A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes

Description

Most of our generation learned of the history of civilization from the perspective of “Western civilization”.

Muslim success or failure was defined by their clashes with the outposts of Christian civilization, but only as these conflicts influenced European history.  We also learned how Islamic civilization preserved science and art in the Dark Ages, but not much else. To many of us the history of Muslim civilization was peripheral to world history.

The authors of our two core books: Destiny Disrupted, and No god but God, capture in  colorful, understandable, and very readable language the rich story of world history from the perspective of the Muslim community. The authors introduce the key people, events, ideas, legends, religious disputes, and turning points of world history from an Islamic perspective.  

They clarify how these two great civilizations grew up oblivious to each other, what happened when they intersected, and how the Islamic world was ultimately affected by its slow recognition that Europe -a place it long properly perceived as primitive- had somehow hijacked its destiny.

The story they tell moves from before and during the lifetime of Mohammed, through a succession of far-flung empires, to the interaction with European colonialism and the revolt against European domination, to the modern conflicts that culminated in the events of 9/11 and the current struggles within Islam.

This is a fascinating and enlightening story. Our two very readable core books,  are available in inexpensive used editions. There will be about  70 pages of reading each week.

Please join us in looking at world history from the perspective of the one billion people who are Muslims.

Here's a transcript of our two minute pitch:

In the year 610, according to the Christian calendar-- in an obscure place in the Arabian Peninsula that probably no Europeans even knew existed-- a prosperous caravan trader meditating in an isolated cave- perceived he was hearing messages from an entity he knew as the archangel Gabriel. 

 The caravan trader was Mohammad --and he perceived Gabriel told him he was to spread the God’s message as God’s final prophet.

  The message Mohammad took from that cave ultimately was spread by his followers and   converts to encompass to ¼ of the World’s population today.

So, what is Islam?  Is it A religion?  A community? A way of life?.  A prescription for a society?  A state?

What made it so appealing?

 How and why did it spread, and spread so quickly? What happened in its interactions with the West, from crusades, to colonialism, through two world wars, and afterwards?

  Are its tenets compatible with the modern world?

 Is what’s happening in the Islamic world today-- a clash between two civilizations, a conflict within Islam between competing philosophies, or a civil war within Islam.

 What is its future?

  We’ll examine all this and more—and try to understand   world history from the perspective of the ¼ of the world’s population with a different perspective than our western eyes.

 Along the way, we will also be reading selections from some of the finest Islamic writers –– and looking at examples of Islamic art and architecture.”

There is lots of reading --about 70 pages a week -- but our two core books are very well written and easy to follow.

 Come Join Us …As We Try to See the World and its history Through Islamic Eyes 

Weekly Topics

1.    The Middle World, Muhammad's Revelations and the Hijra

2.    Birth of the Khalifate and the Schism between Sunni and Shia

3.    The Khalifates of the Umayyads and the Abassids

4.    Scholars, Philosophers, and Sufis

5.    Enter the Turks:  The Seljuk Empire

6.    Havoc--Crusaders and Mongolian Hordes

7.    Rebirth of Order:  Ottomans, Safavids, and Moghuls

8.    Meanwhile in Europe:  The Reformation and the Enlightenment

9.    The West Comes East:  European Powers Colonize the World

10.  The Reform Movements in Islamic Governance

11.  Industry, Constitutions, and Nationalism

12.  The Rise of the Secular Modernists and the Crisis of Modernity

13.  The Tide Turns (Wahabism)

14.   The Islamic World Since 9/11

Bibliography

Destiny Disrupted, Tamim Ansary, PublicAffairs, a member of the Perseus Book Group , N.Y., 2009

No god but God, The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, Reza Aslan, Random House N.Y. 2005

The Qu'ran, Oxford or Penguin or other editions

THE LIBERATION GAME - Role of Europe's Exiles in Saving Britain in WWII

Description

When the Nazi blitzkrieg rolled over Europe in the early days of WW II, London became a refuge for the European leaders of several occupied nations, who escaped there to continue the fight.  As the only European democracy still holding out against Hitler, Britain became known as "Last Hope Island."  In her books Last Hope Island and Citizens of London, Lynne Olson argues that England did not stand completely alone: the people of occupied Europe and the expatriate leaders did far more for their own liberation than historians have recognized, and the Americans in London who worked tirelessly for US involvement, played a significant role in raising American awareness and sustaining British morale. 

