Course Syllabus

"Creating Wisdom" course description

Scientia is the Latin word for “knowledge”; sapientia is the Latin word for “wisdom.”  In this course we will consider how wisdom has been defined and created.  We’ll also consider the creation of knowledge and its relationship to wisdom.

Knowledge is a good place to start. See the Oxford English Dictionary entry, which includes acknowledgement, recognition, acquaintance, friendship, intimacy, understanding, intelligence, perception, and consciousness among the word’s many meanings. Wisdom has the same sort of long pedigree in English: it involves concepts of judgment, sound sense, enlightenment, learning, sanity, reason, dignity and respect, while the word “wisdom” also seems to have been used jocularly and/or ironically for a very long time. What does it mean to be knowledgeable? To be wise?  How distinct are these concepts?

This course will concentrate on human culture’s most powerful vehicle with which to explore, understand, create and contest both knowledge and wisdom:  telling stories. Stories – narratives – carry knowledge and create wisdom in their many pre-modern forms.  In his book The Literary Mind (Oxford UP, 1996), Mark Turner suggests that narrative—story – is the foundation of language itself. Reading pre-modern texts with attention to discovery, interpretation, and use can help us understand the value of narrative, our own positions within a sea of story, and how we make sense – knowledge, wisdom – of the world. We'll use many kinds of tales (a tale is also a "mere story," according to the OED) and their "translations" (meaning "to carry, to transfer") to grapple with representations of self and other, and with the value of imagination and emotion. We'll let the root of education – educare, to lead forth – lead us to new sorts of intellectual and emotional knowledge and wisdom as we consider the ways pre-modern cultures produced and saved these tales. We’ll also investigate how and why we’ve gotten our hands on them in 2017 Oregon. Your literary journey starts here.

Close reading is vital; interpretive muscle grows from it. Written work for the class includes ungraded response papers, two 1500-word formal papers, class presentations, and a comprehensive final examination. Some special events related to the class, such as films or readings, are not required, but strongly recommended.

Reading schedule -- reading due for that day's class; always a good idea to read ahead

Requirements

• First writing assignment, due Friday, September 29. One to two pages, 250 to 500 words. Read the first tablet of Gilgamesh, pages 1 to 12, and pay attention to Gilgamesh's dream and Ninsun's interpretation of it. Invent a dream that presages your experiences at the University of Oregon. Have someone (and identify who it is) who interprets your dream. You'll be writing in a long tradition: Mesopotamian students parodied Gilgamesh some 3000 years ago.

• Response papers.You'll write four (not five, although there are five opportunities) one- to two-page response papers this term (about 600 words). Check due dates on the schedule below. Response paper are formal in the sense that spelling, grammar, and thinking count; at the same time, these are papers in which to try out ideas, to experiment and challenge yourself intellectually. Here are the steps for writing response papers:
  • No fewer than four days before a paper is due, think about something you find intriguing in ourreading, and re-read the text.
  • No fewer than three days before the due date, free write, meaning that you make notes, construct an outline, or write a complete draft (this may be handwritten). Use a habitual method, or try a new method you're trying out for the first time. Get something down on paper. Then put away whatever you've written for at least six hours.
  • Reread and revise what you've written, again looking at our text for evidence. Have a typed, final copy of your essay complete before noon Wednesday.
  • Attach your notes/outline/draft to your finished copy and hand it in.

  Do not be surprised if you change your mind utterly while you're writing. Do not be surprised if the last thing you write can better serve as the beginning of the paper. I will read these papers, comment on them, and grade them pass/no pass. Normally, a no-pass paper lacks a thesis and/or contains egregious writing errors. Four passing papers will count as a 4.0, three as a 3.0, two as a 2.0, one as a 1.0. No-pass papers may be re-written, and handed back to me within a week. You may also request that I give any response paper a "grade," meaning the grade it would receive were it a graded assignment: I'll "grade" the paper in order to give you an idea of how grading works on formal papers, but the grade won't "count," per se.

• Graded formal papers. Two five-page (1250 to 1500 words) papers, each of which can use an observation originally explored in a response paper and/or an informal study group. See also tips for topics. Paper 1, due Wednesday, Oct. 25, will treat Gilgamesh, Trojan Women, and/or Genesis. Paper 2, due Wednesday, Nov. 22, will treat the Mahabharata, The Consolation of Philosophy, and/ or The Wife of Bath. Comparisons are welcome, but don't lose specificity. Note paper due dates: turn in your papers on the date specified. The first paper may also be rewritten (due one week after returned; include the original paper when submitting the rewrite), with the two grades averaged for the paper's final grade.

• Writing portfolio and reflective essay. During the term, keep all of your work in a folder; at the end of the term, you'll write a reflective essay about your writing, using your portfolio in order to include specific examples of your writing's strengths and weaknesses. Your essay will also treat what you hope to continue to improve in your writing. You'll give me your writing portfolio, with reflective essay, along with your final exam, no later than Wednesday, December 6, at 12:15 pm. Completing this assignment contributes 10% to your final grade.

• Final exam. Take-home exam due no later than Wednesday, December 6, at 12:15 pm.

Grading

The response papers constitute 15% of your grade; the two formal papers, 25% and 30% respectively; the reflective essay 10%; participation, 5%, and the final exam will constitute 15% of your grade. Please note the University's "grade point value" system effective 9/90, as I will be using this system (unless otherwise noted):

Note that a grade of "C" is, according to academic regulations, "satisfactory," while a "B" is "good." That means that a "B" is better than average, better than satisfactory, better than adequate. The average grade, then, is a "C"; a grade of "B" requires effort and accomplishment.

Office hours

Wednesdays 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm
108 MAC
Appointments possible, but space to meet will need to be arranged along with appointment time