IPHS 113Y Odyssey of the West: Love and Justice

Credit: 0.75

In the first semester, we explore the themes of love and justice, purity and power, fidelity to the family, and loyalty to the state. Through reading selections from the Hebrew Bible, Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides, Virgil, Dante and others, we investigate these themes as they find expression in the Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman traditions and in their enduring European legacies.

IPHS 114Y Odyssey of the West:Reason and Revolt

Credit: 0.75

In the second semester, we focus on the themes of law and disorder, harmony and entropy, and modernity and its critics. Beginning with Machiavelli, Shakespeare, and Hobbes, we investigate the desire to construct a unified vision through reason; then we examine the disruption or refinement of that vision in the works of such authors as Nietzsche, Darwin, and Marx. Throughout the year, we explore the connections between the visual arts, literature, and philosophy. In tutorial sessions, students concentrate on developing the craft of writing. IPHS 113Y-114Y will fulfill diversification in the Humanities Division.

IPHS 215 Modernism and Its Critics

Credit: 0.5

Continuing the inquiries begun in 113Y-114Y, this seminar addresses the rise of modernism, which represented a massive fissure in Western consciousness. A fault line visible since Romanticism suddenly fractures. One consequence was that something utterly unique, highly unsettling, and profoundly revolutionary occurred: the role of art and the artist leapt into extraordinary prominence. Why in modernism do the issues of "self," "society," and "authority" figure so prominently in the aesthetic domain? What does the signal role of art suggest about the character of modernism itself? How successful has art been as the focal point of questions regarding authority? Is art's centrality itself a paradoxical response to the issues of complexity, specialization, fragmentation, and relativity which inform the modern world? In view of modernism's paradoxes and chief concerns, we will address contending views of art and authority in various disciplines and media, including the visual arts, architecture, philosophy, literature, music, dance, and film. Readings will include Baudelaire, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Woolf, Kafka, Breton, and Sartre. Films will include Triumph of the Will, Rashomon, and Mulholland Drive. This course may be used as .50 unit of history ftowards fulfilling diversification requirements in the Social Sciences Division. Prerequisite: IPHS 113Y-114Y

Instructor: Elkins

IPHS 225 Galileo to Einstein

Credit: 0.5

In the early seventeenth Century, Galileo's writings on physics and astronomy helped to establish modern scientific thought. Three centuries later, Einstein's work on relativity and quantum theory helped to transform it. The ideas of both men proved influential and ignited controversy far beyond the bounds of their scientific disciplines. In this class, we will read essential works by Galileo and Einstein (among others) and explore, not only their discoveries, but also their wider views of Nature and the human striving to understand her. What principles guide the scientific quest? Are there limits to scientific knowledge? What are the relationships between between observation and imagination, between genius and ethics, between science and religion?

Instructor: B. Schumacher

IPHS 318 Postmodernism and Its Critics

Credit: 0.5

This course investigates the phenomenon of postmodernism and considers its relation to the modernist era. We will study key definitions and ask: can postmodernism be defined as a postindustrial capitalistic phenomenon, as an increasing emphasis on language games, as a refusal of grand narratives, or as a shift from epistemological to ontological concerns? We will look at the advent of structuralism and its response to existentialism, as well as poststructuralist critiques. What does postmodern politics look like, and what are the implications of its critique of humanism? Postcolonialism, feminism, gender studies, and critical race theory will be also considered for their critique of the Western tradition. We will then examine the reinvigoration of religious discourse. Through our study of postmodern architecture, literature, the visual arts, and film, we will explore the nature of dual-coding, the critique of "instrumental" rationality, new representations of the past, identity, time and space, and a new role for the reader/viewer. Finally, we will consider key critics' defense of humanism before asking whether our "information age" demonstrates a clear departure from the tenets of postmodernism. Prerequisite: IPHS 215.

Instructor: Elkins

IPHS 323 Dante's Divine Comedy

Credit: 0.5

In this course, we will study the whole of Dante's Divine Comedy in John Sinclair's Oxford translation. Prerequisite: sophomore standing.

Instructor: Shutt

IPHS 325 The Epic in Antiquity

Credit: 0.5

In this course we will study the development of the epic in Middle Eastern and Graeco-Roman antiquity. Readings will include: The Epic of Gilgamesh, Selections from the Hebrew Bible, The Iliad, The Odyssey, Hesiod's Theogony, and Works and Days, Virgil's The Aeneid, Ovid's The Metamorphoses. Prerequisite: sophomore standing.

Instructor: Shutt

IPHS 335 Celts and Germans: Works and Cultures of the Pre-Modern European North

Credit: 0.5

In this course we will examine some of the works and cultures of the pre-modern European North, both in their interaction with the Mediterranean cultures of antiquity and later times and in their own right. Readings will include: Beowulf, The Prose Edda, Selections from the Poetic Edda, The Saga of the Volsungs, Njal's Saga, Grettir's Saga, Early Irish Myths and Sagas, The Mabanogion, The Lais of Marie de France, Sir Orfeo, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Prerequisite: sophomore standing.

Instructor: Shutt

IPHS 375 Athens and Sparta

Credit: 0.5

In this course we will take a close look at the rise of historiography and at the political, military, and social history of fifth-century Greece, based on a thorough reading of the most prominent existing ancient sources: Herodotus, Thucydides, Plutarch, Xenophon, and a few modern sources as well. Prerequisite: sophomore standing.

IPHS 484 Senior Research Seminar

Credit: 0.5

This course, designed as a research and/or studio workshop, allows students to pursue their own interdisciplinary projects. Students are encouraged to take thoughtful, creative risks in developing their ideas and themes. Those engaged in major long-term projects may continue with them during the second semester.

IPHS 485 Senior Research Seminar

Credit: 0.5

This course, designed as a research and/or studio workshop, allows students to create their own interdisciplinary projects. Students are encouraged to take thoughtful, creative risks in developing their ideas and themes.

IPHS 493 Individual Study

Credit: 0.25-0.5

Individual study in the Integrated Program in Humane Studies is reserved for juniors and seniors who have completed at least one course in the program. Individual study projects are designed to offer the opportunity for directed reading and research in areas not generally covered by the regular offerings of the program, or by the regular offerings of other programs or departments. Alternatively, such projects may offer the opportunity for more advanced research in areas already addressed in program offerings. Or, in some instances, they may offer the possibility of studying languages not otherwise available, or not available at an advanced level, in the College curriculum (e.g. Old Icelandic, Old English). Typically, individual study projects will earn .5 units of credit. Students will be expected to meet with their advisors on a regular basis, ordinarily at least once a week. Individual study projects are expected to embody a substantial commitment of time and effort which, at the discretion of the project advisor, may result in a major essay or research report. Students wishing to undertake such a project should first gain, if possible a semester in advance, the permission of a potential advisor or mentor and then submit a written prospectus of the project for the approval of both the prospective advisor and the program director.