WSP 200 Dr. Chuck HIll
What is Reality? Spring, 1996
COURSE MEETS: 1:30-2:50 Tuesdays and Thursdays
OFFICE HOURS: 11:00-12:00 TuTh in Science 205
or by appointment (call 907-4805 or 945-6051)
COURSE GOALS:
This course is an interdisciplinary seminar which draws on ideas from the humanities,
the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The primary goal of the course is to
encourage you to think.
The seminar will stimulating thinking by asking questions in relation to the following
issues:
(1) What is real? What exists - atoms, galaxies, unconscious drives, spirits, gods,
monsters? We will examine many differing views of reality, and will look for similarities
and differences among these views.
(2) How do we know or experience reality? What are the criteria for knowledge - sacred
texts, visions, authorities, tea leaves, empirical procedures, scientific instruments? How
do we experience reality - through rituals, dance, music, art, feelings, meditation, fasting,
praying, reading, reasoning, natural observation, surveys, experimentation?
(3) What is the origin of these beliefs and assumptions? Why do people believe or assume
the things that they do? Where did the beliefs come from, and how have belief systems
influenced other belief systems? Why and how do views of reality change? How do
groups affect these processes?
(4) What further questions are raised by these beliefs and assumptions? If the universe has
a boundary, what's on the other side? If gods exist, where did they come from? How can
spirits affect nature? Why do positive and negative elementary particles attract each other?
How does consciousness arise in the brain?
In this class we will push the limits of the questions that can be asked. We may not
discover the answers, but in learning to question ALL beliefs we will gain have a better
understanding of ourselves, our beliefs, and the beliefs of other cultures.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
a. Class attendance. Since the class is a seminar, attendance is essential. Two points will
be awarded for each day's attendance. These points will be added to your Reading
Reaction Report. If you do not hand in a report, hand in a sheet of paper with your name
on it to get credit for attendance.
b. Reading Reaction Reports. To encourage you to do the reading before class, and think
about it before the class discussion, you will hand in a short reading reaction report each
class period (except the first). The report will be one paragraph (half a page to a page), in
which you discuss your reactions to four interesting ideas or issues from the readings.
Where appropriate, these ideas or issues should concern things that the readings suggest
are considered real and ways of knowing or experiencing reality. Your reactions should be
in the form of comments and questions about the readings. They should not be boring
summaries of the readings. What did the readings make you think about?
You will not be graded based on what you think or what you believe. But you will be
assigned points based on the extent to which the reports indicate that you have read the
material and have thought about it. The most thoughtful reports usually ask further
questions that are raised by but not answered by the readings.
Thoughtful reports will earn up to 4 points. To earn full credit, the report must be
TYPED and handed in by the end of the class period. Hand-written reports will earn half
credit if turned in at the beginning of the class period, before discussion begins. If you
must be absent, you can hand in a typed report for half credit at the next class session.
c. Discussion Experts. Everyone is expected to do all of the reading and to participate in all
class discussions. However, each class period one or two students will be the discussion
experts. They will be prepared to discuss each of the following issues: (1) What is assumed
to be real in these readings? (2) How is reality known or experienced in these readings? (3)
What is the origin of the beliefs and assumptions in these readings? (4) What further
questions are raised by these readings? For each issue, the discussion expert will spend
five minutes commenting on the issue. Then the instructor will lead a class discussion of
the issue. These comments by the discussion experts should be stimulating analyses of the
readings, not boring summaries of the readings.
Each student will sign up to be a discussion expert for two class sessions (one from the
first half of the course and one from the second half). Up to 20 points will be awarded
each time a student is a discussion expert. An additional 20 points will be based on the
quality of participation in class discussions across all class sessions.
d. First paper. The first paper will be an analysis of the readings for the class session at
which the student first served as a discussion expert. It will be due one week after the
readings are discussed, so the paper can incorporate ideas from the class discussion. The
paper will address the following questions: (1) What is assumed to be real in these
readings? (2) How is reality known or experienced in these readings? (3) What is the
origin or source of the beliefs or assumptions in these readings? (4) What further questions
are raised by the readings? (5) How does this view of reality relate to psychological
concepts (such as stages of cognitive development, stages of moral reasoning, commitment
mechanisms, etc.)?
