IHUM 2:
Epic Journeys, Modern Quests
First of a twoquarter sequence. Great religious, philosophical, and literary texts that have addressed timeless questions about human identity and the meaning of human life. Focus is on the epic tradition in the ancient and classical worlds. Compares conceptions of the afterlife. How traditions about the afterlife are created.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-2
IHUM 3:
Epic Journeys, Modern Quests
Second of a two quarter sequence. Great religious, philosophical, and literary texts that have addressed timeless questions about human identity and the meaning of human life. Focus is on the transformations or abandonment of the epic tradition in modernity. Compares conceptions of the afterlife. How traditions about the afterlife are appropriated. The diminished importance of the dead and increased emphasis on the power of the living in literary genres.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-3
IHUM 4A:
Mass Violence from Crusades to Genocides
First of a two quarter sequence. The evolution, varieties, causes, and logic of mass violence in premodern history; how mass violence shaped historical trends. What accounts for the persistence of mass violence in history? Do religions and ethnicity foment or restrain mass violence? Is there a common pattern of mass violence throughout the centuries? Geographic focus is Europe; comparisons with societies which the Europeans encountered such as the Aztec empire, the Islamic world, and the African colonies.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-2
IHUM 4B:
Mass Violence from Crusades to Genocides
Second of a two quarter sequence. The evolution, varieties, causes, and logic of mass violence in modern history; how mass violence shaped historical trends. What accounts for the persistence of mass violence in history? Do religions, ethnicity, and modernity foment or restrain mass violence? Is there a common pattern of mass violence throughout the centuries? Geographic focus is Europe; comparisons with societies which the Europeans encountered such as the Aztec empire, the Islamic world, and the African colonies.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-3
IHUM 6A:
World History of Science
Second of a two quarter sequence. The broad sweep of global science, from the Scientific Revolution throught recent triumphs in the physical and life sciences. The historicity of life and how science transforms and is transformed by human engagements with technology, religion, art, politics, and moral values.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-2
IHUM 6B:
World History of Science
First of a two quarter sequence. The broad sweep of global science, from the prehistoric roots of the oldest known technologies through the Scientific Revolution. The historicity of life and how science transforms and is transformed by human engagements with technology, religion, art, politics, and moral values.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-3
IHUM 7A:
Rebellious Daughters and Filial Sons of the Chinese Family: Present and Past
First in a two quarter sequence. The family in its enduring role in shaping members of a community and citizens of society. The Chinese family as a case study. How family has been revolted against, broken up, critiqued, and transformed through social and political changes. The authority of the father, care of the mother, supportive or antagonistic relations of siblings, and the extension of these relations in kinship community and society. How notions of love, emotion, and gender play into the formation of the family and how family connects with interpersonal and social relations.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-2
IHUM 7B:
Rebellious Daughters and Filial Sons of the Chinese Family: Present and Past
Second in a two quarter sequence. The family in its enduring role in shaping members of a community and citizens of society. The Chinese family as a case study. How family has been revolted against, broken up, critiqued, and transformed through social and political changes. The stern authority of the father, nourishing care of the mother, supportive or antagonistic relations of siblings, and the extension of these relations in kinship community and society. How notions of love, emotion, and gender play into the formation of the family and how family connects with interpersonal and social relations.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-3
IHUM 10A:
Humanistic Perspectives on Science
First in a two quarter sequence. A humanistic perspective views science itself as an essential part of human culture and explores the many relationships between scientific activity and religion, philosophy, society, politics, and the arts. Exploration of these relationships from a philosophical point of view, across a large part of the development of Western science from ancient Greece and the medieval period, through the scientific revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries, and up to recent times.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-2
IHUM 10B:
Humanistic Perspectives on Science
Second in a two quarter sequence. A humanistic perspective views science itself as an essential part of human culture and explores the many relationships between scientific activity and religion, philosophy, society, politics, and the arts. Exploration of these relationships from a philosophical point of view, across a large part of the development of Western science from ancient Greece and the medieval period, through the scientific revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries, and up to recent times.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-3
IHUM 11A:
Making of the Modern World: Europe and Latin America
First in a two quarter sequence. The emergence of modernity from 1300 to the present. Demographic and religious transformations in Europe. The development of ideologies, social formations, and political institutions as they eventually crossed the Atlantic and were modified in the Americas. 20th-century shocks of social revolution and authoritarianism throughout Latin America. The creative/destructive tensions inherent in this long transformation.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-2
IHUM 11B:
Making of the Modern World: Europe and Latin America
Second in a two quarter sequence. The emergence of modernity from 1300 to the present. Demographic and religious transformations in Europe. The development of ideologies, social formations, and political institutions as they eventually crossed the Atlantic and were modified in the Americas. 20th-century shocks of social revolution and authoritarianism throughout Latin America. The creative/destructive tensions inherent in this long transformation.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-3
IHUM 23A:
The Fate of Reason
Two quarter sequence. The historical fate of Socrates' proposal that only reason can provide answers to questions of what to believe and how to act. The fate of reason in cultural contexts including medieval Christian, Islamic, and Jewish. Themes include free will, personal identity, the authority of morality, and the tension between reason as power for improving life and as insufficient means for reaching important truths.
