Liberal Studies

Vancouver Island University and University of Victoria

(Fall 1994)

LBST 301: Issues in Western Culture - I

Course Outline

Welcome to the Liberal Studies program. This outline will tell you most of the basic things you need to know in order to get started. Please read it carefully. If you have any questions, please consult your seminar leader (to be identified at the initial Orientation) or the co-ordinator, John Black.

Things To Do Immediately

You will receive this Course Outline on Tuesday September 6, if not before. There are certain actions you should undertake immediately.

Before Thursday September 8:

a) Read this Outline and the Program Overview carefully.

b) Decide which of the enquiry seminars (see the descriptions handed out Sep 6) you would most like to attend, and choose a backup in case that one is full. Enquiry seminars begin in the second week of classes.

c) Read the handout "The Conversation" in preparation for the seminar on Sep 8.

d) Attend the Orientation sessions described overleaf.

e) Sign up for the topics of your seminar essays at the seminars on Sep 6.

Before Tuesday September 13:

a) Read the Book of Genesis from the Old Testament of the Bible.

b) Prepare your seminar notes as explained under "Assignments" below, and hand them in at your seminar on Sep 13.

c) Read pp. 293-5 of How to Read a Book.

Orientation Week

The first week of the semester (September 6 - 9) is Orientation Week. During this week, the times normally devoted to lectures and seminars will instead be given over to a variety of essential orientation, seminar-selection and community-building activities. You MUST attend these events: the information available there will likely not be repeated.

The first Orientation session is in the lecture theatre (A&S 203) from 9:00 to 10:30 on Tuesday Sept 6. This will include an introduction to the unique nature of the program as well as to your colleagues (students, instructors and other personnel).

The second session will take place in your seminar room with your seminar instructor at your regular seminar time on Tuesday. This will involve getting to know the other participants in your seminar, as well as much more detail about the running of the program and the ways in which your performance will be evaluated.

The third session is in the lecture theatre (A&S 203) from 9:00 to 10:30 on Thursday Sept 8. The class will discuss the skills whose development the program takes as a goal, and the various activities and aids used in that development. At this time too you will select which Enquiry Seminar to attend.

The fourth session will take place during the Thursday seminars, and will focus on seminar discussion skills. In preparation, please read the handout "The Conversation" by Rob Jeacock and come prepared to discuss it.

Location

All classes take place in the new Arts and Science Building (355). In addition, A&S 211 serves as a general lounge and study area for students in Liberal Studies and Education, although others are not excluded and on particular occasions it may be booked by other classes and groups. Please take advantage of the opportunities it provides for social and intellectual interaction.

Administrative Staff Office Phone

Rod Church Dean 320 8767

Maureen Hill Advisor 329 2178

Libby Newton Secretary 322 8757

Instructors

The teaching team for LBST 301 in September 1994 consists of:

Discipline Office Phone Hours

John Black (Co-ordinator) Philosophy 328 2171 Tu/Th 10:30-12:00

Janina Hornosty English 324 2169 M 1:30-4:30

Rob Jeacock Economics 316 2166 Tu/Th 10:30-12:00

Maggie McColl Geology 326 2170 Tu/Th 10:30-12:00

Lisa MacLean Art History 331 2177 Tu/Th 10:30-12:00

Initial Weekly Timetable Room

Lecture/Event Tue & Thu 9:00-10:30 Team 203

Main Seminar F9401 CANCELLED: STUDENTS WILL BE REASSIGNED

Main Seminar F9402 Tue & Thu 11:30- 1:00 Janina Hornosty 103

Main Seminar F9403 Tue & Thu 1:00- 2:30 Maggie McColl 102

Main Seminar F9404 Tue & Thu 1:00- 2:30 John Black 103

Main Seminar F9405 Tue & Thu 2:30- 4:00 Rob Jeacock 102

Main Seminar F9406 Tue & Thu 2:30- 4:00 Lisa MacLean 103

Enquiry Semr F9401 Mon 9:30-12:30 John Black 102

Enquiry Semr F9402 Mon 1:30- 4:30 Maggie McColl 103

Enquiry Semr F9403 Wed 9:30-12:30 Rob Jeacock 102

Enquiry Semr F9404 Wed 1:30- 4:30 Janina Hornosty 103

Enquiry Semr F9405 Fri 9:30-12:30 Lisa MacLean 102

Enquiry Semr F9406 CANCELLED: STUDENTS WILL BE REASSIGNED

You are required to attend:

