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Explaining Evil, Legitimating Luck: Problems of Theodicy

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Explaining Evil, Legitimating Luck: Problems of Theodicy Explaining Evil, Legitimating Luck: Problems of Theodicy Text and Ideas, Spring 2021 CORE-UA 400 080 Tuesday and Thursday 2:00-3:15 PM Professor Andrea Gadberry (she/her) Office Hours: by appointment on Wednesdays, 10:30-12:30 Appointment link: http://goo.gl/W2Fhpm Email: [email protected] Course Description In 1755, a massive earthquake came close to demolishing Lisbon, then the fourth largest city in Europe. The earthquake’s aftershocks, however, were also intellectual: in the face of catastrophe, woodcut, Bohemia (1755) writers struggled as they asked how God (or nature) could possibly be benevolent if so terrible an event could take place. The “justif[ication of] the ways of God to men” was also an ancient project, but it was not until the eighteenth century that the task of defending God, explaining disaster, or finding meaning in a world in which there is horrific suffering got a name: theodicy, a term coined only in 1710 by the philosopher Leibniz. This course investigates theodicy through a comparative literary framework. Looking at literary, philosophical, political-theoretical, and theological works, from antiquity to the present, we will examine theodicies and anti-theodicies alike that respond to “earthquakes” literal and figurative, singular and structural. As we read across a spectrum of texts – from “vindications” of the goodness of God to satires of the theodical project, from secular representations of the status quo that disavow their faith in providence to anti-theodicies that call for conspiracy and revolt – we will ask what and whom theodicy serves. How do these texts let us understand the production of meaning following disaster, how do they attempt to explain the existence of suffering or justify mere luck? How does justification take literary or philosophical form – and why does form matter to theodicy? What form(s) might an anti-theodicy take? How do these older works about theodicy speak to and from history, and why does theodicy matter today? The College Core Curriculum locates in all Texts and Ideas courses “a diverse group of humanities courses that study challenging, influential texts about big ideas….Texts and Ideas courses also seek to refine students’ ability to write and speak about complex concepts and arguments with clarity, originality, and eloquence. You will be challenged not only to master the content of some of the world’s most influential philosophical texts and works of literature, but to discuss how the ideas in these works have been debated, developed, appropriated, or rejected over time.” This course on theodicy will ask that you think about such “big ideas” as we take on a particularly large one, and throughout our course, we will pay close attention to the literary and philosophical stakes of the problem of theodicy (and its variants) as well as to the historical and political ends in which these big ideas appear. At the same time, through this course’s lectures and reading and through your written assignments, this class will ask you to pay close attention to smaller ideas as well as you develop your skills as close readers of texts and as writers of argumentative and interpretative essays. 2 Required Course Texts These works are available via the NYU Bookstore and are also widely available via online booksellers. (You may also find many of them in used bookstores in New York or elsewhere; please use the ISBN below and/or check the translations to make sure you are working with the required translation or edition.) Robert Alter, trans. and ed., The Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes (New York: Norton, 2010), ISBN: 9780393340532 Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees and Other Writings (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1997), ISBN: 9780872203747 John Milton, Paradise Lost, ed. Alastair Fowler (Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2014), ISBN: 9781317865735 Sigrid Nunez, Salvation City (New York: Riverhead Books, 2011), ISBN: 9781594485374 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Discourses and Other Early Political Writings (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), ISBN: 9781316605547 Muriel Spark, The Only Problem (New York: Penguin, 1995), ISBN: 9780140179613 or in the volume of collected novels: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Girls of Slender Means, The Driver’s Seat, The Only Problem (Knopf 2004) ISBN: 9781400042067 Voltaire, Candide: Or Optimism, trans. Theo Cuffe (New York: Penguin, 2005), ISBN: 9780140455106 All other texts will be available in pdf format on the NYU Classes site under “Resources.” Recitation Sections Instructors: Andrew Ragni, Ph.D. (he/him) (§§ 083 and 084) NYU CORE Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow Email: [email protected] Office Hours: by appointment (via email) CORE-UA 400 083: F 2pm - 3:15pm CORE-UA 400 084: F 12:30pm - 1:45pm Ârash Aminian Tabrizi (he/him) (§§ 081 and 082) Ph.D. Candidate, Comparative Literature Email: [email protected] Office Hours: by appointment (via email) CORE-UA 400 081: F 8am - 9:15am CORE-UA 400 082: F 9:30am - 