Module 5

Module 5

 

We’ve explored the Renaissance as the defining start of the Modern Era, as it has generally come to be seen. We’ve also taken a look at some of the philosophical roots of this “re-birth” of Classical Greek humanism, along with some of the non-Greek roots of the modern scientific world view that started to dominate in urban Western Europe starting in the 1400s. The role of non-Western cultures in facilitating the nascent development of Western Civilization is both ironic and tragic, given the superiority complex Westerners will develop a little later in our story. 

 

One last comment along those lines – although Western Civilization claims Greek intellectual heritage, the Greeks themselves don’t necessarily consider themselves to be “Western.” They never really have. The Romans adopted Greek ideas and spread these widely among their empire. But once the administrative center of the Roman Empire moved east to Constantinople, the Eastern and Western portions of the Empire were largely at odds with one another. So much so, that we commonly talk about the “collapse” of the Roman Empire at this time. In fact, the easterners considered themselves to be the continuation of the Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire, while the westerners developed the social and political institutions we associate with the Middle Ages. Western Europeans at this time considered themselves to constitute “Christendom,” and they called anyone from the eastern empire “Greeks.” It was not generally considered possible at the time (by westerners) to be both Christian and Greek. 

 

This “Medieval” period is well-named, perhaps, as it was literally the “middle age” between the original flowering of the Classical Greek intellectual world and the early Modern re-birth of the Classical Greek intellectual world we came to call the Renaissance. It can be helpful to keep in mind, however, that starting with the so-called collapse of the Roman Empire, the Greeks themselves were more associated with the Byzantine Empire, which thrived for about 1,000 years, than they were with Western Europe. After that, they were culturally separated from Western Europe by the presence of the Ottoman Turks. In the grand scheme of things, it is very recent that Greece has contemplated a more Western identity. Every time we scratch below the surface, we see that the “Western” identity is perhaps more derivative than we thought… which is another way of saying we are more deeply connected than we thought. 

 

See this short discussion of the topic in a Politico article titled “The Greeks are Not Western.”

 

https://www.politico.eu/article/the-greeks-are-not-western/

 

Moving on, we’ll start exploring a Modern historical phenomenon that does seem to be more solidly Western European in origin, the Enlightenment. No-one describes what is meant by “enlightenment” better than the Enlightenment thinker Condorcet himself. This week, please read his words in his famous treatise, Outlines of an Historical View of the Progress of the Human Mind,  a full and free copy of which you’ll find here:

 

https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/condorcet-outlines-of-an-historical-view-of-the-progress-of-the-human-mind

 

If you’re unable to read the entire text, please read at least 50% of the text, dividing it in any way you see fit. Combining what you already know about the Enlightenment from your World History class and what you learn by reading Condorcet’s essays, please write a blog post indicating:

 

* What was the Enlightenment?

* Where does it fit in the broader picture of European and/or World history?

* Which are some key concepts described by Condorcet?

* Have any of his predictions turned out to be correct?

* Would Condorcet say we are still on our way to becoming “enlightened”?

Module 4

Week 4

 

I hope you enjoyed your Shakespeare this week. I’m looking forward to reading your comments.

 

We’ve been focusing on the early Modern thought world and its underpinnings in the Classical Western philosophical past. But Europeans didn’t develop their “modern” ideas and outlooks in a vacuum. Scholars from the East had been major preservers of the Western philosophical tradition while Western Europe itself experienced the 1000-year intellectual recession we now call the Medieval period. Med-ieval, literally between times. As in, between the Classical period and the Modern… as if whatever lay in between had no value, which is about how many early Modern Europeans seemed to feel about it. 

 

This week, before we move on from the Renaissance, let’s have a look at some of the non-Western contributions to this early Modern thought world. 

 

From the philosophical arena, and while still pondering the work of Aristotle, watch this NPR segment that highlights the contributions of Averroes, an Islamic scholar, to the evolving world view of the time:

 

Averroes. The Commentator on Aristotle and a case study in medieval v modern world views

https://www.npr.org/2020/08/05/899435905/reframing-history-the-commentator

 

Then, looking at much-celebrated early scientific accomplishments, we will turn to the discoveries of Copernicus. You can learn a little about Copernicus here… note the picture of his instruments on display at the university in Krakow… if you visit and look at them up close, you’ll see that the astrolabe he used was labeled in Arabic. That’s right, many of the Europeans of the early Modern world relied on previous discoveries and instruments developed by scholars from the Islamic and Byzantine worlds. 