Churchill has portrayed World War II as an unalloyed American-British-Soviet triumph, with the Americans and British playing the starring role. Throughout the conflict, he promoted the idea that plucky little England and its united empire maintained the struggle "single-handed" until joined by the Soviet Union and the United States. This has remained the standard narrative. 

In this SDG, we will encounter a different, fuller narrative that highlights the vital role played by the Norwegian, Dutch, Belgium, and French people, not to mention the Polish Air Force, in ensuring British survival through their “darkest hour.” We will see the struggle between Churchill, Roosevelt, and the US Congress to provide American aid to Britain.  Once the Americans joined the Allies, we will see how Allied victory depended on participation of the people in the occupied  countries including the partisans fighting in the east. However, intentionally not involving any of them in strategy and war planning, American and British personnel refused to include de Gaulle in planning for D-Day, while also excluding Belgium, Dutch, and Norwegian governments, even though their citizens in occupied countries were essential for Allied success. The exclusion of Poles, Czechs, and Yugoslavs culminated in what many see as Roosevelt’s and Churchill’s final betrayal at Yalta.  

Both core books are well written, and a delight to read. We expect this to be a s SDG full of lively discussion.  

Weekly Topics

(1)    The debacle across Europe.

(2)    The European exodus to Britain and wartime London.

(3)    Sparks of resistance, British intelligence and the BBC.

(4)    The Battle of Britain: on the brink of disaster.

(5)    Americans in London: the arrival of Winant, Harriman. Harry Hopkins and Lend-Lease.

(6)    July - December 1941: Britain no longer “alone.” Stalin’s war and the threat to British Eastern Europeans allies; Roosevelt and Churchill take over the show.

(7)    1942-1943: preparation and planning for D-Day.  SOE's missteps, European resistance movements and rescuing Allied airmen.

(8)     American GI’s and the British.

(9)     D-Day.

(10)   Liberation Begins across Europe; Warsaw and Paris uprisings.

(11)   The war in Europe draws to and end; the hunger winter; the West turns it back on Poland and Czechoslovakia.

(12)    The aftermath of the European war: destruction, displaced persons, dealing with collaborators. Conclusions.

Bibliography

Core Books:

Last Hope Island - Britain, Occupied Europe & the Brotherhood that Helped Turn the Tide by Lynne Olsen, 2017.

Citizens of London: The Americans who Stood with Britain in its Darkest, Finest Hour by Lynne Olsen, 2010.

Recommended:

Participants may find it useful to have a general history of WWII for reference. Examples of such books are Inferno by Max Hastings (2011), The Storm of War by Andrew Roberts (2012), and The Second World War by Anthony Beevor (2013).

American Imperialism: History and Present

Description

America has harbored imperial ambitions since its founding. Its focus shifted in the twentieth century, from acquiring territory to penetrating foreign countries and influencing their governments to support US strategic and economic interests. That shift is the result of a decisive embrace of interventionism, aimed at extending US power throughout the world. Withdrawal from overextended military commitments could strengthen America.  Tied to American Imperialism is the concept of American Exceptionalism, a belief in the unique character of America that not only made it distinct but better than any heretofore identity.  Not only was it "exceptional" but prime for exportation.

