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University offers 'Simpsons' as Philosophy Class
joestump98 writes "I ran accross a story at CNN that says a local Michigan college, Siena Heights, is offering a philosophy class on our favorite cartoon - The Simpsons. The Catholic school says the class is about religion and philosphy in popular culture." And I thought Rocks for Jocks was a hilarious concept in wasting a college education. That said, I'd take that class. Have to make sure to watch my homework tonight.
What's new about this is that an entire course is being dedicated to them.
"Bloody marvelous."
For 12 seasons, "The Simpsons" has mined religious subjects for laughs. The staple of the Fox network has sometimes been called sacrilegious
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....sacrilicious.....
That episode, in my opinion was one of the best episodes ever. Lots o' religous commentary. I have always been really pleased with their social commentary as well. Little bits like "most people marry out of fear of growing old alone" is a resounding one.
This sound like it could be a great class and it would be a hoot to sit in on. One can always hope that the one of the questions on the final would be...
In 500 words or less describe the moral, ethical, and religous foundations in Homer's refrain of "Mmmmmmm donuts."
Either give it away or get top dollar, but never sell yourself cheap.
Worst class ever.
Won't somebody please think of the children..
Mmm.. Philosophy..
air and light and time and space
I know a local educator who I hold in very high regard. He is also a director of local theatre and occational on-screen movie critic. A rather senior fellow, he tends have very high standards for excellence. I was sitting in "Green Room" (where actors wait for the show to start) shooting the breeze. For years I dismissed the Simpsons as "pop trash." You could have picked me up off the floor when I heard him declare that the Simpsons was one of the finest works on television.
This is a boring sig
Just so everyone knows why we're the fastest growing University of California:
Here's a list of some of the interesting classes that are availabe from time to time
Understanding Drugs (Bioc 80) -- Yes, you talk about doing various drugs...
Lesbian and Gay World (CMMU 80F) -- I'm still trying to figure out why it's bad to think people have nothing wrong with them until they tell me their gay... Nevermind, can't remember the group that was spouting that off...
Hope/Crisis Capitalism (Econ 80A) -- I don't know, haven't taken it and don't know anyone who has...
Technothrillers (Film 80A) -- Watching, you guessed it, technothrillers
Intro to Horror Films (Lit 80T) -- Horror movies are your friends... From what I hear you watch a couple dozen horror films (as far back as like the 1890s IIRC)
Beatles Music (MUSC 80V)
Saturday Night Live (Theater 80O)
80's: Film And TV (Film 80) -- 80's: The decade that only one good thing came out of: mst3k
Psychophysic Music (Phys 80a) -- I don't know about this one
Muppet Magic (Thea 80L) -- 10 weeks of Jim Henson's Muppets, and why we should all bow down to him... Or something
Queer Theater (Thea 80T) -- It just struck me as funny... I guess it shouldn't seeing as how we have a high proportion of homosexuals here...
Disney (Thea 80N) -- The class I took. The only thing I remember from it is that they used a really neat looking camera setup to do framed shots for their early movies-- Hence why they were better than other stuff from the same era.. Oh, yeah, and my TA (with a speech impediment) saying "nubile" in regards to the Little Mermaid, I think...
And to think, you have to take 2 topical (80) courses to get out of here...
Hasta luego,
ex
Besides that, the simpsons is funny as hell offers quotes for every occasion from "D'oh!" to "Ahhh the Navy, see the world and all the free gay sex you can handle." :-)
The simpsons first season is now on DVD.. I'm getting them all when they come out.
Humorless sig goes here.
The Simpsons, albeit a cartoon show, often offers social commentary and true philosophical views. A book that I recently read is The Simpsons and Philosophy, which goes into great detail about how different philosophers would interpret the characters of OFF (Our Favorite Family--abbreviation used a lot in alt.tv.simpsons).
For example, maybe Maggie is just being silent to be silent, or maybe that silence could be interpreted as a social protest. Sartre would certainly think so, anyway.
My point is simply that this show goes far beyond what it appears to be on the surface. Plain & Simple, anything that stimulates your mind and provokes positive thoughtstreams is not waste; to call it that shows how much you truly still have to learn.
I'm not a philosopher, and I don't play one on TV, but my recollection is that many of the Greek philosophers used works of poetry as the starting point for their philosophical discussions. Since the poetry of that day was primarily entertainment, there is significant precendent for using something like The Simpsons as the basis for educational purposes.
...that the education system is in complete shambles, when it becomes necessary to introduce courses like this.
In all likelyhood, they're the equivalent of the underwater soap-carving courses that engineering students take to "satisfy" the arts requirement component of their curriculum.
