Marx, Nietzsche, Freud: The World Is Not What You Think

We will familiarize ourselves with the key insights of three major writers and thinkers: Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud. Each transformed how we read the modern world, from the ideology of capital to the question of religion, from the function of art to the unsettling claims that sexuality makes on us. They help us explore the intricate interplay between reason and its dark underbelly, a fragile interaction that makes us who we are. This introductory course is for all Brown students who do not wish to graduate without first having grappled seriously with the ideas of these transformative thinkers, without whom the modern world cannot be understood. If you read only three modern writers during your college career, it should probably be these three. Taught entirely in English; students from diverse fields welcome.