Students
Humanities 216-219 is among Princeton's most highly rated courses. These comments are drawn from recent alums.
From the Student Course Guide:
"It is important, wonderful material, and this is your chance to learn it with incredible professors and some of the smartest kids on campus. It is a GREAT course, and I was honestly sorry when it ended. It was a unique experience that is not like any other course I have taken here--the intensity of the discussions, the commitment of the professors, the bonds that develop, and the phenomenally wonderful philosophy that you read. Take it. Take it. Take it. I wish I had the opportunity to start again."
"It would be hard for me to overestimate the impact that this course had on me. It inspired me, it changed my mind about a major, and it introduced me to a realm of books so wonderful and thrilling that taking them off my shelf after my final was painful."
"Hum 216-219 is the best series of classes I've taken. This is why I came to Princeton. What you will study in this course is central not only to your intellectual pursuits but in the cultivation of your character. This has changed the way I read, the way I write, the way I think, the way I am--all for the better. We study the greatest books ever written, and we discuss them with some of the most brilliant people in this school."
"The Hum 216-219 sequence is the type of course that I came to Princeton to take. It has changed the way I look at life. While covering such a formidable amount of reading in a short period of time necessarily detracts from the depth with which each work is examined, this survey truly gives a sense of how history, culture, philosophy, geography, and literature interact, and how Western thought has evolved through the last 3,000 years. Do not expect to become an expert on all the works read, but do expect to emerge from this course with a solid foundation upon which the rest of your education will rest. It's worth it to learn from four to six brilliant but different brains, and to do it in a small but dedicated class."
From Course Evaluations:
"Amazing scope and lectures. The value of this course is difficult to overemphasize."
"This course provided a fabulous introduction to all the texts covered. Lectures were consistently good jumping off points for understand of the text. The effort to correlate the subject matter with outside trips and art lectures contributed greatly to my understanding."
"This course was one of the best I have taken at this university. The professors all gave brilliant lectures and were very accessible to students. The reading was (obviously) excellent, and precepts were illuminating. The aspect that stuck out most to me was the quality and diversity of the faculty."
