Courses & Programs of Study

Program Chairman: Wendy Olmsted, HM W601, 702-8593

Program Coordinator: Aimee Burant, C 327, 702-7144,

aaburant@uchicago.edu

Departmental Secretary: Delores A. Jackson, C 330, 702-7148,

djackson@midway.uchicago.edu

Program of Study

The Fundamentals program enables students to concentrate on fundamental questions by reading classic texts that articulate and speak to these questions. It seeks to foster precise and thoughtful pursuit of basic questions by means of (1) rigorous training in the interpretation of important texts, supported by (2) extensive training in at least one foreign language, and by (3) the acquisition of the knowledge, approaches, and skills of conventional disciplines: historical, religious, literary, scientific, political, and philosophical.

Rationale. A richly informed question or concern formulated by the student guides the student's reading of texts. Classic texts are also informed by such questions, for example, Socrates asks: What is virtue? What is the good? What is justice? Aristotle and Cicero explore the relation of civic friendship to society. Freud asks: what is happiness? Can humans be happy? Milton investigates how poetic vocation may be related to political responsibility. Questions of this nature and others like them are often raised in the general education courses, not only in humanities and social sciences but also in the physical and biological sciences. Students who are engaged by these questions, who find them both basic and urgent, may wish to continue to explore them more thoroughly and deeply within the structure of the program which provides the wherewithal to address them on a high level.

That wherewithal is to be found in the fundamental or classic texts (literary, philosophic, religious, historical, and scientific) in which the great writers articulate and examine questions in different and competing ways. These books illuminate the persisting questions and speak to contemporary concerns because they are both the originators and the most exacting critics of our current opinions. Accordingly, these texts serve best not as authorities but as colleagues who challenge us to thing that "something else might actually be the case" than what we already think. The most important questions may, at bottom, be the most contested, and those most susceptible to, and most requiring, sustained, probing engagement.

This program emphasizes the firsthand experience and knowledge of major texts, read and reread and reread again. Because they are difficult and complex, only a small number of such works can be studied. Yet the program assumes that intensively studying a profound work and incorporating it into one's thought and imagination prepares one for reading any important book or reflecting on any important question. Read rapidly, such books are merely assimilated into preexisting experience and opinions; read intensively, they can transform and deepen experience and thought.

But studying fundamental texts is, by itself, not enough. Even to understand the texts themselves, supporting studies and training are necessary: a solid foundation in at least one foreign language and in disciplines and subject matters pertinent to the student's main questions are essential parts of the major. Knowledge of the historical contexts out of which certain problems emerged or in which authors wrote; knowledge of specific subject matters and methods; knowledge of the language in which a text was originally written, as well as an understanding of the shape a given language imparts to a given author or language as such or to thought as such; fundamental skills of analysis, gathering evidence, reasoning, and criticism; different approaches and perspectives of conventional disciplines. All these are integral parts of the educational task.

Individual Program Design. Genuine questions cannot be given to a student; they must arise from within. For this reason, a set curriculum is not imposed upon the student. It must answer to his interests and concerns, and begin from what is primary for him. One student may be exercised about questions of science and religion, another about freedom and determinism, another about friendship and conversation, another by prudence, romance, and marriage, a fifth about distributive justice. Through close work with a suitably chosen faculty adviser, the choice of texts, text courses, and supporting courses for each student is worked out in relation to such beginning and developing concerns. Beginning with a student's questions and interests does not, however, imply an absence of standards or rigor; this program is most demanding.

Application to the Program. Students should apply in the Spring Quarter of their first year to enter the program in their second year; the goals and requirements of the program are best met if students spend three years in the major. Applications may, however, be made during the second year as well. Each student is interviewed and counseled in order to discover those students whose interests and intellectual commitments would seem to be best served by this program. Students are admitted on the basis of the application statement, interviews, and previous performance.

Program Requirements

A. Course Requirements.

1. Required Introductory Sequence (2). A two-quarter sequence, open to second- and third-year students, serves as the introduction to the major. It sets a standard and a tone for the program as a whole by showing how texts can be read to illuminate fundamental questions. Each course in the sequence is taught by a different faculty member; each course is devoted to the close reading of one or at most two texts, chosen because they raise challenging questions and present important and competing answers. Students should learn a variety of ways in which a text can respond to their concerns and can compel consideration of its own questions.

