MODULE OUTLINE

Modern Liberal Arts, University of Winchester

Semester 1 2016

Mondays 3pm Medecroft 107

Nigel Tubbs

LA 1018 Freedom is to Learn 1

Module Learning Outcomes

By the conclusion of this module, a student will be expected to be able to :

a)reflect on and evaluate experiences of ideas in texts, sometimes related to the wider contexts of such experiences

b)communicate experiences of texts and ideas in discussion and in writing, as appropriate

c)show knowledge and understanding of specialist terminology

d)demonstrate requisite research skills in gathering, summarizing and presenting evidence including proficiency in referencing and academic conventions

e)demonstrate evidence of engagement with texts and ideas concerned with themes relevant to Liberal Arts

Weekly seminars

‘He who still doubts has not yet learnt enough, yet we doubt as long as we live; and so as long as we live we should learn’ (Ficino, M. (1997) Meditations on the Soul, Rochester: Inner Traditions.)

‘To know oneself is to contradict oneself’ (Hyppolite, J. (1952/1997) Logic and Existence, New York, SUNY).

‘we badly need someone to teach us the art of learning with difficulty’ (Rousseau, J.J. (2000) Emile, London, Dent, p. 167)

‘it is difficulty which makes us prize things’ (Montaigne, M. (2003) The Complete Essays, London, Penguin, II. 15, p. 696)

‘I can surrender to doubt and to my master-form, which is ignorance’ (Montaigne, M. (2003) The Complete Essays, London, Penguin, I.50, p. 338)

Welcome to Modern Liberal Arts. We all hope you will enjoy this intellectual adventure into ideas, old and new. The Freedom is to Learn modules are the core modules that run through the three years of the degree. The title is suggestive of something carried by the term ‘modern’ in the name of the Programme.

There will be much more to be said about this, but for now, remember it is important that you treat all the material you read in each of your MLA modules as relevant to all MLA modules. Think of year 1 as a whole year of learning, not necessarily divided into modules, and think of each year as part of the whole degree. In time we will reward essays which are able to bring material in from different modules.

So, don’t get rid of anything, especially the reading packs! You will need some of them later in the degree! And NOTE: the first essay is due in Monday of week 3(10thOctober!! No panicking… I’ll help…)

Outline

In this we are looking at some aspects of the origin of liberal arts education in Antiquity. But before that our Introductory session asks a strange question: what is the meaning of ‘beginning’? This is related to a second question: what is learning?

One of the main books we will read (in weeks 5-7) and return to often throughout the three years is Plato’s Republic. If you can get a copy of your own that will help, and they are available cheaply second hand at Amazon, and at ABE books. The edition we work from is this one:The Republic, translated by A D Lindsay, published by Everyman (Dent), and is available from Amazon here ( )

Or from ABE here:

We will look at some more modern writers in the last few weeks of the module.

SEMESTER 1(begins 26th September)

Week 1What is Learning? (Schön)(26th Sep)

‘a whole is that which has a beginning, middle and end. A beginning is that which is not itself necessarily after anything else, and which has naturally something else after it; an end is that which is naturally after something itself, either as its necessary or usual consequent, and with nothing else after it; and a middle, that which is by nature after one thing and has also another after it’ (Aristotle, Poetics, 1450b 26-31).

‘in the world of our experiences every action has numerous presuppositions, so that it is difficult to determine where the real beginning is to be found’ (Hegel, Aesthetics vol. II, p, 1169).

Reading:Schön, D. (1987)Educating the Reflective Practitioner, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, pp. 82-95.

T.S. Eliot The Four Quartets,

Adorno, T.W. (1951) Minima Moralia, trans D. Redmond, ch. 44.

Wider readingTry Plato’s AlcibiadesIon knowing, and teaching… (which many doubt is by Plato, but it still makes a reasonably straightforward Introduction to some of Socrates’ main ideas on learning which we explore next week).

Prologue, Henry V, Shakespeare

Week 2What is Learning? (Socrates)(3rd October)

ReadingPlato, (1987) The Trial and Death of Socrates, Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, trans. G.M.A. Grube (available at ).

Pascal, B. (1966) Pensées, London Penguin, pp. 51-2.

Wider readingWilkins, E.G. (1917/2013) ‘Know Thyself’ in Greek and Latin Literature, Delhi: Isha Books, chapter 5.

