Eric Susser
Phone: 727-6642
e-mail: eric.susser@asu.edu
Office Hours: T/TH 10:30-12 (A217 Irish)
Hon 172 : “The Human Event” (Spring 2003)
REQUIRED TEXTS
Course Reader *
Classics of Western Thought: The Modern World, vol. 3 (HBJ)
Moliere, Tartuffe (Harcourt Brace)
Voltaire, Candide, Zadig, and Selected Stories (Signet)
Georg Buchner, Danton’s Death, Leonce and Lena, Woszeck (Oxford)
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes From Underground (Bantam)
Henrik Ibsen, Four Great Plays (Bantam)
* The Course Reader (CR) is available at The Alternative Copy Shop on the corner of Forest and
University behind the Chuck Box restaurant.
SCHEDULE OF READINGS AND DISCUSSIONS (The instructor reserves the right to make
changes during the semester if it proves necessary.)
T
TH
21
23
Introduction and MILTON (handout)
GALILEO, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (CWT: 1-9)
BACON, The New Scientific Method (1620) (CWT: 10-19)
T
28
TH
30
DESCARTES, Discourse on Method (1637) (CWT: 20-30)
PASCAL, Thoughts (1670) (CWT: 43-58)
HOBBES, Leviathan (1651)(CWT: 31-42)
LOCKE, Of Civil Government (1690) (CWT: 68-82)
T
Jan
Feb
4
TH
6
LOCKE, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) (CWT: 59-67)
MOLIERE, Tartuffe (1664) (Acts I – II)
MOLIERE, Tartuffe (Acts III – V)
T
TH
11
13
VOLTAIRE, Candide (1758) Chapters 1-18 (pp. 15-59)
VOLTAIRE, Candide Finished
T
18
TH
20
ROUSSEAU, Confessions (1770) (CR)
ROUSSEAU, On the Origin of Inequality Among Men (1755)
& On Education (1762) (CWT: 131-153)
SMITH, The Wealth of Nations (1776) (CWT: 166-177)
CONDORCET, The Progress of the Human Mind (1793) (CWT: 178-201)
FIRST ESSAY DUE FRIDAY FEBRUARY 21 (before 4:45 PM)
T
25
TH
27
BURKE, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) (CWT: 202-220)
Romantic Poetry (CR)
BUCHNER, Danton’s Death (Acts I-II)
4
6
BUCHNER, Danton’s Death (Acts III-IV)
HEGEL, Reason in History (1837) (CWT: 338-349)
T
11
TH
13
MARX & ENGELS, The Communist Manifesto (1847) (CWT: 367-389)
DARWIN, The Origin of Species & The Descent of Man (1859,1871)
(CWT: 350-366)
Victorian Poetry (CR)
DICKINSON & WHITMAN
T
TH
Mar
NO CLASS WEEK OF MARCH 17
T
25
TH
27
DOUGLASS, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,
an American Slave (1845) (CR)
DOSTOEVSKY, Notes from Underground (1864) (Part One)
1
3
DOSTOEVSKY, Notes from Underground (Part Two)
PATER & WILDE (CR)
T
TH
Apr
SECOND ESSAY DUE FRIDAY April 4 (before 4:45 PM)
T
TH
8
10
IBSEN, A Doll’s House (1879)
NIETZSCHE, The Genealogy of Morals (1887) (CWT: 443-457)
T
TH
15
17
NIETZSCHE (CR)
YEATS & MODERN POETRY (CR)
T
TH
22
24
WOOLF, The Mark on the Wall & Shakespeare’s Sister (1917, 1929) (CR)
EINSTEIN & FREUD (CWT: 535-559)
T
29
1
HITLER, My Struggle (1925) (CWT: 597)
SARTRE, Existentialism (1945) (CWT: 616-634)
BORGES (1944) (CR)
6
BECKETT, Krapp’s Last Tape (1958) (CR)
TH
T
May
FINAL ESSAY DUE THURSDAY MAY 7 (before 4:45 PM)