From Round to Square (and back)

For The Emperor's Teacher, scroll down (↓) to "Topics." It's the management book that will rock the world (and break the vase, as you will see). Click or paste the following link for a recent profile of the project: http://magazine.beloit.edu/?story_id=240813&issue_id=240610

A new post appears every day at 12:05* (CDT). There's more, though. Take a look at the right-hand side of the page for over four years of material (2,000 posts and growing) from Seinfeld and country music to every single day of the Chinese lunar calendar...translated. Look here ↓ and explore a little. It will take you all the way down the page...from round to square (and back again).
*Occasionally I will leave a long post up for thirty-six hours, and post a shorter entry at noon the next day.

Friday, January 5, 2024

Kant's Anthropology (Spring 2024)

[a] Is it anthropology yet?

Kant's Anthropology
History 310 & Anthropology 375
Spring 2024
Monday-Wednesday
19:15-22:30

Robert André LaFleur                                              Office Hours:
Morse Ingersoll 206                                                  Monday          13:30-16:00
363-2005                                                                  ..or by appointment (just
lafleur@beloit.edu                                                   send me an email message)             
                                                                                         
Required Books (in order of reading)           
Blakewell, Sarah. How to Live: Or a Life of Montaigne... (highly recommended)
Cassirer, Ernst. Kant's Life and Thought
Foucault, Michel. Introduction to Kant's Anthropology
Kant, Immanuel. Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View
Kant, Immanuel. Lectures on Anthropology
Kant, Immanuel, Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
Magee, Bryan, Confessions of a Philosopher
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Emile
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Julie, or the New Heloise
Scruton, Roger. Kant: A Very Short Introduction
Schopenhauer, Arthur. The World as Will and Representation
Vico, Giambattista. The New Science
                                       ***  *** 
Research notebook
Chicago Manual of Style Guidelines
Round and Square (www.robert-lafleur.blogspot.com)

Readings Available in .pdf Format
The New York Review of Books (NYRB)
LaFleur, Robert. Writing, History, and Culture (Rob's Writing Guide, fifty-fourth edition)
Adler, Mortimer. How to Read a Book
Richards, I.A. How to Read a Page
Eco, Umberto. How to Write a Thesis

Reserve Books
All books are also available on library reserve.

Course Description  
This seminar begins with the question of how Enlightenment thinkers from Immanuel Kant and Jean-Jacques Rousseau to Montesquieu and Giambattista Vico framed questions of social life, even employing the term "anthropology" for the social relations they sought to understand. The larger purpose of the seminar is global, however—to explore ways in which these questions were asked all over the world during an era stretching from the mid-eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century. This era, across the world, presents anthropologists and historians alike with the opportunity to explore changing ways of thinking about how people organize themselves in society. We will explore the writings of the Mito school in Tokugawa, Japan, Qing dynasty scholars in China, and even writers, such as James Madison, in early American history who sought to articulate what they perceived as new ways of relating to fellow citizens (not to mention relationships they failed to perceive or regard as significant).

Students will have the opportunity, while pursuing their research and writing their seminar papers, to investigate early forms of social and cultural analysis in an area and era that is part of their ongoing interests. The course readings and discussions will form a foundation that students will use to develop their seminar paper research and writing in the course, even as our weekly readings form a shared core of knowledge for class discussion and further research.

Evaluation
Quizzes                                                 10%        Every Session
Kant's Anthropology Letter                    10%        Week Five
Exams I & II                                           15%        Weeks Seven and Fifteen
Midterm Research Prospectus              10%        Week Ten
Presentation                                          10%        Week Fifteen
Final Essay                                            45%        Finals Week

