Imagined Realities

The Human Quest for Meaning

Stephen Felder,Professor of History and Humanities

I.V.C.

• Ph.D. in History from UCI

• Teaching Humanities, History, and Classics at . . .– UCI– Scripps College– UCR– CSULB

Imagined Realities

The Human Quest for Meaning

What is the Humanities?

The humanities curriculum integrates the study of history, literature, philosophy, and the arts in an effort to address the

fundamental questions of

cultural meaning and value

common to humanistic fields and methods.

--IVC Catalogue Description

The curriculum emphasizes the close study of a variety of cultural texts, artifacts, and events in order to explore not only traditional assertions

regarding the values of culture but also the criticism of those assertions, in a historical as well as contemporary light.

So this semester you’ll develop skills in

reading

analyzing

interpreting

defining

explicating

arguing

with . . .

philosophical texts

mythological tales

personal narratives

historical arguments

feature films

artistic representations

fictional stories

After the leaves have fallen, we return

To a plain sense of things. It is as if

We had come to an end of the imagination,

Inanimate in an inert savoir.

It is difficult even to choose the adjective

For this blank cold, this sadness without cause.

The great structure has become a minor house.

No turban walks across the lessened floors.

The greenhouse never so badly needed paint.

The chimney is fifty years old and slants to one side.

A fantastic effort has failed, a repetition

In a repetitiousness of men and flies.

Yet the absence of the imagination had

Itself to be imagined. The great pond,

The plain sense of it, without reflections, leaves,

Mud, water like dirty glass, expressing silence

Of a sort, a silence of a rat come out to see,

The great pond and its waste of the lilies, all this

Had to be imagined as an inevitable knowledge,

Required, as a necessity requires.

The Plain Sense of Things

by Wallace Stevens

savoir = (Fr.) knowledge

inert:

(OED):

1. a. Of matter and material things: Having no inherent power of action, motion, or resistance; inactive, inanimate; having the property of INERTIA.

2. Of persons, animals, and (transf.) moving things: Inactive, sluggish, slow, not inclined for or capable of action. Also of mental faculties.

After the leaves have fallen, we return

To a plain sense of things. It is as if

We had come to an end of the imagination,

Inanimate in an inert savoir.

No turban walks across the lessened floors.

OED: 5. To lower the dignity, position, or character of; to humble; to degrade, demean. Obs.

It is difficult even to choose the adjective

For this blank cold, this sadness without cause.

The great structure has become a minor house.

No turban walks across the lessened floors.

After the leaves have fallen, we return

To a plain sense of things. It is as if

We had come to an end of the imagination,

Inanimate in an inert savoir.

It is difficult even to choose the adjective

For this blank cold, this sadness without cause.

The great structure has become a minor house.

No turban walks across the lessened floors.

The greenhouse never so badly needed paint.

The chimney is fifty years old and slants to one side.

A fantastic effort has failed, a repetition

In a repetitiousness of men and flies.

After the leaves have fallen, we return

To a plain sense of things. It is as if

We had come to an end of the imagination,

Inanimate in an inert savoir.

It is difficult even to choose the adjective

For this blank cold, this sadness without cause.

The great structure has become a minor house.

No turban walks across the lessened floors.

The greenhouse never so badly needed paint.

The chimney is fifty years old and slants to one side.

A fantastic effort has failed, a repetition

In a repetitiousness of men and flies.

Yet the absence of the imagination had

Itself to be imagined. The great pond,

The plain sense of it, without reflections, leaves,

Mud, water like dirty glass, expressing silence

Of a sort, a silence of a rat come out to see,

The great pond and its waste of the lilies, all this

Had to be imagined as an inevitable knowledge,

Required, as a necessity requires.

The Plain Sense of Things

by Wallace Stevens

After the leaves have fallen, we return

To a plain sense of things. It is as if

We had come to an end of the imagination.

Yet the absence of the imagination had

Itself to be imagined. . .

. . . all this

Had to be imagined as an inevitable knowledge,

Required, as a necessity requires.”

Imagined Realities

Imagined Realities

Dogmatism

Imagined Realities

Dogmatism

Relativism

Imagined Realities

Dogmatism

Relativism

Truth disciplined by imagination

Imagined Realities

Dogmatism

Relativism

Truth disciplined by imagination

Imagination disciplined by truth

Imagined Realities

Dogmatism

Relativism

Truth disciplined by imagination

Imagination disciplined by truth

POETIC DWELLING ON EARTH

CIVILIZATION’S IMAGININGS: THE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY

IMAGINING SELF AND OTHER(S)

IMAGINING ETHICS: ASKING QUESTIONS, DEFINING TERMS

“I know that my achievement is quite ordinary. I am not the only man to

seek his fortune far from home, and certainly I am not the first. Still, there

are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have

eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As

ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my

imagination.”

“I know that my achievement is quite ordinary. I am not the only man to

seek his fortune far from home, and certainly I am not the first. Still, there

are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have

eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As

ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my

imagination.”

What do I need to do in order to do well in this class?

• COME TO CLASS. . .

• Bring your book . . .

• Pay attention . . .

• Take notes, underline key texts, ask questions . . .

• Do the reading. . .

• Review for exams.

Who won’t do well in this class?

• People who don’t come to class.• People who leave early.• People who come late.• People who don’t pay attention

(worse . . . people who annoy the rest of us by talking to each other during class).

• People who don’t do the reading.

An email from a student:Thank you so much for giving me an A in your class. I still remember the 1st email that I sent you asking about whether or not I should drop your class since it sounded so hard the 1st day. Yet you emailed me back encouraged me not to drop it and you will do anything if there is ever any question that I need to ask, you will answer them. Thank you so much for being so there when your student needs you. Lastly, thank you for making something seems so hard be so understandable. Have a great summer and I wish you the best for your coming semester next year.

Another email:Hi Prof. Felder, I just wanted to write and thank you for the class this simester. In all honesty it was the hardest class I've taken since IVC but I think I have learned more from it than any other. I've never been pushed to read as much, even in writing or reading classes, and I've kind of re-discovered how much I enjoyed reading. I'll be working on a number of books this summer and some lower division classes before I'm able to transfer. I have the Beyond Good and Evil on the list too, I thought I'd take another crack at that. Well thank you, again, for the time and effort you put into the class and I hope I represent a lot of people who didn't thank you but learned a great deal from taking it. Have a good summer.

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