The purpose of a writing class is to develop a meaningful thesis, direct or implied, that will generate a compelling essay. Most importantly, a meaningful thesis will have a strong emotional connection between you and the material. In fact, if you don’t have a “fire in your belly” to write the paper, your essay will be nothing more than a limp document, a perfunctory exercise in futility. A successful thesis will also be intellectually challenging and afford a complexity worthy of college-level writing. Thirdly, the successful thesis will be demonstrable, which means it can be supported by examples and illustrations in a recognizable organizational design.
Other Website: http://herculodge.typepad.com/
I taught Frankl’s classic about 5 years ago in my college composition class. While the students liked the book, I wasn’t satisfied with the way I taught it, but I feel compelled to give it another try.
I find the challenges immense, not the least of which are the following:
One. How do you convince your students that a book set largely in a Nazi concentration camp and that argues we must accept suffering and death as part of the human condition is in fact a life-affirming book?
Two. How do you teach Frankl’s main principle, that we must assert our free will, we must cultivate our inner life, and we must cultivate a mature, brave attitude in the face of suffering and evil without resorting to clichés and homilies?
Three. How does a man, that’s me, who is mired in cynicism teach the life-affirming principles in Frankl’s book without revealing hypocrisy? To be fair to myself, I would guess less than 1% of the human race adheres to the principles articulated in Frankl's book.
I wonder if the book will actually affect my cynicism this time around. We shall see.
Four. I find myself agreeing with Frankl's argument: to be life affirming, to be courageous in the face of suffering, and to cultivate an inner life that withstands external pressures, but putting these principles into practice is another matter. In other words, how do you apply these principles to your own life?
Final Thoughts
My main focus will be to show my students how people who whine and see themselves as victims in the face of suffering actually make their condition worse, so that their reaction to suffering becomes in many cases worse than the suffering itself. Related to that principle, I’ll try to show how that attempts to avoid suffering, actually create more suffering and not the kind that builds character, but rather the kind that builds narcissism.
As El Camino complies with accreditation process, we must have two hard copies of your final paper. The accreditation team will be randomly reading 1A essays from ALL instructors because 1A is a "core class."
Therefore, DO NOT EMAIL ME YOUR FINAL ESSAY. I WILL NEED 2, YES 2, COPIES.
If you don't turn in 2 hard copies, I won't be able to give you any credit for the last essay, so please take note of this.
Community Colleges throughout the state of California must provide English 1A Final Research Papers to Accreditation Team (people off campus) who randomly read essays to see if grade reflects consistent standards.
Final Essay Worth 280 Points (28% of Your Semester Grade), Essay 4: The Vegetarian Mythby Lierre Keith:
1. This research paper should present a thesis that is specific, manageable, provable, and contestable—in other words, the thesis should offer a clear position, stand, or opinion that will be proven with research. You should analyze and prove your thesis using examples and quotes from a variety of sources.
2. You need to research and cite from at least five sources. You must use at least 3 different types of sources.
At least one source must be a book, anthology or textbook.
At least one source must be from a credible website, appropriate for academic use.
The paper should not over-rely on one main source for most of the information. Rather, it should use multiple sources and synthesize the information found in them.
3. This paper will be approximately 5-7 pages in length, not including the Works Cited page, which is also required. This means at least 5 full pages of text. The Works Cited page does NOT count towards length requirement. (See Sample Works Cited page)
A word about intellectual rigor: Don't approach the essay with a preconceived thesis based on your biases and eating habits.
Rather, begin your essay with a tabula rasa, a blank slate, having no preconceived notions, and let your research and intellectual struggle determine your argumentative position.
Part Two. Reasons We Eat Meat According to Vegans
1. Family traditions. We learn what to eat from our family first and culture second.
2. Faith. Some eat meat because it’s encouraged from their holy book.
3. Some people crave meat. The vegetarian Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Eating Animals, admits he still salivates upon smelling barbecued meat. Some research indicates that animal protein is superior to plant protein and as such animal protein satisfies the appetite in ways plant protein cannot.
4. We’re able to compartmentalize. This means while we love eating meat, we don’t want to know about how the animals are killed. We go into a state of mind called “willed denial.” Another way of putting it: Our left hand doesn't know what our right hand is doing.
