Plato in Berlin
Knowledge, Mathematics, Politics, and Art in the Republic
June 20-July 25, 2015 in Berlin Germany
The seminar is taught by Benjamin Morison, professor of philosophy, with the participation of faculty from Humboldt University.
This 14-student 300-level seminar will examine all aspects of the Republic, drawing on Berlin’s rich historical and cultural heritage as a means of contextualizing and dramatizing the theories within. Over the course of five weeks, students will read all 10 books of the Republic and confront a range of philosophical questions about justice, truth, knowledge, and art. Classes will held at Humboldt University. German language skills are not required.
Some activities tied to the seminar include:
- Tour of the heart of Berlin
- Meetings and activities with Humboldt students
- Visits to the Pergamon Museum to visit its extraordinary collection of antiquities from Greece and Rome and the Berlin Jewish Museum
- Walking tours of the architectural legacy of Nazism and important historical sites and the architecture of Berlin's Communist past
- Guest lectures from Humboldt University faculty: Jonathan Beere, on the mathematics and geometry involved in the education of the Philosopher and Jacob Rosen, on City-Soul Analogy
- Approximately 70 hours of classroom time throughout the five week seminar
- Day trip to Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum