IDS 171 01 Cultural Heritage I
The Middle Ages from Virgil to Dante
Gruenler, Curtis MWF 1:00 PM 1:50 PM
During the 1500 years between the birth of Christ and the Renaissance,
the world as we know it today took shape through changes such as
the rise of Christianity and Islam, the invention of romantic love,
the formation of modern nations, and the interaction of Christian
and classical thought. Yet even though this is such a formative
time for our own culture, people saw the world much differently
that we do. We will try to imagine medieval life and understand
medieval thought through the lenses of history, literature, philosophy,
and to a lesser extent theology, music, and art. Transporting ourselves
to the past can give us a new perspective on the present and on
big questions like what makes a good life, what it is to love,
and how people can live together well in communities and nations.
This will happen most powerfully through our encounter with great
texts from this time such as Virgil’s Aeneid, Augustine’s Confessions,
Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy, philosophical
works by Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas, the Lays of Marie de France,
and above all Dante’s Divine Comedy, which we will
read almost in its entirety. Students will write several short
papers, one longer essay, midterm and final exams, and a commonplace
book or group project.
Fulfills GLI requirement.
IDS 171 02 Cultural Heritage I
Jews, Pagans, and Christians: the Ancient and Medieval Worlds Reconsidered
Tseng, Gloria MWF 11:00 AM 11:50 AM
From the heyday of the Roman Empire, when they were a small and
vulnerable minority, to the “Christian centuries,” when
the papacy was strong enough to rival kings, Christians lived and
died in the historical and cultural contexts of their day. They
were shaped and informed by their worlds even as they challenged
the status quo. As they interacted with the worlds around them,
they were in dialog with other cultural and religious traditions.
This course will take us on a brief journey of the ancient and
medieval worlds and introduce us to their questions and concerns.
Emphasis will be given to meditative reading (i.e., texts that
call for slow reading and contemplation), and we will consider
what they have to say to us in our day in regard to spirituality
and other issues of life.
IDS 171 03 Cultural Heritage I
Citizenship and the Good Life
Cox, John MWF 11:00 AM 11:50 AM
"Citizenship and the Good Life" surveys history, literature,
and philosophy from the ancient Greeks to the early Renaissance
with two ideas as the focus: What does it mean to be a citizen?
What does it mean to live a good life? Beginning with Greek tragedy,
the course includes readings from Herodotus, Thucydides, Aeschylus,
Plato, Aristotle, Lucretius, Epictetus, Virgil, Luke's Gospel,
Augustine, Aquinas, Dante, and Thomas More.
IDS 171 04 Cultural Heritage I
Families, Nation, Tragedy
Bassett, Gregory MWF 8:30 AM 9:20 AM
We are individuals, members of families, citizens of a country,
and part of the world. What are the relationships between these
aspects of our identities? Are families small societies, with their
own cultures and laws? Are countries large families, held together
by the affections of extended kinship? Do the duties we have to
those we love conflict with the duties we have to our country?
Do the duties we have to our country conflict with the duties we
have to those in other countries? If they do, is there any way
to decide how to act, or are we doomed to conflict and tragedy?
These are questions we still struggle with today, but we can look
to the past for some help in answering them. In this class, we
will look at how ancient Greeks attempted to understand the relationship
between families and broader society, by examining the history,
drama, and philosophy of the period.
IDS 171 05 Cultural Heritage I
Real Life and the Good Life from Classical Times to Christian
LaPorte, Joseph MW 2:00 PM 3:20 PM
In this course, we will be keeping our eyes on ethical questions,
particularly those pertaining to sex and gender, power, and still
more broadly, how to live well. The readings for this course are
in large part classics, texts that have through the ages been regarded
as masterpieces that transcend their own times, and that have something
important to say to people of various times and cultures. We will
be looking at literature, philosophy, and history as well as some
theology; we will be covering these disciplines as they apply to
classical Greece and Rome, and then as they apply into the Middle
Ages and the Renaissance. Because the course proceeds chronologically,
we can see in a powerful way how later authors build on earlier
ones. Something that particularly excites me about the course is
the way it illustrates how Christianity, which became the dominant
religion in the West, was born in a classical world and how Christians
came to incorporate classical learning and culture from ancient
Greece and Rome.