Vegan rock star Paul McCartney said “If there were glass walls on the slaughterhouses, everyone would be a vegetarian.”
5. We become convinced that the science backs up the idea of an omnivore diet, including meat eating, for optimal nutrition. Nina Planck, author of Real Food, and Lierre Keith, author of The Vegetarian Myth, are leading proponents of meat-eating. The human brain needs animal amino acids and fats. However, it should be pointed out these women do not eat factory-killed animals. My doctor supports their view as well.
6. Some people eat meat because when they tried to be vegetarian, they got super hungry and gained a lot of weight. It seems animal protein fills us up for longer periods of time. When we don’t eat meat, we “carb out.”
7. We live in a state of learned denial according to Masson, the author of The Face on Your Plate.
Part Two. Arguments for Being a Vegetarian or a Vegan: Humanitarian, Environmental, Nutritional (most controversial)
One. Argument of sentience. Animals feel pain. We should afford them the same humanitarian concern, to be spared from pain, that we afford ourselves. Part of the sentience argument rests on empathy. Should we empathize with animals’ pain?
Two. Danger of compartmentalizing morality. Can you be kind to humans but cruel to animals? Or is there a link? And if there is no link, are we dealing with disassociative personality disorder? How does that speak to integrity?
Three. The argument of Carnism or speciesism, which says we can abuse animals as we please or as we see fit for our perceived benefit. Carnism or speciesism is, according to many vegans, a moral flaw.
Four. The sadistic argument. A lot of “research” has predictable results and suggest an unconscious cruelty at the very least.
Five. Indoctrination argument. See Chapter 2, page 70 in Singer. See Eating Animals and the use of language.
Six. Farm factory argument. See Jonathan Safran Foer. 99% of meat comes from factories with all their horrors and abuses.
Seven. The Glass Wall or Willed Ignorance Argument. Also called Willed Denial. See Eating Animals and the use of language. The misuse of language.
Eight. The Efficiency Argument, which is in the realm of the environment. A meat-eating diet is more harmful to the environment than a vegetarian one.
Nine. The Nutritional Argument, the most controversial because of conflicting data.
Ten. The Story Argument. How we eat determines the story we tell to ourselves and our children. Our stories define who we are.
Part Three. Impediments to Being a Vegetarian or a Vegan.
One. Your family, on your side and your spouse’s side, are not vegetarians and to reject their meaty meals is in a way to reject your family, its traditions, its intimacies. You may even be scorned, shunned, and looked at as a “weirdo,” a misfit, and a malcontent.
Two. Your spouse eats meat so your not eating it carries implicit condemnation of his or her eating habits. Eating is part of your intimate bond with your spouse. You don’t want there to be a wedge between you two in this regard.
Three. Not eating meat and its place eating rice and beans and such, you find yourself eating more calories a day because a vegetarian diet doesn’t fill you up as much as a much as a meat-eating one. While some lose weight when they convert to vegetarianism, you blow up and become rather pudgy.
Six. You suffer from meat lust. Your most indelible food memories are the salivations that occurred during childhood barbecues. To this day, the smell of barbecued meats intoxicates you to levels of euphoria that you cannot deny.
Seven. You realize that milk and eggs result in animal cruelty so that vegetarianism, a relatively easy “lifestyle choice,” doesn’t fully absolve you of your guilt. You must be a vegan, and this entails an effort and a circumspection that you find too rigorous.
Eight. You and your spouse want children and read literature about the need for some animal protein to maximize fertility.
Nine. You hate to acknowledge this, but like Lierre Keith, you feel better when you eat some animal protein.
Ten. In the end, you find you’re agnostic on the meat issue, but eat meat only twice a month or so because you want to minimize your support of an industry that is cruel to animals. This flexitarian stance makes you feel better and minimizes the guilt that might compel you to become a full vegetarian. One thing you're not agnostic about: Factory farming is unacceptable. If you don’t believe me, watch the documentary Food, Inc.
Part Four. Jeffrey Masson's and Peter Singer’s Arguments Against Eating Meat and Experimenting on Animals
1. What is the initial challenge in advocating equal rights for animals? Being looked upon as a joke, a radical, and a freak. Other movements started this way but are now held as mainstream ideas. He uses the example of women’s rights.
2. Since animals and humans are not the same, what is the basis for equal treatment of animals? They are sentient beings, meaning they suffer, they feel pain, anxiety, trauma. Our empathy revolts at allowing cruelty to be inflicted upon feeling beings. As Alice Walker has said: “I know, in my soul, that to eat a creature who is raised to be eaten, and who never has a chance to be a real being, is unhealthy. It’s like…you’re just eating misery. You’re eating a bitter life.”
3. What does it mean when we say that animals, like humans, have interests? Rights are given to those who have interests, which includes the capacity for suffering and the capacity for joy. We don’t fret the fate of a rock that we kick because the rock has no interests. In contrast, an animal is not “unconscious automata.” All the signs of pain in humans are evident in animals: writhing, screaming, facial contortions, increased pulse rate, elevated levels of stress hormones, etc.
4. What is a speciesist? The overwhelming majority of humans are speciesists, that is they respect and acknowledge the interests of humans over other animals. Most humans are ready to cause pain to animals for their own benefit. We talk about the sanctity of human life but not animal life, for example. This benefit might include eating animals as food, hunting them for sport, experimenting on them for medical research, fighting them for entertainment, killing them for furniture, car seats, clothing, etc.
5. If speciesism is morally abhorrent, then can one be good in other areas? Or does the speciesism contaminate the entire being?
Part Five. Three Resources That Refute and Defend Vegetarianism
While vegans are sincere souls with deeply humanitarian concerns about the abuses animals face in factory farms, their plea for us to follow a vegan diet fails to be persuasive because it is too rigid and extreme to be realistic, it is nutritionally unsound, perhaps even dangerous, it assumes, erroneously, that the average person has the resources to eat a varied, healthy vegan diet, which is exceedingly costly, and fails to grasp the important lessons of human evolution, which are built on the killing and cooking of animals.
A more explicit refutation
The vegan argument fails on many counts, not the least of which are the vegan's dogmatic and rigid ideology, the vegan's moral inconsistencies, the vegan's ignorance of the needs of everyday people, and the vegan's ignorance of the relationship between animal protein and human evolution.
A refutation that supports vegans
While we have, as the above thesis claims, evolved to eat meat and while the vegan diet is too rigid and expensive for many, we must do all we can to embrace the vegan's humanitarian plea because the vegan diet is essential for our next stage of evolution, which is to eat in a way that saves us from the horrors of factory farming. These horrors include the disease that is spread throughout factory farms, the abject cruelty that animals suffer, the manner in which our abuse toward animals harms us morally and spiritually. Finally, let me conclude my thesis by saying that there are enough nutritional breakthroughs to make a vegan diet affordable and healthy for all.
A more explicit refutation of critics of veganism.
Those who dismiss vegan arguments do so at their own peril. They do so at the risk of denouncing their moral integrity; their moral call to treat animals with respect; their susceptibility to animal-born disease, and their foregoing the advantages of a vegan diet.
McMahon's Position Or How He Would Write an Argumentative Thesis That Addresses Keith's Book
While Lierre Keith is correct that many aspects of veganism can be unhealthy and harmful to the environment, her overall thesis that vegetarianism is a "myth" and is inferior to a Paleo-style meat-eating diet is too mired in egregious flaws and logical fallacies to be a worthy "meat-eating manifesto." Her first flaw is that she takes the very worst vegan habits and uses these misguided vegans as being representative of veganism as a whole. Another flaw is the book's over simplification in which Keith promotes the Paleo diet as the greatest in achieving health benefits when in fact any diet, either meat-eating or vegetarian, makes people mindful of what they eat, generating less calorie consumption, less processed food consumption, and, inevitably, healthy results. A related flaw is Keith's assumption that any diet can be a One Size Fits All Panacea that can be imposed on the entire human race. Some may flourish on a vegan diet; others may not and the same applies to the Paleo diet. Yet another flaw that makes Keith's book unworthy of manifesto status is the laughable impracticality of her wanting to feed our overpopulated planet in the primitive way of hunters and gatherers. While organic, farm-raised meat might be good for the rich and privileged, it is not realistic to think we can distribute this kind of boutique-style, "all-organic" animal protein world-wide, rendering her half-baked Paleo "vision" naive, starry-eyed and utterly preposterous.
