Jane Austen and Moral Philosophy PHIL 4315 ICC | FALL 2022 | M/TH: 2:30-3:45 | ROOM: FMH 322 DR. LAUREN KOPAJTIC | LKOPAJTIC@FORDHAM.EDU | OFFICE HOURS: COLLINS 127 AND ZOOM W 12-3, & BY APPT Course Description In the 1790s, when Jane Austen was beginning to write fiction, there was much debate over the value and function of the novel. Some argued that novels were dangerous to their readers, inciting violent emotional responses and corrupting the imagination (especially in women and children, who were believed to be more sensitive to such stimuli). Others, including some of the philosophers we will read this semester, saw potential in this literary form, arguing that novels could contribute to the moral and sentimental education of their readers. This course will examine the novels of Jane Austen as works of moral philosophy, asking both how these works of fiction can be considered such, and also what moral questions and views we can find in them. We will also be concerned with questions about the function of literature and other fictional forms more generally. With each novel, we will focus on a specific ethical theme treated in and by that novel: with Sense and Sensibility we’ll focus on the role of the emotions in morality; with Mansfield Park we’ll focus on questions about moral education and virtue; with Emma we’ll focus on the difficulties of accurate discernment and judgment in moral matters; and with Persuasion we’ll focus on the relation between the individual and society and the complications caused by differences in gender, class, and social status. Each novel will be paired with selections from authors who were near contemporaries of Austen’s, including Samuel Johnson, David Hume, Jane Collier, Hannah More, Adam Smith, and Mary Wollstonecraft. Course Expectations, Objectives, and Requirements As an Interdisciplinary Capstone Course, our main objective will be to bring together three disciplinary approaches in understanding the writings of Jane Austen and their relation to moral philosophy, namely, literary studies, history, and philosophy. This class assumes that all students will have taken at least PHIL 1000 (but hopefully also 3000) and ENGL 2000 before enrolling. Understanding of the basic ways of discussing philosophical and literary texts will be assumed. We will read a range of texts, almost all historical, and we will apply the analytic tools of literary studies and philosophy as we discuss the texts. Throughout the course, you will learn to: ‣ Critically read texts in a variety of genres ‣ Identify, evaluate, and engage with positions, concepts, and arguments ‣ Articulate your own thoughts clearly and persuasively in writing ‣ Engage in respectful and collaborative discussion ‣ Translate ideas and positions from one genre/form into another 1 Attendance, Preparation, and Participation You are required to prepare for, attend, and participate in class. ‣ Attendance (10% of grade) involves showing up on time for class, and staying for the entire class. That’s it! Of course, given our current situation, something might come up that makes it impossible for you to attend a session or two, or to come late or leave early. If that happens, please send me an email whenever you can to explain your absence or lateness. You can miss two classes without explanation and without penalty. After two unexcused absences, your grade will be affected. ‣ Preparation and Participation (10% of grade) involves, at minimum, doing the assigned reading, bringing your readings to class, and participating in any in-class writing, discussion and other activities. Excellent participation includes: listening attentively when others are speaking, following the class discussion and contributing to that discussion in ways that help to advance, clarify, or substantiate the conversation. Reading & Perusall Reading and weekly reading notes are required components of this class. Fair warning: This class will require a lot of reading. You have the option of using digital or analog platforms for your reading and reading notes. You will need to purchase several texts, either in book form or through Perusall (I highly recommend doing the Austen readings with a real book). You will be required to submit one set of reading notes per week (10% of grade). What I am looking for here is evidence of your engagement with the readings, and for a sense of how you’re approaching them and what you’re taking from them. These notes are designed to assist your comprehension of the material, and to help you prepare for the writing assignments. ‣ Printed Readings/non-Perusall Notes: If you choose to purchase real books and stay off of Perusall, you should submit your notes to me directly, either as handwritten notes, printed out notes, or via email attachment or google docs. You should provide at least one page of fairly densely-written notes, (ie, not a very terse outline or short bullet points) This approach should be more