I'm happy to meet any time I'm free, and I very much
want to talk to you. To request an appointment: email me with a few
suggestions for times.
The course will be structured by the topics above and will include a fair bit of interactive lectures and presentations (both by me and by you), writing assignments, and exams.
One issue that will arise is that the Stoics were not obviously concerned with social justice, the environment, or aesthetics, all of which are of great concern to most of us and one might expect the Stoics to have addressed.
This course is a humanities course. As such, it is
worth pursuing for its own sake, because engaging with the humanities
makes life more beautiful, meaningful, and interesting. For the
humanities, stooping to usefulness is demeaning. And yet, here goes:
statistically, the traditional humanistic skills and disciplines not
only help get you into med school, law school, the higher echelons of
society, and the hallways of power, etc., but they correlate well with
promotions, salary, etc. Acquiring invaluable career skills is not the
best reason to study humanities, but studying humanities is one of the
best ways to acquire invaluable career skills having to do with writing,
analysis and synthesis of ideas, critical reading, thinking, and
expression, and, paradoxically, they work best at being useful and
honing those skills when you treat them as ends in themselves rather
than useful and wise career options.
Education is not preparation for life; education is
life itself.
(John Dewey, UVM 1879)
There
will be a fair bit of reading in the course, and then a fair bit of
lecturing/presenting about the reading (by you and by me), and a bit of
writing about the reading and lecturing and presenting. Repeat the above
as needed: if you read the first week's reading again at the end of the
course, you will find it has a great deal more resonance and importance
than the first time. Through discussion, writing, and re-reading we make
progress.
The
following are on reserve in Howe Library. I'd like you to buy them from
wherever books are available (i.e. I did not order them thru the
bookstore): it is much easier to study if you own the materials: just
saying):
http://www.uvm.edu/~jbailly/courses/196Stoicism/
Every
day before class, you will write a "daily question or comment"
about stoic material in the course on BlackBoard: you may start a thread
or react to a classmate. You may add comments about other things, but a
comment about the course content for that day is what gets you credit.
At the end of the semester, these will be counted, one per class
session. These will not harm your grade, but they may help it: if you
are getting an A already, it has no effect. If you are getting a B a C a
D or an F, it can bump your grade up as much as 2%, 4%, 6% or 8%
respectively. Such things will be calculated as follows: student(s) with
the most daily question/comments will receive full grade bumps: if you
have one fewer than the most, you will receive 95% of the bump: if you
have 2 fewer, you will get 90% of the bump: if you have 3 fewer, you
will get 85% of the bump. In practice, this means that one or two
absences has little or no effect.
Required: if you miss more than 4 classes, your grade goes down 1 step per absence after that. Don't bother with doctor's notes, etc. Exceptions are extraordinary situations, such as hospitalization.
All
students are expected to complete an evaluation of the course at its
conclusion. The evaluations will be anonymous and confidential, and the
information gained, including constructive criticisms, will be used to
improve the course.
· Our
course is designed with the following in mind: count on spending at
least 2 hours on this class outside of class for every hour in class,
which adds up to at least 3 hours in class per week plus 6 hours outside
of class per week.
· This
policy applies to every UVM course for credit.
o
1.
One hour of classroom or direct faculty instruction and a minimum of two
hours of out-of-class student work each week for approximately fifteen
weeks for one semester hour of credit or the equivalent amount of work
over a different amount of time; or
o
2.
At least an equivalent amount of work as required in paragraph (1) of
this definition for other academic activities as established by the
institution including laboratory work, internships, practica, studio
work, and other academic work leading to the award of credit
hours.
o
3.
“Direct faculty instruction” must include regular and substantive
faculty/student contact regardless of delivery mode (for example,
face-to-face, hybrid, distance/online).
o
All
courses should span the full term (15 weeks in fall and spring) of the
semester in which they are offered.
In
keeping with University policy, any student with a documented disability
interested in utilizing accommodations should contact SAS, the office of
Disability Services on campus. They work with students and faculty in an
interactive process to explore reasonable and appropriate
accommodations, which are communicated to faculty in an accommodation
letter. All students are strongly encouraged to meet with
their faculty to discuss the accommodations they plan to use in each
course. A student's accommodation letter lists those accommodations that
will not be implemented until the student meets with their faculty to
create a plan.
Contact
SAS:
A170
Living/Learning Center;
802-656-7753;
Students
have the right to practice the religion of their choice. If you need to
miss class to observe a religious holiday, please submit the dates of
your absence to me in writing by the end of the second full week of
classes. You will be
permitted to make up work within a mutually agreed-upon time. https://www.uvm.edu/registrar/religious-holidays
The UVM
policy governing plagiarism, fabrication, collusion, and cheating will
be upheld in this class. https://www.uvm.edu/policies/student/acadintegrity.pdf
If you
would like to contest a grade, please follow the procedures outlined in
this policy: https://www.uvm.edu/policies/student/gradeappeals.pdf
For
information on grading and GPA calculation, go to https://www.uvm.edu/registrar/grades
http://catalogue.uvm.edu/undergraduate/academicinfo/rightsandresponsibilities/
The
purpose of this policy is to communicate the rights of students
regarding access to, and privacy of their student educational records as
provided for in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of
1974.
http://catalogue.uvm.edu/undergraduate/academicinfo/ferparightsdisclosure/
It is a
basic priority of The University of Vermont to support a healthy and
safe community:
o
Phone:
(802) 656-3340
The
University final exam policy outlines expectations during final exams
and explains timing and process of examination period. https://www.uvm.edu/registrar/final-exams
Alcohol
and cannabis have no place in an academic environment. They can
seriously impair your ability to learn and retain information not only
in the moment you may be using, but up to 48 hours or more afterwards.
In addition, alcohol and cannabis can:
· Cause
issues with attention, memory and concentration
· Negatively
impact the quality of how information is processed and ultimately
stored
· Affect
sleep patterns, which interferes with long-term memory formation
Do everything you can to optimize your own and others' learning and to fully participate in this course.