History 2901E
Conceptions of Humanity and Society in Western Culture
Eli Nathans, Department of History
Course Description:
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, 17371764 (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