Human Records and Society

Instructor: Patrick Williams

An investigation of the social role of human records. The principal focus is on the role of recorded communication in the development of institution and traditions of knowledge.

OBJECTIVES: To enable students to demonstrate understanding of

1. the role of recorded information in individual and social development and action.

2. the role of recorded information in the creation and evolution of systems of knowledge.

3. the role of recorded traditions in the development of cultures.

UNIT 1	Communications Technologies. Readings: Ong, pp. 5-15, 31, 36, 78-85, 96-105, 130-132. Wolfe, pp. 135-164. See bibliography for complete citations.
UNIT 2	Information Systems as Biological Systems. Reading: Bonner, pp. 72, 96-108.
UNIT 3	Languages. Readings (to be read in order of listing): Vygotsky, pp. 1-11, 91-95. Mead, pp. 135-142, 149, 158, 162-164. Sullivan, pp. 303-335, 340-346, 363-373.
UNIT 4	Knowledge and Belief. Readings: The Koran, pp. 1-5, 11-23, 87. Armstrong, pp. 3-23. Waters, pp. xv-xxiii, 3-28, 37-43, 13-136, 168-187.
UNIT 5	Institutions. Reading: Wills, pp. 19-40.
UNIT 6	Recorded Traditions I. Readings (to be read in the order of listing): Koestler, pp. 19-65. Butterfield, pp. 29-48. Koestler, pp. 240-269. Menand, pp. 177-197. Dyson, pp. 1-10.
UNIT 7	Recorded Traditions II. Readings: Coontz, pp. 1-5, 15-18, 20-23, 145-149, 161-168, 177-181. Austen
UNIT 8	The Role of Recorded Traditions in Early America: Discussion. Reading: Hart, pp. 1-66.

ASSIGNMENTS:

1. Write a short paper (4-5 pages) stating your view of the extent to which Anne Sullivan’s reports of Helen Keller’s progress support the positions taken by Vygotsky and Mead. This paper is due July 24.

2. After reading chapter one of the Hart reading for Unit 8, write a one page paper comparing the roles of recorded information in the lives of 17^th century Massachusetts colonists and in the lives of traditional Hopi. This paper is due the day of the Unit 8 discussion (week 5 or 6).

Grades will be based on:

1. Participation, of which attendance at all class sessions is an essential part;

2. the two papers;

3. a comprehensive examination to be held the last day of class (Aug. 21).

Each of the above factors will weigh equally, about 1/3.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF REQUIRED READINGS:

Armstrong, Karen. Islam: A Short History. New York: Modern Library, 2000.

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. (Any edition)

Bonner, John T. The Evolution of Culture in Animals. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1980.

Butterfield, Herbert. The Origins of Modern Science 1300-1800. New York: Free Press, 1957.

Coontz, Stephanie. Marriage: A History. New York: Viking, 2005.

Dyson, Freeman J. The World on a String. New York Review, 5/13/04. pp. 16-19.

Hart, James. The Popular Book. New York: Oxford University Press, 1950.

Keller, Helen. The Story of My Life. With Her Letters and a Supplementary Account of Her Education from the Reports and Letters of her Teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1902.

Koestler, Arthur. The Sleep Walkers: A History of Man’s Changing Vision of the Universe. New York: Macmillan, 1959.

The Koran, translated with notes by N.J. Dawood. London: Penguin, 1999.

Mead, George Herbert. Mind, Self and Society from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1934.

Menand, Louis. The Metaphysical Club. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2001.

Ong, Walter J. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the World. New York: Routledge, 1982.

Vygotsky, Lev. Thought and Language. Cambridge: MIT Press 1986.

Waters, Frank. Book of the Hopi. New York: Ballatine, 1963.

Wills, Garry. Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.

Wolfe, Tom. “What If He Is Right,” in the Pump House Gang. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1968, pp. 133-170.