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fandomhigh2005-11-29 01:41 pm
geoff-chaucer.livejournal.com) wrote in fandomhigh2005-11-29 01:41 pm
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Introduction to Western Literature, Lesson Six
Tuesday, November 29, 1:00PM FST
[Professor Chaucer appears to be a damn good mood today. He's sitting behind his desk with his feet up, writing in a leather bound journal, and has a welcoming grin for each student as they enter. Anyone who looks closely might also notice that he's wearing some sort of ring on one hand.]
[Lecture]Your assigned reading was Plato's The Symposium, which is a prime example of rhetorical debate: a contest in which each speech can be judged for its style and substance (and also viewed as a moral reflection of the person who delivers it), as well as an example of dialectic argument: a process of statement and counter-statement, thesis and antithesis, question and reply that leads by incremental stages to a better understanding of a particular issue and a closer approximation to the truth.
The subject of The Symposium is Love. Four viewpoints are presented: that of the characters Phaedrus (love enobles both lover and beloved) and Pausanias (there are at least two kinds or levels of love: sacred and profane), Eryximachus (true love is is a biochemical balance that yields peace of mind) and Aristophanes (love involves a primal urge for wholeness and self-completeness). In fact, The Symposium is probably the single most influential treatment of love in all of western literature. From neo-Platonism to medieval mysticism, from Augustine to Dante, from Ficino to Freud, its major insights (the identity of Beauty and Goodness; love as a set of progressive stages, successive rungs in a quest for personal immortality; love as a universal creative principle or sacred force) have shaped western ideas and attitudes at all levels of culture. Profane love is defined as the physical attraction one would feel for a lover. Sacred love is defined as a spiritual emotion, putting the beloved on a pedestal to be adored from afar.
[Discussion] Today we'll do something a little different. I want each of you to choose one of the following viewpoints, variations on the ideas Plato presents in The Symposium:
a) there are two levels of love, sacred and profane, and both are equally valid;
b) sacred love is worthier than profane love;
c) neither sacred nor profane love are valid ideas because love is a biochemical state that has no connection to any moral or spiritual state.
Once you've chosen your position, I want you to do two things. First, present a brief argument supporting your position. Second, listen to someone else's argument and then offer a refutation. If someone refutes your argument, feel free to continue the discussion -- see if you can win the person over to your side.
PLEASE: let's keep things civil, all right?
***Assignment for Next Week: Begin reading Bede's Life of Cuthbert.***
The following students have at least two unexcused absences. I will allow you to slide on one unexcused absence -- makeup work will have to be completed in order to get a grade for any other missed classes.
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___lily_evans_: three absences
miss_thomasina: two absences
studentwillow: four absences
Some of you have already spoken to me about your makeup work. Once makeup work has been turned in, I'll remove you from the list. If you haven't been to see me about your absences, stop into my office hours or catch me after class.
[Professor Chaucer appears to be a damn good mood today. He's sitting behind his desk with his feet up, writing in a leather bound journal, and has a welcoming grin for each student as they enter. Anyone who looks closely might also notice that he's wearing some sort of ring on one hand.]
[Lecture]Your assigned reading was Plato's The Symposium, which is a prime example of rhetorical debate: a contest in which each speech can be judged for its style and substance (and also viewed as a moral reflection of the person who delivers it), as well as an example of dialectic argument: a process of statement and counter-statement, thesis and antithesis, question and reply that leads by incremental stages to a better understanding of a particular issue and a closer approximation to the truth.
The subject of The Symposium is Love. Four viewpoints are presented: that of the characters Phaedrus (love enobles both lover and beloved) and Pausanias (there are at least two kinds or levels of love: sacred and profane), Eryximachus (true love is is a biochemical balance that yields peace of mind) and Aristophanes (love involves a primal urge for wholeness and self-completeness). In fact, The Symposium is probably the single most influential treatment of love in all of western literature. From neo-Platonism to medieval mysticism, from Augustine to Dante, from Ficino to Freud, its major insights (the identity of Beauty and Goodness; love as a set of progressive stages, successive rungs in a quest for personal immortality; love as a universal creative principle or sacred force) have shaped western ideas and attitudes at all levels of culture. Profane love is defined as the physical attraction one would feel for a lover. Sacred love is defined as a spiritual emotion, putting the beloved on a pedestal to be adored from afar.
[Discussion] Today we'll do something a little different. I want each of you to choose one of the following viewpoints, variations on the ideas Plato presents in The Symposium:
a) there are two levels of love, sacred and profane, and both are equally valid;
b) sacred love is worthier than profane love;
c) neither sacred nor profane love are valid ideas because love is a biochemical state that has no connection to any moral or spiritual state.
Once you've chosen your position, I want you to do two things. First, present a brief argument supporting your position. Second, listen to someone else's argument and then offer a refutation. If someone refutes your argument, feel free to continue the discussion -- see if you can win the person over to your side.
PLEASE: let's keep things civil, all right?
***Assignment for Next Week: Begin reading Bede's Life of Cuthbert.***
The following students have at least two unexcused absences. I will allow you to slide on one unexcused absence -- makeup work will have to be completed in order to get a grade for any other missed classes.
___lily_evans_: three absencesmiss_thomasina: two absencesstudentwillow: four absencesSome of you have already spoken to me about your makeup work. Once makeup work has been turned in, I'll remove you from the list. If you haven't been to see me about your absences, stop into my office hours or catch me after class.