Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) had by any measure one of the most profound minds of all time. His friend, the poet Schiller, said of Goethe that "Nature has endowed him more generously than anyone since Shakespeare." Although Goethe is well known as one of the world's foremost poets and dramatists, his place in science has been inadequately appreciated. Goethe developed the basic principles of morphology, the branch of biological science which deals with the form and structure of animals and plants. It was Goethe who is given credit for naming this science from the Greek word "morphe," meaning "form," and "logos," meaning "active principles of." While botanists and anatomists had been occupied in analysis, striving to distinguish separate parts, and give them distinct names, Goethe's poetic and philosophical mind urged him to seek the supreme synthesis, and reduce all diversities to a higher unity. His scientific research led to the discovery that all plants are variations of one primitive type, and that nearly all parts of a plant are variations or developments of the leaf. Goethe is to German culture as Shakespeare is to ours. The thrust of this course will be to become familiar with the life and philosophy of Goethe by reading his biography and selected aphorisms. Not only will the student gain a great understanding of the wisdom of Goethe, he or she will enhance spiritual self knowledge.

The end of June in 1787, found the Constitutional Convention, the meeting called to set the official course for the new nation, mired in disunity and indecision that threatened the whole project with failure. In one of the final public appearances of his life, Benjamin Franklin asked the delegates why they had not till then "once thought of humbly appealing to the Father of Lights to illuminate our understanding," and suggested daily prayers for the sessions. "The longer I live," he explained,

The Bhagavad Gita, the "Song of the Lord" is considered the most important, the most influential and the most luminous of all the Hindu scriptures. The Gita ranks without question with the greatest of Humankind's artistic, philosophical and religious works. Gandhi based his daily life on the Gita from his 20s on. Any sincere spiritual seeker of whatever path or religion will gain a great deal from its study. One's own tradition can be greatly enhanced and better understood by the encounter of a very different age and mode of thought. These scriptures will confirm and strengthen the sense of truth and the feeling for truth with regard to the supersensible (Spiritual) world. Its 700 stanzas distill the finest in India's vast and varied Vedic culture. The Vedas (meaning gnostic knowledge) are believed by Hindus to be based on direct knowledge of God and stem from a very ancient oral tradition that even predates the beginnings of Egyptian civilization. Our purpose in this course is to look at the culmination of this wisdom in the Gita and recognize its usefulness to us today.

In Greek mythology, Prometheus was the demi-god who stole fire from Olympus and gave it (and with it the beginnings of civilization) to Humankind. Zeus was so angered by this theft that he had Prometheus chained to Mount Caucasus where a vulture tore at his liver every day. For thousands of years civilization's great benefactor suffered until Hercules killed the vulture and set Prometheus free. In a transformed manner Beethoven's life and music are a recapitulation of this archetypal story. Beethoven was able to capture the "music of the spheres" and bring it within the province of Humanity, just as Prometheus did with fire. In studying his music and life we actually attune ourselves to much broader issues: the essential spiritual nature of all music; the role of sacrifice and an altruistic motive in creativity; the relationship between suffering and achievement in the personality of the artist himself; how music can be used to spiritualize Humanity; and what kind of music does this. This course will focus on the revolutionary nature of Beethoven, his spiritual growth, and how his music relates to the modern ego. Students will read Beethoven by W.N. Sullivan and listen to the Hammerclavier Sonata, the Symphony no. 3 and the Quartet for Strings, opus 131 in c# minor.

Dante Alighieri, the author of one of the world's great masterpieces, the Divine Comedy, was born in Florence, Italy in May 1265 and died in exile in Ravenna in 1321. To reach as many of his contemporaries as possible he wrote in the vernacular Italian rather than in Latin, the language of the Church and the educated. His great epic poem became immensely popular - with the invention of the printing press almost 400 Italian editions were published. Many great artists were inspired, including Botticelli, Michelangelo, Blake, Dore and composers Rossini, Schumann and List. There have been many notable translations into English including those by Longfellow, and in the 20th century, Dorothy L. Sayers. Although we learn these facts in school, how many of us know anything more about this great poem or understand it. In addition to being a great story, Dante's The Divine Comedy has important psychological and spiritual dimensions which can be appreciated today. Special attention will be paid to Paradiso as a description of self-actualization. Students will read this great masterpiece in its entirety.

When we observe the sun rise from the East, watch it move across the sky and then see it set on the horizon to the West, what do our senses tell us? The sun has made a semi-circle around us and the earth. The earth appears motionless and the sun seems to move. How is it then that we, along with most other Human Beings, believe that, contrary to these simple observations, it is the earth that rotates around the sun, not the reverse? Also we have learned that the earth rotates itself on its axis and is not stationary. Related to this modern perception is that most of us believe that the world is spherical. It is taken as a joke now that anyone would think the earth is flat. How could people have every believed that the world had ends to it? It is very hard to put yourself into another person's mind. It is even harder when that person lived hundreds of years ago. But people used to be brought up with completely different beliefs about themselves and the world that also seemed to conform to common perception: A round world seemed to require some people to live upside down, which seemed totally absurd. The point to the above is that what we see with our senses is not necessarily what we believe. Conversely what we believe is not necessarily what we see, but very often we believe it anyway. The focus of this course will be to discover the relationship between truth and science. Through a review of the history of science students will be able to distinguish between theory, belief and knowledge. Insights will be offered concerning the nature of reality. Reading will consist of two books: Catching the Light by Arthur Zajonc and Quantum Questions by Ken Wilbur. Questions and thoughts follow the course guide which requires written response. This course requires no prior learning but does require the ability to think clearly and in an unprejudiced manner. [Andrew Flaxman]