HIST 310
Kant's Anthropology
Spring 2024
Week I 
Monday, January 22
Eriksen, A History of Anthropology, vii-x; 1-19 (.pdf file sent to you on January 8)
     Proto-Anthropology 
Scruton, Kant: A Very Short Introduction, 1-15
     Life, Works, and Character
Foucault, Introduction to Kant's Anthropology, 9-23
     Introduction (Editors)
     Note on the Text and Translation (Editors)
     Introduction to Kant's Anthropology (Foucault)
Wednesday, January 24
Syllabic Cycles: Introduction (a-d)  Read all four posts, not just “a.”
Scruton, Kant: A Very Short Introduction, 16-132
     The Background of Kant's Thought
     The Transcendental Deduction
     The Logic of Illusion
     The Categorical Imperative
Due THIS Sunday, January 28:
A thousand-word (three page) essay explaining your possible
seminar paper topic about a thinker who explored social relations (broadly defined)
during the period stretching from roughly 1750-1850.

Week II  
Monday, Janaury 29
Round and Square Quotidian Quizzes:Introduction (a-h) 
Read all eight posts, not just “a.” (You may skim a-d, but begin reading carefully 
with post "e," or "5", depending on the link (some are listed a-h and others 1-8; 
they are the same). The last four are crucial; your grade depends on it),
Magee, Confessions of a Philosopher, 123-162
     A Yale Education
    The Discovery of Kant
Kant, Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics (entire book)
     Preface
     Preamble
     General Questions of the Prolegomena
     General Question
     The Main Transcendental Question, First Part
     The Main Transcendental Question, Second Part
     The Main Transcendental Question, Third Part
     Solution to the General Question of the Prolegomena
  Selection s from the Critique of Pure Reason
     From the Preface to the Second Edition
     From the Introduction
     From the Transcendental Aesthetic
     From the Transcendental Logic, Introduction
     From the Analytic of Concepts
     From the Analytic of Principles
     From the Transcendental Dialectic
     From the Transcendental Doctrine of Method

Wednesday, January 31
Foucault, Introduction to Kant's Anthropology, 23-51
     Introduction to Kant's Anthropology (Foucault)
Magee, Confessions of a Philosopher, 3-33
     Scenes from Childhood
     My Introduction to Academic Philosophy
This is a "humanities 'lab' seminar; we do not meet on Wednesdays, but you should do the reading and then send a brief email message to me about the reading and your work on your final project to me by the end of our scheduled class time (10:30) each Wednesday.
***  ***
(hard copy in MI 206; "time-stamps" will be accepted as .pdf files
with hard copies to follow by class time on Monday)

Week III
Cassirer, Kant's Life and Thought
      Youth and Education
      The Early Teaching Years and the Beginnings of Kantian Philosophy
       The Construction and Central Problems of the Critique of Pure Reason
       First Fruits of the Critical Philosophy. The Prolegomena. Herder's Ideas...
       The Critique of Judgment
       Last Works, Last Battles...

Wednesday, February 7
Foucault, Introduction to Kant's Anthropology, 51-73
     Introduction to Kant's Anthropology (Foucault)
Magee, Confessions of a Philosopher, 34-73
     Logical Positivism and Its Refutation
     Linguistic Analysis
This is a "humanities 'lab' seminar; we do not meet on Wednesdays, but you should do the reading and then send a brief email message to me about the reading and your work on your final project to me by the end of our scheduled class time (10:30) each Wednesday.
***  ***
(hard copy in MI 206; "time-stamps" will be accepted as .pdf files
with hard copies to follow by class time on Monday)