10:45am Course Requirements Participation and Attendance Your attendance at lectures and recitation sections is required. You are not permitted to record any lectures, and there is not a textbook for this class; your attendance and active notetaking, therefore, will be necessary for you to complete the course successfully. The course’s readings are central to the work of the class, and you should plan on devoting significant time to reading and even rereading the course materials. To prepare for lectures, please carefully read 3 the text(s) assigned for that day. Always come to class with the text at hand so you can follow the lectures. To prepare for your recitation section, you will need to have read the texts and thought about the lecture, and you should arrive at recitation likewise having thought of specific questions the text or lecture raises for you, particular moments in the text(s) that puzzle you, or observations the text inspires. In your recitations, you should be prepared to participate in conversation whether it be in small group activities (via break-out rooms) or larger class discussions. Attendance will be taken in your recitation sections and contribute to your participation grade. Your recitation instructors may also ask you to bring in brief written assignments or essays in progress for workshops. Assignments and Exams You will write three papers in this course, of increasing length, and take a midterm exam as well as a cumulative final exam. For each of your three papers, you will receive detailed assignment guidelines, and there will be opportunities in the lecture and in your recitation sections to discuss the assignment, its aims, and its expectations at length. There will also be required, informal written assignments, beginning with the letter of introduction and including small written assignments you do for your discussion sections. Grading Formula You must complete all assignments to pass the course. Attendance and Participation: 15% (includes informal assignments) Midterm Exam: 15% (short answer and 1 essay, 600-900 words) Final Exam: 25% (short answer, keyword/concept responses, and 2 essays, 600-900 words each) Papers (3): 45% (Papers 1-3 worth 10%, 15%, and 20% respectively at 900-1200 words, 1200-1500 words, and 1500-1800 words) Accessibility It is important to me that our course be inclusive by design and as accessible as possible. If you have already established accommodations with the Moses Center, please communicate your approved accommodations to me so we can discuss your needs for this course. If you are not currently registered with the Moses Center for Student Accessibility but think you could benefit from their support, see here: http://www.nyu.edu/students/communities-and-groups/students-with-disabilities.html or contact the Moses Center directly (212-998-4980 or [email protected]). Academic Integrity This course demands that you uphold the standards of academic integrity to which the university adhere. This means that absolutely no instances of academic dishonesty or plagiarism will be tolerated. It’s your responsibility to understand what plagiarism consists of, and you should know you will still be held to these standards of integrity even if you plagiarize accidentally. When in doubt, cite your sources, and ask your instructors! 4 Schedule of Sessions, Readings, and Major Assignments For each date below, please arrive having completed the readings listed to the right. Week 1 Th 28 January Course Overview and Introduction F 29 January Letter of Introduction: due by midnight EST Week 2 Tu 2 February Book of Job Th 4 February Book of Job, cont. Louise Glück, “Celestial Music” (pdf) Week 3 Tu 9 February Selections from Genesis (pdf) John Milton, Paradise Lost, Books 1-2 Th 11 February John Milton, Paradise Lost, Books 3-6 Selections from Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Monadology (pdf) Week 4 Tu 16 February John Milton, Paradise Lost, Books 7-10 Aemilia Lanyer, “Eve’s Apology in Defense of Women” (pdf) Th 18 February No Class “Legislative Day” Classes meet on a Monday schedule. F 19 February Essay 1: due by midnight EST Week 5 Tu 23 February John Milton, Paradise Lost, Books 11-12 Excerpt from Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man (pdf) Th 25 February Gotffried Wilhelm Leibniz, “A Vindication of God’s Justice…” (pdf) Walter Benjamin, “The Lisbon Earthquake” (pdf) Voltaire, Poem on the Lisbon Disaster, pp. 97-108 (in your edition of Voltaire’s Candide) Week 6 Tu 2 March Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Letter to Voltaire, pp. 240-256 (in your edition of Rousseau’s Discourses, also available as pdf) John Wesley, “Serious Thoughts Occasioned by the Late Earthquake at Lisbon” (pdf) Th 4 March Voltaire, Candide, Chapters 1-13 Week 7 Tu 9 March Voltaire, Candide, Chapters 14-30 Th 11 March Ingmar Bergman, Winter Light (NYU Kanopy) Midterm exam: questions distributed during class Week 8 Sun 14 March Daylight Savings Time Tu 16 March Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Part I Midterm exam: due by midnight EDT Th 18 March Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Part II 5 F 19 March No recitation sections: “spring break” Week 9 Tu 23 March Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees, pp.
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