Course Description
The ideas of the great thinkers in the ancient philosophical and literary traditions have remained an integral part of social, economic, cultural, political, and often religious life across the world. Their philosophical, literary, and spiritual contribution has shaped their specific communities and have extended to shape our global society today. This course takes a cross-cultural historical look at some of the worlds most influential philosophical and literary traditions and texts from traditions such as the ancient Egyptian, Greek, Indian, Chinese, Mesopotamian, Indigenous Mayan and others. In each tradition the course will examine various original writings on the following questions: what is human nature? What is the nature of society? And what is the nature of the universe? Some of the texts and thinkers that we will review to answer the above questions are the Egyptian Hymn to the Aten, Platos Symposium, Aristotles Poetics, Confuciuss Analects, Sun Tzus The Art of War, the Bhagavad-Gita, the Buddha, the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Popol Vuh and others.
Assignment
Write a 250 word summary of each reading(5 in total; links to readings listed below) and also write a 250 word reflection on what you read. The summary should answer the following: what was the key idea that the chapter taught you?. The reflection should answer: why is this chapter important in terms of one of the themes of the course? Some of the themes are: What is human nature? What is the nature of society? What is the nature of the universe?
You should include three to five citations in the summary. Citations tell the reader where you found the idea that you are discussing. Citations should be placed at the end of a sentence and should tell us the authors last name, the date of publication, and must tell us the page number that the ideas came from, for example: (Puchner 2012: 29)
Rubric for each Reading Assignment
Note: the first four parts should be 250 words or more. Part 5 (the reflection) should be 250 words or more.
A. Summary per link 250 words.
1. First sentence: what is the overall idea or argument advanced by the reading?
2. What is an example, proof, or evidence provided in the reading to support the main idea? Explain it and provide a citation.
3. What is a second example, proof, or evidence provided in the reading to support the main idea? Explain it and provide a citation.
4. What is a third example, proof, or evidence provided in the reading to support the main idea? Explain it and provide a citation.
B. Reflection
5. What is the significance of the readings overall idea to our course? (250 words)
Example of a citation: (Puchner 2018: 73)
1. The Bhagavad Gita (summarize chapter 1 Arjuna’s Despair and chapter 2 Theory) https://library.um.edu.mo/ebooks/b17771201.pdf
2. Confucius, The Analects: chapter 1, https://antilogicalism.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/the-analects.pdf
3. Daodejing, chapters 1-20, https://www.with.org/tao_te_ching_en.pdf
4. Zhuangzi, The Way of Chuang Tzu (p. 33-49), https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/MertonChuangTzu.pdf
5. Sun Tzu, The Art of War, (p. 1-24): https://sites.ualberta.ca/~enoch/Readings/The_Art_Of_War.pdf