 

https://www.local-life.com/krakow/articles/discover-copernicus-kopernikus-krakow

 

After learning a little about Copernicus from the people of Krakow who are so proud of him, use Google Scholar to find and read this scholarly article examining the originality of his work:

 

Kokowski, Michal. “Copernicus, Arabic Science, and the Scientific (R)evolution”. From Asia, Europe, and the Emergence of Modern Science.

 

You should be able to download a PDF version of this article for free and without logging in to any databases. If you cannot, let me know and I’ll email you a copy.

 

Finally, what does all this talk of early Modern history and the Modern world view mean for us living today? In what will no doubt come to be known as the cursed year of 2020? Are these early foundations of the Western thought-world still relevant? Read this WSJ article for a short but interesting discussion of this question. You may need access to WSJ through the NDNU library. If you can’t get this article, please ask the Librarian for assistance or let me know and I’ll get it to you.

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/philosophy-for-a-time-of-crisis-11598543519?mod=hp_featst_pos3

 

When you’re all done reading, watching and thinking, spend 30 minutes in meditationreflecting on what you’ve learned and vaguely wondering “so what?” In what ways did anything you read or watched help you better understand the nature of “Modernity”? Write a blog post that answers this question and which makes clear reference to each of the readings / segments.

Module 3

Week 3

 

Welcome to Week 3.

 

Shortly after the plague of 1348, we see Europeans beginning to embrace some of the things we associate with a more humanisticworldview. We see art becoming more focused on real humans, with things like portraits of contemporary people rather than religious figures appearing in painted art, and realistic perspective and depictures appearing in paintings and statues. We see a resurgence of philosophy – a love of wisdom which is essentially a love of the workings of the human mind’s ability to think through reality. We see early development of capitalism and entrepreneurship. And we see a shift in howreality is perceived: by the spirit, by the heart, by the eye, by the mind? Does something have to be seenin order to know it’s real? Can reality be felt?

 

Of course, as these different elements of the evolving modern world view made their way into everyday life, there were also critiques, there was mistrust of these new ways of knowing. One of the brilliant things about Shakespeare was his ability to capture both the shifting worldview and the critiques of it in the same work of literary art. This ability is on display in many of his plays. Hamlet, for example, is torn by his inability to know how to proceed when a ghostly vision tells him his father was murdered. If this is true, he needs to act. But can he rely on the knowledge transmitted by this phantom? How does he know whether it’s an honest ghost telling him the truth so he can seek revenge, or a demon trying to lead him into a fatal act? How does Shakespeare have Hamlet solve this uncertainty? He has Hamlet create an experiment, with Hamlet and his helpers serving as observers. That’s a modern way of seeking truth. A Medieval Hamlet would simply have trusted the ghostly vision. Hamlet is torn because he lives within the tension of Medieval and Modern world views with regard to knowing.

 

Hamlet is just one example. This week, you will analyze a film version of a Shakespeare play, writing about the ways you see Shakespeare depicting this tension between old ways of knowing and modern ways of knowing… where do you see solutions based on heart? on spirit? on the observing eye? subject to experimentation to confirm? Watch a film version then write a blog post analyzing the film from this perspective. You can choose between two options – Hamletor Much Ado About Nothing– but both should use the Kenneth Branagh version of the play. 

 

In case you need help choosing, Hamletis a drama and Much Ado About Nothingis a romantic comedy. Both illustrate the desired tensions in their own ways. As you watch, be ready to pause the film so you can take notes of words, phrases, situations, or other examples that illustrate the tensions you’ll be writing about.

Don't forget, you must use the film version starring Kenneth Branagh so we are all commenting on the same thing.

 

If you have a source for your movie-watching, you can use that. If you need access to a streaming version of the film, please let me know and I can arrange that through the NDNU library. Alternatively, you can ask the librarian directly and copy me on your email so I can approve as needed.

 

Enjoy the film and your own reflections on it!

