21L.449 | Spring 2002 | Undergraduate

End of Nature

Calendar

LEC # TOPICS KEY DATES
1 Introduction: The Image of Nature in Genesis.  
2 Forster, E. M. “The Machine Stops.”  
3

Ancient Views of Nature: Aristotle. Physics. Bk II.

Cicero. Excerpt from On the Gods: The Discourse of Balbus.

 
4

Montaigne. “On Cannibals.”

Bacon, Francis. “The New Atlantis.”

Drayton. To the Virginia Voyage.

Marvell. Bermudas.

Shakespeare. The Tempest.

 
5 Shakespeare. The Tempest. (continued)  
6 Defoe. Robinson Crusoe.  
7 Defoe. Robinson Crusoe. (continued)  
8

Linnaeus. Excerpts from The Economy of Nature.

White, Gilbert. Excerpt from The Natural History of Selbourne.

Hume, David. Excerpts from Dialogues on Natural Religion.

 
9 Hume, David. Dialogues on Natural Religion. (continued)  
10 Rousseau. Excerpts from On the Origins of Inequality. FIRST PAPER DUE (five pages)
11

Rousseau. Excerpts from On the Origins of Inequality. (continued)

Wordsworth. Selections from The Prelude.

 
12 Wordsworth. Selections from The Prelude. (continued)  
13 Wordsworth. Selections from The Prelude. (continued)  
14 Thoreau, Henry David. Excerpts from Walden.  
15 Thoreau, Henry David. Excerpts from Walden. (continued)  
16

Thoreau, Henry David. Excerpts from Walden. (continued)

Keats. The Grasshopper and the Cricket, To Autumn.

 
17 Darwin. Selections from On the Origin of Species.  
18 Darwin. Selections from On the Origin of Species. (continued)
Frost, Robert. Design, Come In, The Most of It.
SECOND PAPER DUE (six pages)
19 Wells, H. G. The Island of Dr. Moreau.  
20 Wells. Selections from On the Origin of Species. (continued)  
21

Huxley, T. H. “Evolution and Ethics.”

Hardin, Garret. “The Tragedy of the Commons.”

 
22 Williams, George. “A Sociobiological Expansion of ‘Evolution and Ethics’.”  
23 Faulkner, William. “The Bear.” In Go Down, Moses.  
24

Faulkner. Selections from On the Origin of Species. (continued)

Leopold, Aldo. “The Land Ethic.”

 
25 Le Guin, Ursula K. “Vaster Than Empires and More Slow.”  
26

Midgley, Mary. “Duties Concerning Islands.”

Callicot, J. Baird. “Animal Liberation.”

FINAL PAPER DUE (10 pages)

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Spring 2002