Week/Day

Reading Assignments

Week 1

 Course Introduction and Ancient Mesopotamia
 

T, 8/26

Course Introduction

View the Lascaux Cave in France
 

R, 8/28

Reading: WH 1-27

Reading: The Code of Hammurabi, RWH 1-5. Complete text on the web

Complete Code of Hammurabi
Babylonian mathematics

Film on Egypt

Discussion: Consideration of the “legacy” of these Egypt and Mesopotamia fores for developments in Greece. Consideration of the “legacy” of these cultures in the contemporary self-understanding of the West. 

Recommended books:
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
History Begins at Sumer by Samuel Kramer
Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science from the Babylonians to the Maya by Dick Teresi

 
Week 2

 Mesopotamia Continued and Archaic Greece

T, 9/2

Reading: Epic of Gilgamesh (selections) RHW 5-13
Reading: Selections from Teresi’s Lost Discoveries (photocopies)

Discussion: The readings and their relation with the history, art, architecture of these cultures. The philosophy—considerations of the central concerns of human life—contained in these selections. The development of science and mathematics in Mesopotamia.

Catastrophe: The Looting of Iraq's Past....Exibition at the Oriental Institute of Chicago

Review of The Buried Book

1^st ARP due.

 

R, 9/4

Reading: WH 31-53

Reading: Homer, Iliad (selections) RWH 34-45 (Complete Iliad)

Reading: Sappho, Poems RWH, pp. 53-55

Discussion: The art, architecture and history of Aegean Civilization and Archaic Greece. The relation of Archaic Greece to Mesopotamia, Persia and Egypt. The ethos of Archaic Greece as gleaned through Homer and Herodotus. The reasons that our text ignores Cycladic cultures and the Phoenicians.

Study Guide for the First Exam distributed
 

Week 3

Aegean Civilization & the Beginnings of Hellenic Greece

T, 9/9

Reading: Pre-Socratic Philosophers (selections from Parmenides, Anaximander & Heraclitus) (photocopies)

Discussion: Continue discussion of the ethos of Archaic Greece, the origins of Greek Philosophy in the pre-Socratic thinkers, beginning of Hellenistic Greece. The nature of philosophy and science and where these ways of thinking originated.

2^nd ARP due.

 

R, 9/11

***Exam ***

Reading: WH 55-84

Reading: Herodotus, History of the Persian Wars (selections) RWH


Discussion: The history, art and architecture of Hellenic Greece; the rise of Athens. Greece and Persia—the emergence of the Hellenic self-conception and its relation to the Eastern Mediterranean.  The debates in the 20th century .

Week 4

Hellenic Greece

T, 9/16

Flood.....No class
 

R, 9/18

Reading: Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound (complete)

Reading: Socrates' Apology as recorded by Plato

Discussion: The development of the profession of sophistry and its relation to Athens.  The controversy over the war with Sparta.

3^rd ARP due
 

Week 5

Hellenic Greece: Plato

T, 9/23

Reading: Plato, Gorgias (complete)

Discussion: Socrates and the Sophists (con’t).

4^th ARP due

 

R, 9/25

Reading: Plato, Symposium (complete)
Reading:  Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War (selections in RWH) plus the Melian Debate on the web)

Discussion: Plato and the eidos. What does justice in the world require the world to be like? The relationship of the dialogues to one another, the character of Socrates, the issue of justice as framed by Plato, the question of philosophical inquiry. The development of Aristotle’s thought and the criticism of the “Forms” (eidos).

Study Guide for the 2nd Exam distributed
 

Week 6

 
Hellenic Greece
 

T, 9/30

Reading: Euripides, The Trojan Women (complete in Three Greek Plays or on the web)

Discussion: The political context of this play.  The philosophical position of this play. What conclusions can be drawn about Athenian culture.

Overview of Classical Greek art and architecture

Art History Resources on the Web

Ancient Greece, 1000 B.C.–1 A.D. | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

5^th ARP due

 

R, 10/2

***Exam***

Reading: Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Books 1 and 2

Discussion: The good life as the practice & theory of virtue.
 

Week 7

Hellenic Greece: Aristotle

T, 10/7

Reading: Aristotle, Politics, Books I & III (we are skipping II, but if you are interested in Aristotle’s critique of Plato’s Republic as well as his criticisms of other thinkers and regimes—Phaleas & Hippodanus and the Spartan, Carthaginian and Creten regimes, then I recommend it).

Discussion: Justice in the state.

6^th ARP due

 

R, 10/9

Reading: Aristotle, Politics, Books IV.1-11; VI.1-5 & 8; VII.1-3 & 8-17; VIII (all).
 

Week 8

Hellenistic Greece and the Emergence of Rome

T, 10/14

Reading: WH 93-116  and WH 119-153

Reading: Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus RWH 98-102

Discussion: The changing ethos of Greece: from polis to empire and kingdoms. The shifting philosophical perspective. The emergence of new influences from Central Asia and India.

7^th ARP due
 

R, 10/16

Reading: Vergil, Aeneid (selections) RWH 109-118

Reading: Apuleius’ The Golden Ass Books 1-6

Discussion: The history, art and architecture of Roman Civilization. The myth of Rome’s founding in Vergil. The syncretism of Roman Civilization—the ethos of the empire. Magic, sex and the gods in the Roman Empire.

