LA 1002 First Principles
Modern Liberal Arts
University of Winchester
Semester 1
Sept 2014
Room: MC107
Tutor: Rebekah Howes
First Principles
Week 1
We are all connected
Week 2
The Sound of Music (1)
Reading
Plato, (1997) Republic in Plato Complete Works, Indiana: Hackett Publishing Company
Plato (1997) The Laws in Plato Complete Works, Indiana: Hackett Publishing Company
Aristotle, Politics, in (1984) The Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume Two, Book VIII
chapters 5-7 New Jersey, Princeton University Press
Wider reading
Augustine (2005) Confessions, London: Penguin Classics Book X
Boethius (1989) Fundamentals of Music, London: Yale University Press
Augustine, St Augustine De Musica, London: The orthological Institute pp 107-20,
122-4
Pelosi, F. (2010) Plato on Music, Soul and Body, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press
Jaeger, W. (1986) Paideia, The Ideals of Greek Culture, Volume II, Oxford: Oxford
University Press pp211-230
Lippman, E. (1992) A History of Western Musical Aesthetics, Nebraska, University of
Nebraska Press,
Luchte, J. (2011) Pythagoras and the Doctrine of Transmigration: Wandering Souls,
London: Continuum
McClain, E.G. (1990) Myth of Invariance: The Origin of the Gods, Mathematics and
Music from the Rig Veda to Plato, MA: Hays (Nicolas) Ltd
McClain, E.G. (1990) Pythagorean Plato: Prelude to the Song Itself, MA: Hays (Nicolas)
Ltd
Week 3
The Sound of Music (2)
Reading
Bloom, A. (1987) The Closing of the American Mind, New York, Simon and Shuster
Paperbackspp68-88
Nietzsche, F. (2000) The Birth of Tragedy, New York, Oxford University Press, pp19-25,
86 – 90
Wider Reading
Barenboim, D. (2009) Everything is Connected, London, Phoenix
Bowie, A. (2007) Music, Philosophy, and Modernity, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press
Came, D. (2014) Nietzsche on Art and Life, Oxford: Oxfrod Uni Press
Liebert, G. (2004) Nietzsche and Music, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Nietzsche, F. (2007) Twilight of the Idols, Hertfordshire, Wordsworth Editions Limited,
pp53-54
Week 4
Plato’s Timeaus (1)
Reading
Brisson, L &Meyerstein, F.W. (1995) Inventing the Universe, Albany: State University of
New York Press
Guthrie, W.K.C. (1978) A History of Greek Philosophy V. The Later Plato and the
Academy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Lindberg, D.C. (2007) The Beginnings of Western Science, Chicago: University of
Chicago Press
Lippman, E. (1992) A History of Western Musical Aesthetics Nebraska: University Press
Plato, (2008) Timeaus and Critias, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Wider reading
Broadie, S. (2014) Nature and Divinity in Plato's Timaeus, Cambridge: Cambridge Uni
Press
Diop, C. A. (1991) Civilization or Barbarism, New York: Lawrence Hill
Godwin, J. (1993) The Harmony of the Spheres, Rochester, Inner Traditions
International, pp. 60-63
Mohr, R.D. (2006) God and Forms in Plato: And Other Essays in Plato's Metaphysics,
Nevada: Parmenides
Oliver, S. (2013) Philosophy, God and Motion, London: Routledge
Sattler, B.M. (2010) One book, the whole universe: Plato's Timaeus today, Nevad,
Parmenides Press
Sorabji, R. (1983) Time, Creation and the Continuum. Theories in Antiquity and the
Early Middle Ages, Chicago: Chicago University Press
Wright, M.R. (1995) Cosmology in Antiquity, New York: Routledge, pp. 3-6, 56-7.
Week 5 ‘All things known have number'
Reading
Ferguson, K. (2008) Pythagoras, His Lives and the Legacy of the Universe, New York:
Walker
Publishing Company, Inc.
Ficino, M (1996) Meditations on the Soul, Rochester: Inner Traditions International
Hegel, G.W.F. (2004) Hegel's Philosophy of History Oxford: Oxford University Press
Hegel, G.W.F. (1974) Hegel's Aesthetics Oxford: Clarendon Press
Wider reading
Fine, G. (1999) Plato 2: ethics, politics, religion and the soul, Oxford: Oxford Uni Press
Fauvel, J. Flood, R. and Wilson, R. (2003) Music and Mathematics, Oxford: Oxford
University Press
Heller-roazen, Daniel, (2011) The Fifth Hammer-Pythagoras and the Disharmony of
the world,Massachusetts: MIT Press
Joost-Gaugier, C.L. (2007) Measuring Heaven: Pythagoras and His Influence on
Thought and Art in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, New York: Cornell University Press
McClain, E.G. (1990) Myth of Invariance: The Origin of the Gods, Mathematics and
Music from the Rig Veda to Plato, MA: Hays (Nicolas) Ltd
McClain, E.G. (1990) Pythagorean Plato: Prelude to the Song Itself, MA: Hays (Nicolas)
Ltd
Mohr, R.D. (2006) God and Forms in Plato: And Other Essays in Plato's Metaphysics,
Nevada: Parmenides
Weil, S. (1998) Intimations of Christianity Among the Greeks, London: Routledge,
chapter XI
.