Last offered: Winter 2008
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-2
IHUM 23B:
The Fate of Reason
Two quarter sequence. The historical fate of Socrates' proposal that only reason can provide answers to questions of what to believe and how to act. The fate of reason in cultural contexts including medieval Christian, Islamic, and Jewish. Themes include free will, personal identity, the authority of morality, and the tension between reason as power for improving life and as insufficient means for reaching important truths.
Last offered: Spring 2008
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-3
IHUM 25A:
Art and Ideas
First in a two quarter sequence. Art forms of theatre and dance explore fundamental questions about cultural, political and aesthetic issues surrounding the use of the body as an art medium. Examples of global performance from 19th to 21st centuries ranging from Romantic ballet to athletic experimental theatre. History and evolution of representing life through performance in a range of live and digital examples.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-2
IHUM 25B:
Art and Ideas
Second in a two quarter sequence. Art forms of theatre and danceexplore fundamental questions about cultural, political and aesthetic issues surrounding the use of the body as an art medium. Global performance from 19th to 21st centuries ranging from Romantic ballet to athletic experimental theatre. History and evolution of representing life through performance in a range of live and digital examples.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-3
IHUM 31A:
Ancient Empires
First in a wo quarter sequence. A decisive place and period in world history: the Mediterranean basin from 800 B.C.E. to 400 C.E. Great empires (Assyria, Persia, Macedonia, and Rome) were carved out in war and changed the course of human development. Why did these empires arise when and where they did, how did they work, and what is their legacy? Their economic, religious, and artistic achievements balanced against genocide, enslavement, and warfare using evidence from ancient literature and archaeology, and tracing the roles of religion, property, and freedom. What they mean for the world today.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-2
IHUM 31B:
Ancient Empires
Second in a two quarter sequence. A decisive place and period in world history: the Mediterranean basin from 800 B.C.E. to 400 C.E. Great empires (Assyria, Persia, Macedonia, and Rome) were carved out in war and changed the course of human development. Why did these empires arise when and where they did, how did they work, and what is their legacy? Their economic, religious, and artistic achievements balanced against genocide, enslavement, and warfare using evidence from ancient literature and archaeology, and tracing the roles of religion, property, and freedom. What they mean for the world today.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-3
IHUM 34A:
A Life of Contemplation or Action? Debates in Western Literature and Philosophy
First in a two quarter sequence. Literary treatments of the debate over the active versus the contemplative life from the classical to the modern era. Changing literary, historical and philosophical contexts.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-2
IHUM 34B:
A Life of Contemplation or Action? Debates in Western Literature and Philosophy
Second in a two quarter sequence. Literary treatments of the debate over the active versus the contemplative life from the classical to the modern era. Changing literary, historical and philosophical contexts.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-3
IHUM 39A:
Inventing Classics: Greek and Roman Literature in Its Mediterranean Context
First in a two quarter sequence. The ancient Mediterranean world was as consumed with questions about the nature of human society and human existence as is present-day society. Sources include influential literary texts from Greece and Rome, and from other cultures in the Mediterranean and the Near East, organized by literary genre. The origins of such genres.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-2
IHUM 39B:
Inventing Classics: Greek and Roman Literature in Its Mediterranean Context
Second in a two quarter sequence. The ancient Mediterranean world was as consumed with questions about the nature of human society and human existence as is present-day society. Sources include influential literary texts from Greece and Rome, and from other cultures in the Mediterranean and the Near East, organized by literary genre. The origins of such genres.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-3
IHUM 40A:
World Archaeology and Global Heritage
First in a two quarter sequence. The impact of the past on the present, and of the present on the past: the role of the past in contemporary society, and of present-day archaeological research, management, and conservation in approaching the past. Topics include debates about the peopling of the New World, religious conflicts over heritage sites, and archaeology's roles in heritage and conflicts. Sources include archaeological sites, landscapes, architecture, objects, literary works, religious texts, films, political essays, and scientific articles.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-2
