Great Books
Overview
The Area of Concentration in Great Books, an interdisciplinary program spanning multiple fields of study, offers New College of Florida students a timeless education and aims to teach them critical thinking and communication skills through close reading and sustained engagement with some of the most influential texts ever written. A Summer 2023 faculty working group defined “Great Works” (in this case, including both classic texts and masterworks of the visual and performing arts) as follows:
By “Great Works” we mean those exceptional and enduring products of imagination, ingenuity, and craft whose richness and complexity provoke ever renewed questions (and sometimes answers) about what it means to be human. What makes life worth living? What makes it extraordinary? What do we owe to each other? To ourselves? What should be preserved, what altered? Are there right and wrong, better and worse ways to pursue and answer these questions? To live the lives that these answers promise? “Great works” are generally familiar and foundational, often referenced, imitated, lampooned, debated, and engaged by other works, yet they continue to surprise and seduce each reader/observer who encounters them afresh.
The Great Books do not belong to any nation, race, or creed, but represent the shared cultural heritage of humankind—the best that has been thought and written over the last three thousand years. Written centuries or even millennia in the past, they still speak to us today, and offer the wisdom of the ages as a guide to the challenges of our contemporary world.
Affiliated Faculty
David Allen Harvey, Professor of History (Founding Dean of Great Books program, 2024-25)
Aron Edidin, Professor of Philosophy
David Edwards, Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion
David Ellis, Associate Professor of Political Science
Douglas Estes, Associate Professor of Religion
April Flakne, Professor of Philosophy
Jeffrey Hanson, Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Andrew Humphries, Assistant Professor of Economics
Richard Izquierdo, Assistant Professor of Political Science
Fang-yu Li, Associate Professor of Chinese Language and Culture
Alicia Mercado-Harvey, Assistant Professor of Spanish and History
David Mikics, Professor of English
Frederick Pirone, Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Adam Rowe, Assistant Professor of History
Audrey Sprenger, Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology
Casey Wheatland, Assistant Professor of Political Science
Requirements for a Primary AOC in Great Books (10 units):
1. Introduction to the Great Books: HUM 2210 and 2230 (2 units)
2. Great Books electives and seminars, may include Gen Ed courses (7 units total)
3. Great Books Research Practicum, to be taken in preparation for thesis research (1 unit)
Requirements for a Joint AOC including Great Books (7 units):
1. Introduction to the Great Books: HUM 2210 and 2230 (2 units)
2. Great Books electives and seminars, may include Gen Ed courses (5 units total)
Note: Students declaring a Joint AOC may choose to take the Research Practicum and complete a thesis in Great Books, but may also choose to pursue thesis work in the other field represented in their joint concentration.
Requirements for a Secondary AOC in Great Books (4 units):
1. Introduction to the Great Books: HUM 2210 and 2230 (2 units)
2. Any two additional Great Books courses (2 units)
Great Books Foundational Courses
| Code | Title |
|---|---|
| HUM 2210 | Introduction to the Great Books I: Antiquity to Renaissance |
| HUM 2230 | Introduction to the Great Books II: Renaissance Through Modern Times |
Note: the Great Books focused section of the required Civic Literacy course, POS 2041: American Government and Civics, may be counted toward the Great Books AOC. Interested students should be sure to enroll in the Great Books section of POS 2041, as not all sections of the course will meet the AOC requirements.
Courses Cross-Listed with Great Books (not a complete list)
| Code | Title |
|---|---|
| LIT 2005 | Introduction to Literature: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love |
| LIT 3344 | Whodunit? Crime, Corruption, and Terror in Modern Fiction |
| HIST 3000 | Intellectual Origins of the American Revolution |
| HIST 3025 | Modernity and Its Discontents: Great Books and Great Debates on Society, Progress, and Human Nature |
| HIST 4125 | The Enlightenment |
| REL 2210 | Jewish Scriptures |
| REL 2502 | Introduction to Christianity |
| PHI 2300 | Theory of Knowledge |
| CHT 2124 | Modern Chinese Literature and Film |
| SYA 3018 | Social Theory |
| IDS 2161 | What Is a Good Life? |
| HUM 2541 | What Is Truth? What is Reality? |
| POLS 3410 | Classical and Medieval Political Thought |
| POLS 3415 | Early Modern Political Thought |