HRS 347: Sources and Methods:
 Stoics in Film and Literature

Spring 2012        Tues. Thurs. 11:00 am –12:15 pm        Prof. Stephens        D. H. Humanities Center 11

office hours:  Tues. Thurs. 12:45 to 1:45 pm, 3:20 to 3:50 pm, and by appointment

office: DHHC 209      phone (with voicemail): 280-2632      email: stphns AT creighton DOT edu

Epictetus

Marcus Aurelius

Richard Harris as Marcus

James Bond Stockdale

Ree Dolly

Yoda

Course Description

Study of the idea of the stoic as presented in various literary genres, philosophical texts, and films.  Examination of the stoic life as portrayed in poems, short stories, novels, treatises, letters, and video media.  [This course satisfies either the Philosophy or Literature guideline for Honors.]

Course Requirements and Grade Percentages*

Class participation (including quizlets)   14 %
Exam #1   18 %   Feb. 14
Exam #2   20 %   April 5
(Final) Exam #3   16 %   May 1
Thesis Defense Paper on Epictetus and A Man in Full   16 %   due March 12, by 4 pm.  Topic must be approved by Prof. S by Feb. 28
Thesis Defense Paper on your proposed topic approved by Prof. S   16 %   due April 24 at the beginning of class.  Topic must be approved by Prof. S by April 11

Required Texts

Recommended Text

Study Materials for A Man in Full

Required Films

On Reserve at Reinert Alumni Library

Websites pertaining to the film Gladiator (2000)

Websites pertaining to Star Wars

Websites pertaining to the film Winter’s Bone (2010)

Website on Movie Characters and Stoicism

Other Films with Stoic Characters

Standards of Evaluation for Letter Grades

F    “Failure – no credit” (<60% average)

D    “Work of inferior quality, but passing” (60 to <70% average)

C    “Satisfactory work”

B    “Noteworthy level of performance”    Demonstrates all of the qualities of satisfactory work plus:

A    “Outstanding achievement and an unusual degree of intellectual initiative”  Demonstrates all of the qualities of noteworthy performance plus:

Class Participation and Attendance Policies

Punctuality is a virtue.  Prof. Stephens strives to attend every class on time.  He expects all of his students to attend every class, on time, every week, all semester long.  Regular and punctual class attendance is a necessary but not sufficient condition for a good class participation grade.  Eight (8) or more absences (the equivalent of two and a half weeks) will result in an AF (failure due to excessive absence) for this course.  Each absence fewer than eight will incrementally lower your class participation grade.  You are responsible for all material discussed and all announcements made in every class.  If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to find out what you missed.  Being tardy twice counts as one absence.  There are two kinds of activities that count as “participation”: inside of class and outside of class.  Inside of class participation is raising your hand to be called on and making comments about the reading or the discussion, or asking questions about the reading or my lecture, or responding to questions I raise or comments made by other students.  Outside of class participation includes (a) intellectually substantive conversations with Prof. Stephens outside the classroom, and (b) intellectually substantive electronic messages, including emails to Prof. Stephens or posts in the BlueLine Discussion Forum for the course.  You cannot really learn how to think critically by merely listening. You also need to actively think out loud orally inside class and outside of class in written electronic messages.  Making thoughtful posts to the BlueLine Discussion Forum every week is an excellent practice.  Both quality and quantity of oral and electronic remarks count—I record both.  Since we will be closely attending to the readings in our class discussions, it is important that everyday you bring to class your book (or a hard copy of the pdf article) containing that day’s reading assignment.

A necessary condition for a class absence being counted as excused due to illness or emergency is email or telephone notification to Prof. Stephens BEFORE class begins (at 11:00 am) the day of the absence.  Ordinarily, such email or telephone notification given prior to class is also sufficient for that absence to count as excused.  But this is ultimately up to the discretion of Prof. Stephens.

Electronic Devices

Our class is a community of thinkers cooperating in both face to face inquiry inside the classroom and electronic inquiry outside the classroom on BlueLine.  Consequently, the three-fold purpose of being in class is (1) to listen to and think about what Prof. Stephens and your classmates say, (2) to orally participate in the discussion, and (3) to take notes.  Taking notes during class is so strongly recommended that it is virtually obligatory.  Use of electronic devices in class is PROHIBITED.  These devices include laptop computers, handheld computers, iPods, Blackberries, cameras, audio recorders, cell phones, and similar devices.  If you choose to bring such devices to the classroom, they must be stored away and kept off during class.  If you believe that it would promote your learning to use a laptop to take notes in class, then you may print out, complete, and submit to Prof. Stephens the pledge of laptop use form to petition for a limited exception to this policy.  Using any electronic device in class for an illicit purpose (e.g. email, browsing the Internet, playing games) will result in a reduction in the Class Participation grade.