     
[b] From here to ethnography

Week IV
Kant, Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View
   Part One: Anthropological Didactic
     First Book: On the Cognitive Faculty
          On Being Conscious of One's Self
          On Egoism
          On Being Arbitrarily Conscious of One's Ideas
          On Self-Observation
          On the Ideas We Have Without Being Aware of Them
          On Distinctness and Indistinctness in Relation to the Consciousness...
          On Sensibility in Contrast to Understanding
          Apology for Sensibility
          On the Potentiality of the Cognitive Faculty
          On the Artificial Games Played with Sensory Perceptions
          On the Admissible Moral Perception
          On the Five Senses
          On the Inner Sense
          On the Causes of Increasing or Decreasing Sensory Perceptions...
          On the Decreasing, Weakening, and Entire Loss of the...Senses
          On the Sensory Productive Faculty with all its Branches
          Of the Faculty of Visualizing the Past and the Future...
          On Involuntary Invention in a Sound Mental State...On Dreams
          On the Faculty of Designation (facultas signatrix)
          On the Faculty of Cognition as Far as it is Based on Understanding
          Anthropological Comparison of the Three Higher Cognitive Faculties...
          On the Soul's Weaknesses...with Respect to its Cognitive Faculty
          On the Talents of the Cognitive Faculty
          On the Specific Differences Between the Comparative...
       Second Book: On the Feeling of Pleasure and Displeasure
          On Sensuous Pleasure
       Third Book: On the Faculty of Desire
          On Emotion in Contrast to Passion
          On the Emotions in Particular
          On Passions
          On the Highest Physical Good
          On the Highest Ethicophysical Good
      Part Two: Anthropological Characterization
          A. The Character of the Person
          B. The Character of the Sexes
          C. The Character of Nations
          D. On the Character of the Races
          E. On the Character of the Species

Wednesday, February 14
Foucault, Introduction to Kant's Anthropology, 73-103
     Introduction to Kant's Anthropology (Foucault)
Magee, Confessions of a Philosopher, 74-106
     The Inadequacy of Linguistic Philosophy
     The Problem of Perception
This is a "humanities 'lab' seminar; we do not meet on Wednesdays, but you should do the reading and then send a brief email message to me about the reading and your work on your final project to me by the end of our scheduled class time (10:30) each Wednesday.
***  ***
(hard copy in MI 206; "time-stamps" will be accepted as .pdf files
with hard copies to follow by class time on Monday)

Week V
Zammito, Kant, Herder, and the Birth of Anthropology
       The Emergence of the Personal Rivalry Between Kant and Herder
       The Aufklärung of the 1760s: "Philosophy for the World" or Bildung...
       Kant and the Leibniz-Wolff School to 1762-1763
       "An Altogether Different Kant": The "Gallant Magister"...
       A "Kantian of the Year 1765": Herder's Conception...
       Kant's Crisis of Professional Identity: The Calling of Philosophy...
       Constituting the Discourse of Anthropology: The "Philosophical..."
       Kant's Critical Turn and its Relation to His Anthropology Course
       "Enough Speculating:; Let's Get our Facts Straight": Herder and....
       Conclusion

Wednesday, February 21
Foucault, Introduction to Kant's Anthropology, 103-124
     Introduction to Kant's Anthropology (Foucault)
This is a "humanities 'lab' seminar; we do not meet on Wednesdays, but you should do the reading and then send a brief email message to me about the reading and your work on your final project to me by the end of our scheduled class time (10:30) each Wednesday.
***  ***
(hard copy in MI 206; "time-stamps" will be accepted as .pdf files
with hard copies to follow by class time on Monday)

