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This course explores the changing role of human psychology in the history of political thought through the study of classic texts in philosophy and psychology. In roughly chronological order, we will examine several key philosophers’ accounts of the deepest human concerns—justice, happiness, and love—and the potential political life has to fulfill those yearnings. In the final part of the course, we will study Darwin’s evolutionary theory of human mental faculties in The Descent of Man, Freud’s theory of unconscious psychological drives, and current theories of evolutionary psychology. We will discuss how these different views of human nature suggest different approaches to politics and ethics.

We will read selections from the following works:

• Plato The Republic, The Symposium 
• St. Augustine: The Confessions, City of God 
• Hobbes The Leviathan 
• Rousseau Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
• Nietzsche Beyond Good and Evil
• Darwin The Descent of Man 
• Freud Civilization and its Discontents
• And selected articles on evolutionary psychology

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This course offers a survey of the major religious traditions of Asia (Hinduism, Buddhism in South and East Asia, Confucianism, Daoism, and Shinto). It focuses on the historical development of their beliefs, practices, rituals, and customs in social context. The course will combine lectures with class discussions on readings.

Grading:

• Attendance/participation: 20%
• Two quizzes: 20% (10% each)
• Two short essays: 20% (10% each)
• Midterm exam: 20%
• Final exam: 20%

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Covers the period from Rome's foundation through Caesar's murder in 44 B.C.  The emphasis placed on the last two centuries of the Republic when problems accumulated and solutions did not.  All the factors contributing to the Republic's fall will discussed:  political, military, social, economic, religious, etc.

Carries the Global Cultures flag and fulfills the Cultural Expression, Human Experience, & Thought course area requirement.

This undergraduate seminar focuses on India's classical epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.  Although they originated in ancient times, these two captivating narratives have been retold in different languages and formats over the centuries, including most recently in the form of TV serials and graphic novels.  Among the topics to be explored are the martial ethos of ancient India, the complexities of dharma, the ideology of kingship, traditional gender norms, the recent politicization of the Ramayana, and the use of the epics to counter social and gender hierarchy.  Students will read abbreviated versions of the epics along with excerpts from various translations of the complete narratives; they will also be exposed to other primary sources including paintings, traditional theatrical performances, and modern films and TV shows.

Texts:
1) Chakravarthi V. Narasimhan, The Mahabharata
2) Gurcharan Das, The Difficulty of Being Good
3) R. K. Narayan, The Ramayana
4) Numerous articles and essays provided on Canvas.

Grading:
reading responses (6 x 5% each) = 30%; analytical essays (2 x 25% each) = 50 %; film review = 5%; attendance & participation = 15%

The Divine Comedy offers a remarkable panorama of the late Middle Ages through one man's poetic vision of the afterlife. However, we continue to read and study the poem not only to learn about the thought and culture of medieval and early modern Europe but also because many of the issues confronting Dante and his age are no less important to individuals and societies today. Personal and civic responsibilities, governmental accountability, church-state relations, economics and social justice, Dante's influence on artists and other writers, benefits and limitations of interdisciplinarity—these are some of the themes that will frame our discussion of the Divine Comedy. Although you will read the poem in English, a bilingual edition will enable you to study and learn famous lines in the original Italian. The course is taught in English and contains flags for Writing and Global Cultures.

Danteworlds (http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/): In addition to detailed entries, audio recordings, and study questions, this Web site contains hundreds of images from works by Sandro Botticelli, an anonymous 16th-century artist, John Flaxman, William Blake, Gustave Dorè, and Suloni Robertson.

Through close reading, class discussion, and the use of Danteworlds, you are expected to identify and explain the significance of major characters, references, and ideas in Dante's Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise) and Vita Nuova. You will be tested on this ability in responses to study questions (a low-stakes writing assignment) and two in-class exams. An essay, which you will rewrite and expand based on my feedback, will assess your ability to support an interpretation of a specific aspect of Dante's poetry with detailed textual analysis and scholarly research. A peer-editing activity will help you to revise and edit your own work. I expect you to have read the assigned cantos and reviewed the corresponding material in Danteworlds (including the study questions) before class.

Studies major tragedies, comedies, and historical plays from various epochs, including at least one of Shakespeare's plays. Explores themes related to ethics, politics, and human nature, as well as the craft of the playwright. Students attend and discuss at least one play performance.

Studies major tragedies, comedies, and historical plays from various epochs, including at least one of Shakespeare's plays. Explores themes related to ethics, politics, and human nature, as well as the craft of the playwright. Students attend and discuss at least one play performance.

