| Instructors | K. Beerden, MPhil & dr. F.G. Naerebout | |
| ECTS | 10 | |
| Level | 500 | |
| Semester | 1st semester | |
| Schedule | see below | |
| Language | English | |
| Method | Seminar (every student will be expected to present several short presentations of preliminary findings) | |
| Examination | Compulsory attendance, short presentations, and paper | |
| Website | This site and a discussion site (see below); sitemap | |
| Enrollment | U-TWIST |
Back to the future! What does the future hold for us? Humans think, or worry, quite often about their own future, and the world’s. And they also think about how the future actually works: what is it, is it predestined, can we influence it, and many more such questions. In the ancient world they had a future to contemplate as well. Thoughts, concerns, and actions related to the future were important aspects of life in the ancient world. The individual worried, among others, about crises, that were both collective (war, famine, disease) and individual (childlessness, business worries, love matters), that might come one day, or were already at hand. But one could also hope for something better. The future could be very threatening – or promising.
In this seminar we address several topics, starting with the ways in which the future was perceived, and moving on to the relationship between future and the individual, questions concerning predicting and controlling the future, and also issues of innovation and progress (here one may think of inventions or rites-de-passage, or thought about change). The overriding question is: how did ancient men and women resolve their concerns about the future? Answers to this question are still relevant today.
Insight into preceptions of time and ways to study them. Enhanced performance in the following areas: research skills, composition skills, presentation skills, the ability to evaluate the findings of other researchers.
For a extensive list of relevant titles: literature.
For the entry exam all should read: G.E.R. Lloyd, The ambitions of curiosity: understanding the world in Ancient Greece and China (Cambridge 2002).
Students must attend all meetings and read the prescribed book, give a few
short presentations and in addition to this they should write a paper with a
minimum size of 7500 words. The deadline for all papers is December 20, 2009.
Papers should deal with a number of central issues which have been outlined in
a general survey of subjects.
All seminars are taught on Tuesday evenings, 18.45-20.15
Also see the detailed schedule.
The seminar will conclude with a small one-day symposium. For further information, refer to the symposium page.
with K. Beerden and F.G. Naerebout