Kierkegaard, S. (1990) For Self-Examination/Judge For Yourself!, Princeton, Princeton University Press, pp. 9-10.

Plato, (1997) The Sophist, in Plato Complete Works, ed. J.M. Cooper, 230a-e, pp. 250-1.

Plato, (1997) Theaetetus, in Plato Complete Works, ed. J.M. Cooper,149-151d, pp. 167-8.

St Paul, I Corinthians, 8: 2.

Erasmus, D. (2001) The Adages of Erasmus, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, III.iii.1, pp. 242-4.

Erasmus, D. (2014) Apophthegmata in Collected Works of Erasmus vol. 37, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, pp. 221-51.

Stone, I. (1988) The Trial of Socrates, London: Jonathan Cape.

Hogan, P. (1995) The Custody and Courtship of Experience, Blackrock, The Columba Press.

Popper, K. (1962) The Open Society and its Enemies, London: Routledge.

Hegel, G.W.F. (1974) Lectures on the History of Philosophy vol. 1, New Jersey: Humanities Press.

Kierkegaard, S. (1989) The Concept of Irony, Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Augustine, (1972) City of God, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 301-2.

Hadot, P. (2002) What is Ancient Philosophy?, Cambridge, Mass., Belknap Press, Harvard UP.

Video on Jaques Louis-David ‘Death of Socrates’

Reading for later in the degree on not-knowing:

Cusanus, N. (2007) Of Learned Ignorance, Oregon, Wipf & Stock.

Petrarch, ‘On His Own Ignorance and That Of Many Others’ in Cassirer, E., Kristeller, P.O., & Randall Jnr, J.H. (1948) The Renaissance Philosophy of Man, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, pp. 49-133.

Montaigne, M. (2003) ‘An Apology for Raymond Sebond’, in The Complete Essays, London, Penguin, pp. 489-683.

Pascal, B. (1966) Pensées, London Penguin.

Kierkegaard, S. (1989) The Concept of Irony, Princeton University Press.

Assessment 1

What do Socrates and Schön believe is the relation between education and doubt?

(1,500 words max; due Monday, week 3, 10thOctober, given in to Catherine before 3.30pm)

Week 3Human culture (Jaeger)(10th Oct)

ReadingJaeger, W. (1973) Paideia The Ideals of Greek Culture, vol. I, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. xxii-xxv, 280, 286-314.

Halevi, J. (1964) The Kuzari, New York, Schocken Books, p. 124 (written 1130-40 CE)

Wider readingtry Hadot, P. (2002) What is Ancient Philosophy?, Cambridge, Mass., Belknap Press, Harvard UP (for everything from Socrates to Aristotle).

Al-Jabri, MA (2011) The Formation of Arab Reason, New York, I.B. Taurus, pp. 10-14.

Week 4Rhetoric (Isocrates)(17th Oct)

ReadingJaeger, W. (1986) Paideia The Ideals of Greek Culture, vol. III, Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp. 46-9, 61-3, 89.

Isocrates, ‘Panegyricus’ in Isocrates with an English Translation in three volumes, by George Norlin, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1980; 47-50.

Isocrates, ‘Nicocles or the Cyprians,’ in Isocrates with an English Translation in three volumes, by George Norlin, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1980, 1-9.

Isocrates, ‘Antodosis,’ in Isocrates with an English Translation in three volumes, by George Norlin, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1929, vol. II, pp. 327-9.

Cicero, (1967) De Oratore Books 1 & 2, trans. E.W Sutton, London: Heinemann, i.71-8, ii. 5-7.

Montaigne. M (2003) The Complete Essays, London, Penguin, I. 51. ‘On The Vanity Of Words’, pp. 341-344.

(See also Plato, Phaedrus, 270-1; Plato, The Sophist, 231-235; and Plato, Gorgias.)

Week 5Philosophy (Plato’s Republic)(24th Oct)

Reading Plato, (1992) The Republic, London: Dent.

(a different translation is available at

Week 6Philosophy (Plato’s Republic)(31st Oct)

ReadingPlato, (1992) The Republic, London: Dent.

Week 7Philosophy (Plato’s Republic)(7th Nov)

ReadingPlato, (1992) The Republic, London: Dent.

Week 8The Liberal Arts Tradition(14th Nov)

ReadingKimball, B.A. (1986) Orators and Philosophers, a history of the idea of liberal education, New York: Teachers College Press, chapter II.

Cicero, (1945) Tusculan Disputations, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, I. i-iv, pp. 3-11, & II, i-iii, pp. 149-153.

Plato, Phaedo, 79-84c, in Plato Complete Works, Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Co, 1997.

Week 9First principles: Aristotle and Kant(21st Nov)

‘a principle cast into a good mind bears fruit’ (Pascal, B. (1966) Pensées, London Penguin, p. 247)

ReadingPlato, (1997) Phaedrus, in PlatoComplete Works, Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing, p524 (§ 245)

Aristotle (vol. 1) Physics, I.1. 184a10-15 (p. 315); II.3. 194b17-23 (p. 332); VIII.5. 256a12-256b3 (p. 428); VII.1.242a50-4 (p. 408); III.4. 203b 6-15 (p. 347); Fragment 12 (vol. 2), p. 2392, in Aristotle, (1984), The Complete Works of Aristotle,vols 1 & 2, ed. J.Barnes, Princeton UP.

R. Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy in The Philosophical Writings of Descartes vol. 2, trans. J. Cottingham, R. Stoothoff & D. Murdoch, (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1984), p. 29.

Kant, I. (1990) ‘What is Enlightenment?’ in Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals, New York: Macmillan 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.

Week 10market freedom (Adam Smith)(28th Nov)

ReadingSmith, A. (1958) The Wealth of Nations, London, Dent, Book V, article II, pp. 245-271.

Week 11Kant in action: taxation and education(5th Dec)

ReadingLecture notes

Wider ReadingBrighouse, H. (2002) ‘A Modest Defence of School Choice’ Journal of Philosophy of Education, Vol. 36, No. 4, pp. 653-659.

Tooley, J. (2003) ‘Why Harry Brighouse is Nearly Right about the Privatisation of Education’ Journal of Philosophy of Education, Vol. 37, No. 3, pp. 440-447.

Cox, C.B. & Boyson, R. (eds.) (1977) Black Paper London, Temple Smith, pp.8-9.

Davies, M. and Edwards, G. (2001) ‘Will the Curriculum Caterpillar Ever Learn to Fly?’ in Mike Fielding (ed.) Taking Education Really Seriously: Four Years Hard Labour, London, RoutledgeFalmer, pp. 96-107.

Lawton, D. (1994) The Tory Mind on Education, London: Falmer Press.

Williams, R. (2000) Lost Icons, London: Morehouse Publishing.

Week 12Learning voice: Presentations

These will be split across week 12; some will be in LA 1001a, some in LA 1002 on Friday. Make sure you know your time and place…

Assessment

7.Assessment Pattern
Essay
Learning voice
The word equivalent for a module at level 4 =3,500 words / Weight %
50%
50% / Pass Req
Agg
Agg

Assessment 1: (50%) What do Socrates and Schön believe is the relation between education and doubt?(1,500 words max; due Monday week 3, 10th October, given in to Catherine in the office,before 3.30pm)

Assessment 2: (50%) Learning Voice presentations in week 12: details given in seminars.

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
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
/ 2nd module essay
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)

All responses agreed that the reading packs were an aid to learning, and a means of support. We will aim to continue this successful practice. Support was described as approachable and abundant, available in sessions and beyond them. Several responses recorded feeling growing levels of confidence, about the self, with regard to understanding, and for some, in essays. On the design of the module, some responded that they liked the way the material linked both within a module and at times across modules. One commented that making the beginning the subject of the first essay ‘was fantastic’. The content was described as engaging, well-structured, detailed, interesting, and varied. One commented on the ‘freedom of the learning’, and one commented ‘such a breath of fresh air… its why I changed from another subject to this’. Overall the responses tell a good story. I anticipate little change to the module next year.

Catalogue summary

The Freedom is to Learn modules are the mandatory modules that run through the three years of the degree. The title is suggestive of something carried by the term ‘modern’ in the name of the Programme. There will be much more to be said about this, but for now, remember it is important that you treat all the material you read in each of your MLA modules as relevant to all MLA modules. Think of year 1 as a whole year of learning, not necessarily divided into modules, and think of each year as part of the whole degree. In time we will reward essays which are able to bring material in from different modules. In this first of the compulsory modules we are looking at some aspects of the origin of liberal arts education in Antiquity. As we do, we will also asks a strange question: what is the meaning of ‘beginning’? This is related to a second question: what is learning?