Description
Instructor(s)/Supervisor(s)/Coordinator(s): Joshua DERMANCan knowledge of the past help to predict the future? What kinds of lessons can be learned from history? What is the value of history for life, anyway? This course investigates both the philosophical and practical issues associated with studying the past in order to make judgments about the future. The course adopts an interdisciplinary perspective that draws from history, philosophy, political science, sociology, grand strategy, psychology, and physics. Readings include Thucydides, Han Fei, Hegel, Clausewitz, Weber, Arendt, and Nietzsche, as well as contemporary literature on chaos theory, comparative politics, historical sociology, and cliodynamics.