Sample Reading List

 

Humanities Colloquium 

St. Francis Xavier University 

Sample Reading List 

 

English 

Philosophy 

History 

The Ancient World 
(8 Sept – 23 Oct) 
Aristophanes, The Clouds 
Sophocles, Antigone 
Lucretius, On the Nature of Things 
St. Paul, Hebrews 

 

The Ancient World 
(8 Sept – 23 Oct) 
Plato, Apology, Phaedo 
Aristotle, Physics Bks 1-2,  
On the Soul, Bk. 2 
Lucretius, On the Nature of Things 

The Ancient World 
(8 Sept – 23 Oct) 
Greece 

Rome 
Birth of Christianity 

The Middle Ages 
(26 Oct – 4 Dec) 
Boethius, Consolation of  
Philosophy 
Beowulf 
Chaucer, General Prologue,  
The Wife of Bath,  
Prologue and Tale 

The Middle Ages 
(26 Oct – 4 Dec) 
Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy 
Anselm, Proslogion 
Aquinas, Summa theologiae  
(On God & On Human  
Nature) 
Ockham - Basic Principles 

 

The Middle Ages 
(26 Oct – 4 Dec) 
Byzantium & Islam 
Feudalism & Manorialism 
Economic Revival 
Growth of National Monarchies 
Mediaeval Culture 
The Catholic Church 

The Renaissance and  
the Early Modern Period 

(4 Jan – 12 Feb) 
Marlowe, Dr. Faustus 
Shakespeare, The Tempest 
Milton, Paradise Lost, 1,2,9 
Swift, Gulliver’s Travels 

The Renaissance and  
the Early Modern Period
 
(4 Jan – 12 Feb) 
Galileo, The Letter to the  
Grand Duchess Christina 
Descartes, Meditations 
on First Philosophy  
Pascal, Pensees 
David Hume, An Enquiry  
Concerning Human Understanding 

 

The Renaissance and  
the Early Modern Period 
4 Jan – 12 Feb) 
The Renaissance 
The Great Discoveries 
The Reformation 
Royal Absolutism 
Scientific Revolution 
The Enlightenment 

The Modern Age 
(22 Feb – 5 April) 
Conrad, Heart of Darkness 

The Modern Age 
(22 Feb – 5 April) 
Kierkegaard¸ Fear and Trembling 
Mill, Utilitarianism 
Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morals 

The Modern Age 
(22 Feb – 5 April) 
The French Revolution & Napoleon 
Liberalism & Conservativism 
Industrial Revolution & Marxism 
Dickens, Hard Times 
Rise of Nation-States 
Imperialism 
World Wars 

 

 

Contact

Humanities Colloquium
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