Week VI
Monday, February 26
Round and Square See separate Round and Square syllabus
LaFleur, Writing, History, and Culture
     Part One: Writing and Time
     Part Two: The Writing Process
     Part Three: Navigating Grammatical Forests
Adler, How to Read a Book, 3-95
Part One: The Dimensions of Reading
    The Activity and Art of Reading
    The Levels of Reading
    The First Level of Reading: Elementary Reading
    The Second Level of Reading: Inspectional Reading
Part Two: The Third Level of Reading: Analytical Reading
    How to Be a Demanding Reader
    Pigeonholing a Book
    X-Raying a Book
Richards, How to Read a Page
Use the skills you gained from Adler to "get to know" this book)
    Introduction
    How a Reader Might Improve   
    An Obvious Characteristic of All Animals
    To Learn, Compare
    Random Scratching and Clawing
    To Unite, Abstract
    The Warfare of Heart and Head
    The Choice of the Key Words
    Part-Whole Shifts and Content Changes
    Make, Get, Give, Love, Have
    Seem, Be, Do, See
    Mind, Thought, Idea, Knowledge
    Reasons, Purpose, Work, Retrospect
Eco, How to Write a Thesis
Use the skills you gained from Adler to "get to know" this book)
    The Definition and Purpose of the Thesis
    Choosing the Topic
    Conducting Research
    The Work Plan and the Index Cards
    Writing the Thesis
    The Final Draft
    Conclusions
Wednesday, February 28
Foucault, Introduction to Kant's Anthropology, 127-139
     Introduction to Kant's Anthropology (Foucault)
Magee, Confessions of a Philosopher, 107-162
     What Can Be Shown but Not Said
     A Yale Education
    The Discovery of Kant
(The Kant chapter is an important repeat, and should be read carefully in anticipation of the exam next week; Magee's explanation of Kant's arguments in the Critique of Pure Reason is excellent, and will help with next week's exam work).

This is a "humanities 'lab' seminar; we do not meet on Wednesdays, but you should do the reading and then send a brief email message to me about the reading and your work on your final project to me by the end of our scheduled class time (10:30) each Wednesday.
***. ***
due on Sunday, March 31 by 5:00 p.m.
(hard copy in MI 206; "time-stamps" will be accepted as .pdf files
with hard copies to follow by class time on Monday)

Week VII
(March 5, 7)
Monday, March 5
Round and Square See separate Round and Square syllabus
Kant, Lectures on Anthropology, 1-256
     General Introduction (important)
     Anthropology Collins (1772-1773)
     Anthropology Parow (1772-1773)
     Anthropology Friedlander (1775-1776)

Wednesday, March 7
Exam I (We'll discuss this in class during weeks six and seven)
***. ***
due on Sunday, March 31 by 5:00 p.m.
(hard copy in MI 206; "time-stamps" will be accepted as .pdf files
with hard copies to follow by class time on Monday)

Week VIII—Spring Break
Blakewell, How to Live (highly recommended)
    Q. How to live? 
    Michel de Montaigne in one question and twenty attempts...
    1. Q. How to live? A. Don't worry about death
    2. Q. How to live? A. Pay attention ; Starting to write
    3. Q. How to live? A. Be born ; Micheau ; The experiment
    4. Q. How to live? A. Read a lot, forget most of what you read...
    5. Q. How to live? A. Survive love and loss
    6. Q. How to live? A. Use little tricks A. Little tricks and the art of living
    7. Q. How to live? A. Question everything ; All I know is that I know nothing...
    8. Q. How to live? A. Keep a private room behind the shop
    9. Q. How to live? A. Be convivial, live with others ; A gay and sociable wisdom...
  10. Q. How to live? A. Wake from the sleep of habit
  11. Q. How to live? A. Live temperately ; Raising and lowering the temperature
  12. Q. How to live? A. Guard your humanity ; Terror ; Hero
  13. Q. How to live? A. Do something no one has done before
  15. Q. How to live? A. Do a good job, but not too good a job
  16. Q. How to live? A. Philosophize only by accident
  17. Q. How to live? A. Reflect on everything; regret nothing
  18. Q. How to live? A. Give up control
  19. Q. How to live? A. Be ordinary and imperfect
  20. Q. How to live? A. Let life be its own answer
 
                                                                          [c] "A" is for Anthropology

                                                                  Week IX
(March 18, 20)
Monday, March 18 
Class on Wednesday this Week (in MI 207)

Wednesday, March 20 NOTE: MI 207 Tonight ONLY
Round and Square See separate Round and Square syllabus
Kant, Lectures on Anthropology, 1-10; 257-524
     General Introduction (important to look at again)
     Anthropology Pillau (1777-1778)
     Menschenkunde (1781-1782?)
     Anthropology Mrongovius (1784-1785)
     Anthropology Basolt (1788-1789
***. ***
due on Sunday, March 31 by 5:00 p.m.
(hard copy in MI 206; "time-stamps" will be accepted as .pdf files
with hard copies to follow by class time on Monday)

                                                                  Week X
(March 25, 27)
Monday, March 25
Read the entire (relatively brief) text carefully. It has extraordinary connections to all Enlightenment thinkers, and was an inspiration for the French Revolution. It serves as an important "pivot" in this seminar.