Quizlets and a Good Dictionary

To encourage you to do the assigned reading faithfully before each and every class, Prof. Stephens will sometimes, without prior announcement, at the beginning of class, give a small “pop” quiz on the reading assignment.  These quizlets are usually about ten true/false items.  If you are late to class or absent, then you miss the quizlet, get a zero for it, and cannot retake it.  To compensate for a missed quizlet you can boost your participation in class or in the discussion forum, since quizlets count in the class participation component of the course grade.  Sometimes Prof. Stephens rewards students for bringing their books to class by giving an open-book quizlet.  Get into the habit of using a dictionary to look up every word you are not 100% certain you understand the exact meaning of, in each and every sentence you read, in every single reading assignment.  Prof. Stephens has been known to put vocabulary questions on quizlets.  Every college student ought to own a good dictionary, so I have ordered one for our course.  If you want to do well in this course, use your dictionary every day you read in order to expand your vocabulary.  You cannot understand what an author writes unless you understand each and every word in every sentence of that author’s essay.

Thesis Defense Paper Specifications

Students will choose their thesis defense paper topics in consultation with Prof. Stephens.  Students are responsible for getting their paper topics approved by Prof. Stephens well before their papers are due.  Students should get their hands on the How to Write Philosophy Papers manual.  Read it closely and carefully follow all its guidelines in writing your paper.  The finished, polished, carefully edited, and meticulously proofread paper should be 1600 to approximately 1900 words in length.  (You are permitted to exceed 1900 words within reason, but please don’t abuse this latitude.)  Papers of fewer than 1600 words will receive a zero (F).

In the introductory paragraph YOU MUST STATE YOUR THESIS with a sentence that begins either “My thesis is that...” or “In this paper I will argue that...” followed by your thesis statement.  See How to Write Philosophy Papers.

These papers should have... (a) a cover page Include your NAME, the COURSE number and name, the correctly spelled name of your PROFESSOR, a clever and apt TITLE, the WORD COUNT of the body, and the DATE submitted.  (Note: This is NOT the date you began writing the paper or the date the paper was due.  It is the date you put the paper into your professor’s hands.  Do not print a page number on the cover page.
  (b) a body Number these pages 1, 2, 3, and so on.  Only the words in the body count toward the paper’s word count printed on the cover page.
  (c) an Endnotes page Number your Endnotes, both in the body of the paper and on the Endnotes page, with Arabic numerals: 1, 2, 3, and so on.
Staple pages together in upper lefthand  corner. (d) a Works Cited page This is the last page.

NOTHING should be underlined anywhere in the paper.  Italicize the titles of all books and periodicals.  Titles of articles and news stories should be set between double quotation marks (“Title of Article”).

For help finding information specific to your paper topic, go to http://reinert.creighton.edu/services/instruction/rap/rap.htm and complete the form with details of your paper assignment.  Our terrific librarians can assist you.

Grading Criteria for the Thesis Defense Papers

In a thesis defense paper the author (the student) takes a stand on a philosophical issue relevant to the course and pertinent to the TOPIC for that paper.  The student must clearly explain what her position is after explicitly stating it in the introductory paragraph.  Then, in the body of the paper, the student must justify her thesis by presenting page after page of arguments to support it.  Then the student must discuss the most intelligent objections to and counterarguments against her position that she can think of.  Finally, she must reply to these intelligent objections and defend her thesis (which may require modifying it) in response to the counterarguments.

Papers will be graded on the following criteria:

For greater detail, see “How Prof. Stephens grades a thesis defense paper.”

Submission Policy and Late Penalty

Either hand your paper to Prof. Stephens in person or deliver your paper to his office, DHHC 209, in the Classical & Near Eastern Studies Department suite.  “Your paper” means a hard copy, that is, thin, 8½ by 11" rectangular sheets made from wood pulp, stapled together in the upper left hand corner, with 12 point font, dark, easily legible print on them.  An electronic file on a storage device or an email attachment is ordinarily not acceptable.  Approval for submitting your paper electronically must be explicitly granted by Prof. Stephens.  Late papers will be penalized ten (10) points (one full letter grade) per weekday late.  Early submissions are very welcome!