IHUM 40B:
World Archaeology and Global Heritage
Second in a two quarter sequence. The impact of the past on the present, and of the present on the past: the role of the past in contemporary society, and of present-day archaeological research, management, and conservation in approaching the past. Topics include debates about the peopling of the New World, religious conflicts over heritage sites, and archaeology's roles in heritage and conflicts. Sources include archaeological sites, landscapes, architecture, objects, literary works, religious texts, films, political essays, and scientific articles.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-3
IHUM 57:
Humans and Machines
Shifting boundaries between mechanical and human: how humans interact with machines, and how they may be conceived, designed, and manipulated as machines; how machines in turn reflect upon their human creators. What it means to think of the human body as a machine or as not a machine: what is a machine; what forms can machinery take; what is a living body; what have concepts such as machine, human, alive, and intelligent meant in different times and places; and how have their meanings changed?
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-1
IHUM 63:
Freedom, Equality, Difference
Which freedoms should a just society promote and which should be curtailed for the sake of justice? What equalities properly concern government and how can the achievement of equality be reconciled with respect for freedom? What roles should social and political institutions take in guaranteeing freedom and equality? Focus is on interdisciplinary inquiry including political philosophy, education, literature, history, and law. Abstract ideas and case histories, using one to shed light on the other.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-1
IHUM 64:
Journeys
Works spanning 2,300 years, diverse cultural and historical situations, and different forms and genres, which present essential aspects of the journey from birth to death. These texts trace moral, spiritual, and emotional passages within that one great journey, passages that challenge and transform people as they advance toward what poet Thomas Gray called the inevitable hour.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-1
IHUM 65:
Race and Reunion: American Memory and the Civil War
The place of slavery and the war in American cultural memory; its representation in literature, visual arts, music, high art, popular culture, and film. How the battle shifted from real to imagined locations. How stories told by writers and artists are shaped by memories and narratives of the past. Themes include competing ideas of race and nation, freedom and citizenship, personal and collective identity, and the purpose of literature and the arts.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-1
IHUM 66:
Laws and Orders
The roles of law as a vehicle to establish order and as a tool with which customary order can be called into question. How norms may or may not apply equally in different cultural traditions. Five key texts represent watershed moments in the history of law as a force of regulation, order and normalization, but also as a source of emancipation: sometimes law imposes order, but the law can demand that we resist orders as well.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-1
IHUM 67:
Truth and Morality
Investigates whether there is one truth or many; whether truth is in some way relative to particular groups of people, cultures, societies, or traditions in particular places and times; whether, as some philosophers have argued, human beings are not capable of knowing any truth whatsoever. Descriptive truths, the kinds of things physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, and economics claim to reveal, and normative or evaluative truths, the purported truths of morality, values, and rationality.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-1
IHUM 68A:
Performing Religion
First in a two quarter sequence. Religion as a process of constructing meaning. Sources include philosophical texts, stories, rituals, dramatic performances, and other forms of religious expression. Historical contingency in the development of ideas and practices. Examples from Hinduism and Islam.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-2
IHUM 68B:
Performing Religion
Second in a two quarter sequence. Religion as a process of constructing meaning. Sources include philosophical texts, stories, rituals, dramatic performances, and other forms of religious expression. Historical contingency in the development of ideas and practices. Examples from Judaism and Buddhism.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-3
