Virtue and Leadership
This module is structured around the reading and examination of four classic books — The Hebrew Bible (select passages mainly from the Pentateuch), Xenophon's The Education of Cyrus, Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince, and the Confucian Analects. The discussion revolves around the topic of moral virtue and human leadership, how they interact with each other, and everything else that impinges upon them (e.g., larger views about human nature or the cosmos of which we are a part).
Since the texts were written in various genres (religious, philosophical and literary), and produced in cultural environments very different from the contemporary world, fruitfully engaging them will require that readers make use of various tools of interpretation and analysis, and in general, attend to details both in the text and context. But the point will not be philological; rather, students will be expected to attend to the ideas the ancient writers expressed as they sought to grapple with the perennial human concerns. In this regard, the module will help to enhance students' abilities to identify, present, and evaluate arguments in a concise and critical manner, and to give them a platform to fruitfully discussing ideas and argue for their own perspectives with others.
Q: Is this a philosophy course? What's the closest equivalent type of class?
A: No, it's not a philosophy course — of the sort you normally find in mainstream philosophy departments. The closest equivalent is a "great books seminar" type class.
Q: Will taking this course make me a better leader, or more virtuous person, or even better, a virtuous leader?
A: The course is not intended to do any such thing. The course is aimed at giving you exposure and practice to being able to think more deeply about issues to do with virtue and leadership.
Q: Isn't that leadership theory and moral philosophy?
A: If you want to think more deeply about virtue and leadership, yes, one way is to study leadership theory, on the one side, and moral philosophy, on the other. But this class takes a different approach.
Q: Which is…?
A: By introducing students to seminal texts from the Biblical, Greek Philosophical, and Confucian traditions, and Machiavelli, one of the intellectual originators of modernity — texts that are still considered classics (in a couple of cases, scripture even), texts that exerted significant influence on the thinking and doing of people either historically or even today. But not just introduce: we will be reading and discussing them with a view to gaining insights on their competing conceptions of moral virtue and human leadership, and their underlying assumptions about the nature of human beings and the cosmos we live in.
Q: Ok, but it's still a humanities course, right?
A: It's in the "Humanities and Social Sciences" basket for USP requirements. But don't worry — lots of engineering, computing, science, business students have done the course, and did well too (sorry, I don't have a T-shirt that says "I survived UHB2204 and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt").
Teaching Mode and Assessment
After an introductory session, the rest of the course will be divided into four segments of five sessions each. The class is then closed with a final review session. Each of the main segments will begin with a presentation by the instructor introducing students to the text to be discussed in the segment. The other four sessions will be fully devoted to seminar style discussions anchored by 1-2 student presenters/facilitators.
Participation — 20%
2 x Written Assignments (1,500 words each) — 40%
Discussion Facilitation + Handout — 20%
Online participation (300 words for each of the four segments; each comment should not be more than 150 words) — 20%
The official workflow expected from each student as part of their coursework (not counting the term papers):
Read the assigned portion of the text before the session; here, it is very important to keep up with the readings as each session's discussion tends to build upon things that were discussed earlier. The assigned reading is not that lengthy, and I don't expect students to have achieved full understanding at this stage. To help with the reading process, I will promulgate guiding questions in advance, together with specific discussion topics that I expect to consider during the discussion session. Keep them in mind when reading the text.
Participate in class discussion during the discussion seminars. The facilitators for each session have the responsibility to come up with a set of handouts relating to the guiding questions and discussion topics (divided among them). They will be considered the experts of the day and thus first responders during the discussion session. But the rest of the students earn participation marks by joining the discussion.
After the session, I will post a summary or some concluding thoughts on the session just transpired on the course blog. I expect students to read that (it's not that long). This may prompt you to relook specific parts of the text and rethink issues. As you come across items you might want to add a further comment, do so in the comments section.