LDST 101-06 Leadership and the Humanities autumn 2011 Peter Iver Kaufman [email protected]; 289-8003 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From quotes to questions: Keith Thomas: “The humanities offer an indispensable antidote to the vices which inevitably afflict a democratic, capitalist society. They counter the dumbing down of the media by asserting the complexity of things . . . and they challenge the evasiveness and mendacity of politicians by placing a premium on intellectual honesty.” Really? Thomas has a rather ambitious agenda for the humanities. Can the humanities somehow take on the media and effectively challenge sly, evasive politicians? And How do the humanities put a premium on honesty? Aurelius Augustine: “Justice having been removed, what are kingdoms but gangs of criminals on a large scale? What are criminal gangs but petty kingdoms? A gang is a group of persons under the command of a leader, bound by an agreement or covenant that governs the association in which plunder is divided according to a constitution of sorts. . . . For the answer given by a captured pirate to Alexander the Great was amusing but true. When great Alexander asked why the pirate terrorized seafarers, the latter boldly replied, suggesting that his purpose and Alexander’s were identical. When I do what I do with a small vessel, he noted, I am called a pirate. Because you do the same with a mighty navy, you are called an emperor.” Does the anecdote prove Augustine’s point about government and larceny? If you were Alexander how would you answer the pirate’s equation? Jerzy Kosinski: “I aim at truth, not facts.” Don’t you need facts to get to the truth? What are facts? What is the difference between data and facts? Mark Twain: “It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.” Why all this fuss about truth? When fiction “makes sense” does it convey truth or make the truth any less strange? When you create fiction based on truth—historical fiction, let’s say—do you make the truth any more sensible? To take an example, do you find that fiction based on the careers of political, military, cultural, or business leaders necessarily distorts the truth? What roles do authors and readers play in making fiction “make sense”? Michel de Montaigne: “He who fears what he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.” We may like to think of leaders as fearless, and Montaigne would seem to be saying that fear is debilitating. You’ll soon read Franklin Delano Roosevelt telling followers that they have nothing to fear but fear. Yet, by “suffering” in anticipation the fearful consequences of one’s conduct and policy,leaders might avoid those consequences. Does that make sense? Might “suffer[ing] what [one] fears” make one a more competent, compassionate leader? Under what circumstances would fear, shame, and suffering be counted among a leader’s assets or virtues? Martha Nussbaum: “Nations all over the world will soon be producing generations of useful, docile, technically trained machines rather than complete citizens who can think for themselves, criticize tradition, and understand the significance of another person’s sufferings and achievements.” Nussbaum thinks that the humanities could and should serve as an antidote. Do you share Nussbaum’s distress? If docile citizens are useful and well-trained, should we object that somehow they are docile and therefore incomplete citizens? Is it fair to compare them with machines? How important is it for leaders to criticize tradition? Christopher Marlowe: “Might first made kings, and laws were then most sure.” So does power (“might”) always precede and determine (“make sure”) legitimacy? I suppose that if Marlowe lived into the twenty first century, he’d simply say that it takes clout to get the legal system to work for you, but would that leave any room for or allow any influence to morality? ------------ -------------------- ----------------------------- ------------ In this section of LDST 101, we’re going to raise these questions as well as others that you’ll find in the schedule portion of the syllabus. We do so not because the answers lay at the foundation of leadership studies. The asking does. The conversations generated by our asking should draw our various premises into the open, problematize some answers we may take for granted, prompt intriguing encounters with problems, with problem-solvers, and with a number of issues we might otherwise have left unexplored. We’ll spend a few sessions contemplating why we’re here (in a class on leadership and the humanities, at a university, at this university, and on this planet--three sessions should be sufficient). Then we shall consider whether and why we need leaders and try to find standards to measure the effectiveness and integrity of leaders. We’ll talk with some “old masters”--Machiavelli, Thomas More, Shakespeare. We’ll visit with folks, in fact and fiction, sifting problems and formulating public policy during this and the last century. We’ll look at the influence of race, rhetoric and magic that pose challenges for leaders and for those who study them. We’ll sift “moral revolutions” and see to what extent they were leaderless? But before you agree that this might be a good way to spend parts of your semester and strap yourselves into this challenge, attend to the next section on . . . Requirements and Grades Lively, informed encounters with our questions, obviously, require your lively and informed participation in class discussions, but I’ve never found a satisfactory way to “grade” class participation, save to deduct some points from the final grades of participants often absent and/or unfamiliar with assignments. Five classes will begin with quizzes during which you’ll be asked briefly to reply to a question about the day’s assignment. Your replies will be graded, and your four highest grades will constitute 20% of your finalgrade. Two mid-term examinations scheduled for September 23rd and October 26th count for 20% and 25%, respectively. The final exam counts for 35% of your final grade. The following should now be available at the university bookstore Robert Penn Warren, ALL THE KING’S MEN George Bernard Shaw, SAINT JOAN