Who Are We? Old, New, and Timeless Answers from Core Texts

by Robert D. Anderson (Editor), Molly Brigid Flynn (Editor), Scott J. Lee (Editor)

Overview

In this volume, the Association for Core Texts and Courses has gathered essays of literary and philosophical accounts that explain who we are simply as persons. Further, essays are included that highlight the person as entwined with other persons and examine who we are in light of communal ties. The essays reflect both the Western experience of democracy and how community informs who we are more generally. Our historical position in a modern or
post-modern, urbanized or disenchanted world is explored by yet other papers. And, finally, ACTC educators model the intellectual life for students and colleagues by showing how to read texts carefully and with sophistication —- as an example of who we can be.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761853718
Publisher:	University Press of America
Publication date:	05/04/2011
Series:	Association for Core Texts and Courses
Pages:	242
Product dimensions:	6.18(w) x 9.14(h) x 0.67(d)

About the Author

Robert D. Anderson is an associate professor at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire.
Molly Brigid Flynn in an assistant professor at Assumption College in Massachusetts.
J. Scott Lee is the executive director of the Association for Core Texts and Courses and series editor of ACTC's Selected Proceedings.

Table of Contents

Introduction Robert D. Anderson Molly Brigid Flynn J. Scott Lee vii

The Contemporary Predicament

Paideia in a Post-Darwinian World: Reconnecting Education and Biology Phillip R. Sloan 3

The Great "Civilized" Conversation: A Case in Point William Theodore de Bary 19

Who We Were, Are, and Will Be, Seen Through a Darwinian Lens Debra Everett-Lane 29

Georg Simmel's "The Metropolis and Mental Life": An Anchor for the First-Year Core Kathleen A. Kelly Phyllis A. Moriarty 35

The Woman in the Dunes as a Core Text: Abe Kobo's Search for a New Modern Identity Peter Rothstein 41

Descartes and the Existentialists: The Continuing Fruitfulness of the Cogito James Woelfel 47

We the People: A Noble Experiment

Dark Night of Our Souls' Democratic Vistas Theophus Smith 55

Old Maps, New Worlds: A Case of Culture and Core Anne Leavitt 65

Freedom, Democracy, and Empire: Are We Imperial Athens? James Wood 81

Boiling Down the People: Democratic Reform in Aristophanes' The Knights Richard Myers Patrick Malcolmson 89

Tocquevillian Reflections on Liberal Education and Civic Engagement Joseph M. Knippenberg 93

The Core and the Core of Persons

Good Cop, Bad Cop: Interrogating Human Nature with Xunzi and Mencius Lawrence K. Schmidt 103

Aristotle (versus Kant) on Autonomy and Moral Maturity Molly Brigid Flynn 109

Two Meditations on the Nature of Self Roosevelt Montás 115

Montaigne and the Limits of Human Reason Montague Brown 119

Othello in Context: Who Are We? Who Do We Think We Are? Who Are They? How Do We Know? Ann Dunn 125

Doch - Alles, was dazu mich trieb / Gott! war so gut! ach war so lieb: Pleasure and Obligation in Faust Christopher Beyers 133

The Person in Society

Who Are We, Whose Are We? Women as God's Agents of Change in the Hebrew Bible Tina Wray 139

Who We Are Through Family and Friends John R. Fortin 145

Rethinking Rites-Music Relations in Confucian Tradition Rachel Chung 151

Politics, Principles, and Death in Antigone Kieran M. Bonner 157

Self-Cultivation and the Chinese Epic: Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist Themes in Journey to the West Jane Rodeheffer 163

The Morality of Makola in Conrad's An Outpost of Progress Reena Thomas 171

H.G. Wells on Being an Engineer Christian Schumacher 177

Who We Are and the Case for Economics in the Core Curriculum David C. Rose 183

Reading Texts and Liberal Education

Core Texts, Introspection, and the Recovery of the Renaissance Ideal in Twenty-First-Century Higher Education Hugh R. Page 191

Adverbial Play in Plato's Ion David Roochnik 203

Remembering Ancient Truths: The Four Roots of Plato's Recollection Max J. Latona 211

Dante Is from Mars Marc A. LePain 219

Art and Revolution in the Images of Francisco Goya Diana Wylie 225

Incorporating Eastern Texts into a Western Core: Teaching the Tao Te Ching in Conversation with Wallace Stevens Julie Steward 229