Great Books and Debates
Full course description
‘Great Books and Debates’ comprises a series of sessions in which key readings of Western culture will be read, thoroughly contextualised, and discussed in depth. You will read (excerpts from) highly influential books, such as Karl Marx’s Capital, Darwin’s Origin of Species, Nietzsche’s Antichrist, and Edward Said’s Orientalism.
- recognise the background of some of the major controversies in contemporary Western culture, such as inequality versus social justice, Darwinism versus religion, vitalism versus nihilism, orientalism versus Occidentalism;
- learn how to analyse, evaluate, and reflect upon the complex arguments featuring in the controversies studied in this course.