1) all Lectures and Special Events on Tuesday and Thursday mornings;

2) your main seminar group (two meetings per week);

3) an Enquiry Seminar, to be selected at Orientation on Thursday Sep 8 (once per week, wks 2-6);

4) a Music Lab, to be assigned later in the semester (once per week, wks 8 & 9);

5) a Science Lab, to be assigned later in the semester (once per week, wks 10-13);

6) Tutorials for all seminar papers, as assigned.

The same time slots will be used for Music and Science Labs as for Enquiry Seminars, but your particular assignment may be different. We shall ensure, however, that you suffer no conflict with elective courses.

Textbooks

The books below will be required reading for Liberal Studies in the academic year 1994-5. Most of them will be read exclusively in the first semester; a few will be of use in later semesters too. It is important that you do some of the reading ahead of entering the program: we recommend at least the first three titles below.

It is also important that, with the exception of the Bible, you endeavour to obtain the exact editions specified. This is largely because translations differ in confusing ways, but is also for ease of reference during seminars and in written work. In some cases the Bookstore may have been unable to obtain the edition specified; in those cases you may buy the edition which the Bookstore has marked for this course.

Do not yet buy any book marked "Enquiry Seminar Text" on the LBST shelves. You will have an opportunity to select the topic of your enquiry seminar once classes begin.

The Bible: any edition will do; the Bookstore will have a few copies of:

The New English Bible with the Apocrypha, Oxford Study Edition, New York, Oxford University Press, 1992. ISBN: 0-19-529722-9. We shall begin the semester by studying the Book of Genesis.

Homer: The Odyssey, trans. Robert Fitzgerald, New York, Vintage (Random House), 1990. ISBN: 0-679-72813-9.

Plato: The Republic, trans. Francis Cornford, latest edition, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1955. ISBN: 0-19-500364-0.

REMINDER: The above books should be read before classes begin.

Sophocles: The Three Theban Plays, trans. Robert Fagles, New York, Penguin Classics, 1984. ISBN: 0-14-044.425-4.

Thucydides: The History of the Peloponnesian War, trans. Rex Warner, latest edition (1972), Penguin. ISBN: 0-14-044039-9.

Aristophanes - Lysistrata, Penguin. ISBN: 0-451-62495-5.

Aristotle - Nicomachean Ethics, trans. Martin Ostwald, New York, Macmillan, 1962. ISBN: 0-02-389530-6.

Sappho - Sappho: A New Translation, trans. Mary Barnard, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1958. ISBN: 0-520-01117-1.

Catullus - The Poems of Catullus, trans. Peter Whigham, Harmondsworth, Penguin Classics, 1980. ISBN: 0-14-044180-8.

Ovid: Metamorphoses, trans. A.D. Melville, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1987. ISBN: 0-19-281691-8.

Marcus Aurelius - Meditations, trans. Maxwell Staniforth, Harmondsworth, Penguin Classics, 1964. ISBN: 0-14-044140-9.

Alfred Bennick - And Yet It Moves, Dubuque, IA, Wm. C. Brown, 1990.

ISBN: 0-697-13507-1.

Michael Matthews (ed.): The Scientific Background to Modern Philosophy, Indianapolis, Hackett, 1989. ISBN: 0-87220-074-4.

Euclid: The Thirteen Books of The Elements, Vol.1, trans. T.L. Heath, New York, Dover (General Publishing), 1956. ISBN: 0-486-60088-2.

Mortimer Adler & Van Doren: How to Read a Book, Simon & Schuster (General Publishing). ISBN: 0-671-21209-5.

Joanne Buckley: Fit to Print, 3rd edition, HJB/Holt/Saunders, 1994.

ISBN: 0-7747-3248-2.

Selections

With the following exceptions, we shall read the above books in their entirety:

The Bible: read Genesis for Sep 13, the Song of Songs for Nov 15, Matthew and Revelation for Nov 29.

Sophocles: read Antigone only.

Thucydides: Pp. 35-49; 72-87; 103-108; 118-129; 143-173; 212-245; 293-294; 315-318; 400-408; 414-429; 538-547 and summaries to be distributed.

Catullus: read only poems 2 5 7 8 11 30 32 48 50 51 58 60 61 62 67 68 70 72 73 75 76 77 83 85 86 87 92 96 99 100 101 104 107 and 109.

Ovid: TBA.

Selections from Bennick, Matthews and Euclid will be assigned as required. Adler & Van Doren and Buckley should be read as needed.

Grades

In marking assignments, instructors will use numerical percentages. The APPROXIMATE letter grade equivalents are given in the table below. Final grades for the course will be assigned partly on the basis of natural groupings within the total distribution of marks, so there is no automatic equivalency of letter grades to percentages.

95 - 100 = A+ 80 - 84 = B+ 65 - 69 = C+ 50 - 54 = D

90 - 94 = A 75 - 79 = B 60 - 64 = C 0 - 49 = F

85 - 89 = A- 70 - 74 = B- 55 - 59 = C-

At the end of the semester you will receive a single letter grade, according to the grading scheme published in the Vancouver Island University Calendar (p.19).

Important note: until VIU becomes independently degree-granting, all course grades are subject to approval by the University of Victoria.

Assignments

Your work during the semester will be divided into two categories:

(i) ungraded, and (ii) graded.

Ungraded work will receive feedback, and in the case of essays an estimated mark. Such marks will not count towards your semester grade, but failure to complete the work would have an indirect negative effect on your final grade, as explained below. The purpose of ungraded work is to allow you time to develop the skills important to success in the program without feeling that you are falling behind with every non-perfect performance. The more effort you put into your ungraded work, of course, the more successful you will be on your graded work.

Ungraded work includes the following requirements:

(a) attending all main seminars, enquiry seminars and labs;

(b) handing in seminar notes when required (normally each Tuesday);

(d) attending tutorials with other students for each main seminar essay, having evaluated their essays appropriately.

Note: failure to attend classes, or to complete seminar notes, will naturally reflect on your participation grade; failure to write any of the four seminar essays and pass them through the tutorial process will mean that your instructor will not give feedback on them; only papers which have gone through the full process for seminar essays will be accepted as the long and short papers in your portfolio.

Graded work will count towards your semester grade, and will consist of the following:

Participation 30%

Portfolio 30%

Long Paper 15%

Short Paper 10%

Arts Review 5%

Other Assignments 25%

Enquiry Seminar 10%

Music Lab 5%

Science Lab 10%

Final examination 15%

Details on both graded and ungraded work requirements follow in the sections below.

Ungraded Work

Seminar Notes: These take the form of a page or two of notes written each week for a reading assigned in the week. You will give your notes to your seminar instructor at the start of each Tuesday seminar. If two readings are assigned in a week, you need only prepare seminar notes on one of them, but must still hand them in on Tuesday, even if the reading is assigned for Thursday. Your seminar instructor will use the notes as a means of assessing the depth of your preparation for the seminar, and so consider them in evaluating your participation.

Your notes (200-300 wds.) must take the following precise form:

1) A question which you think would be good to ask in the seminar.

2) An explanation of why you think it is an important question.

The notes should not contain an attempt to answer the question you propose.

Please do not treat the seminar notes as mini-essays: they are not intended to be arduous assignments, but aids to effective study. They may be handwritten, but must be legible to count in your favour when participation is assessed.

Seminar Essays and Tutorials: Each of the four seminar essays will focus closely upon one of the readings to be discussed in the main seminar. There is a procedure to follow:

* At the first seminar, choose four readings on which you would like to write. You are required to choose two readings assigned for a seminar on or before Oct 13, and two assigned for a seminar on or after Oct 25.

* There will be a limit on the number of students per reading. Your instructor will divide the students writing on the same reading into small tutorial groups.

