REL 5937 Special Topics: Postmodern Ethics
Fall 2011
Dr. Christine Gudorf
DM 305B
Office Hours T/TH 3:30-4:30, T 3:30-4:30
Tel. 305 348 2729
Texts:
Fareed Zacharia, The Post-American World
Zygmunt Bauman, Postmodern Ethics
Michel Foucault, History of Sexuality, Vol. 1
and assorted articles.
Course Objectives:
That students will be able to identify significant markers of postmodern thought, and how it differs from modern thought.
That students will be able to identify postmodern authors with their characteristic ideas.
That students will be able to describe the most significant implications of postmodern thought, particularly of postmodern ethics, for religious thought, both challenges and supports.
Course Policies:
Assignments are due on time. Late assignments (with excuses short of hospitalization or incarceration) will be assessed one full letter grade for each class period they are late, e.g. a paper that would have had an A- will earn a B-. Time management is an important aspect of academia--waiting until the last minute to write assignments is risky.
Students are expected to attend all class meetings. One miss will be excused; the second and following absences will affect grades at the rate of 2% of final grade per absence.
Graduate students should have a firm grasp of style. Papers are expected to comply with one of the major manuals of style (e.g., University of Chicago, MLA, Turabian). Twenty-five to thirty percent of each paper grade will be assigned to style. Serious problems with style will also affect the other components of the grade, such as research and quality of argument. Failure to use proper style in footnotes may obscure sources, and poor grammar and spelling may obscure the argument one is attempting to make.
IN grades at FIU are at the discretion of the Instructor. In this class, they must be requested before the final week of classes, and completed before the student enrolls in further classes. In accordance with university policy, IN grades can only be assigned if the majority of the work in the class has been completed, and with a passing grade.
Papers and exam essays will be turned in to turnitin.com, and will only be graded if so turned in.
Plagiarism will result minimally in an F for the assignment and at most an F in the course. Plagiarism does not only cover submitting a paper written by someone else, or
sections of a paper copied from another source without quotation marks and attribution. It also covers using the ideas of another presented in your own words without notes crediting the source of the ideas. All ideas and information specific to a person must be credited to her/him; information available from any relevant source on a given topic need not be attributed to any one source, but may be attributed if it is not generally known.
Course Requirements:
10% Paper Proposal, consisting of a thesis statement, outline, and tentative
bibliography.
30% Term Paper
25% Midterm
25% Final Exam
10% Class presentation (written and presented)
Course Theme:
It has often been proposed that postmodernity, and certainly post-modern thought, is incompatible with ethics, and certainly with any religious ethics. Though for many this is a truism, postmodern thinkers such as Zygmunt Bauman instead posit that postmodernism may be providing the circumstances in which an ethics is truly possible, in that it undermines all authorities that prevent individuals from developing personal conscience.
This course will focus on what postmodernist thinkers are saying about ethics, the formation of conscience, and social responsibilities and the implications of these for religious ethics. What kind of religion and religious ethics is compatible with postmodernism, if any?
Schedule of Classes and Assignments
Week of Introduction to Postmodernity/Postmodernism. Read Zacharia, The Post- Aug 22 American World, first half, and for grad session, first half of Foucault, History of Sexuality, Vol 1.
Week of Read second half of both Zacahria and Foucault. Submit online a list August 29 of the five most significant claims of the Zacharia book, briefly evaluate the evidence for each (3 pp).
Week of Review of the end of modernity. Read Thomas Kuhn and Daniel Bell
Sept 5 from the list of readings posted online. For grad class, read Kearny.
Week of Read Mark Taylor, Luce Irigaray, and Francois Lyotard. For grad class,
Sept 12 read Lacoste.
Week of Read Fredric Jameson and A. MacIntyre. For grad class, read J-L Marion.
Sept 19
Week of Read Milbank. For grad class, read Joseph O'Leary. Online exam Oct
Sept 25 29th (no class); exam available midnight to midnight.
Week of Read Harding, Bordo and Welch for mixed class. Grad class: Discussion
Oct 3 of paper proposals--email to me before class. Completed Proposals (thesis, outline and bibliography)due Oct 6 in class for approval.
Week of Tues mixed class: Read D'costa. Grad class: read T. Altizer.
Oct 10
Week of Read Hauerwas, M. Wallace and Jones for mixed class. For grad class:
Oct 17 read E. Wyschogrod.
Week of Read Bauman, 1-2. Grad class read Gianni Vattimo.
Oct 24
Week of Read Bauman, 3-4. Grad class, read L.P. Hemming.
Oct 31
Week of Bauman, 5-6. Grad class: Daniel Boyarin.
Nov 7
Week of Bauman, 7. Grad class read Caputo.
Nov 14
Week of Thanksgiving and annual meeting of American Academy of Religion in
Nov 21 San Francisco. No class.
Week of Discuss Ch 8 in Bauman on Dec 1.
Nov 28 Term papers due Nov 28 to turnitin.com by 11:59 pm. Class meets Dec 1st as usual; online lecture and assignment Nov 29nd (no class meetings).
Week of Online Final exam available Dec 3-6.
Dec 5