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THE HUMANITIES PROGRAMS
Graduate and Undergraduate
Humanities and Freedom
The Humanities programs offered by Cambridge College are
inspired by a single principle, namely, that all genuine teaching
and learning are dependent on the freedom of the human soul.
This freedom, although ours by nature, is often hidden from us by the need to acquire the knowledge from the past, our cultural inheritance, and to join the conventions of a very complex society. This acquisition is necessary but its very quantity and grandeur requires it to be imposed, and, all too often, we do not have the time or opportunity to reflect on the intellectual and other conventions, to meditate upon them and to evaluate them. This means that they will have mastered us, rather than that we will have mastered them. But the latter is necessary, if we are to be our own person, if we are to fulfill our nature in a satisfying manner.
Cambridge College takes human freedom for granted. It is a power we all have just by being human, and regardless of race, age, gender, nationality, or culture. The Humanities begin with a vision of what is human.
Human freedom can be understood—that is, witnessed, observed, experienced—in two different ways. Broadly speaking, one is externally, the other internally; or, one is objective, the other subjective.
The external way, the objective way, is by an examination of the major achievements of the past, primarily, but not exclusively, in the written works of former thinkers. As Shelley said: Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world. Poets, that is, all writers, have shaped both our world and the way we think and feel about it. By carefully reading and exploring the great texts, the freedom which their authors exercised, the ways in which they wrote, the meaning they gave to what they wrote, can all become living examples for ourselves.
The internal, or subjective way, is by a realization that words and things do not have meaning in themselves; at best, what we usually call the meaning is imposed upon them by the conventions of our particular culture, that is, they are not inherent. The meaning of words and deeds comes from ourselves; that meaning does not exist but is brought into being and imposed by us, as free agents, upon what we say and what we do. As we come to realize this, inwardly, we assume responsibility for the meaning of our lives and become the true origin of our own intellectual and moral existence.
For Graduate and Undergraduate Programs details see over.
Cambridge College, 1000 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
Humanities and Freedom GRADUATE Program
Begun in 2005, the Graduate Program consists, basically, of two summers of five weeks each during which students take the following courses:
10 lectures on the nature of the Humanities in general
5 guest lectures on various specific aspects of the Humanities
15 seminars on the lectures.
3 regular courses in either literature or history, each of approx.
20 contact hours
20 hours of hands-on, experiential work in the Arts
There are a total of 12 credit hours each summer. For those wanting 15 credit hours an additional special Humanities Essay may be submitted for 3 credits, due next semester.
A Master’s degree with a concentration in Humanities (either Literature or History) requires 30 credit hours, made up of two summers (12 hours each) plus two Essays (3 hours each). A student may also elect to take just 12 or 15 credit hours for professional development purposes.
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Humanities and Freedom UNDERGRADUATE Program
Beginning in the Fall of 2006, Cambridge College will offer an Undergraduate Program in the Humanities, leading either to a Bachelor of Arts degree or to a Concentration in the Humanities. The degree will include a requirement of 48 credit hours in the Humanities, and the Concentration will require 24 credit hours.
Students will be expected to take the Cambridge College common core or general education courses (for 21 credit hours) plus an additional 39 credit hours of electives to fulfill the established 60 credit hours in General Education.
The Humanities courses (mandatory, and for which no transfer will be permitted) are characterized by being structured in pairs, or as parallel courses, so that, for example, in Literature, The Western Epic will be paired with The Eastern Epic; in History, The History of Freedom will be paired with The History of Slavery; in Philosophy, Change and Permanence in Western Philosophy will be paired with Change and Permanence in Eastern Philosophy.
These are but examples, but the general principle should be clear. Every course will be balanced by another course of different perspective, subject, or origin, and degree students will take eight pairs of courses, simultaneously or consecutively.
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For further information please call 800.877.4723
View public seminar information and schedule here |
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