2. Elected Text and Author Courses (6). The central activity of the program is the study and learning of six classic texts. Late in the second year, each student, with the help of a faculty adviser, begins to develop a list of six texts. The list grows gradually during the following year; a final list of six should be established early in the fourth year. This list should contain works in the area of the student's primary interest that look at that interest from diverse perspectives. The texts selected are usually studied in seminar courses offered by the faculty of the program or in courses cross-listed or approved for these purposes. Some books may, however, be prepared in reading courses or tutorials (independent study), if appropriate. Students write term papers in each of their text or author courses. These are carefully and thoroughly criticized by the responsible faculty members. The books taught come from a variety of times and places, East and West, and the selections reflect both the judgments and preferences of the faculty and the different interests and concerns of the students. Normally, six text or author courses are required for the degree (in addition to the introductory sequence). At the end of the fourth year, students take a Fundamentals examination on the books they have selected (consult following section on Fundamentals Examination).

3. Foreign Language (6). Students in the program are expected to achieve a level of competence in a foreign language sufficient to enable them to study in the original language (other than English) one of the texts on their examination list. Achieving the necessary competence ordinarily requires two years of formal language instruction (with an average grade of B- or better) or its equivalent. The second year of the language may be counted toward the major. In addition, students must demonstrate their language abilities by taking a course or independent study in which one of their texts is read in the original language, or by writing a paper that analyzes the text in its original language and shows the student's comprehension of that language.

4. Elected Supporting Courses (4). Appropriate courses in relevant disciplines and subject matters are selected with the help of the advisers.

5. Electives. Please refer to the Four-Year Curriculum section, under the Sample Programs heading (consult following section on Sample Programs).

B. The Junior Paper. The junior paper provides the opportunity for the student to originate and formulate a serious inquiry into an important issue arising out of his work and to pursue the inquiry extensively and in depth in a paper of about twenty to twenty-five pages. At every stage in the preparation of the paper, the student is expected to work closely with his faculty adviser. Normally, students elect to register for one course of independent study in the quarter in which they write and rewrite the paper. Acceptance of a successful junior paper is a prerequisite for admission to the senior year of the program.

C. Fundamentals Examination. Sometime in the Spring Quarter of the senior year, each student is examined on the six fundamental texts he has chosen. Preparation for this examination allows students to review and integrate their full course of study. During a three-day period, students write two substantial essays on questions designed for them by the associated faculty. The examination has a pedagogical intention, more than a qualifying one. Its purpose is to allow students to demonstrate how they have related and integrated their questions, texts, and disciplinary studies.

Summary of Requirements

3 courses in a second-year foreign language*

2 introductory courses

6 elected text courses

4 elected supporting courses

- junior paper

- Fundamentals examination

* Credit may be granted by examination.

Grading, Transcripts, and Recommendations. The independent study leading to the junior paper (NCDV 29900) is best evaluated in faculty statements on the nature and the quality of the work. In support of the independent study grade of Pass, both the faculty supervisor and the second reader of the paper are asked to submit such statements to student files maintained in the Office of the New Collegiate Division. Other independent study courses may be taken on a Pass/No Pass basis (NCDV 29900) or for a quality grade (NCDV 29700); students must write a term paper for any independent study courses taken for a quality grade. Students should request statements of reference from faculty with whom they have worked in all their independent study courses.

At the student's request, the registrar can include the following statement with each transcript:

The New Collegiate Division works with a small, selected group of students. There is less emphasis on letter grades than in other Collegiate Divisions and greater emphasis on independent work (NCDV 29900), including substantial papers submitted at the end of the junior and senior years. Students do some substantial portion of their work in close association with a tutor or tutors, and this work is graded Pass/No Pass only. Grades are supplemented with qualitative statements available from the Master, New Collegiate Division, The University of Chicago, 5811 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60637.

Honors. Honors are awarded by the Fundamentals faculty to students who have performed with distinction in the program. Special attention is paid to both the junior paper and the senior examination. In addition, honors depend on the student's grades, especially in the major; a 3.25 grade point average is roughly the floor, but because some course work may be ungraded, the grade point average standard cannot be stated precisely.

Advising. Each student has his own faculty adviser, a member of the program chosen from those with whom the student works most closely. The adviser closely monitors the student's choice of texts, courses, and language studies, allowing for the gradual development of a fitting and coherent program. The faculty adviser supervises and is one of the readers of the junior paper and is responsible for approving the final list of texts for the Fundamentals examination. The program coordinator is available for advice and consultation on all aspects of every student's program.

