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The Art of Meaning Making Or, How are We to Live?

Jack Calder

INTRODUCTION

This course is a survey of some of the greatest thinkers and writers ever produced by humanity. Each of them attends, in their own way, to the question of meaning. What is meaning? How do we create meaning? How can we live meaningful lives? In this course students will engage deeply with these fundamental questions. We will embark on an intense close reading of each of these texts, examining how they seek to create and communicate meaning. As the course progresses, we will build an understanding of these texts as a dialogue; a conversation on the condition of humanity. Students will gain skills in reading, writing, and thinking well. They will be pushed to develop and communicate complex concepts, forming their own notions of life in the process. These skills will form an excellent basis for college studies, where students will be forced to confront and understand very sophisticated texts. Through this course, they will learn not just how to understand the concepts expressed, but also how to interrogate these concepts, develop their own response, and communicate this response in writing and speaking. Most importantly, this knowledge will form the basis for a rich and fulfilling life. In mastering the art of creating meaning, students learn the art of living well.

READINGS

DAY 1 – Thing Poems

READING 1

In a Station of the Metro –

READING 2

The Panther –

Black Cat – Rainer Maria Rilke

*** OPTIONAL ***

Before Summer Rain; Faded; Spanish Dancer; The Carousel; The Grownup; Archaic Torso of – Rainer Maria Rilke

Ode to a Grecian Urn; To Autumn – Keats

The Fish – Elizabeth Bishop

ASSIGNMENT: Write a thing poem

Day 2 – Writing with Things

WRITING 1

Writing Thing Poems

READING 3

The Cares of a Family Man –

Day 3 – Away from Things; Into Ideas

WRITING 2

Poem Sharing and Analysis

READING 4

Excerpts from The Republic – Plato

*** OPTIONAL ***

Orpheus, , – Rainer Maria Rilke The Right Use of School Studies – Simone Weil

Assignment: Take an argument in either Plato or Boethius, and analyze it logically into premises and conclusions. Attempt to criticize the argument in terms of either validity or soundness.

Day 4 – The Consolations of Philosophy

READING 5

The Consolation of Philosophy, Book III – Boethius

WRITING 3

Arguments: Logic and Image

Day 5 – Away from Ideas; Into Life

READING 6

The Problem of Socrates; How the ‘True World’ Finally Became a Fable –

WRITING 4

Arguments: Analytics and Ends

ASSIGNMENT: Choose a particular “exchange” from and analyze it

Day 6 – Life and Death

READING 7

Waiting for Godot –

READING 8

Waiting for Godot – Samuel Beckett

*** OPTIONAL ***

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow – William Shakespeare

Day 7 – The Saved and the Drowned: A Negative Ethics

WRITING 5

Reading and analyzing our “Exchange” essays

READING 9

The Saved and the Drowned – Primo Levi

FINAL ASSIGNMENT: Elaborate on the analysis you began w/ the first Godot Essay

Day 8 – Ethics and Politics

READING 10

Politics I.1-7 – Aristotle

READING 11

Politics I.1-7 – Aristotle

Day 9 – Politics

READING 12

What is the Third Estate? – Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes

READING 13

To Posterity –

Day 10 – A Gesture at More

READING 14

Letters to a Young Poet I – Rainer Maria Rilke

WRITING 6

Final Presentations

GRADING

Class Participation – 50% Writings – 50%