As always, even after the syllabus has been posted, be aware that assignments may change. HONS 2105 students are always encouraged to watch the Announcements section of the course’s blackboard site and their emails, and to listen and make note of any changes as they are announced in class.
HONS2105 printable syllabus for Spring 2024
PLEASE NOTE: The schedule information that follows hereafter is “under construction.” In the meantime, refer to the course schedule that is included in the syllabus (which can be accessed by clicking the green link above).
19th Century Liberalism
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Thursday, January 20, 2022
Read before class:
- J.S. Mill, On Liberty selections (Course Packet, hereafter referred to as CP 1-8)
- William Graham Sumner, What Social Classes Owe Each Other (Classics of American Political and Constitutional Thought, hereafter CAPCT 163-69)
- Pope Pius IX, “Syllabus of Errors,” selections (CP 9-10)
- Tomas Cipriano de Mosquera“Courting Papal Anger”(Colombia Reader 118-22)
- “Liberalism and Sin,” (Colombia Reader 123-27)
Anarchism, Socialism, Communism
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Tuesday, January 25, 2022
Read before class:
- Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The Communist Manifesto in Communist Manifesto and other Revolutionary Writings (hereafter CMORW 123-42)
- Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 (CP 11-13)
- Joseph Proudhon, selections (CP 14-16)
- Victor Considerant, Principles of Socialism (CP 17-18)
Origins of the Women’s Rights Movement
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Thursday, January 27, 2022
Read before class:
- Angelina Grimké, “Letter to Theodore Weld and John Greenleaf Whittier” (CAPCT pp. 5-8)
- Sarah Grimké, “Letters on the Equality of the Sexes” (CAPCT pp. 8-13)
- “The Declaration of Sentiments,” Seneca Falls (CAPCT pp. 16-18)
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “Address to the New York State Legislature” (CAPCT pp. 18-26)
- Sojourner Truth, Ain’t I a Woman? (CP 19)
Slavery and its Legacy in the United States
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Tuesday, February 1, 2022
Read before class:Slave Narratives (CP 20-29)
- Slave Narratives (CP 20-29)
- Frederick Douglass What to the Slave is the 4th of July? (CP 30-32)
- Henry B. Brown, Plessy v. Ferguson (CAPCT 99-102)
- John Marshall Harlan, Plessy v. Ferguson, Dissent (CAPCT 103-107)
Methods of the Natural Sciences: Darwin & Evolutionary Thought
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Thursday, February 3, 2022
Read before class:
- Charles Darwin, Origin of Species, chap. 14 (CP 33-41)
- Charles Darwin, Descent of Man (Selections)4 (CP 42-51)
- Peter Kropotkin, Mutual Aid – selections (CP 52-58)
- Pope John Paul II, “Address to the Pontifical Academy of Social Science” (CP 59-61)
Two Masters of Suspicion
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Tuesday, February 8, 2022
Read before class:
- Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality – selections (CP 62-67)
- Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents – selections (CP 68-75)
A South American Republic: The Formation of Modern Colombia
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Thursday, February 10, 2022
Read before class:
- Colombia: National Anthem (CP 76)
- Colombian Constitution of 1886 (selections) (CP 77-85)
- Soledad Acosta de Samper, “A Girl’s View of War in the Capital,” (Colombia Reader, 331-38)
- Jose Maria Vargas Vila, Facing the Barbarians: The Yanqui, Behold the Enemy (Colombia Reader 551-55)
- Jose Maria Quijano Wallis, “Let This Be Our Last War” (Colombia Reader 339-42)
The New Social Sciences
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Tuesday, February 15, 2022
Read before class:
- Emile Durkheim, The Rules of Sociological Method, selections (CP86-89)
- Max Weber, “Politics as a Vocation,” selections (CP 90-94)
- Karl Popper, “The Poverty of Historicism” (CP 95-98)
China: Humiliation, Rebellion, and Nationalism
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Thursday, February 17, 2022
Read before class:
- The Western Intrusion Into China (Sources of Chinese Tradition, Vol 2, hereafter SCT 198-205)
- The Taiping Rebellion (SCT 213-23, 226-30)
- Sun Yat-Sen and the Nationalist Revolutions (SCT, 314-330)
- Chiang Kai-Shek, “China’s Destiny” (SCT 344-47)
Imperialism and Colonialism
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Tuesday, February 22, 2022
Read before class:
- The Earl of Cromer: “Why Britain Acquired Egypt in 1882” (CP 99-100)
- Jose Marti, “Our America,” (CP 101-105)
- Ruben Dario, “To Roosevelt” (CP 106)
- Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth selections (CP 107-109)
- Mohandas Gandhi, “Ahmedabad Speech,”(CMROW 239-42)
- Mohandas Gandhi, “Satyagraha,”(CMROW 249-58)
What Is Natural Science Knowledge Of?
