Eli Nathans, Department of History Course Description: History 2901E Conceptions of Humanity and Society in Western Culture This course examines classic debates in the Western tradition by juxtaposing four series of texts. Each of these debates helped define the cultural climate of the era in which it took place. All had a significant influence on the culture of the West. The first pair of texts is Homer's Odyssey and Aristotle's Nichomacheon Ethics. Homer was the best loved poet of the Greeks, whose Iliad and Odyssey remained for centuries a guide to the conduct of individual lives and the true nature and goals of Greek society, even as this society fundamentally changed. Homer emphasized a heroic and military ideal while at the same time laying the foundation, at least in the Odyssey, for a society focused on domestic virtues as opposed to piracy and plunder. Aristotle formulated an ideal that was both more philosophical and ethical, clearly in conscious opposition to the models found in Homer. The power of the model of Aristotle is suggested by the fact that in medieval Europe the authority of Aristotle was considered in the academic schools to be next only to that of the Bible. The course then examines and contrasts key passages of the Hebrew and Christian Bibles, with the aim of elucidating the meanings and emphases of each. The centrality of both texts to Western culture requires no explanation. One principle focus of the class is to analyze the relationship between the two texts, what the Christian Bible owes to the Hebrew Bible and in what respects it constitutes a rebellion against Jewish beliefs and practices. This section of the class ends with readings from St. Augustine, a product of the cultures of both Rome and Christianity. St. Augustine's work has been deeply influential in the history of Christianity. The third pairing is of Erasmus and Luther. Erasmus was the dominant intellectual figure of the early sixteenth century, a man whose learned, witty, and often skeptical interpretations of scripture and other writings influenced kings and popes. Luther was among the products of the intellectual fervent that Erasmus helped create. He rejected compromises and ambiguities that Erasmus accepted to preserve the peace. In this part of the course we examine the contrasting ways in which both men searched for meaning and truth. The final section of the course focuses on the Enlightenment, or perhaps better, the Enlightenments, including both iconic figures of the French Enlightenment and also of the more moderate British variant, figures whom some recent historians of the period, notably John Pocock, insist must be considered part of the world of ideas to which Montesquieu, Voltaire, and also Rousseau belonged. We examine Voltaire's admiring descriptions of English society, Rousseau's scathing attack on the inequality and, hence, corruption, of contemporary Europe, and Montesquieu's careful historical analysis of what he considered the three principal political alternatives open to European governments, republics, monarchies, and tyrannies. The course then considers several of the writings of Edmund Burke, who admired Montesquieu and disdained Rousseau, and wrote a classic defense of British political institutions that is often mistakenly
understood as a purely conservative tract. We close by considering an archetypal British enlightenment figure, Benjamin Franklin. Learning Outcomes: At the end of this course students will be able to: Explain the clams of the authors and texts examined in the different parts of the class; Write a clear and analytic response to questions regarding each set of texts; and Express themselves clearly and succinctly in discussions of complex questions. Grading: Participation in class, including in-class response papers: 20% Four essays of six to eight pages in length, on each of the four sections of the class: 80% Books Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, translated by C.D.C. Reeve (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2014). Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), M.I. Finley, The World of Odysseus (Dallas, PA; Penguin Books, 1983 (2nd edition). Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography and Other Writings (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009) Homer, The Odyssey, translated by Barry Powell (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014). St. Augustine, Confessions, translated by Henry Chadwick (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009). Voltaire, Letters Concerning the English Nation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994). Coursepack Schedule of classes: Week One Introduction
Week Two Homer, The Odyssey, 1-168 (chapters 1-8) Finley, The World of Odysseus, 15-50 (chapters 1-2) Week Three Homer, The Odyssey, 169-248 (chapters 9-12) Finley, The World of Odysseus, 51-73 (chapter 3) Week Four Homer, The Odyssey, 249-345 (chapters 13-18) Finley, The World of Odysseus, 74-107 (chapter 4) Week Five Homer, The Odyssey, 346-437 (chapters 19-24) Finley, The World of Odysseus, 108-141 (chapter 5) Week Six Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 21-76 (Books 2-4) Arthur Adkins, Merit and Responsibility. A Study in Greek Values (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960), 316-51. Week Seven Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 136-195 (Books 8-10) Week Eight Genesis, 1-9; 12-19, 22. Week Nine
Exodus, 1-3, 16-24, 32-34. Week Ten The Gospel according to Mark. Letter of Paul to the Galatians; First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians. Week Twelve St. Augustine, Confessions, translated by Henry Chadwick (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), excerpts. Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo (London: Faber & Faber, 2000 (revised edition)), excerpts Elaine Pagels, Adam, Eve, and the Serpent (Vantage, 1984(, xi-xiv, 3-31, 98-117, 151-4. Week Thirteen St. Augustine, Confessions, translated by Henry Chadwick (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), excerpts. Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo, excerpts. Winter Break Week Fourteen Erasmus, On Education for Children Erasmus, Praise of Folly (excerpts) Erasmus, Letter to Dorp Erasmus, On the War against the Turks From The Erasmus Reader, ed. by Erika Rummel (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990), 65-100, 155-161, 169-194, 315-333. Roland Bainton, Erasmus of Christendom (New York: Scribner s, 1969), excerpts.
Hannah Yoran, Between Utopia and Dystopia. Erasmus, Thomas More, and the Humanist Republic of Letters (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2010), 69-104. Week Fifteen Martin Luther, The Freedom of a Christian Man Martin Luther, Preface to the Old Testament Martin Luther, How Christians should regard Moses From Martin Luther s Basic Theological Writings, ed. by Timothy Lull (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989), 118-148, 585-629. Erasmus on Luther, The Erasmus Reader, ed. by Erika Rummel (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990), 195-215. Roland Bainton, Here I Stand. A Life of Martin Luther (New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1950), excerpts. Week Sixteen Voltaire, Letters Concerning the English Nation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994). Exchanges with Frederick the Great and Catherine the Great J.G.A. Pocock, Barbarism and Religion, Vol. 1, The Enlightenments of Edwards Gibbon, 1737-1764 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), Section II, Voltaire, Neo-Classicist and Philosophe in the Enlightened World Picture, 72-162. Week Seventeen Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009). Week Eighteen Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws, trans. by Anne Cohler, Basia Miller, and Harold Stone (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), preface, books 1-5. Annelien de Dijn, French Political Thought from Montesquieu to Tocqueville. Liberty in a Levelled Society? (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 1-39.
Week Nineteen Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws, trans. by Anne Cohler, Basia Miller, and Harold Stone (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), books 11, 12, 19, Week Twenty Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), selections. Week Twenty-one Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography and Other Writings (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), selections Gordon Wood, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin (New York: Penguin, 2004), selections. Week Twenty-two Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, selections Gordon Wood, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin (New York: Penguin, 2004), selections. Weeks Twenty-three and Twenty-four: Open