Special Lecture: Science, Literature, and Humanism

Academic unit or major

Humanities and social science courses

Instructor(s)

Yakup Bektas

Class Format

Lecture

Media-enhanced courses

-

Day of week/Period
(Classrooms)

Class

-

Course Code

LAH.T212

Number of credits

200

Course offered

2025

Offered quarter

3Q

Syllabus updated

Mar 19, 2025

Language

English

Syllabus

Course overview and goals

Science, Literature, and Humanism
DESCRIPTION: This class explores ties among engineering, literature, and humanism, focusing on Japan’s popular writer and poet Miyazawa Kenji (1896-1933). During his short life, Kenji wrote several hundred short stories and many more poems expressing his deep philosophical thoughts. From his best-known Night on the Milky Way Train (1933) to his less familiar stories, he emphasized selflessness and the human obligation to alleviate suffering and poverty. This way towards “the real happiness”—helping others to achieve happiness—is the fundamental idea that permeates all of Kenji’s writing and his own way of life. For Kenji, helping others selflessly is the purpose, the very essence, of being human. It is what makes us human and distinguishes us from other animals as he asserts in his little-known prose piece “Aram Harado.” His poem “Strong in the Rain,” familiar to most people in Japan, likewise captures this humanism beautifully.

Kenji’s idealistic views on science and technology are parts of this outlook. His heroes are self-taught engineers and scientists who feel a deep moral duty to help others. In The Life of Gusuko Budori (1932), Kenji imagines a futuristic country, Ihatobu, where a hierarchy of scientists, engineers and technicians are working to prevent natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, famines, droughts, and crop diseases. Through his main character Budori, a self-taught and hard-working engineer, Kenji advocates his humanistic ideal of the engineer as a pure humanitarian, working selflessly for the happiness of others. Budori willingly sacrifices his life to save Ihatobu from cold and famine.
We will explore several aspects of Kenji’s ideas and work from “peasant art” to vegetarianism, while also looking at writers who influenced Kenji’s thinking and literary growth.

But this course is not limited to the work of Kenji. We will also study the relevant work of an array of prominent writers and thinkers. These include Plutarch, Jeremy Bentham, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Ruskin, William Morris, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Matthew Arnold, Lewis Carroll, and Leo Tolstoy.

AIMS:
To show how literature can nurture humanistic ideas, and give science, technology, and engineering a social and moral mission.
Through Kenji’s stories and ideas, to motivate young scientists and engineers and help them find a sense of purpose and meaning in their work. To learn to appreciate fine prose style and sensitive expression of emotion.

Course description and aims

To appreciate the value of literature in nurturing humanistic ideas and social and moral mission in science and engineering.
To become motivated and able to attach a stronger sense of meaning to their work.
To aspire to fine prose and style in writing.
To improve skills in critical reading, conversation, and writing.

Keywords

humanism and science, literature and science, the scientist as humanist; Miyazawa Kenji, John Ruskin, William Morris, Percy B. Shelley

Competencies

• Specialist skills
• Intercultural skills
• Communication skills
• Critical thinking skills
• Practical and/or problem-solving skills

Class flow

Class participation is mandatory. Students are expected to:
1) read the assigned readings prior to the class
2) participate in classroom discussions and ask or respond to questions
3) write short papers.

Course schedule/Objectives

Study advice (preparation and review)

To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.

Textbook(s)

None

Reference books, course materials, etc.

(A list of readings and audio-visual materials for each class will be circulated at least a week in advance). Selected: Gary Snyder, The Back Country (New York: New Directions, 1967); Makoto Ueda, Modern Japanese Poets and the Nature of Literature (Stanford University Press, 1983), pp.184–320; Sarah M. Strong, “Miyazawa Kenji and the Lost Gandharan Painting,” Monumenta Nipponica, 41 (2) (Summer, 1986), pp. 175-197; Miyazawa Kenji, The Night of the Milky Way Railway, translated by Sarah Strong (New York: 1991).
Miyazawa Kenji, Once and Forever: The Tales of Kenji Miyazawa (Translated by John Bester. Kodansha, 1994).
Miyazawa Kenji, Milky Way Railroad, (Translated by Joseph Sigrist and D. M. Stroud, 1996),
Master Works of Miyazawa Kenji (Translated by Sarah M. Strong and Karen Colligan-Taylor, (Tokyo, 2002)
Kikuchi Yūko, Japanese Modernisation and Mingei Theory: Cultural Nationalism and Oriental Orientalism (Routledge Curzon, 2004); Roger Pulvers, Miyazawa Kenji, Strong in the Rain and Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2007).
Hiroaki Sato (ed.) Selections, Miyazawa Kenji (University of California, 2007);
Helen Kilpatrick, Miyazawa Kenji and His Illustrators: Images of Nature and Buddhism in Japanese Children's Literature, (Brill, 2014).
Bektas Y, “Miyazawa Kenji’s “English Coast” (2016)
“Miyazawa Kenji’s Rasu Earth People’s Association” (2015)
“In Search of Miyazawa Kenji’s Ihatobu” (2014)
“Kenji’s Vegetarianism” (in progress)

Evaluation methods and criteria

Grading will be based on class participation and writing assignments (short essays). Class participation will account for 80% of the grade, and writing assignments will account for 20%. Students are encouraged to actively engage in discussions and activities, asking or responding to questions directly in class, or indirectly through questions and comments on reaction slips. Submission of reaction slips is required each time as proof of class participation.

Related courses

• LAH.T111 ： Special Lecture: Technology and art

Prerequisites

None

Contact information (e-mail and phone) Notice : Please replace from ”[at]” to ”@”(half-width character).

bektas.y.aa[at]m.titech.ac.jp

Office hours

One hour after every class. Other times by appointment by email or call.