Robert Neville readings:

Recovery of the Measure (Albany, NY: State University of New
York Press, 1989), Parts 2 & 3.

Recommended Readings:

Recovery of the Measure, Parts 1 & 4

Reconstruction of Thinking (Albany, NY: State University of
New York Press, 1981).

Normative Cultures (Albany, NY: State University of New York
Press, 1995).

Attendees can then either purchase the book(s) or borrow
it/them through their own libraries.

Mitchell Aboulafia readings:

In George Herbert Mead, Mind Self and Society: From the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist (Chicago: Unversity of Chicago Press, 1934). From the section on "The Self," pp. 135-164; 173-178.

In Selected Writings: George Herbert Mead, ed. Andrew J. Reck (Chicago, Chicago U. Press, 1964)

1) "National-Mindedness and International-Mindedness," 355-370.
2) "Philanthropy from the Point of View of Ethics," 392-407

Recommended in Selected Writings, "The Social Self," 142-149.

Recommended for a relatively brief overview, "George Herbert Mead" (Aboulafia), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mead/

I have set up a list of recommended works by Mead, on Mead, or relating to Mead on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/George-Herbert-Mead/lm/R21TEL75HJODCN/ref=cm_lmt_srch_f_1_rsrsrs1

The core (and suggested) readings for the first Emerson seminar (READING EMERSON IN A DESTITUTE TIME), include: "Blight" (poem), "The Poet," "Beauty," "The American Scholar," "The Transcendentalist," "Self-Reliance," "Power," "Experience," and "New England Reformers." Attendees are urged to visit the website "RWE.org" and search for "destitute" and "melancholy" and their siblings. They are also urged to read Heidegger's essay "What are Poets For"?, which is contained in A. Hofstadter's POETRY, LANGUAGE, THOUGHT. In this essay, Heidegger addresses the question of what the central task of poetry is in a destitute time, a question that he takes up from the poet Holderlin and that he unpacks with regard to the poetry of Rilke, specifically his "Sonnets to Orpheus." I will want to connect Heidegger's answer to Holderlin's question, an answer that he finds in Rilke's Orphic poetry, to Emerson's answers to the same question; and in this context, I would ask attendees to think about Emerson's journalist admonition (to himself, to his readers) to "treat all things poetically." I would recommend also Heidegger's essays, "Holderlin and the Essence of Poetry" (in Werner Brock's EXISTENCE AND BEING) and " ... POETICALLY MAN DWELLS ..." in POETRY, LANGUAGE, THOUGHT). In a contemporary American and Emersonian vein, I would urge attendees to leaf through the major poetry of Mary Oliver, who has written a new and lovely Introduction to the Modern Library edition of Emerson's writings. Her most recent book, RED BIRD, contains the poem "Invitation," which marries an Emersonian angle of vision to the famous conclusion of Rilke's poem "Archaic Torso of Apollo" ("You must change your life.") Relevant also is her poem "Percy (Nine)," in which Emerson is mentioned by name.

The core (and suggested) reading for the second seminar ("TEACHING FOR THE LUSTRES: THE EMERSONIAN TEACHER OR THE EMERSON THAT ALMOST NOBODY KNOWS") contains some slight changes as well: "Nominal and Realist," "The Divinity School Address,"
"The Transcendentalist," "The Poet," "Beauty," `"The Over-Soul," "Spiritual Laws," "Power," "Society and Solitude," "New England Reformers," and "Education." I would urge attendees again to visit "RWE.org" and search for the words "university," "college," "teacher," "student," "beauty." In addition, I would recommend the writings on education, all chock-full of Emersonian insights, by John J. McDermott, specifically THE DRAMA OF POSSIBILITY: EXPERIENCE AS PHILOSOPHY OF CULTURE ("Prelude," "Prescript," and the essays "The Erosion of Face-to-Face Pedagogy: a Jeremiad" and "Trumping Cynicism with Imagination." I would also suggest my essay, "No Eros, No Buds: Teaching as Nectaring," in James Campbell and Richard Hart, eds., EXPERIENCE AS PHILOSOPHY: ON THE WORK OF JOHN MCDERMOTT. I attach an e-file of the article. Again, I would urge attendees to read through the poetry of Mary Oliver, including the poem "Teachers" in RED BIRD. Finally, for a brilliant contemporary discussion of education in an Emersonian-McDermottesque vein, I recommend Jonathan Kozol's Rilkean titled LETTERS TO A YOUNG POET. For ambitious attendees, I recommend also Albert Camus's lyrical essays in LYRICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL ESSAYS, especially his observations about the interaccommodation of issues of justice and beauty. Likewise, Elaine Scarry's ON BEAUTY AND BEING JUST, which also contains a number of poignant observations about beauty and pedagogy.

I am working on posting also an e-file of the essay that I have written for NEW MORNING: EMERSON IN THE 21ST CENTURY that I have edited with Michael Brodrick and that SUNY is publishing in August. The title of the second seminar is more or less the title of my essay.

NB: I would urge attendees to the seminars read selectively in Joel Porte's
edition of EMERSON IN HIS JOURNALS, or to use collections of the
essays that include representative selections from his journals.

Valuable collections include: (1)EMERSON'S PROSE AND POETRY, selected
and edited by Joel Porte and Saundra Morris, Norton Critical Edition
(contains entries from Emerson's voluminous journal and a number of
fine critical essays by seminal Emersonian scholars (Firkins, Porte,
Packer, Whicher, Cavell, West, Poirier, et al); the wonderful and
anonymous message from the editors of "The Dial" to the reader (July
1840); the texts of several of Emerson's sermons, including the "Pray
without Ceasing"; numerous selections from Emerson's correspondence;
the centennial address by William James and essays by Dewey and
Santayana on Emerson. (2) Stephen Whicher ed., SELECTIONS FROM RALPH
WALDO EMERSON, Riverside (contains selections from the journals and
letters, but not the poem "Blight." (3) Emerson, ESSAYS: FIRST AND
SECOND SERIES, Vintage, Library of America (contains an insightful
introduction by Douglas Crase; the essays were selected by Joel Porte.

Crispin Sartwell readings:

Emerson, "history," which can be found here: http://www.emersoncentral.com/history.htm
There might be another slice of Emerson. (posted 6/16/08)-- CS

Margolis instructions:

1st session:

Pragmatism and the Prospect of a Rapprochement" is the paper for the first session. The paper is rather freewheeling: I don't think there's any need for specific readings to go along; but whatever the participants may find worth airing would be fine with me.

2nd session:
I've decided to offer a shortened version of a long paper, "Constructing a Person" as an example of how to work out an important question pertinent to the topic of the first session as the focus for the second. This is very much in the way of a work in progress. The only text that I might suggest, which I find extraordinarily suggestive, is Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, sect. 621. I'd rather not overload our discussion with "assignments."