* Questions will be provided in the week before the essay is due, as part of the Weekly Notes distributed by the team.

* Write the essay.

* Make photocopies of the completed essay: one for your seminar instructor and each member of your tutorial group; distribute them just before the Tuesday seminar in the week of the relevant reading. You will likewise receive photocopies from the other students.

* With the other students, arrange a suitable time following the seminar discussion for a group tutorial to go over the written work.

* Evaluate the other essays by writing marginal comments and a summary paragraph at the end. Comment on both the content and form of the essay.

* Attend the tutorial to discuss your comments and to receive feedback on your own essay. Keep the annotated copies to submit with your revised version.

* Revise and resubmit the essay to your seminar instructor within 9 days of the original deadline (i.e. the Thursday of the week following). The seminar instructor will make comments on this version, and estimate a mark--for your information only. Retain this marked copy for submission as part of your portfolio should you decide to rewrite the essay as one of the required papers.

Note on deadlines: If you do not have either version of your essay ready to hand in by the appropriate seminar you may not continue with that essay; instead you will be allowed to write on another reading, but only if one is available within the limit described above.

These essays should be approximately 1000 words long; they are not to be research papers but thoughtful responses to particular topics in the core reading. No outside reading is required before you write the essay.

Graded Work

Participation: Participation is a critical part of this program, and the skills of intellectual discussion among the most important it endeavours to foster. The mark for participation will be determined by combining an assessment by each of your class instructors with a peer evaluation from your main seminar.

The criteria for good performance in a seminar are explained in Rob Jeacock's "The Conversation"; this handout will be discussed in the seminar on Thursday Sep 8. At issue, briefly, are the quality and quantity of your contributions to discussion, your helpfulness to others in maintaining a successful conversation within the seminar, your ability to listen as well as to talk.

During the semester you will meet with your seminar leader (at a time to be mutually arranged) to discuss your participation in seminars up to that point. These "fireside chats" provide an opportunity for you to give as well as receive feedback on your main seminar, and on your general progress in the course.

At the end of the semester, your instructor in each class (main seminar, enquiry seminar, music lab, science lab) will submit a mark for your participation in the class. At the same time you will be evaluated by the other participants in your main seminar. These five evaluations will be averaged for your semester participation mark.

Note that your diligence in attending classes, keeping up with the reading and seminar notes will be taken into account in assessing your participation.

Portfolio: At the end of the semester, in fact on or before Friday Dec 9, you will submit a portfolio containing three writing assignments. These will be marked for credit, not necessarily by your seminar instructor. They include:

Long & Short Papers: Choose two of your four seminar essays to revise for the portfolio. Of these, one should retain its original length (1000 words); the other should be expanded to approximately 1500 words. This work may be done at any time during the semester--the principles of good time management suggest that you do not leave it to the end.

Note: Under this requirement, instructors will not accept any paper which has not been through the full seminar essay and tutorial process. Previous versiosn with the instructor's comments must be handed in with the final drafts.

Arts Review: The course activity fee covers admission to a play in the week of Sep 19, a classical music concert on Friday October 21 and, it is hoped, an exhibition of visual art. Having visited these events, you should write a short review of one of them (500 words) and include it in your portfolio.

Enquiry Seminar Assignment: The nature, due date etc. of these assignments will be decided by the instructor leading the enquiry seminar.

Music Lab Assignment: There will be assignments associated with the music lab module.

Science Lab Assignments: Some labs will be followed up by an assignment. This will consist sometimes of a simple report of the experiment or exploration conducted, sometimes of answers to a series of more conceptual questions based on the lab.

Final examination: The final exam takes an unusual form. You will choose one of a number of questions (circulated approximately a week in advance) to write on. You will then prepare for and attend a seminar on the question before writing and handing in your answer (approximately three to five days after the seminar). The questions will be such as to require you to synthesize material from a variety of parts of the course. The answers will be marked in light of the seminar discussion: if, for example, an important point arises during that discussion, it must be addressed in your answer.

