Scribner Seminar Titles
Fall 2007
SSP-100 (044) Thinking for Yourself
Robert Boyers, Professor of English
What do we mean when we say that we value one thing more than other? Are there works
of art—movies, paintings, works of pornography—that are contemptible and ought to
be avoided? How powerful is the influence upon us of clichés, political formulas,
ideas that sound “advanced” or “correct”? What is the relationship between authority
and liberty? Is it possible to be religious and to be genuinely committed to reason?
In this seminar, we will confront the idea of modernity and reflect upon the difficulty
of thinking for oneself by asking these questions and others. Readings will be drawn
from such authors as Matthew Arnold, John Stuart Mill, Virginia Woolf, Jean Paul Sartre,
James Baldwin, Susan Sontag, Edward Said, and other contemporary writers and thinkers.