attractive to those who like to read off-screen, for those who don’t want the assistance of seeing their classmates’ notes and comments, and/or for those who don’t like Perusall. ‣ Digital Readings/Perusall Annotations: If you choose to use Perusall for reading, then your reading notes will be annotations in Perusall. You should make at least six annotations, with each one being about two sentences long. I will use a very simple scoring system for these (you get full marks if you submit 6 longish annotations on time). This approach should be more attractive for those who prefer keeping everything on their computer, and for those who like the social aspect of Perusall and want to see their classmates’ notes as they’re reading and annotating. You don’t have to stay consistent in your format; for example, in week 3, you might prefer to send typed up notes you took on the Austen reading, which you did in a book, but in week 4 you might choose to do Perusall annotations on the Smith reading hosted on Perusall. You may submit your notes on any of the readings assigned in a given week, including combinations, and you may submit them any time before the final class meeting that week (for most weeks, that means any time before Thursday at 2:30). The Perusall assignments are set up accordingly. If you complete the assignment on time, you’ll receive full credit; I will give partial credit to submissions that are late and/or incomplete. You may skip one set of notes without penalty. After one skipped set, you will lose points. 2 Discussion Board Posts The other low-stakes assignment will be a weekly submission of reading questions (10% of grade). You will submit these questions by posting them to the Discussion Board thread for the given week. (You are also welcome to comment on the posts and questions of others). Each student should post one reading question per week, and your question must be posted by 12pm (noon) on the day of the class meeting. This means that you could post a question by Monday at noon, or by Thursday at noon, your choice. Reading questions can come in lots of different forms: you could cite a passage you would like to focus on, a question you have about the reading, or a connection you’d like to make between the novel and one of the non-Austen readings. You should say a bit about why you’ve chosen your reading question—about what puzzles (or surprises, intrigues, bothers, etc.) you about the thing you’ve focused on. These should be about 100-200 words long and will be graded as pass/fail. You should be prepared to discuss your submitted question during class. You may skip one reading question post without penalty. After one skipped post, you will lose points. Assignments Response Papers You will write three short response papers (approximately 2 pages; no more than 500 words) that you will write on your choice of three of the four novels (10% per paper). These papers should develop from our discussion and your asynchronous work on the novel. You could choose to expand on one of the reading questions you submitted for the unit, or on another student’s question, or on a part of our discussion that intrigued you. The form of these responses is meant to be more exploratory than argumentative, but they should be well-written and polished in style. The purpose of these responses is to give you a chance to synthesize your thoughts from the unit and to explore a topic that might be the focus of your final paper. Late papers will receive a 1/3 grade deduction for each day late. If you think you will need extra time to complete the assignment, request an extension. Final Paper You will write one long final paper (8-10 pages) on a topic of your choice (30% of grade). There are two requirements for this paper: first, you must submit a topic proposal for approval and feedback. Second, the paper must focus on one novel and at least one of the non-Austen readings. The form of this paper should be argumentative—you should defend a thesis using textual evidence in a structured manner. *You must submit the final paper to pass this course* 3 Assessment Policies The low-stakes writing assignments (reading notes and discussion board posts) will be graded as complete/not complete. The response papers will be given a point score out of 10, and it should be difficult to not earn 8 points or more for this component. The final paper will be given a letter grade. When assessing your work in this class, I will consider: • Accuracy: How well have you understood the course material? Can you present the concepts and ideas clearly and correctly? GRADING BREAKDOWN • Effort: Are you putting time into your work? Are you consistent and conscientious about reading and submitting assignments? If you struggled on an early assignment, are you making efforts to improve? • Attention to detail: Are you proofreading everything that you submit? Are you getting names, scenes, and quoted material correct? Have you met the requirements in the prompts? • Creativity: Are you thinking originally about our course material? 