General Writing Requirements

Word-Processing: All written work, with the exception of seminar notes, should be typed or prepared on a word processor, double spaced on standard paper (8.5" x 11"), near letter quality (not simple dot matrix), with the right justification removed if your printer does not provide proportional spacing. There is a computer lab in Arts & Science 110, and many others around the campus. An introduction to using computers (including WordPerfect) will take place during the fourth week of the Enquiry Seminars.

Plagiarism and Language: You should be familiar with the definition of plagiarism given in the college calendar (p. 18) and take care to avoid this common practice. A plagiarised paper will normally receive a mark of zero, and the student will not have an opportunity to make up the assignment. A second occurrence will result in a mark of F for the course. Wherever appropriate, students should follow good contemporary practice and use gender-free language in their writing and speech.

Photocopying: You should always retain a photocopy of any written assignment you hand in. This will insure against loss and enable you to appeal marks if this is necessary. Photocopy services are available in the Library.

Outline of Main Topics

Week Tuesday Tuesday Thursday Thursday Monday/Wednesday/

of Lecture Seminar Special Event Seminar Friday

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sep 05 Orientation Orientation Orientation Orientation No class

Sep 12 Old Testament: Genesis Music: Haydn's Odyssey Enquiry Seminar

Genesis - Team "Creation" Oratorio

Sep 19 Homer: Odyssey Film: "Ulysses" Odyssey Enquiry Seminar

Odyssey - Team

Sep 26 Plato: Republic JB: The Quest Republic Enquiry Seminar

Republic - J. Rayner for Certainty

Oct 3 The Economics of Republic Presentation: Republic Enquiry Seminar

Ancient Greece - RJ Greek Art - LM

Oct 10 Sophocles: Antigone Thucydides: Thucydides Enquiry Seminar

Antigone - JH What is History? (except Monday)

The Constitution of the Self - Deanne Schultz

Oct 17 STUDY WEEK STUDY WEEK STUDY WEEK STUDY WEEK (except Monday)

Oct 24 RJ: Justice Thucydides Class Reading: Lysistrata Music Lab #1

Aristophanes'

"Lysistrata"

Oct 31 Aristotle: Ethics TBA Ethics Music Lab #2

Nicomachean

Ethics - JB

Nov 7 Aristotle: Ethics Aristotelian Aristotle Science Lab #1

Nicomachean Science and (except Friday)

Ethics Metaphysics - JB

Nov 14 Love Poetry: JB Love Poetry Ovid: Ovid Science Lab #2

- Sappho, Catullus, Metamorphoses (except Friday)

Song of Songs - JH

Nov 21 Marcus Aurelius: Meditations Presentation: Meditations Science Lab #3

Meditations - RJ Roman Art & (except Friday)

Living in Diversity Architecture - LM

Nov 28 New Testament: Revelation New Testament: Matthew Science Lab #4

Revelation - Matthew - (except Friday)

Andrew Twiddy Bob Lane

Dec 5 Tuesday is Makeup day for Friday Science Lab #4 --- No other classes in LBST 301

Important Dates

Tue Sep 6 First Day of Classes - Orientation in A&S 203 and Seminars

Thu Sep 8 Second Orientation Session in A&S 203 and Seminars (Basic Skills; Enquiry Seminar Selection)

Mon Sep 12 First Day for Monday Enquiry Seminars

Wed Sep 14 First Day for Wednesday Enquiry Seminars

Fri Sep 16 First Day for Friday Enquiry Seminars

Mon Oct 10 HOLIDAY - College Closed

Thu Oct 13 Last Possible Day for Second Seminar Essay

Fri-Sat Oct 14-15 College Open House

Mon Oct 17 Makeup for Monday Enquiry Seminars

Tue-Fri Oct 18-21 Study Week

Fri Oct 21 Classical Music Concert

Mon Oct 24 First Day for Music Labs

Mon Nov 7 First Day for Science Labs

Fri Nov 11 HOLIDAY - College Closed

Tue Nov 29 Last Possible Day for Fourth Seminar Essay

Tue Dec 6 Makeup for Friday Science Labs

Fri Dec 9 Portfolio Submission Deadline

Mon Dec 12 Exam Period Begins

Wed Dec 28 Grades Due at Registration