aCademiC Catalog 2013-2014 - Lorenzo de Medici

FLORENCE
School of Arts & Sciences
The Holocaust: Jewish and Christian
Responses
PHR 240 F; Dual listed: HIS 235 F
Cr: 3; Contact hrs: 45
This course is an introduction to the legacy of the Holocaust
and its religious implications. The course explores Christian
anti-Judaism as one of many factors in the Nazi rise to power
and the “Final Solution”. It then proceeds to various accounts
of life in the Nazi ghettoes and death camps and deals with
Christian and Jewish efforts to remember the Holocaust within
particular communities and places. The course will focus on
the Holocaust of the Italian Jews. It will begin with an analysis
of the emergence of the Fascist movement in Italy, which lead
to the Racial Laws. It will proceed with the study of specific
stories of persecution, deportation and salvation in the various
cities of Italy. We will study in depth the reaction of the Vatican
to the Holocaust. In addition we will analyze the reactions of
Italian society, starting right after the war up until today, to the
Holocaust.
Mysteries and Sacred Knowledge in
Architecture
PHR 243 F; Dual listed: ART 243 F
Cr: 3; Contact hrs: 45
This course explores the architecture of various past cultures
relative to their belief systems, and links this to contemporary
practice. It reads buildings and spaces as the products of
diverse forms of special sacred knowledge or wisdom, whose
language can be reconstructed, understood, and enjoyed. Key
themes include: esoterism; concepts of harmony, proportion
and geometry; numerology; astrology and cosmology; the
architect as creator; symbolism; ornament. Cultures examined
include ancient Egypt, classical antiquity (Greece and Rome),
ancient India (vaastu), ancient and modern China (feng shui),
medieval, Renaissance and Enlightenment Europe. From the
proportions of a pyramid to a freemason’s lodge, from the
capitals of a cathedral to the planning of a residence or square
in ancient or Renaissance Rome, the course seeks common
elements that may connect all cultures. Students discover new
interpretative keys that offer profound perspectives on the art
and craft of architecture, from antiquity to today.
Archaeology of Religion: Death and Ritual in
the Past
PHR 252 F; Dual listed: CLA 252 F / ANT 252 F
Cr: 3; Contact hrs: 45
Religion is based on a combined system of beliefs and practices
that allows people to answer fundamental questions regarding
human life. What can archaeology tell us about religion? The
course explores key questions regarding the role and evolution
of religious beliefs and practices by systematically analyzing
the archaeological remains of ancient religious material culture
across the Mediterranean and the Ancient Near East, between
the prehistoric and early classical periods. Direct links between
religious practices and beliefs are strongly evident in ancient
societies, where the construction of large physical structures
(such as temples) appears to be pivotal in the evolution
of mankind. Students learn to use archaeological data and
historical sources for the period. They address broad theoretical
and methodological issues, explore how architecture was used
by ancient societies in creating their cosmological landscape,
and evaluate interpretations of the first appearance of family
ancestor cults. The first part of the course treats theoretical
and methodological issues in the study of religious thought,
while the second part reinforces understanding through close
analysis of ancient written sources, architecture, and other
examples of material culture.
Prerequisites: one previous course in History of Religions,
Cultural Anthropology, Archaeology
The Catholic Church and Society in Italy
PHR 254 F; Dual listed: HIS 254 F
Cr: 3; Contact hrs: 45
Over the centuries the Catholic Church has had a major
impact on Italian society, and its beliefs and traditions form a
central part of modern Italian culture. This course explores the
interaction of religion and society in Italy over a long period,
beginning with the birth of Christianity, and moving onto early
developments in Latin Roman times, the Middle Ages, the
Renaissance, the Reformation and Counter Reformation, up to
contemporary issues in the present day.
Prerequisites: HIS 130 Western Civilization, or PHR 210 World
Religions, or equivalents
Lost Symbolisms: Secret Codes in Western
Art
PHR 255 F; Dual listed: ART 255 F
Cr: 3; Contact hrs: 45
The course focuses on the links between artworks and astrology,
alchemy, geometry, numerology, and selected philosophical
themes in Western art between 1300 and 1800. Art has served
various functional and aesthetic purposes in different cultures
and periods. In some eras art has also embodied a symbolic
language, mysterious to the majority but highly significant to
the minority able to read or decode it. For example, what we
may call the secret messages of certain paintings and sculptures
of past centuries can be interpreted in terms of astrology.
A specific field of art history, iconography, studies subject
matter, symbolism, and signification in works of art. Students
use elements of this approach to examine the fascinating and
complex range of meanings that some artworks were intended
to transmit and which can still be recovered.
From Plato to Machiavelli: Classical Political
Thought
PHR 260 F; Dual listed: POL 260 F
Cr: 3; Contact hrs: 45
The course examines the evolution of that branch of
philosophical thought that gave birth to the modern concept of
political science and political thinking, exploring major periods
and personalities in the development of political thought. It
thus covers a very long historical period from the time of the
“dawn” of Western philosophy to the most relevant issues of
the modern era. Emphasis will be placed first on the Golden
Age of Greek-Athenian democracy, through the analysis of
thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle; then, the course will move
on to the main philosophical schools of the Middle Ages (the
Scholastics) through the analysis of authors such as Thomas
Aquinas, Dante and Ockham. Students will then encounter
the extraordinarily rich period of the Italian and European
Renaissance, both as a vast cultural revolution and as a cradle
of new ideas and thought systems: the personalities and works
of Thomas More, Machiavelli and Erasmus will be carefully
studied, without underestimating the importance of the rising
ideas of Luther and Calvin. Finally, the course will investigate
the early modern adaptations of these thought systems as
manifested in the rationalism of Hobbes.
Prerequisites: PHR 130 Western Philosophy, or POL 150
Introduction to Political Science, or equivalents, or sophomore
standing
From Machiavelli to the present: Modern
Political Thought
PHR 265 F; Dual listed: POL 265 F
Cr: 3; Contact hrs: 45
This course will analyze some landmarks of the western
philosophical tradition. Its aim is to discuss concisely the views
of some major Western political thinkers in order to demonstrate
how their ideas about politics and society are critical to
understanding the politics of our time. The course aims to
analyze on the one hand the philosophies and ideas that have
been sustaining our present world view, and on the other hand
the roots of some recurrent key themes in these philosophies,
such as the idea of utopia, as well as the anti-utopian vision
whose originator can be considered Niccolò Machiavelli. This
last theme thus introduces students to the reaction against
the so-called “Platonic ideal” that has taken place during the
twentieth century. The concept of totalitarianism is related to
these pivotal philosophical perspectives and this concept will
also be studied with particular attention. More specifically,
special emphasis will be placed on the analysis of a series of
concepts connected to one another, including the concept
of liberty; relativism versus pluralism; freedom, equality and
fraternity. The course is structured as a chronological analysis
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LdM Academic Catalog 2013-2014