Required Texts: The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner; The Face on Your Plate by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson; Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely; In the Pond by Ha Jin
Two 6-Page Research Papers (1,500 words): 300 each; 270-300 is A; 240-269 is B; 210-239 is C; 180-209 is D
Two 4-Page In-Class Essays (1,000): 200 each; 180-200 is A; 160-179 is B; 140-159 is C; 120-139 is D
Grand Total: 1,000 points
Reading and Writing Schedule
January 5: Writing introductions, go over course outline, grading, etc
January 6: Weiner Chapters 1 and 2
January 10 Weiner Chapters 3-5
January 11 Weiner Chapters 6 and 7
January 12 In-class 1,000 word essay. It’s okay to type at home if you have time
January 13 Masson Chapter 1
January 17 Holiday
January 18 Masson Chapters 2 and 3
January 19 Masson Chapters 4 and 5
January 20 1,500-word research paper is due in my office, PE4: I’ll be there at 5 P.M. First come, first serve.
January 24 Ariely Chapters 1-3
January 25 Ariely Chapters 4-6
January 26 Ariely Chapters 7-9
January 27 Ariely Chapters 10-12
January 31 Second 1,500-word research paper is due in my office, PE4. I’ll be there at 5:00 P.M. First come, first serve.
February 1 Ha Jin 1-60
February 2 Ha Jin 61-120
February 3 Ha Jin 121-178 (the end)
February 7 In-Class 1,000-word essay due. You can type it at home if you have time.
February 8 Consultations in my office, PE4.
Essay Assignments
Essay 1: The Geography of Bliss
In a 1,000-word essay develop a thesis that explains the wisdom the book teaches us about happiness.
Paragraph 1: Introduction
Paragraph 2: Thesis with 4 mapping components
Paragraphs 3-7: Elaborate on your mapping components
Paragraph 8: Conclusion, a dramatic restatement of your thesis
Essay 2: The Face on Your Plate
In a 1,500-word research paper, develop a thesis that defends or refutes Masson’s vegan ideology.
Paragraph 1: Introduction
Paragraph 2: Thesis with 4 or 5 mapping components
Paragraphs 3-9: Elaborate your mapping components
Paragraph 10: Conclusion, a dramatic restatement of your thesis
Last Page: Works Cited page with no fewer than 5 sources
Essay 3: Predictably Irrational
In a 5-page essay use extended definition and classification to analyze Predictably Irrational. Develop a thesis that defines the term "predictably irrational" by breaking it down into 4 or 5 categories (your mapping components) that you will illustrate with examples that ARE NOT IN THE BOOK.
Paragraph One: Introduction
Paragraph Two: Thesis with 4 or 5 mapping components
Paragraphs Three-Nine: Illustrate and elaborate your mapping components
Paragraph 10: Conclusion, a restatement of your thesis
Last page: Works Cited page with no fewer than 3 sources
Essay 4: In the Pond
In a 1,000-word essay, write a psychological profile of Bin, explaining how his desires for higher self-regard, power, and happiness are sabotaged by his own irrational faculties. Successful essays will use your personal observations that compare to Bin's self-destructiveness.
Paragraph 1: Introduction
Paragraph 2: Thesis with 4 mapping components
Paragraphs 3-6: Elaborate and illustrate your mapping components
Paragraph 7: Conclusion, a restatement of your thesis
College Policies and Objectives:
Students with Disabilities:
If you have a documented disability and wish to discuss academic accommodations, please contact me as soon as possible.
Student Learning Objectives
Students will compose an argumentative essay that shows an ability to
support a claim using analysis, elements of argumentation, and
integration of primary and secondary sources. This essay will be well
organized, follow proper MLA format, and be technically correct in
paragraph composition, sentence structure, grammar, spelling, and
usage.
Course Objectives
The student will be able to: 1. Read expository prose critically to distinguish between perception and inference, surface and implied meanings, fact and opinion. 2. Analyze the way arguments are presented in readings and the media. 3. Demonstrate the ability to organize and develop written arguments and compositions. 4. Refine writing skills developed in English 1A: focusing a topic, formulating a thesis, providing support, and developing unity and coherence. 5. Evaluate the accuracy and cogency of arguments by identifying logical fallacies and drawing inferences from readings and media presentations. 6. Formulate and develop arguments and critical theories about issues, argumentative prose, and literary interpretations.
