Human Being and Citizen I
Course Code
HUMA 12300 10
Course Description
The course in this sequence explores the ways that ancient literary, philosophical, and religious texts (from the Greek, Mesopotamian, and Abrahamic traditions) conceive of, express ideals about, and articulate tensions in conceptions of human and divine law and justice, affective life, human striving, and the human being as such.
Texts include the Epic of Gilgamesh, Homer's Iliad, the book of Genesis, dialogues of Plato, and Sophocles' Antigone.
Course Criteria
This course is only open to incoming UChicago transfer students. Please visit the Summer Session Incoming Transfer Students page to apply.
This course must be taken alongside HUMA 12400, Human Being and Citizen II, as well as an afternoon writing course that runs August 3-September 11, 2026 (no class September 7).
Instructor(s)
Staff
Other Courses to Consider
These courses might also be of interest.
- Human Being and Citizen II
In this course in this sequence, we examine conceptions of the human good in connection with practices of the self as they pertain to virtue, the social order, spiritual beliefs and practices, and community.
We ask what constitutes human flourishing and explore relations and tensions between individual self-formation and the social and political good.
Texts include Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Augustine's Confessions, and Dante's Inferno.
Residential