Humanities 211/212

The Birth of the Modern

Spring 2006 Syllabus

WEEK I | January 23 - 27

Shakespeare, The Tempest

Stephen Greenblatt, "Learning to Curse," in his Learning to Curse, 16-39*

Lecture: Shakespeare’s Labor (Sacks)

WEEK II | January 30 - February 3

Selected Canons from The Council of Trent The Thirteenth and the Twenty-Second Sessions.
available at http://history.hanover.edu/early/trent.htm

Selections from St. Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises (114-16, 121-182)*

John Bossy, Christianity in the West, 89-152

Howard Hibbard, Bernini, pp. 68-167

Robert Harrison, Reflections on the Baroque, pp. 1-32.*

Lecture: Bernini's Art and the Counter Reformation (Katz)

WEEK III | February 6 - 10

Galileo, The Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo, 23-58, 175-216

Francis Bacon, "The Great Instauration" (from Edwin A. Burtt, ed. The English Philosophers)*

Bacon, "Thoughts and Conclusions"*

Shapin, The Scientific Revolution, 1-117

Lecture: The New Science (Garrett)

WEEK IV | February 13 - 17

Descartes, Discourse on Method & Meditations on First Philosophy

Shapin, The Scientific Revolution, 119-165

Lecture: Descartes: The Ghost in the Machine (Sacks)

WEEK V | February 20 - 24

Pascal, Pensées, 33-95, 149-164, 210-212

Dunn, The Age of Religious Wars, 58-68; 82-92; 152-164

Lecture: Pascal (Kierstead)

WEEK VI | February 27 - March 3

note that there are two lectures this week —one monday, one wednesday— in the psychology auditorium at 1:10

Saint-Simon, Louis de Rouvray, The Age of Magnificence: The Memoirs of the Duc de Saint-Simon, (selected, edited, translated by Sanche de Gramont), 21-23, 185-90, 40-50, 97-100, 135-178*

Bossuet, Jacques- Benigne, Politics Drawn from the Holy Scriptures, pp. 57-106*

Peter Burke, The Fabrication of Louis XI, pp. 1-59, 85-105

Lecture: Versaille and the King's Image (Katz)
Lecture: Louis XIV: Court and Society in Seventeenth-Century France (Kierstead)

WEEK VII | March 6 - 10

Racine, Phaedre

Moliere, Tartuffe

Dunn, The Age of the Religious Wars, 178-189

Lecture: Staging Virtue (Steinman)

SPRING BREAK | March 13 - 17

WEEK VIII | March 20 - March 24

Madame de Lafayette, The Princess of Cleves

Lecture: The Subject of Power (Steinman)

WEEK IX | March 27 - 31

"Agreement of the People," & "The Putney Debates" (from Divine Right and Democracy,
ed. D. Wootton, 283-317)*

Dunn, The Age of Religious Wars, 164-178

John Milton, Areopagitica

Dunn, The Age of Religious Wars, chap. 3 & pp. 189-198

Lecture: Uncloistered Virtue (Sacks)

WEEK X | April 3 - 7

Hobbes, Leviathan, Book I, Introduction and chapters 1-6, 10, 12-16;Book II, chapters 17-22, 24, 26, 29-31; Book III, chapters 32,43; Review and Conclusion

Lecture: Hobbes and Skepticism (Sacks)

WEEK XI | April 10 - 15

John Milton, Paradise Lost

Lecture: Reading the World of the English Revolution (Steinman)

WEEK XII | April 17 - 21

John Locke, Second Treatise on Civil Government

John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Epistle to the Reader, I.I, I.II, II.I,
II.II, II.VIII, II.XII.1, II.XVII, II.XXIII, III.I, III.II, III.III.1-8, III.X.1-7, IV.1, IV.II, IV.
III.1-6.

Lecture: Locke: Epistemology and Politics (Jenkins)

WEEK XIII | April 24 - 28

Voltaire, Candide

Lecture: Paradise, Labor and Liberty Revisited: Enlightenment Taxonomies (Steinman)

Book for Purchase

  • Shakespeare, William. The Tempest (ed. S. Orgel). Oxford.
  • Hum 210 Pamphlet (available for purchase in Bookstore).
  • Bossy, John. Christianity in the West. Oxford U.P.
  • Hibbard, Howard. Bernini. Penguin Art and Architecture Series.
  • Galileo. Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo (trans. Stillman Drake). Anchor Books.
  • Dunn, Richard S. The Age of the Religious Wars: 1559-1715. Norton.
  • Shapin, Steven. The Scientific Revolution. Chicago.
  • Descartes, Rene. Discourse on Method and Meditations. Hackett.
  • Pascal, Blaise. Pensees (trans. A.J. Krailsheimer). Penguin Classics.
  • Burke, Peter. The Fabrication of Louis XIV. Yale.
  • Racine, Jean. Iphigenia; Phaedra; Athaliah. (trans. John Cairncross). Penguin Classics.
  • Moliere. Tartuffe (trans. Richard Wilbur). Harcourt Brace.
  • de Lafayette, Madame. The Princess of Cleves . Norton.
  • Milton, John. Areopagitica. Liberty Foundation.
  • Milton, John. Paradise Lost (ed. John Leonard). Penguin Classics.
  • Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan (ed. Richard Tuck). Cambridge.
  • Locke, John. Second Treatise of Civil Government Dover Thrift Edition
  • Locke, John. Essay Concerning Human Understanding . ed. Yolton. Abridged edition. Everyman
  • Voltaire. Candide. (ed. Daniel Gordon) Bedford.

Lectures will be on Mondays unless announced otherwise in class.

* Indicates that readings will be available in the Course Pamphlet.