F82E Intellectual and Cultural History of the West: Part I. The Greeks (Zoom; OLLI @ UofA)
Zoom | Available (Membership Required)
This course concerns itself with the History of Ideas. History of Ideas is a branch of history that explores the climate of intellectual thoughts in given eras, similar to and a background to the history of political, economic, or military events during these eras. This era is focused on the ancient Greeks and extends from the Dark Ages of the Greeks to the late Hellenistic age or around 700 BC to 400 AD. We will look at the “great thinkers” like Plato and Aristotle and also other “schools” of thought like the Stoics and the Pythagoreans, et al. We will also survey art and ethics, e.g. Homer and Sophocles. There is a current and a continuum in Western thinking that still feeds our current take on cosmology (how the world works), epistemology (what is “truth” or “realism”) and what we value. This fall course is the first part of a series that will be followed by later courses on Medieval thought, Early Modern, and Modern. No previous philosophical study is required but there will be short readings. Discussion and class participation are strongly encouraged.
Robert Macarthur worked for 32 years at the University of Arizona in the College of Agriculture as an IT guy. He has a PhD in Cultural and Intellectual History from the U of A.
Note: Daylight Savings Time ends on November 1, 2026. After that date this class will begin at 11 am ET.
*This registration item is ZOOM-only; there is not an in-person component to this course. It is offered and run by The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at The University of Arizona.*