Courses of Study
Sections
An interdepartmental program in History of Ideas
Last updated: August 14, 2014 at 4:30 p.m.
The History of Ideas Minor was developed to help students explore the sources of human beliefs and commitments by tracing their development over time. Its goal is to deepen understanding of both the significance of familiar ways of thinking and the strengths of unfamiliar ways. Our courses help students broaden their perspective on important issues by drawing attention to the diverse and ever-changing ways in which human beings have tried to make sense of their world and its problems.
The History of Ideas minor has students take two different kinds of courses: electives from departments outside their major and 2 interdisciplinary seminars that act as capstones for the program. The electives allow students to exercise independent judgment in putting together a set of courses that pursue common themes within very different interdisciplinary settings. The seminars, in contrast, allow them to pursue intensive study of important issues or intellectual periods in an environment that emphasizes the development of verbal and written communication skills. The minor is constructed as an interdisciplinary supplement to students’ majors, one that broadens the range of approaches that students encounter, while still demanding rigorous intellectual engagement with key texts and thinkers. In addition, the History of Ideas Minor contributes to the university’s social justice mission in two ways: 1) intellectually, by deepening our students’ understanding of the nature and sources of our claims about morality and justice; 2) practically, by increasing appreciation and respect for the diverse and ever-changing ways in which these claims have been made over time.
Completing the History of Ideas Minor helps students develop the following core skills:
- Critical thinking, based on close analysis of texts and comparison of different and changing expressions of ideas.
- Ability to analyze and write about complex ideas.
- Ability to read and analyze texts from diverse and unfamiliar traditions.
- Judgment about how to make the best use of different methodological approaches to the same issue.
Our courses in the minor vary, with students selecting their own electives from a wide range of departmental offerings and with capstone seminars changing each year. So the minor does not claim to impart to students a single body of knowledge. All of our courses aim, however, to help students appreciate:
- The development of ideas over time.
- The nature and extent of cultural diversity.
- The sources of familiar and canonical ways of thinking.
- The diverse and often contingent sources of long established beliefs and commitments.
The History of Ideas minor is especially attractive to students interested in graduate study in Philosophy, History, and other fields in Humanities and Social Sciences. As a result, many of our students go on to earn Ph.Ds and become academics. But it also helps prepare students well for any field, such as law, that requires careful analysis of the meaning and development of written texts.
David Engerman, Chair
(History)
Richard Gaskins
(American Studies)
Susan Lanser
(Comparative Literature; English and American Literature; Women's and Gender Studies)
Jennifer Marusic (on leave academic year 2014-2015)
(Philosophy)
Robin Feuer Miller
(German, Russian, and Asian Languages and Literature)
Kate Moran
(Philosophy)
David Powelstock
(German, Russian, and Asian Languages and Literature)
Eugene Sheppard
(Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)
Bernard Yack
(Politics)
Affiliated Faculty (contributing to the curriculum, advising and administration of the department or program)
Susan Lanser (English)
Robin Feuer Miller (German, Russian, and Asian Languages and Literature)
Kathleen Moran (Philosophy)
Bernard Yack (Politics)
The minor has three requirements:
A. Two history of ideas seminars. At least two seminars will be offered each year. Topics and faculty for the seminars will change each year. Students should consult the schedule of classes each semester for the specific seminar offerings.
B. Three courses selected in consultation with the HOID undergraduate adviser, at least two of which will be taken in departments or programs beyond the student’s major(s). When joining the program, students will write a brief statement explaining the intellectual relationships that connect the subject matter of these three courses. Only one course from a student’s major—or one from each major, in the case of double majors—may be counted toward the total of five courses required for the minor.
C. Students will present a substantial research paper or project to HOID faculty and students at a spring colloquium. This paper or project may develop out of work done in a history of ideas seminar, but it can also be drawn from independent research, such as a senior thesis or independent study, or from other work that students have done since coming to Brandeis. The colloquium is designed to give students the opportunity to engage with each other about their creative work at Brandeis.
D. No grade below a C- will be given credit toward the minor.
E. No course taken pass/fail may count toward the major requirements.
Courses of Instruction
(1-99) Primarily for Undergraduate Students
HOID
98a
Independent Study
Usually offered every year.
