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The Foundations of western civilization
The Teaching Company 美国最著名的大学教育课程制作公司之一，专门聘请世界一流大学的顶尖级教授讲授大学程度的各种课程，并推出课程的磁带，录像带，CD，DVD和学习手册，因注重学术性，教育性和娱乐性，符合终身学习的时代观念，在业界享有盛誉。由它推出的课程简称为TTC course。
Foundations of Western Civilization
(48 lectures, 30 minutes/lecture)
Course No. 370
From its humble beginnings in the great river valleys of Iraq and Egypt to the dawn of the modern world, discover the essential nature, evolution, and perceptions of Western civilization.
With these 48 lectures on the people, places, ideas, and events that make up
The Foundations of Western Civilization, award-winning scholar and teacher Thomas F. X. Noble of the University of Notre Dame invites you to explore "Western civilization."
Grasp History Over Thousands of Years and Vast Amounts of Territory
From the latter stages of the Agricultural Revolution to the doorstep of the Scientific Revolution, your learning in this course will cover the period from roughly 3000 B.C. to A.D. 1600, when the "foundations" of the modern West come into view.
Professor Noble's goal is to offer a history of what has been truly "foundational" across millennia in the West, that most unusual of world civilizations.
"Throughout the course, we will pause to reflect on where Western civilization finds its primary locus at any given moment," he says, "but Western civilization is much more than human and political geography.
"We will explore the myriad forms of political and institutional structures by means of which Western peoples have organized themselves and their societies. These include monarchies of several distinct types, as well as participatory republics.
"Looking at institutions will draw us to inquire about the Western tradition of political discourse. Who should participate in any given society? Why? How have societies resolved the tension between individual self-interest and the common good?"
Your learning will follow a set timeline and order to cover vast amounts of territory and thousands of years:
beginning in the ancient Near East and moving to Greece, then to Rome
exploring the shape and impact of large ancient empires, including those of Persia, Alexander the Great, and Rome
moving to Western Europe to watch Europe gradually expand physically and culturally
finally, examining the globalizations of Western civilization with the Portuguese and Spanish voyages of exploration and discovery.
Discover a Treasure of Rich Historical Detail
This course rewards the desire for useful generalization and theory. But it also highlights the telling detail on which history can turn. Professor Noble's guidance allows you to comprehend the ongoing presence of the Roman Empire, the ceaseless influence of a 20-year golden age in Athens, the living struggle between Abraham's three great religions, and much more.
Professor Noble seeks to delight the mind with the "aha!" experience: "That's why we do that!" "That's where that word came from!" "That's why those people won!" (In the last revelation, metals and horses figure more prominently than social virtues.)
And the course is a lavish treasure of rich detail. Examples:
The Greek Dark Ages (ca. 1100 to 700 B.C.) went "dark," at least in part, because the Greeks forgot how to write—the only people in human history known to have lost literacy after having once attained it.
The architects of the Parthenon, to achieve the optical illusion of perfect straightness, subtly angled the building's columns so that, if extended, they would meet a mile and a quarter above the temple's roof—over its exact center.
Although fewer than 200 actual books (including classical texts) survive from before the year 800, the 9th century—meaning the literate monastic establishment fostered by Charlemagne—has left us more than 6,000.
The city of Florence, at the height of the Renaissance, had no university. (This was compensated somewhat by Lorenzo de Medici, who was spending 50 percent of the city's annual budget on books for his Medicean Academy's library.)
Christopher Columbus, in what was perhaps a bit of "spin" from a practiced self-promoter, premised his plan for reaching the East Indies by sailing west partly on suppositions about the Earth's size that had been known to be false since Hellenistic times.
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