The paper may assume that the grader has read the readings. The paper should be about
5 pages in length, typed, double-spaced, with a staple in the upper left corner, and no
report cover. The paper is worth up to 20 points.
e. Second paper. The second paper will be a comparison of the readings for the two class
sessions that the student served as a discussion expert. The paper will COMPARE and
CONTRAST the two views of reality in terms of the following: (1) What is real? (2) How
is reality known or experienced? (3) What is the origin or source of the beliefs? (4) What
further questions are raised by the readings? (5) How do the two views of reality relate to
psychological concepts (such as stages of cognitive development, stages of moral
reasoning, and commitment mechanisms).
The paper may assume that the grader has read the readings. The paper should be about
6 pages in length, typed, double-spaced, with a staple in the upper left corder, and no
report cover. The paper is worth up to 20 points.
f. Third paper. The third paper will be an analysis of an additional view of reality not
represented in the readings for the course. Each student will sign up for a topic, with the
instructor's approval, and find source materials on that topic in a library. The topics can
include other religions, philosophies, scientific approaches, or ways of experiencing reality
such as dance, music, or art. The paper will describe and analyze the view of reality in
relation to (1) What is real? (2) How is reality known or experienced? (3) What is the origin
or source of the beliefs? (4) What further questions are raised? (5) How does the view of
reality relate to psychological concepts in the course?
The paper should assume that the grader has NOT read the readings, so it should present
more descriptive material than in the previous two papers. The paper should be about 8
pages in length, typed, double-spaced, with a staple in the upper left corner, and no report
cover. Sources should be cited using APA format. The paper is worth up to 20 points.
g. Paper presentations. Each student will give a 10-minute presentation on the topic of the
third paper, during one of the last six class sessions. Time slots will be signed up for in
advance. The paper will be due one week after the class presentation. The paper
presentation is worth up to 20 points.
h. Event Reaction Reports. Occasionally throughout the semester various on-campus and
off-campus events or visits will be recommended (e.g., Asian Night on campus, or the Hsi
Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights). When announced, two extra-credit points may be
offered for attending the event and turning in a brief Event Reaction Report which identifies
the event, indicates its date, and describes how the event presented a view of reality, in
terms of the four issues enumerated above.
Final Reaction Report. After you have written the reading reaction report for the last set of
readings, read through all of your reading reaction reports for the entire semester. What
have been the most stimulating ideas or questions that you have thought about during the
course? Write up a one-page final reaction report in which you discuss how the course has
stimulated your thinking. Hand this report in on the last day of class along with the reading
reaction report for the last set of readings. This report will be worth up to 4 points.
i. There will be no exams in the course. The time normally spent studying for exams
should be spent preparing for each class session.
TEXTS: Young, The World's Religions: Worldviews and Contemporary Issues
Lachman, The Foundations of Science
Kollock & O'Brien, The Production of Reality: Essays and readings
in Social Psychology
XEROX: All readings on the reading list that are marked with *
Additional readings may be assigned in class.
GRADING:
Course grades will be based on the total number of points accumulated. The possible
points for each activity will be as follows:
52 Class attendance
100 Reading reaction reports
40 Discussion experts
20 Participation across sessions
20 First paper
20 Second paper
30 Third paper
20 Paper presentation
4 Final reaction report
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306 (+ 2 extra-credit points for each event reaction report)
Note that one-third of the course grade is based on the Reading Reaction Reports, so
failure to prepare the reports would be devastating to your course grade.
READING ASSIGNMENTS AND DISCUSSION TOPICS:
Note that some class sessions will include additional discussion topics for which there
will be no assigned reading. Those topics will be reviewed in class; they should be familiar
to students who have had Intro Psych.
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A. PSYCHOLOGICAL VIEWS OF REALITY
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Feb. 8 READ: (no reading assignment)
DISCUSS: What is real?
How do we experience or know reality?
