ANCIENT JEWISH PSYCHOLOGY
AND ETHICS
Hebrew
Studies 376
Prof.
Jonathan Schofer
Jewish Studies 376 1352 Van Hise Hall
Religious Studies 376 Tel: 263-2835
Fall 2005 Office Hours: TuTh 11:15-12:15
TTh
Van Hise 583 Email: jwschofer@wisc.edu
We will examine ways that the classical rabbis of late antiquity reflected upon the dimensions of life that, in modern terms, fall under the realms of the psyche and ethics. What is the nature of innate or spontaneous impulses, desires, and emotions? What are the features of ideal characters or persons? How does a person transform from the natural or innate state to the ideal? How do these questions relate to ways of understanding the body, sexuality, gender, community, tradition, and God?
Our study will focus on two classical rabbinic texts – a highly influential collection of sayings knows as The Fathers, and an early commentary on that work known as The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan. We will also read material from the other ethical collections as well as the Babylonian Talmud.
In addition to rabbinic sources, we will address theoretical dimensions of the topic, and the course will also have a comparative element: in the final weeks of the semester, we will consider the ethics of early Chinese thinkers and consider similarities and differences in relation to rabbinic thought.
REQUIRED TEXTS
(books are available
at both the University Bookstore and Underground Textbook Exchange)
1) A translation of the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament (I will use the JPS version, which will be at the bookstore. If you have another scholarly version – such as RSV, NRSV, NIV – you may use it, but please let me know.)
D. Boyarin, Carnal
J. Goldin, The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan
P. J. Ivanhoe, Confucian Moral Self Cultivation
J. Schofer, The Making of a Sage
Course Reader (available at Bob's Copy Shop in
Please bring your readings and Bible to class every session!
REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING
1. Attendance is mandatory.
2. Careful preparation of assigned texts and participation in class discussions are considered to be basic aspects the course. You are expected to be involved actively in class and draw upon your knowledge of the readings. More specifically, homework assignments and exam questions will be linked to class lectures and discussions.
2. Homework (20%) – Short (3-page) papers will be due on October 18 and December 1, addressing readings, lectures, and discussions. No email submissions will be accepted. Please note that October 18 is the first day of Sukkot, so if you observe the day, you should hand in the paper early.
This is the policy regarding late homework:
If you hand it in up to one class session late,
the grade
will be reduced half a letter (A to
If you hand it in between one session and one week late, the grade will be reduced a full letter (A to B, AB to BC, etc.).
After that, and until the final exam, you can hand it in, but the grade will be reduced two full letters (A to C, AB to D, B to D, and lower grades will be an F).
This is the policy regarding plagiarism:
Cases of academic misconduct will be reported to the dean and dealt with according to University Policy on plagiarism (see www.wisc.edu/students/amsum.htm).
3. Midterm (30%) – An in-class midterm will be given on November 3.
4. Final Exam (50%) –
The take-home Final Exam will be an essay.
I will give you a few questions, and you will choose one. I will give you the questions and more
specific guidelines in the last week of class.
It is due on Thursday December 22 at
5. Your email address with the university must be current, or you should inform me of an appropriate one to add to the class email list. On a regular basis, I will send out worksheets by email to help you through the readings. Generally speaking, the worksheets are your guidelines in preparing for class. The lectures/discussions will build upon the worksheets, and homework and tests will be drawn from the worksheets and class sessions.
6. You may sign up for honors credit, which can be a very productive way of exploring your own interests in relation to the topics of the course. If you do so, it is your responsibility to talk with me and arrange your honors work (students who sign up for honors credit and do not do the work will receive a grade of "Q" at the end of the semester until the honors credit is dropped).
SCHEDULE
Introduction
(Sept. 6)
A First
Look at Rabbinic Ethical Literature
Sept. 8
Boyarin, Carnal Israel, xi, 16-18, 23-25
Schofer, The Making of a Sage, 3-7, 30-33, 42-48
Sept. 13
"Chapters of the Fathers," chapter 1, in Goldin, Rabbi Nathan, 231-232
Goldin, Rabbi Nathan, 3-6 (with Schofer, Making of a Sage, 72-74)
Theoretical
Frameworks – What is Ethics?