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Thursday, February 24, 2022
Read before class:
- Albert Einstein, Geometry and Experience (CP 110-117)
- Karl Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery – selections (CP 118-119
- Arthur Eddington, The Nature of the Physical World – selections (CP 120-122)
The Russian Revolution
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Tuesday, March 1, 2022
Read before class:
- V.I. Lenin, “The Tasks of the Proletariat in the Present Revolution”(CMROW 227-31)
- Lenin, “Declaration of Rights of the Working and Exploited People”(CMROW 236-38)
- Peter Kropotkin, “An Appeal to the Young” (CMORW 170-86)
- Peter Kropotkin, “The Russian Revolution and the Soviet Government” (CMORW 243-48)
- Peter Kropotkin, “Two Letters to Lenin,” (CP 123-126)
Islam & Modernity
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Thursday, March 3, 2022
Read before class:
- Muhammad ‘Abduh, The Theology of Unity, (Norton Islam 531-39)
- Mahmud Shaltut, The Qur’an and Fighting, (Norton Islam 548-56)
- Sayid Ahmad Khan, “The Rights of Women,” (Norton Islam 597-600)
- Sayid Qutb, Milestones, (Norton Islam 556-63)
Spring Break – No class
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Tuesday, March 8, 2022
Spring Break – No Class
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Thursday, March 10, 2022
World War I
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Tuesday, March 15, 2022
Read before class:
- Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, “German War Aims” (CP 127-128)
- Werner Sombart, “Merchants and Heroes” (CP 129-130)
- Lenin, “The War and Russian Social Democracy” (CP 131)
- World War I poetry – selections (CP 132-134)
- Rosa Luxemberg, “A Call to the Workers of the World” (CMROW 232-35)
Nazi Germany
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Thursday, March 17, 2022
Read before class:
- Adolph Hitler, from Mein Kampf (CP 135-143)
- The Program of the NSDAP (CP 144-146)
- Hitler Youth (CP 147-149)
- Bruno Heilig, “Why the German Republic Fell” (CP 150-158)
- Wilhelm Stuckart and Hans Globke, “Civil Rights and the Natural Inequality of Man” (CP 159-163)
- Pope Pius XI “Mit Brennender Sorge” (CP 164-166)
The Holocaust
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Tuesday, March 22, 2022
Read before class:
- Simon Wiesenthal, The Sunflower
Palestine and the State of Israel
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Thursday, March 24, 2022
Read before class:
- The Balfour Declaration and timeline of the Middle East Conflict (CP 167-170)
- The Partition of Palestine: UN General Assembly Resolution 181 (CP 171-174)
- Declaration of Establishment of the State of Israel (CP 175-176)
- The Palestinian Charter (CP 177-180)
- The Palestinian Declaration of Independence (CP 181-183)
China: From Mao to Now
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Tuesday, March 29, 2022
Read before class:
- Mao Zedong, “The Chinese Revolution and the Chinese Communist Party,” (SCT pp. 412-16)
- Mao Zedong, “The Dictatorship of the People’s Democracy,” (SCT pp. 423-25)
- Mao Zedong, “On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the the People,” (SCT pp.459-64)
- Deng Xiaoping, “Build Socialism With Chinese Characteristics” (SCT 507-10)
- Bo Yang, “The Ugly Chinaman” (SCT 565-68)
- Gu Mu, “Confucianism as the Essence of Chinese Tradition,” (SCT 581-83))
Vatican II and its Aftermath
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Thursday, March 31, 2022
Read before class:
- Nostra Aetate (CP 184-186)
- Gaudium et Spes (excerpts) (CP 187-197)
Dorothy Day, “Aims and Purposes” (CP 198-199) - Camilo Torres, “As a Colombian, as a Sociologist, as a Christian, and as a Priest, I Am a Revolutionary” (Colombia Reader, 141-46)
- Pope Francis, Laudato Si, selections (CP 200-209)
Race and Civil Rights in the U.S.
