Date Meeting Module Title Readings Additional Readings for Graduate Students Undergraduate Assignment
Graduate Assignment
8/25/15 1 Big Questions Introduction Christian, David. “The Case for ‘Big History.’” Journal of World History 2, no. 2 (October 1, 1991): 223–38.
9/1/15 2 What is Consciousness? Dehaene, Stanislas. Consciousness and the Brain: Deciphering How the Brain Codes Our Thoughts. New York: Viking, 2014. 1-‐88
Stadler, Max. “Neurohistory Is Bunk?: The Not-‐So-‐Deep History of the Postclassical Mind.” Isis 105, no. 1 (March 1, 2014): 133–44.
Cooter, Roger. “Neural Veils and the Will to Historical Critique: Why Historians of Science Need to Take the Neuro-‐Turn Seriously.” Isis 105, no. 1 (March 1, 2014): 145–54.
Quiz 1 Quiz 1
9/8/15 3 Environmental Deep Time David Christian and William McNeill, Big History, 1-‐138 Casper, Stephen T. “History and Neuroscience: An Integrative Legacy.” Isis 105, no. 1 (March 1, 2014): 123–32.
McNeill, William H. “Passing Strange: The Convergence of Evolutionary Science with Scientific History.” History and Theory 40, no. 1 (2001): 1–15.
Timeline of the Universe Assignment
Timeline of the Universe Assignment
9/15/15 4 Human Deep Time David Christian and William McNeill, Big History, 139-‐206 Brooke, John L., and Clark Spencer Larsen. “The Nurture of Nature: Genetics, Epigenetics, and Environment in Human Biohistory.” The American Historical Review 119, no. 5 (December 1, 2014): 1500–1513.
Quiz 2 Quiz 2
9/22/15 5 Historical Contexts Approaches to Human Nature Stenmark, Mikael. “Theories of Human Nature: Key Issues.” Philosophy Compass 7, no. 8 (2012): 543–58. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/doi/10.
Selections: Plato, Mencius, Augustine
Online Comment/Analysis of Primary Texts
Online Comment/Analysis of Primary Texts
9/29/15 6 Mind, Body, and Knowledge Selections: Descartes Selections: Locke, Hume, Kant Online Comment/Analysis of Primary Texts
PowerPoint Presentation for "Locke, Hume, and Kant"
10/6/15 7 The Geological and Darwinian Revolutions Selections: Lyell, Cuvier, Lamarcke, Darwin Online Comment/Analysis of Primary Texts
Online Comment/Analysis of Primary Texts
10/13/15 8 Race and Racism "What is Race?" Online Module Fuentes, Agustín, Jonathan Marks, Tim Ingold, Robert Sussman, Patrick V. Kirch, Elizabeth M. Brumfiel, Rayna Rapp, Faye Ginsburg, Laura Nader, and Conrad P. Kottak. “On Nature and the Human.” American Anthropologist 112, no. 4 (2010): 512–21.
PowerPoint Presentation for "On Nature and the Human"
10/27/15 9 Contemporary Debates How Does a Brain Work? Stanislas Dehaene, Consciousness and the Brain, 89-‐160 Smail, Daniel Lord. “Neurohistory in Action: Hoarding and the Human Past.” Isis 105, no. 1 (2014): 110–22.
Reading Worksheet Reading Worksheet
11/3/15 10 How Did the Brain Evolve? Stanislas Dehaene, Consciousness and the Brain, 161-‐199 Fuller, Steve. “Neuroscience, Neurohistory, and the History of Science: A Tale of Two Brain Images.” Isis 105, no. 1 (March 1, 2014): 100–109.
Reading Worksheet Reading Worksheet
11/10/15 11 Cognition and Things L. Malafouris and C. Renfrew, “The Cognitive Life of Things: Archaeology, Material Engagement and the Extended Mind,” The Cognitive Life of Things: Recasting the Boundaries of the Mind. Cambridge: McDonald Institute (2010): 1–12
Group 1:L. Malafouris, “Metaplasticity and the human becoming: principles of neuroarchaeology,” Journal of Anthropological Sciences 88 (2010): 55-‐56
Malafouris, “The brain–artefact interface (BAI)”; L. Malafouris, “Beads for a plastic mind: the ‘Blind Man’s Stick’(BMS) hypothesis and the active nature of material culture,” Cambridge Archaeological Journal 18, no. 3 (2008): 401–414
Steven Mithen and Lawrence Parsons, “The Brain as a Cultural Artefact,” Cambridge Archaeological Journal 18, no. 3 (2008): 415-‐422
Group 2:Nicole Boivin, Material Cultures, Material Minds: The Impact of Things on Human Thought, Society, and Evolution (Cambridge University Press, 2010), 181-‐224
Edwin Hutchins, “The role of cultural practices in the emergence of modern human intelligence,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 363,
Scheidel, Walter. “Evolutionary Psychology and the Historian.” The American Historical Review 119, no. 5 (December 1, 2014): 1563–75. doi:10.1093/ahr/119.5.1563.
In Class Group Presentations
In Class Group Presentations
11/17/15 12 The Meaning of Human Existence E.O. Wilson, The Meaning of Human Existence Quiz 311/24/15 13 Gene-‐Culture Coevolution Russell, Edmund. “Coevolutionary History.” The American
Historical Review 119, no. 5 (December 1, 2014): 1514–28.Harper, Kyle. “The Sentimental Family: A Biohistorical Perspective.” The American Historical Review 119, no. 5 (December 1, 2014): 1547–62.
Roth, Randolph. “Emotions, Facultative Adaptation, and the History of Homicide.” The American Historical Review 119, no. 5 (December 1, 2014): 1529–46.
Debates over Human Nature Visualization/Paper Rough Draft
Debates over Human Nature Visualization/Paper Rough Draft
12/1/15 14 The Big Picture What Makes Us Human? Dunbar, Gamble, and Gowlett, Thinking Big Reading Worksheet Reading Worksheet12/8/15 15 Conclusions Is There a Posthuman? (Online) Selections: Haraway, Hayles, Kurzweil, Latour
Video: E.O. Wilson and Katherine Hayles Discuss Human Nature
12/15/15 Final Final Project Debates over Human Nature Visualization/Paper
Debates over Human Nature Visualization/Paper