Course Readings
To get a start on the course readings, please read the opening chapter of the Leviathan; fifteen or twenty pages of the Eikon Basilike; John Donne's Satyre: Of Religion (and review of any other Donne poems from Gardner's The Metaphysical Poets that you are familiar with;) and by all means get a acclimatising start on Book One of Milton's Paradise Lost.
As you read these pages, let me encourage you to see them for their polemical delights. The approach that we'll be taking this term is to see Hobbes and Milton in particular as two people who are more aware than is good for their humility that they are superlative writers with peerless intellects and who, having axes to grind and oxen to gore, are having great glee in making a louder din and leaving a bloodier mess than is possible for lesser mortals.
In short, Hobbes and Milton are a pair of belligerents -- & we get to share in their battles.
As you read these pages, let me encourage you to see them for their polemical delights. The approach that we'll be taking this term is to see Hobbes and Milton in particular as two people who are more aware than is good for their humility that they are superlative writers with peerless intellects and who, having axes to grind and oxen to gore, are having great glee in making a louder din and leaving a bloodier mess than is possible for lesser mortals.
In short, Hobbes and Milton are a pair of belligerents -- & we get to share in their battles.
posted by Dr. Stephen Ogden at
2:59 PM
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