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The soul is traditionally defined as the part of the Human Being that thinks, feels, and makes the body act. Many religions teach that in death the soul and the body become separated, and the soul lives forever. The word "spirit," although used very often as a synonym today for "soul," implies even more the immaterial part of man as distinct from the body. Beginning with the second half of the eighteenth century, the word "ego," meaning "I" in Latin, came to be used more and more by philosophers and psychologists to denote man's self, his individual being, so much so that one could characterize the last century and a half as the age of the ego. By use of the word ego rather than soul or spirit we have been able to obscure any sense that we are not merely our bodies and that we have a place in the "Elysian Fields." The ego has become only that part of us that "clings to the world with the tentacles of its senses." The words we use reflect our consciousness. Losing our sense of body, soul, and spirit, we now consider ourselves only that aspect immediately available to our conscious, bodily self-awareness. This loss of awareness of our other self has led to viewing man as an animal. The animal, with feelings but no self-conscious awareness, has no ego. In contrast, the Human Being has an ego which can view itself in a very limited manner if it so chooses. Students will be exposed to their own sense of self through two great pieces of literature: The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy. Emphasis will be on the dangers inherent in becoming stuck in the "lower self."

Have you ever sensed a power in yourself which seemed bigger than you are? Have you occasionally found yourself in a flow where everything seemed to be turning out just right - the lights turned green, the elevator doors opened just as you got there - the hands in the poker game kept coming up with full houses and royal flushes? Have you risen to some occasion, and performed some feat and then felt amazed - pleased, but like you didn't really do it - something in you just took over and did it through you? Have you experienced a moment of total awe and rapture looking at some panoramic view, and felt totally at peace, and at "one with life"? Likely you have had one, or all of these kinds of experiences. The well-known humanistic psychologist, Abraham Maslow referred to events like these as "peak experiences" - moments in life that stand out as notable in some very special way. I know I have had such experiences. Like me, you probably wished that your whole life could be like this - that you would always experience yourself and your life as powerful, blissful, flowing and magical! But alas - as happened for Cinderella at the stroke of twelve, the magic we experienced disappeared as quickly as it appeared, and once again, we found ourselves in our "tatters" - our everyday "normal" existence.

Here is a child-like riddle which can only be solved by a grown-up: What do we use most in daily life yet never see and barely, if ever, are aware of? As you try to puzzle this out, you are in fact automatically making use of just what the riddle is about - THINKING! And the way you see, or adjudge, or explain the rightness of that answer is through your THINKING about it! Only your THINKING can explain your own thinking - in fact, only your thinking can explain anything to you. And yet, our own thinking is one of the least understood aspects of ourselves. Very likely, the thinking we constantly use and on which we rely from opening our eyes in the morning to falling asleep at night, that very thinking which we identify with our own conscious self, our "State of mind," is what poses the greatest mystery to each of us, even to people who consider themselves experts on human nature. Moreover, if we are not conscious of what thinking really is or how it functions, we are in danger of under-using it, misusing it, and abusing it, thereby forsaking a fuller, more conscious life that could be ours. Popular wisdom in an old proverb calls attention to how urgent a matter is the quality of our thinking: "Sow a thought, reap a deed; Sow a deed, reap a habit; Sow a habit, reap a character; Sow a character, reap a destiny." Whether lucid, sloppy, penetrating, narrow, or confused, thinking can lead to what we do (DEEDS), how we live (HABITS), the kind of personality we develop (CHARACTER), and ultimately the very pattern of our biography (DESTINY). As we sow, or think, then so shall we reap! Our thinking has consequences, it seems: Man is not merely what he eats, as the earthy would have us believe, he is also what, and how, he thinks. Goethe once said that thinking about thinking would make one grow mad.

What can history teach us about the justification of violence? Barbara Tuchman, the late popular historian, was skeptical of our ability to learn from history. The epilogue of her book, The March of Folly, is entitled, "A Lantern on the Stern," suggesting that history can tell us of the follies of the past, but is not too helpful in leading us to a wiser future. Thucydides seems to be equally skeptical when he begins his great History of the Peloponnesian War by "hoping that his study will be judged useful by those who want to understand clearly the events which happened in the past and which (human nature being what it is) will be repeated in the future." Why do political leaders throughout history resort to violence and war so often even when it is contrary to their own enlightened self-interest? How is it that wisdom does not seem to prevail in decision making?

Today it is considered an axiom that history repeats itself. Does this mean that each of us has to repeat this same history? This course suggests that within the framework of recapitulation, it is possible and even compelling to use the lessons of history to help to transform human nature. Even though it appears that history repeats itself, human nature does not remain static. It is history itself that is the transforming tool of those who will learn from it. Perhaps the most important lesson that can be learned from history is when, if ever, is violence justified? "The lantern on the stern" can become a beacon to enlighten the path to a better future. To accomplish this we need a philosophy of history that will give us a framework upon which to make individual decisions and applications. Secondly, we need concrete examples from which we can learn about the folly of the resort to violence.