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Browse materialsMIT 21L.002-2 · Spring 2003

Foundations of Western Culture II: Renaissance to Modernity

Art: Gustave Doré, Gustave Doré, Illustration for John Milton’s “Paradise Lost“, 1866.…, 1866 · Public domain

Instructor: Prof. Alvin Kibel
Term: Spring 2003
Level: Undergraduate
What's inside: 1 reading · 12 other files · 3 web pages
Materials open: MIT OCW

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Source: MIT OpenCourseWare 21L.002-2 Foundations of Western Culture II: Renaissance to Modernity, Spring 2003, Prof. Alvin Kibel — original course page on ocw.mit.edu ↗. License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Study order: MIT's own listing order, section by section. Taken from MIT's published course files, downloaded from ocw.mit.edu on September 23, 2026. How RedLectern is built.

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MIT OpenCourseWare, Prof. Alvin Kibel, 21L.002-2 Foundations of Western Culture II: Renaissance to Modernity, Spring 2003.

License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · Edition: Spring 2003 · Open the original course on OCW ↗

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Foundations of Western Culture II: Renaissance to Modernity

Before you start

What's here, and what isn't

Not included here

Materials by section

Readings

Assignments

Lecture 1: Introduction. Machiavelli, excerpt from The Prince

Lecture 2: More: excerpt from Utopia Montaigne: Of Cannibals

Lecture 3: Montaigne: Of Repentance , Of Diversion , Of Conserving the Will

Lecture 4: Montaigne: excerpt from Of Experience Shakespeare, King Lear

Lecture 5: Shakespeare: King Lear

Lecture 6: Shakespeare: King Lear

Lecture 7: Excerpts from Hobbes: Leviathan

Lecture 8: Jonathan Swift: Gulliver’s Travels , IV

Lecture 9: Jonathan Swift: (concluded)

Lecture 10: Rousseau: On the Origins of Inequality

Lecture 11: Rousseau: (concluded)

Lecture 12: Wordsworth: Tintern Abbey ; excerpts from The Prelude

Lecture 13: Wordsworth: (concluded)

Lecture 14: Wordsworth: (concluded)

Lecture 15: Immanuel Kant: excerpt from The Metaphysical Foundation of Morals

Lecture 16: Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice

Lecture 17: Jane Austen (continued)

Lecture 18: Jane Austen (continued)

Lecture 19: Balzac: Père Goriot

Lecture 20: Balzac (continued)

Lecture 21: Balzac (continued)

Lecture 22: Friedrich Nietzsche, excerpts from The Geneology of Morals

Lecture 23: Nietzsche, (concluded)

Lecture 24: George Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara

Lecture 25: George Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara