The origin of western ideas and culture from Homer to Joyce

Humanities, Arts and Sciences The Basic Program of Liberal Education for Adults
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“The great books do not yield up their secrets to the immature . . .Most of the important things that human beings ought to understand cannot but comprehended in youth . . . To read the great books, if we read them at all, in childhood and youthand never read them again is never to understandthem.” Robert Maynard Hutchins

The Basic Program is a structured four-year curriculum of Socratic discussion-style classes in which students encounter the thought and literature which long constituted a liberal education, from Homer to Joyce. These works present a variety of perspectives on enduring human questions, such as,

• what is justice and how can we best achieve it?
• What does it mean to live a good human life?
• What is truth, does it exist, how do we find it?

All classes are discussion-style; students, led by an experienced and knowledgeable instructor, uncover and interpret the texts for themselves. Through guided close reading of classic works and rich, lively discussions with other reflective adults, Basic Program students gain insight into the origin of western ideas and culture, discover deep resonances in human experience across centuries, and wrestle with provocative challenges to our modern ways of thinking. Classes are noncredit (though CPDU credits are available); a Certificate in the Liberal Arts is granted upon completion of two and four years.You might also be interested in our new four-year certificate program in Asian Classics. For more information on that program, click here. View course listings:1st-Year Classes 2nd-Year Classes 3rd-Year Classes 4th-Year Classes Alumni Courses First Friday Lectures Open House Open to all! Summer Courses (Open to all!) Weekend Study Retreat Works of the Mind Lectures