Sample Programs. The following sample programs show, first, a plan of a four-year curriculum, locating the Fundamentals program in the context of Collegiate requirements, and, second, illustrative courses of study within the major itself, indicating possible ways of connecting fundamental questions and interests to both basic texts and standard courses. These programs are merely for the purpose of illustration; many, many other variations would be possible.

Four-Year Sample Curriculum. Courses that meet College general education requirements are labeled (GE). Courses that are underlined fulfill requirements of the Fundamentals major. The Fundamentals program comprises fifteen courses, over and above the fifteen courses constituting the College-wide general education requirement. Yet of these fifteen courses, only five are true requirements, that is, fixed courses that must be taken and, usually, at a prescribed time: the two-quarter introductory sequence is strictly required and prescribed for the student's first year in the program and, in most cases, a second year of foreign language study (in the language of one's choice) is also prescribed. All the remaining ten courses (text and supporting courses) are truly elective, and are freely chosen by the student with advice from his faculty adviser. A student interested in Fundamentals is well advised to take Humanities and a language in the first year.

First year

Humanities (GE) 3

Social Sciences (GE) 3

Physical Sciences or Biological Sciences

or Mathematics (GE) 3

Foreign Language I 3

Subtotal 12

Second year Introductory Fundamentals Sequence 2

Physical Sciences or Biological Sciences

or Mathematics (GE) 3

Foreign Language II 3

Civilization Sequence (GE) 3

Text Course 1

Subtotal 12

Third year Text or Author Courses 3

Supporting Courses 2

Musical, Visual, or Dramatic Arts (GE) 1

Electives* 3

Subtotal 9

Fourth year Text or Author Courses 2

Supporting Courses 2

Electives* 5

Subtotal 9

Total 42

* Normally students take one unit of independent study to write the junior paper and another to prepare for the Fundamentals examination.

Questions, Texts, and Supporting Courses. All Fundamentals students, working with their advisers, develop their own program of study. Since students come to Fundamentals with diverse questions, they naturally have diverse programs. Examples of programs completed by Fundamentals students are listed below.

One student asked the question, "How does telling a story shape a life?" She studied Homer's Odyssey, Augustine's Confessions, Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, Goethe's Autobiography, Saint Teresa's Life, and the Bhagavad-Gita, and studied in supporting courses, Reading and Writing Poetry (Fundamentals), Myth and Literature (German), Autobiography and Confession (Divinity School), and Comparative Approaches to Psychotherapy (Psychology).

A second student asked a question about the ethics of violence, "Is there a just war?" He read Thucydides' Peloponnesian War, Aristotle's Ethics, the Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel of Matthew, the Bhagavad-Gita, Machiavelli's The Prince, and Weber's "Politics as a Vocation," and studied in supporting courses World War II (History), The Military and Militarism (Sociology), Introduction to Indian Philosophical Thought (South Asian Languages and Civilizations), and Introduction to the New Testament (Early Christian Literature).

A third Fundamentals student investigated the question, "Is the family a natural or a cultural institution?" His texts were Genesis, Homer's Odyssey, Aristotle's Politics, Aristophanes' Clouds, Sophocles' Antigone, and Rousseau's Emile. In supporting courses, he studied The Family (Sociology), Men and Women: A Literary Perspective (Fundamentals), Political Philosophy of Locke (Political Science), and Sophocles (Greek).

A fourth student, interested in natural right and natural law, read Genesis, Plato's Republic, Aristotle's Ethics, Rousseau's Second Discourse, Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws, and the Federalist Papers. In supporting courses, he studied Machiavelli to Locke, Rousseau to Weber, and the Political Philosophy of Plato (all Political Science).

A fifth asked the question, "What is marriage?" and concentrated on these texts: Genesis, Homer's Odyssey, Sophocles' Antigone, Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and Goethe's Elective Affinities, and took, as supporting courses, Contemporary Ethical Theory (Philosophy), History of American Women (History), The Family (Sociology), and Sex Roles and Society (Psychology).

These programs indicate the diversity of issues and books Fundamentals represents. They are intended to suggest the cohesion of the individual program's texts and supporting courses within the context of a broad question. Obviously, many, many other programs could be devised.

Activities of Graduates. The Fundamentals program serves the purposes of liberal education, regarded as an end in itself, and offers no specific pre-professional training. Yet Fundamentals graduates have successfully prepared for careers in the professions and in scholarship. Some are now pursuing work in law, medicine, journalism, ministry, government service, business, veterinary medicine, and secondary school teaching. Others have gone on to graduate schools in numerous fields, including classics, English, comparative literature, Slavic, history, philosophy, social thought, theology, religious studies, clinical psychology, political science, development economics, mathematics, film studies, and education.

Faculty

The faculty of the Fundamentals program comprises humanists and social scientists, representing interests and competencies in both the East and the West and scholarship in matters ancient and modern. This diversity and pluralism exists within a common agreement about the primacy of fundamental questions and the centrality of important books and reading them well. The intention is for the students to see a variety of serious men and women presenting their approach to and understanding of books which they love, which they know well, and which are central to their ongoing concerns. The members of the Fundamentals faculty are

E. Asmis, M. (Lee) Behnke, B. Cohler, W. Doniger, C. Fasolt, A. Kass, L. Kass, J. Lear,
M. Lilla, J. MacAloon, S. Meredith, W. Olmsted, J. Redfield, W. Schweiker, J. Z. Smith,
N. Tarcov, C. von Nolcken, D. Wray

Courses

Fundamentals: Issues and Texts (fndl)

Courses preceded by an asterisk (*) will be part of the required introductory sequence in 2004-05. For additional course listings, consult the online version of the catalog (www.college.uchicago.edu/catalog), which is updated regularly.

21201. Milton. (=ENGL 17501/37500) For course description, see English Language and Literature. J. Scodel. Spring, 2005.

21300. James Joyce's Ulysses. Among the themes considered are the problems of exile, homelessness, and nationality; the mysteries of paternity and maternity; the meaning of the Return; Joyce's epistemology and his use of dream, fantasy, and hallucination; and Joyce's experimentation and use of language. S. Meredith. Spring, 2005.

21400. Martin Buber's Philosophy of Dialogue. (=HIJD 36700, RLST 25800) For course description, see Religious Studies. P. Mendes-Flohr. Winter, 2005.

21402. Ovid's Metamorphoses. (=CLCV 25000) Prior reading of books 1 through 3 helpful. This course examines in depth Ovid's interlocking tales of transformation. The structure of the work, as well as aspects of narrative, myth and philosophy, are topics of discussion. The course also considers the nachleben of The Metamorphoses and its influence on art and literature. Students choose an outside text/art work in which the theme of transformation is key. Reading of books 1 through 3 before the first session is helpful. L. Behnke. Spring, 2006.

21403. Shakespeare I: Histories and Comedies. (=ENGL 16500, ISHU 26550) For course description, see English Language and Literature. D. Bevington. Autumn, 2004. (B, F, H)

21404. Shakespeare II: Tragedies and Romances. (=ENGL 16600, ISHU 26560) ENGL 16500 recommended but not required. For course description, see English Language and Literature. R. Strier. Spring, 2005. (B, F, H)

21800. Franz Kafka. (=GRMN 24800) For course description, see Germanic Studies (German). D. Wellbery. Spring, 2005.

21802. Religion, Intuition, Irony: Schleiermacher's On Religion: Speeches to Its Cultured Despisers. (=GRMN 24301, RLST 24301) What is religion? The German Protestant theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher answers this question in his artful 1799 Speeches in an effort to convince his friends, the Romantics of post-Enlightenment Berlin, that they possess the true spirit of religion despite their contempt for religiosity. Topics include the cognitive status of religious intuition, the relation of individual experience to religious institutions and traditions, the plurality of religions, the continuities and discontinuities between Enlightenment and Romantic thought on religion, and the role of rhetoric in the philosophy of religion. Reading and discussion in English. Optional discussion section in German. A. Burant. Winter, 2005.

21900. Milton's Paradise Lost. (=GNDR 21600, HUMA 20800, RLST 26400) This course focuses on a close reading of Paradise Lost, attending to its redefinition of the heroics not only of war but of marriage and friendship. We study the text's engagement of issues of family, politics, history, psychology, and theology. W. Olmsted. Autumn, 2004.

*21901. Homer's Odyssey. Required of new Fundamentals students; open to others with consent of instructor. A seminar class that discusses such topics as travel, hospitality, gender, family, friendship, and cunning in the Odyssey. W. Olmsted. Autumn, 2004.

