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The information for my Fall 2011 classes is now posted on Blackboard. According to the professor for History of Music, the class will require 7-10 hours online per week. The syllabus for Introduction to Philosophy includes readings from three texts, weekly online chats, three short essays, a mid-term essay and a final exam essay. I’m going to be quite the busy scholar this time around, but I’m looking forward to both classes. I don’t really know much about music. I took a few music lessons as a kid (flute, accordion) but nothing stuck. I can’t tell you what a certain note is or any of that, but I am interested in history so I’m hoping the History of Music class will be a little easier for me.
I’m intrigued by the philosophy class after reading several of Alexander McCall Smith‘s Isabel Dalhousie novels. Isabel is a philosopher and editor of the Journal of Applied Ethics. A great deal of each story has to do with Isabel’s wrestling with moral dilemmas, often brought on by her habit of sticking her nose in other peoples’ business.
Classes don’t start for two weeks, so I have a little time to peruse the new offerings from the Folio Society. This is always a dangerous time of year for my bank account, when the new renewal offer appears and the first batch of new books to be published is released. Last year, I wasn’t tempted by the renewal offer but this year the free gifts are:
- The earth: an intimate history by Richard Fortey, which I have already read and enjoyed
- A history of the world in 100 objects by Neil MacGregor
- The new atlas of world history
- Year round things to do, a reprint of a 1966 Penguin children’s book
- 2012 Folio Society diary
- Just my type by Simon Garfield, a history of fonts
I already know I want The call of the wild and Farenheit 451 but the other two choices will have to be carefully weighed. Wish me luck!
