WREL 305 Revised Syllabus

WREL 305 Syllabus


August 27 and September 3: In the aftermath of 9/11, the Institute for American Values published an open letter posted on its web site by 60 leading American thinkers on the subject, What We’re Fighting For: A Letter from America. The thinkers who represented a cross-section of mainstream, Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish thought, presented an ethical perspective on the “war on terror.” The letter was dated February 2002. It is important to note that the letter was not a statement about or a defense of the Iraq War, which did not begin until March 20, 2003. The letter is required reading for the class. On the same web site, there is a letter from 153 Saudi “establishment” intellectuals, How We Can Coexist and a response by the American thinkers, Can We Coexist? Taken together, the letters show the vast differences in values between Muslim thinkers who do not regard themselves as extreme and the American thinkers who see themselves as coming out of a common Judeo-Christian background. (Both letters are required reading.)

Undoubtedly, the most important response is by Osama Bin Laden. He was outraged by the response of the Saudi scholars and wrote his own response, Moderate Islam is a Prostration to the West. This essay, with an introduction by Victor Davis Hanson, can be found in Raymond Ibrahim, ed. The Al Qaeda Reader (New York: Broadway Books, 2007), pp. 17-62. This essay is required reading. Because it cannot be found on the internet, I have ordered two copies of the book from Amazon.com and I have placed them on reserve at UB’s Wahlstrom Library for the class now that they have arrived. I highly recommend this book. Ibrahim is an Arabic-speaking Christian and is the head of the Middle East Section of the Library of Congress. Much of the material in the book has never before been translated into English. The whole book is worth reading. If time is a problem, read Victor Davis Hanson’s Introduction in addition to the Bin Laden essay. http://www.americanvalues.org/htm/follow-up.html

Also on the Institute for American Values web sites is Letter to America (required reading). The author is listed as Al Qaeda, but it was reportedly written by Osama Bin Laden and certainly had to be authorized by him before publication. Note that all of Al Qaeda’s letters are religious documents that claim that the attack on the World Trade Center was morally justified. There are none of the appeals to national interest one would find in Western sources justifying an attack; all values are represented as fully in accordance with the will of Allah. Finally, it should be noted in a course on Comparative Religious Ethics how vastly different are the systems of religious ethics in Al Qaeda’s messages from those in the American letters.

There is also a response by David Blankenhorn, Director of the Institute for American Values, Reading an Enemy: Analyzing al-Qa'ida's response to ‘What We're Fighting For’ (required reading).

September 10: Richard L. Rubenstein, The Cunning of History, Introduction, and chapters 1-6.

September 17: The Cunning of History, continued.

September 24: The Cunning of History, Norman, Preface, Plato, and Aristotle, pp. 1-40.

October 1: Norman, Plato and Aristotle, continued; .

October 8: No class. Assigned reading,Thucydides, "The Melian Dialogue" (See Blog) Norman, “Egoism and Altruism” and John Stuart Mill;

October 15, Norman, Kant, pp. 70-92. 7:30-8:30, Mid-Term

October 22, Norman, Hegelian Ethics and Nietzsche