Philosophy 285: Action and Value: Race and Gender

Fall, 1999

Dr. Ward: Office: Crown Center 365. Phone 508-2297; email: jward@luc.edu

Hours: T, Th. 11:15-12:15, T, 2:15-3:15, and by app't.

Course Description:

This course examines the philosophical aspects--the theories-- of race and gender. We explore the social and the cultural, as well as the scientific, aspects of theories developed about race and gender. Our focus throughout is the philosophical bases and the social and political implications of these theories on our current thinking.

Course Objectives:

The aims of the course for the student include the ability to evaluate critically written and oral material on race and gender, and to participate well in oral discussion in class. Both of these abilities will be assessed throughout the course by means of short summaries, essays, exams, and class discussion.

Note: Writing Intensive students must keep a writing journal for the course. Three entries per week of about one page writing should be entered. These will be collected periodically, e.g., weeks 5, 10, 15. (Missing entries will cost lost points).

Required Books: Texts to be Purchased at Beck's Bookstore:

1. Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (Vintage).

2. Frederick Douglass, A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (Penguin).

3. Stephan Jay Gould, The Mismeasure of Man , 2nd edition (Norton).

4. The Charlotte Perkins Gilman Reader, ed. Lane (Pantheon).

5. Primo Levi, The Drowned and the Saved (Vintage).

6. bell hooks, Ain't I A Woman? (South End).

7. Richard Wright, Native Son.

Required Xerox Reading (Cudahy Library Circ. Desk, Under "Ward, Phil. 285"):

-- All On 2 Hour Reserve --

1. Gates, H. L., Loose Canons (selections).

2. Hitler, Mein Kampf (selections).

3. Ortner, S., "Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?" (in Pearsall, ed.).

4. Popkin, R., "The Philosophical Bases of Modern Racism" (in High Road to Pyrrhonism).

5. Proctor, R. "The Origins of Racial Hygiene" (in Racial Hygiene).

6. Whitbeck, C.,"Theories of Sex Difference"(in Pearsall, ed.).

Additional Reading: Class Handouts-- Aquinas, Aristotle, R. Wright, plus Def.s.

Unless Otherwise Noted, Summaries are Due in Class on Tuesdays (no makeups).

Course Syllabus:

Week Text and Topic

1: Tues. 8/31 Introduction: a philosophical investigation into race and gender. Handouts: definitions of racism, sexism;

Read Mismeasure of Man: pp. 366-390, "Critique of The Bell Curve" -- for

Thurs. 9/2 Discussion of Gould's critique; the politics of race.

Week Two: Read Popkin Paper (Xerox in Cudahy Lib.).

2: Tues. 9/7 Summary#1 Due: what are the 2 theories of racial differences in Popkin? Explain them. (Summaries= 1 p., typed).

Thurs. 9/9 Cont. discussion: philosophical bases of modern racism.

Week Three: Read Mismeasure of Man, Chs. 1-4.

3: Tues. 9/14 Summary # 2 Due: How is science a social activity? How do racial beliefs effect doing science? (Gould, chs. 1-2).

Thurs. 9/16 Measuring heads, bodies, and skulls; biological determinism.

Gould, chs. 3-4.

Week Four: Read Mismeasure of Man, Ch. 5 pp. 176-244, & Ch. 7, all.

4. Tues. 9/21 Gould: American Social Darwinism, Intelligence (IQ) testing.

Thurs. 9/23 Race, Gender & Recapitulation Theory.

Week Five: Read Whitbeck (reserve) &, Aquinas on Women.

5. Tues. 9/28 Lecture on Western theories of Women's Nature: Plato, Aristotle, Freud.

Thurs. 9/30 Summary # 3 Due: Aquinas on Women's Nature. Choose 2 of his arguments and analyze them (Use Aquinas Xerox or Web).

Week Six: Read Gilman, Yellow Wallpaper, plus 3 stories:

"What Diantha Did," "If I Were A Man," and "Herland" (all in Gilman Reader).

6. Tues.10/5 Summary # 4 Due: What does the ending of Yellow Wallpaper mean? Relate this part back to the details of the story.

Thurs. 10/7 Gilman's Feminism: A Critique of Female Inequality: G's Short Stories (listed above).

