DU Foundation Course Syllabus – Philosophy, Psychology, Communication and Life Skills

1. Objective and Expected outcome

• Creating a sense of self-awareness.
• Developing an understanding of the basic fallacies commonly made in communication both at the interpersonal and public domains.
• Experiencing and understanding emotions and their role in the functioning of self and society.
• Creating awareness of basic communication skills.

Every Semester, teaching will be spread over 16 weeks including two weeks for review.

2. Themes & Sub-themes (28 +14 periods over a 14 week period)

I. Self
Self awareness and discovering one’s self, values and ethics.

II. Reasoning
Thinking and communicating rationally, analyzing fallacies and misconceptions.

III. Emotions
Understanding and dealing with emotions like happiness, love, anger and fear; discovering paradoxes of everyday life.

IV. Relating to others
Listening, empathy, friendship, difficulties in relationships, giving and receiving feedback, collaboration.

Note:
Ethical guidelines for conducting interview/s, public survey need to be specified to ensure conformity with principle of privacy and dignity of participants while carrying out research.

3. Project works

• Analysis of public discourses and narratives and locating fallacies.
• Personal relationships (family and friends) and emotions
• Analyzing films/documentaries/writings of issues of public interest in the societal context.
• Eric Fromm’s work on love and relationship.
• Self in relation to the social world, to discover similarities and differences in personal identity vs. social identity.
• Preparing journals/diaries and family histories of self and significant others.
• Consumption patterns of youth in Indian contemporary life and their effect on healthy living.
• Social inequality and intergroup conflict.
• Bargaining and negotiation in public spaces.
• Ethical challenges in dealing with socio-culturally diverse groups.
• Life on the margins of society and its challenges.
• Living in slums and notion of life and nature of relationships.
• Virtual reality, technology and its impact on human life.
• Education and self-development.
• Urban-rural living and their relationship with the surrounding milieu.
• Creativity as emotional dialogue.
• Emotions and gender.
• Relationship between language and thought

Tools and Techniques

• Interviewing, data gathering and processing
• Conducting surveys
• Self-awareness, through reflection and use of Johari window.
• Story analysis
• Techniques of film/media analysis
• Diaries and memory work in groups
• Narrative analysis
• Observation
• Conversation

4. Reading List

Chakraborty, C. (2006). Logic: Informal, Symbolic and Inductive. New Delhi: Prentice Hall of India.

Drucker, P. (1999). Managing Oneself. Harvard Business Review, 1-13.

http://www.sis.pitt.edu/~peterb/3005-001/managingoneself.pdf

Duffy, K. G., Kirsh, S. J., & Atwater, E. (2010). Psychology for Living: Adjustment, Growth, and Behavior (10 ed.). Pearson. . (pp. 1-24, 183-198)

Epicurus. (n.d.). Letter to Menoeceus.
http://ebookbrowse.com/epicurus-letter-to-menoeceus-pdf-d349785271

Fromm, E. (1956). The art of loving. New York: Harper and Brothers. (pp. 6-69) http://www.academia.edu/1302844/Erich_Fromm_the_integrity_of_the_self_a nd_the_practice_of_love

Gandhi, R. (1979). The Availability of Religious Ideas. Macmillan Company of India. (pp. 12-21)

Hanh, T. N. (2002). Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames. New York: Riverhead Books.( pp.1- 46)

Kakar, S. (2009). India Analysed: Sudhir Kakar in conversation with Ramin Jahanbegloo. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. pp. 72-90.

Lama, D., & Howard, C. (1998). The art of happiness (10 ed.). Riverhead Books. http://jodilley.com/books/aoh/aoh.pdf
Rogers, Carl R., and F.J. Roethlisberger. “Barriers and Gateways to Communication.” Harvard Business Review July/August (1952): 28-34. Also published in Harvard Business Review (1988): 19-25.

Rogers, Carl R., and Richard E. Farson. “Active Listening.” [1957]. In Communication in Business Today. Ed. R. G. Newman, M. A. Danziger, and M. Cohen. Washington, D.C.: Heath and Company, 1987.

Suu Kyi, Aung San (1991). “Freedom from Fear” Speech http://www.link.asn.au/downloads/papers/burma/p_bm_03.pdf

Thurman, R. A. (2004). Anger: The Seven Deadly Sins. Oxford University Press. pp. 29-34

Web Sources

http://www.experiential-learning-games.com/self-esteemgames.html

http://www.ted.com/playlists/65/personal_tales_from_the_edge_o.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_goldstein_the_battle_between_your_present_and_future_ self.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/antonio_damasio_the_quest_to_understand_consciousness.html? quote=1256

Films

3 Idiots (2009)

A Wednesday (2008)

Chak De India (2007)

Do Duni Char (2010)

Dor (2006)

English Vinglish (2012)

Iqbaal (2005)

Khuda Ke Liye (2007)

Lagaan (2001)

Life of Pi (2012)

Peepli –Live (2010)

Rang De Basanti (2006)

Rockstar (2011)

Swades (2004)

Tare Zameen Par (2007)

Udaan (2010)

Wake Up Sid (2009)

Stories
Stories of: Krishna Sobti, Manto, Prem Chand and Rabindranath Tagore Heinrich Zimmer’s King and the Corpse: Tales of the Soul’s Conquest of Evil Panchtantra Katha Sarit Sagar Uzbekistan’s stories Arabian Nights

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