2019-2020 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
    Apr 24, 2024  
2019-2020 Undergraduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

PHI 280 - Topics: Oxford as Text


HIS 280

This particular cross-listed course will explore the role that Oxford, England has played in the intellectual, literary, philosophical, and religious history of the Anglo-world.  From the origins of Oxford – one of the first European universities of the 12th century – we find a tradition of philosophical reflection on self, God, the world.  How does a place serve as a catalyst for philosophical reflection, religious fervor, and creative imagination? From Roger Grosseteste, John of Salisbury, John Wyclife, and the Oxford Reformers through Lewis Carroll’s Alice and C.S. Lewis’ Narnia, we uncover ideas, fantasies, life and death-all worlds emerging from a small midlands town on a tributary of the Thames. How did the microcosm of this university town birth ideas and influence individual historical, philosophical, and literary figures all of which will have worldwide influence? How was an environment fostered in which the life of the mind flourished? We will read a wide range of texts across disciplines to explore these ideas. This course will include an intense reading and study period in Oxford during the summer which will offer students a chance to study in the very place where scientific ideas, intellectual and religious history, philosophical puzzles, and imaginary worlds meet.  

3 credits.
Spring. With Travel During Summer.