CIE-100

Common Intellectual Experience 1

Fall 2009 Instructor: Nathan Rein
Section V: TuTh 10-11:15 (Unity House) Office hours MW 10-12 and always by appointment
Section ZC: TuTh 3-4:15 (Olin 205) Olin 211, x. 2571, nrein at ursinus dot edu

Course description and goals

The Common Intellectual Experience will form the foundation of your liberal arts
education. As we progress through the semester, you will be examining some of
the most influential and important answers that humans have given to the
fundamental questions of life—questions that are spiritual, moral, philosophical
and scientific. Three questions—“What does it mean to be human?” “How should
we live our lives?” and “What is the universe and how do we fit into it?”—provide
the common themes. These are hard questions, obviously, and there are no clear
universal answers that have worked for all people in all places. The point here is
not going to be to try to answer them; rather, we want to look hard at the
questions themselves and examine the ways people have tried to think them
through. Ultimately, we are each responsible for coming up with our own answers
and deciding for ourselves, as independent thinkers, what we believe in. One of
education’s primary purposes, in my view, is to further that process.

We will do this by means of reading, writing, and discussion. There will be no

lecturing in this course. Instead, you’re going to be reading for yourselves the
words of some key thinkers of the past, and trying to figure out, among
yourselves as a group, what they meant and how they make sense—or don’t make
sense—to us today.

In this class, you will cultivate the skills associated with liberal education, in
particular:
• critical thinking;
• analytical and attentive reading;
• clear, effective writing and speaking; and
• respectful engagement in discussion.

You must do the readings and assignments and learn from them; but just as large
a part of the learning you should do in this course will come out of the
cooperative work you do in this room—thinking, expressing yourself, and
listening to your classmates. At a liberal arts college, we are all engaged in a
collective enterprise; we work together at the project of furthering learning and
building a better world. This course is a symbol of the enterprise you’ve joined as
a new student here at Ursinus: ultimately, it will succeed or fail based on your
efforts.

Schedule of readings, assignments, and out-of-class events

 2

The dates shown below are the dates by which you should complete the reading.
Also listed are several out-of-class, evening events. Participation in these
activities is a part of the course and is therefore mandatory (I'll take attendance
and it will be treated like a normal class session). Except for the first one, which is
the night of the first day of class, they will all be scheduled at either 4:30pm or
7pm, and except for the film The Matrix, they will all last about an hour (The
Matrix is about two hours long). Also please note that this schedule may change,
and that additional short reading and writing assignments will be given in class.

Wherever you see this symbol , it means the text will be handed out, either electronically or
on paper.

Introduction to the course

8/28 Epic of Gilgamesh (entire)
Plato's "Allegory of the Cave."
EVENING EVENT
8/28 "Myth, Magic and Ritual: An Initiation." Meet at
8:15pm in Olin Auditorium.

Gilgamesh
9/1-3
Epic of Gilgamesh (entire), continued.

Genesis, Exodus, and Matthew

9/8-10 Genesis 1-22
9/15-17 Exodus 20
Matthew 5-7

Paper 1, first draft, due Thursday, Sept. 10

EVENING EVENT
9/21 The Matrix (film). Olin Auditorium.

9/22-24 Plato
9/29-10/1 "The Allegory of the Cave"
The Euthyphro, in Four Texts on Socrates, pp. 41–61.

10/6-8 Bhagavad-Gita
10/13 The Bhagavad-Gita (entire)

Paper 2, first draft, due Tuesday, Oct. 13

10/15 Renaissance painting and art

10/22 Images will be distributed electronically
Vasari's Lives of the Artists, "Preface" and "Life of
 3

Leonardo"

EVENING EVENT
10/21 "Piazzas, Pietas, and Painters (but no Pizza): A Tour
Through Renaissance Italy." Lenfest Theater.

Europe encounters the "New World"

10/27-29 The Jesuit Relations, excerpts
Montaigne, "Of Cannibals"

EVENING EVENT
11/2 CIE Talent Show. Bomberger Auditorium.

11/3-5 Shakespeare
11/10-12 The Merchant of Venice (entire)

Paper 3, first draft, due Thursday, Nov. 12

EVENING EVENT
11/10 "Playing Shylock in a Post-Holocaust World."
Bomberger Auditorium.

Galileo
Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo, excerpts from
"The Assayer" (pp. 229-238, 254-258, 269-280), "The
11/17-19
Starry Messenger" (pp. 27-45), and "Letter to the
11/24
Grand Duchess" (pp. 173-197)
Excerpt from "Dialogue on the Two World Systems"
Introductory materials

EVENING EVENT
11/23 "Bodies in Motion." Lenfest Theater.

