Leader: Dr. Reno Lauro

Dates: June 13 - June 29

Days: Tuesdays and Thursdays

Times: 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm (AZ), 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm (CDT)

Cost: $125

View Syllabus

What does it mean for a classical school to posit the knowability of the cosmos and the power of human reason, yet also to strive to cultivate the moral imagination through literature? In this course, we will explore philosophical realism in the Western tradition through seminal figures such as Aquinas, Descartes, and Heidegger. The course primarily deals with questions of First Philosophy, where Metaphysics and Epistemology constitute the family of inquiries central to our course: What is reality and how do we know it? What is the population of reality? Is all reality material? Finally, we will explore 20th century attempts to reclaim a classical understanding of literature (and the real) by T.S. Eliot, J.R.R. Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis. Our aim is to enliven the synthetic relationship among English-language arts, math, and science curricula in a classical classroom.

Required Texts:

Thomas Aquinas: Basic Philosophical Writing: From the Summa Theologiae and The Principles of Nature. (Broadview Press)

Rene Descarte.  Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy, 4th Ed. (Hackett)

Martin Heidegger.  Basic Concepts.  (Indiana UP)