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Honors Introductory Seminar
HONORS 1990
"Idealism and Beyond": The Introductory Honors Seminar
How do we learn? What do we know? What do we do with our knowledge? What are some basic and often hidden assumptions about our culture that affect us and how we think? What does Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize winner, mean when he says, "The essence of [human being] is to question and the essence of the question is to be without answer"? These and other questions will concern us as we engage in life both within and outside the university.
Our course will begin by looking at Prometheus Bound, a play that sets the stage for our discussion and analysis of idealism. Regarded as the father of Greek tragedy, Aeschylus creates circumstances that has individuals questioning their fate. Within the context of the Greek mythic world, the playwright suggests that humanity is endowed with god-like powers, but that an awful price will be paid for those who dare to defy the gods.
The author of Utopia, among other works, and a high ranking figure in the government of Henry VIII, Sir Thomas More is also known for having helped establish the parliamentary privilege of free speech during his tenure as Speaker of the House of Commons. This particular web site on More is extensive and offers links to many other sites that deal with Renaissance figures, most notably Erasmus (author of In Praise of Folly).
In many ways the embodiment of modernistic ambivalence, Oscar Wilde, the controversial, brilliant, and stylish author of The Picture of Dorian Gray, holds a mirror up to society and to the inner psyche. Hypocrisy, deceit, and the power of the idealism of an art combine in this novel to produce a cautionary tale.