This course examines the legal traditions of the Torah (Pentateuch) and what they reveal about the practice of law and justice in ancient Israel and the wider biblical world. It then explores the law and legal systems of the broader ancient Near East in order to see how the biblical traditions relate to ideas and practices attested in other societies in the region.Theories concerning ethics and justicewill also be used to provide context for understanding conceptions oflaw and justice in the ancient worldand especially in the Hebrew Bible. Legal topics such as marriage, family structures, litigation, debt, slavery, homicide, theft, false accusation, contracts, and other matters will be examined. The course acquaints students with how various biblical traditions developed over time to form the foundation for later rabbinic and Christian ethical thought.

The French revolution is one of the most famous events in global history. We have still not resolved the fundamental questions it raises. Why does a regime collapse? How is a new state built? Why are some revolutions peaceful while others become protracted and violent? The human drama of this tumultuous decade and a half is irresistible. How were extraordinary careers made and then lost? How did people take sides? How did ordinary people survive?We will use the French revolution to think about all these questions concretely.

We have three aims. The first is to master the major developments of the revolution itself. The second is to understand how those events have produced classic political arguments about the conditions for democracy, the sources of rights, and the process of historical change.  Third, we consider how the revolution has shaped the world, and how it compares with other revolutions, including ones going on right now.


Texts:
Rousseau, The Social Contract
William Doyle, The French Revolution: A Very Short History
Timothy Tackett, When the King Took Flight
Timothy Tackett, The Coming of the Terror in the French Revolution or R.R. Palmer, 12 Who Ruled.
David Bell, Napoleon, A Biography


Requirements:
• 2 4-5 page take home papers (25% each)  (total 50% of grade**)
• 1 comprehensive test (25%)
• group political club assignments (25%).

minus absences     – 0.5 course points per unexcused absence.

Great Works in the History of Medicine

This course is part of the Thomas Jefferson Center’s Core Texts and Ideas (CTI) program. In keeping with the spirit of Mortimer Adler's Great Books of the Western World and Charles William Eliot's Harvard Universal Classics, this course will thematically examine signature works in the history of medicine. There are numerous reasons for using the great books approach to teaching the history of medicine. In addition to providing professional inspiration, sense of continuity with the past, and an awareness of medicine's unique role in society, this approach can foster a healthy sense of skepticism about the content and durability of medical dogma allowing students to think more critically about the principles and practices of medicine. The great books in the history of medicine provide numerous examples of why one should be prepared to question long-standing views for the sake of progress. Furthermore, the history of medicine can be a "kindly, useful mentor" which not only provides a forum for meaningful exchanges between physicians and historians, but also allows both groups a means to link historical knowledge to contemporary issues in order to reform medicine and bring about change in public policy. The approach taken in this class will be of great use to pre-med students and to students interested in international and public health.

To better understand the unique implications of the different areas of medicine, each week will entail reading a signature work that is representative of a key topic in the history of medicine (e.g. pharmacology, pathology, anatomy, surgery). After performing an analytical reading of the text with respect to its historical context, students will focus on discovering ethical principles in the text that can be used for modern applications.

Flags: The course carries an Ethics Flag and a Writing Flag. Assessment: One long and two short research papers, graded in-class writing activities. No final. Readings: Jacalyn Duffin, History of Medicine: A Scandalously Short Introduction, 2010 ISBN 978-0802095565; all other readings will be available on CANVAS or through the library’s electronic resources.

This course covers Greek history during the Archaic and Classical Periods, from the rise of Greek city-states and the first examples of Greek writing and literature (ca. 800 BCE) to the subordination of Greece under Philip II of Macedonia in 338 BCE. The course will devote roughly equal time to covering major events and personalities, exploring key developments in culture and society, and examining the various types of evidence available for the era (literary, epigraphic, and archeological sources). After looking at the geography and ‘prehistory’ of Greece (including the Bronze Age and Dark Age), we will cover major developments such as the rise of the polis and the first forms of democracy, the invention of the Greek alphabet, the introduction of hoplite warfare, and the diaspora of Greeks in the Mediterranean. Then we will focus on the two most famous city-states of Greece, Athens and Sparta, and follow their trajectories through the Persian Wars, the Peloponnesian War, and the complex period of unstable hegemonies in the first half of the 4th century until Philip II of Macedonia was able established his control over Greece.
The course will consist of two hours of lecture per week plus a required one-hour discussion section. The two lectures will combine historical outline with the exploration of specific themes and problems, such as systems of government, social structures, economy, culture, religion, and war, while the discussion sections will be focused on how to analyze and interpret ancient sources.

This course carries the Global Cultures flag.

Current Course Schedule Information (registrar.utexas.edu)