HNRS2550: Western Intellectual Traditions I

Class Program
Credits 3

The course will focus on the Western Intellectual Tradition (WIT) from the time of the Greeks to the 16th and 17th centuries. We begin with Plato and Aristotle and continue with Augustine, Dante, Machiavelli, Cervantes, and Thomas Hobbes. We will examine critically some of the perennial questions of "the human condition," and students will be exposed to some of the foundational texts, ideas, issues, and events that comprise the WIT. Crisis and continuity in the ancient and modern eras will be scrutinized as we evaluate critically the origins and development of the WIT through a close reading of primary texts produced by some of the greatest minds of the WIT. Our purpose, however, is not to worship blindly these texts (which are timely and timeless); rather we seek to subject them to critical analysis befitting the manner in which they were composed.

Prerequisites

Acceptance into the Honors College