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Inside the Blue Book
Civics Lessons
February
2001
by Bruce Fellman
DEVN
194b
Democratic Vistas
Faculty: Anthony Kronman, Dean of the Yale Law School
As the
University began planning its Tercentennial celebration, one of the primary goals was, not surprisingly, to
showcase Yale's intellectual achievements.
But the planners were also determined to involve the New Haven community.
"We were looking for a common theme that would draw both Yale and
the city together," recalls Anthony Kronman, dean of the Law School
and one of the key organizers. The solution was "Democratic Vistas,"
a series of weekly explorations of the multiple meanings of democracy.
The lectures are open to the public (www.yale.edu/yale300/democracy)
and also serve as the core of a course that is offered to students
in both Yale College and the Law School.
The course is part
of the DeVane Lectures program, which was established in 1969 to honor William
Clyde DeVane, dean of the College from 1939 to 1963. In the past, all of the lectures
have been given by one professor, but for the Tercentennial, Dean Kron- man has
assembled 15 Yale scholars, each of whom is exploring a different aspect of the
subject. Among the lecturers are President Levin, who in his non-administrative
life is a professor of economics, discussing "Democracy and the Market"; molecular
biologist Joan Steitz speaking on "Democracy and Science"; and Yale College dean
Richard Brodhead on "Democracy and Education."
Undergraduates taking
the course for credit are expected to attend the weekly lectures, along with an
additional session hosted by the week's speaker and a discussion section facilitated
by a law student. (The section leaders meet weekly with Kronman as part of a Law
School seminar.) There are background texts for the course, from Plato's Republic to John Rawls's A Theory of Justice, as well as readings determined by each lecturer. "Students will read a lot and think hard about issues," says Kronman.
"We tend to take democracy for granted, but in the course of our examinations,
we hope to unsettle convictions, to see the complexities that lurk in our democratic
prejudices, and come away with a deepened appreciation -- to discover a commonality
of purpose in the diversity of voices."  |
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