matthew B. Crawford, “Shop Craft as Soul Craft”
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/shop-class-as-soulcraft
Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue (selections)
Clayton Christensen, “How Will You Measure Your Life?”
http://hbr.org/2010/07/how-will-you-measure-your-life/ar/1
11/5: discuss Thoreau and Crawford
11/7: discuss MacIntyre and Christensen
Module 6: nature as a new object of (active) contemplation
William Wordsworth, The Prelude (selections); “Preface to Lyrical Ballads”; the Lucy
Poems (“Strange fits of passion have I known”; She dwelt among the untrodden
ways”; “I travelled among unknown men”; “Three years she grew in sun and
shower”; “A slumber did my spirit seal”)
John Keats, The Odes of 1819 (“Ode on Indolence”; “Ode to Psyche”; “Ode to a
Nightingale”; “Ode on a Grecian Urn”; “Ode on Melancholy”; “To Autumn”)
Wendell Berry, “I go among trees,” “Conserving Forest Communities”
11/12: discuss Wordsworth and Keats
11/14: discuss Berry
Module 7: creativity as a new form of (contemplative) action
Annie Dillard, The Writing Life
Sir Ken Robinson, “Do schools kill creativity?” (TED talk)
Paula Marantz Cohen, “Master of the Examined Life: teaching what colleges don’t”
Class visit to the d.school
11/19: discuss Dillard
11/21: discuss Robinson and Cohen, problem of creativity in (higher)
education
Final group assignment: Class Debate
12/3: debate 1.
12/5: debate 2.
Books (total, including optional books: $98.91; $68.97, required books alone)
Po Bronson, What Should I do with My Life? (optional): $7.99
Publisher: Ballantine Books (November 29, 2005)
ISBN-10: 0345485920
ISBN-13: 978-0345485922
Leo Lionni, Frederick (optional): $6.99
Publisher: Dragonfly Books (April 12, 1973)
ISBN-10: 0394826140
ISBN-13: 978-0394826141
Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (required): $19.00
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (December 1, 1998)
ISBN-10: 0226025985
ISBN-13: 978-0226025988
Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath (required): $13.00
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux (July 28, 2005)
ISBN-10: 0374529752
ISBN-13: 978-0374529758
Henry David Thoreau, Walden and Civil Disobedience (optional): $5.95
Publisher: Barnes & Noble Classics (January 1, 2005)
ISBN-10: 1593082088
ISBN-13: 978-1593082086
Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue Third Edition (required): $22.98
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic (June 27, 2013)
ISBN-10: 1780936257
ISBN-13: 978-1780936253
Matthew B. Crawford, Shop Craft as Soulcraft (optional): $15.00
Publisher: Penguin Books; Reprint edition (April 27, 2010)
ISBN-10: 0143117467
ISBN-13: 978-0143117469
Annie Dillard, The Writing Life (required): $13.99
Publisher: Harper Perennial (January 1, 1900)
ISBN-10: 0060919884
ISBN-13: 978-0060919887
In addition to these books, there will be a course reader (source and cost TBA)
Course and university policies
Students with Documented Disabilities
Students who may need an academic accommodation based on the impact of a
disability must initiate the request with the Office of Accessible Education
(OAE). Professional staff will evaluate the request with required documentation,
recommend reasonable accommodations, and prepare an Accommodation Letter for
faculty dated in the current quarter in which the request is being made. Students
should contact the OAE as soon as possible since timely notice is needed to
coordinate accommodations. The OAE is located at 563 Salvatierra Walk (phone:
723-1066, URL:http://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/oae).
Honor Code
The Honor Code is the University's statement on academic integrity written by
students in 1921. It articulates University expectations of students and faculty in
establishing and maintaining the highest standards in academic work:
The Honor Code is an undertaking of the students, individually and collectively:
1. that they will not give or receive aid in examinations; that they will not give or
receive unpermitted aid in class work, in the preparation of reports, or in any other
work that is to be used by the instructor as the basis of grading;
2. that they will do their share and take an active part in seeing to it that others as
well as themselves uphold the spirit and letter of the Honor Code.
2. The faculty on its part manifests its confidence in the honor of its students by
refraining from proctoring examinations and from taking unusual and unreasonable
precautions to prevent the forms of dishonesty mentioned above. The faculty will
also avoid, as far as practicable, academic procedures that create temptations to
violate the Honor Code.
3. While the faculty alone has the right and obligation to set academic
requirements, the students and faculty will work together to establish optimal
conditions for honorable academic work.