10% Attendance 10% Preparation and Participation 10% Reading Notes 10% Discussion Board Posts 30% Response Papers (10% each) 30% Final Paper Are you synthesizing and connecting what we read and discuss? (This element is often what separates excellent work from very good work). Letter grades and final grades will follow the official Fordham breakdown: Letter Percentage Description A 94-100 Excellent, honors-level work A- 90-93 Still excellent B+ 87-89 Very Good B 83-86 Good, solid and above average B- 80-82 Good and still above average C+ 77-79 Average C 73-76 Satisfactory C- 70-72 Minimally acceptable D 60-69 Passing but unsatisfactory F 0-59 Failure 4 Course Policies Education in the Time of a Global Pandemic (still) Learning and teaching in the past few years has posed incredible challenges. Many of us are dealing with unprecedented personal difficulties and stresses while also trying to pursue our goals in education. Because of this, I hope we can remember that we are human beings first, students and professors second. In our class, this means recognizing that we may not always be at our best, that needs outside the course may impact our work inside it, and that we may not always hit the marks we’d like when we’d like. I will do my utmost to accommodate circumstances as they arise, in direct dialogue with you. At the same time, as your professor in a Core class, I need to be able to fairly assess your learning over the course of the semester, which depends on your active participation and your completion of required assignments. If you are facing challenges in completing your work, please communicate with me about it. Office Hours I will hold both Zoom and in-person office hours. Office Hours will be managed through Google Calendar. To make an appointment during my regularly scheduled office hours (W 12-3), go to my Google Calendar appointments page to sign up for a time slot. I would appreciate if you also made a note in the appointment about whether you’re requesting an in-person or Zoom meeting. To make an appointment outside of my scheduled office hours, email me or speak with me after class to arrange a time to meet. Academic Integrity Discussion and the exchange of ideas are essential to academic work, but you should ensure that any written work you submit for evaluation is the result of your own research and writing, and that it reflects your own approach to the topic. You must also adhere to standard citation practices and properly cite any books, articles, websites, lectures, etc. that have helped you with your work. If you receive any help with your writing (feedback on drafts, writing tutor, etc.), you must also acknowledge this assistance. Plagiarism is a serious offense and will not be tolerated. If a student is caught plagiarizing, they will fail that assignment. A subsequent offense will result in a failure for the class. For the complete policy on plagiarism, please see the Undergraduate Handbook. Accessibility Services Under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973, all students are entitled to equal access to the programs and activities of Fordham University. If you believe that you may have a disabling condition that is interfering with your ability to participate in the activities, coursework, or assessment of this course, you may be entitled to accommodations. Please schedule an appointment to speak with someone at the Office of Disability Services. Mandatory Reporting As a faculty member of the university, I am a mandatory reporter in matters regarding sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating or domestic violence, stalking, and other matters regarding sexual misconduct. This means that if you disclose personal information to me relating to these matters, I must contact the University’s Title IX Coordinator and relay the information to them. If you wish to speak to someone confidentially, you can contact the University Counseling and Psychological Services, the University Health Services, or the Office of Campus Ministry. The Student CARE Brochure can provide you with on and offcampus resources for support and more information, and you can also visit www.fordham.edu/care or www.fordham.edu/sexualmisconduct for more information. 