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Tuesday, April 5, 2022
Read before class:
- Booker T. Washington, “Atlanta Exposition Address” (CAPCT 188-90)
- W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folks (CAPCT 190-96)
- Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (CAPCT 653-62)
Martin Luther King, Jr., “Mountaintop speech” (CP 210-216) - Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet” (CAPCT 664-74)
- James Baldwin and William F. Buckley, “Debate at Cambridge University” (CAPCT 684-88)
- Thurgood Marshall, “Remarks on the Bicentennial of the Constitution” (CAPCT 832-34)
Post War Social Democracy and Liberalism
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Thursday, April 7, 2022
Read before class:
- Eduard Bernstein, Evolutionary Socialism, “Preface” (CP 217-220)
- “Declaration of Principles of the Socialist International,” 1989 (CP 221-222)
- “Party Manifesto of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany,” 2007 (CP 223-224)
- “An Interview With John Rawls,” https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/interview-john-rawls
Afro-Caribbean Writers
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Tuesday, April 12, 2022
Read before class:
- Jamaica Kincaid A Small Place
CLR James, Beyond A Boundary, selections (CP 225-228)
CLR James, “The Revolution and the Negro” (CP 229-233)
CLR James, “Fanon and the Caribbean” (CP 234-236)
- Jamaica Kincaid A Small Place
Holy Thursday – No classes
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Thursday, April 14, 2022
Latin American Literature and La Violencia: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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Tuesday, April 19, 2022
Read before class:
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, In Evil Hour
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings (CP 237-240)
- Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, “Prayer for Peace speech” (Colombia Reader 343-46)
- Gustavo Alvarez Gardeazabal, “Dead Bodies Appear on the Streets” (Colombia Reader 347-54)
Contemporary Islam
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Thursday, April 21, 2022
Read before class:
- Pope Francis and Grand Imam Ahmed el-Tayeb, “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together” (CP 241-245)
- Ebrahim Moosa, The Debts and Burdens of Critical Islam (Norton Islam 590-96)
- Ali Shari’ati, Fatima is Fatima, (Norton Islam 607-18)
- Mohammed Arkoun, Rethinking Islam (Norton Islam 577-86)
Colombia: Between Legitimacy and Violence
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Tuesday, April 26, 2022
Read before class:
- Colombian Constitution 1991 (selections) (CP 246-250)
- Starting Points for the FARC and the ELN (Colombia Reader 367-76)
- Turning Points in the Colombian Conflict (Colombia Reader 426-33)
- Guillermo Gaviria Correa, Diary of a Kidnapped Colombian Governor, selections (CP 251-254)
- “General Agreement for the Termination of the Conflict and the Building of a Stable and Enduring Peace” (Colombia Reader 591-98)
- Caroline Sandoval, “Colombia Can’t Afford to Abandon Peace”
- “Leftists Are Ascendant in Latin America as Key Elections Loom”
Women's Voices
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Thursday, April 28, 2022
Read before class:
- Amanda LaBarca, “Of Man, Woman, and Time” (CP 255-256)
- Betty Friedan, “Our Revolution Is Unique” (CAPCT 715-17)
- Kathleen Sprows Cummings, “Do Women Have Souls?
- Catholicism, Feminism and the Council of Macon” (CP 257-262)
- Amina Wadud, Qur’an and Woman (Norton Islam 625-29)
LGBTQ Rights, Church & Society
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Tuesday, May 3, 2022
Read before class:
- US Supreme Court, Obergefell v. Hodges, selections (CP 263-269)
- Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons” (CP 270-274)
- James Alison, “Yes, But Is It True?” http://jamesalison.com/yes-but-is-it-true/
Possibilities
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Thursday, May 5, 2022
Read before class:
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, “The Solitude of Latin America” (CP 275-277)
- Thomas Merton, “Learning to Live” (CP 278-286)
- Rutger Bregman, Utopia for Realists
Possibilities (Continued)
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Tuesday, May 10, 2022
Read before class:
Rutger Bregman, Utopia for Realists