Philosophy: PHI 4930-002 & PHI 6934-003
Fall 2004
Professor Charles Guignon
Email: guignon@chuma1.cas.usf.edu
Office: FAO 213, Phone:
974-9839
Office Hours: Mon & Wed.,
Home Phone (emergencies; call before
Course
Objectives:
We will be exploring some of the
conceptions of the self and the good life that have appeared in key
psychological and philosophical texts over the past 100 years or so. Using On Being Authentic as a key, we
will start out by asking, “What is the self I am supposed to be true to when I
strive to be true to my own self?” Our
explorations will lead us through scientific naturalism (Freud), Romanticism
(Jung, Miller), Marxian humanism (Fromm), social constructionism and
postmodernism (Geertz, Foucault), and narrativist views (Bruner, Schafer). In the course of this exploration, we will
address such questions as: What is the best possible life for humans under
modern circumstances? Are humans by
nature good? How should we understand
the human capacity for evil? What causes
the need for therapy, and what should the aims of therapy be? Do we have free will? What is a free will worth having? What is the relation of the individual to
society? What is the place of faith in
the modern world? What is the role of
psychology as a discipline? What is
happiness and how important is it? What
might a “positive psychology” be like?
What are the limits of “scientism” in the study of human phenomena?
Texts: Freud, The Ego and the Id Norton EI $8.76
Freud, Civilization
and Its Discontents Norton CD $8.76
Miller, Alice The
Drama of the Gifted Child Basic
$11.16
Fromm, Erich Escape from Freedom EF $11.20
Foucault, Michel The
History of Sexuality, Vol. 1
Vintage HS $ 8.80
Bruner, J. Acts
of Meaning Harvard $11.55
Guignon,
C. On Being Authentic Routledge OBA $14.95
The
following articles are available on e-Reserve:
Philip Cushman, “Why the Self is Empty,” American
Psychologist, 45 1990.
Ira Progroff,
“C. G. Jung at the Outposts of Psychology,” from The
Death and Rebirth of Psychology (McGraw Hill, 1956).
Frank
C. Richardson, “Freedom and Commitment in Modern Psychotherapy,” in Re-envisioning
Psychology (Jossey-Bass, 1999).
Clifford
Geertz, “The Impact of the Concept of Culture on the Concept of Man,” from The Interpretation of Cultures (Basic Books,
1973).
Roy Schafer,
“Narration in the Psychoanalytic Dialogue,” from Critical Inquiry, 7,
1980.
C. Guignon, “Narrative
Explanation in Psychotherapy,” from American Behavioral Scientist, 41,
1998.
Martin Seligman
and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, “Positive Psychology: An Introduction,” American
Psychologist, “Special Issue on Happiness, Excellence, and Optimal Human Functioning,”
55, 2000.
C. Guignon,
“Hermeneutics, Authenticity, and the Aims of Positive Psychology,” Jour. of
Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology 22 (2002): 83-103.
Tentative
8/24 Introduction
8/26 Cushman,
“Why the Self is Empty;” OBA, Preface and chapters 1 – 3
8/31-9/9 Freud,
EI (all)
9/14-16 Freud,
CD (all)
9/21-23 OBA,
chapters 4 - 5; Progoff, “C. G. Jung at the Outposts of Psychology
9/28-30 Miller,
pp. 1-52
10/5-12 Fromm, EF, chapters 1, 2 and 4, and
section 3 of chapter 5 (chapter 3 is recommended);
10/14-19 OBA,
chapter 6; Geertz, “The Impact of the Concept of Culture on the Concept of Man”
10/21-28 Foucault,
HS, pp. 1 – 102
11/2-4 Foucault,
HS, pp. 103 – 114, 127 – 131, 135 – 159
11/9-16 OBA,
chapter 7; Bruner, all
11/18 Schafer,
“Narration in the Psychoanalytic Dialogue”
11/23 Guignon,
“Narrative Explanation in Psychotherapy”
11/30 Seligman
and Csikszentmihalyi, “Positive Psychology: An Introduction”
12/2 Guignon,
“Hermeneutics, Authenticity, and the Aims of Positive Psychology”
Requirements:
Grading:
Reflections 50%
Final Exam 30%
Class Participation 20%
Students who will miss class due to religious observance must inform me
in advance and make arrangements to make up missed work. Students who are absent more than three days
during the semester should present evidence of a medical excuse. Papers turned in after the due date will be
marked down one increment of a grade (a “+” or a “-”) for each class day
late. Papers more than three class days
late will not be accepted.
Note on plagiarism: If
you use any sources in your writing assignments, you must document them by
citing them in your work. My preferred
way to cite a source is to put the last name of the author and the page number
in parentheses immediately after the material used in your text, and to list
the source in the “References” at the end of the paper. Any source you use should be identified under
“References” at the end of the paper, whether you quote from that source or
not. Any direct quote of more than a
couple of words must be quoted accurately, put in quotation marks, and
cited. Quoted material should never be
more than a few lines; if you are using more material than that,
summarize it in your own words and then cite it. The vast majority of your paper should be a
product of your own thinking and your own personal way of formulating
things. If you use material from
elsewhere and do not cite it, even if
you have changed a few words here and there, you are guilty of plagiarism
and subject to extremely harsh penalties (an “F” or an “FF” for the
course). We are trained to identify
material that has been taken from the Internet or elsewhere, and we will not
hesitate to take action if we find anyone guilty of this despicable crime.