Week I:

Tuesday June 11, 2002

Introductions; remarks by Obermann staff; remarks by Depew followed by open discussion of key problems, concepts, sites, and moments in the constitution of the modern disciplinary structur.

Background reading: J. Christie, “The Human Sciences: Origins and Histories,” History of the Human Sciences 6 (l): l-12.

Presentation: origins of the concept of nature in natural philosophy
J. E. McGuire, History and Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh.

Background reading: Descartes, “Discourse on Method,” Parts I-II; Isaac Barrow, “Oration on Cartesian Philosophy” (l652)

Discussion: the idea of nature in the notion of human nature.
Based on common readings, facilitated by Professor McGuire, with remarks by Professor Gross.

Readings for discussion: selections from Descartes, Treatise on Man; from C. Taylor, Sources of the Self; Daniel Gross, “Melanchthon’s Rhetoric and the Practical Origins of Reformation Human Science,” History of the Human Sciences l3.3 (2000): 5-22; McGuire and Tuchanska, Science Unfettered, pp. 216-222

Presentation: Politics: Republican theory and rhetoric; liberalism and liberal theory; disciplining politics.
John Nelson, Political Science, University of Iowa.

Background reading: Hobbes, “A Brief of the Art of Rhetoric ” (1637)

Presentation: 18th Century French political theory
Claudia Moscovici, Modern Languages and Literature, Boston University

Background reading: Concorcet, On the Progress of the Human Mind, Part 10.

Discussion: from political economy to economics via physics. Based on readings submitted by Philip Mirowski, Notre Dame (Professor Mirowski is unable to join us, but is planning to contribute a paper to the volume). Convener?

Reading for discussions: Mirowski, More Heat than Light, pp. 106-117; 223-261.

Week II

Monday June 17, 2002

Presentation: The origins of biology: Paris and Göttingen, l750-1800.
Phillip Sloan, Liberal Studies, Notre Dame

Background reading: J. F. Blumenbach, selections from Elements of Physiology; Sloan, “Preforming the Categories.”

The origins of anthropology. Discussion led by Professor Sloan, and remarks on the notion of race by Professor Jackson.

Reading for discussion: Sloan, P., “The Gaze of Natural History,” from Fox, C. et al. Inventing Human Science; Zammito, J., Kant, Herder and the Birth of Anthropology (Chicago, 2002), chapter 6; Kant, “On the Different Races of Men” (1775).

Presentation: from natural philosophy to physics by way of social statistics: Tyndall versus James Clark Maxwell.
Fred Skiff, Physics, University of Iowa

Background reading: Herschel, J. “Quetelet on Probabilities” (1850); James Clerk Maxwell, “Does the Progress of Physical Science Tend to Give Any Advantage to the Opinion of Necessity (or Determinism)?” (l873); selection from Hacking, I., The Taming of Chance and from T. Porter, The Rise of Statistical Thinking.

Presentation: from natural history to evolutionary biology by way of social statistics.
David Depew, Communication Studies and POROI, University of Iowa.

Background reading: same background readings as morning session

Presentation: the rhetorical origins of the discourse of aesthetics.
John Poulakos, Communication, University of Pittsburgh.

Background reading: TBA

Presentation: Homer--The Very Idea: The Origins of Classical Philology
James Porter, Classics, University of Michigan

Background reading: F. A. Wolf, Prolegomena to Homer, xeroxed pages; A. Grafton, “Polyhistor into Philolog: Notes on the Transformation of German Classical Scholarship, l780-1850.”

Discussion: sites of modern knowledge: Humboldt and the University of Berlin. Professor Porter, Convener.

Reading for discussion: Kant, selection from The Strife of the Faculties; W. von Humboldt, “On the Spirit and Organizational Framework of Higher nstitutions of Knowledge in Berlin”(1809-10); Humboldt, essays on classical philology and Bildung.

Discussion: Nietzsche. Professor Porter, Convener, with comments by Professor Poulakos.

Readings for discussion: Nietzsche, “On Truth and Lies in an Extra-moral Sense,” “Homer and Classical Philology;” selections from “We Philologists.” Background reading: Porter, “Nietzsche’s Rhetoric: Theory and Strategy;” J. Poulakos and S. Whitson, “Nietzsche and the Aestethics of Rhetoric.”

Presentation: classical philology transformed by the culture concept, lingustic relativity, and textuality.
John Garcia, Classics, The University of Iowa

Background reading: definitions of culture, from Krober and Kluckhohn, Culture (l952), pp. 43-46; 115-124; a few letters from Boas; Briggs and Bauman, “ ‘The Foundation of All Future Researches’: Franz Boas, George Hunt, Native American Texts, and the Construction of Modernity” American Quarterly 51 (l999).

Week III

Monday June 24, 2002

Presentation: race and the culture concept.
John Jackson, Communication, University of Colorado.

Background reading: TBA

Presentation: the contemporary emergence of interdisciplinary humanities.
Christopher Kuipers, English and Comparative Literature, UC Irvine

Background reading: John Churton Collins, The Study of English Literature: A Plea for its Recognition and Organization at the Universities (189l); Snow and Leavis, "Two Cultures: And a Second Look" (l963). Web-site: Plans for Organizing the Disciplines at the proposed University of California, Merced

Discussion of the projected volume continued.

Seminar ends at 12:00