HUM 212: Humanities in the Modern World: Diversity
Spring, 2003
Section 14, TTh 8:00-9:15, FH 504
Section 17, TTh 11:00-12:15, FH 504

Wherever you see words in a different color and underlined, click on them to go to a page with further information.

Dr. Jean Lorrah
FH 7B-15
Tel. 762-4720
e-mail jean.lorrah@murraystate.edu

Office Hours:
MW 9:30-12:30
TTh 9:30-11:00, 12:15-1:30
F 9:30-11:30

Visit the Class Website on Blackboard. The first time you go there, enter your first initial and the last four digits of your social security number in the following format: jsmith1234. Unless you have a password for Blackboard from a previous class, use the last four digits of your social seduruty number as your password. As soon as you have verified that you can get in, change your password to something you can remember. Then explore the site.

Visit Dr. Lorrah's Website

Catalogue Description:
        An exploration of humanistic themes as reflected in literary and philosophical works of the modern period.

Required Texts and Materials:
Rubenstein and Larson, Worlds of Fiction, 2nd Edition
Gould, Classic Philosophical Questions, 8th Edition
Kelly, The Seagull Reader: Poems
Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Gaines, A Gathering of Old Men

You must have access to the WWW (free via any computer lab on campus) a minimum of once a week, and access your e-mail at least once between class meetings.

Purpose:
        1. To examine specific human themes from a variety of perspectives.
        2. To improve students' ability to read, analyze, and compare literary and philosophical works and to discuss and write about the questions they suggest.
        3. To introduce students to significant literary and philosophical works and the historical and cultural traditions from which they emerged.

Course Objectives:
        To receive credit, a student should be able to
        1. Identify some important issues in modern western thought.
        2. Understand and compare the diverse positions expressed in the works read in the course.
        3. Communicate that understanding effectively.

Content Outline:
        The course readings are divided into four units: Self, Individual and Society, Certainty and Doubt, and Moral Choice.

Instructional Activities:
        Class activities include discussion of readings and background lectures.

Field, Clinical, and/or Laboratory Experiences:
        Students are required to participate in the Humanities 212 Forum. The forum is part of Blackboard.

Resources:
        There are numerous free computer labs on campus where students may do word processing, access e-mail, or do research on the Internet. The instructor may occasionally provide audio or video material.

Written Work:
        There will be two examinations during the semester, and a final examination. There will be two original 750-word papers on interpretive, analytic, or comparative topics. Papers must be typed. Use the free computer labs. There will be five quizzes, unannounced. If you are not in class the day of a quiz, or arrive more than ten minutes late, you miss the opportunity to earn 20 points.

Attendance Policy:
        You are expected to attend each class meeting. Your course grade will be lowered one-third of a letter grade for each unexcused absence over 3. If for any reason you miss one-fourth or more of the class meetings, you will not receive a passing grade for the course. [Italics mine.] Please note that "for any reason"; it means excuses will not be accepted.
        This is an across-the-board policy instituted by the Committee on Humanistic Studies. Do not complain to Dr. Lorrah about it; she didn't make it up. Complain to the Director of Humanistic Studies.

College of Humanities and Fine Arts Policy on Academic Integrity.

Makeup Policy:
        Missed quizzes may not be made up. Points for Internet forum participation are limited to ten per week and a maximum of 100 for the semester. If you begin to participate when there are only three weeks left in the semester, the maximum number of points you can earn is 30. Papers drop 10 points per day that they are late (that is per day, not per class meeting—a paper due Wednesday, turned in the following Monday, has lost 50 points). The next day begins at the end of each class meeting. Talk to me (telephone, e-mail) before you miss an exam, not afterward. I am very easy about making arrangements for any sensible reason as long as you let me know ahead of time. After you miss, you must provide evidence of illness, hospitalization, or some equal emergency in order to make up the exam. Oversleeping is not an emergency. Your roommate's emergency is not your emergency.

How Your Papers are Graded


You have the opportunity to earn 700 points in this course, as follows:

	5 quizzes @ 20 points	100
	3 exams @ 100 points	300
	2 papers @ 100 points	200
	Forum @ 100 maximum	100
	TOTAL	700

FINAL GRADES:

	619+	A	330+	D
	514+	B	Below 330	E
	430+	C

Schedule of Work
Read the assignments before we discuss them in class.

Click here to go to course schedule.

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