Academic Honesty Statement

If you plagiarize any part of your papers, then you will receive an F for the course.  Students are required to produce their own original work, ideas, arguments, and sentences in their papers.  Students may NOT work with others, and may NOT borrow from others, in writing their papers.  Citations on the paper should follow the guidelines in How to Write Philosophy Papers.  If you cheat on an exam, then you will receive at minimum an F (zero) on that exam; in cases judged to be flagrant by the instructor, the punishment is an F for the course.  See the Creighton College of Arts & Sciences Academic Honesty Procedures.

Keep in Contact with your Professor throughout the Course

If anything hinders you from doing the assigned reading, attending class, participating in discussions, studying for quizzes, or writing your paper, please come see me or call me or email me or leave a note in my mailbox or under my office door.  Whatever happens to you, please keep in contact with Prof. Stephens.  Failure to do so can have unhappy consequences.  Together we can work any problem out, but it is your responsibility to promptly read and reply to emails from me.  I will notify students of revisions to the syllabus and make other announcements via email and/or BlueLine.  Consequently, conscientiously check your email daily.

DATE                        ASSIGNMENT*

Jan. 12              Introduction; Selected poems on the Stoic on BlueLine

  • Emily Brontė, “The Old Stoic”

  • Edgar Bowers, “The Stoic: For Laura Von Courten”

  • Donald Revell, “Stoic” The American Poetry Review (2005)

  • Everwind Rising, “Stoic” (2007)

  • Stefanie Fontker, “A Stoic”

  • Paul Simon, “I am a Rock” (1965)

Jan. 17            John Galsworthy, “A Stoic” (a short story) on BlueLine

Jan. 19            Epictetus, Discourses, Introduction and Book I (pp. vii–xxiv, 3–39)

Jan. 24            Epictetus, Book I (pp. 40–76)

Jan. 26            Epictetus, Book II (pp. 77–111)

Jan. 31            Epictetus, Book II (pp. 112–145)

Feb. 2             Epictetus, Book III (pp. 146–173)

Feb. 7             Epictetus, Book IV (pp. 174–206)

Feb. 9             James Bond Stockdale, Courage Under Fire: Testing Epictetus’s Doctrines in a Laboratory of Human Behavior

                        Review Guide for Exam #1

Feb. 14           Exam #1

Feb. 16            Tom Wolfe, A Man in Full, Prologue and Chapters 1–6

Feb. 21            Tom Wolfe, A Man in Full, Chapters 7–12

Feb. 23            Tom Wolfe, A Man in Full, Chapters 13–19

Feb. 28            Tom Wolfe, A Man in Full, Chapters 20–26.  DUE date for getting your paper topic approved by Prof. S

March 1            Tom Wolfe, A Man in Full, Chapters 27–32 and Epilogue

                      Spring Recess

            March 12    Paper on approved topic on Epictetus and A Man in Full DUE (deliver by 4 pm under Prof. Stephens’ office door)

March 13          Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Books I–IV

March 15          Marcus, Books V–VIII

March 20          class canceled (Stephens injured)

March 22          screening of the first half of Gladiator (2000) directed by Ridley Scott

March 27          screening of the second half of Gladiator (2000)

March 29         John Sellars, “Stoics on the Big Screen: Marcus and Maximus” and William O. Stephens, “Marcus, Maximus, and Stoicism in Gladiator (2000)” = the
                     Appendix of William O. Stephens, Marcus Aurelius: A Guide for the Perplexed (Continuum, 2012) ISBN 978-1-4411-0810-4 pb (in Creighton Bookstore)
                     Bring to class your written responses to these Discussion questions on Gladiator (2000).

April 3              Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Books IX–XII 

                      Review Guide for Exam #2 

April 5              Exam #2

April 10            screening of the first half of Winter’s Bone (2010) directed by Debra Granik

            April 11   DUE date for getting your paper topic approved by Prof. S

April 12            screening of the second half of Winter’s Bone (2010)

April 17            discussion of Winter’s Bone (2010); Review the Plot and Cast

April 19            Screening of selected scenes from Star Wars.  Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) dir. Irvin Kershner, Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)
                      dir. George Lucas, and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005) dir. George Lucas

April 24            W. O. Stephens, “Stoicism in the Stars: Yoda, the Emperor, and the Force,” in Star Wars and Philosophy, edited by K. Decker & J. Eberl
                      (Open Court, 2005): 16–28.  Paper on topic approved by Prof. Stephens DUE

April 26            complete narrative and IDEA course evaluations in Hitchcock Learning Resource Center (DHHC room 215) from 11 - 11:30 am

May 1        1:00 – 2:40 pm (Final) Exam #3            Review Guide for Final Exam

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* The instructor reserves the right to change anything on this syllabus during the course as circumstances require.

last updated 30 April 2012
Copyright © 2012 William O. Stephens