EVENING EVENT
11/30 "He Blinded Me with Science." Lenfest Theater.

12/1-3
 4

Descartes
12/8-10
Discourse on Method (entire)

Paper 4, first draft, due Thursday, Dec. 10

Course policies

Attendance and preparation

This course is conducted through discussion of the assigned readings in class.
Therefore, it is essential that you read the assigned texts carefully prior to class so
that you are ready to participate in the discussion. You also have to be here.
Remember: this course is about discussion, and you are graded on your
participation—and to participate, you have to be present. Cutting this class is a
bad idea.

Assignments and grading

You will write four formal papers during the semester. Each will undergo at least
one revision following review of the first draft, either by me or by your
classmates. All sections will have a common due date for the first draft of each
paper (give or take one day), but due dates of subsequent drafts will vary
depending on the preference of the instructor. The due date for the final draft will
be determined as the semester progresses. Paper assignments will be handed out
in the week before the due date. The first paper will be worth 10% of your final
grade; the second and third papers will each be worth 15%, and the fourth will be
worth 20%.

The remaining 40% of your grade will reflect your in-class participation; this will
include a certain amount of informal writing (in-class quizzes, discussion-
preparation notes, peer reviews of your classmates’ papers, and similar short
assignments; worth 10% of the final grade), most of which will not be graded (but
which is required). The most important part of the informal writing you will do
for this course is going to be a blog (weblog). We'll discuss this requirement
more during the first week of class.

Reading list
The following books have been ordered for purchase and are available on reserve
in Myrin Library. IMPORTANT: Please be sure to have your reading with you at
every class meeting.
The Epic of Gilgamesh, tr. N. K. Sandars (NY: Penguin).
Genesis, tr. Robert Alter (NY: Norton).
Plato: Four Texts on Socrates, tr. T.G. West and G.S. West (Ithaca: Cornell
UP).
The Bhagavad-Gita, tr. B. S. Miller (NY: Bantam).
 5

Galilei Galileo, Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo, tr. Stillman Drake

(NY: Anchor).
William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, ed. M. Lindsay Kaplan
(Bedford: St. Martin's).
Rene Descartes, A Discourse on the Method, tr. Ian Maclean (NY: Oxford
UP).
Several other texts will be handed out in class or distributed electronically; in the
case of electronic texts, you should download these, print them, put them in a
three-ring binder, and bring them to class with you.

The fine print

WRITTEN WORK: All written work must be submitted in order to receive a
passing grade for the class. Late papers will be penalized by one grade-step (from
B+ to B, etc.) for each day they are late, unless you have arranged with me for an
extension well in advance of the due date.
ATTENDANCE: Classroom participation is a key component of CIE. Skipping
class also shows disrespect for the other participants in the class. Accordingly,
attendance counts. Missing two class meetings may result in the issuance of an
academic warning slip. Missing additional meetings may result in a failing grade
for the course. Remember that classroom participation counts towards your final
grade, and you can’t participate if you’re not in class. If you know you will need to
miss class, please contact me as far in advance as possible and let me know.
ACADEMIC HONESTY: Plagiarism is a serious offence. In written work, all
quotations must be properly attributed and appear in quotation marks. But at
least as importantly, any time you are drawing on someone else’s work you
must cite it! This includes paraphrases, summaries, or any time you make use of
an idea that’s not your own. Anything else is plagiarism and can result in one or
both of the following: (1) a failing grade for the course or (2) College-level
disciplinary action, including expulsion. If you have questions about the proper
use of sources, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Either parenthetical citations
or footnotes are appropriate.
INCLEMENT WEATHER: In the event that class must be cancelled due to
inclement weather, an announcement to that effect will be recorded on my office
answering machine.
 6

Frequently asked questions about this course, in no particular order:

Q. What's your attendance policy?

A. I take attendance at every class meeting, unless I forget, which sometimes
happens. If I notice that you're absent, I will try get in touch with you to
see what's wrong. If you miss two classes (that's a week's worth), I may
write an academic warning slip, which will mean your advisor will be
notified. If you miss more than that, I may drop you from the course. I will
be as understanding as possible about things that come up, and I realize
that life is complicated (after all, I have two small children, and they get
sick from time to time too), but please let me know what's going on if you
have to miss class. I consider the classroom environment of this course to
be an active community-building process. Thus, classroom participation
by everyone is a key element of the course. Not coming to class (and not
being prepared and ready to work) shows disrespect and lack of
consideration for your classmates and myself.

