Course Objective: The course objective is to familiarize students with the great ideas contained in the original works by the greatest ancient Greeks, chronologically, beginning with the works of Homer, which are seminal to classical and Western civilization (see course syllabus for specific titles studied).  Authors of the works studied this semester include: Homer, Hesiod, Aeschylus, Euripedes, Sophocles, Aesop, Herodotus and Plutarch.

Course Objective: To familiarize students with the great ideas contained in the original works written by the greatest ancient Greeks (not covered in the first semester course) which are foundational to classical and Western civilization (see course syllabus for specific titles studied ). Authors of the works studied this semester include: Thucydides, the Pre-Socratics [Thales, Anaximenes, Anamimander, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Melissus, Zeno, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Leucippus, Democritus, Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, Hippocrates and Euclid.

Course Objective: To familiarize students with the great ideas contained in the original works written by the greatest ancient Romans,  beginning with Virgil, which are foundational to classical and Western civilization (see course syllabus for specific titles studied ). Authors of the works studied this semester include: Virgil, Livy, Plutarch, Julius Caesar, Cicero, Tacitus, Lucretius, Epictitus, Marcus Aurelius, Ptolemy, Galen, Plotinus, Moses [the last author from an earlier age, influenced Roman civilization in this period]).

Course Objective: To familiarize students with the great ideas contained in the original works written by the greatest ancient Romans (not covered in the previous course) and the greatest writers through the early Middle Ages, from Plotinus through Dante, which are foundational to Western civilization (see course syllabus for specific titles studied). Authors of the works studied this semester include: the Evangelists Matthew and John, Augustine, Boethius, Muhammed, Bede, Tennyson, Maimonides, a’Kempis and Dante.

Course Objective: Course Objective: To familiarize students with the great ideas contained in the original works written by the greatest authors in the High Middle Ages to the Renaissance, from Chaucer through Cervantes, which are foundational to Western civilization (see course syllabus for specific titles studied).  Authors of the works studied this semester include: Chaucer, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Thomas More, Erasmus, Copernicus, Calvin, Montaigne, and Cervantes.

Course Objective: To familiarize students with the great ideas contained in the original works written by the most influential authors in the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, from Shakespeare through Pascal, which are foundational to the ongoing dialogue of Western civilization (see course syllabus for specific titles studied). Authors of the works studied this semester include: Shakespeare (8 Plays), Galileo, Descartes, Bacon, Hobbes, Milton, and Pascal.

Course Objective: To familiarize students with the great ideas contained in the original works  written by the most influential authors in the Enlightenment to the Modern Era, from Locke through De Tocqueville and the American Federalist papers and Constitution, which are foundational to the ongoing dialogue of Western civilization (see course syllabus for specific titles studied). Authors of the works studied this semester include: Shakespeare (4 Great Tragedies and the Tempest), Moliere, Racine, Swift, Locke, Hume, Rousseau, Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson, De Tocqueville, Mill, and Austen.

Course Objective: To familiarize students with the great ideas contained in the great books written in the  modern era, from Kant through Einstein, which are most influential in the ongoing dialogue of Western civilization (see course syllabus for specific titles and authors studied). Authors of the works studied this semester include: Kant, Goethe, Hegel, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Smith, Marx, Lincoln, Thoreau, Twain, Darwin, Orwell, Einstein, Cather.