Darwin sought to not only produce a new scientific truth, but also to put an end to polygenism, the current scientific discourse on human origins that gave tacit and at times explicit support for slavery: ‘... when the principle of evolution is generally accepted, as it surely will be before long, the dispute between the monogenists and polygenists will die a silent and unobserved death.’ (Charles Darwin, Descent of Man, p. 235)

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Spring 2018 Syllabus for SS.290 Darwin, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud. Pratt Institute


Darwin, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud
School of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Department of Social Science & Cultural Studies
Course number/section: SS.290
Credits: 3
Thursday, 5:00 – 7:50pm
North Hall 112
B. Ricardo Brown, PhD
Professor of Social Science and Cultural Studies
Office Location: Dekalb 419
Office Hours: Friday 8:30-9:00am and 12:00-12:30pm and by appointment
Office Phone number: 1.718.636.3600 ext. 2709
Email: BBRow993@pratt.du
URL: http://mysite.pratt.edu/~bbrow993/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/UntilDarwin/
Twitter hashtag: #DMNFss290
Bulletin description
In this course we will examine our concepts of society, power, value, and desire through reading selected works by Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud. The goal is to understand their ideas and the social context that shaped them through a close examination of their works not to attempt to prove or disprove their many arguments. The emphasis of the course will be on engaging the original texts and attention will be paid to how each writer went about their critiques as well as the revolutionary consequences that followed --- including those that were antithetical to their own views and work.
Detailed description
Darwin, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud: The Sciences of Life and Society
In this course we will examine our concepts of society, power, value, and desire through reading selected works by Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud. The goal is not to attempt to prove or disprove their many arguments, but to understand those views and the social context that shaped them through a close examination of their works. Special emphasis will be on reading the original texts and attention will be paid to how they went about their critiques as well as the revolutionary consequences that followed --- including those that were often antithetical to their own views and work.

In this course we will examine the knowledge of social life and its relation to our concepts of society, power, value, and desire through reading selected works of Marx, Darwin, Nietzsche, and Freud. You might begin thinking about the course in this way: Darwin placed us in the natural world and showed that we share a common genealogical origin in nature. Marx shows us how we have changed that nature and at the same time changed ourselves. Nietzsche raised the problem of what those changes have cost us: what have we had to give up in order to have society? Finally, Freud sought to understand how we might deal the consequences of civilization/culture (he used the German kulture, which in English can mean either culture or civilization).
The overarching is for you to begin to understand these ideas and the social context that shaped them. So what is important is how they went about their critiques and the revolutionary consequences that followed --- including those that were antithetical to their own views and work, e.g., eugenics, Nazism, the gulags, etc., but which are nonetheless often invoked their names.
It is important to keep in mind that this course is only a single semester and so it can only serve as an introduction to some aspects of what are extensive and varied bodies of work. Many students do not have the opportunity to read any of these authors except for brief excerpts or secondary accounts. So the primary purpose here is to allow you to begin an engagement that, for the fortunate, lasts a lifetime.
So, we will examine the production of nature, society, power, and desire through the works of Marx, Darwin, Nietzsche, and Freud. And we examine them not because they are canonical “great works” but because they mark how works become canonical; not because we are concerned with “Great Men” or “Great Figures In Thought” but because these authors/works mark changes in knowledge and the limits to truth in their time by raising fundamental problems that the sciences of life and society seek to address address. The readings for this course will cover both their well known as well as more obscure, but often more important, works of social critique.

Themes, motifs, etc., to note during your readings in this course:

I. Continuities and discontinuities between the concepts, problems, and analyses. How does the author draw connections between concepts drawn from different fields of knowledge?
II. Interests and experiences that connect the authors, e.g., education, illness, exile or voyage, etc.
III. The social relations that connect the works, including:
Slavery, race, and the slave trade
Society and the social relations of capital
Nature and “the environment”
Bourgeois morality
Sexuality
Nationalism
Degeneration, criminality and madness
IV. Whether the author argues that interpretation is open and can change, or argues tha the past is more or less fixed in its meanings, i.e., if the believe that “the facts speak for themselves”.
V. The place of materialism, chance, and contingency in these works. Rejection of idealism in favor of scientific rationality and Enlightened experience.
VI. An emphasis on either (or both) individual experience and history.
VII. How these works reject a narrow or specialized intellectualism and cut across the established disciplines of their time.
VIII. As you read your texts, pause to think about how these works transformed knowledge and create the basis for the disciplines, specialties, and social policies of the present, i.e., their transvaluations of the values of their time and their concern for “Life” and “Society”.
Course Goals
This course will:
A. introduce and familiarize students with some of the key works of Darwin, Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud.
B. give students the opportunity to directly engage some of the primary texts of sociology, biology, psychology, and philosophy.
C. allow students to interpret the social and intellectual contexts of these works and to use these works as material objects for understanding the social and intellectual currents of the 19th and 20th centuries.
D. deepen students understanding of the continuities and discontinuities of the sciences of life and society.
E. present students with a range of modes of argumentation and presentation, from Darwin’s “one long argument” of the Origin of Species to Nietzsche’s aphorisms.
F. provide students with a foundation for study in the social sciences and the liberal arts.
Student Learning Outcomes
At the end of this semester, students will:
A. demonstrate a knowledge of the range of work undertaken by Darwin, Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud.
B. understand the sources of some of our most fundamental social and political questions.
C. position themselves in relation to contemporary disputes, e. g., evolution.
D. identify key concepts in the social sciences.
E. demonstrate an ability to analyze and interpret primary texts in the genealogy of sociology, psychology, philosophy, and biology.
_____________________________________________________________________
Course Requirements
Grading
    1. Three (3) short 1200-1500 word and One (1) longer 1500-2000 word reading responses : 50%
2. Class and Study Group Participation (e.g., asking questions, discussing readings in class, etc.): 50%
3. Optional Self-Evaluation
Short Reading Responses [50%]:
Four short reading responses are required. One for each author. The due dates are indicated in the course schedule. These responses should be about 1200-1500 words. Your responses should address any or all of the following aspects of the readings:
  1. Discussion of the author’s mode of argumentation. Does it vary between texts or is it consistent? How would you characterize the way in which the author argues? Who do you think is the audience for the text?
  2. A general outline of the arguments and a brief discussion of the important concepts that you found in the readings. Discuss any aspects of the texts that might have changed your way of thinking about the author/works.
  3. What you see as the relation between this author/texts and those of the others we are reading this semester? Remember, keep in mind as you read:
    *The author’s style of arguing and how he constructs his argument.
    *How he describes and defends key elements of his theory.
    *How, if called upon, you might characterize his style of argument and writing.
The final essay should incorporate your four responses as well as your work in your study group. This essay should summarize and expand upon your short reading responses, as well as describe and discuss insights/questions/critiques that were raised in your study group discussions.


Participation and Study Groups [50%]
In order to allow you to chance explore readings that readings that interest you but that are not on the syllabus – and to facilitate discussion – we will be utilizing study group. Each author will have a study group and you can choose which group you want to participate in and with the other memebers, which reading or readings you want to read together.
I will set aside some time during class for groups to meet and/or consult with me about their readings.
Each study group will select one work to read and analyze together from the list below. Some are available online, and where possible that has been indicated in the syllabus, however, make certain that your translation or edition is the same as that listed here, as they are the specific editions that we will be using for class discussions.

COURSE TEXTS
Many works are available online, and where possible that has been indicated in the syllabus, however, make certain that your translation or edition is the same as that listed here, as they are the specific editions that we will be using for class discussions.

Charles Darwin
The Origin of Species (1st [1859] edition). A common and inexpensive one is ISBN: 0517123207 and contains the “Brief Historical Sketch” from later editions.

The Descent of Man. New York: Modern Library, 1995. ISBN: 1573921769

Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle round the world, under the command of Capt. Fitz Roy R.N. London: John Murray.
http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=1&itemID=F20&viewtype=text

The Voyage of the Beagle. New York: Dover.

The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals. New York: Dover.

Charles Darwin, Appleman, Philip, ed. 1979. Darwin: A Norton Critical Edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 3rd edition. ISBN: 0393958493

Karl Marx
Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy (Rough Draft). New York: Penguin Books, 1973. ISBN: 0140445757

Capital, vol. I. New York: Penguin Books, 1973. ISBN: 0140445684

“Theses on Feuerbach” and “1844 Manuscripts” in The Marx – Engels Reader, ed. By Robert C. Tucker., 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1978.