Major Topics
Structures of argument: Thinking, reading, discussing. Evaluate data, credibility, and relevance.
Understanding and evaluating claims: Reasons, purposes, support, ambiguity, vagueness, complexity. Assessing credibility: Causal arguments, moral reasoning.
Evaluating arguments and explanations: Relevance, clarity, testability, and consistency. Identifying assumptions, developing counter arguments and justifications.
Writing argumentative, evaluative, and analytic essays: Prewriting, writing, and rewriting. Topic selection: Narrowing, evaluating validity and relevance. Developing parts of the argumentative essay: Strategies for organizing an argument or evaluation, including evidence, inductive and deductive reasoning. Avoiding logical fallacies.
Literary analysis: Evaluating point of view, inferences, and assumptions. Understanding diction, identification, aesthetic distance, and focus. Exploring rhetorical devices: Satire, irony, paradox, over-statement and understatement, evaluating authority.
Comparative analysis: Analyzing symbols, analogy, ambiguity, and imagery.
Deductive reasoning in expressive or expository literature: Recognizing assumptions in literary criticism and theory.
Political and advertising rhetoric: Slanders, euphemisms, innuendo, loaded questions, downplaying, avoidance, stereotyping, hyperbole, persuasive definitions. Information tailoring and the news media: Loaded language in reporting and advertising.
(Major writing assignments will consist of approximately 6 essays totaling 6000 words.)
Success in McMahon’s Class Is Predicated on Three Major Components:
One. Turn in 4 five-page research papers with correct MLA format ON TIME. Research Papers (all 4 of your essays) have a minimum of 4 sources, which can include Signs of Life in the USA, my lecture notes, interviews, and online sources.
Two. Do the reading assignments so that you can write a one-paragraph response that is cohesive, coherent and well developed in the five surprise closed-book reading tests.
Three. Show up on time to 90% of the classes. Missing 3 out of 30 classes is 90%.
Policies:
You can’t make-up reading exams. Points are irretrievably lost. This policy encourages class attendance.
Late Papers: I don’t accept late papers more than one week after the original due date and I reduce a full grade; no late papers accepted once new set of essays is due.
Research Papers should be approximately 1,200 words, 12 font, Times New Roman, page numbers, name, and essay title in upper right hand corner (headers in Microsoft View) and Works Cited should have minimum 3 sources and spacing using MLA format.
Revisions: You may revise ONE paper for 10-30 pts. depending on the quality of the rewrite. Revision must be turned in ONE WEEK after original due date.
Plagiarism Policy: If you plagiarize, steal previously written material and attempt to make it appear as if you wrote it, you will get ZERO points on the essay. For a rewrite, the HIGHEST POSSIBLE GRADE WILL BE A C MINUS.
(20 points deducted for not having headers (your last name and page number in the upper right corner of every page and 40 points deducted for not having a correct Works Cited page)
Attendance Policy: For 16-week semesters, students may be dropped after missing 6 classes for ANY REASON, including medical. For Summer and Winter sessions, students may be dropped after missing 4 classes for whatever reason, including medical.
Riding Policy: You cannot “ride” my class. A “rider” is a student who does nothing and tries to turn in papers all at once during the end of the semester. If by the eighth week of the semester you have not turned in your first two essays or are failing the class, I will drop you.
Etiquette Policy: If you’re text-messaging, receiving phone calls, privately conversing or studying for other courses during my class, you will be asked to leave the class.
Intro: Book's Main Idea: "I think the book has a simpler message: no matter how horrible your life's circumstances, when everything is taken from you, the one thing you still have power over is: how you decide to react to your circumstances. And that freedom to choose your response can never be taken from you." (Ed S.)
One. What is Frankl’s definition of “success”?
Being stripped of everything you have, including your dignity, and still being able to forge meaning out of your life. 10
He has converted his personal struggle into a mass movement because he saw the universal in the personal. 10
Embracing responsibilities that make you a better person; a person without responsibilities is like a child without boundaries; you begin to “act out.” Look at NFL football players who hang out with buddies who sit around all day. Bad things happen.
