(WESTERN CULTURE): AN INTEGRATING PERSPECTIVE
Course Description: An introduction to the historical, intellectual, and religious roots of the Western culture intended to serve as a basis for developing a comprehensive understanding of that culture and of other cultures that are linked to or influenced by it. The course will present a historical perspective tracing major changes in the development of western culture from ancient times to the present.
(Common Syllabus)
TEXTS
Primary and Secondary:
Marvin Perry, Western Civilization: A Brief History, 2nd ed.
Plutarch, Lives of the Greeks
Dante Alighieri, Inferno
Voltaire, Candide
Charles Dickens, Hard Times
Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem
I. Kings and Empires: Perry, pp.
4--28
Begin Plutarch
8/24 Mesopotamia, Egypt, Hittites
8/26 Hebrew Monotheism
(An examination of Absolutism {e.g. the reign of the god-king Sargon II of Assyria], within a chronological framework, with a prefiguring consideration of subsequent absolutist manifestations, like Louis XIV, Hitler, Stalin, Khomeini, etc. A consideration, also, of the wellsprings of the Judaeo-Christian ethic and spirit.)
II. Classical Foundations, Greece: Perry, pp. 39-76
8/28 From Homer to Pericles
8/31 Alexander's Conquests
(An examination of the evolution into decline of an unique popular participatory and representative governmental form, the Fifth Century Anthenian Democracy, within a chronological framework, with a prefiguring consideration of subsequent fragile -- challenged democratic manifestations, like the Continental Congress, Kerensky, Weimar, Benes, etc.)
III. Classical Foundations, Rome:
9/2 MARE NOSTRUM: CONQUEST
9/4 Empire: East and West
9/6 Christianity and Rome
(An examination of the evolution of the Roman Empire, concentrating on the imposition of "system" and "organization" upon law, engineering trade, pacification, etc., within a chronological framework, with a prefiguring consideration of subsequent European imperial systems, particularly the British Empire.)
IV. Medieval Era: Church and State: Perry, pp.
138-191
Begin Dante
9/9 East: Islam
9/11 Church and the Papacy
9/14 Society
9/16 Medieval Culture: Philosophy
9/18 Art & Architecture
(An examination of the values, effects of persistent creativity and energy imbedded in dissolution, fragmentation, and chaos, within the chronological framework of the "Dark Ages", with a prefiguring consideration, e.g., of the denouement of the Habsburgs and the British Raj.)
V. Revival of Learning: Perry, pp. 204-234
Finish Dante
9/21 Humanism
9/23 Art
9/25 Printing & Politics
9/28 Banking, Trade, Exploration
( An examination of the theme of a "Sense of Loss" as a precondition of reclaiming the past, designing a future, and constructing personal and national identities, within the chronological framework of the Renaissance in Italy and France particularly, with a prefiguring consideration of Japan (after Perry) and twentieth-century Ireland and Israel.)
VI. Religious Conflict and Change: Perry, pp. 218-234
9/30 Reformation: Luther and
10/2 Spread of Lutheranism
( An examination of the purifying and authenticating instincts at work on the "Protestant Reformation" [and on Catholic reforming movements that preceded it] within a chronological framework, with a retrospective consideration of the ideological and doctrinal controversies of the Greek and Latin Fathers, and the iconoclasts of the Eastern Church, and a prefiguring consideration of twentieth-century religious fundamentalism.)
VII. Political Expansion and Commercial Revolution: Perry, pp. 236-266
10/5 New Monarchies
10/7 Trade and the Economy
10/9 MID TERM EXAM
(An examination of the evolution of modern commercialism and banking [as, e.g., at Florence and Amsterdam], within a chronological framework, with a prefiguring consideration of the multi-national corporation and the idea [and reality] of a global economy.)
