Sophia

Fall 2024

Author

David Kane

Promise

No course does more to make you think harder about the future you should want.

Description

What is the good life? What is a just society? There are no more important questions than these. This free 11 week course leads students to grapple with these issues, to examine the answers from the greatest creators in history and to think for themselves about how to live their lives.

Although philosophy, both moral and political, is at the heart of a liberal arts education, we believe that literature and art matter just as much.

Prerequisites: You must have a computer and working camera. You must use generative AI tools. This may require some minor subscription costs. However, we will do our best to use tools which are free to use.

Logistics: Class meets over Zoom from 8:00 to 9:00 PM ET on Mondays and Thursdays.

Staff

Preceptor David Kane. Please address me as “Preceptor,” not “David,” nor “Instructor Kane,” nor “Brah,” nor “Professor Kane,” nor “Mr. Kane,” nor, worst of all, “Dr. Kane.” I respond to e-mail within 24 hours. If I don’t, e-mail me again.

Course Philosophy

No Lectures: The worst method for transmitting information from my head to yours is for me to lecture you. There are no lectures. We talk during class. You learn soccer with the ball at your feet. You learn wisdom by discussion and debate.

Cold Calling: I call on students during class. This keeps every student involved, makes for a more lively discussion and helps to prepare students for the real world, in which you can’t hide in the back row. Over the course of the semester, every student in the class will participate equally in class discussion.

Engagement: I require you to be engaged with the outside world. Our project presentations are public, and you must invite family and friends to attend.

Millism: We follow John Stuart Mills’ advice: “He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side; if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion.”

Material

Readings

Daily Work

The best way to get good at generative AI is to practice. Using whichever program you prefer, you must post one image on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday — i.e., the weekdays on which we do not meet — which uses the week’s reading for material. The image can be serious or funny, photo-realistic or anime. Give your creativity free reign!

Great Works

Poetry, art, architecture and music are just as important as prose when considering the Good Life. Each month, we will focus on one poem, one work of art, one piece of architecture, and one musical composition. We memorize the poetry, listen to the music, marvel at the architecture, and study the art.

September

October

November

Course Policies

Workload: The course should take about 8 hours per week, outside of the final project. This is an expected average across the class as a whole. It is not a maximum. Some students will end up spending much less time. Others will spend much more.

Discord: All general questions — those not of a personal nature — should be posted to Discord so that all students can benefit from both the question and the answer(s). Please post your question in a sensible channel.

Working with Others: Students are free (and encouraged) to discuss their projects with one another. However, you must hand in your own unique work in all cases. Any copy/paste of another person’s work is plagiarism.

Readings: Assignments in a given week cover (approximately) the material that we will use that week. I will not hesitate to cold-call students with questions about the readings. Do them. Note that the entire week’s readings must be done before class on Monday.

AI: You will need to use ChatGPT, Bard, Midjourney, Stability AI and/or other AI tools. We are preparing you for the real world, where use of AI will soon be ubiquitous.

Conclusion

If you had tried to understand/explain/illustrate a question of wisdom before taking this class, you would have done X well. Now that you have taken the class – now that you have read some of the Great Works and tried your own hand at creation – you will do Y well. The success (or failure) of the class can be measured by comparing Y with X.

Schedule

Week 1: September 9

Iliad: 1-8

Week 2: September 16

Iliad: 9-24

Week 3: September 23

Meno

Baghavad Gita

Week 4: September 30

Dhammapada

Phaedo

Week 5: October 7

Republic: Book I

The Great Learning

Analects: Books 1-4

Week 6: October 14

Republic: Books II-IV

Analects: Books 5-8

Tao Te Ching: Chapters 1-20

Week 7: October 21

Republic: Books VII

Analects: Books 9-12

Tao Te Ching: Chapters 21-40

Week 8: October 28

Republic: Book X

Analects: Books 13-16

Tao Te Ching: Chapters 41-60

Week 9: November 4

Republic: Books V-VI, VIII-IX

Analects: Books 17-20

Tao Te Ching: Chapters 61-81

Week 10: November 11

Odyssey: 1-12

Week 11: November 18

Odyssey: 13-24

A public portfolio of high quality work will do more for your future than a college degree.

Acknowledgements

Inspiration for aspects of this course comes from Directed Studies at Yale, Humanities 110 at Reed, Humanities 10 at Harvard, The Core Curriculum at Columbia, New Saint Andrews, St. Johns College, Thomas Acquainas College, Boston College’s Perspectives on Western Culture, the Comprehensive Reading List from the University of Dallas, and Baylor’s Great Texts program.