Course Descriptions
Spring Semester 2013
Mind, Intelligence, and Machines
HONR 102A: First Year Seminar, Dr. Douglas Harms
In this seminar we will explore topics having to do with consciousness and intelligence in humans and machines, focusing in particular on the question of whether a computer could ever match the power and flexibility of the human brain. We will examine these issues from various perspectives including philosophy, biology, psychology, and computer science. Students will engage in discussion of course readings and complete a variety of written assignments, journals, and individual and group presentations. The goal of the seminar is for everyone in the seminar (students and teacher alike) to wrestle with the philosophical issues surrounding the topic of computers and consciousness, understand the technical dimensions of the topic, and come to appreciate humankind's role in the grand scheme of things.
Coffee: Islam, Democracy, and Globalization
HONR 102B: First Year Seminar, Dr. David Alvarez
This course begins by thinking about coffee in Islamic societies and the cultural transformations it created as it reached Europe in the early modern period. After considering how coffee connects East and West historically, and how Enlightenment ideals of debate and democracy are linked to coffee and conversation, the class will analyze the potential of coffee today to promote cosmopolitanism. How does coffee link us together today through trade? Does its status as a commodity hide its global connections? How might a humanistic approach to coffee—one that seeks to comprehend its history, cultural meanings, economies, and idealistic legacy—activate its cosmopolitan potential?
Science of Design
HONR 102C: First Year Seminar, Dr. Terri Bonebright
This interdisciplinary course will explore the design issues that surround everyday objects (both low-tech and high-tech), including what makes a good or a bad design, how to analyze and develop design principles, why successful designs often stem from an iterative process, and what aspects of human psychology need to be taken into account to produce well-designed objects. We will also consider issues related to designing objects for people who come from different cultures, designing objects that can be marketed successfully, the constraints faced by design engineers, and accidents that are caused by poor design. We will see how designers can take into account the environmental impacts of the objects we use so that we can reuse and recycle rather than putting them in landfills. As the course proceeds, we will consider the history of the design of a number of objects, such as the telephone keypad and the rather unique arrangement of the keys on a contemporary computer keyboard. In addition, we will discuss how the objects we use actually impact us physically and mentally. The course format will be a combination of discussions, short presentation, short writings, a term project, and other small group work related to topics from the texts and other sources.
Negotiated Identities through Negotiated Texts: Four Collections of Women’s Biographies from Ancient China and Medieval Europe
HONR 300A: Humanities Seminar, Dr. Sherry Mou
A Confucian historian, an Italian Renaissance giant, a Venetian-born French widow, and an English poet par excellence! What do they all have in common? They all authored collections of sketches of women. Liu Xiang commenced a two-thousand-year tradition of writing women’s biographies in Chinese history with seven chapters of women’s lives; Giovanni Boccaccio penned the first collection of women’s biographies in the West; Geoffrey Chaucer is said to have started the English poetic tradition with his legends of good women; and Christine de Pizan, “the first French woman of letters,” built a city of ladies in a book. What motivated them? Who were their subjects? Who were their intended audiences? How were their works appropriated in their respective cultures and times? This course will discuss these and many other questions concerning women’s biographies in Confucian China, Renaissance Europe, and medieval England.
Consciousness: the unsolved mystery
HONR 300B: Science Seminar, Dr. Bruce Serlin
Can one question their own consciousness? Are you more than billions of neurons talking to each other chemically and how does this chatter produce the world as you know it? Science is making some headway toward understanding how neuronal activity and consciousness are related. However, as we learn more, more questions arise. What is the distinction between conscious thought and unconscious thought? When does a human become self-aware and is there a hallmark for consciousness? How does being sentient influence how we act toward each other, and how we interact with other species? We will be examining readings from an array of disciplines to try to gain a better understanding of how the three-pound universe inside your skull operates, how much control “you” have over how you make decisions, and how easily it is to fool oneself. We will look at evidence for whether other species also possess consciousness and study some of the consequences of possessing this “gift”. The aim is to provide you with an array of information that will help you understand what makes you you.
Unsolved Colonial Mysteries
HONR 300C: Social Science Seminar, Dr. David Gellman
What caused the infamous Salem witchcraft trials? How did the “lost colony” get lost? Did Pocahontas save John Smith, and if so, why? Were pirates freedom-loving egalitarians or ruthless vagabonds? How did African slavery become permanent and pervasive in Virginia? What were the Pilgrims really like? Could Indians ever have regained the upper hand in New England? Focusing primarily on England’s seventeenth-century North American colonies, the course will probe some of early American history’s most enduring and intriguing questions. Underlying all these questions will be an even more basic one: What was it like to be alive—as a man, woman, or child, Indian, African, or European—in a new world of conquest, community-building, and dramatic social upheaval?