To be successful, the person must first see his life as a failure and a sham and believe he has nothing to lose before he embarks on a sincere search for meaning. He “has nothing to lose except his so ridiculously naked life,” we read on page 11.
Successful people don’t shirk away from the problem of suffering; rather they find meaning in suffering. Suffering is inevitable; therefore, any success as a human being must have something to do with suffering. Page 11, last paragraph.
The whole notion of success is not about power, title, economic class or conquest but on developing a certain character based on the inevitability of suffering.
He has found a “why to live.” See page 12 at the top. He must in other words have a purpose larger than himself. If his ego or self is at the center of his aspirations he is doomed to misery and failure.
Successful people have the power to choose their attitude in any given set of circumstances; they are never pawns or helpless in their attitudes, no matter how seemingly dire or hopeless. See page 12
Successful people are “worthy of their suffering”; of course, we must first know what it means to be worthy of our suffering before we can actually be worthy of it and that is one of the main objectives of this book. See page 12
Successful people don’t seek glory or happiness. The high esteem of others and happiness are indirect byproducts of us embracing our purpose, our responsibility and losing ourselves in an ideal that is larger than ourselves. For example, Frankl did not wish to build his reputation as an author and in fact wanted to publish the book anonymously so that attention was on the content and not the writer and paradoxically this book become his most beloved book and made him a household name in books that address the meaning of life. Therefore, the opposite must also be true: People who seek glory and happiness are the miserable people of all.
Two. What is Frankl’s idea of “false necessity”? We gradually amass comforts, material tokens, and conveniences and reach a point where we believe, consciously or not, that “we could not live without them.”
Cable, HBO, Showtime, NFL
TIVO or DVR
Leasing a new car every 3 years.
20-inch rims. Hell, I’ve reached the point where I’m saying what the hell is a car worth if it isn’t sporting 20’s, babe.
A house.
Home upgrades, smooth stucco paint, stone accents, Milgard gas-chamber windows, hardwood flooring, granite countertops, a kitchen island, Admiral kitchen appliances, vinyl patio covering, vinyl privacy fences,
Subscriptions to magazines we barely read.
iTunes account for music we rarely listen to.
Getting updated models of computers, iPods, HD television, faster Internet connections.
Camera cell phone with instant messaging and text messaging, different ring tones from different callers.
Watch TV shows that everyone is watching so we won’t be ostracized.
We hire personal trainers because we have no self-discipline or fortitude.
We buy crap at the holidays because of the pressure to get gifts that will makes us look generous and thoughtful.
Some of us get life coaches because we’re too lazy to figure out the meaning of life on our own.
Three. Dealing with suffering in a cowardly or noble way determines the “fate” of our character and our spirit.
1. We must realize we have a free will in the presence of evil, cruelty, and suffering so that we are not helpless victims subject to our deepest depravities of bitterness and nihilism. See page 86.
2. We must realize we have “freedom and independence of mind” no matter how grave the crisis that makes us accountable for our actions.
3. We must realize that the powers that rob you of your self come from within you, not from the outside world. See page 87.
4. We must realize that, as the concentration camps show, we choose the fate of our psychological and spiritual condition. Fate is not something that happens to us. We set our own fate into motion, establishing laws of momentum from our own moral choices. See page 87
5. We must realize that how we act will determine if we are worthy or not of our suffering. See page 87.
6. We must realize that the most important thing in life is to develop a spiritual freedom that cannot be taken away from us, for it is this spiritual freedom that gives our lives meaning. See page 87.
7. We must realize that the attitude we adopt toward life is more important than our creative passions and our appreciation for beauty. See page 88.
8. We must realize that even though the majority of humankind avoids suffering and death, it is precisely suffering and death that make life complete and gives us a sense of fulfillment and meaning. See page 88.
9. We must realize that to confront a crisis with bitter self-preservation degrades us into animals unworthy of our suffering. See page 88.
10. We must realize that we need worthy goals and a general purpose for living lest we suffer the despair of a “provisional existence” in which time becomes warped “black hole” from which we see no escape. See pages 91-95.
