== Welcome ==

The degree to which we live and die well because of what we do in this course is primary measure of our success. We speak of living/dying well because living and dying are ongoing and contemporaneous processes in each of us.

Humans live/die well by discerning and realizing value, by getting what we want and wanting what we get. Because we are evolving organisms in a dynamic environment what we value--ends and means of our lives--also changes. In this era of unprecedentedly rapid environmental transformation entailing sweeping alterations to human society, to rest of natural world, to artifact fashioned from it, and to corpus of information accumulated by humans, we live/die well by becoming more proficient in bringing to awareness, questioning, and evolving to be more accurate information about value, including ideas about how we know and realize value.

In this course we apply science, by which we mean behaviors by which we predict with accuracy greater than can be achieved by chance, to re-examine ideas about value. We consider alternatives to current ideas and assess their merits. We give special attention to methods by which we’ve come to current ideas, and demonstrate how valuescience, scientific methods and principles applied to questions of value is uniquely reliable means to discern value more accurately and realize it more fully. If you are engaged or want to engage in such inquiry and practice, we welcome your partnership in valuescience.

== Class Details ==

*'''Time:''' T/Th, 10:30-11:50

*'''Students with Documented Disabilities:''' Students who may need an academic accommodation based on the impact of a disability must initiate the request with the Office of Accessible Education (OAE). Professional staff will evaluate the request with required documentation, recommend reasonable accommodations, and prepare an Accommodation Letter for faculty dated in the current quarter in which the request is being made. Students should contact the OAE as soon as possible since timely notice is needed to coordinate accommodations. The OAE is located at 563 Salvatierra Walk. Phone: (650) 723-1066, URL: [http://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/oae http://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/oae]

*'''Instructor:''' [[David Schrom]] (dschrom@ {stanford})

*'''Assistants:''' [[Robin Bayer]] (robin@ {ecomagic.org}), ([[Nick Enge]] (nickenge@ {stanford}), [[Hilary Hug]] (hilary@ {ecomagic.org}), [[Andrew Nepomuceno]] (andrew.nepo@ {gmail}), [[Toan Tran]] (dtoan@ {alumni.stanford})

== Office Hours ==

We offer regular office hours before (by appointment) and after (drop-in) class Tu and Th from 10 - 10:30am and from 11:50am - 1pm. We are usually able to respond to requests for consultation outside these hours within 24 hours of the time we receive them, and to schedule in-person conferences within a day or so of receipt of a request. Each student meets briefly (~15 minutes) with a member of the teaching team weekly. We encourage you to bring us your thoughts and questions for individual attention.

== Questions and Resources ==

We've constructed this course around questions. Many are too broad to address in a single class meeting, and some merit attention for a lifetime. In the course outline below you will find primary and subordinate questions for class meetings. We encourage you to bring forward your own questions. You can find a comprehensive (short of exhaustive) list of questions you may be asked on the final here: [[Final Exam Questions]]

To afford a common basis for responding to questions we offer core resources which may include videos, podcasts, or other media. Prior to each class meeting please complete those listed on the [[Next Class]] page (or alternatives to which the instructor has consented) so that you'll be prepared to learn and contribute to others' learning as we discuss their contents during our meetings. Resources are available online. You can access materials assigned for this course without purchasing anything.

For most topics, we've assembled additional materials to facilitate your exploring more fully ideas you've encountered in core resources and discussion. In past quarters, each course participant has found at least some of these worthwhile, and many have introduced us to items new to us that we now offer you. We welcome suggestions for improving and augmenting this collection.

This course is very much a work in progress. We alter it between quarters and we alter it during quarters we teach as we became more familiar with current enrollees' backgrounds and interests. You can rely upon [[Next Class]] page entries to reflect all changes to date.

== Class Contribution ==

While valuescientists confront a number of difficult, to date intractable (e.g., finding a biophysical value metric) challenges, our most common difficulty as we consciously hone valuescience practice is identification of self with ideas incompatible with a scientific approach to value. Shedding these is doubly challenging because they are in substantial part a result of intense and incessant indoctrination to which we've become so desensitized as to take it for granted if we are aware of it at all. Learning together in an atmosphere of mutual support and trust we are better able to set aside long and closely held ideas and consider others. Teaching team and students in this course can create a sangha, a community of practice. We can interact with each other to create a valuescience learning community. If you've prepared thoughts and questions about a day's questions and resources, you're better able to learn and to further others' learning. We aim to afford each student ample opportunity to contribute. Class contribution comprises 25% of your grade (20% if you're enrolled in lab).