IDS 171 06 Cultural Heritage I
Real Life and the Good Life from Classical Times to Christian
LaPorte, Joseph MW 3:30 PM 4:50 PM
In this course, we will be keeping our eyes on ethical questions,
particularly those pertaining to sex and gender, power, and still
more broadly, how to live well. The readings for this course are
in large part classics, texts that have through the ages been regarded
as masterpieces that transcend their own times, and that have something
important to say to people of various times and cultures. We will
be looking at literature, philosophy, and history as well as some
theology; we will be covering these disciplines as they apply to
classical Greece and Rome, and then as they apply into the Middle
Ages and the Renaissance. Because the course proceeds chronologically,
we can see in a powerful way how later authors build on earlier
ones. Something that particularly excites me about the course is
the way it illustrates how Christianity, which became the dominant
religion in the West, was born in a classical world and how Christians
came to incorporate classical learning and culture from ancient
Greece and Rome.
IDS 171 07 Cultural Heritage I
Freedom, Justice, and the Good Life
Portfleet, Dianne TR 9:30 AM 10:50 AM
This course will focus on 4 specific time periods in history:
5th-century B.C. Greece, 1st-century Rome, beginnings of Islam
and its expansion, and Dante's Florence. In each of the historical,
philosophical and literary readings, we will be focusing on the
themes of freedom, justice and the good life. The last half of
the semester will be spent reading the Dante’s complete Divine
Comedy and expanding on all of the ideas introduced in the
earlier writings.
IDS 171 08 Cultural Heritage I
Families, Nation, Tragedy
Bassett, Gregory MWF 9:30 am 10:20 AM
We are individuals, members of families, citizens of a country,
and part of the world. What are the relationships between these
aspects of our identities? Are families small societies, with their
own cultures and laws? Are countries large families, held together
by the affections of extended kinship? Do the duties we have to
those we love conflict with the duties we have to our country?
Do the duties we have to our country conflict with the duties we
have to those in other countries? If they do, is there any way
to decide how to act, or are we doomed to conflict and tragedy?
These are questions we still struggle with today, but we can look
to the past for some help in answering them. In this class, we
will look at how ancient Greeks attempted to understand the relationship
between families and broader society, by examining the history,
drama, and philosophy of the period.
IDS 172 01 Cultural Heritage II
Enlightenment, Revolution, and Romanticism
Perovich, Anthony MWF 1:00 PM 1:50 PM
While the French Revolution was one of the major events of modern
history, the buildup to it and the fallout from it are of equal
interest, and all three will be examined in this course. This section
of IDS 172 is a “three-discipline” interdisciplinary
course: it will focus on European history, literature, and philosophy
from the middle of the seventeenth century to the middle of the
nineteenth century. Special attention will be paid to the intellectual
movement known as “the Enlightenment,” to the Revolution
itself and the Napoleonic period that ensued, and to the Romantic
movement that sprang up alongside the Revolution and continued
beyond it. Figures to be read or studied will include Voltaire,
Kant, Goethe, Napoleon, and Hegel. The connections of the main
themes of this course to other cultural and historical developments,
such as the Scientific Revolution, the American Revolution, and
the rise of nationalism, will also be explored.
IDS 172 02 Cultural Heritage II
Enlightenment, Revolution, and Romanticism
Perovich, Anthony MWF 2:00 PM 2:50 PM
While the French Revolution was one of the major events of modern
history, the buildup to it and the fallout from it are of equal
interest, and all three will be examined in this course. This section
of IDS 172 is a “three-discipline” interdisciplinary
course: it will focus on European history, literature, and philosophy
from the middle of the seventeenth century to the middle of the
nineteenth century. Special attention will be paid to the intellectual
movement known as “the Enlightenment,” to the Revolution
itself and the Napoleonic period that ensued, and to the Romantic
movement that sprang up alongside the Revolution and continued
beyond it.
Figures to be read or studied will include Voltaire,
Kant, Goethe, Napoleon, and Hegel. The connections of the main
themes of this course to other cultural and historical developments,
such as the Scientific Revolution, the American Revolution, and
the rise of nationalism, will also be explored.
