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| Degree Applicable | | Effective Quarter: Fall 2007 | I. Catalog Information
| PHIL 17 | Critical Consciousness and Social Change | 4 Unit(s) |
| | (See general education pages for the requirement this course meets.) Requisites: Advisory: English Writing 1A or English as a Second Language 5. Hours: Four hours lecture. Also Listed As: (Also listed as Intercultural Studies 17. Students may enroll in either department, but not both for credit.) Description: An exploration of issues related to social change including the development of ways of thinking that promote social change. Students will read classical and contemporary authors on movements for social change, strategies for organizing, and the development of consciousness. |
II. Course Objectives | A. | Study the basic methods used in philosophy and intercultural studies and the ways these methods are used to study social change. |
| B. | Analyze the essential principles of social action in the moral and philosophical thought of various classical and contemporary authors. |
| C. | Explore the relationship between ethics and politics as illustrated in the lives and writings of various authors. |
| D. | Compare and contrast the objectives and strategies of social change in the writings of classical and contemporary writers. |
| E. | Evaluate concepts of cultural and ethical relativity and discuss how concepts developed in one context might be applied in other social arenas. |
III. Essential Student Materials IV. Essential College Facilities V. Expanded Description: Content and Form | A. | Study the basic methods used in philosophy and intercultural studies and the ways these methods are used to study social change. |
| 1. | Investigate what is Philosophy its methods. |
| 2. | Investigate what is Intercultural Studies its methods. |
| 3. | Study the role of theories of social change in each of these disciplines. |
| B. | Analyze the essential principles of social action. |
| 1. | Review historical contexts in which social action movements have arisen, such as: anti-colonial and Third World national liberation movements; feminism in the US and worldwide; the civil rights movement in the US; gay liberation movements; the disability rights movement. |
| 2. | Study general theoretical frameworks for analysis of moral and philosophical issues of social change. |
| 3. | Explore culturally diverse ways of understanding oppression and liberation, such as the different ways that feminist issues are understood in different societies. |
| 4. | Examine concepts of and perspectives on colonialism, class, race and gender. |
| C. | Explore the relationship between ethics and politics in the lives of various social thinkers. |
| 1. | Define the idea of ethics and analyze how it relates to politics. |
| 2. | Compare and contrast how various classical and contemporary writers of different cultural backgrounds have understood the idea of legitimate authority, such as Lao Tzu, Confucius, Locke, Plato, Marx, King, and Gandhi. |
| 3. | Explore how the idea of legitimate authority informs ethical and political thinking in the lives and writings of various social thinkers. |
| 4. | Analyze the ways in which various writers have been influenced by different religious and philosophical traditions in the development of their ideas of legitimate authority. |
| 5. | Compare and contrast specific ethical issues which have been of central concern in the lives of the various social thinkers under consideration such as King, Marx, Starhawk and Gandhi. |
| D. | Analyze the particular moral and social issues of most immediate concern to the thinkers being considered. |
| 1. | Review the historical and cultural features of the social struggles in which each of the writers developed their thinking. |
| 2. | Analyze the central tensions involved in each of these struggles for social change. What were (or are) the specific moral and social issues involved? |
| 3. | Compare and contrast how each of these thinkers participated in a social movement with others and how their thinking distinguished them from others in the same struggle for social change. |
| E. | Evaluate concepts of cultural and ethical relativity and discuss how concepts developed in one context might be applied in other social arenas. |