7. Tues. 10/12 Short Essay Due In Class: See Paper Topics # 1 Below.

Discussion: Women in Gilman's fictional works.

Thurs. 10/14 Lecture: Gilman, Race & Feminism.

Week 8: (Partial week) Read Handout on Race, H. L. Gates.

8. Tues. 10/19 Mid-Semester Break: No Class.

Thurs.10/21 In-Class Film, TBA.

Week 9: Read Frederick Douglass' Narrative.

9. Tues. 10/26-Th. 10/28 Douglass, Gates (reserve): Race & The Inscription of Humanity.

Summary # 5 Due (Thurs.): What does Gates think writing meant to blacks under slavery?

Week 10: Read bell hooks' book.

10. Tues. 11/2 Summary # 6 Due: how did race and gender intersect in the experience of black women under slavery? Does this continue?

Thurs. 11/4 Discussion of bell hooks on the liberation of black women.

Week 11: Read Ortner paper, and Beauvoir, The Second Sex, Intro.

11. Tues. 11/9 Summary # 7 Due: Why does Ortner say women are "like Nature"? What does this mean?

Thurs. 11/11 Focus on Beauvoir's Analysis of Women's Inequality: Woman is Other relative to Man; Woman as an Idea.

Week 12: Read Beauvoir, Chs. 9, 11, R. Wright, Native Son.

12. Tues. 11/16 Summary # 8 Due: Beauvoir, ch. 9, 11: Discuss how typical images of women represent them as Nature or "natural."

Thurs.11/18 Discussion: Richard Wright on Racism.

13. Tues. 11/23 Lecture, Beauvoir's Theory of Liberation (ch. 25).

Short Essay Due in Class: See Paper Topics # 2 Below.

Thurs. 11/25 Thanksgiving Break: No Class.

Read Xeroxes by Proctor, Racial Hygiene & Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Levi, The Drowned and the Saved (for weeks 14-15)

14. Tues.. 11/30 Discussion: Hitler selections, the Nazi dogma of racial purity and Aryanism.

14. Thurs. 12/2 Summary # 9 Due: Discuss how politics effected eugenic theory in Germany and U. S. in Proctor's Racial Hygiene.

15. Tues. 12/7 Discussion: Primo Levi: The Holocaust, Nazi Anti-Semitism.

Final Exam:

Thurs. Dec. 16th 10:20-12:20: Exam = Two Parts, ID's plus Essays (2 hrs.): Topics in Advance. No Alternate Exams.

Course Constituents:

In addition to weekly reading and discussion, students will be responsible for completing the following components of the course: Total 100 pts.:

1. Eight (8) of Nine Summaries (Min.) = 25 pts.

2. Two (2) Essays, 15 pts. each = 30 pts.

3. Final Exam = 15 pts.

4. Journals (Minimum 36 pp.) = 15 pts.

5. Class Discussion = 15 pts.

Paper Topics: No Late Papers Accepted (Usual Exceptions: Medical, etc.)

Paper should be typed, double-spaced, at least5 pages long, and written in argumentative style format. Proper use of English is presupposed; ungrammatical papers will be returned.

First Paper: (students may elect to write on other topics only by prior arrangement w/ me)

1. Gould: how did the scientific theories of (for example) craniometry, physiognomics, recapitulation, and IQ reflect cultural beliefs about the races and sexes? Does this finding show that science is hopelessly skewed by politics? Use specific data in Gould's studies of these theories to support your position.

2. Gilman's female narrator in Yellow Wallpaper is seen by John to be weak and infantile. Using textual details, explain how Gilman critiques this depiction of women both here and in her other fiction. Does Gilman think that women can escape this depiction?

Second Paper:

1. Using Douglass, Gates, hooks (some or all), discuss how the experiences of enslavement and oppression of Africans led to specific forms of resistance nonetheless. Does this fact show that one can be autonomous when oppressed? If so, in what sense?

2. Both Wright and Beauvoir reflect the experience of being an Other to a subject: the black as other, the female as other. What kind of basis does the social construction of being black or being woman have-- cultural, biological, political? Use the texts by Wright and/or Beauvoir to illustrate your response, even if you gather additional data for support.