Sept. 15
Schofer, Making of a Sage, vii-x, 9-11
Foucault, Use of Pleasure, 25-32 (Reader)
Yearley, Mencius and Aquinas, 6-13 (Reader)
The Body (a):
the animal and the grotesque
Sept. 20, 22, 27
Boyarin, Carnal
Schofer, "The Beastly Body in Rabbinic Self-Formation" (Reader)
Goldin, Rabbi Nathan, 152-153
Goldin, Rabbi Nathan, 93-94 (read with Schofer, Making of a Sage, 148-151)
Goldin, Rabbi Nathan, 117 (bottom),125-128, 168 (middle), 171 (bottom)
Babylonian Talmud, excerpts from Bablyonian Talmud Berakhot 61a-b (Reader)
Becker, Denial of Death, 25-37 (Reader)
Boyarin, Carnal
Babylonian Talmud, Derekh Eretz Rabbah, chapters 7-11 (Reader)
Bablyonian Talmud Berakhot 61b-62b
The Body (b):
gender and sexuality
Sept. 29, Oct. 6, Oct. 11 (no class Oct. 4 –
Rosh
Ha-Shanah)
Boyarin, Carnal
Goldin, Rabbi Nathan, 8-16
Schofer, Making of a Sage, 36-38 (on gender), 75-76 (on Adam's fence)
Saldarini, Rabbi Nathan, Version B, 29-37, 74-84, 249-254 (Reader)
Goldin, Rabbi Nathan, 16-26, 112 (saying of Rabbi Akiba)
Schofer, Making of a Sage, 74-83
Boyarin, Carnal
Oct. 13 – no
class – Yom Kippur
Paper due
Oct 18 (please note that this is the start
of Sukkot, so if you are observing the day, you should hand the paper
in early)
Basic
Impulses
(yetzer)
Oct. 18, 20 (paper due Oct. 18)
Freud, "The Dissection of the Psychical Personality" (Reader)
Goldin, Rabbi Nathan, 82-87 (read with Schofer, Making of a Sage, 84-90, 95-98, 100-101, 106-115)
Oct. 25, 27
Goldin, Rabbi Nathan, 101 (read with Schofer, Making of a Sage, 98-100)
Goldin, Rabbi Nathan, 130 (read with Schofer, Making of a Sage, 103-105)
Boyarin, Carnal
Babylonian Talmud, Sukkah 51a-52b (Reader)
Synthesis
and
Review (Nov. 1)
Midterm
(Nov. 3)
Teachers and Peers
Nov. 8, 10
Hadot, "The Figure of Socrates," 147 (Reader)
Levine, The Rabbinic Class, 43-71 (Reader)
Schofer, Making of a Sage, 49-53
Goldin, Rabbi Nathan, 40-46
Babylonian Talmud, Derekh Eretz Zuta, chapters 5-8 (Reader)
Tradition
(Torah)
Nov. 15, 17
Schofer, Making of a Sage, 57-64, 67-70, 90-95, 102-103, 150-151 (also, review pages 67-119 as a unit – you have read most all of it all by now, but in small parts)
Boyarin, Carnal
Nov. 22 – no class (I will be attending the
annual
meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature) – we will make up this
session
with an evening dinner to be scheduled for the later part of the
semester
Nov. 24 – no class – Thanksgiving
Paper due
Dec. 1 ß
God and Divine Justice
Nov. 29, Dec. 1 (paper due Dec. 1)
Schofer, Making of a Sage, 121-146
Goldin, Rabbi Nathan, 70 middle, 88-89, 105-106, 115, 158-163, 163-164
Schofer, Making of a Sage, 147-165
Goldin, Rabbi Nathan, 39, 58 (top), 93-95
A Comparative Case:
Confucian Self-Cultivation
Dec. 6, 8, 13
Ivanhoe, Confucian Moral Self Cultivation, ix-xviii, 1-28
Mencius, 1A7, 2A2, 2A6, 6A6, 6A7, 6A8, 6A9, 6A14, 6A15, 7A15, 7B26 (Reader)
Ivanhoe, Confucian Moral Self Cultivation, 29-42, 101-104
Schofer, "Virtues in Xunzi's Thought" (Reader)
Hsün Tzu, 89-111 (Reader)
What's the
Point?
Dec.
15
Review and Synthesis
If you have trouble accessing this page, contact: Chris Dargis (cadargis@wisc.edu)
Latest revision date: 8/23/2005 (cad)