4th/5th Hour: Mysteries, Opinions, & Government

What is your opinion about the philosophies that we talked about in class this week? How do karma, dharma, and/or reincarnation relate to your beliefs? How do you reconcile/deal with these mysteries in our lives that cannot be backed up by scientific evidence? What role might the government play in the definition and enforcement of our duty?

2nd Hour: Culture and Philosophy

How do culture and philosophy relate to each other? What are some examples of customs or traditions in your culture? What is your personal philosophy? How is your philosophy shaped by your culture?

Cultural Transmission

This week, we read folk tales, didactic literature, and proverbs in ancient literature. All three of these share in common an instructive purpose; the reader gets a lesson, moral, or piece of cultural wisdom from the story. Are these forms of literature still common in our society today (outside of a textbook for English class...)? If so, do they look the same or have they changed? What do they look like -- or sound like-- today? What are the "pearls" of our American culture that should be passed down to future generations? How should this be accomplished? How do your ideas for methods of cultural transmission compare to the methods employed by the readings that we did this week?

Our Culture

We started to talk about culture last week, and we will continue to talk about it as we read world literature throughout the semester. Our class will have a culture too. What do you think we should create as the culture of our class? I know this is a vague question (Emma...), but think specifics about purpose, beliefs, and rules. For example, "reading and writing about world literature" is vague as a purpose. What do you want to get out of doing that? Do you want to gain another perspective or a larger worldview? What is the benefit of that? What do we want to hold as the beliefs of our class? What is important to us? For example, do we want everyone to have a voice? What does that look like, especially when some people are more comfortable than others speaking verbally in class? Are there other ways that people can have a voice in class besides speaking verbally? And what about the rules? Does it work well to have people raise their hands before they speak? Does it work well to have people sit where they want or to have assigned seats? What kind of rules have worked well for achieving the purpose in other classes that you have taken?

These questions are meant to give you a starting point for the discussion. Feel free to take it in other directions, but I encourage you to stay focused on the topic of creating the culture of our class. I also encourage you to make this a discussion by responding to what other people have written.