First Wave

Leo Strauss and the Three Waves of Modernity

An introduction to Leo Strauss's categorization of the "Three Waves of Modernity". 

Machiavelli and the First Wave of Modernity

A lecture on the "modern revolution" in thinking that occurred ca 1500 CE. A brief overview of the Medieval worldview is presented in order to highlight the order that was overturned by the moderns. Some of the historical factors contributing to the modern revolution are enumerated: linear perspective in painting, the fall of Constantinople, Gutenberg's Bible, the Voyages of Discovery, modern warfare, Luther's 95 Theses, and the Copernican revolution. The notion of "Three Waves of Modernity", as articulated by Leo Strauss, is briefly presented. Finally, the philosophy of Machiavelli is summarized as a way of understanding the modern shift in thinking. For instance, war is no longer judged as the "right" course of action if it is in accordance with a Providential design (the Medieval view); rather, war is judged as the right course of action if it advances the overall "human designs" of the Machiavellian leader.

 Locke and the First Wave of Modernity

Part of an undergraduate course on the history of the "Self" in Western literature, it includes lecture notes on the modern revolution in thinking, including an overview of the Straussian interpretation of modernity as having "three waves". Locke's epistemology is explored as forming the foundation of the conception of the self within this first wave of modernity.

The Renaissance: An Introduction

An introduction to Renaissance literature, including a discussion of the broader historical context of the Renaissance (humanism, the Reformation, the printing press etc.) as well as the historical context of the Renaissance in England (the War of the Roses, Tudor rule, the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages). The lecture also includes a discussion of literary forms in the Renaissance as well as the Renaissance synthesis of art and truth in the contradistinction to the Platonic critique of poetry -- namely in Sir Philip Sidney's Defence of Poetry.

Elizabethan Sonnets: Sidney's Astrophil and Stella

The lecture begins with an introduction to the context of Elizabethan sonnet sequences, including discussions of the courtly love tradition, Neo-Platonism, and Petrarchan sonnets.  The lecture concludes with and an analysis of Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophil and Stella.