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HUMANITIES
| 1 |
Roots of the Western Tradition (3) |
Cook |
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Basic ideas of Western thought from early Greek, Roman, Judaic, and Christian traditions. Representative readings in drama, epic, historical writings, oratory, creation stories, scriptural traditions, philosophy, and spiritual autobiography. |
| 2 |
Ideas in Western Culture: Aquinas to Locke (3) |
Staff |
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An examination in historical context of central texts from the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Enlightenment: Aquinas, Dante, Machiavelli, Erasmus, Luther, Montaigne, Bacon, Shakespeare, Rabelais, Descartes, Milton, and Locke. |
| 3 |
The Enlightenment (3) |
Ganz |
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Primary works representative of 18th-century European and American culture, examined from thematic and historical perspectives. Music, drama, poetry, the novel, art, architecture, economics, philosophy, and science are among the subjects included; 18th-century notions of Nature, reason, liberty, equality, natural law, and the question of human perfectibility. |
| 4 |
Romanticism and Revolution: The 19th Century (3) |
Plotz |
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Major themes of 19th-century culture from 1789 to 1900 in representative works of European and American art, literature, music, drama, philosophy, and theology. The 19th-century resources of Washington—museums, monuments, collections, concerts, plays—form part of the curriculum. |
| 5 |
The 20th-Century Consciousness (3) |
Staff |
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Major themes and paradigms of 20th-century civilization as expressed in key literary and philosophic texts, visual arts, music, and cultural artifacts. Key issues include the meaning of history in the age of two world wars; the Holocaust and the crisis of reason; the authority of science; the decline of Western hegemony; modernism and postmodernism. |
| 6 |
Asian Humanities (3) |
Chaves, Kim-Renaud |
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The traditional art and literature of the cultures of South Asia (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tibet) and East Asia (China, Korea, Japan). Attention to religious and philosophical systems as well as to continuities and changes in modern Asian culture. |
| 7 |
African Humanities (3) |
Blyden |
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An introduction to the literature, art, and philosophy of the African continent in historical, cultural, and geographic contexts. Overview of sculpture, rock painting, and architecture; the oral tradition and modern literature; traditional philosophies and religions. The roles of Islam and Christianity in Africa. |
| 8 |
Islamic Humanities (3) |
Khoury |
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Facets of Islamic civilization, including the defining features of the Islamic tradition and the history within which it has unfolded. The diversity within the Islamic community is considered, especially in its encounter with modernity. |
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