Wednesday, March 27
Magee, Confessions of a Philosopher, 163-202
     Professional Versus Amateur Philosophy
     Getting to Know Popper
This is a "humanities 'lab' seminar; we do not meet on Wednesdays, but you should do the reading and then send a brief email message to me about the reading and your work on your final project to me by the end of our scheduled class time (10:30) each Wednesday.
***. ***
due THIS Sunday, March 31 by 5:00 p.m.
(hard copy in MI 206; "time-stamps" will be accepted as .pdf files
with hard copies to follow by class time on Monday)

                                                                  Week XI
(April 1, 3)
Monday, April 1
Go to the Crom Lecture in the Weissberg Auditorium (take a selfie of yourself at the lecture and send it to me for "attendance").

Wednesday, April 3
Magee, Confessions of a Philosopher, 252-303
     Mid-Life Crisis
     A Philosophical Novel
This is a "humanities 'lab' seminar; we do not meet on Wednesdays, but you should do the reading and then send a brief email message to me about the reading and your work on your final project to me by the end of our scheduled class time (10:00) each Wednesday.
***. ***
Make sure that you read the Final Seminar Paper Assignment
(due on Tuesday, May 8 by 5:00 p.m.—hard copy in my office, MI 206)

                              
                                      [d] The starry heavens above...

                                          Week XII
(April 8, 10)
Monday, April 8
Round and Square See separate Round and Square syllabus
Rousseau, Emile
     Book One
     Book Two
     Book Three
Go quickly through Books Four and Five, in order to grasp the full argument that Rousseau is making (this will help in understanding next week's book).

Wednesday, April 10
Magee, Confessions of a Philosopher, 304-349
    Groves of Academe
     In Praise of Popularization
     The Limits of Philosophy
This is a "humanities 'lab' seminar; we do not meet on Wednesdays, but you should do the reading and then send a brief email message to me about the reading and your work on your final project to me by the end of our scheduled class time (10:30) each Wednesday.
***. ***
Make sure that you read the Final Seminar Paper Assignment
(due on Tuesday, May 8 by 5:00 p.m.—hard copy in my office, MI 206)

Week XIII
(April 15, 17)
See my class attendance and participation policy 
Monday, April 15
Round and Square See separate Round and Square syllabus
New York Review of Books See separate New York Review of Books syllabus   
Rousseau, Julie, or the New Heloise, 1-154.
     Preface
     Part One
     Part Two
     Part Three
     Part Four
     Part Five
     Part Six
Read all of Part One, and then use the skills you have built in reading long narratives to understand what happens beyond it.

Take a look at the optional (extra credit) "rewriting assignment." I will explain how the "extra credit" will work for those who choose to do it in class on Monday, April 15.

Wednesday, April 17
Magee, Confessions of a Philosopher, 350-402
     The Discovery of Schopenhauer
     The Philosophy of Schopenhauer
This is a "humanities 'lab' seminar; we do not meet on Wednesdays, but you should do the reading and then send a brief email message to me about the reading and your work on your final project to me by the end of our scheduled class time (10:30) each Wednesday.
***. ***
Make sure that you read the Final Seminar Paper Assignment
(due on Tuesday, May 8 by 5:00 p.m.—hard copy in my office, MI 206)


