Graduate Institute

Annapolis, Spring 2012 Preceptorials

  • "Loyalty to petrified opinions never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul in this world and never will."

    Mark Twain


Preceptorials are scheduled to meet on Thursdays, 7:30 – 9:30 p.m. beginning Thursday, January 12, 2012.*

Cicero and the End of the Roman Republic
 Marcus Tullius Cicero, acclaimed for both his power as an orator and his resourcefulness in the fray of politics, was a central figure in the turmoil that brought about the demise of the Roman republic and the emergence of Rome's empire.  He is known both for his great speeches in the public arena and for his reflections on life and its obligations, written during periods of exile from political life.  The class will consider examples of both from Cicero's writing, including one of the Philippics against Marc Antony, On the Nature of the Gods, De Re Publica, and selections from the writings on duty.  To gain a sense of Cicero's time, we will read several of Plutarch's Lives.
Recommended Texts: Cicero, The Republic, The Laws (Oxford World's Classics Edition).  Cicero, The Nature of the Gods (Oxford World's Classics Edition).  Cicero, Selected Works (Penguin Edition). Plutarch, Lives.
First Assignment: Plutarch, Life of Cato the Younger.
Tutor:  Ms. Deborah Axelrod
This preceptorial applies to the History, Philosophy & Theology, and to the Politics & Society segments.

Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, Selected Writings.
The preceptorial will be focused on close readings of major writings by these two men, mainly Lincoln. Their writings aid inquiry into, in particular, the thought and character of two great but very different men, and the promise and difficulty of constitutional government, all as revealed in concrete historical circumstances. But these writings are also an important part of the larger Western dialogue on human nature, the use of force, the means of persuasion, the interpretation of fundamental texts, the nature of justice, the practice of government, and how divinity might be present in human affairs.
Recommended Texts:  Students may, if they wish, rely solely on writings to be found free online. Below, I list some good web sites. I have no objection to the use of Kindles, iPads, etc. in class. The books listed below contain much more than we will read for class, but they are well-edited, up-to-date, and reasonably inexpensive -- all-in-all the best versions for those who want paper books.

  • Abraham Lincoln, Speeches and Writings, 1832-1858, ed. by Fehrenbacher, Library of America, 1989. Hardbound; used copies are available at amazon.com.
  • Abraham Lincoln, Speeches and Writings, 1859-1865, ed. by Fehrenbacher, Library of America, 1989. Hardbound; used copies are available at amazon.com.
  • All of Lincoln's writings are available free online, in the Collected Works, ed. by Basler, at http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/.
  • Frederick Douglass, Selected Speeches and Writing, ed. by Foner, abridged and adapted by Taylor, Lawrence Hill Books, 1999. This book is available in paperback, as a Kindle or Google e-book, and free online as a single html web page; used paperback copies are available at Amazon.com.
  • All the Douglass readings are free online, most of them through links provided at http://www.lib.rochester.edu/index.cfm?page=2884.

First Assignment:

  • Lincoln, Autobiography Written for Campaign, c. June 1860 (page 160 in Fehrenbacher's 2d vol.; online version).
  • Lincoln, "To the People of Sangamo County", March 9, 1832 (page 1 in Fehrenbacher's 1st vol., online version).
  • Lincoln, Address to the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois", January 27, 1838 (page 28 in Fehrenbacher's 1st vol.;  online version).
  • Douglass, excerpts from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Written by Himself. 1845. (Not in Foner; online version. I'll make paper copies available.) Read pages 39-41 of Chapter VII, and pages 63-73 of Chapter X.
  • Douglass, "An Appeal to the British People", May 12, 1846 (page 30 in Foner; online version (this is Foner's book as a single web page)).

Tutor:  Mr. Steven Crockett
This preceptorial applies to the History and Politics & Society segments.