Study Guide for the Third Exam Distributed
 

Week 9

Roman Civilization Continued and the Significance of Judaism

T, 10/21

Reading: Apuleius, The Golden Ass Books 7-11

Discussion: Complete Discussion of Roman conception of self in society. Philosophy during the Roman (pre-Christian) Period (the first Aristotelian Revival).

8^th ARP due

 

R, 10/23

***Exam***

Reading, WH 155-169

Reading: Hebrew Bible, WHR 146-162

Discussion: The history of Judaism and its early art and architecture.  Why Judaism challenged the Roman Empire.  The philosophical content of Job and a comparison to Prometheus Bound.

Week 10

The Rise of Christianity

T, 10/28

Reading: WH 169-181

Reading: New Testament (selections) RWH 162-167.

Reading:  Augustine, Selections (online at http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1201.htm) Book 1 (Preface, Chapter 1 and 7-11); Book 5 (Preface, Chapters 8-12); Book 8 (Chapters 1-13) (if you want, Chapters 16ff are Augustine’s critique of Apuleius’ Platonism); Book 13 (Chapters 1-4) 

Discussion:. The emergence of Christianity in the Greco-Roman world of the Levant. Judaic and early Christian encounters with Greek philosophical perspectives. The philosophical content of “The Sermon on the Mount.”

9^th ARP due

 

R, 10/30

Reading: WH 169-199

Reading: Books 4 and 5 of Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy (online at: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/latin/boethius/boephil.html).

Discussion: the history, art and architecture of late Roman and Byzantine civilization. The development of a distinctively Christian-Greek philosophical perspective. The challenges of orthodoxy and the impact of the loss of Greece for the Western Roman Empire’s (and its remnants) intellectual development.

Week 11

The World of Islam

T, 11/4

Introduction to Islam

Reading: WH 203-225

Reading: Qu’ran (selections) RWH 192-198
Reading: Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah (selections) RWH 198-204

Discussion: The history, art, architecture and literature of Islamic civilization. Its central importance in the actual historical development of the West. Its place in the West’s self-understanding, then and now. The rise of science, medicine and philosophy in the Islamic Middle East and Spain. Influences from India and Central Asia. The interaction of the various Muslim Dynasties and the Byzantine (Roman) Empire.

10^th ARP due

 

R, 11/6

Reading: Al Farabi, The Perfect State (selections)

Discussion: The development of Islamic philosophy and science. The discovery of, the preservation of, and the improvement of Greek philosophy, math, and science (particularly medicine).

Week 12

Islamic Philosophy

T, 11/11

Veterans Day

 

R, 11/13

Reading: Ibn Rushd, On the Harmony of Religions and Philosophy (http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ir/art/ir100.htm)

Discussion: Islamic political philosophy. The transformation / merging of Greek philosophy, Indian philosophy, and Islam.  An overview of art and architecture.

Study Guide for the Fourth Exam distributed

11^th ARP due

Week 13

Islamic Philosophy Continued

T, 11/18

Reading: Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed (Introduction and Chapter one of PART 2)

Discussion: Islamic Spain and the translation of Aristotle from Arabic and Hebrew to Latin. Philosophy in Islamic Spain.

ARP Assignment:  Hand in at least one make-up ARP or schedule an immediate conference with us.

 

R, 11/20

***Exam***

Discussion: Continue discussion of Islamic Philosophy. The relation between Islam, Byzantium, and the Christian West (as seen through the eyes of Muslims): the Crusades. The sack of Constantinople and the subsequent loss of huge archives of Ancient Greek literature (only preserved in Islamic culture) by the Franks in 1204. 

Week 14

High Middle Ages

T, 11/25

Reading: WH, Chapter 9

Reading: Dante, The Divine Comedy (selections) RWH 235-247

Discussion: The history, art, architecture and literature of the High Middle Ages in Europe. Dante as a lens for understanding the ethos of Europe.

12^th ARP due

 

R, 11/27

Thanksgiving

Week 15

The Aristotelian Revolution (the 13^th Century)

T, 12/2

Reading: Abelard & Heloise, Letters (selections)...For those who were not in class, the photocopies can be found in the Division 3 office (2430).  Make sure you pick up a copy of each of these.

Reading: Anselm, Proslogion (selections) & Guanilo’s reply. Online at: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/anselm.html

Discussion: Philosophy in the High Middle Ages. The importance of the will in ethics—the first intentional theory of wrong-doing (pre-Kantian). Continuing conflict between orthodoxy and philosophy. Proofs of God’s existence—the relation between faith and reason.  A continuation of the examination of Medieval art.

13^th ARP due

 

R, 12/4

Reading: Aquinas, Summa Theologica (selections)(12/4) Aquinas, selections from /Summa Theologica/ (on the sacred doctrine) found at: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/aquinas1.html

Reading: WH, Chapter 10

Discussion: Aquinas’ philosophical perspective. The importance of Aristotle development of philosophy and science. The emergence of “Scholasticism”. Aquinas and the wedding of orthodoxy and philosophy (and their later divorce).

Study Guide for the Final Exam distributed

Week 16

The Late Middle Ages

T, 12/9

Reading: Boccaccio, Decameron (selections) RWH 256-261 and Christine de Pizan's The Book of the City of Ladies (selections) RWH 275-280

Discussion: What is Western Culture?

14^th ARP due
 

R, 12/11

***Final Exam***

 Week 17
 

 
The End of the Semester

T, 12/16

Final Reflections and Party