Honors Seminars Spring 2006 


HONS 181 33 “Cult Books & the Popular Imagination” 
Professor Meike Werner Dept. of Germanic & Slavic Languages 
TR 2:35-3:50 204 Buttrick

In this seminar we will examine classics from the canon of Western Civilization which achieved in their time the unique status of a "cultbook." We will read texts from Rousseau, Goethe, Lermontov, Nietzsche, Hesse, Buber, Camus, Kerouac and Christa Wolf, and will address the question of how and why these texts came to assume nearly religious qualities for certain epochs, generations, or ethnic groups. What crises or ruptures did these texts express? How did they constitute meaning? In addition we will also consider different cultural artefacts like paintings and film.
CPLE: Humanities AXLE: Humanities & Creative Arts


HONS 181 34 “Democracy, Tyranny and Anarchy”
Professor Robert Talisse, Department of Philosophy 
TR 9:35-10:50 CSC

We now live in an age of democratic triumph-- the principles, institutions, and language of democracy are to be found across the globe, and serious opposition to the democratic idea is almost extinct. Yet could it be that the age of democratic triumph marks a triumph merely of democratic rhetoric? What do we mean by "democracy" anyway? How does democracy differ from mob rule? Why is democracy better than tyranny? Why not anarchy? Philosophers since Plato have raised serious doubts concerning democracy. In this course, we shall grapple with these doubts as a means to attaining a better understanding of the nature of democracy. Along the way, we might discover that democracy is fundamentally unjust. Readings will be drawn from classical and contemporary sources.
CPLE: Humanities AXLE: Humanities & Creative Arts


HONS 182 14 “Neuroethics”
Professor Jeff Schall, Department of Psychology 
TR 2:35-3:50 316 Wilson Hall

As the discoveries made in neuroscience laboratories are being applied in legal, business and educational domains, unprecedented ethical questions are surfacing. Issues include physical enhancement of performance and personality, brain-reading for diagnosis or conviction, brain interventions for educational or legal reasons. For example, some have sought to use information about the neural basis of decision making through neuro-marketing. Consequently, neuro-ethics has become a popular and important topic; indeed, The President's Council on Bioethics has devoted attention to these questions. This course will consist of directed readings and group discussions.
CPLE: Science in Society AXLE: Perspectives 


HONS 183 32 “Ethics of Human Experimentation”
Professor Adriane Seiffert, Department of Psychology
MW 2:30-3:45 519 Wilson

Human volunteers are the backbone of much scientific investigation, including topics ranging from the medical efficacy of gene therapy to the psychological processes involved in decision-making. Most of us take this for granted, but the ethical questions surrounding experimentation on humans are profound. What does "informed consent" mean? How much information is required to accurately decide if the benefits outweigh the risks? Who decides what research is allowed? What is the appropriate balance of individual risk against societal benefit? How do we extend these dilemmas to unusual cases, such as children, prisoners or the mentally challenged? Do these issues apply to self-experimentation? Who is responsible when things go wrong and how do we, as a society, build a structure of regulations to support individuals rights while still producing the best research to help humanity? In this seminar, we consider the variety of domains in which human experimentation has become standard and the implications of its expanding domain. We will focus on research in Psychology and some of the unique issues that pertain to this research, such as the use of deception. Students are encouraged to learn about the science and ethics of human experimentation generally, drawing on cases and philosophies of their choosing, to express their opinions and summarize issues in their writing.
CPLE: Social Science AXLE: Social & Behavioral Sciences


HONS 182 16 “Science & Literature” 
Professor Richard Haglund, Department of Physics & Astronomy
Professor John McCarthy, Department of Germanic & Slavic Languages 
TR 1:10-2:25 204 Buttrick

This course is premised on the conviction that science and the arts are constantly influencing one another in the way we conceive the world and formulate our questions as we investigate it from various vantage points: empirical investigation, philosophical interrogation, mythical explanation. Our purpose is not to conflate these diverse sets of subdisciplines, but rather to draw attention how they frequently go hand in hand. The main text in the course will be Goethe's masterpiece, Faust. Parts I and II (1831), which occupied his creative attention for more than sixty years. It thus mirrors the cultural, historical, and scientific developments from ca. 1770 1830. Two other literary text, Goethe's novel, Elective Affinities (1809) and his short story, “Novella”, will be included since they are modeled on chemical and botanical phenomena. Collateral readings will be drawn from science, alchemy, the history of art, and philosophy to elucidate the numerous allusions in the literary works. These auxiliary readings will range from Goethe’s own Nature, The Experiment as Mediator between Object and Subject, On Granite, Toward a Theory of Weather, The Spiral Tendency in Plants, and excerpts from The Metamorphosis of Plants and from Theory of Color. Reference will be made to Newton’s Optics, E. F. Chladni’s acoustically produced figures, Sir Humphrey Davy’s experiments with electrolysis, Carl Linnaeus’s studies in taxonomy, and Darwin’s Origins of Species.

Goethe's interest in science dates from the mid 1980's when, as minister of mines in the Duchy of Saxony Weimar, he began his geological studies. These later expanded to include meteorological investigations (esp. cloud formation), optics, color theory, morphology, and evolutionary theory. His historical studies on science reached back to Greek antiquity and pointed forward to 19th century evolutionary theory. Goethe considered his Theory of Colors, in which he took issue with Newtonian optics, to be his greatest achievement.
CPLE: Science in Society AXLE: Perspectives


HONS 185 01 “What is Life?” 
Professor John Wikswo, Department of Physics & Astronomy
TR 11:00-12:15 6837 Stevenson (unconfirmed)

Physicists have been productively considering the nature of life throughout the twentieth century. Developments in theoretical and experimental physics have enabled us to examine in detail the nature and molecular basis of life. This course will look at biology and medicine from the perspective of physics and engineering, and vise versa, and will provide an understanding of the fundamental physical and biological principles that govern the structure and function of selected biological systems, the instrumentation developed to measure the properties and behavior of biological systems, our limited ability to mimic biological systems, and the ability of biology to fabricate complex machines that as yet defy copying. We will begin with an exploration of the role of physics in the origins and principles of modern biology, guided by a critical reading of Schrodinger's "What is Life," Watson's "The Double Helix," and Dyson's "Origins of Life". The course will then shift to a student-led web search, literature review, and presentations on biomimetics, bioelectronic hybrid devices, biomicroelectromechanical systems (BioMEMS), the origins of life, and artificial life. From this, students should gain skills in critical, quantitative analysis and an appreciation of the relationship between biology, physics, and engineering.
CPLE: Basic Science AXLE: Mathematics & Natural Science


HONS 185 06 “Mad Cow Disease, Alzheimer’s & Other Amyloidoses” 
Professor Gerald Stubbs, Department of Biological Sciences 
TR 1:10-2:25 U5 202

This seminar will examine the biochemistry and cell biology of the amyloidoses, which include the infectious prion diseases such as mad cow disease, and also Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, and many others. Although the focus will be on the molecular basis of the diseases, clinical and epidemiological aspects will also be touched upon. Topics will include: how do proteins fold and mis-fold? What cellular processes are affected by the formation of the amyloid structures characteristic of these diseases? Why are some amyloidoses infectious, and others not? Why is cannibalism a bad idea? Students are assumed to have completed Biological Sciences 110a (Introduction to Biological Sciences) before taking this seminar.
CPLE: Basic Science AXLE: Mathematics & Natural Science