Topic for new Humanities class

[djrashonal]

I need to pick a humanities topic (extremely broad possibilities here)and design an 8 week class about it, then defend why it should be a class......any ideas?

My Question to you: What general class (class about life: art, tech, mythology, lit, etc) do you think you should have had in undergrad that would have made a difference?

[zarn02]

Hm... I did a philosophy degree (Useless? Yeah, useless.) with a poli-sci minor, and have since developed a great interest in economics (Austrian, specifically).

The more I think about these things, the more I understand they all influence each other, and the Real World around us. Economics decisions are an extension of political and philosophical ideas. Political decisions are all built on a philosophical and economic (read: budget-minded) groundwork. Specific philosophies draw from the economic and political climate of the time.

Anyway.

I think it'd be extremely interesting, and real-world applicable (if for nothing else than to highlight the ideas that frame current events and decisions, or at least highlight that ideas do frame them) to have a study course that properly addressed these three things as an integrated whole.

Too much and too broad for an eight-week course? Yes, probably.

[rgramjet]

How to get a patent 101.

[WarrenJ]

I think it depends tremendously on the instructor.  I had to take a couple of humanities and just stabbed at an Art Survey class.  I got a vast amount out of it about how cultures think and express themselves through art.  Also how to interpret that information to better understand how to deal with the different groups.  Even how to tell how someone thinks a bit by looking at their doodles in the margins of their notebooks. 

The instructor was in his late 60s at the time and was the veteran of multiple amphibious landings in the Pacific during WWII. as a Marine Officer.  He and his wife were also long distance, high speed motorcyclists.  I probably remember more from his class than most of the engineering stuff.

[Langanobob]

I think it depends tremendously on the instructor.  I had to take a couple of humanities and just stabbed at an Art Survey class.  I got a vast amount out of it about how cultures think and express themselves through art.  Also how to interpret that information to better understand how to deal with the different groups.  Even how to tell how someone thinks a bit by looking at their doodles in the margins of their notebooks. 

The instructor was in his late 60s at the time and was the veteran of multiple amphibious landings in the Pacific during WWII. as a Marine Officer.  He and his wife were also long distance, high speed motorcyclists.  I probably remember more from his class than most of the engineering stuff.

It breaks my heart that there are so few WWII vets left.

I remember taking a music appreciation class that was also very good.   I think everyone should write a song, or at least the lyrics to a song at least once in their life.

[77south]

I want to see a class on 'the human condition'.  What themes echo through human history as eternal, and what fades away and why?  For example feudal societies are big on honor and devote a large amount of time in literature and poetry talking about it.  Today, not so much.  For the forseeable future, being human means coping with birth and death and love and jealousy and hate.  For us it means dealing with computers too.  Computers would be incomprehensible to a pre-literate society. I would be willing to wager that there are things in pre-literate society that would be equally as strange.  I'd like a survey course that shows what we have in common with other cultures and what separates us.  I think we build up a rough idea about these things but most of us never examine them in a scholarly way.  I think it would be a great way to get a better idea of how other cultures think and a better understanding of how our own culture works.

[djrashonal]

I think it'd be extremely interesting, and real-world applicable (if for nothing else than to highlight the ideas that frame current events and decisions, or at least highlight that ideas do frame them) to have a study course that properly addressed these three things as an integrated whole.

Too much and too broad for an eight-week course? Yes, probably.

As interesting as that sounds, you may be right about it being a bit too broad for an 8 week course. I've also got to write my senior thesis paper defending why this course that I create should be required in the Humanities curriculum.

I want to see a class on 'the human condition'.  What themes echo through human history as eternal, and what fades away and why?  For example feudal societies are big on honor and devote a large amount of time in literature and poetry talking about it.  Today, not so much.  For the forseeable future, being human means coping with birth and death and love and jealousy and hate.  For us it means dealing with computers too.  Computers would be incomprehensible to a pre-literate society. I would be willing to wager that there are things in pre-literate society that would be equally as strange.  I'd like a survey course that shows what we have in common with other cultures and what separates us.  I think we build up a rough idea about these things but most of us never examine them in a scholarly way.  I think it would be a great way to get a better idea of how other cultures think and a better understanding of how our own culture works.

Thats a very interesting route. Technology definitely has an impact, and you're right. If a man from a feudal society played with a computer his head would probably explode. I'll look into this and see if I can come up with some sort of an 8 week syllabus.

How to get a patent 101.

do you really think teaching people how to patent things would help the economy, or waste the patent office's time with a million new shitty "snuggie" ripoffs?

[VisceralReaction]

Porn in American society

[sno_duc]

Porn in American society

You may have something.
Compared to other western european cultures Americans are a little juvenile when it comes to boobies.
Even the Germans as formal as they are think nothing of nude beaches or nude sunbathing areas in public parks i.e München Englisher Garten.

[ducpainter]

<xnip>
Compared to other western european cultures Americans are a little juvenile when it comes to boobies.
Even the Germans as formal as they are think nothing of nude beaches or nude sunbathing areas in public parks i.e München Englisher Garten.

Really?

[rgramjet]

do you really think teaching people how to patent things would help the economy, or waste the patent office's time with a million new shitty "snuggie" ripoffs?

Hey my Kosher Snuggie idea was a good one!  Complete with intercourse hole!  Why ya gotta hate?


I know, I know, the hole in the sheet is an urban myth.........

[muskrat]

You may have something.
Compared to other western european cultures Americans are a little juvenile when it comes to boobies.
Even the Germans as formal as they are think nothing of nude beaches or nude sunbathing areas in public parks i.e München Englisher Garten.

Yep, so true

[RAT900]

Why do all Social Systems-Civilizations Devolve/Corrupt and fail

or what underlying factors/conditions cause Personal self-interest to trump Common Cause interest?

Granted it is all tribalism.... but at what point does the tribal agenda fail and the personal agenda takes precedence?   

Factors involved etc

or.....

The effects of human longevity on the economics of prosperity...the transition of wealth from the non-breeding generation to breeding generation

[ducpainter]

Why do all Social Systems-Civilizations Devolve/Corrupt and fail

or what underlying factors/conditions cause Personal self-interest to trump Common Cause interest?

Granted it is all tribalism.... but at what point does the tribal agenda fail and the personal agenda takes precedence?   

Factors involved etc

or.....

The effects of human longevity on the economics of prosperity...the transition of wealth from the non-breeding generation to breeding generation

You doing mescaline again?

[RAT900]

You doing mescaline again?

still having flashbacks from that damn TV Test Pattern post