Early Writings. New York: Penguin Books, 1992.

The Holy Family or Critique of Critical Criticism (with Frederick Engels). New York: Progress Publishers, 1980 [1956]. ISBN: there are several editions, but only the one complete 1956 translation by Dixon and Dutt. As it is becoming increasingly rare, except for a new and expensive edition, we may only use those portions available from the Marxist Archive.

The Marx-Engels Reader, 2nd edition. Robert Tucker, ed. 1978. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
ISBN: 0-393-09040-X
Friedrich Nietzsche
Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future. Translated with Commentary by Walter Kaufmann. New York: Vintage, 1966. ISBN: 0394703375

On the Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo. Translated with Commentary by Walter Kaufmann. New York: Vintage, 1969. ISBN: 0679724621

The Gay Science: with a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs. Translated with Commentary by Walter Kaufmann. New York: Vintage. 1974.

The Portable Nietzsche, ed. By Walter Kaufmann (including the complete texts of Twilight of the Idols; The AntiChrist, Nietzsche Contra Wagner; Thus Spoke Zarathustra). New York: Vintage. ISBN: 0140150625
Sigmund Freud
The Future of an Illusion. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1961. ISBN: 0393008312

Civilization and its Discontents. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1961. ISBN: 0393301583

New Introductory Lectures in Psychoanalysis. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1965. ISBN 039300743

Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1961. ISBN: 0393007707

Beyond the Pleasure Principle. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1961. ISBN: 0393007693

The readings for the class will be drawn from these and other sources.
I have placed the required text on order from the Pratt bookstore
Given the number of bookstores available either on-line or here in the city --- as well as having the New York Public Library at your disposal---- you are responsible for obtaining the required texts. This is not to place a burden upon you, but it is a necessary part of education that you learn how to acquire books and materials for yourself. These are some additional sources for the texts:
The Strand http://www.strandbooks.com (at 12th Street in Manhattan).
Advanced Book Exchange http://abebooks.com
Powells Books http://powells.com

Absences and Lateness
Attendance is mandatory in accord with the policies of the Institute.


_____________________________________________________________________
The Course of Study

Week I [January 18]. Introduction to the Course.


Week II [ January 25]. Darwin, The Origin of Species I.
As you read this weeks texts, notice how Darwin introduces the question of the origins of species and how he presents his book as essentially one long argument.

Darwin. 1860. Preface and postscript from Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle round the world, under the command of Capt. Fitz Roy R.N. London: John Murray. Tenth thousand. Final text. Pages v-viii.
http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=1&itemID=F20&viewtype=text
The Origin of Species, 1st edition: Origin of Species, Introduction
Complete Works of Darwin Online: http://darwin-online.org.uk/converted/pdf/1859_Origin_F373.pdf pp. 1-6.
Origin of Species, Chapter III, “Struggle for Existence”
Complete Works of Darwin Online: http://darwin-online.org.uk/converted/pdf/1859_Origin_F373.pdf pp. 60-79.
Origin of Species, Chapter IV, “Natural Selection”
Complete Works of Darwin Online: http://darwin-online.org.uk/converted/pdf/1859_Origin_F373.pdf pp. 80-130.

SUGGESTED READING:
The Origin of Species, Chapter II, “Variation under Nature”
Complete Works of Darwin Online: http://darwin-online.org.uk/converted/pdf/1859_Origin_F373.pdf pp. 44-59.
The Origin of Species, “An Historical Sketch of the Progress of Opinion on the Origin of Species Previously to the Publication of the First Edition of this Work” pages 53-64 of The Origin of Species (3rd edition), also available in Appleman, pp. 87-94.
Complete Works of Darwin Online: http://darwin-online.org.uk/converted/pdf/1861_Origin_F381.pdf pp. xiii-xix.

Francis Darwin. 1887. “Reminiscences of My Father’s Everyday Life” from The life and letters of Charles Darwin, including an autobiographical chapter. London: John Murray. Volume 1.   http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F1452.1&viewtype=text&pageseq=1

John van Wyhe, editor. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)

Week III [February 1]. Darwin, The Origin of Species II.
Darwin presents Nature as dynamic and constantly changing. This week he presents one of the fundamental concepts of Darwinism and tries to anticipate the objections to his theory, especially the most difficult one: the problem of instincts.