5 Course Texts We will be using the Oxford World’s Classics edition of each of the four required Austen novels we will be reading. (If you can’t find the most recent edition with the same cover art as below, that’s okay). They have been ordered through the bookstore and should be widely available online. I strongly recommend reading the Austen books in a real book form, and not on Perusall, but I have made that option available. Note, though, that Perusall did not have the Oxford editions for SS and E, so I have chosen the best I could find. Sense and Sensibility 9780198793359 Emma 9780198837756 Mansfield Park 9780199535538 Persuasion 9780199535552 All other readings will be provided in PDF form via Blackboard and Perusall. You may want to purchase the following recommended texts, from which we will be reading extensive sections: ‣ Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Liberty Fund (ISBN 9780865970120) ‣ Mary Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Oxford World’s Classics (ISBN 9780199555468) ‣ You may also want to explore Hume Texts Online and the Jane Austen Society of North America webpage Class Schedule by Unit The class is structured into topical units, although, of course, these ethical topics are not found exclusively in one novel. My hope is that as we read through Austen’s novels, you will see connections between and developments of the ideas we focused on in other units. The schedule below indicates the day and date of our class meetings, the topic of our class that day, any reading assignments, and deadlines and reminders about assignments. All reading assignments should be completed before class. If a reading assignment says “PDF”, you can access the reading for free through Perusall or Blackboard. If the reading does not say PDF, then (in most cases, though see notes in Course Texts above) you should purchase the text through a bookstore or Perusall. Austen reading assignments will use abbreviations: (SS), (MP), (E), (P). The schedule is subject to change at my discretion - I will inform you of any changes and distribute a revised schedule if necessary. 6 Introduction and Orientation Date Class Topic Reading Assignment Activities and Deadlines Thursday, 9/1 Introduction and Course Orientation Wednesday, 9/7 Background and Set-Up Selections from: ‣ Fordyce, Sermons (PDF) ‣ Johnson, Rambler 4 (PDF) ‣ Hume, EHU (PDF) ‣ Austen, Northanger Abbey (PDF) ‣ Reading notes by Th ‣ Post reading question (W or Th) Thursday, 9/8 Background and Set-Up ‣ Mackenzie, Lounger 20 (PDF) ‣ Hume, EPM, Section 1 and Appendix Discussion of Writing 1 (PDF) ‣ Hume, “Delicacy of Taste and Passion” Response Paper Prompt Distributed Unit 1: Emotion and Morality (SS) Date Class Topic Reading Assignment Activities and Deadlines Monday, 9/12 Sense and Sensibility ‣ SS Volume 1 ‣ Reading notes by Th ‣ Post reading question (M or Th) Thursday, 9/15 Sense and Sensibility ‣ SS Volume 2 Monday, 9/19 ‣ Smith, TMS, Book 1, section 1 (PDF) Sympathy and Sentiment ‣ Reading notes by Th ‣ Post reading question (M or Th) Thursday, 9/22 Sense and Sensibility ‣ SS Volume 3 Monday, 9/26 Gender, Emotion, and Virtue ‣ Wollstonecraft, VRW, Intro and selections from Ch. 13 (PDF) ‣ Reading notes by Th ‣ Post reading question (M or Th) Thursday, 9/29 Gender, Emotion, and Virtue ‣ More, Strictures, 2 and 7 (PDF) ‣ SS Response Paper due by Sunday 10/2, 11:59pm 7 Unit 2: Virtue and Education (MP) Date Class Topic Reading Assignment Activities and Deadlines Monday, 10/3 Mansfield Park ‣ MP, Volume 1, Chs. 1-10 (to p. 84) ‣ Reading notes by Th ‣ Post reading question (M or Th) Thursday, 10/6 Satirizing Education ‣ Jane Collier, On the Art, selections (PDF) Week of 10/10 NO CLASS MONDAY ‣ MP, Volume 1 (finish) OR THURSDAY Monday, 10/17 Mansfield Park ‣ MP, Volume 2 Thursday, 10/20 A Worldly Education ‣ Lord Chesterfield, Letters to His Son (selections) (PDF) Monday, 10/24 Mansfield Park ‣ MP, Volume 3 ‣ Reading notes by Th ‣ Post reading question (M or Th) Thursday, 10/27 Smith on Virtue ‣ Smith, TMS, Book 6 (PDF) ‣ MP Response paper due by Sunday, 10/30, 11:59pm ‣ Midterm Discussion Post due by Friday 10/14, 11:59pm ‣ Reading notes by Th ‣ Post reading question (M or Th) Unit 3: Discernment and Judgment (E) Date Class Topic Reading Assignment Activities and Deadlines Monday, 10/31 Emma ‣ Emma, Volume 1 ‣ Reading notes by Th ‣ Post reading question (M or Th) Thursday, 11/3 Self-Judgment ‣ Smith, TMS Book 3, sections 1 and 2 (PDF) Monday, 11/7 Emma ‣ Emma, Volume 2 Thursday, 11/10 Conscience ‣ Smith, TMS, Book 3, sections 3 and 4 (PDF) Monday, 11/14 Emma ‣ Emma, Volume 3 Thursday, 11/17 NO CLASS Monday, 11/21 Taste and Judgment ‣ Reading notes by Th ‣ Post reading question (M or Th) ‣ Reading notes by Th ‣ Post reading question (M only) ‣ (Catch up on reading if needed) ‣ Hume, “Standard of Taste” ‣ Final Paper Prompt and Instructions (PDF) distributed ‣ E Response Paper due by Tuesday, 11/22, 11:59pm 8 Unit 4: Individual and Society [P] Date Class Topic Reading Assignment Activities and Deadlines Monday, 11/28 Persuasion ‣ Persuasion, Volume 1 ‣ Reading notes by Th ‣ Post reading question (M 11/28, Th 12/1, or M 12/5) Thursday, 12/1 Wealth and Rank ‣ Smith, TMS, Book 1, Section 3 (PDF) ‣ Wollstonecraft, VRW, Ch. 4 (PDF) ‣ Topic Proposal and Outline due by Friday, 12/2, 11:59pm Monday, 12/5 Persuasion ‣ Persuasion, Volume 2 ‣ P Response Paper due by Wednesday, 12/7, 11:59pm Thursday, 12/8 Wrap-Up and Final Papers Paper Workshops and Informal Presentations *Final Paper due on Th 12/15 by 3:30pm (this is our final exam block)* 9