Type of Credit: Partially Required
Credit(s)
Number of Students
This course is about the idea of History, but it will not primarily focus on events that happened in the past. Instead, visions of the present and the future are going to be even more important for us. The main questions we will ask will be about where we, as a society, a culture, or a species, are going in time. Does History have a goal? Is it moving in a particular direction? And does it have a destination? Is there ever going to be an ‘end of History’? We will read works by thinkers from the eighteenth to twenty-first centuries who have attempted to answer these questions. And we will try to understand why so much blood, sweat, and ink have been spilt for the sake of different visions of History, why people have been willing to kill and die for the ways they have believed the future needs to be, and whether or not any of these visions matter for our world and our futures today.
能力項目說明
In the course, you will begin to think about History not as a series of sterile facts about events in some neglected past, but as an animating force that shapes how we understand time and our place within it. We will read a selection of important texts about the structure of Historical time written between the French Revolution and the digital age of the present. In addition to becoming familiar with these arguments for what History actually is, we will also use the ideas to re-evaluate how we think about historical events in the past, the tumult of our present world, and what we are consciously or unconsciously anticipating our future to be.
Beyond these loftier intellectual goals, the course will also provide an opportunity for you to sharpen your academic skills as a presenter, a discussant, and a writer.
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週次 |
課程主題 |
課程內容與指定閱讀 |
教學活動與作業 |
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9/4 |
Course Introduction |
|
Discussion Questions |
|
9/11 |
The End of the Enlightenment |
Condorcet-Malthus |
Discussion Questions & Presentations |
|
9/18 |
Ideology & Materialism |
Hegel-Marx |
Discussion Questions & Presentations |
|
9/25 |
Morality |
Nietzsche-Spencer |
Discussion Questions & Presentations |
|
10/2 |
Capitalism & Culture |
Weber-Spengler |
Discussion Questions & Presentations |
|
10/9 |
The Crisis of Marxism |
Luxemborg-Benjamin |
Discussion Questions & Presentations |
|
10/16 |
|
No class |
Independent reading |
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10/23 |
|
No class |
Independent reading |
|
10/30 |
Evolution |
Huxley-Eiseley |
Discussion Questions & Presentations |
|
11/6 |
Fascism & Totalitarianism |
Evola-Arendt |
Discussion Questions & Presentations |
|
11/13 |
Magic & Mind |
Eliade-Freud |
Discussion Questions & Presentations |
|
11/20 |
Late Marxism |
Marcuse-Wallerstein |
Discussion Questions & Presentations |
|
11/27 |
Modernity & Postmodernity |
Foucault-Habermas |
Discussion Questions & Presentations |
|
12/4 |
Liberal Democracy |
Fukuyama-Fisher |
Discussion Questions & Presentations |
|
12/11 |
Posthumanism |
Bostrom-Hayles |
Presentations |
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12/18 |
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Final Presentations |
Final Research Presentations & Discussion |
Attendance, Participation, & Weekly Response Questions: 20%
Presentations: 40%
Final Essay: 40%
*Please note that all written assignments can be submitted in either English or Chinese. All presentations must be in English.
All texts will be available on Moodle.