(3 semester hours)
Location: SLC 207
Office Location: 21 Peabody Hall.
Email (preferred method of communication): rouslane@uga.edu
Study guides and handouts will normally be delivered to you via a listserv.
Course Description:
Bringing together the wisdom of spiritual traditions and the disciplines of philosophy
and psychology, this course explores some of the biggest challenges and joys of
being humans. We will tackle a range of perennial questions facing every
reflective individual and see how science, philosophy, and religion illuminate
and correct one another on these issues. A sample of topics is as follows: What
is authentic happiness and how do we find it? Under what conditions do we, as
humans, flourish -- psychologically, morally, spiritually, and physically? How
do we make sound moral decisions in complex and ambiguous situations facing us
today? What is the nature of love, attachments, and desire, and how do we
cultivate those properly? How do we cope with pain, suffering, and death in
effective, uplifting ways? How do we deal with conflict, subvert violence, and
create true peace on both individual and interpersonal levels? Some peculiar
challenges of our postmodern age, such as the construction of identity and
meaning, will also be addressed. The course will consists of discussions,
lectures, active learning exercises and film.
Undergraduate prerequisite: Junior or senior standing or permission of department.
Expected Learning Outcomes:
1. Increased ability for critical analysis and constructive, insightful thinking.
2. Increased ability for integrating insights and data from different disciplines
3. Improved scholarly writing skills
4. Improved oral communication skills
5. Enhanced skills in collaborative learning
Students’ Own Objectives (here you are encouraged to formulate your own aims if different from the above). Make sure to communicate these to the instructor, and, if appropriate, he will do his best to help you meet your individual objectives):
Required Texts
I. Books (available at the University Bookstore and off campus): (I highly recommend purchasing all of the texts early because the bookstore sends back the unclaimed copies sooner than you might think!)
1) Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom (New York: Basic Books, 2006)
2) Ian S. Markham, Do Morals Matter? A Guide to Contemporary Religious Ethics (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2007)
3) David Baggett and Shawn Klein, Harry Potter and Philosophy: If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts (Chicago, IL: Open Court, 2004)
4) The Arbinger Institute, The Anatomy of Peace: Resolving the Heart of Conflict (San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2008)
5) Chogyam Trungpa, Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior (Boston, MA: Shambhala, 2007)
II Articles from the on-line library reserve. Access procedures TBA
III. Instructor’s notes (PowerPoint and Word documents) (posted on listserv throughout the semester). As these arrive in your mailbox, download and save them on your computer in a separate folder. This way, you will have all the materials for the test handy in one place.
Required technical base:
1) You should have access to and have the ability to open and navigate Microsoft Word and PowerPoint documents
2) You should have an operational UGA e-mail account for the duration of this course. Keep your e-mail storage space uncluttered so that you could receive Word and PowerPoint documents from me without glitches. The instructor will create the listserv from the e-mail addresses listed on the enrollment sheet during the second week of classes.
Always bring the assigned readings to class (print out the instructor’s notes)!
Ground rules:
While in class Please make every effort to be mentally present in class, which means abstaining from things like napping, solving crossword puzzles, having a snack (although water is permitted), reading newspapers, doing homework, talking on the phone, text-messaging, chatting with one another, etc.
Leaving class early Please do not leave class early without talking to the instructor before class or, if that’s impossible, provide an explanation next time you come to class. This does not apply to the situations when you need to step outside briefly (i.e., bathroom)
Being late to class Please avoid chronic tardiness. Although circumstances may occasionally prevent us from arriving on time, frequent late arrivals are not allowed without making arrangements with the instructor.
Persistent failure to abide by the above rules may result in a loss of attendance points
E-mailing the instructor. Due to the high cumulative number of students in my classes, I am trying to keep e-mailing to a minimum. For that reason, please do not e-mail me your papers or explanations for your absences and late arrivals/early departures. Simply talk to me before or after class in person at your next opportunity. However you certainly can e-mail me with questions regarding the material and class or missing the exams or setting appointments.
Course Requirements:
Note: if you are taking this class as a 6000-level course or for Honors credit, you would need to do extra work in addition to the requirements below. See instructor for details
I. Midterm Exam (30 points)
The goal is to test your grasp of key concepts and issues. It will consist of true-false, multiple-choice, and short essay questions. The exam is scheduled for Monday, October 6
II. Final Exam (30 points)
Same as above, except it will cover topics discussed in the second half of the semester. Scheduled for the week of finals (time TBA)
III. Class participation and attendance (40 points total; 40% of the final grade): This class is not lecture-only. Research shows that students learn best when they engage in active learning. Therefore your active involvement is important and will include the following components.
1) Starting the first week of classes, weekly pass-fail home writing assignments (10 assignments per semester, 2 point per assignment, 20 points total). Note that although there are 15 weeks of classes, only 10 papers will be required. This means that you can take 5 weeks off from home writing at any time during the semester! In order to spread out the workload more evenly, I would recommend writing 5 papers before and 5 papers after the midterm.
