Collaboration across STEM and Liberal Arts: Science and Literature [2]

Academic unit or major

Humanities and social science courses

Instructor(s)

Yakup Bektas

Class Format

Lecture/Exercise (Livestream)

Media-enhanced courses

-

Day of week/Period
(Classrooms)

7-10 Tue

Class

-

Course Code

LAH.C642

Number of credits

110

Course offered

2025

Offered quarter

1Q

Syllabus updated

Mar 19, 2025

Language

English

Syllabus

Course overview and goals

NOTE: Collaboration across STEM and Liberal Arts is a new program that began in April 2024. It aims to create opportunities for students to engage in discussions with guest lecturers who are leaders in their fields, not only in Japan but also around the world. We will explore new developments and possibilities in research and science. Currently, the maximum number of students is 50 per course. If this number is exceeded, a lottery will be held. Students will take an e-learning session on research ethics in the first class. Submission of a "session-completion certificate" is required.

COURSE OUTLINE:
Discoveries in electricity, magnetism, thermodynamics, geology, biology, and chemistry as well as remarkable engineering achievements such as steam engines, lighthouses, bridges, railways, and telegraphs in the 19th century inspired works of literary and artistic creativity. We will explore prominent examples of these. They remain relevant today as the moral, intellectual, and social questions they raise are still with us. Imaginative writers will bring these issues to life for us through vividly depicted characters such as the Monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), Robert L. Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), and H. G. Wells’ sinister Doctor Moreau (1896). We will also examine another tale of scientific research gone awry, told by the biologist Julian Huxley (1926). We will continue by grappling with the bizarre, but kindlier, logic of Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland and Looking-Glass.

We will then review discussions on the relative value of literature and science in education through the debates first between Matthew Arnold and Thomas H. Huxley, and later between C. P. Snow and F. R. Leavis.

PURPOSE: To look searchingly at prominent works of literature, exploring the moods both of excitement and fear that permeate them. To study through these works the developing relations between literature and science and technology and medicine.

Course description and aims

Intended Outcomes: Improved awareness of equivocal nature of scientific knowledge. Appreciation of new themes in works of literature. Sharpened understanding of influential characters and themes.

Student learning outcomes

実務経験と講義内容との関連 (又は実践的教育内容)

Taught similar courses and well-familiar with works of literature and issues explored in this course.

Keywords

Fear, life, suffering, self-control, isolation, responsibility, violence, knowledge, cruelty, research, power, transformation, evolution, eugenics, transhumanism.

Competencies

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

Class flow

Lectures, seminars, and free group discussions.

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, assigned readings and other course material.

Textbook(s)

1- Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818; revised edition in 1831).
2- Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)
3- John Launer, “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: a tale mystery, morality and medicine,” (2019)
4- H. G. Wells, The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896, Oxford World's Classics)
5-Julian Huxley, “The Tissue-Culture King” (1926 in The Yale Review, XV:479-504)
6- Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1965)
7 Matthew Arnold, Culture and Anarchy (1869)
8- C. P. Snow, The Two Cultures (1959)
9-F. R. Leavis, The Two Cultures? The Significance of C. P. Snow (1962)

Reference books, course materials, etc.

(NOTE: Full sources-textual, audio-visual, digital-for the whole course will be circulated before the course starts. The list (required & recommended) for every class will be posted about one week in advance). Our primary books include:
1- Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818; revised edition in 1831).
2- Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)
3- John Launer, “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: a tale mystery, morality and medicine,” (2019)
4- H. G. Wells, The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896, Oxford World's Classics)
5-Julian Huxley, “The Tissue-Culture King” (1926 in The Yale Review, XV:479-504)
6- Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1965)
7 Matthew Arnold, Culture and Anarchy (1869)
8- C. P. Snow, The Two Cultures (1959)
9-F. R. Leavis, The Two Cultures? The Significance of C. P. Snow (1962)

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 class and group discussions, by speaking directly, or in writing through the Chat Box, either to everyone publicly or to the instructor privately.

Related courses

• LAH.S420 ： Essence of Humanities and Social Sciences20:Western Thought
• 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

The hour after every class. Other times by email