In the story, who's speaking up about the course? A biology major -- a geek who is apparently too dim to recognize that a broad education is valuable, and has chosen to take a flakey course to satisfy a requisite with minimum effort.
Why on earth are the universities catering to this sort of limited, lazy thinking?
The job of the university should be to create a graduation class of people who are going to lead the advancement of the arts and sciences. To do so, these people are going to require a broad education, one that has challenged them on all fronts and forced them to think creatively and thoughtfully. They need to be people who are eternally curious, doggedly determined, and, above all, brilliant.
Serving up Simpsons swill as some sort of philosophy substitute is not doing anyone a favour.
Perhaps the standards have dropped too low. Maybe you don't have to be particularly smart to enter university any more: you just have to have money. Perhaps there's too much emphasis in the job market on post-secondary degrees. And the past three decade's emphasis on sciences as the be-all and end-all goal of education is certainly at fault: we need more technically-trained people (ie. college-level job training) than we need science/structure-trained people.
"The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh! of Homer," indeed. Next up: "An Overview of Political Philosophies: The Travels of Xena, Warrior Princess."
Bah.
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Here's another story on it from ABCNews.com
--You will rephrase your request for me to go to hell. Goto statements are not acceptable programming constructs
At the University of Alabama we have both a Star Wars class and a Dukes of Hazard Class. I wouldn't be suprised if we get a Simpsons class added to the catalogue soon.
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Or maybe she's silent because most babies don't talk?
Unix is user friendly, it's just selective about who its friends are.
In the final for my Western Humanities class the professor used an example from The Simpson to show the role of the family in society...
Homer: Sometimes I think we're the worst family in town
Marge: Maybe we should move to a larger town?
--The Simpsons "Theres no disgrace like home"
Nikkos
Actually, IIRC she is known to the family as quite a chatterbox in that ep. She doesn't speak because someone (Marge?) interrupts her, saying that she is always talking. They make a point of NOT showing her talking. I love the idea of her representing some kind of protest, but it seems more likely just a longplaying gag.
Incidentally, she also talks in the episode where the kids are adopted by the Flanderses, and I _think_ there's a third as well, though I can't put my finger on it at the moment.
"All these years believing you're the signified monkey, only to find out you're just a big hunk of nobody cares."
Something like this (social commentary) got done by my local paper (I think). They had an interview (quote?) of a woman asking about the debates between Gore/Bush. She said she had no clue who won, but watched SNL (Saturday Night Live) to figure it out. The candidate that got laughed at more was the loser.
So yeah, TV can influence real life, and as we all know the material is what you make of it. Reminds me of Finding Forrester when he says something like, "I hate it when critics talk about 'What did he really mean when he wrote this?'" You can read anything you want into the Simpsons. (And you can, you can always say "That reminds me of that Simpsons when...")
No sig for you.
More clearly than anything, it represents a real crisis in North American universities today: people think of them as valuable only insofar as they provide job training and a career boost. Departments like History, English, Religion and Philosophy once used to put undergraduates through serious courses that required them to struggle through real scholarship. They resented it at first, but came away with a substantial understanding of our intellectual roots, and of certain timeless questions, along with history's most elligible answers to those questions.
Fast forward to now, and you'll see core departments struggling to attract students in universities that are increasingly asking the departments to compete with one another for students and funding. The cheapest way to win that competition is not to hire an outstanding faculty, provide your students with individual attention, and make demanding courses which require lots of writing. The cheapest way is to pack a huge lecture hall using provocative course titles. Unfortunately, the students don't complain when the course itself is a half-baked piece of crap, designed primarily to stroke the ego of an aging professor trying to overcome his insecurity that he might no longer be "with it." They don't complain when the exams are on bubble sheets; "electronic grading" is, according to their insecure professor, the new, hip thing. The reason why they don't complain is because they don't know what they're missing. Once one department at a university resorts to this strategy, the other departments must respond in kind. It doesn't take long for things to get all fucked up. I've seen this first hand.
Please, students: if you actually want to learn something in college, do your research on a course before enrolling. Sadly, many of your options today are courses that will amuse you, but leave you just as ignorant as you were when the course began. One warning sign that you might be in for mere amusement is: an overly up-to-date or hip course title and topic.
When I was an undergraduate getting my degree in physics, my most important courses were in philosophy. I had to know Kant and Quine and Nietzche inside out, and there was nothing more intellectually rewarding than that. If you take philosophy classes, take some real ones. Only after that should you consider doing something philosophically frivolous like the Philosophy of the Simpsons.
But by all means, watch the Simpsons! It's about to start in 15 minutes! Spork