Homer’s Odyssey (in Ancient Greek)
We will translate selected passages from the work from Greek into English, and read the entire work in English translation.
Recommended text: Homer, Odyssey.Edited by W.B. Stanford. Two Volumes (paperback).  Bristol Classical Press. (London: Duckworth & Co., 1996). This is a reprint of the two-volume MacMillan edition and contains the same Greek text, introduction, notes, indexes, etc.
First Assignment:  The entire book should be read in English before the first meeting. For the first class, read Stanford’s introduction to Homeric Greek, and translate lines 1-10 of Book One.
Tutor:  Ms. Mera Flaumenhaft
*Note:  This preceptorial is scheduled to meet on Tuesdays, 7:30-9:30 p.m. as well as on Thursdays, 7:30-9:30 p.m.
This preceptorial applies to the History, Philosophy & Theology, and Politics & Society segments.

Leo Strauss, Natural Right and History
The preceptorial will read with some care Leo Strauss's Natural Right and History.  In that book, Strauss provides a sort of intellectual history of natural right.  Strauss presents reasons to regard natural right as the foundation of such things as philosophy, science, and morality.  Strauss also sketches the history of an attack on natural right on behalf of what is called "history."
Text: Leo Strauss, Natural Right and History.  Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press, 1953.
First Assignment: Read the author's "Preface to the 7th Impression" and the "Introduction."  Also read the two quotations from the Bible on the page prior to the "Introduction."
Tutor:  Mr. Michael Grenke
This preceptorial applies to the History, Philosophy & Theology, and Politics & Society segments.

Genesis and Exodus: Ancient History of a Holy People
We will read through the first two books of the Bible, slowly, taking time to consider the stories that tell of the creation of the world and the early history of the Jewish people, a nation forged through struggle and faith.
Text: The Bible
First assignment: Genesis, Books 1 through 4.
Tutor:  Ms. Judy Seeger
This preceptorial applies to the History, Philosophy & Theology, and Politics & Society segments.

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
This extraordinary philosophical and spiritual novel depicts the lives of the Karamazov brothers as they struggle for survival, love, liberation, sanity, and spiritual strength in the late nineteenth century Russian town of Skotoprigonevsky.  Dostoevsky's last work will challenge you, body, mind, and soul.  The political struggles of a deteriorating nation and society are embodied in the lives of the characters:  ex-G.I. Mitya, compromising businessman Fyodor, enterprising and passionate Grushenka, beautiful and self-lacerating Katya, political visionary Ivan, and the monk-in-the-world, Alyosha.  How to live and what to do in an economically desperate time when the political institutions are failing structurally, and the character of authority is weak or corrupt?
Recommended Text:  The translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.
First Assignment:  Pevear translation pp. 1-67; Book 1 through Book 2 chapter 5 ("So Be It! So Be It!)
Tutor:  Mr. David Townsend
This preceptorial applies to the Philosophy & Theology and Politics & Society segments.

Foucault: The Genealogy of Our Selves
Though at St. John’s we seem to distinguish among intellectual disciplines such as philosophy, literature, history, politics, and science, we allow in our explorations that these boundaries have considerable permeability and interpenetration. Foucault is one of the few thinkers to undertake an analysis and assessment of the demarcation of methodologies and knowledges that exist everywhere except within the twenty-five acres between College Creek and College Avenue. He reconfigures history as a genealogy that reveals the strata of emergence; he looks to how these incursions work hand in hand with networks of governance and power; and he seeks a place for thought, action, and ethics within these tapestries of control.  We will begin with his essay “What is Enlightenment?”; move to his studies of gestation in “Nietzsche, Genealogy, History,” in Discipline and Punish, and in the History of Sexuality, Volume 1; move to the political dimension these entail in The Birth of Biopolitics and in Security, Territory, and Population; and then seek a place for responsible action and thought in “On The Genealogy of Ethics”and in Technologies of the Self.  We will then end with a perspective on the author and his authority in “What is an Author?”
Recommended texts: Michel Foucault, The Foucault Reader.  Edited by Paul Rabinow.  (Pantheon, 1984).  This volume will contain many of the texts we will explore.  Also Foucault, Discipline & Punish.  Second Edition.  (Vintage, 1995).
Other texts: Foucault, History of Sexuality, Volume 1; The Birth of Biopolitics; Security, Territory, and Population; Technologies of the Self.
First Assignment: “What is Enlightenment?” in The Foucault Reader, 32-50.
Tutor: Mr. Howard Zeiderman
This preceptorial applies to the History, Philosophy & Theology, and Politics & Society segments.