The Making of the Western Mind
An exploration of the Western cultural tradition
You may enroll online at shop.westernciv.com
or call 408-864-4060 (Mon-Fri, 10AM-6PM)
THIS CLASS IS FULL
Please call 408-864-4060
to get on the wait list
(Mon-Fri, 10AM-6PM)
“The Making of the Western Mind” is a 30-week course (fall, winter, and spring) that invites students to come to know the major philosophers, painters, sculptors, architects, poets, playwrights, and novelists of the Western cultural tradition. During our 30-week journey (fall, winter, and spring), we read philosophical essays and epic poems; look at images of frescoes and oil paintings; and study the biographies of great leaders such as Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Napoleon; great thinkers such as Aristotle, Cicero, Augustine, Galileo, and Nietzsche; great writers such as Sophocles, Dante, Rousseau, Goethe, Byron, and Dostoyevsky; and great artists such as Brunelleschi, Masaccio, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Rembrandt.
The goal of the course is to come to understand how we in the twenty-first century came to be who we are; why we think the way we do; what assumptions about the world and human nature are traceable back to earlier periods in the five-thousand year story of Western Civilization.
The Fall Quarter of “Making of the Western Mind” is devoted to the Greeks, the Jews, the early Christians, and the Romans. These four cultures provide the foundation stones of Western Civilization.
The Winter Quarter is devoted to the combination of the centuries of knowledge accrued within the Greek and Roman cultures with the newly emerging Christian culture.
The Spring Quarter studies the years from the outbreak of the Reformation in 1517 with the posting of the Ninety Five Theses by Martin Luther and continues to the new Modern world of science, Romanticism, and democracy.
For more information, please see the class syllabus.
See also the list of required books.
Join us as we rediscover the story of Western Civilization through its history,
literature, and art!
Presented by
WILLIAM H. FREDLUND, PH.D.
Thursday evenings, 7:00 to 9:30PM
Fall Quarter, 10 sessions: OCT 5 through DEC 14
(no class NOV 23)
Winter Quarter: 10 sessions: JAN 11 through MAR 15
Spring Quarter: 10 sessions: APR 5 through JUN 7
Tuition: $345 per quarter
You may enroll online at shop.westernciv.com
or call 408-864-4060 (Mon-Fri, 10AM-6PM)
THIS CLASS IS FULL
Please call 408-864-4060
to get on the wait list
(Mon-Fri, 10AM-6PM)
Dr. William H. Fredlund, the Director of the Institute, and one of Silicon Valley’s most popular lecturers, obtained his B.A. and M.A. from UCLA, where he specialized in European history and art history. He studied in Italy on a Fulbright Fellowship and completed a double Ph.D. in history and humanities at Stanford, specializing in Renaissance Italy. Dr. Fredlund has taught for UCLA, the University of Florence, Stanford, and UCSC Extension.