Phil 90-10; CRN 4529
4 Credits
MWF 11:10-12:00
Professor Robin Dillon
Self-respect and a secure sense of our worth as persons is something most of us
need and want. But it is not something that everyone is assured of
having. Most people think of the lack of self-respect in psychological
terms, such as depression, and think that developing strong self-respect
requires something like psychotherapy or Prozac. But there is an
important social and political dimension to self-respect, which this course
will be exploring. The experiences of American slaves, survivors of the
German concentration camps, African Americans involved in the civil rights movement,
women in contemporary sexist societies, and gays and lesbians in homophobic
societies all testify that one effective means of oppressing or marginalizing
classes of people is to destroy their sense of worth as persons and deny them
the bases for developing respect for themselves. The struggle for the
liberation from oppressive political contexts thus also includes the struggle
to reclaim self-respect.
The aims of this course will be to gain an understanding of the connections
between self-respect, dignity, and oppression, to explore the tactics oppressed
peoples have used to liberate themselves by liberating their self-respect, and
to improve our understanding of ourselves, our places in the moral world, and
our responsibilities to ourselves and each other. (HU)
Course materials
Dillon, Robin S. ed., Dignity, Character and Self-Respect (an anthology which contains many essays by
philosophers on the nature and value of respect and self-respect)
Levi, Primo, Survival in Auschwitz
Washington, Booker T., Up
>From Slavery
Douglass, Frederick, My
Bondage and My Freedom
X, Malcolm, The Autobiography
of Malcolm X
Walker, Alice, The Color Purple
There will also be a number of additional articles to read, which will be made
available to the students by the professor.
We will also watch at least one film, Boyz Ōn the Hood. Other films may be added at student
request.
Required assignments
The course will be run primarily as a discussion course. Students will
read and write in preparation for class, and then discuss the issues raised in
the readings and by their thinking about the material.
Graded work will include:
1. 3 papers, ranging from roughly 7 to roughly 12 pages in length, which will
each address an assigned question about what the course work to that point has
lead us to think about the nature and importance of self-respect.
2. An intellectual journal, in which students write on a regular basis;
informal essays, reading notes with questions and comments for class discussion,
reflections on class discussion, etc.
3. One informal group presentation (in which the group teaches class that day)
4. Participation in class discussion
There are no exams. The third paper and last journal entry serve as the final
for the course.
Robin S. Dillon is an associate professor in the Philosophy
department. She is a specialist in moral philosophy and has published
numerous articles on the subject of self-respect. She is also actively
involved in the WomenÕs Studies Program at Lehigh and was the Program Director
for many years.