Staff
HOID
98b
Independent Study
Usually offered every year.
Staff
(100-199) For Both Undergraduate and Graduate Students
HOID
100a
Introduction to Critical Theory
[
hum
]
How should we understand the cultural contradictions of modern society? This course will explore the evolution of Critical Theory as developed by the early Frankfurt School, with a specific focus on the works of Adorno, Benjamin, Horkheimer, and Marcuse. Special one-time offering, fall 2014.
Mr. Gamsby
History of Ideas Seminars
HOID
100a
Introduction to Critical Theory
[
hum
]
How should we understand the cultural contradictions of modern society? This course will explore the evolution of Critical Theory as developed by the early Frankfurt School, with a specific focus on the works of Adorno, Benjamin, Horkheimer, and Marcuse. Special one-time offering, fall 2014.
Mr. Gamsby
POL
190b
Seminar: Democratic Theory
[
ss
]
Explores in depth the nature, virtues, and limitations of democracy as a way of organizing political affairs. Brings together classic texts, for example, Rousseau's Social Contract, with more recent topical readings on topics like democracy and nationalism. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Yack
History of Ideas Electives
AAAS
168b
The Black Intellectual Tradition
[
ss
wi
]
Introduces broad historical themes, issues and debates that constitute the black intellectual tradition. Examines the works of male and female black intellectuals from slavery to present. Will explore issues of freedom, citizenship, uplift, gender, and race consciousness. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Williams
ANTH
108b
History, Time, and Tradition
[
ss
]
Explores topics relating to the historical dimension of societies in cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspectives: the cultural construction of the past, temporal and calendrical systems, the invention of tradition, ethnohistorical narrative, cultural memory and forgetting, historical monuments, and museums. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Parmentier
COML/ENG
140b
Children's Literature and Constructions of Childhood
[
hum
]
Explores whether children's literature has sought to civilize or to subvert, to moralize or to enchant, forming a bedrock for adult sensibility. Childhood reading reflects the unresolved complexity of the experience of childhood itself as well as larger cultural shifts around the globe in values and beliefs. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Miller
ECS
100a
European Cultural Studies Proseminar: Modernism
[
hum
wi
]
Explores the interrelationship of literature, music, painting, philosophy, and other arts in the era of high modernism. Works by Artaud, Baudelaire, Benjamin, Mann, Mahler, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Kandinsky, Schiele, Beckett, Brecht, Adorno, Sartre, Heidegger, and others. Usually offered every fall semester.
Mr. Dowden
ENG
78b
Modernism, Atheism, God
[
hum
]
Explores European and U.S. literature after Nietzche's proclamation, at the end of the 19th century, that God is dead. How does this writing imagine human life and the role of literature in God's absence? How does it imagine afterlives of God, and permutations of the sacred, in a post-religious world? How, or why, to have faith in the possibility of faith in a secular age? What does "the secular" actually mean, and how does it persuade itself that it's different than "religion"? Approaches international modernism as a political and theological debate about materialism and spirituality, finitude and transcendence, reason and salvation. Readings by Kafka, Joyce, Rilke, Faulkner, Eliot, Beckett, Pynchon, and others. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Sherman
FREN
111a
The Republic
[
fl
hum
wi
]
Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
The "Republic" analyzes how the republican ideal of the citizen devoid of religious, ethnic, or gender identity has fared in different Francophone political milieux. Course involves understanding how political institutions such as constitutions, parliaments, and court systems interact with reality of modern societies in which religious, ethnic, and gender identities play important roles. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Randall
FREN
139b
Proust's Artistic Vision and the Beauty of Ordinary Life
[
fl
hum
wi
]
Prerequisite: FREN 106b.