Weekly Topics

I The territorial Empire

 1. Introduction and Northwest Territories

2.Continental expansion

3. Mexico and Central America

4. Africa and Pacific

5. The Caribbean

II The semiglobal empire

6. Institutions

7. Nonstate actors

8. The empire in action

9. The unipolar moment

III The Empire in retreat

10. Anti-imperialism in the US

11. The US economy

12. The decline of leadership

13. Hegemony under threat

14. Epilogue and Conclusions

Bibliography

Text: Victor Bulmer-Thomas, Empire in Retreat, Yale University Press, 459 pp.

Additional Reading: David Hendrickson, Republic in Peril, Oxford U. Press, 287 pp.

Deborah Madsen, American Exceptionalism,Univ. of Mississippi Press, 186 pgs.

Immerwahr, Daniel. How to Hide an Empire. Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2019.

A Fresh Look at American History From 1492 to 2018

Description

Our country started with promise and promises.  Not all of those promises of equality, sovereignty and consent, were achieved or were even achievable. 

In our core book, the Harvard historian Jill Lepore, in one volume, encapsulates the history of this country from the 1600s through 2016 and its aftermath.  It articulates the confusion of facts and fiction that have always been with us, as well as the deep and contradictory currents of our society continually swirling.  It is not just another history book, although it is a pleasure to read, and seems painfully honest and without excessive political bias.   

The question which it raises is if America has, and ever could have lived up to its stated ideals or whether a nation conceived in revolution must always be chaotic; whether the simplistic view of democracy ever worked.   It leads us through our history up to and through the 2016 election.  Its answer is in many ways disturbing, as it shines a light on the American experiment.  She says:

“The American experiment has not ended A nation born in revolution will forever struggle against chaos.  A nation founded on universal rights will wrestle against the forces of particularism. A nation that toppled hierarchy of birth only to erect a hierarchy of wealth will never know tranquility. A nation of immigrants cannot close its borders. And a nation born in contradiction, liberty in a land of slavery, sovereignty in a land of conquest, will fight, forever, over the meaning of its history.”

The story told contains much information that is new and fresh, and insights which need to be considered, even if rejected. Almost every page, while introducing us to new historical figures and clarifying others, is readily applicable to our present political, social and foreign policy situation.  Its focus is pointing out the counterbalancing ideas and movements during this period, highlighting people and events including some that we either do not learn about or fail to understand in context.

It’s a big sweeping book. It covers the history of political thought, the fabric of American social life over the centuries, classic “great man” accounts of contingencies, surprises, decisions, ironies and character, and the vivid experiences of those previously marginalized: women, African-Americans, Native Americans, homosexuals. It encompasses interesting takes on democracy and technology, shifts in demographics, revolutions in economics and the very nature of modernity. 

It includes the relationship of the races from the early days,  the impact on secular polity of religious revivals, ongoing and pernicious response of the South to the Civil War, and its continuing struggle, the role of media, including the sometimes interchangeable  connection of polling and advertising to political discourse, the important role of women and how moral issues were the key to their admission into politics and the franchise, our history of authoritarianism and attention to important and interesting  people that appear in other histories only  in footnotes.

This is a great and fresh way of viewing the entire panorama of our history through 2016 and its aftermath in one well written and thoughtful volume.  

Jefferson said that the American experiment rests on three “self-evident” truths:  political equality, natural rights and the sovereignty of the people. In history many had the idea that in American, there existed the Lockean “state of nature,” a place for new beginnings. 

