Education as Self-Fashioning: The Active, Beautiful, and Inquiring Life ESF 1 W 2:15-3:30 pm Professor Blair Hoxby Department of English

Office hours: T, Th 11am-noon in 440-414; or W 3:30-4:00 pm in 160-321. Professor Caroline Hoxby Department of Economics Office: Landau Economics, room 246 Office hours: By email appointment through Prof. Hoxby's assistant, Kelly Carson carson@stanford.edu Course description Moving through history from the Rome of the Emperor Hadrian, to the city-states of Renaissance Italy, to the eighteenth-century republic of the United States, we will examine how self-made men fashioned themselves and their surroundings by educating themselves broadly. We will ask how a liberal education made their active careers richer and more transformational. We will also take up the great debate on whether a liberal education or vocational training is the surest path to advancement. We will engage this debate through the works of W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington but consider todays struggle over the same issues a struggle that engrosses both highly industrialized and developing societies. Central questions raised by this course include, What is the nature and purpose of a liberal arts education? Are we ethically obliged to enlarge our minds, and what is the relationship between such enlargement, moral liberty, and moral responsibility? What are the ethical reasons for cultivating a self, and how does self-cultivation contribute to, or conflict with, social responsibility? Requirements satisfied Thinking Matters; Freshman writing; Ways of Thinking: 7. Ethical Reasoning ESF 1A W 4:15-5:30 pm

Learning goals for this course Students will develop a sense for what a genuine question or problem is, and what it means to think about an important idea with the sort of disciplined, creative, and critical reasoning characteristic of a university-trained mind. They will learn some of the key normative concepts and ethical arguments that support the ideals

of self-fashioning and liberal education. They will develop broad, transportable skills, including: analytical, expository writing; careful, critical reading; analytical and critical reasoning; and capacities for effective oral communication, including active listening and responsive discussion. They will learn that writing and revision are integral to the processes of comprehension, reflection, and argumentation. As they study the writings and achievements of some great historical figures and consider the concrete ethical dilemmas that these men and women faced, and that choices that they made, students will consider how others before them have learned to live purposeful, fulfilling, and responsible lives and will reflect on the ways they can begin to fashion such lives for themselves by means of a Stanford education. Requirements Attendance at all Wednesday seminar meetings, all Friday plenary sessions, and all meetings of your writing section on Tuesdays and Thursdays is required. If a student has a prolonged illness, varsity athletic competitions, or a personal situation that might lead to more than two seminar/lecture absences, the student must contact both Professor Hoxby and your writing instructor (Jessica Beckman or Tasha Eccles) in advance. Under certain conditions (such as varsity athletic competitions or prolonged illness), a student may be provided an opportunity to make up the work missed in seminars. In other words, make-up work is at the discretion of the instructors. Insufficient seminar/lecture attendance will result in failure of the course. You are expected to read all assigned texts with care and on time, to take notes on them, and to be prepared to discuss them in class. To participate effectively in class, it is not enough that you be willing to speak; you should have mastered the texts well enough to be able to respond pointedly to questions posed or assertions made by your instructors or fellow students. Preparation for class is expected to take at least eight hours per week. You are expected to complete all of all the writing and associated assignments specified on the writing section of the syllabus. As indicated there in more detail, it is essential that assignments be completed in a timely manner. Grading You will be given a single grade for your participation in Wednesday seminars, the work you submit for your writing section, and the your attendance at guest lectures and other plenary sessions on Friday. Your careful reading of texts, effective participation in seminars, and attendance at Friday plenary sessions will account for 50% of your grade. The papers that you submit, and your participation in other exercises and group activities related to your writing and rhetoric section will account for the other 50% of your grade. The specific weights that will be given to particular assignments in your writing section are specified on the writing and rhetoric portion of the syllabus. Books that are required but that will be supplied to you on the first day