22301. The Ethics of Albert Camus. (=RLST 25600) Frequently put in the company of existentialists, Albert Camus insisted repeatedly that he had been wrongly characterized. His life's work involved a search for a morality of "limits" in a world no longer framed by the certainty of God's judgment and eternal life. Such a world did, however, demand transcendental reference points. We explore Camus's search for an ethic of limits and restraint through a reading of his novels and essays. Texts include The Stranger, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Plague, The Fall, and The Rebel. J. Elshtain. Autumn, 2004.

22701. Shakespeare's King Lear. Class limited to twenty students. This course is devoted to a close reading of Shakespeare's drama, with special attention to the large questions it raises regarding the relations between parents and children, as well as those among love, death, and politics. A. Kass. Spring, 2005.

22711. Middlemarch. (=ENGL 24101/42301) For course description, see English Language and Literature. L. Rothfield. Winter, 2005.

22910. Henry James: The Fiction of Crisis. (=ENGL 22300) For course description, see English Language and Literature. W. Veeder. Spring, 2005.

23102. Rewriting the Past: Narrative, Ritual, and Monument. (=AASR 30001, BPRO 26000, HUDV 27100, PSYC 25400, RLST 28100) PQ: Third- or fourth-year standing. For course description, see Human Development. B. Cohler, P. Homans. Winter, 2005.

23601. Religion, Sex, Politics, and Release in Ancient India. (=HREL 32200, RLST 27300, SALC 25701/35701, SCTH 35600) For course description, see South Asian Languages and Civilizations. Texts in English. W. Doniger. Winter.

23700. Constitution of Community. (=HUMA 23700, IMET 21100, LLSO 21700) For course description, see Law, Letters, and Society. D. Smigelskis. Winter, 2006.

23802. Thinking with Stories. (=RELH 23802, RLST 27900) For course description, see Religion and the Humanities. J. Z. Smith. Spring, 2006.

23803. Mircea Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion: Classics in the Study of Religion. (=RELH 29200, RLST 27102) For course description, see Religion and the Humanities. J. Z. Smith. Spring, 2005.

24300. Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. (=HIST 12500, RLST 22600). For course description, see History. C. Fasolt. Spring, 2005.

24311. Boethius. (=LATN 23400/33400) PQ: LATN 20300 or equivalent. For course description, see Classical Studies (Latin). P. White. Spring.

24312. Intermediate Latin III: Horace's Odes, Satires, and Letters. (=LATN 20300) PQ: LATN 20200 or equivalent. For course description, see Classical Studies (Latin). L. Behnke. Spring.

24400. The Mahabharata in English Translation. (=HREL 35000, RLST 26800, SALC 20400/48200) For course description, see South Asian Languages and Civilizations. W. Doniger. Winter.

24600. The Radicalism of Job and Ecclesiastes. (=HUMA 23500) H. Moltz. Spring, 2005.

24711. Virgil. (=LATN 21300/31300) PQ: LATN 20300 or equivalent. For course description, see Classical Studies (Latin). M. Payne. Spring.

24901. Tolkien: Medieval and Modern. (=HIST 29900, RLST 22400) For course description, see History. R. Fulton, L. Pick. Spring, 2005.

25201. Rilke's Modernity. (=GRMN 24300) For course description, see Germanic Studies (German). E. Santner. Winter, 2005.

25300. Lolita. (=ISHU 23901, RUSS 23900) For course description, see Slavic Languages and Literatures (Russian). M. Sternstein. Winter, 2005.

25301. Lewis Carroll. After the Bible and the works of Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland is the most quoted work in the history of literature. It has been translated into over 125 languages; it was met with such popularity upon its publication that Carroll was invited to Russia by adoring fans of the adventures. The course reads Alice with care for its concerns with language and concerns for its care with language games, and attempts to ascertain its universal allure even while, or because of, revealing that allure's mechanisms and returns. M. Sternstein. Spring, 2006.

25330. Dante's Inferno. (=RLLT 22700/32700) For course description, see Romance Languages and Literatures (Italian). J. Steinberg. Spring.

25331. Simone de Beauvoir: The Second Sex. Reading knowledge of French helpful but not required. In 1949, Beauvoir's The Second Sex took up the old question of sexual difference; it was never the same question again. Her attention to the situation and "situatedness" of women resulted in new ways of thinking about freedom, "destiny," and subjectivity, and also brought literature, autobiography, and cultural studies into philosophical reflection. This course engages close readings of selected passages of The Second Sex. K. Culp. Spring, 2005.

