I designed this course during the pandemic to use work from our field to help students to work through the distinctive problems of our moment in history. I hope you enjoy the course, and hope it is of value to you in your life right now, and of lasting value in your life.

Part 1: Themes from the Ancient Levant, 450 BCE–1945

Dispute between a Man and His Ba

קֹהֶלֶת

Ἠθικὰ Νικομάχεια

Ἐγχειρίδιον Ἐπικτήτου

Parerga und Paralipomena, von Arthur Schopenhauer (Selections)

Selections from Friedrich Nietzsche

『葉隠』, 山本常朝 (Selections)

Part 2: Critiques

Pierotti and Wildcat, “Traditional Ecological Knowledge: The Third Alternative”

Virginia Held, “Birth and Death”

Nishitani Keiji, “The Self-Overcoming of Nihilism” (Selections)

James Cone, “The Cross and the Lynching Tree” (Selections)

Part 3: Reconsideration

Repenser après la Grande Guerre

Repenser après la Deuxième Guerre mondiale

Final Reflection Assignment