HUMA 11500-11600-11700 - Philosophical Perspectives on the Humanities

Institution:

University of Chicago

Subject:

Description:

Students registered in this sequence must attend the first and second class sessions or their registration will be dropped. This sequence considers philosophy in two lights: as an ongoing series of arguments addressed to certain fundamental questions about the place of human beings in the world, and as a historically situated discipline interacting with and responding to developments in other areas of thought and culture. Readings tend to divide between works of philosophy and contemporaneous works of literature, but they may also include texts of scientific, religious, or legal practice. In Autumn Quarter, we explore fundamental ethical questions-concerning virtue, the good life, the role of the individual in society, the extent of human freedom and responsibility-as they were formulated by ancient Greek writers and philosophers. We begin with the foundational text of Greek thought , Homer ? Ilia d, and proceed to the Greek dramatists, Plato, and Aristotle.Winter Quarter focuses on the questions and challenges posed by the scientific and philological "revolutions" of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A central topic is worries about the possibility of knowledge, both of the self and of the surrounding world. Authors include Descartes, Hume, Shakespeare, and several others. In Spring Quarter we return to the ethical questions of the autumn, but considered now from the vantage point of Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment thought. How do art and philosophy of the modern and contemporary periods approach questions of responsibility, obligation, and the possibility of human happiness Authors in the spring vary widely, but tend to include Hume, Kant, and Melville. We also may screen a movie or two.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

WWW.UCHICAGO.EDU

Phone Number:

(773) 702-1234

Regional Accreditation:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Quarter

The Course Profile information is provided and updated by third parties including the respective institutions. While the institutions are able to update their information at any time, the information is not independently validated, and no party associated with this website can accept responsibility for its accuracy.