For each of the 10 weeks of your choice, you are asked to write a 1.5-2-page double-spaced paper (font 12) on the textbook material or/and PowerPoint presentations (if applicable) assigned for either of three classes on that particular week. For example, if you decide to write a paper for a Wednesday class, you should write about the readings assigned for that day and submit it on that day. This will take care of your writing assignment for that week (that is, there is no need to write anything for the Monday and Friday class). If you are writing in response to lecture/PowerPoint material, you will write the paper after class and bring it to the next class. (I strongly encourage you to make double-sided prints to save the paper. I will recycle your papers after the semester is over)
The paper will contain two parts:
Part I. Your thoughts on one of the following questions of your choice:
1) What stood out for you in today’s readings? In particular, what things struck you as interesting, important, surprising, controversial, disturbing, inspiring, puzzling, enlightening, particularly useful, beautiful or the opposite. Why? 2) What are some key facts, ideas, insights, issues that you identified in the readings?
Part II. Formulate a question or comment of your own to contribute to the class discussion (which means that you must be ready to share that question or comment in class). This does not have to deal directly with the readings (although it should be relevant to the topic). This is your opportunity to connect with the subject on a more personal level by bringing up what is really important to you. OR you can lift up any of the general questions listed in the course description above and adapt it to the readings.
Papers are pass/fail. This means that you will either get 2 points (pass) or no points at all (fail).
Definition of a failed paper: you either didn’t write it or failed to submit it on time or wrote it very poorly in terms of style and grammar; or your paper shows that you did not really study the material.
What information to include in your paper: a) your name, b) the course title,
c) times class meets, d) the date and the day of the week for which you are writing (for ex., Friday, Sep.5 ), e) the paper’s sequential number (for ex., Paper # 3 if this is your third paper in the semester, so you would have to keep track of this). MAKE SURE TO SAVE THEM ON YOUR HARD DRIVE AND DISK UNTIL THE END OF THE SEMESTER.
Submitting your papers:
Papers are due at the class for which you have chosen to write. You must submit the paper in person right after class (or at the beginning if you must leave early), at which time I will check it off in my records and let you know where you stand in terms of papers. Late papers will not be accepted, except when you missed a class for a documentable serious medical or family reason. In those cases, you can submit the paper at the next class following the absence. Do not e-mail me your papers, as those will not be accepted. If you have been absent for a legitimate reason for more than one week, you can bring me however many papers you wrote during that time.
2) Participation in a group project and presentation (details TBA) (6pts)
3) Attendance (14 points)
An attendance sheet will be passed around in class on frequent occasions (of that day and hour no one knows except Dr. E!) IF YOU COME IN LATE, MAKE SURE TO CHECK IF YOU MISSED THE ATTENDANCE SHEET AFTER CLASS.
With every missed class for any reason other than documented severe or infectious illness, medical or family emergency or UGA-required athletic trips or job/grad school interviews or religious holidays, you will lose 1 out of your 14 attendance points until all 14 points are used up. No exceptions. Also, because class participation is important in itself, you cannot miss more than two weeks of classes without penalty, even if you have been absent for any of the legitimate reasons listed above. Note, however, that you are entitled to 3 free absences per semester without penalty, for whatever reason (yes, even if you simply decide to take a day off).
General preparedness for the class: Even if you are not writing a paper, you are still responsible for doing all the assigned readings.
Other reasons to attend: Poor attendance may affect your ability to write quality exams, as the missed discussions and lectures can prevent you from grasping the issues adequately. Secondly, you will miss out on the invaluable experience of exploring important human questions with your peers. Finally, good education always involves “moments of transformative insight” – moments when you suddenly realize the material’s relevance to you, or discover some new connection, or find an illuminating piece of information, or have an “aha!” experience, or learn a new way of looking at things. These moments are often stimulated by mutual interaction with other students and the teacher. Therefore, your asking questions, responding to the material in class, and participating in discussions are crucial for effective learning.
IMPORTANT: All academic work must meet the standards contained in "A Culture of Honesty." All students are responsible to inform themselves about those standards before performing any academic work. See
http://www.uga.edu/ovpi/honesty/culture_honesty.htm
Grading Scale (100% = 100 pts)
92-100 A 90-91.9 A-
88-89.9 B+ 82-87.9 B 80-81.9 B-
78-79.9 C+ 72-77.9 C 70-71.9 C-
60-69.9 D
0-59.9 F
Consultation: I welcome the opportunity to talk with you about your
academic interests, the course assignments, and your experience in this class during my office hours or by appointment. Half-way through the semester, you also will have a chance to suggest ways of making the course a more enriching experience for you through an anonymous midterm course evaluation. This way, I will be able to make the needed changes during the semester. Your suggestions and feedback are always welcome and will be taken seriously
to the class by the instructor may be necessary. Class discussions can unexpectedly take us to greater depths and lengths and therefore require more time than planned. After all, Constructive theology is by nature full of surprising twists and turns. For this reason I have opted against providing a detailed reading schedule in the syllabus (we will deviate from it anyway), except for the first three weeks. Prior to each class I will provide you with specific page numbers for the readings. We will start with the text The Happiness Hypothesis [HP] and proceed in the order the texts appear on the above list (except for the articles).
Aug 20 HP ix-6 (before “Second Division”)
Aug 22 HP 6-22
Aug 25 HP 28 (start at “Negativity Bias”) -34
Aug 27 HP 35-44
Aug 29 59-71
Week 3
Sep 1 LABOR DAY, NO CLASS
Sep 3 HP 72-80
Sep 5 TBA
THE FINAL EXAM WILL TAKE PLACE THE WEEK OF FINALS (TIME TBA)