HIST 2170 Body, Mind, Spirit: The Understanding of the Self in Western Culture

'Who are you?' This question confronts everyone at some point in life.How you answer it is culturally determined, based on how you perceive the connection between yourself and the world you inhabit. In this course we will investigate how the understanding of the self has developed in Western culture, beginning with Ancient Near Eastern religious traditions and teh philosophical discourse of Ancient Greece, and looking at how this understanding has evolved and changed over time. Particular attention will be focused on the challenge to traditional notions of the self that emerged with the development with modern psychological and sociological models of the self.