Beginnings: Inquiring into the Origins of Politics, Poetry, and Mathematics

July 9–15 | What are the origins of human society, language, and knowledge? Through classical works of history, philosophy, religion, mathematics, and poetry, we will explore the idea of the beginning.

Session is full

Technology & Transcendence: Scientific Ambition and the Human Condition

July 16–22 | Should there be limits to the pursuit of technology? We’ll read texts, study films, and perform astronomical observation, pivoting on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (subtitled “the modern Prometheus”), and culminating in Ridley Scott’s masterpiece, Blade Runner.

Art & Nature: Intersection of Imagination and Ingenuity

July 23–29 | What are the true powers of art? Does art “imitate nature”, as Aristotle claimed, or, at its peak, does it express forms of life, creativity, and individual expression that transcend the world as given to us by nature? We shall explore these questions directly in the seminar, and indirectly through careful reflection on works of poetry, painting, and photography.

Sight & Insight: Seeing and knowing in literature, philosophy, and geometry

June 25–July 1 | We say “I see,” when we mean, “I know, I understand.” How much is knowing like seeing? What can we know merely by looking? What does it mean to have true insight beyond the visible world? And what do the wise fail to see even when they try their utmost? We will explore these questions through readings and elementary theorems in geometry.

Session is full

Justice, Nature, & Law: From the politics of society to the rules of the natural world

July 2–8 | In what sense does nature have laws? In what sense can human laws be by nature? We will read Sophocles’ Antigone and Plato’s Republic to think about the relationship of nature and justice to the laws of the city. We will also read Pascal’s treatises on pressure to consider force and counterforce in nature and the lawful relationship between them.

Hidden Powers: Uncovering forces in Shakespeare, poetry, and physics

July 9–15 | What forces are apparent to all, and what active forces are hidden from us? How do we bring them to light and understand them in speech? Should we try to control them or explore them? There are hidden forces in nature, politics, and the soul. We will explore them through readings and in the laboratory.