If a member of the teaching team considers you ill-prepared, s/he may request that you write to receive full credit for class participation. If you choose to do this, please post such writing on your People page with a header: "UNPREPARED CLASS [date]."

'''If You Plan to be Absent - '''

If you plan to miss a class, please email robin@ {ecomagic}. To receive credit for classes that you miss, in addition to completing the regular assignments for that day you devote an equivalent of one class period to writing with reference to core readings responses to syllabus questions for that day. Please post such writings on your People page with a header: "MISSED CLASS [date]."

A satisfactory UNPREPARED CLASS or MISSED CLASS supplemental writing will consist of at least 400 words, respond to all syllabus questions for that class, and reference each core reading. Before undertaking a supplemental writing, please read [[Sample Supplemental Writing]].

When you submit an UNPREPARED or MISSED CLASS writing, please email robin@ {ecomagic}. We will only award credit for writing if we receive such an email notice prior to due date.

We provide opportunity to demonstrate learning with brief weekly written and/or oral quizzes. To score well on quizzes you'll be familiar with key ideas in core resources, and able to apply them to course questions. Quizzes comprise 25% of your grade (20% if you're enrolled in lab).

[[Sample Quiz Questions]]

[https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxngE8UAOIeBcU5DUFBTalg5dnc/edit Sample Video]

Each student completes a written final exam. We've compiled an extensive list of potential questions  [[Final Exam Questions]]. We post a final exam at least one week before end of quarter. You may write a final exam during registrar-scheduled final examination time for this course, or you may submit it before that time. A final exam comprises 25% of your grade (20% if you're enrolled in lab).

Instructional team members agree with many others who've observed that knowledge is often more complete when evidenced by action. By including a lab component in this course we provide opportunity for you to experiment with personal change in partnership with others. We use "experiment" to denote consciously chosen behavior that we carefully observe, record, and analyze. Please design experiment(s) to be completed, including recording and analysis, in three hours per week, Stanford's benchmark for one academic unit of credit. Plan to engage in experimental behavior, to journal your practice, and to note differences in other aspects of life that you perceive to be possibly related to practice. For example, you might:

Choose a lab about which you can be wholehearted. Each instructional team member is engaged in her or his lab. We've more than a century of practice among us. We're glad to share this experience. You may also find one or more partners among other course participants. Feel free to mix and match - you may choose to adopt one practice for ten weeks, or you may choose one for two weeks, another for two weeks, or different ones on different days of the week, etc.. Author a life you want with experiment(s) you deem well-suited to you. Please consider what keystone habit (see excerpt from "The Power of Habit" in class 1 resources, below) you might address in lab. For more ideas, see [[Shake Up Your Life]].

As soon as you've even preliminary ideas about your proposed experiment(s), please describe them on your People page, and email lab coordinator hilary@ {ecomagic} to let her know that you've done so. We look forward to sharing satisfaction generated by being and doing more as each of us intends.

'''Late Lab Report''' You can submit a lab report up to one week late. Penalty for a late report is 1 of 10 possible points for each week or partial week past due (e.g., a report submitted 10 days late is penalized 2 points). If you submit a late report, please write "LATE LAB REPORT" as first line. If you neglect to submit a report at all, you will earn 0 of 10 possible points for that week's lab.

 

 

*25% Quizzes

*25% Classroom contribution

*25% Final exam

=== Participants Enrolled for 4 Units (Lab) ===

*20% Quizzes

*20% Classroom contribution

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12.    How We Arrived Here: The First 100,000 Years

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

== Class 1 - Overview, Education for Living/Dying Well ==

 

 

 

 

 

*Course syllabus. Please read the syllabus carefully through end of week 1 (class 2). Skim remainder of syllabus for an overview of later course material. [http://www.valuescience.org/wiki/index.php?title=Syllabus Link] 5 pp. (through week 1); 20 pp.(weeks 2-10).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Wikipedia. (2009). "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs Link]

 

*Walker, Marshall. (1963). "A Survival Technique." ''Nature of Scientific Thought.'' pp.14-20. [https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By0w-ttO7JmrbGR1TkxiRVhSQTA/view?usp=sharing Link]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Buchmann, Stephen. "Our Vanishing Flowers." (16 October 2015.) ''NYTimes.'' - Buchmann sketches the history of human reliance upon flowering plants and reports that an estimated 68% of flowering plants are threatened or endangered. [https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By0w-ttO7JmrcG5nNFVHLVlGNVU/view?usp=sharing Link] '''3 pp., 5 min.'''