Welcome to the Honors Humanities class page!  This course is going to be great!  We will be taking a whirlwind tour through the Western world, beginning with the ancient Egyptians and ending in Reformation-era Europe.  The belief systems, governments, artistic and technological developments, and literatures of these cultures form the basis of the Western world as we know it. From their experiences and discoveries we developed our arts, governments, philosophies, and cultural norms.  It really is amazing to discover the connections we didn’t even know we had!

This dual credit course is in interdisciplinary study of literature, philosophy, the visual arts, and music in Western civilization from the ancient to the early modern periods.  This course covers the ancient Egyptian world through 1650 in ONE semester, so we move quickly!  Primary source readings help us focus our attention on the major developments in this wide range of dates.  Come ponder Plato, Socrates, St. Augustine, and Erasmus; wonder at the works of Praxiteles, Brunelleschi, Da Vinci, Bosch, and van Eyck. Consider how the rediscovery of classical ideas led to Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, and ancient Roman engineering led to the cathedrals of France.  Ask yourself how and why the the calendar and social structure of ancient Egypt is like our own…and how Dante’s organization of hell influenced the belief systems of today! Thinkers only, please!

If you need to reach me for any reason, please use email: ahicks@mths.us.

NOTE: This course can be taken as either an English elective or an Art elective.  The course can also be taken for ICC college credit (HUM 123).

Students wanting to take the course must score an 81 or better on the ICC COMPASS test OR a 19 or better on the English portion of the ACT.