Origin of Species, Chapter VI, “Difficulties of the Theory”
Complete Works of Darwin Online: http://darwin-online.org.uk/converted/pdf/1859_Origin_F373.pdf  pp. 171-206.

Origin of Species, Chapter VII, “Instinct”
Complete Works of Darwin Online: http://darwin-online.org.uk/converted/pdf/1859_Origin_F373.pdf  pp. 207-244.

Week IV [February 8]. Darwin, The Descent of Man I.
Ten years after the publication of the Origin of Species, Darwin explicitly addresses the application of the theory to the origins of humans and the meaning of human variety. He introduces an important addendum to Natural Selection in animals: Sexual Selection. Note that it is the female of the species who determines the course of selection now.

Descent of Man, Chapter VIII, “Principles of Sexual Selection”
Complete Works of Darwin Online: http://darwin-online.org.uk/converted/pdf/1874_Descent_F944.pdf  pp. 207-259.

SUGGESTED READING: 
Descent of Man, Introduction and Chapter I, “Evidence of the Descent of Man from Some Lower Form” Complete Works of Darwin Online: http://darwin-online.org.uk/converted/pdf/1874_Descent_F944.pdf pp. 1-25.
  
Descent of Man, Chapter V. On the Development of the Intellectual and Moral Faculties during Primeval and Civilized Times, pp. 131-150; Complete Works of Darwin Online: http://darwin-online.org.uk/converted/pdf/1874_Descent_F944.pdf

Descent of Man, Chapter VII, “On the Races of Man”Complete Works of Darwin       Online: http://darwin-online.org.uk/converted/pdf/1874_Descent_F944.pdf  pp. 166-206.

Origin of Species, Chapter XIV, “Recapitulation and Conclusion”
Complete Works of Darwin Online: http://darwin-online.org.uk/pdf/1859_Origin_F373.pdf  pp. 459-490.




Week V [February 15]. Darwin, The Descent of Man II.
Descent of Man, Chapter VI, “On the Affinities and Genealogy of Man”
pp. 146-165.

Descent of Man, Chapters XVII – XX, “Secondary Sexual Characteristics of Man”
pp. 556-605.

Descent of Man, Chapter XXI. “General Note and Conclusion”
pp. 606-619.

Week VI [February 22]. Marx, from The Holy Family, or Critique of Critical Criticism to The Grundrisse.
The Holy Family is not the first work by Marx, but it is the first one “co-authored” with Engels. Perhaps indicative of their relationship as writers, Engels writes only the first few sections, and Marx writes about 90% of the text on his own. More than that, peruse the work so that you might see that it is actually a work of literary criticism. Marx is critiquing Eugene Sue’s Mysteries of Paris and the reviews/critiques of Sue written by his former comrades in the revolutionary Neo-Hegelian League of the Just.
Holy Family, Chapter IV, “Love”, pp. 27-30 [pp. 20-23]

The German Ideology. In The Marx-Engels Reader, 2nd edition. Robert Tucker, ed. 1978, pp. 147-175.

Grundrisse, Marx’s Analytical contents list, pp. 69-80. 
Marx-Engels Archive: http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1857/grundrisse/

Marx. Letter to Ruge, Kreuznach, September 1843.

Marx. Two Interviews:
Interview by John Swinton, The Sun, no. 6, 6 September 1880.

Interview with Karl Marx, by H., Chicago Tribune, January 5 1879.

Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff. A Private Letter to British Crown Princess Victoria About Meeting Karl Marx, February 1, 1879.

Eleanor Marx, “Biographical Comments on Karl Marx by his daughter.”

