What Does It Mean To Be Human? Humanism, Antihumanism, Posthumanism. 4018-KON273-CLASS
The course is thematic and interdisciplinary in nature. Its two main goals are:
- To consider the problem of humanity from three divergent perspectives: Renaissance humanism, late-20th-century antihumanism, and early 21st-century posthumanism
- To foster the students’ original conceptualization of the traditional “markers” of humanity such as the body, consciousness, language and laughter
- To explore the texts of important thinkers from the 15th and 16th centuries, as well as from the 20th and 21st centuries.
The goal of this class is not to promote any particular ideological conception of Man or to trace an evolutionary line between early modernity and the culture of our own times.
Methodology:
The course is partly a regular class conducted through face –to-face meetings, partly it is conducted over the internet.
Students attend ten lectures available on the course web page. Each of those lectures is an about 30 minutes-long PowerPoint presentation combined with video clips and with prerecorded audio track.
The lectures are an introduction to readings some of which will be available as interactive, multimedia readings online.
Moreover, each student is required to take part in five 60-minutes-long face-to-face meetings on the University of Warsaw campus. Those meetings will be devoted to the discussion of the material presented during the lectures and to the discussion of readings. The dates and place of those meetings are available on the timetable of Collegium Artes Liberales, or can be obtained directly from the instructor, Prof. Jan Miernowski, at jmiernow@wisc.edu
Parallel to the lectures, students participate in an asynchronous online Discussion Forum.
There will be 5 take home quizzes during the semester. You will need about 60 min. to work on each of these quizzes. Only 4 out of 5 grades for the take home quizzes will be taken into account for the final grade of the course.
Plan of the course: See the “List of topics” in the part B of this form.
PLEASE NOTE:
After registering for this course you should immediately contact the course instructor, Prof. Jan Miernowski, at
Type of course
Prerequisites (description)
Learning outcomes
K_W08 having organized knowledge on the main trends in philosophical and social thought in a historical and contemporary perspective
having good organized knowledge on the main trends in philosophical and social thought in a historical and contemporary perspective
K_W13 knowing the main methods of interpreting literary and philosophical texts and textual historical sources
knowing various methods of interpreting literary and philosophical texts and textual historical sources
K_W14 knowing the main methods of analysis in cultural studies, history, social studies and philosophy in a historical perspective
comprehensive and in depth knowing of methods of analysis in cultural studies, history, social studies and philosophy in a historical perspective
K_U05 basic skills in using interdisciplinary research methods and tools to analyse phenomena of contemporary culture
K_U08 presenting the results of one’s own analysis of research problems in oral, written and multimedia form
K_K02 understanding the principles, rules and necessity of group work
K_K07 understanding the principles of tolerance and cultural differences
Assessment criteria
In order to be successful in this class you should:
- read carefully all the required readings and listen to all the required lectures
- participate actively in all the discussions
- strive to develop your own personal interpretation of readings and your own conceptualization of problems under discussion
- respect the deadlines of all the assignments in this course.
The final grade of the course is composed of:
- 50% for the final comprehensive written exam;
- 20% for quizzes written during the semester. The quizzes will have the form of “take home exams”: the students will have up to 24 hours to complete each quiz and they will be allowed to use any notes or library sources they wish (all sources have to be acknowledged). 4 out of 5 best grades for the quizzes will count toward the final grade.
- 20% for the assiduity and the quality of participation in the face-to-face discussion meetings
- 10% for the quality of the participation in the online Discussion Forum and for the online interactive multimedia reading exercices.
Bibliography
*For topic # 1:
- Petrarch, Letters on Familiar Matters (c. 1351-1353) [selection]
- Sloterdijk, Peter. Regeln für den Menschenpark. Ein Antwortschreiben zu Heideggers Brief über den Humanismus.Suhrkamp, Frankfurt, 1999. Translated by Mary Varney Rorty in Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 27, no. 1 (2009): 12-28.
* For topic # 2:
- Rabelais, François, Gargantua (1534) [selection]
- John D. Caputo and Gianni Vattimo, After the Death of God, ed. by Jeffrey W. Robbins, Columbia University Press, 2006.
* For topic # 3:
-Montaigne, Michel de. Essais. (1580-1595) [“On some lines of Virgil – fragm.”]
- Bennett, Jane, Vibrant Matter. A Political Ecology of Things, Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2010. [selection]
* For topic #4:
- Du Bartas, Guillaume de Saluste, The Week (1578) [selection]
- Roland Barthes, Inaugural Lecture. Collège de France (1977)
* For topic #5 :
- Sébastien Castellion, Concerning Heretics Whether They Are to Be Persecuted (1554) [selection]
-Montaigne, Michel de. Essais. (1580-1595) [“Of repentence” – fragm.]
- Jean-Pierre Changeux and Paul Ricoeur, What makes us think? A Neuroscientist and a Philosopher Argue about Ethics, Human Nature, and the Brain, Princeton UP, 2000 [selection]
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: