The End(s) of History: Classic Texts and Existential Threats
Amy Thomas Elder & Charles Elder
What can the humanities teach us about a world confronting existential threats—and how we might respond to such a world? Conversely, how might the realities of the present change the way we read the defining works of the past?
UChicago Graham School End(s) of Humanity courses and events bring classic texts into conversation with urgent contemporary concerns—such as climate change, nuclear war, artificial intelligence—and thoughtful consideration of the impending—or actual—collapse of our natural, social, and political worlds. Rather than asking you to debate the facts of these threats or arrive at a particular response, these courses invite you to consider the meaning and significance of such threats: what they reveal about humanity, how they challenge our inherited ideas, and what is at stake in the choices we must now make, for ourselves and for all future generations.
Through these offerings, you will consider how foundational matters such as war, nature, history, politics, and human identity need to be reconsidered in light of our current historical situation. The aim is not simply to become more aware of contemporary crises, but to make them conscious—that is, to develop a deeper understanding of and appreciation for what is at stake in them. By reading classic texts in light of existential threats, and by bringing the fact of those threats to bear on your reading, you will be better able to comprehend the world and yourself, and be more able to integrate what we know with how we live.
All End(s) of Humanity Courses
Discussion Without Predetermined Answers
In these courses, you will explore questions of an unprecedented magnitude and scope—questions which put into doubt all that we have thought about the meaning and direction of the human career, questions for which there are and can be no definitive answers. The seminar environment and discussion format allows you to test interpretations, encounter perspectives beyond your own, and consider connections that cannot come from solitary reading and reflection or through the rapid exchange in online forums.
The conversations will inevitably be intellectually and personally challenging, but pursued within an environment of moral seriousness, shared commitment, and mutual support.
Rather than focusing on finding precepts, practical or moral, for what to do next, you will develop a practice of reading and reflection that you can carry beyond the classroom: a way of bringing your knowledge of classic texts to bear on the present and allowing the present to reshape your understanding of the human tradition, its history and its meaning.
Continue exploring this topic with access to a growing collection of articles and resources.
Instructors
Lin Atnip
Basic Program Instructor
Amy Thomas Elder
Claudia Traudt Distinguished Instructor in the Basic Program
Charles Elder
Basic Program Instructor
We’re reading classic texts in light of our contemporary situation of existential threats, and we’re thinking about how those classic texts help us comprehend that situation—and how the situation affects our reading of classic texts.
Amy Thomas Elder Claudia Traudt Distinguished Instructor in the Basic Program
All reading is situational, which means that we’re always reading from a given situation and toward those ends which our situation prescribes. As our situation changes, so our ends change. Because our current situation is both dire and unprecedented, we need now to radically reconsider the ends toward which read.
Charles Elder Basic Program Instructor
Frequently Asked Questions
Learn more about the Graham School’s End(s) of Humanity offerings.
What does End(s) of Humanity mean?
The title refers to two meanings of the word “end.” One is the possible termination of humanity. The other is humanity’s ends in the sense of its purposes, aspirations, hopes, and possibilities.
Studying the End(s) of Humanity means considering both what it would mean to bring the human career to an abrupt and catastrophic end and what human beings have historically sought to achieve through that career.
What topics might I explore?
Courses do not generally focus directly on existential threats, but rather engage in reflection on what is at stake in those threats. They will examine broader human themes such as nature, history, politics, war, justice, truth, goodness, and so forth, and consider how these themes must be reexamined in the current situation.
Specific offerings will vary, but each course asks you to reconsider enduring human questions in light of contemporary conditions.
Do these courses advocate a particular political position or course of action?
No. The courses do not seek to persuade you to adopt a particular position or prescribe what you should do.
Scientific and contemporary material may provide a shared understanding of the threats being considered, but the classroom emphasis is on reflection on and interpretation of texts, not facts. You will be encouraged to consider the meaning and significance of these issues and determine for yourself what kind of response they seem to demand. .
Are these courses focused primarily on current events?
Current conditions provide an essential context for readings and discussion, but the courses are centered on the interpretation and assessment of classic texts.
You will read shorter selections of contemporary scientific or critical material alongside works of philosophy, literature, history, and social thought. Bringing these perspectives together allows you to move beyond the immediate news cycle and consider the deeper human questions underlying contemporary events.
What is the classroom experience like?
Courses are discussion-based and generally include both seminar and tutorial elements. Readings may combine a theoretical text, a literary work, and shorter contemporary materials that provide a context for the consideration of particular threats or themes.
You will join instructors and fellow students in asking questions that resist resolution. The conversations are serious and challenging, but they should also be illuminating, productive, and—sometimes—unexpectedly enjoyable.
Do I need previous experience with this topic?
No previous experience with the topic is required. New students are welcome to enroll in End(s) of Humanity courses designated as Basic Program Open-to-All.
Some End(s) of Humanity offerings are Basic Program alumni courses. To enroll in those courses, you must first complete at least two years of the Basic Program.
Across all offerings, you should be prepared to read carefully, participate openly, and engage with challenging intellectual and human questions.
Will these courses address how humanity can solve existential threats?
No. As indicated, these courses do not promise any solutions or provide any practical advice for “how to fix things.” Instead, they ask about the human significance of existential threats and how the humanities can contribute to understanding what is at stake in them—beyond mere human survival.
The classroom gives you the opportunity to move beyond fear, paralysis, or immediate reaction and toward sustained reflection and a more integrated consciousness. Beyond that, shared engagement with and discussion of these threats becomes a way of responding them—an affirmation of human dignity and purpose against what now threatens to deny or undermine them.
What might I take away from an End(s) of Humanity course?
You may leave with a more nuanced understanding of the threats facing humanity and a stronger ability to connect contemporary conditions to its deeper sources in literature, philosophy, history, science, and so, in a new way, to your own experience. In this way, you may achieve a more integral sense of self.
Beyond that, you may also develop a lasting habit of reading classic texts through the circumstances of the present and using those texts to make better sense of the world in which you live.
UChicago has a reputation for academic rigor. Will I be able to meaningfully participate?
Yes. All of these offerings are designed for adults who are curious, thoughtful, and engaged. Instructors foster an inclusive and collegial classroom environment and encourage participation from all students, regardless of prior academic experience.
Do I have to complete an application?
No application is required for Basic Program courses; you may register directly.
End(s) of Humanity News
Amitav Ghosh on Wild Fictions
Award-winning author Amitav Ghosh joins the University of Chicago’s Graham School for an evening conversation moderated by instructor Lin Atnip. The discussion centers on Ghosh’s essay collection Wild Fictions, published by the University of Chicago Press, spanning roughly 25 years of thinking on colonialism, biodiversity loss, and the search for narratives capable of meeting this……
Reading Great Books Against Apocalypse
This lecture examines how reading Great Books can help us think clearly amid crisis.
Radical Evil from Kant to Nuclearism with Amy Thomas Elder
What does it mean to call nuclear annihilation not just catastrophic or criminal, but evil? In this First Friday lecture, Amy Thomas Elder works through the philosophical and theological history of radical evil, from Augustine and Aquinas through Kant and Arendt to Jonathan Schell’s landmark account of the nuclear age, asking whether our current situation……