Frederick Engels. Speech at the Grave of Karl Marx, Highgate Cemetery, London. March 17, 1883.
SUGGESTED READING:
Holy Family, Chapter VIII, “The Earthly Course and Transfiguration of ‛Critical Criticism’”, pp. 201-259 [pp.162-209]

Holy Family, Chapter V, “‛Critical Criticism’ as a Mystery-Monger”, pp. 69-97 [pp. 55-77]

Holy Family, Chapter IX, “The Critical Last Judgement”, pp. 260-261[pp. 210-211]
The complete text is located at Marx & Engels Collected Works (MECW), Vol.IV: http://marxists.catbull.com/archive/marx/works/cw/volume04/index.htm

Week VII [March 1]. Marx, Grundrisse and Capital.
[RESPONSE ONE on DARWIN due.]
The Grundrisse is fundamental to understanding Marx’s project as he moved from his early works to the writing of Capital. I would like your to pay attention two aspects of this texts. The first is how Marx constructs his argument. This is important because the Grundrisse is seen in two somewhat contradictory ways: as either an abandoned work or as the “rough draft” of Capital. The second is the final section where Marx lists the topics “not to be forgotten” in his future work.... and the importance of both Greek art and Shakespeare in his thought at that time.
Grundrisse, "Introduction" also known as "Manuscript M", pages 81-114

Capital, Volume III, Chapter 52, “Classes”, pp. 1025-1026

Grundrisse, “The concept of the free labourer contains the pauper. Population and overpopulation etc.” pp. 604- 608. Marx-Engels Archive: http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1857/grundrisse/ch12.htm#p604

Grundrisse, “Competition”, pp. 649-652

Capital, Volume I, Chapter 13, “Cooperation”, pp. 439-454
SUGGESTED READING:
Grundrisse, “Original Accumulation of Capital”, pp 459-471

Grundrisse, “Forms which precede Capitalist Production”, pp. 471-513

Week VIII[March 8]. Marx, Capital.
Capital, Volume I, Chapter I, “The Fetishism of Commodities and the Secret thereof”, pp. 163-177
SUGGESTED READING:
Grundrisse, “Value of labour”, pp. 281-289

Grundrisse, “(Labour power as capital!), pp. 293-294

Capital, Volume I, Chapter 31, “The Genesis of the Industrial Capitalist”, pp. 914-926

Capital, Volume I, Chapter 32, “The Historical Tendency of Capitalist Accumulation”, pp. 927-930

Capital, Volume I, Chapter 33, “The Modern Theory of Colonization”, pp. 931-947
            Marx-Engels Archive: 

Week IX [March 22]. Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Bad.
You will recall that in the Holy Family, Marx addresses issues of morality and social life through a critique of Sue’s novel and the Young Hegelians (a.k.a.“The League of the Just”). Nietzsche undertakes a revolutionary critique of morality in the wake of Darwin and Marx. Notice his use of “genealogy” and recall that Darwin’s argument was also from a “genealogical perspective, as was Marx’s tracing of the commodity fetish.
Beyond Good and Evil “The Natural History of Morals”, pp. 95-118

“Beyond Good and Evil” from Ecce Homo, pp. 310-312.

“How One Becomes What One Is” from Ecce Homo.


Week X [March 29]. Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morals.
[RESPONSE TWO on MARX due ]
The Genealogy of Morals, Essay II, “Guilt, Bad Conscience, and the Like" pp. 57-96
No longer available online.

“The Genealogy of Morals” from Ecce Homo, pp. 312-314

Week XI [April 4].
Nietzsche, The Twilight of the Idols and The Anti-Christ.
Finally, Now that we have found ourselves a part of a vast natural world, a species with the capacity to make our own history, and one that has made that history in ways that it often refuses to acknowledge, we come to Freud, who confronts the legacy of these intellectual and psychological upheavals, but just as important, the social catastrophes of the first half of the 20th century.

Week XII [April 12]. Freud, Science and Religion in the Wake and Shadow of Catastrophe.
The Future of an Illusion

Freud BBC address (the only sound recording of Freud’s voice)
http://www.archive.org/details/RicBrownSigmundFreudBBCRadioAddress
[RESPONSE THREE on NIETZSCHE due]


Week XIII [April 19]. Freud.
The Future of an Illusion and Civilization and its Discontents


Week XIV [April 26]. Freud, Society as a Negative Dialectic.
Civilization and its Discontents

Week XV [May 3].
Final general discussion.
[RESPONSE FOUR on FREUD and course due by May 8]


Posted by B. Ricardo Brown, Ph.D. at 4:03 PM
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