Category: Great Ideas

“The Meaning of Human Existence”

November 17, 2014 at 3:21 pm

  Biologist Edward O. Wilson has spent his life studying evolutionary biology, writing books, and winning Pulitzer prizes, among other things. He is still going strong at 85 years old, and recently published “The Meaning of Human Existence,” a book intended to explain and convince the general public of the scientific theory of evolution. Drawing […]

By CAS Core Curriculum | Also posted in Academics, Great Books | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Wander with Odysseus: The Odyssey as an Alternate Reality Game

November 3, 2014 at 12:30 pm

What if instead of simply reading about Odysseus’s journey, you could experience it with him? John Fallon, an innovative middle school teacher, had the idea to craft an alternate reality game (ARG) to help build enthusiasm for classics like the Odyssey  in his seventh-grade class. Rather than merely reading about the adventures of Odysseus in […]

By CAS Core Curriculum | Also posted in Academics, Other Publications | Tagged | Comments (0)

Esposito introducing Bible lecture with Elie Wiesel

September 12, 2014 at 9:47 am

This past Tuesday, September 9th, Prof. Michael Zank of the Department of Religion lectured to students in the first-year Humanities about the Hebrew Bible. His talk was introduced with some very moving comments by Prof. Stephen Esposito (Classics), the course coordinator. Prof. Esposito has agreed to let us republish his introduction here on the Core […]

By zakbos | Also posted in Core Lecturers, Great Questions, video | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Daodejing & bright vs. dark

April 15, 2014 at 3:18 pm

This semester, CC102 has delved into the Daodejing and all the wonderful concepts it illuminates. Andrew Klufas, a student in Professor Nelson’s class, sent in an video of interest: What’s The Brightest Thing in the Universe? It’s creator, Vsauce, makes popular and informative videos on Youtube. Here, we see how Core Science meets Core Humanities: There is […]

By mdimov | Also posted in Curriculum, video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

David Green on Core and the canon

March 28, 2014 at 11:42 am

Prompted by Dean Sapiro’s lecture on Mary Wollstonecraft to question why there are so few women authors in the Core Humanities, Prof. David Green had his CC 202 students this week  momentarily put aside Pride and Prejudice and the question of whether happiness in marriage is a matter of chance to consider the criteria for […]

By zakbos | Also posted in Academics, Core Authors, Great Questions | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

What would Plato Tweet?

March 25, 2014 at 9:04 am

With cerebral momentum from yesterday’s post on why philosophy won’t go away, let’s move on to another question raised by the same author, Rebecca Goldstein: what would Plato Tweet? Goldstein likens the modern social media attention-seeking frenzy to the ancient Greek striving for kleos, which, as students will remember from CC101, is somewhat equivalent to “glory”. […]

By mdimov | Also posted in Community, Great Questions, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Alumnus Ben Howe & his Core-themed brewery

February 22, 2014 at 10:00 am

Ben Howe (CAS ’07), an entrepreneurial Core Curriculum alumnus, has opened a nano brewery and appropriately named it Enlightenment Ales! To our delight, the titles of his individual ales are, in our minds, very much Core-themed: Cosmos, Illumination, Enlightenment. As Ben describes on the company website, the nano brewery makes Bière de Champagne. For the laymen in brewery […]

By mdimov | Also posted in alumni, Community, Culinary Arts | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Gulliver’s Kingdom Theme Park

February 21, 2014 at 4:53 pm

CC202 started off the academic year with Gulliver’s Travels – an apt text for students who start the semester feeling like giants in one class and like Lilliputians in another. Michael John Grist describes, on his website, what used to be a Gulliver’s Kingdom Theme Park in Japan: Gulliver once rested in the shadow of […]

By mdimov | Also posted in Art, Community, In the News | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Voltaire & the Republic of Letters

February 18, 2014 at 4:04 pm

CC202 has just moved on from Candide. Voltaire strikes even the casual reader as a captivating persona, with wit and intelligence. However, Voltaire’s role in the “Republic of Letters” is certainly worth a mention. To escape arrest, Voltaire lived at Cirey for fifteen years. He wrote a steady stream of letters to stay connected with his friends in […]

By mdimov | Also posted in Core Authors, Great Personalities | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Ian Mckellen reading The Odyssey

February 8, 2014 at 1:58 pm

Ian Mckellen’s voice is excellent. The Odyssey is excellent. Ian Mckellen’s voice reading the Odyssey is even better! This is essentially Mckellen impersonating Homer himself. Are there any other exciting audiobooks of Core texts you have stumbled upon? Let us know!

By mdimov | Also posted in Core Authors, Future of the Book | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)