Weekly Topics

SESSION	CHAPTER	PAGES
1	Intro, 1,2,	xi-55		1. The Nature of the Past (1-30). The people who made up our country. Divisions.
				2. The Rulers and the Ruled (41-71) How Locke’s philosophy tracked the American experience fueled by a slave underclass.
2	3	55-108		3. Rebellion in America (55-71) Of Wars and Revolutions (72-108). Origins of revolution, Declaration, “resolution” of problem of slavery.
3	4	109-152		4. The Constitution of a Nation (109-152). As to slavery and sovereignty, America and Great Britain come out of Revolutionary War in opposite positions.
4	5	153-188		5. A Democracy of Numbers. (153-188) nature of rulers and role of citizens; math trumps philosophy.
5	6	189-231		6. The Soul and the Machine. (189-231). Economic bases of northern and southern societies; industrial revolution and human rights issues clash.
6	7	232-307		7. Of Ships and Shipwrecks. (232-271). Racial/ economic issues come to a head, exacerbated by American imperialism. Industrialism meets religion meets democracy.
7	8	272-307		8. The Face of Battle. (272-307) Can technology bind up the disintegrating union? Was slavery the cause of the rebellion? Can Efficiency solve our underlying problems?
8	9	312-360		9. Of Citizens, Persons and People [312-360]. Who won the war? Who won the peace?
9	10	361-420		10. Efficiency and the Masses. (361-420). Impact of growth of population and size of country on premises of founders. Progressivism and rebirth of modern conservatism
10	11	421-471		11. A Constitution of the Air. (421-471). Post WWI enthusiasm evaporates with Hoover; mass media amplify and distort; fake news is not a new phenomenon.
11	12	472-517		12. The Brutality of Modernity. (472-517) WWII and it’s not necessarily positive impact on the pre-War problems;
12	13	521-588		13. A World of Knowledge (521-588) Dawn of an age of affluence and prosperity. New form of economic conservatism vs; racism, poverty and prejudice; new ideolgies.
13	14	589-645		14. Rights and Wrongs (589- 645.) Cold war and its end decrease of liberalism, economic inequality and political polarization all begin to rise.
12	15	646-718		15. Battle Lines (646-718. Social issues become politically partisan; Cold War ends, domestic cold war, Reaganomics; NRA; " discovery" of 2d Amendment, Twin Towers.
13	16	719-785		16 America, Disrupted. Myth that 911 united the country, widening of divide and disdtrust ; populism; fake news; Deregulation of communications.

Bibliography

These Truths, a History of the United States, Lepore, Jill, W.W. Norton, 2018

A Generation Removed, How Should We Understand Apartheid in South Africa

Description

More than 20 years have passed since Apartheid “abruptly” ended, the euphoria has died, the initial hopes dashed, none of the constitutional promises have been kept, and the lingering effects of what has been called the world’s worst example of a system of racially based human society remain, both visible and hidden. Earlier histories of the Apartheid Era in South African history have been written, and have their place, but now, with the distance of 20+ years, it’s time to take another look at the history, evaluate its interpretations, and perhaps reach a better understanding.

The core book, Apartheid, 1948-1994, by Saul Dubow, analyses the Apartheid regime and its overturn. According to the author, a question not sufficiently addressed is “not why Apartheid was defeated, but how it survived so long.” He considers apartheid an idea as well as an ideology, and he argues that because the idea of apartheid was kept alive by the resistance movement, long after the ideology of apartheid had been silenced (or gone underground), reinvention and transformation have proven difficult. He also argues that in order to understand apartheid, we need to both “refamiliarize” ourselves with it - events, institutions, individuals - and “defamiliarize” it - that is, stand back and look at it from a distance so as to better see how unusual and curious it was. In the course of this SDG, we, too, will grapple with our understanding of apartheid and our understanding of recent South African history, and, perhaps, its significance for the world.

Weekly Topics

1. Background:  Africans, Afrikaners, British before 1948 and the election of 1948 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_South_Africa); Dubow, chapter 1)

2. The Consolidation of Apartheid (Dubow, chapter 2)

3. Sharpeville and its Aftermath (Dubow, chapter 3)

4. Apartheid Regnant (Dubow, chapter 4)

5.  The Opposition Destroyed (Dubow, chapter 5)

6.  Cracks within the System (Dubow, chapter 6)

7.  The Limits and Dangers of Reform (Dubow, chapter 7)

8.  A Balancing of Forces (Dubow, chapter 8)

9.  Conclusion (Dubow, conclusion)

10. The Truth and Reconciliation Report, conclusions (http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/report/finalreport/Volume5.pdf, 196-248)