IDS 172 03 Cultural Heritage II
Authority and the Individual
Lunderberg, Marla TR 12:00 PM 1:20 PM
How do you define yourself as an individual? And how do you relate
to the many different authorities in your life? When someone (parent,
spiritual leader, government authority or dorm resident director)
lays down a rule, do you respond positively? Break it as a matter
of principle? Toe the line but grumble? Do you react differently
to different kinds of authority? When two kinds of authority conflict,
how do you respond?
In this course, we will examine how others have seen their relationships
to the many authorities in their lives. We'll cover a great range
of time and a great variety of kinds of thinking, from Luther's
distinctions between spiritual and secular authorities, to Shakespeare's
exploring the power held by colonial authorities, to Confucian
emphasis on family ties. We'll cover texts from the sixteenth through
the eighteenth centuries, from literature, history, and philosophy,
from Western and Asian traditions. We will consider texts as they
relate to their particular moment in history and as they relate
to each other.
Perhaps you'll see yourself in some of these thinkers. Perhaps
you won't. Yet whether you agree or disagree with them, digesting
what they have said can allow you to examine closely what you think.
172 04 Cultural Heritage II
Do the Right Thing
Kipp, Julie TR 9:30 AM 10:50 AM
From the Enlightenment period to the present day people have pondered
the characteristics of a civil and rational society and asked the
questions: What does it mean to do the right thing? Is this the
best of all possible worlds? To a large extent, however, these
questions have been driven without consideration for those who
have been excluded from Western concepts of civil society and from
the very category of the rational human. This course
will explore the development of Western thinking on these issues,
both through an examination of canonical authors in the Western
canon and through a substantial consideration of marginalized voices
and positions. The course is interdisciplinary in nature, which
is to say that we will work as historians (using primary source
materials like newspapers, editorial cartoons, medical writings,
and first-person narratives as well as literary and philosophical
texts from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries)
as well as literary scholars (focusing on close readings of texts
and formal issues as well as on their historical significance)
as a way to explore historical change across the last three centuries
and the strengths and weaknesses of our Western cultural heritage
as well as its relation to non-Western cultures. One of the primary
goals of this course is to prompt students not just to think about
what it means to them to do the right thing, but to
consider ways to translate their ideas into concrete actions. To
this end, students will be asked to develop over the course of
the semester a service project, the results of which will be presented
to the class orally at the end of the semester.
172 05 Cultural Heritage II
From Reformation to Revolution
Gibbs, Janis MWF 11:00 AM 11:50 AM
The theme of this interdisciplinary humanities course is “From
Reformation to Revolution.” The dynamic which will guide
our investigation is change. Change is an important dynamic in
human societies. At different times in history, men and women have
developed ideas, technologies and movements which have challenged
prevailing authorities, shifted people’s understanding of
the truth, and changed the world. Changes can be minor, or they
can be radical. They can improve existing institutions, or replace
them entirely. We sometimes call changes “reforms.” If
the changes are profound enough, we call them “revolutions.” How
do people foster change? How do they react to calls for reform?
What transforms reformation into revolution? What leads people
to develop revolutionary changes, or to adopt them? How and why
do other people resist reform or revolution? How can people transform
the extraordinary energy of revolutionary movements into the energy
required to build and maintain new institutions? Do we use the
term “revolution” too easily? What is a “reform”?
When does a change become revolutionary?
We will study a series of changes between the late fifteenth century
(i.e. late 1400s C.E. ) and the early 19th century (1800s C.E.
). Major topics include the Protestant and Catholic Reformations,
the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment and the French Revolution.
While we will not consider all of the important, or even all of
the revolutionary, changes that have occurred during this period,
we will be looking at a variety of kinds of change: religious,
political, intellectual, technological, social—and of course,
combinations of these kinds of change, since none of them exist
alone.
This course is also an introduction to three disciplines within
the humanities—history, philosophy, and literature—and
to the connections and distinctions between them. We will use a
variety of sources to discuss reformations, revolutions, and the
people who made them, joined them, resisted them, and were swept
up by them. Literature, philosophy and history give us different,
though related, ways of understanding the process and the experience
of reform and revolution in human history. |