Three. What are the characteristics of a cowardly response to suffering?
To deny it as one distracts oneself through blind pleasure seeking.
To surrender to suffering and be a helpless victim.
Success as an unintended side effect to dedication to a cause larger than oneself.
Two. The assumptions of survival: sleep, grams of protein, calories needed. 35
Three. The theme of false necessity: we surround ourselves with comforts, conveniences and entertainments that we become dependent upon until we really “need” them.
Four: Choosing blindness or clarity of vision regarding our drive to live.
Five. The inevitably of suffering and injustice and how we can find meaning as an antidote to these afflictions or just say “screw it” and surrender to nihilism.
Part Two. Lexicon
existentialism: is to find meaning in suffering 11, 12: “He who has a why has a how.”
Last human freedom: to choose an attitude in a set of circumstances 12, 86
A human’s highest objective: to be worthy of one’s suffering 12
The futility of contrived success and happiness 17
Delusion of reprieve: no one really believes their lives are being taken away from them; we have an infinite capacity for denial. 28; 33 top: finally the denial is over and he erases his former life.
Infinite acclimation; 36; “man can get used to anything, but don’t ask us how.”
Apathy, beyond caring accompanied by learned helplessness; 42, 47
The roots of indignation; not physical abuse but insults about character; 44
Negative happiness; “freedom from suffering” with no aspirations for pleasure 67
Existential nihilism: 70
Logotherapy’s distinguishing characteristics:
Logotherapy avoids psychotherapy’s emphasis on introspection and instead focuses on finding meaning in the here and now. 120; Logos is meaning so Logotherapy is “meaning therapy.” 121
Logotherapy attempts to show the foolishness of will to pleasure principle and will to power (distinguishing trait) 121: It’s all about will to meaning.
Logotherapy avoids psychotherapy’s emphasis on frustrated instincts and sex drive but looks at frustration resulting from an absence of meaning. 125
Logotherapy discourages man from finding material luxuries and a comfort zone; instead it encourage him to tackle tough projects and causes that will give him meaning. 127
Logotherapy addresses the causes of boredom or the “existential vacuum” on page 128 and 129
Logotherapy shuns victimization and makes the patient responsible for his or her own meaning and existence. 131
Logotherapy is about finding meaning in the world, not in man’s head. “Dirty Hands.” A play by Sartre. 133
Logotherapy discourages the patient from “forced intention.” 145; the technique is sometimes called “paradoxical intention” top of 147; see 150-152 for sleeping example.
Logotherapy rejects determinism. See page 153
Study Questions
One. What is Frankl’s invaluable insight into happiness and success described on pages 16 and 17? People who pursue selfish ends betray themselves, their true talents in part because avarice and greed render them blind to who they really are.
Two. What was Frankl’s objective in writing the book anonymously and what forces made him change his decision? 24, 25.
Three. What preconceptions about survival are erased? 37
Four. What makes suicide such an ongoing temptation? 38
Five. What is the “second stage” of imprisonment? 42 Apathy and learned helplessness
Six. What important decision does Frankl make inside the camp? 69
Seven. How does Frankl set up the age-old debate between determinism and free will? 86, 87
Eight. What central question does Frankl ask in his book and how is his answer the thesis of this book? 87, 88
Nine. Why does one woman celebrate her impending death on page 90?
Ten. What fundamental attitude change do we have to make if we are to have purpose in our life? 98, 99
1A #4 Options for Spring 2007
First Option: Define "logotherapy," including the human struggle or crisis that it points to, as it is laid out in Man's Search for Meaning; then analyze one of the following films as an illustration of "man's search for meaning": In America, Central do Brasil, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, You Can Count on Me, or Murderball. Or you can see the film Hotel Rwanda. Structure would look like this: In paragraph 1, summarize the major points from Man's Search for Meaning, especially the points about logotherapy. In paragraph 2, your thesis, identify 4 ways, your mapping statements, the film explores the crisis of meaning and the appropriate response to that crisis. The following paragraphs should flesh out those mapping statements.
Second Option: Write an argumentative essay that demonstrates that Viktor Frankl, author of Man's Search for Meaning, created a new type of therapy, logotherapy and existential therapy, that are superior to the modern recovery movement, which sadly encourages narcissism. In paragraph 1, define the recovery movement and its weaknesses. In paragraph 2, your thesis, show 4 ways that Frankl's approach is superior.