Bibliography

Core Reading

Saul Dubow, Apartheid 1948-1994 (2014)

The Truth and Reconciliation Report, Conclusion, pp. 196-248 (http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/Report/finalreport/Volume5.pdf)

Additional Resources

Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom (1994); autobiography 

Nadine Gordimer, Telling Times, Writing and Living, 1954-2008 (2010); collection of essays

Athol Fugard, Tsotsi (1980); novel about gangs in a township; made into a movie, Tsotsi (2005)

The Forgiven, movie, 2018; about the T&R process

Cracking the Conundrum of China's Political-Economy

Description

After 13 rounds of on again, off again trade negotiations that began last year, the U.S. and China agreed this month (October, 2019) to a partial truce in their trade war of tariffs and counter-tariffs.  But distrust remains high, and tensions over technology, investment, and economic ties have become increasingly entangled in ideological divisions.  Are the tensions between the U.S. and China really about trade dominance, or is this a great power competition for economic and strategic supremacy?

The Chinese political-economy is a sui generis entity of remarkable definitional complexity.  The scale of its growth is unparalleled.  It is run by an authoritarian government which nonetheless leaves most sectors mostly free to make profits.  Its state-owned enterprises are lumbering behemoths, inefficient but largely profitable.  The banking industry is huge and run for the good of the state, rather than for financial imperative.  And the whole system is underpinned by a Communist party structure.

China is an "abnormal" economic power, for sure.  Media coverage has soared because China's rise is now challenging the world's geopolitical balance of power.  Yet one is likely to read about its possible financial collapse as its emergence as the world's largest economy.

To understand why there is such extreme variation in perceptions about China's economy is the goal of this SDG.  Understanding these differences is critical to forging more constructive relations between China and the rest of the world.

To this end, we will use Yukon Huang's Cracking the China Conundrum as our core book, supplemented by a course packet containing up-to-date topical materials from news media and think tanks.  Yukon Huang is an American economist of Chinese origin.  He worked at the World Bank for years and at the end of the 1990s was the World Bank's first country director for China.  He currently is a Senior Fellow at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. and a frequent featured commentator on China for the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.

Weekly Topics

Week 1.    Overview

Week 2.    Global public perceptions of China's economy and the contrasting views shaped by economic and political considerations

Week 3.    Origins of China's growth model:  How Deng Xiaoping's reform and opening up of the economy more than three decades ago laid the basis for China's growth model which underpins the current debate about its economic challenges

Week 4.    China's unbalanced growth

Week 5.    China's debt dilemma

Week 6.    Emergent economic, social, and political tensions facing China and their relationship to economic developments

Week 7.    China's trade and capital flows

Week 8.    China's foreign investment in the U.S. and European Union

Week 9.    China's impact on the global balance of power

Week 10.  Conclusion

Bibliography

Huang, Yukon.  Cracking the China Conundrum.  Oxford University Press, 2017.

Course packet containing up-to-date topical material from news media and think tanks.

Indispensable Composers: A Guide

Description

We shall study what distinguishes the great composers from the merely good.

Anthony Tommasini, the chief classical music critic of The New York Times, recently published a book, in which he presents 17 indispensable composers. He is a writer of immense musical knowledge who shares his insights about many favorite pieces.

The book is intended as a guide and perfectly fulfills its aim: it presents highly readable mini-profiles of the greats. The author is entertaining, highly enthusiastic, and very knowledgeable.

Each of our presentations can be illustrated by musical examples played (via computer) in the class. 
We strongly encourage you to do so; a tutorial will be provided.

