Literature Seminar An Immersion in Classical Greek Literature

Students immerse themselves in the foundational works of classical Greek literature beginning with a study of the whole of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, followed by Aeschylus’ Oresteia, Sophocles’ Antigone, Oedipus Rex, and Oedipus at Colonus, and works by Euripides and Aristophanes. Students consider the thoughts and actions of some of Greek literature’s greatest characters and confront fundamental questions of human existence that still resonate today. What is the nature of Achilles’ rage? What makes possible the meeting between Achilles and Priam? What does “home” mean for Odysseus? How did the notion of justice develop over the course of the Oresteia and why? From what sort of blindness does Oedipus suffer? How do we understand Plato’s portrayal of Aristophanes in the Symposium, considering Aristophanes’ portrayal of Socrates in The Clouds?

Politics and Society Seminar Human Nature and the Nature of Government

By studying the writings of Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Locke, Rousseau, and Marx, among other texts, we follow a conversation spanning thousands of years about the nature of democracy, government, and our society. Explore contrasting notions of the relationship between the individual and state, the motivations of human beings, and the “best” form of government.

Philosophy and Theology Seminar The Bible, Thomas Aquinas, & Kierkegaard

Philosophy and theology both confront the most fundamental questions about the nature of being, the structure of the universe, and how we as humans can fit within it. In this seminar, you will likely find that there is no bright line between faith and reason in these deepest of works: the Bible, Augustine's Confessions, Aquinas’ Summa Theologica and Kierkegaard’s Philosophical Fragments. All deal with the question of God’s existence, but they demand inquiry and thought.

History Seminar Historic Implications of the Individual and Governments

In this class, a variety of great classical historians are read, including Herodotus, Thucydides, Plutarch, and Tacitus. Through the eyes of these authors, students witness the rise and fall of the empires of Athens and Rome, confronting questions such as: What is the connection between democracy and empire? How durable is the republican form of government? What precipitates change from one form of government to another? In addition, students consider the role of the individual in history, particularly through the lives of remarkable leaders of antiquity including Themistocles, Pericles, Alcibiades, Caesar, Cato, Augustus, and others.

Mathematics and Natural Science Seminar Challenging the Ideas of Nature and Science

This class considers a series of texts which set forth different understandings of the enterprise of science, including what its goals, methods, and subject matter might be. When we speak of “natural science” what do we mean by “nature” and “science”? Do we wish to contemplate nature or to master it? How is the pursuit of scientific knowledge related to the pursuit of a good life for human beings? Can we know how to pursue scientific knowledge without presupposing understanding of its objects? Are questions about matter void, infinity, space, time, and motion questions that should be answered by science? Can the human soul be an object of natural science? These and other questions are raised by the texts of Lucretius, Plato, Aristotle, Bacon, Harvey, Descartes, Newton, Leibniz, Darwin, and Freud or Jung.