Third Option: Write an extended definition of logotherapy in the context of Man's Search for Meaning. In paragraph 1, summarize the book's main points. In paragraph 2, your thesis, write a single-sentence definition of logotherapy, followed by 4 distinguishing characteristics, your mapping statements. Your body paragraphs will flesh out your mapping statements. Paragraph 7 is a reiteration of your thesis. Use the links in this option for your outside resources.
Third Option: Write an extended definition of logotherapy in the context of Man's Search for Meaning. In paragraph 1, summarize the book's main points. In paragraph 2, your thesis, write a single-sentence definition of logotherapy, followed by 4 distinguishing characteristics, your mapping statements. Your body paragraphs will flesh out your mapping statements. Paragraph 7 is a reiteration of your thesis. Use the links in this option for your outside resources.
Student Activity:
Come up with a single sentence definition of logotherapy and five distinguishing characteristics.
Single-sentence definition: Logotherapy focuses on curing debilitating neuroses by identifying them as responses to an empty life, which creates mental illnesses—hedonistic binges, power plays, and self-pitying despair—reactions to a person’s lack of meaning.
In a 5-page research paper, develop a thesis that analyzes the distinguishing characteristics that comprise the malignant fraudulent manifestation of positive thinking. Successful essays will include at least two examples that are NOT in the book. In your conclusion paragraph, demarcate fraudulent positive thinking from the kind that is genuine and authentic.
Paragraph 1: Introduction
Paragraph 2: Thesis with 4 or 5 mapping components
Paragraphs 3-9: Elaborate on your mapping components
Paragraph 10: Conclusion in which you distinguish counterfeit from authentic positive thinking.
Last Page: Works Cited page with no fewer than 3 sources.
Develop a thesis that analyzes the insidious forces that cause decent people to suffer from "evil creep," the process whereby relatively normal, nice people succumb to evil gradually, incrementally, insidiously until they reach a Point of No Return, languishing in the abyss of evil and depravity. Successful essays will compare the characters' descent into evil by comparing their journeys to students' personal experiences, film, other works of literature, etc.
First paragraph: Introduction.
Second paragraph: Thesis with 4 or 5 mapping components.
Paragraphs 3-9: Elaborate on your mapping components.
Conclusion: Restate your thesis.
Last page: Works Cited page with no fewer than 3 sources.
Notes to myself:
You might talk about "Winter Dreams" and the lost passage of time as one becomes absorbed by the parallel universe, the chimera. And in this universe one is not aware of the gradual changes taking place.
In a 5-page essay, write a psychological profile of Bin, explaining how his desires for higher self-regard, power, and happiness are sabotaged by his own irrational faculties. Successful essays will use your personal observations that compare to Bin's self-destructiveness.
Paragraph 1: Introduction
Paragraph 2: Thesis with 4 or 5 mapping components
Paragraphs 3-9: Elaborate and illustrate your mapping components
Paragraph 10: Conclusion, a restatement of your thesis
Last page: Works Cited page with no fewer than 2 sources
In a 5-page essay use extended definition and classification to analyze Predictably Irrational. Develop a thesis that defines the term "predictably irrational" by breaking it down into 4 or 5 categories (your mapping components) that you will illustrate with examples that ARE NOT IN THE BOOK.
Paragraph One: Introduction
Paragraph Two: Thesis with 4 or 5 mapping components
Paragraphs Three-Nine: Illustrate and elaborate your mapping components
Paragraph 10: Conclusion, a restatement of your thesis
Last page: Works Cited page with no fewer than 3 sources
Develop a thesis that articulates the conflict between tribalism vs. individual conscience. Successful essays will compare this conflict as rendered in the novel with your personal experience. Additionally, you will have to provide single-sentence definitions of tribalism and individual conscience.
Paragraph 1: Introduction
Paragraph 2: Thesis with 4 or 5 mapping components
Paragraphs 3-9: Paragraphs that elaborate on your mapping components.
Paragraph 10: Conclusion, a powerful restatement of your thesis
Last page: Works Cited with no fewer than 4 sources.
