Honors
HNRS 384-01: Language, Thought, and Soul
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
doesn’t make any sense.
--- Rumi
This course explores human consciousness and its relation to language, thought, and soul from interdisciplinary perspectives including cognitive science, philosophy of communication, mystical poetry, and a variety of religious contemplative traditions.Students will explore questions pertaining to the nature of mind and the interplay between language, thought, and spiritual experiences as presented in Buddhist, Hindu, Kabbalistic Jewish, mystical Christian, and medieval Sufi thought. Topics for investigation will include, for example: the nature of thought and the relation between phenomena and categories of understanding; metaphor and movement from words to worlds; speech, silence, and the ineffable; grace, mystery, and transcendence; emptiness, time, space, and impermanence; koans, prayers, and non-conceptual knowing.
Texts for the seminar will include:
- Pinker, Steven (2007). The Stuff of Thought: Language and Human Nature
- Buber, Martin (1965).I & Thou
- Merton, Thomas (1968).Thoughts in Solitude
- Hanh, Thich Nhat (1995).Zen Keys
- Rumi, Jelaluddin(1984).Open Secret
- Heidegger, Martin (1971).Language, Poetry, Thought
- Carson, Anne (2005).Decreation
- Krishnamurti, Jiddu (1975).Freedom from the Known
- Jensen, Derrick (2000). A Language Older Than Words
- Bohm, David (1994). Thought as System.
Assignments for the seminar will include:
Ten weekly response papers. Each week students will craft a 2-3 page written response that reflects deeply on a question, idea, or perspective presented in the assigned weekly reading.
Final Paper: At the end of the semester each student will write a 10-15 page scholarly essay that theorizes the relationship between language, thought, and soul for a specific disciplinary audience of that student’s choosing. The essays will theorize a subset of key questions, concepts and themes from the course and apply them to a relevant conversation in a given discipline (e.g. comparative religion, cognitive psychology, communication studies, linguistics, cultural studies, philosophy, or literary studies).
Spring Term: 2008
Credits: 4
Fulfills: GE Requirement in Social Science (E)
Cross-listed: COMM-401-03
Meeting times: 3:00-5:50 T
Instructor: Lisbeth Lipari
Open to: Juniors/Seniors Only