Key readings from Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu engage students in an interdisciplinary exploration of themes (imagination and disappointment, time and memory, jealousy and desire, everyday life and redemption through art) and the author's revolutionary writing techniques. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Harder
FREN
186b
Literature and Politics
[
fl
hum
]
Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
We will be interested in how the literary is political and the political literary. We will organize the class around the relationship of the individual and the community. Texts include: Montaigne’s Essais, Corneille’s Horace, Genet’s Les nègres, Arendt’s What is Politics?, Dumont’s Essays on Individualism, Fanon’s Peau noire, masques blancs. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Randall
GRK
115b
Ancient Greek Drama
[
fl
hum
]
The plays of Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Euripides, and Sophocles, in Greek. A different playwright is studied each year. See Schedule of Classes for current topic. Usually offered every fourth year.
Mr. Muellner
HIST
169a
Thought and Culture in Modern America
[
ss
wi
]
Developments in American philosophy, literature, art, and political theory examined in the context of socioeconomic change. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Engerman
HIST
169b
The Radical 1950s: Politics and Culture in Postwar America
[
ss
]
This advanced seminar examines social criticism by the supposedly complacent Americans of the 1950s, looking for links to the turmoil that followed. Topics include foreign policy, treatment of African-Americans, roles for women, and the alienation of mass society. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Engerman
HIST
181b
Red Flags/Black Flags: Marxism vs. Anarchism, 1845-1968
[
ss
]
From Marx's first major book in 1845 to the French upheavals of 1968, the history of left-wing politics and ideas. The struggles between Marxist orthodoxy and anarchist-inspired, left Marxist alternatives. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Hulliung
HIST
183b
Community and Alienation: Social Theory from Hegel to Freud
[
ss
]
The rise of social theory understood as a response to the trauma of industrialization. Topics include Marx's concept of "alienation," Tönnies's distinction between "community" and "society," Durkheim's notion of "anomie," Weber's account of "disenchantment," and Nietzsche's repudiation of modernity. Usually offered every fourth year.
Mr. Hulliung
HIST
195a
American Political Thought: From the Revolution to the Civil War
[
ss
]
Antebellum America as seen in the writings of Paine, Jefferson, Adams, the Federalists and Antifederalists, the Federalists and Republicans, the Whigs and the Jacksonians, the advocates and opponents of slavery, and the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Hulliung
JAPN
145a
The World of Classical Japanese Literature
[
hum
nw
]
A survey of some of the most important works of Japanese literature from its origins to the late sixteenth century, including a wide range of genres: fiction, essays, travelogues, poetry, and drama. All readings are in English. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Fraleigh
LAT
118b
Roman Historians
[
fl
hum
]
Selections from the histories of Julius Caesar, Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus, in Latin. Usually offered every fourth year.
Ms. Walker
NEJS
124a
Arabic Literature, Hebrew Literature (500-1500)
[
hum
]
A comparative study of Arabic and Hebrew literature from before the rise of Islam through the fifteenth century. Studies major trends in Arabic poetry and fiction and how Jewish authors utilized Arabic motifs in their Hebrew writings, both secular and sacred, and sometimes wrote in Arabic themselves. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Decter
NEJS
155a
Maimonides: A Jewish Thinker in the Islamic World
[
hum
]
A study of the life, world, and thought of Moses Maimonides, the most significant Jewish intellectual of the Islamic world. This course traces his intellectual output in philosophy and Judaism, from its beginning in Islamic Spain to the mature works produced in Morocco and Egypt, in the context of the Arabic-Islamic milieu. Half of the course is dedicated to studying his Guide of the Perplexed, a Judeo-Arabic work that engages the demands of revealed religion and philosophical rationalism. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Decter
NEJS
155b
Introduction to Jewish Legal Thought
[
hum
]
Traces the history of Jewish law from the Bible to the present. Jewish law is indispensable for understanding Jewish life, past, present and future, and is a rich source of reflection on law, ethics and religion. This course examines contemporary debates and controversies and explores its spiritual dimensions. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Mirsky
PHIL
7a
Science, Evolution, and Design
[
hum
]
This seminar considers several versions of the argument from design for the existence of God, culminating in a critical examination of the contemporary debate over intelligent design theory and the claim that it is a genuine science. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Marusic
PHIL
107b
Kant's Moral Theory
[
hum
]
An examination of the main philosophical issues addressed in Kant's Critique of Practical Reason from the perspective of their relation to works specifically belonging to his ethical theory: the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals and the Metaphysics of Morals. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Moran
PHIL
109b
Ethics and Emotions
[
hum
]
Prerequisite: One course in philosophy.
