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501 - 510 of 1219 results for: all courses

ESF 9A: Education as Self-Fashioning: Chinese Traditions of the Self

In this class we explore thinking about the self and its cultivation that took root and flourished in China. Chinese civilization was centrally concerned with issues of the self, but it developed methods and ideals of cultivation that have no obvious parallel in the European tradition. We will be concerned primarily with two clusters of Chinese thought and expression. First, we will look at major philosophical traditions (Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism) to see how they structured thinking about education and self-cultivation. The three ¿schools¿ of thought staked out different ideals for the self that provided China with range and flexibility in concepts of personhood. Second, we will examine Chinese aesthetic traditions, especially those of qin music, calligraphy and painting, to understand how the arts were used as a platform for self-cultivation and to communicate the artist¿s essential nature to others. The course also gives attention to the gendering of concepts of the self and to the tradition of martial arts as self-discipline and self-strengthening. Students should emerge from the course with an understanding of how a major civilization located outside Western traditions developed its own answers to these questions of universal human concern.
Last offered: Autumn 2016 | UG Reqs: College, THINK, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP, Writing 1

ESF 13: Education as Self-Fashioning: Rebellious Minds

The struggle to know began long before you entered the university. The university as an institution has its origins in the late Middle Ages; it has been reinvented repeatedly as our ideas about education have changed. People have been rebelling against how institutions define learning (and for whom) ever since. This course introduces you to some of the most thoughtful and interesting reflections on the nature and purpose of an education, on knowledge and ignorance, at the birth of the modern world. Understanding the quest to discover the mind and to embrace learning as a lifelong endeavor is a starting point to reflect on the goals of your own education, as an engaged intellectual citizen of the world.
Terms: Aut | Units: 7 | UG Reqs: College, THINK, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI, Writing 1

ESF 13A: Education as Self-Fashioning: Rebellious Minds

The struggle to know began long before you entered the university. The university as an institution has its origins in the late Middle Ages; it has been reinvented repeatedly as our ideas about education have changed. People have been rebelling against how institutions define learning (and for whom) ever since. This course introduces you to some of the most thoughtful and interesting reflections on the nature and purpose of an education, on knowledge and ignorance, at the birth of the modern world. Understanding the quest to discover the mind and to embrace learning as a lifelong endeavor is a starting point to reflect on the goals of your own education, as an engaged intellectual citizen of the world.
Terms: Aut | Units: 7 | UG Reqs: College, THINK, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI, Writing 1

ESF 14: Education as Self-Fashioning: The Challenge of Choice

The Challenge of Choice addresses these questions by engaging key texts from the liberal arts tradition that explore decisions and their consequences, exposing the multi-faceted nature of choice. By representing characters with whom we sympathize, as well as those whose experience seems worlds away from our own, artists (novelists, playwrights, filmmakers) ask us to consider the web of circumstance that influences a character to choose one course over another. Distance from our own subjectivity the stories are not ours, but they could be allows these works to shed light on the dilemmas that face us as we go about `choosing the life we think we would like to live. Confronting these works, we find that the kinds of choices we make grow in depth, magnitude, and significance.
Terms: Aut | Units: 7 | UG Reqs: College, THINK, WAY-A-II, Writing 1

ESF 14A: Education as Self-Fashioning: The Challenge of Choice

The Challenge of Choice addresses these questions by engaging key texts from the liberal arts tradition that explore decisions and their consequences, exposing the multi-faceted nature of choice. By representing characters with whom we sympathize, as well as those whose experience seems worlds away from our own, artists (novelists, playwrights, filmmakers) ask us to consider the web of circumstance that influences a character to choose one course over another. Distance from our own subjectivity the stories are not ours, but they could be allows these works to shed light on the dilemmas that face us as we go about `choosing the life we think we would like to live. Confronting these works, we find that the kinds of choices we make grow in depth, magnitude, and significance.
Terms: Aut | Units: 7 | UG Reqs: College, THINK, WAY-A-II, Writing 1

ESF 15: Education as Self-Fashioning: College and the Good Life

Academic study was once concerned with one overriding question: what is the best way to live our lives? What are the ultimate goals and values we should privilege over others? Today we often assume that value choices are personal. But many teachers in Antiquity (and beyond) thought that these choices needed to be debated, and that education demanded that we debate and think them through. In this class, we ask questions about the good life, but we also consider whether college is still designed to raise such questions. We will read thought-provoking, influential texts from Antiquity and modern times, by such writers as Plato, Marcus Aurelius, Montaigne, Voltaire, DuBois, and Martha Nussbaum.nFriday lectures will be held 9:30am-10:50am in Bishop Auditorium.
Last offered: Autumn 2019 | UG Reqs: College, THINK, WAY-A-II, Writing 1

