Basic Program Year Two: Autumn Basic Program Year Two: Autumn
The Year 2 seminar is devoted to three great plays: Sophocles' Oedipus the King, Euripides' The Bacchae, and Shakespeare's Anthony & Cleopatra. A close reading of Aristotle's Poetics will enhance our...
Bulgakov's Master and Margarita Bulgakov's Master and Margarita
Mikhail Bulgakov’s savage satire of modern bureaucracy alternates between scenes of Stalinist Russia and ancient Jerusalem. Bulgakov literally unleashes the powers of Hell by having the Devil and his...
Calvino's Worlds Calvino's Worlds
Shortly before his death, Italo Calvino wrote: “The grand challenge for literature is to be capable of weaving together the various branches of knowledge, their various ‘codes’ into a manifold and...
Deep Dive: Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra Deep Dive: Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra
Antony and Cleopatra, a relatively late play by Shakespeare, is a powerful work that stands out for its complexity and scope as well as for the challenge it presents to norms of tragedy. In this class...
Foundations of Western Metaphysics: Unity and Change: Parmenides, Heraclitus, and Aristotle Foundations of Western Metaphysics: Unity and Change: Parmenides, Heraclitus, and Aristotle
What are the roots of the philosophical development of Western science and philosophy? This class will take up a reading of Aristotle's Metaphysics, the first work of western philosophy to lay out a...
Freedom and Equality in the New World Freedom and Equality in the New World
Come read three texts concerning freedom and equality in the New World that will, in their individual ways, expand our ideas of what exactly the “Western tradition” says about who has freedom and self...
Goethe’s Faust: Knowledge, Striving, Bliss Goethe’s Faust: Knowledge, Striving, Bliss
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust is the work not only of a poet but also of a scientist, statesman, autobiographer, novelist, painter, art collector – in short, the work of a polymath. Like Dante’s...
Gulliver’s Travels Gulliver’s Travels
Gulliver’s Travels (1727) is Jonathan Swift’s wildly imaginative account of Lemuel Gulliver’s journey through fantastical lands. It is funny, moving and profound, a masterful satire that verges into...
History of Sparta History of Sparta
Classical Greece is at the center of the Basic Program, and at the center of Classical Greece are Athens and Plato, at least, as far as the readings that make it into great books curriculums are...
How To Read Ancient Greek Art and Archaeology How To Read Ancient Greek Art and Archaeology
Basic Program students learn how to read texts closely, carefully, and systematically. Many of these texts are by ancient Greeks. Reading is also a good name for looking at ancient Greek material...