Scribner Seminar Program
Course Description
Thinking for Yourself
Instructor(s): Robert Boyers, Professor of English
What do we mean when we say that we value one thing more than other? Are there works of art鈥攎ovies, paintings, works of pornography鈥攖hat are contemptible and ought to be avoided? How powerful is the influence upon us of clich茅s, political formulas, ideas that sound 鈥渁dvanced鈥� or 鈥渃orrect鈥�? What is the relationship between authority and liberty? Is it possible to be religious and to be genuinely committed to reason? In this seminar, we will confront the idea of modernity and reflect upon the difficulty of thinking for oneself by asking these questions and others. Readings will be drawn from such authors as Matthew Arnold, John Stuart Mill, Virginia Woolf, Jean Paul Sartre, James Baldwin, Susan Sontag, Edward Said, and other contemporary writers and thinkers.