The Core Cirriculum

By Arthur J. Monaco and Matthew Soldo | Wednesday, May 1, 1996

"See human beings as though they were in an underground cave-like dwelling with its entrance, a long one, open to the light across the whole width of the cave. They are in it from childhood with their legs and necks in bonds so that they are fixed, seeing only in front of them, unable because of the bond to turn their heads all the way around."

—Plato, The Republic

Columbia's Core Curriculum program is unparalleled among America's top institutions. Originally devised in 1919 as the college's response to the horrors of the first World War, the curriculum has survived while other universities have abandoned core requirements. The Core at Columbia requires students to take two year-long courses, Literature Humanities and Contemporary Civilization, and two semester long courses, Art Humanities and Music Humanities. Also required are two courses with a non-Western focus.

Originally a war-and-peace course, Contemporary Civilizations helps students 'to understand the civilization of their own day and to participate effectively in it' [Columbia University Bulletin, 1995]. Developed in 1919, its intent was to give students a background in social, intellectual, and political history and it has developed into an interdisciplinary philosophy course. Professors are drawn from a number of fields, rather than one specific department. One Columbia student described it as 'the core of the Core.'

The course moves topically through various time periods. The fall term begins with the "Greco-Roman" period: Plato's Republic and Aristotle's Politic. The "Jewish, Christian and Islamic Legacies" follow. Students read the Bible and works by Aquinas and Muslim writers. The third unit deals with the "Renaissance and Reformation" wherein Calvin, Machiavelli, and others are read. The semester comes to a close with "New Science and New Philosophy": Gallileo, Bacon, Descartes, and Hobbes.

The spring semester begins with the "Enlightenment and Moral Philosophy." Rousseau and Hume are some of the authors surveyed. The course then moves into the topic of "State, Society, and Individual," including Jefferson, John Mill, and the Federalist Papers. Third are the 'New Economic' writers such as Adam Smith, Marx, and Engels. Darwin is studied individually, before the course moves into the nineteenth century's "Construction of Nation, Imperialism and Race": de Tocqueville, Douglas, Kant, and Nietzsche. Finally, a section dealing with "Gender Construction" is studied, covering de Beauvoir and Sartre, among others.

Contemporary Civilization exposes the student to the entire span of Western philosophical thought. This is imitated in the respective fields of the other three core courses. The Literature Humanities Course, designed in 1937, examines the Western tradition of literature. Generally taken during the freshman year, the course is now taught in 52 sections.

Students begin with the Iliad and the Odyssey. Building upon this foundation, students continue with Homer's Hymn to Demeter, the Oedipus cycle, Euripides' the Bacchae, Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato's Symposium, the Bible, Virgil's Aeneid, Shakespeare's King Lear, Dante's Divine Comedy and Human Comedy, Augustine, Boccaccio, Montaigne, Don Quixote, Goethe, and Virginia Woolf. Professors conclude with one or two authors of their choice, usually minority authors who draw upon the works the students have examined.

A complement to these books is provided by the Art and Music Humanities course. Students are exposed to other products of Western culture, not just literary works. These courses begin their study with Greek art and Gregorian chants. They then chart the course of these forms during the following two millennia. The courses focus on the role of visual and performing arts in Western civilization and how art has been both a reflection of and an influence upon our history.

The value of Columbia's Core Curriculum program lies in the view a student receives of the entire body of work from one culture. This is why the Western Canon was selected. America was founded on Western ideals. By studying the uninterrupted body of Western thought, every Columbia student has a common bank of knowledge. He can draw on this knowledge throughout his Columbia education, whether he specializes in English, physics, or computer science.

Dartmouth's method of providing a liberal education philosophically differs from Columbia's. Dartmouth utilizes a distributive system similar to Harvard's. Students chose any courses from within a number of prescribed areas. By carefully selecting courses of study they can read the same great authors as their Columbia counterparts. However, under Dartmouth's system, students can avoid many of the great books, either by chance or design.

The Core Cirriculum

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