 

Patti Andrews

Module 2

Welcome to Week 2. Now that you’ve mostly figured out how to create and use your blogs, I’ll direct your attention to the class website. Again it’s at:

 

https://ndnumt.blogspot.com

 

All Modules will be posted here, and links to all student blogs will also be kept here. If you want to see what your classmates are saying, please go to the class website, look toward the right side of the page, and you’ll find a list of names. Click on a person’s name to get to that person’s blog. You’ll need to do this for interactive class assignments as we go through the semester, so please take a moment and run though how to do it now. Let me know if you have any questions about how to find each other’s blogs. 

 

In Module 1, we noted that certain characteristics of our existence – things we might take for granted – are in fact very “Modern” concepts. We noted things like individualism, personal journey, and democracy. As we go through the semester, be on the lookout for evidence of these and other shifts toward a “modern” world view… see if you can find ways in which our readings might reflect expansion of these modern concepts as they were brought onto the world stage under the guises of: emphasis on the individual as an actor on the historical stage, interest in the personal journey of a hero or heroine, and the institutionalization of democracy. 

 

People sometimes have a narrow interpretation of what is “modern” and so it’s interesting to read your thoughts on this in your first blog posts. For the purposes of this class, we will take a broad view of modernity. It’s not just modern America. Not just the US. Not just the 20^thcentury. It goes back hundreds of years and includes phenomena such as the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, and the development of capitalism, communism, and democracy. It includes notions of progress, perfection, utopianism, inclusion, and exclusion. In short, it’s complicated. Maybe we will understand it a little better by the end of the semester.

 

During the early Modern period, for example, what we call the Renaissance in European history, we saw the “re-birth” of Classical Greek ideals and their actualization in Western European intellectual life. Not everybody participated in these changes – rural life in many ways did not change very much, and still has not changed very much – but urban life, and intellectual life, changed enormously during this time. Wealthy patrons sponsored translations of Classical Greek texts into languages that literate Europeans (i.e. elite Europeans) could read. Byzantine and Islamic centers of learning had been the keepers of these texts for centuries… now, elite Western Europeans felt a passionate interest in their own intellectual past and were willing to pay scholars to bring these ideas, through translations, salons(discussion gatherings), and other forms of patronage, back into the talk of the day. A contemporary equivalent might be a philanthropist or corporate-giving commitment supporting specific kinds of projects or scholarships. And today, of course, modern societies have also embraced the very modern notion of “careers open to talent,” which requires that access to educational funding, scholarships, fellowships, etc., be equally available to all. Private patronage plays a smaller role in the development of novel intellectual ideas than it did in the early part of the modern period. Have we fully lived up to that goal? The ideas of Plato and Aristotle were re-born for Western Europeans as a result of this new interest in Classical ideas, and this included ideas about politics. Forms of story-telling, such as novels and drama, also flourished as people indulged their interest in human individuals and the capacity of an individual human being to have agency in the world. Humanism and humanistic thinking, were revived from the Classical period, dusted off, and given a distinctly modern form.

 

An additional factor of interest during the early modern period was the role of the Black Death in propelling individuals forward into a brave new – and “modern” – world. Just like the covid pandemic we are currently living through, people of the early modern world had an experience of pandemic. The Bubonic Plague that struck humanity in waves in the 1300s traveled along the growing trade routes of the time. People didn’t understand how it attacked or how it traveled. They knew no cure. Waves of Plague gave the civilizations of Afro-Eurasia a common experience. In Western Europe, many urbanites ultimately responded by embracing a new identity. Some argue that this powerful experience of living through pandemic changed people’s outlook so much that it was a catalyst for the Western European pivot to modernity. Will the covid pandemic likewise change people’s outlook so much that it serves as a catalyst for global or regional pivots to some fundamentally new historical world view? What will that world view look like? More democratic? Less democratic? Will it usher in the age of the Anthropocene that you read about at the end of your World History textbook, Ways of the World?By the time today’s college students are my age, we’ll almost certainly know the answer to some of those questions. 

 

Meanwhile, this week, we will connect with the people of the early modern period by exploring their experience of pandemic. An excellent primary source for this is Boccaccio’s Decameron, a recounting of the Black Death in Florence, framed as a collection of stories told by a fictional group of young people escaping the city to take a break from the misery that was Florence in 1348. Boccaccio describes the pandemic in his introduction to the book, although it is unclear how much of his description is based on his own first-hand observation of the situation in Florence. Having described the pandemic as an observer who lived through it, he then describes a fictional group of young friends who take refuge outside the city and pass their time telling stories. Does that sound familiar? We can learn a lot about the plague of 1348 by reading Boccaccio’s introduction, and a lot about life on the Italian peninsula during the early modern period by reading those fictional stories.

 

1) This week, please read through page 29of Boccaccio’s Decameron, using the free online version linked below. Scroll down to the “Proem” and begin there, reading through to page 29. Then, choose two of the stories – Boccaccio calls them “Novels” – to read and reflect on. After reading, write a blog post with two components: a) Compare/Contrast the experience of the Black Death as Boccaccio describes it in the introduction with your experience of the pandemic we are living through today; and b) Summarize the two stories you chose and explain what insight into early modern life you gained by reading them.

 

https://flc.ahnu.edu.cn/__local/7/E7/75/6AB8DEBA692DD0CF6790CA70701_26DE4EC2_17EED4.pdf?e=.pdf

 

2) For extra credit, you can record yourself telling one of the stories. Post the recording to YouTube or your other go-to online media site, and include the link to your recording on your blog post.

 

3) If you have not yet sent me your blog link, please do that ASAP so you can get started participating in the class.

 

Have a great week, and enjoy the reading!

Introduction

"You’ll do a lot of sharing of ideas this semester as we examine the Modern world from multiple points of view. Let’s begin, then, by reflecting on yourself as an individual (a rather Modern concept)… how do you think? how do you learn? who are you?Reflect on yourself as person situated in space and time… what is the context of your life? how has your adjustment to pandemic life been? how has the person you are been conditioned by the place and time in which you experience existence? Reflect on your personal journey (also a rather Modern concept)… where is there movement in your life? where is there stasis? what are your aspirations, and do you see them playing out in a world you would describe as “modern”? You don’ have to answer all of these questions… they are just a way to get you thinking about how you might introduce yourself in the context of a class on modern times."

Who am I? What kind of a question is that?!? But since I asked you guys to answer it, I should do the same. I am a teacher, a pilot, a meditator, a friend, a mom, sometimes a life coach, it would seem... I spend a lot of time thinking and I confess I have two different modes: solo, quiet thinking and dynamic, interactive, classroom-style thinking. I am going to miss the classroom environment this last year of my long career at NDNU because I love the way my students' contributions to classroom discussions can send my thoughts in new and unexpected directions. You'll do that in the online environment as well, but there's something special about the energy of a classroom. 

I feel privileged and daunted at the same time to be living in the present. As I grew up, the "environmental movement" was just beginning. People scoffed at "tree huggers" without making the connection that loving a tree is loving the planet is loving humanity is loving oneself. I was certainly one of those people with limited consciousness but no bad intent. We were so unaware, and that was only a few years ago in the grand scheme of things. Now it is so clear to me that the so-called environmental movement is a movement inward, not outward... a recognition of the co-equality of all living beings... that tree really did deserve a hug after all, and in its way, it hugged back. In fact, if anything can save humanity, it will be that tree. What generosity. Is it any wonder people cried these past few weeks as they helplessly watched our local forests and preserves go up in smoke? So as a person situated in space (California) and time (2020), I find the world challenging and also full of promise. Another way of feeling situated is that I am convinced we are living through an era-shift from what we call "modernity" to the next-thing for human civilizations. We don't exactly know what that will be yet, but if we survive as a species, it will be because the future is good, because we have learned to live as more appreciative and humble inhabitants of this extraordinary planet. 

My personal journey? Very much TBD. I find myself at a point of transition a little earlier than I'd planned, but I have for several years been saving for and developing a hermitage retreat in far northeastern California. This retreat, for myself but also for others who need a quiet place to reconnect with their natural selves, is going to be done sooner because of the accelerated timeline for my transition which was brought upon me by the changes at my beloved NDNU. I don't feel there is stasis anywhere in my life... rather everything is in flux. I think a lot of people are feeling this way right now. What an incredible thing we are living through. 

My aspirations. To be a good human being. To be helpful. To nurture and encourage people's love for the planet. To play a constructive role in whatever after-modern-era reality may be at hand, for surely we have seen this one through to the end.