Classes

[brigdh]

This is my last quarter! It's so nostalgic except, no, not really. It's hard to be particularly sentimental about taking classes when I'll start again in the fall.

Art 205: Beginning Drawing. An introduction to basic freehand drawing, exploration of a range of drawing methods, media, concepts; emphasis on drawing from observation.

I've wanted to take this class since I got here, but it's ten hours a week in the classroom, and I've never been able to make it fit in my schedule. Good thing I don't actually have anything I need to take this quarter, and can therefore play whatever games with the classes I feel like.

English 576.03: Aesthetics And Ethics. While for centuries in the West the integral relation of the True, the Good, and the Beautiful has been assumed to be the basis for all meaning in life, within the modern age these states have appeared to have split apart, so that some consider aesthetic judgment (considerations of taste and beauty) to have little or nothing to do with ethical judgment (considerations of moral rightness), and vice versa. In this class we will examine whether this disconnection is substantial or merely apparent. We will ask what the relation of aesthetics and ethics is to one another in the way we evaluate works of literature. Can a work of art be aesthetically pleasing while morally repulsive or vacuous? Can a work of art be morally uplifting while aesthetically vapid? How do our moral presuppositions play a role in forming aesthetic judgment? Can great works of art or literature have the power to improve our moral and social consciousness, and if so, can there be works that do the opposite, and have a negative or destructive impact upon people? We will read theories of both aesthetics and ethics from past philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Kant, Nietzsche, as well as contemporary thinkers such as Wayne Booth, Noel Carroll, and Martha Nussbaum. To test out theories we will end the course by examining select literary works and a film.

But for my last class, I have a dilemma. I usually registrar for more classes than I actually plan on taking, and then drop the least interesting ones because I enjoy abusing my privileges as an early registrar, yes I do. But I can't decide which of these classes I want to drop; I like them equally. Well, more truthfully, I don't dislike either of them more than the other.

Anthropology 610: Ethnobotany. Introduction to the anthropological study of human interactions with the plant world.
Assignments: Midterm, Final, and research paper with presentation.
Other thoughts: Cheaper books than the other class, but a slightly flaky, boring professor. Probably not enough so to be a problem, though. There's a guy in this class who's in Speaker's Bureau with me, so I'd have someone to talk to, but on the other hand, I don't particularly like him, so I doubt I will talk to him. I'd say I mind being so antisocial all the time, but really, I entertain myself far more than most people I meet, so it's better for everyone like this. Cute-girl-I-had-one-class-with-before is also in this, and sat next to me and said hi.

Anthropology 640.01: Primate Behavior. A broad survey of living primates, major taxanomic groups within the order, diet, group living, mating strategies, predation, intelligence.
Assignments: Midterm, final, and research paper with presentation. Yes, exactly the same, because they don't want to make this decision easy on me.
Other thoughts: More expensive books, but much more interesting and funny professor. Cute-girl is randomly also in this class, but she didn't sit next to me.

[Poll #701231]



ETA: radiofreebanri has new scans up!

Comments

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I suppose, she's fine, I haven't seen her in a while...

The more important news is that the class which you all told me to take, and which I therefore did take, has a midterm tomorrow, and I am totally not studying. Like a good student. Yes.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hee! But no worries: talking with you is WAY MORE FUN than studying, believe me. I have no regrets!

*laughs* Camp is the best distraction from work ever.