| 1. | Evaluate the idea of freedom from several cultural perspectives. Is freedom of the individual valued more highly than the freedom of the group? Is freedom from (hunger, poverty) valued more highly than freedom to (speech, religion)? |
| 2. | Analyze how different religious or philosophical assumptions influence notions of normative, authority, justice, etc. and how these notions influence thinking about social change. |
| 3. | Compare and contrast how theoretical concepts developed by one thinker in one context might inform social struggles in other historical and cultural contexts. |
VI. Assignments | 1. | Assigned weekly readings from texts and other sources. |
| 2. | Critical reading of journal articles. |
| 3. | Suggested supplemental readings. |
| 4. | Library research for final project. |
| 1. | Critical essays on assigned texts. |
| 2. | Weekly think sheets on key concepts in assigned reading and class lectures. |
| 3. | A final project, which may be oral or written, which involves research on a social theorist or a social movement. |
| 1. | Participation in small group discussions of assigned texts and special projects. |
| 2. | Participation in large group discussions of course materials. |
VII. Methods of Instruction VIII. Methods of Evaluating Objectives | A. | Midterm and final essay examinations to test for recognition, identification, synthesis and analysis of key concepts. |
| B. | Weekly think sheets to text critical understanding of the assigned readings. |
| C. | Participation in and contribution to class discussions. |
| D. | Grading of papers and final project. |
IX. Texts and Supporting References | 1. | *Bill Moyer, "Doing Democracy", Gabriola Island, B.C.: New Society Publishers, 2001. |
| 2. | *Cynthia Kaufman, "Ideas for Action: Relevant Theory for Radical Change". Cambridge, South End Press, 2003. |
| 3. | *Martin Luther King, Jr. "Where do we go from Here: Chaos or Community". Boston, Beacon Press, 1967. |
| 4. | *Starhawk, "Webs of Power". Gabriola Island, B.C.: New Society Publishers, 2002. |
| B. | Supporting Texts and References |
| 1. | Ann Bookman and Sandra Morgen, eds., "Women and the Politics of Empowerment". Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1988. |
| 2. | Black Elk, "The Sacred Pipe". Norman: University of Oklahoma, Press, 1953. |
| 3. | bell hooks, "Teaching to Transgress". New York: Routledge, 1994. |
| 4. | Dorothy Day, "The Long Loneliness". San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1952. |
| 5. | Emile Capouya and Keith Tomkins, eds.,"The Essential Kropotkin". New York: Liveright, 1975. |
| 6. | Emma Goldman, "Living My Life". London: Pluto, 1986. |
| 7. | Eddie Yuen, Daniel-Burton-Rose, and George Katsiaficas, "Confronting Capitalism", New York; Soft Skull Press, 2004. |
| 8. | Erik Erikson, "Gandhi's Truth: On the Origins of militant Non-violence", New York: Norton, 1969. |
| 9. | Franz Fanon, "Black Skin, White Mask". New York: Grove Press, 1967. |
| 10. | Frantz Fanon, "The Wretched of the Earth". New York: Grove Press, 1963. |
| 11. | George Breitman, ed., "Malcolm X Speaks". New York. Merit Publishers, 1965. |
| 12. | Gloria Anzaldua, "Borderlands". San Francisco: Spinster s/Aunt Lute, 1987. |
| 13. | Hannah Arendt, "The Origins of Totalitarianism". New York: Meridian Books, 1958. |
| 14. | James M. Washington, ed., "A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King". San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1986. |
| 15. | Louis Fischer, "The Life of Mathatma Gandhi", New York: Harper, 1950. |
| 16. | Mahatma Gandhi, "All Men are Brothers". New York: Columbia University Press, 1969. |
| 17. | Mohantas Gandhi, "An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth", Boston: Beacon Press, 1957. |
| 18. | Paulo Freire, "Pedagogy of the Oppressed". New York: Continuum, 1993. |
| 19. | Peter Berger, "Pyramids of Sacrifice. Political Ethics and Social Change". New York: Basic Books, 1974. |
| 20. | Rigoberta Menchu, "I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala". London: Verso, 1984. |
| 21. | Robert Coles, "Dorothy Day: A Radical Devotion". Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1987. |
| 22. | Sam Dolgoff, "Bakunin: On Anarchism". Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1980. |
| 23. | Walter Benjamin, "Illuminations". New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1968. |
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