HS 1615 - Story, Self, and Society

The stories we believe - personal, national, religious, and cultural - shape our lives every day as we make choices at multiple levels from the individual to international bodies. As neuroscientists build on the ancient intuition that we tell stories to know ourselves and the world in which we live, this course will help develop an understanding of what that means for us as individuals and as members of specific communities and as members of the larger natural community. We will refer to the work of many past and current scholars from a variety of disciplines, including philosophers, historians, literary critics, psychologists, ethologists, primatologists, and other social scientists. We will also review how story is being used in business, in education, and in politics to shape ideas of self and society. This course is also an excellent foundation for RES 4005 - Narrative and Auto/Biographical Research, where stories become our texts for learning about the nuances of being human. Understanding the historical legacy of stories and the contemporary research how our pattern seeking brains create stories may deepen the narrative researcher's understanding as they collect and analyze narrative data. 3 credit(s)

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