He also hopes to have speakers visit the class to discuss a number of topics.

"I'm trying to get Miss Manners to come in and talk about the revolution of manners," he says. "Also Tom Wolfe and a couple of people who are just professors."

Mansfield hopes to instill in his students the ability to read a Platonic dialogue and figure out the answer to "Why are men the way they are?"

Although it is a graduate seminar, he welcomes undergraduates, except for first-years. As for the breakdown of the class, Mansfield says he predicts an equal number of men and women.

Superstars of Intellectual Wrestling

Stephen J. Gould. Harvey G. Cox. Alan M. Dershowitz. Sounds like Geraldo's dream line-up.

But these eminent progressive thinkers, the evolutionary biologist, the theologian and the lawyer, will perform this semester in front of an even more demanding host--Harvard undergrads. Jointly, the three super-profs are offering Religion 1045: "Thinking About Thinking." The course description promises an interdisciplinary examination of the way thinking about science, law and religion differ--and don't. The professors promise to try to explain big problems like free will, behavior and race relations.