Weekly Topics

1. Introduction; Claudio Monteverdi                   1

2. J.S. Bach                                                                  39 

3. G.F. Handel                                                             65 

4-5. The “Vienna Four”: F.J.Haydn                       91 

6. W.A. Mozart                                                         113

7. L. van Beethoven                                                145

8. Franz Schubert                                                    175

9. Frederic Chopin & Robert Schumann           205

10. Giuseppe Verdi & Richard Wagner              247

11. Johannes Brahms                                              307

12. Claude Debussy                                                 339

13. Giacomo Puccini                                                369

14. A. Schoenberg, I. Stravinsky, B. Bartok       397

Note: The 14 chapters had been collapsed into 13 presentations as the 4th chapter is very short and serves just as an introduction to “The Vienna Four’ (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert). This can easily be expanded by splitting into two Chapter 10 (the longest) or by one additional class where each participant presents her/his favorite composition (in 5-6 minutes).

Bibliography

The Indispensable Composers by Anthony Tommasini, Penguin, 2018

THE PLANTAGENETS - The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England

Description

Are you curious about who were the Plantagenets and how they influenced the founding fathers of America? Join us for an exciting trip back to the Middle Ages where we will explore Dan Jones’ riveting narrative history The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England. Dan Jones entertains and educates us with stories about this powerful family of leaders and misfits. We will read about the murder of Thomas Becket; Richard’s battles against Saladin on the Third Crusade; the Barons’ war against John and the ratification of the Magna Carta; Edward II’s romance with Piers Gaveston and his dismal abdication in 1327; Edward III fighting alongside The Black Prince, capturing the King of France and creating the Order of the Garter.  Let us not forget the Queens: Matilda, who plunged the country into a bloody civil war rather than give up her right to the throne; and Eleanor of Aquitaine, trumpeted as the most beautiful woman in Europe, who was first the Queen of France and later the Queen of England and the mother to two kings – only to be locked away for years by her husband, Henry II.

It all starts with Geoffrey, Count of Anjou a handsome, belligerent, redheaded Frenchman born in France in 1113. He customarily wore a sprig of yellow broom blossom (Planta genista) in his hat. He never made it to England but his descendants, known as the Plantagenets, ruled England for more than two centuries from his son Henry II, crowned in 1154, to Richard II, who lost the crown in 1399 to Henry Bolingbroke.  England’s Henry I (fourth son of William the Conqueror) had twenty-two illegitimate children but his only son and heir died a tragic death.  Henry I chose his daughter Matilda, the former Empress of the Holy Roman Empire to be his heir.  He married her off to Geoffrey – she was 26 and he was 15. After becoming better acquainted, they had three sons – the eldest of whom was ultimately crowned King of England.  Henry I died in France and his nephew Stephen of Blois raced across the Channel to crown himself King of England.  Matilda, having none of this, enlisted the aid of her half-brother Robert Earl of Gloucester and started a civil war in England.  The ensuing period has become known as The Anarchy when “It was as if Christ and his saints were asleep.”  

The Plantagenets invented England as a political, administrative and military entity, and as a political force to be reckoned with on the European continent. They helped invent the very idea of the England we know today and gave it many of its laws and political habits, which American founders borrowed when it came time to create our own government. 

Please join us as we discuss Henry II, Richard Lionheart, John (was he really so bad?), Henry III, Edward, Edward II , Edward III, the Black Plague, the Black Prince, Robert the Bruce, the Battles of Crecy and Poitiers and the commencement of the Hundred Years’ War, and Richard II, along with Matilda, Eleanor, Becket, de Montfort, the Magna Carta, the Peasants’ Revolt, and the reality behind Ivanhoe and Robin Hood.  Gripping storytelling - The Plantagenets is a satisfying as well as an enjoyable read.  There is no need for added goblins in this real life Game of Thrones. There will be crowns for all.