VIII. New Frontiers of the Intellect: The
Enlightenment: Perry, pp.267-298
Begin Voltaire
10/14 Scientific Revolution
10/16 Political Philosophy
( An examination of the era of inquiry {sustained by reason rather than by faith], i.e., free-thinking, encyclopedism, rationalism, and its political expression [e.g., Jefferson], within a chronological framework, with a prefiguring consideration of 20th century self determinism and the 20th century clash of politico-social ideologies.)
IX. Citizens: The Age of Revolution:
Perry, pp. 300-330
Finish Voltaire
10/19 French Revolution
10/23
10/26 Napoleon
(An examination of some of the economic and social forces that shaped the late 18th - and 19th - century expressions of class and special interest dissatisfaction--issuing in profound upheaval, within a chronological framework, with a prefiguring consideration of 20th century third-world and post-colonial factionalism and sedition).
X. The Machine:
10/28 Industry and the Rise of the Machine
10/30 Effects: Incipient Socialism
(An examination of the evolution of [potentially dehumanizing & destructive] "modern" technology and technological systems and of their unsettling effects upon the social order, within a chronological framework, with a prefiguring consideration of Marxism and the rise of the totalitarian state.)
XI. 19th Century Modes of Imagination and Thought: Perry, pp. 349-392
11/2 Liberalism
11/4 Nationalism and the Creation of the Modern State
11/6
( An examination of Romanticism [in philosophy, literature, art and architecture, and music] and of the revolutionary social & political movements that Romanticism influenced to some degree [e.g., Garibaldi and the dramatis personae of 1848], within a chronological framework, with a retrospective consideration of the Age of Revolution [IX, above]).
XII. Europe at the Close of the Century: Perry,
pp. 393-407; 411-446
Finish Dickens
11/9 Marxism
11/11 Accelerated Urbanization/Industrialization
11/13 Imperialism
(An examination of the concept of a European hyper-civilized fin de siecle confidence and innocence, born of prosperity, peace and technological advancement, destined to be exploded by the unforeseeable ramifications of global conflict, with a retrospective consideration of the age of Pericles [II, above].)
XIII. Age of Conflict: Perry, pp. 473-544,
560-579
Begin Arendt
11/16 WWI
11/18 The Russian Revolution
11/20 The Totalitarian State
11/30 WWII
( An examination of the ideas of unprecedented global conflict, and of Marxist governments and of the inflexible [and inevitably self destructive] military, industrial, and propagandistic [or informational] interconnections that characterize the organization of all Marxist societies, within a chronological framework, recalling the origins of these governments in industrialism and the spread of the machine, and early [i.e., pre-Marxist socialist thought.)
XIV. In the Shadow of the Bomb:
Perry, pp.
579-621
Finish Arendt
12/2 The Cold War
12/4 The End of Formal Colonialism
12/7 After the Cold War (The Death of Marxism?)
12/9 Summary
(An examination of the ideas of "apocalypse" and "millenarianism," entropy [?], and the "end of history," and of their cultural expressions [in art, biology, physics, and political science], within the chronological framework of the latter half of the twentieth century, on the brink of the year 2,000 A.D.)
Comprehensive Final during Examination Period as Scheduled.
Tutors will give a mid-term, and several quizzes at their discretion. Students will also
be assigned short papers on the reading(s), also at the discretion of the tutor. The final
examination will be largely essay in format: it will contain at least one question/topic
common to all the sections, and the balance will vary as the aims and interests of the
tutors vary--within the parameters of the syllabus and the stated goals and objectives of
the course.
Goals & Objectives
This course forms part of the Clare College Core Curriculum. Like other courses of the core. Foundations of the Western World encourages students to do the following: to examine the major issues that confront us all as individuals and citizens; to enhance their writing ability and speaking skills; and to develop a spirit of inquiry. This course, particularly, will introduce students to the historical, intellectual, and spiritual roots of Western culture. Through an integrated survey of Western culture from ancient times to the present, students should leave the course with a broader and richer understanding of their Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian heritage and with an appreciation of many of the important events and long-range developments over the last two millennia.