ESF 15A: Education as Self-Fashioning: College and The Good Life

Academic study was once concerned with one overriding question: what is the best way to live our lives? What are the ultimate goals and values we should privilege over others? Today we often assume that value choices are personal. But many teachers in Antiquity (and beyond) thought that these choices needed to be debated, and that education demanded that we debate and think them through. In this class, we ask questions about the good life, but we also consider whether college is still designed to raise such questions. We will read thought-provoking, influential texts from Antiquity and modern times, by such writers as Plato, Marcus Aurelius, Montaigne, Voltaire, DuBois, and Martha Nussbaum.
Last offered: Autumn 2019 | UG Reqs: College, THINK, WAY-A-II, Writing 1

ESF 16: Education as Self-Fashioning: Curiosity

Curiosity is a personal interest about something that often has no specific application in the real world or is not part of an overarching goal. Curiosity is often dismissed as irrelevant, useless, and even unethical, but it is just as often touted as the foundation to an intellectually rich life. Albert Einstein once remarked, "I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious," and he insisted that only curiosity makes life worth living. Thomas Fuller, by contrast, warned: "Curiosity is a kernel of the forbidden fruit, which still sticks in the throat of a natural man, sometimes to the danger of his choking." Is it possible to reconcile these opposing views on curiosity? What role does curiosity play in a liberal education? What is the role of curiosity in technology and "progress?" What is the relationship between curiosity and individualism? How does curiosity help us develop as critical thinkers? How does curiosity coexist with (or enable) intellectualism? In this course we¿ll examine cabinets of curiosities, and read a wide variety of texts spanning from Antiquity to today, including the legend of Faust, and texts by Goethe, Kafka, Hoffmann, Aristotle, Plato, and Augustine, that explore the nature of curiosity, its pitfalls and possibilities, as well as its importance for living a fulfilled and interesting life.
Last offered: Autumn 2019 | UG Reqs: College, THINK, WAY-A-II, Writing 1

ESF 16A: Education as Self-Fashioning: Curiosity

Curiosity is a personal interest about something that often has no specific application in the real world or is not part of an overarching goal. Curiosity is often dismissed as irrelevant, useless, and even unethical, but it is just as often touted as the foundation to an intellectually rich life. Albert Einstein once remarked, "I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious," and he insisted that only curiosity makes life worth living. Thomas Fuller, by contrast, warned: "Curiosity is a kernel of the forbidden fruit, which still sticks in the throat of a natural man, sometimes to the danger of his choking." Is it possible to reconcile these opposing views on curiosity? What role does curiosity play in a liberal education? What is the role of curiosity in technology and "progress?" What is the relationship between curiosity and individualism? How does curiosity help us develop as critical thinkers? How does curiosity coexist with (or enable) intellectualism? In this course we¿ll examine cabinets of curiosities, and read a wide variety of texts spanning from Antiquity to today, including the legend of Faust, and texts by Goethe, Kafka, Hoffmann, Aristotle, Plato, and Augustine, that explore the nature of curiosity, its pitfalls and possibilities, as well as its importance for living a fulfilled and interesting life.
Last offered: Autumn 2019 | UG Reqs: College, THINK, WAY-A-II, Writing 1

ESF 17: What Can You Do for Your Country?

What does it mean to serve your country? All ethical systems train the individual to relinquish self-interest in favor of a larger communal good. When you applied to Stanford, you answered many application questions designed to elicit evidence of your ability to serve others, which is considered a sign of good character, leadership, and ability to thrive beyond the confines of your family and private world. Knowing you've wrestled with this question at length, showing sacrifice, endurance, empathy, and understanding of higher goods, this course asks you to examine the nation's view. How can the nation present itself as worthy of your personal sacrifice? Do you need to believe in the greatness of your nation to serve? What kind of cause demands your devotion? Nations have differently articulated such a commitment. Some make modest demands and promise you your own sovereignty. Others request only that you dream of national greatness as your own and that you lend a hand. But all nations r more »
What does it mean to serve your country? All ethical systems train the individual to relinquish self-interest in favor of a larger communal good. When you applied to Stanford, you answered many application questions designed to elicit evidence of your ability to serve others, which is considered a sign of good character, leadership, and ability to thrive beyond the confines of your family and private world. Knowing you've wrestled with this question at length, showing sacrifice, endurance, empathy, and understanding of higher goods, this course asks you to examine the nation's view. How can the nation present itself as worthy of your personal sacrifice? Do you need to believe in the greatness of your nation to serve? What kind of cause demands your devotion? Nations have differently articulated such a commitment. Some make modest demands and promise you your own sovereignty. Others request only that you dream of national greatness as your own and that you lend a hand. But all nations require at some point, everything from you. What and when are you prepared to give? This course begins with the shortest and most powerful demand for the last full measure your devotion. President Abraham Lincoln's 'Gettysburg Address', which presents the ideals of the American nation as worthy of returning to war. Following this question of devotion to your nation, the course moves to President JF Kennedy's 'What can you do for your nation' speech, and then to diverse periods and perspectives around the globe.
Terms: Aut | Units: 7 | UG Reqs: College, THINK, WAY-A-II, Writing 1
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