Weekly Topics

1    Preface; Age of Shipwreck (1120-1154)

        The White Ship; Hunt for an Heir; Shipwreck; Ambition; A Scandalous Wife; Henry the Conqueror

2    Age of Empire, Part I (1154-1189)

        Births & Rebirth; L'Espace Plantagenet; Unholy War; Succession Planning; The Eagle's Nest; Henry Triumphant; A World on Fire

3    Age of Empire, Part II (1189-1204)

        King Richard; Hero of the East; Treachery; An Unexpected Detour; Return of the Lionheart; Lackland Supreme; John Softsword; Triumph & Catastrophe; Lackland Undone

4    Age of Opposition, Part I (1204-1246)

        Salvaging the Wreck; A Cruel Master; Beginning of the End; To Bouvines; The Magna Carta 

5    Age of Opposition, Part II & Age of Arthur, Part I (1246-1277)

        Securing the Inheritance; Kingship at Last; Holy Kingship; The Provisions of Oxford; The Battle of Lewes; From Imprisonment to Evesham; The Leopard 

6    Age of Arthur, Part II (1277-1307)

        King at Last; A New Arthur; The Final Stand; The King's Castles; The Price of Conquest; The Expulsion of the Jews; The Great Cause &  French Trickery; The C        Conquest of Scotland; Crisis Point; Relapse

7    Age of Violence (1307-1330)

        The King & His Brother; The King Restrained; Manhunt; Promise & Disaster; New Favorites; Civil War; The King's Tyranny; Mortimer, Isabella, & Prince Edward; Endgame; False Dawn

8    Age of Glory (1330-1360)

        Royal Coup; Glorious King of a Beggared Kingdom; New Earls, New Enemies; The Hundred Years War Begins; Edward at Sea; Dominance; The Death of a Princess; The Order of the Garter; Decade of Triumph

9    Age of Revolution, Part I (1360-1386)

        The Family Business; Unraveling Fortunes; The Good Parliament; New King, Old Problems; England in Uproar; Return to Crisis

10  Age of Revolution, Part II (1386-1399) & Epilogue

        Treason & Trauma; The Reinvention of Kingship; Richard Revenged; Richard Undone; Richard Alone; Epilogue

Bibliography

Jones, Dan; The Plantagenets - The Warrior Kings & Queens Who Made England; Viking, 2012

Morality without God?

Description

Since the early eighteenth century, theists and secularists have hotly debated whether moral law requires God.  The preponderance of contemporary opinion is a resounding “no.”  Most philosophers, scientists, and writers about ethics have discarded God.  But the theists have not gone away; they have continued to put forward compelling arguments against the secular theories.  In this s/dg we will examine the arguments on both sides of this very important debate, as well as some middle grounds.  (N. b.:  We will not be debating the need for religion, but rather the need for metaphysical truth.)  We will read, among others, W. T. Stace, C. S. Lewis, George Mavrodes, Thomas Nagel, and Richard Taylor.  There will be no core book.  A packet of photocopied articles will be provided.  Most of these articles are written by philosophers, making this a challenging, but rewarding, s/dg.

Weekly Topics

1.  Introduction, part 1:  W. T. Stace, "Ethical Relativity (I) [31pp.]

2.  Introduction, part 2:  W. T. Stace, "Ethical Relativity (II); Joel Feinberg, "Pyschological Egoism"; David Cooper, "Natural Rights Theory"; A. J. M. Milne, "The Idea of Human Rights: A Critical Inquiry"; Alan Gewirth, "Human Rights" [31 pp.]

3.  The Secular Perspective, part 1:  Michael Martin, "Objections to Morality without Religion" [9 pp.]

4.  The Secular Perspective, part 2:  Louis P. Pojman, Who Are We?: Theories of Human Nature [24 pp.]

5.  Bridges over Troubled Waters:  Thomas Nagel, Mind and Cosmos; David Berlinski, "Deniable Darwin"; Yeager Hudson, "The Independence of Religion from Ethics" [39 pp.]

6.  The Theistic Persuasion: C. S. Lewis, "The Laws of Human Nature"; George I. Mavrodes, "Religion and the Queerness of Morality"; H. P. Owen, "The Moral Argument for Christian Theism" (23 pp.]

7.  Conclusion: Richard Taylor, "From the Senses to God"; C. S. Lewis, "The Cardinal Difficulty with Naturalism"; Thomas Nagel, Mind and Cosmos [31 pp.]