An examination of the historical and contemporary theories concerning the role that emotions and feeling ought to have in moral judgment and decision-making. Explores contemporary philosophical theories about the relationship between emotion and judgment. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Moran
PHIL
122a
History of Ethics
[
hum
]
Explores several major ethical traditions in the history of modern philosophy/ Examines the natural law theories of Hobbes and Grotius; moral sense theory; Kantianism; utilitarianism; and Nietzsche's response to these traditional moral theories. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Moran
PHIL
146a
Idea of God
[
hum
]
Prerequisite: PHIL 1a or PHIL 66b or one course numbered PHIL 35a through PHIL 38b.
Engages in a philosophical investigation, not of religion as an institution but of the very idea of God. Studies the distinction between human being and divine being and addresses the issue of the relation of God's essence to his existence. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Yourgrau
PHIL
168a
Kant
[
hum
]
Prerequisite: PHIL 1a or permission of the instructor.
An attempt to understand and evaluate the main ideas of the Critique of Pure Reason, the subjectivity of space and time, the nature of consciousness, and the objectivity of the concepts of substance and causality. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Greenberg
POL
10a
Introduction to Political Theory
[
ss
]
Open to first-year students.
Examination of classical political texts and modern writings for insights on central problems of political discourse, such as power and authority, human nature, freedom, obligation, justice, and the organization of the state. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Yack or Mr. Lenowitz
POL
187b
Conservative Political Thought
[
ss
]
Focuses on American and European thinkers, with an emphasis on critics of equality and unlimited commercial and civil liberty. Readings include political philosophy and literature. Authors may include Burke, Oakeshott, Calhoun, Conrad, Hayek, Macintyre, and Strauss. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Yack
POL
188b
Modern Political Thought
[
ss
]
Provides a survey of major works of modern political thought, beginning with Machiavelli and ending with John Rawls. It proceeds by way of careful reading and discussion of their most important arguments and the issues that they raise. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Yack
POL
189a
Marx, Nietzsche, and Twentieth-Century Radicalism
[
ss
]
Comparison of two powerful and influential critiques of modern politics and society. Explanation of Marx's work, both for its own insights and as a model for radical theorists; and of Nietzsche's work as an alternative conception of radical social criticism. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Yack
POL
192b
Seminar: Topics in Law and Political Theory
[
ss
]
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or higher. May be repeated for credit if taught by different instructors.
Interplay among law, morality, and political theory. Specific topics vary from year to year. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Yack or Mr. Lenowitz
RECS
100a
Russian Soul: Masterworks of Modern Russian Culture
[
hum
]
Open to all students. Conducted in English. Students may choose to do readings either in English translation or in Russian. Satisfies the Proseminar requirement for the Russian Studies major.
Examines masterpieces of modern Russian culture in literature, film, philosophy, art, music, theater, opera and ballet. How has Russian culture treated such common human themes as life, death, love, language, identity, and community? What makes Russian cultural tradition unique? Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Powelstock
RECS
130a
The Russian Novel
[
hum
wi
]
Open to all students. Conducted in English. Students may choose to do readings either in English translation or in Russian.
A comprehensive survey of the major writers and themes of the nineteenth century including Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, and others. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Miller
SOC
127a
Religion, Ethnicity, and Nationalism
[
nw
ss
]
Examines three sources of identity that are influential in global affairs: religion, ethnicity and nationalism. Considers theories of the relationship among these identities, especially "secularization theory," then reviews historical examples such as Poland, Iran, India, and Pakistan. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Rosenberger
SOC
162a
Intellectuals and Revolutionary Politics
[
ss
]
Examines the role of intellectuals in modern politics, especially their relationship to nationalism and revolutionary movements. In reading across a range of political revolutions (e.g. in Central Europe, colonial Africa and Iran), students will have the chance to compare the relative significance of appeals to solidarity based on class, religion, ethnicity, and national identity. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Rosenberger