ICS-130609-F11

ICS Calendar Title: Person, Family, Society

ICS Course Code: ICS 130609 F11

Instructor: Dr. Shannon Hoff, shoff@icscanada.edu, 416. 979. 2331 ext. 232

Term and Year: Thursdays, 1:30-4:30 pm, Fall 2011

Last Updated: October 3, 2011

Course Description

This course will reflect on the nature of the social world and the different demands it makes upon us, demands that are personal, familial, political, social, and religious. Challenging the common view that individuals are fully independent and self-made realities, we will look at the different kinds of communities that define us, in both restrictive and enabling ways: family, political society, religious community, and groups formed on the basis of other kinds of shared identities. We will look at the way in which we emerge as individuals only through these primary identifications, and at the conflicted way in which our individuality is essentially an attempt to understand and even overcome them. We will also explore the tensions that arise between these various communities and the claims they make upon us—between family and social membership, between religious community and political membership, between formal legal identity and concrete group identification, and so on. The course includes readings from diverse philosophical, religious, and literary texts and films. It aims to develop an existentially and philosophically rich sensitivity to the complexity of the social relationships that shape us and make claims on us.

Course Materials (to be purchased at Bob Miller Book Room, 180 Bloor St. W.)

Aristotle, Politics (ICS Library Reserve Shelf: JC71 .A41 S5)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics (ICS Library Reserve Shelf: BJ1253 .B615 1965)

Paul, Letter to the Romans

Plato, Lysis (ICS Reserve Shelf: B353 .C3 1997 in Complete Works)

____, Republic (ICS Reserve Shelf: B353 .C3 1997 in Complete Works)

John Russon, Human Experience (ICS Library Reserve Shelf: BF204.5 .R87 2003)

Sophocles, Antigone (ICS Library Reserve Shelf: PA4414 .A1 G7 v.1)

Thucidydes, History of the Peloponnesian War (ICS Library Reserve Shelf: DF229 .T5 C7)

Course Requirements

Class Participation 15%

Each course member is required to do the reading assignment and participate in class

discussions. Good participation should be mindful of the participation of others and the

experience of the class as a whole.

Presentations 25%

Each course participant will give one presentation on course readings.

Writing Assignments 60%

Each course participant must hand in six writing assignments throughout the semester,

answering a question about the reading that I will provide at the beginning of the course