One of two seminars on major Western texts and the fundamental questions they raise. This term covers ancient Greece through the Middle Ages. Works to be studied will include Homer's Iliad, Plato's Meno, Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Vergil's Aeneid, Lucretius' On the Nature of Things, Augustine's Confessions, and Beowulf. Fall.

One of two seminars on major Western texts and the fundamental questions they raise. This term covers the Renaissance to the twentieth Century. Works to be studied will include some of these, among others: Dante's Divine Comedy, Machiavelli's The Prince, Luther's On Christian Liberty, Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, Moliere's The Misanthrope, Locke's Second Treatise, Rousseau's Second Discourse, Freud's Civilization and its Discontents, and Woolf's A Room of One's Own.

An introduction to major American texts. Works to be studied will include some of these, among others: Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, the Federalist Papers, Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Du Bois' The Souls of Black Folk, and Cather's My Antonia.

This course examines the development of Western scientific thought from its origins in Greece through the modern era. Special attention will be paid to the development of ideas such as the nature of matter, descriptions of motion, heredity, the relationship between experiment and theory, as well as the standards natural scientists themselves hold of scientific truth. Works to be studied include selections from Plato, Aristotle, Bacon, Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Harvey, Lavoisier, Dalton, Mendel, Darwin, Einstein, Watson and Crick, and others. Non-Lab.

This course examines the development of Western mathematical thought from its origins in Ancient Greece through the modern era. Special attention will be paid to the development of ideas such as geometry, logic, coordinate systems and algebra, calculus, non-Euclidean geometry, infinity, and proof theory. Students will study selections from Euclid, Aristotle, Descartes, Newton, Lobachevski, Cantor, Boole, and G'del.

Seminar participants spend the full semester in critical engagement with a major thinker, and usually a single text, of the ancient West, such as Homer, Aeschylus, Plato, Virgil, or Tacitus. This course seeks to deepen the broad and interdisciplinary work accomplished by participants in Foundations of Western Thought I (GFW 2210) and II (GFW 2220) and in the Western Heritage course sequence.

Seminar participants spend the full semester in critical engagement with a major thinker, and usually a single text, of the medieval West, such as Augustine, Aquinas, Dante, or Chaucer. This course seeks to deepen the broad and interdisciplinary work accomplished by participants in Foundations of Western Thought I (GFW 2210) and II (GFW 2220) and in the Western Heritage course sequence.

Seminar participants spend the full semester in critical engagement with a major thinker, and usually a single text, of the renaissance West, such as More, Machiavelli, Bacon, or Shakespeare. This course seeks to deepen the broad and interdisciplinary work accomplished by participants in Foundations of Western Thought I (GFW 2210) and II (GFW 2220) and in the Western Heritage course sequence.

Seminar participants spend the full semester in critical engagement with a major thinker, and usually a single text, of the modern West, such as Cervantes, Kant, Dostoevsky, or Freud. This course seeks to deepen the broad and interdisciplinary work accomplished by participants in Foundations of Western Thought I (GFW 2210) and II (GFW 2220) and in the Western Heritage course sequence.

Under the guidance of Great Ideas faculty, students write a thesis with a primary focus of the interpretation of a major Western text or texts. (Junior standing required; senior standing suggested in most cases.)

Students should register for GFW 4990 during the semester that they plan to complete their senior thesis.