25500. Austen: Emma and Pride and Prejudice. (=GNDR 25900, HUMA 21600, IMET 32400, LLSO 22400) This course considers two novels by Jane Austen in terms of how they treat gender, class, socioeconomic circumstances, family structure, and geographical places as constraining and facilitating the agency of characters. In response to change, Austen's characters bridge differences of class, gender, family history, and geographical place to form friendships and marriages that change their self-understandings and capacities for productive social and personal activities. We discuss Austen's representations of evolving selves and how they develop or fail to develop growing powers of agency as they respond to historical and socioeconomic circumstances. W. Olmsted. Winter, 2005.

25700. Chaucer. (=ENGL 20105) PQ: Enrollment in London study abroad program. Prior knowledge of Middle English or of Chaucer's poetry not required. For course description, see English Language and Literature. C. von Nolcken. Autumn, 2004.

*26201. The Brothers Karamazov. (=HUMA 23300, RUSS 24300) Required of new fundamentals students; open to others with consent of instructor. We read and interpret The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky. Among major themes are the nature of human guilt in relation to God and society; the problem of evil, and how the existence of evil in the world affects religious beliefs; the pros and cons of "freedom," and what the word might have meant to Dostoevsky; and love. S. Meredith. Winter, 2005.

26400. Goethe's Faust. (=RLST 28601) For course description, see Religious Studies. D. Simmons. Winter, 2005.

27600. Augustine's Confessions. (=HUMA 22700, RLST 25100) This course discusses Augustine's representations of the self, of inquiry, and of the relation of language to truth. We discuss the literary and rhetorical form of the Confessions while also examining Augustine's psychology and theology. W. Olmsted. Autumn, 2005.

28001. Socrates and the Sophists. (=ISHU 28001) This course examines in as much detail as time allows Plato's Protagoras, Gorgias, Greater Hippias, and Lesser Hippias with a view to understanding who and what the Sophists are and their relation to the Platonic Socrates. H. Sinaiko. Spring, 2005.

28100. Beowulf. (=ENGL 15200/35200) PQ: ENGL 14900/34900 or equivalent. For course description, see English Language and Literature. C. von Nolcken. Winter, 2005.

28202. Introduction to the New Testament. (=BIBL 32500, NTEC 21000/32500, RLST 12000) For course description, see Religious Studies. M. Mitchell. Winter.

28212. Wordsworth's "The Prelude." This class involves a close reading of "The Prelude" by William Wordsworth. Wordsworth wrote and rewrote this majestic, autobiographical poem over a period of more than fifty years. Through the remembrance of things past, from earliest childhood through maturation as a "selected spirit," the poet discerns intimations of purposeful design for his genius. Critics have likened "The Prelude" to St. Augustine's "Confessions," in respect to the ways that memories are summoned to account for the shaping of awareness and intentions. Wordsworth, however, speaks in images that depart from traditional religious language to convey an overpowering sensibility of transcendence, and one of our concerns is to understand the transition. B. Brown. Autumn, 2004.

28501. The Free and Bound Will: Erasmus and Luther. (=RLST 26500) For course description, see Religious Studies. W. Schweiker. Autumn, 2004.

28601. Spinoza's Ethics and Theological-Political Treatise. A radical thinker in his own time, Spinoza is at once deeply involved with the past (through his interest in Hebrew scriptural exegesis, Roman stoicism, and medieval scholasticism) and keenly relevant to modern ethical, political, and religious thought. The Theological-Political Treatise contributed to early modern Biblical criticism while philosophically defending liberal democracy, toleration, and freedom of expression. The Ethics uses a series of "geometric" proofs (on God, the mind, the emotions, and reason) to present a vision of human freedom and happiness. Texts in English with optional reading group in Latin. D. Wray. Spring, 2006.

29001. Plutarch's Lives. (=PLSC 33600) This course is a reading of selections from Plutarch's Parallel Lives (possibly supplemented by essays from the Moralia) with attention to individual character, moral virtues and vices, the scope and limits of statesmanship, and the differences between Greece and Rome. R. Lerner, N. Tarcov. Autumn, 2004.

29300. Machiavelli on War. (=PLSC 32700) This course is an exploration of Machiavelli's thought on war through a reading of The Art of War and excerpts from The Prince and Discourses on Livy. N. Tarcov. Autumn, 2004.