Week 6
Harmony of the Spheres
Reading
Macrobius (1952) Commentary on the Dream of Scipio, New York: Columbia
University Press
Plato (1987) The Republic London: Penguin
Wider reading
Fine, G. (1999) Plato 2: ethics, politics, religion and the soul, Oxford: Oxford Uni Press
Jamie, J. (1994) The music of the spheres: music, science and the natural order of the
universe, London: Abacus
Godwin, J. (1999) The Harmony of the Spheres Rochester: Inner Traditions
International
Macrobius (1952) Commentary on the Dream of Scipio, New York: Columbia
University Press pp69-75, pp189-200
Milton, J. (1998) John Milton: The Complete Works London: Penguin
Mohr, R.D. (2006) God and Forms in Plato: And Other Essays in Plato's Metaphysics,
Nevada: Parmenides
Shakespeare (1993) The Merchant of Venice, Oxford: University Press
Stephenson, B. (2014) The Music of the Heavens: Kepler's Harmonic Astronomy,
Princeton University Press
Vlastos, G. (2006) Plato’s Universe, Nevada: Parmenides Press
Week 7
Philosophy and the Fear of Death
Reading
Lucretius. 1975. On the Nature of Things. Translated by W.H.D Rouse. Harvard
University Press.
Wider Reading
Diogenes Laertius. 1925. Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Volume 2. Translated by R.D.
Hicks. Harvard University Press. Bk 10: Epicurus
Greenblatt, Stephen. 2012. The Swerve: How the World Became Modern. Vintage.
Jones, Howard. 1992. The Epicurean Tradition. Routledge.
Nussbaum, Martha. 2009. The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic
Ethics. Princeton University Press.
Pullman, Bernard. 1998. The Atom in the History of Human Thought. Oxford University
Press.
Santayana, George. 2013. Three Philosophical Poets: Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe.
HardPress Publishing.
Week 8
Gods, Atoms and the Swerve
Reading
Lucretius. 1975. On the Nature of Things. Translated by W.H.D Rouse. Harvard
University Press.
Week 9
Pleasure, Love and Tranquility
Reading
Lucretius. 1975. On the Nature of Things. Translated by W.H.D Rouse. Harvard
University Press.
Week 10
Modern rhetoric
Reading
Jaeger, W. (1945) Paideia Volume 1, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Wider reading
Whittaker, A. Speeches That Shaped the Modern World
Week 11
The curriculum of First Principles: The seven liberal arts
Reading
The Trivium
Stahl, W.H. (1977) MartianusCapella and the Seven Liberal Arts, volume II The
Marriage of Philology and Mercury, New York: Columbia University Press.
Wagner, D.L. (1983) The Seven Liberal Arts in the Middle Ages, Bloomington: Indiana
Press.
Augustine, (2009) On Christian Doctrine, New York: Dover Publications (available
athttp://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/ipb-e/epl-ag.html)
The Quadrivium
Stahl, W.H. (1977) MartianusCapella and the Seven Liberal Arts, volume II The Marriage of
Philology and Mercury, New York: Columbia University Press.
Wagner, D.L. (1983) The Seven Liberal Arts in the Middle Ages, Bloomington: Indiana Press.
Ball, J. (2009) Mathmagicians, London: DK.
Boethius, (2006) Boethian Number Theory, Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Diop, CA, (1991) Civilization or Barbarism, New York, Lawrence Hill, pp. 231, 236-7, 275-6,
279
Wider reading
Abelson, P. (1906) The Seven Liberal Arts: A Study in Medieval Culture, New York:
Teachers College.
Isidore of Seville, (2005) Etymologies, Vermont: Medieval MS.
Ridder-Symoens, H. de (1992) A History of The University in Europe, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Godwin, J. (1993) The Harmony of the Spheres, Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions.
Calter, P. A. (2008) Squaring the Circle, New York: Key College Publishing.
Michell, J. (2008)The Dimensions of Paradise, Rochester: Inner Traditions.
Joseph, S. M. (2002) The Trivium, Philadelphia: Paul Dry Books.
Golden Ratio websites:
http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/emat6680/dunbar/Assignment12/fibonacci_KD.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hvD5kLqjuw
http://www.goldennumber.net/music/
http://www.bgfl.org/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/music/piano/
http://www.math.vt.edu/people/gao/math/godensection/#violin
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/nstv/2012/06/what-the-golden-ratio-sounds-like.html
http://goldenratiocalculator.com/
Assessment
Your first essay is due in to Catherine on Friday October 24th (Week 5)
Title: ‘Examine your own tastes in music with reference to Plato, Nietzsche and
Bloom’ (1750 words)
Assignment 2:
1. 'Harmony in the ancient world: being, becoming and the world soul'
2. 'Harmony in the ancient world: maths, music and the world soul'
Due into Catherine on Thursday 11th December (Week 12)