political science 404/514 - fall term, 2008-09

 

Seminar on Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age

 

Don Carmichael

                                                                                                      

Tuesdays, 6 - 9 pm

 

 e-mail: Don.Carmichael@ualberta.ca

office hours: (provisionally): Mon - Wed, 2:15 - 3:30 and by appointment

 

 

Course Outline

 

This course will be a seminar on Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age (2007), concentrating on the argument of Parts 3 and 4 (“Narratives of Secularization” and “Conditions of Belief”) supplemented by Part 1 (“Identity and the Good”) and ch 25 (“The Conflicts of Modernity”)from Taylor’s earlier Sources of The Self (1989). 

 

The course was designed as a graduate seminar but it may be taken (with permission of the instructor) by undergraduate students with the appropriate background.  The course will not require any background in Taylor’s work but it is an advanced course in political philosophy and so students should only take it if they already done the equivalent of our 210 course and at least one 400-level seminar in contemporary political theory.

 

A Secular Age is an unusual and possibly controversial book.  It is long and complex, but the argument is easily accessible and readable.  But the subject matter (and the author’s own point of view) should be noted.  Very briefly, Taylor believes that we live in a secular “age” in a sense that specifically shapes what can and cannot be thought/understood.  H is concerned that in this way the secular age limits our abilities to understand the possibilities of a full life specifically as regards the intelligibility of religious, spiritual and transcendent experience. 

 

This is an important but rarely addressed issue, and Taylor addresses it with his customary insight, charm, and erudition.  He is also, at times, very frank – for example, he makes no effort to conceal his own religiosity. It must be stressed, therefore, that this seminar (and the book itself) does not require that students share Taylor’s commitments –or that they have any such commitments at all.  The work will be addressed in the same critical spirit with which, say, a Marxist might bring to a reading of Rawls.  

 

 

Expectations and Requirements

 

The course will be conducted as a seminar.  Participants will be expected to contribute actively in discussions and the seminar will be organized around the presentation of student papers.

 

I hope all participants will treat this as their own course and to make suggestions as to how the seminar might be improved.  There is, for example, an important balance to be struck between how much we cover and how deeply we deal with it. I’m prepared to revise this, and any of the other requirements, at the request of the seminar participants as we move along. Subject to any such revision, however, those taking the seminar for credit will be asked for the following:

 

1.       to lead a discussion on a selection of the omitted material. This material (about 280 pp) will be divided among the participants – who will be asked to make a report (summarizing the material and indicating its noteworthy features), and answer questions on it. 

 

2,  one brief seminar paper (3-5 pp) raising some issue for discussion in the seminar

 

3.   a longer paper at the end of the term. Unless other arrangements are made, this should be a critical review of the work -- capturing the logic of the argument and either assessing its significance or discussing one major aspect in detail). 

 

In addition, all participants should prepare for the sessions each week by doing a digest of the readings – trying to capture the logic of the argument and points of interest in the readings each week.  

 

Regular auditors (those doing the course but not for credit) will be expected to do all of the above except the final paper.  Occasional auditors will be asked to do a preparatory digest for the readings covered in any session they attend.

 

 

Grades                                                report on omitted chapters:   10%

                                                            seminar paper:                      15%

  final paper:                           40%

  contributions to the seminar 15%

  digests**:                              20%

‑‑‑‑‑

100%

 

* Contributions to the seminar generally means ‘oral’ contributions.  Alternative forms of contribution can be arranged for any students for whom public speaking is a difficulty.

 

** Digests are to be done each week before the seminar, but with two weeks off of yourown choosing.

 

Background Reading: as indicated, no background in Taylor is needed.  But if you want some background, I’d suggest the Malaises of Modernity, and ch 25 of Sources (scheduled for Dec 2)

 

 

TOPICS AND READINGS*

 

* as a rough preparation guide, the number of pages is indicated in parentheses

 

 

Parts 1-2:  The Work of Reform & The Turning Point

 

 

Fri, Sept 5       Preliminary (Organization) Meeting

 

 

Tues, Sept 9    A Secular Age: Introduction, ch 1 (89)

 

 

Tues, Sept 16 A Secular Age:  2.1 + 2.5 + ch 3 (all) +  4.1 - 4.2  (48)

                        Sources of the Self:  1.1 – 1.3 (12)

report:  Anton Szabo -- ch 2:  2.2 – 2.4 (90-136), + 2.6 (142-7)

 

 

Part 3: The Nova Effect

 

Tues, Sept 23 A Secular Age:  4.4 – 4.6 +  ch 8 (all)  (48)

                        Sources of the Self:  1.4 – 1.5 (11)

                                    report:  Jason Leslie -- ch 4:  4.3 (176-85)  + ch 5: all (212-18)

 

 

Tues, Sept 30 A Secular Age:  pp 346-51 in ch 9 + ch 10 (all) +  13.1  (43)

                        Sources of the Self:  2.1 – 2.2  (16)

                                    seminar paper: none

                                    reports:  Tanya Whyte -- ch 6:  all (221-269) 

   Nykkie Macaoud  -- ch 7:  all (270-95) 

   Nathan Litwin  ch 9 (322-51),  some of 9.1 and all of 9.2 

 

 

Part 4: Narratives of Secularization

 

Tues, Oct 7      A Secular Age: 13.2 + ch 14 (all)  (47)

                        Sources of the Self:  2.3 (12)

                                    seminar paper:  Nykkie Macaoud

 

 

Part 5: Conditions of Belief

 

Tues, Oct 14    A Secular Age:  ch 15 (all)  (54)

                        Sources of the Self:  ----

                                    seminar paper:  Anton Szabo

 

 

Tues, Oct 21    A Secular Age:  ch 16 (all) + 17.1 – 17.4  (47)

                        Sources of The Self:  3.1 (10)

                                    seminar paper:  Geoffrey Sigalet

 

Tues, Oct 28    A Secular Age:  17.5 – 17.8  (38)

                        Sources of the Self:  3.2  (14)

                                    seminar paper: none

                                    reports:  Geoffrey Sigalet -- ch 11: all (375-419) 

   Jessie Larter  -- ch 12:  all (423-72) 

   Marc Workman -- ch 13:  pp 486-95 in 13.1 +  13.6 (495-504)

 

 

Tues, Nov 4     A Secular Age:  ch 18 (all)  (35)

                        Sources of the Self:  3.3 (16)

                                    seminar papers:  Tanya Whyte & Jason Leslie

 

 

Tues, Nov 11   Remembrance Day holiday

 

 

Tues, Nov 18   A Secular Age:  ch 19 (all)   (20)

                        Sources of the Self:  :  4.1-4.4  (17)

                                    seminar paper:  Jessie Larter

 

 

Tues, Nov 25   A Secular Age:  ch 20 (all)   (45)

                        Sources of the Self:  ---

                                    seminar paper:  Nathan Litwin

 

 

Tues, Dec 2     A Secular Age:  Epilogue (5)

                        Sources of the Self:  ch 25 (all) (27)

                                    seminar paper:  Marc Workman