BMA-AMED-330
Cognitive Science and the Critique of American Society (Kognitív tudomány és az amerikai társadalom kritikája) in autumn 2016
Szelid Veronika, Tue 16:00–17:30, R433, host: DAS (R306)
5-credit lecture, 30 h/term; strong prereq: BMA-AMED-240
description & set texts

Aim of the course

This course aims to investigate some important social issues of the USA with the help of the methodological tools of Cognitive Linguistics.

Content of the course

In the first half of the course chapters of George Lakoff’s Moral Politics will be read and discussed, and in the second half of the semester students will work on some of the so-called the ”hard issues” of American politics (e.g.: social programs and taxes, crime and death penalty, abortion, the culture wars, two models of christianity, the role of the government), analyze it in the way Lakoff does in his book and give a presentation on the chosen topic.

Reading list

Lakoff, George: Moral Politics – How Liberals and Conservatives Think. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2002.

Syllabus

13 Sep Introduction

20 Sep BREAK

27 Sep Chapters 1 and 2: Introduction

04 Oct Chapters 3 and 4: Moral Conceptual Systems

11 Oct Chapter 5: The Strict Father Morality

18 Oct Chapter 6: The Nurturant Parent Morality

25 Oct Chapters 7 and 8: From Family-Based Morality to Politics

01 Nov FALL BREAK

08 Nov Chapter 9: Moral Categories in Politics

15 Nov Hard issues: Presentations

22 Nov Hard issues: Presentations

29 Nov Hard issues: Presentations

06 Dec Hard issues: Presentations

13 Dec Hard issues: Presentations

requirements & assessment

Methods of evaluation

Final grades will have three components: (1) regular homework (Students will have to write three questions on the relevant chapters of the book and submit them for each lesson.) and active participation in the discussion during the classes, (2) giving a presentation on a chosen social issue with a Cognitive Linguistic analysis, (3) writing a 15-page-long research paper on the topic of the presentation.