The Great Ideas

AY2015/2016 Semester 1

This course is about great ideas. 'Great ideas' in this context refers to those ideas that have had a significant and enduring impact on academic, artistic, political, socioeconomic, and scientific developments in our time or that they shine new light on conventions and cause a paradigm shift in sensibility and thought. They are ideas that have had a notable influence on how people think of themselves, of other people, and about the world. They are ideas that provoke hearty endorsement. They are also ideas that incite vehement objection. The works explored in this course are only part of what can be considered a canon of ideas that have been produced by generations of remarkable activists, intellectuals, philosophers, and scientists who, echoing Socrates, considered the unexamined life not worth living. It is hoped nonetheless that these albeit limited number of ideas will at the least convey the excitement of intellectual pursuits, and move readers of this course to critically reflect on their lives and times. Organizationally, the course will explore ideas hailing from a wide array of disciplines. Depending on the course instructor, new themes and readings may be included for discussion.