Course syllabus
Paradigms (Kuhn)
Theoretical Paradigms in Psychology
Hierarchy of Needs (Maslow)
Feb. 13 READ: * Ash, Group pressure
* Latane & Darley, Bystander intervention
* Schein, Brainwashing
DISCUSS: Perception as an active process
Autokinetic effect (Sherif)
Conformity & Pluralistic Ignorance
Social comparison theory (Festinger)
Reference groups
Brainwashing
Feb. 15 READ: * Goffman, The inmate world
* Kanter, Commitment and social organization
* Lofland, Doomsday cult
DISCUSS: Total Institutions
Utopian communities
Religious conversion
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B. RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF REALITY
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Feb. 20 READ: * Hopfe, Theories of the origin of religions
* Sagan, Cosmos: astrology
* Child & Child, Death and the Afterlife
Young, ch. 1 & 2
DISCUSS: Stages of cognitive development (Piaget)
Defense mechanisms (Freud)
Origins of Religious Thinking
Feb. 22 READ: * Hopfe, Basic religions
Young, ch. 3
* Tawa, Shattering the silence
DISCUSS: African indigenous religions
Feb. 27 READ: Young, ch. 4
DISCUSS: North American indigenous religions
Feb. 29 READ: Young, ch. 5
DISCUSS: Hinduism
Mar. 5 READ: Young, ch. 6
DISCUSS: Theravada Buddhism
Stages of moral reasoning (Kohlberg)
Mar. 7 READ: Young, ch. 7
DISCUSS: Jainism & Sikhism
Mar. 12 READ: Young, ch. 8
* Huston, China, chi, and chicanery
DISCUSS: Toaoism & Confucianism
Traditional Chinese medicine
Androgyny (Bem)
Mar. 14 READ: Young, ch. 9
DISCUSS: Mahayana Buddhism & Shinto
Mar. 19 READ: * Nielsen, Religions of antiquity
Young, ch. 10
DISCUSS: Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Zoroastrian,
Greek, Roman, Northern European religions
Mar. 21 READ: Young, ch. 11
* Asimov's Guide to the Bible: Genesis,
Satan, Hell, Circumcision, Jehova
DISCUSS: Judaism
Mar. 26 READ: Young, ch. 12
* Asimov's Guide to the Bible: New Testament Gospels
* Dart, Catholics raise contrary views on Jesus' siblings
* Dart, Soul dancing
* Sewell, Serpents and spirit whip up the faithful
into religious frenzy
* Lorie, Superstitions
DISCUSS: Christianity
Superstitions
The Reformation
Mar. 28 READ: Young, ch. 13
* Dart, Muslims turning to astronomy to calculate
end of Ramadan
* Curtius, Paying a high price for honor
* Birnbaum, The prison of blood
DISCUSS: Islam
Apr. 2 & 4 SPRING BREAK
Apr. 9 READ: Young, ch. 14 & 15
DISCUSS: The New Religions
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C. SCIENTIFIC VIEWS OF REALITY
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Apr. 11 READ: Lachman, ch. I-IV
DISCUSS: Scientific concepts: what is real
Apr. 16 READ: Lachman, ch. V-VII
DISCUSS: Scientific methods: how is reality known
Apr. 18 READ: * L.P.W., The history of science
* Trefil, However it began on Earth,
life may have been inevitable
* Larhammar, Severe flaws in scientific study
criticizing evolution
* de Waal, Bonobo sex and society
DISCUSS The history of science
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Kuhn)
Creationism and evolution
Apr. 23 READ: * Genoni, After 60 years, the most famous of all the
'Nessie' photos is revealed as a hoax
* Dennett, Bigfoot evidence: are these tracks real?
* Sheaffer, The non-amazing Kreskin flubs again
* Angel, Empirical evidence for reincarnation?
* Weaver, Air Force report on the Roswell incident (UFO)
* Nickell, Pollens on the 'Shroud': a study in deception
* Lait, Citron used astrologer, psychic, O.C. jury told
* Branham, Did the moon sink the Titanic?
DISCUSS: Studies of the Paranormal
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D. SOCIAL VIEWS OF REALITY
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Apr. 25 READ: Kollock & O'Brien, part 1
* Williams, Growing up black and white
* Cavallli-Sforza, How different are we?
* Wilford, Genetic 'Adam' traced to recent evolution
DISCUSS: Reality as a Collective Hunch
Biological versus social views of "race"
PRESENTATIONS OF THIRD PAPER TOPICS
Apr. 30 READ: Kollock & O'Brien, part 2
* Ingalls, Consciousness as a valid subject
for scientific investigation
* Chalmers, The puzzle of conscious experience
DISCUSS: Humans as Symbolic creatures
Consciousness in humans, animals, & computers
PRESENTATION OF THIRD PAPER TOPICS
May 2 READ: Kollock & O'Brien, part 3 (to p. 219)
DISCUSS: The Dynamics of Interaction
PRESENTATION OF THIRD PAPER TOPICS
May 7 READ: Kollock & O'Brien, part 3 (remainder)
DISCUSS: The Dynamics of Interaction (continued)
PRESENTATION OF THIRD PAPER TOPICS
May 9 READ: Kollock & O'Brien, part 4 (to p. 391)
DISCUSS: The Social Construction of Reality
PRESENTATION OF THIRD PAPER TOPICS
May 14 READ: Kollock & O'Brien, part 4 (remainder)
DISCUSS: The Social Construction of Reality
PRESENTATION OF THIRD PAPER TOPICS
FINAL REACTION REPORT DUE