Interdisciplinary Seminars
Primary Texts: Plato’s Republic
K20.1449 SOC 2 CR T 6:20-9:00 George Shulman
course meets for seven weeks only, January 18–March 1. Open to freshmen, sophomores, and juniors only.
This two-credit course focuses on Plato’s Republic. Our goal is two-fold: we learn the art of close reading to reveal the complex and contradictory layers of meaning in a text, and we introduce the enterprise of political theory by lingering over the central questions Plato raises. Those questions concern philosophy and its relationship to politics, the relationship between knowledge and power, the nature of justice, the role of art, poetry, and myth in politics and culture. We analyze these issues in relation both to Plato’s world, and to our own. We read the text slowly, and often out loud, but we also use several other readings about ancient Greek life, Plato’s text, and contemporary political theory.
The Meaning of Home
K20.1432 HUM, 2 CR T 6:20-9:00 Pat Rock
course meets for seven weeks only, March 8–April 26.
“Home,” Spengler wrote in The Decline of the West, “is a profound word.” This course examines the concept of home as it has been studied in literature, philosophy, psychology, and art. It examines the issues of home as a place in which we dwell, a place where we find our center. It examines the idea of home in relation to the physical world, cultural ties, and a changing world, a world where homelessness and exile are common. Readings may include: The Odyssey, King Lear, E.M. Forster’s Howards End, and selections from the works of Frost, Freud, and Jung.
Herodotus and the Idea of History
K20.1448 HUM, 2 CR T 3:30-6:10 Laura Slatkin
course meets for seven weeks only, March 8–April 26.
Referred to both as “the father of lies” and as the founder of the discipline of history, Herodotus (5th cent. B.C.E.) stands at the threshold of historical and ethnographic discourse in the West. Through its primary topic, the wars between Greece and Persia, Herodotus’ Histories examines the distinctive social, political, and religious characters of the major cultures of the ancient mediterranean world. In this class, our reading of the Histories will include a consideration of the following questions: how does the perspective of the Histories contribute to, and complicate, contemporary notions of exoticism and “otherness”; what is the relation of the Histories (with its recognition of cultural pluralism) to the themes and structure of Athenian tragedy? How does Herodotus construct a history out of travel, hearsay, participant-observation? What can we learn from Herodotus about historical method? Our readings will include (in addition to the primary text) selections from: Michel De Certeau, The Writing of History; Carlo Ginzburg, Clues, Myths and Historical Method; Leslie Kurke, Coins, Bodies, Games, and Gold: The Politics of Meaning in Archaic Greece.
Primary Texts:Machiavelli’s Prince and Discourses
K20. 1450 SOC 2 CR T 6:20-9:00 George Shulman
course meets for seven weeks only, March 8–April 26.
open to freshmen, sophomores, and juniors only.
This two-credit course focuses on Machiavelli’s political theory. Our goal is two-fold: we learn the art of close reading, to reveal the complex and contradictory layers of meaning in our texts, and we explore the enterprise of political theory by lingering over the central questions Machiavelli raises. What is the nature of power? What is the character of “good” leadership? What is the relationship between morality and politics? How can human beings sustain forms of self-government, given their short-sightedness and fear, the predatory and narrow interests of ruling classes, and the tendency of institutions to become reified forms of power? We focus on his two greatest texts, but also read several of his greatest interpreters.
Ancient Reflections in a Time of Modern War
K20.1451 HUM, 2 CR W 3:30-6:10 Laura Slatkin
course meets for seven weeks only, March 9–April 27.
In this class we will explore ancient Greek attitudes toward war, as represented in epic, drama, and historiography. Among the topics we will consider are: rhetoric and rationales for and against war; war and social cohesion; war and empire; the stakes of civil war; war and gender; the social costs of war; the implications for our contemporary situation.Readings may include, Homer, Iliad; Aeschylus Seven Against Thebes; Euripides, Iphigeneia in Aulis and Trojan Women; Aristophanes, Peace; Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War; and 20th century mediations on the problematic of war, such as Elaine Scarry, The Body in Pain; Jonathan Shay, Achilles in Vietnam; Simone Weil, The Iliad, or the poem of force.