Q. How much work am I going to have to do?

A. That's a good question. I don't think the workload is huge, but you should
plan on spending a couple of hours at least three times a week on CIE
preparation, probably more during the weeks when a paper is due. The
reading assignments vary in length; some are long while others are quite
short. Some, believe it or not, are interesting, and some will probably make
you want to go to sleep. Don't be fooled by short readings into thinking you
can do the work in fifteen minutes before class starts. In order to
participate fully, you really have to let the readings sink in, and some of
them are much more challenging and difficult than they seem at first. The
general rule, by the way, is that you should spend at least two hours
outside of class for every hour you spend in class, which would mean about
six hours per week for CIE. I think you should give it a little more time
than that, personally, but it also depends on your study habits, how fast
and how efficiently you read, and other factors like that.

Q. Help! I haven't done the reading, and class meets in half an

hour. What should I do?
A. Well, first of all, it is really important to come prepared to class. I've kicked
students out of class before for not having done the reading. That being
said, your best policy is this: do as much of the work as you can in the few
minutes you have left; come to class; raise your hand repentantly before
the discussion begins; and announce sorrowfully that you are not
adequately prepared. At that point you should ask your classmates and me
to forgive you. If you think this sounds stupid and embarrassing, I can
assure you that if your lack of preparation comes out later in the
discussion it will probably be worse.
 7

Q. How do I write a paper for this class?

A. Glad you asked. There's no foolproof recipe, but here are a few points to
keep in mind. First, I realize most college students do a lot of their writing
at the last possible minute (after all, I did it). That means you have to rush.
In my experience, though, slower is better. So I try to design assignments
that will force you to do some of the work ahead of time. I think that's the
way to get the most benefit out of the assignments. And yes, I do mean
benefit. I think you can really learn something from doing a serious paper,
if the assignment is well designed (which I hope mine are).

Now, given that individual paper assignments will be very different, here
are two basic principles. First, the point is to work through the texts we
read in the class. By "work through," I mean really think through,
considering questions, objections, and broader meanings. This also means
that searching the web for "background material" or "outside research" is
probably going to end up taking you in the wrong direction. Usually
reading something other than the assigned texts ends up being a
distraction rather than a help. You are probably better of rereading the
assignment slowly and carefully. Don't get me wrong. I love the Internet. I
use it for research (and for fun) almost every day. But there are times
when it's appropriate to use it and times when it's not. For most CIE
papers, at least in my class, it's not. The point of writing a CIE paper, most
of the time, is to sharpen your skills at expressing yourself effectively in
writing, thinking critically about complex problems, composing clear
arguments, developing a creative voice, and reading a small number of
texts closely and carefully. Bringing in outside sources will not help you
reach any of these goals. In other words, focus on the assigned texts
themselves and think about them hard.

Second: what matters is that you can clearly define, develop, elaborate
and justify a point of view. There are probably exceptions to this
guideline, but I can't think of any. We'll talk about this aspect of the
writing process more later, but what this basically means is this. One of the
key evaluation criteria will always have to do with the questions, What are
you really saying? and How well are you saying it? If your writing
doesn't seem to have a point, or if it's hard to figure out what the point is,
or if you are saying something different at the end from what you were
saying at the beginning, then you have a problem. If you're saying
something creative, interesting, or challenging, and if your reader can
understand it without bending over backwards, then you're probably in
pretty good shape.

Q. I have another question. How do I get hold of you?

A. There are lots of ways. You can email me (nrein at ursinus dot edu), you
can phone me (the best number to use is 610-973-7186), you can IM me on
AIM (nathanrein) or Google (nathan.rein), and you can find me on Twitter
(twitter.com/nbr) and on Facebook (facebook.com/nathanrein). You can
 8

feel free to contact me through any of those methods. I will do my best to

get back to you within 24 hours. But I am notoriously disorganized, so if
you don't hear back, please don't be offended, and please try again. If it's
really urgent, the phone is best. My office is on the second floor of Olin
Hall, room 211. I'm usually there every day, except I'm often not around on
Fridays. If you want to see me, it's best to set up an appointment, but if
you're in the neighborhood, stop by.

Q. I'm concerned about my grade. How can I find out how I'm
doing?
A. I'll give you an estimate of your current grade any time, but it may take me
a day or two to figure it out. Since most of your grade will be based on your
writing, each paper you write will make a significant difference.
Participation also counts for a lot. And remember: if the end of the
semester comes and you haven't handed in one of the assigned papers,
you will fail the course. This is non-negotiable. If you have any questions
about whether or not you've completed all necessary assignments, just ask.
And if you need specific feedback about your writing, your class
participation, or whatever, I'll be happy to provide it, of course.