Week XIV
(April 22, 24)
Monday, April 22
Round and Square See separate Round and Square syllabus
Vico, The New Science
     An Explication of the Picture Put Forward as the Frontspiece, to Serve...
Book One: On the Establishment of Principles
     Annotations for the Chronological Table...
     On the Elements
     On the Principles
     On Method
Book Two: On Poetic Wisdom
     On Wisdom in General
     An Exposition and Partitioning of Poetic Wisdom
     On the Universal Flood and the Giants
     On Poetic Metaphysics, in Which are Given the Origins of...
     On Poetic Logic
     On Poetic Morals, and Therein on the Origins of ...
     On Poetic Economics, and Therein on the Earliest...
     On Poetic Politics, by Which the Earliest Republics...
     On Poetic Physics
     On Poetic Cosmography
     On Poetic Astronomy
     On Poetic Chronology
     On Poetic Geography
Book Three: On the Discovery of the True Homer
     On the Recondite Wisdom that has been Opined about Homer
     On the Fatherland of Homer
     On the Age of Homer
     Philosophical Proofs for the Discovery of the True Homer
     Discovery of the True Homer
Book Four: On the Course that the Nations Make
     Three Kinds of Natures
     Three Kinds of Customs
     Three Kinds of Natural Law
     Three Kinds of Governance
     Three Kinds of Languages
     Three Kinds of Characters
     Three Kinds of Jurisprudence
     Three Kinds of Authority
     Three Kinds of Reason
     Three Kinds of Judgments
     Three Sects of Times
     Additional Proofs Treating the Properties of Heroic Aristocracies
     On Guardianship Over Boundaries
     On Guardianship Over Laws
     Additional Proofs Taken from the Moderating Which Happens of the...
     Subsequent Constitutions of Republics Because of the...
     Governing
     Final Proofs Which Confirm that this is the Course of Nations
Book Five: On the Recurrence of Human Things During the Resurgence...
     The Recurrence Nations Make in Accordance with the Eternal Nature...
     A Depiction of the World of Nations, Ancient and Modern, with...

Take a look at the optional (extra credit) "rewriting assignment." I will explain how the "extra credit" will work for those who choose to do it in class on Monday, April 15.

Wednesday, April 24
Spring Day
Enjoy the day. You're almost done.
***. ***
Make sure that you read the Final Seminar Paper Assignment
(due on Tuesday, May 8 by 5:00 p.m.—hard copy in my office, MI 206)

Week XV
(April 29, May 1)
Monday, April 29
Round and Square See separate Round and Square syllabus
Kalkjavage, The Logic of Desire
     Prologue: The Ladder and the Labyrinth
Preparing the Journey
     A World of Knowing
     What is Experience? (Hegel's Introduction)
Consciousness
     Of Mere Being (Sense-Certainty)
     The Crisis of Thinghood (Perception)
     The Dynamics of Self-Expression (Understanding)
     Principles of Motion and the Motion of Principles
Self-Consciousness
     On Life and Desire
     The Violent Self: In Quest of Recognition
     Freedom as Thinking
     Infinite Yearning and the Rift in Man
Reason
     Idealism
     Adventures of a Rational Observer
     The Romance of Reason
     Rational Animals and the Birth of Spirit
Spirit
     Ethical Life: Laws in Conflict
     Interlude
     Culture as Alienation
     From Pure Insight to Pure Terror: The Darkness of the Enlightenment
     Pure Willing and the Moral World View
     Conscience and Reconciliation: Hegel's Divine Comedy
Religion
     The Depiction of God
     The Greek Phase
     Christianity, the Figure of Science
Absolute Knowing
     Speculative Good Friday: The Top of Hegel's Ladder
Epilogue

Take a look at the optional (extra credit) "rewriting assignment." I will explain how the "extra credit" will work for those who choose to do it in class on Monday, April 15.

Wednesday, May 1
Exam II (TBA)
***. ***
Make sure that you read the Final Seminar Paper Assignment
(due on Tuesday, May 8 by 5:00 p.m.—hard copy in my office, MI 206)

[e] Dylan and Time
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