These books are part of the required reading for the syllabus, but there is no need to purchase them. Your professors will give you copies on the first day of class. Thorsten Opper, Hadrian: Empire & Conflict (Harvard University Press. Paper. ISBN-10: 0674057422/ ISBN-13: 978-0674057425) Baldesar Castiglione , The Book of the Courtier, trans. George Bull (Penguin Classics). J. S. Mill, Autobiography (Penguin Classics. Paper. ISBN-10: 0140433163/ ISBN-13: 978-0140433166) [$16.00] Books you should buy You are responsible for buying the following texts. They will be available for you at the Stanford bookstore, or if you prefer, you can buy them from another source such as amazon.com or abebooks.com. In many cases, you can buy new or used books from these sources for below their list price. Please, however, take note of the estimated shipping times and shipping costs; books may take more than 10 days to get to you (especially from used booksellers) and will often cost $3.99 in shipping. But this is often a good way to save money if you can plan ahead. Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian (Farrar, Straus and Girous. Paper. ISBN-10: 0374529264/ ISBN-13: 978-0374529260) $16.00. [Amazon $10.66] Marcus Aurelius, Meditations: with selected correspondence (Oxford World's Classics. Paper. ISBN-10: 0199573204/ ISBN-13: 978-0199573202) $9.95 How to access other assigned materials Assignments on your syllabus marked [CW] will be available through Courseworks. Films will be held on reserve at Green Media. Provosts Statement concerning Students with Disabilities Students who have a disability which may necessitate an academic accommodation or the use of auxiliary aids and services in a class must initiate the request with the Office of Accessible Educations Disability Resource Center (DRC). The DRC will evaluate the request with required documentation, recommend appropriate accommodations, and prepare a verification letter dated in the current academic term in which the request is being made. Please contact the DRC as soon as possible; timely notice is needed to arrange for appropriate accommodations (phone 723-1066; TDD 725-1067). Academic Integrity and Plagiarism: Students are responsible for familiarizing themselves with and following the Universitys Honor Code. Violations of the Honor Code, even when unintentional, constitute serious offenses that are subject to action by the Stanford Office of Judicial Affairs. Violations of the Honor Code include but are not limited to receiving or giving unpermitted aid in class work, unpermitted collaboration, representing someone elses work as your own, and plagiarism. The Honor Code is available at: http://www.stanford.edu/dept/vpsa/judicialaffairs/guiding/honorcode.htm. You are responsible for understanding the University rules regarding academic integrity; you should familiarize yourself with the code if you have not already done so.

From the Office of Judicial Affairs: For purposes of the Stanford University Honor Code, plagiarism is defined as the use, without giving reasonable and appropriate credit to or acknowledging the author or source, of another person's original work, whether such work is made up of code, formulas, ideas, language, research, strategies, writing or other form(s). In considering the subject of plagiarism for purposes of Stanford's Honor Code, it is also imperative to consult the Intent/Reasonable Person Standard. When in doubt in the context of any particular course at Stanford about whether something is or is not plagiarism, ask the faculty member in charge. http://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/judicialaffairs/policy/honor-code. See also for detailed examples, Andrea Lunsford, Easy Writer. Third Edition. Bedford: St. Martins Press, 2006. 187, 190-192.

WEEKLY SCHEDULE FOR SEMINAR Week 1. Introduction W Sep 25 Richard Levin, The Work of the University, ch. 1 [CW] Cardinal Newman, The Idea of a University, 1.6 [CW] No plenary session

Fr Sep 27

The Art of Living and Care of the Self Week 2. Hadrian W Oct 2 Selections from Thorsten Opper, Hadrian: Empire and Conflict Begin Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian Fr Oct 5 Plenary session with all the ESF Faculty

Week 3. Memoirs of Hadrian W Oct 9 Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian Fr Oct 11 Guest Plenary Lecture: Karl Eikenberry, retired United States Army Lieutenant General and former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan

Week 4. Marcus Aurelius W Oct 16 Selections from Marcus Aurelius, Meditations Fr Oct 18 Su Oct 20 Guest Plenary Lecture: Richard Levin, retired President of Yale University Field trip to Getty Villa Museum, L.A.

Renaissance Self-Fashioning Week 5. The Court of Urbino W Oct 23 Selections from Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier The Court of Urbino [CW] Thomas M. Greene, Il Cortegiano and the Choice of a Game, RQ [CW] Raphael: The Apprentice Years [BBC FilmsGreen Media Reserves] Fr Oct 25 Week 6. W Oct 30 Plenary discussion of Eikenberry's and Levin's lectures Raphael Giorgio Vasari, Life of Raphael [CW] Raphael: Prince of Painters [BBC FilmsGreen Media Reserves] Informal plenary lunch for students and ESF faculty

Fr Nov 1

Liberty, Education, and Citizenship Week 7. W Nov 6 Thomas Jefferson The Road to Monticello: The Life and Mind of Thomas Jefferson, chs. 1, 13-15, 41-42 (27 suggested). [CW] Selected letters [CW] Architectural designs [CW] Guest plenary lecture: Adam Gopnik, writer, essayist, and commentator

Fr Nov 8

Week 8. J. S. Mill W Nov 13 J. S. Mill, Autobiography J. S. Mill, On Liberty, ch. 3, Of Individuality, as one of the elements of well-being [CW] Fr Nov 15 Plenary discussion of Gopnik's lecture

Educational Advancement as a Social Imperative Week 9. Education and Upward Mobility W Nov 20 Booker T. Washington, excerpts from Working with the Hands [CW] W.E.B. Dubois, The Talented Tenth [CW] Caroline Hoxby, The University as a Venture Capitalist in Human Capital, Clarendon Lectures in Economics [CW] Fr Nov 22 Guest plenary lecture: Shirley Tilghman, retired President of Princeton University

Thanksgiving break Week 10. The University Today W Dec 4 Caroline Hoxby, The University as a Venture Capitalist in Human Capital, Clarendon Lectures in Economics, continued [CW] Fr Dec 6 Final plenary discussion of Tilghman's lecture. Summary discussion of the course.