Professor Kozlowski Lectures

Professor Kozlowski embarks on yet another discussion of politics and the Bible. Here we will look at the basic outline of the gospel, as well as key passages from Genesis, Deuteronomy, Judges, 1 Samuel, Matthew, Acts, and 1 Timothy that illuminate the Biblical perspective on politics and government - if there is one. https://www.biblegateway.com contains a wide variety of Biblical translations, i...

Today Professor Kozlowski takes on the Roman Empire - its legacy (historical and mythological), its organization, and the ideas of some of its most influential thinkers: Cicero and Polybius. Many great political thinkers take Rome as the closest thing to a perfect government ever created - hopefully we can reach some conclusions about what made Rome work, and why this obsession with Rome might be...

Professor Kozlowski presents a woefully inadequate look at some key ideas in the political philosophy of China and India, specifically: Lao-Tzu's Tao Te Ching The Analects of Confucius Mo-Tzu The Laws of Manu Along the way we'll talk about the differences between Eastern and Western attitudes toward virtue, rule, and government, as well as how these texts take on a very different perspecti...

CW: Slavery (but not racism); Tyrannical Tactics, w/ examples from Hitler, Stalin, etc. Today Professor Kozlowski turns from Plato's Republic to the other great masterpiece of Greek political philosophy - Aristotle's Politics . Typical of Aristotle, we'll discuss his basic assumptions about government, his understanding of different forms of government, and the ways that revolutions, d...

CW: Incest, Infanticide, and Misogyny as philosophical ideas and historical realities Professor Kozlowski tackles the rest of the Republic by ranging over the three excerpts in the Cohen textbook and several excluded passages. On the docket: Equality for women (yay!) Open marriages (yay!?) Communal child-rearing (wut?) Eugenics (boo!) The Allegory of the Cave (yay!) How governments fall apart (Ari...

Professor Kozlowski tackles the origins of Plato's Republic proper - following Socrates as he describes the earliest organization of government through its growth into a "fevered" state of luxuries and wealth. And, bonus - we get a ten-minute tangent on the Laws of Lycurgus! - which influenced many ancient thinkers (including Plato and Aristotle) and will continue to haunt us for the...

For the first reading in History of Social Thought, Professor Kozlowski *finally* tackles that greatest of philosophical classics: Plato's Republic . Today we'll look at the famous opening argument and get some preliminary answers to the question "What is Justice?" as well as Plato's practical example for dealing with Internet edgelords trying to win debates rather than under...

Professor Kozlowski embarks on a new scholastic project: preparing an introductory course on political philosophy for the fall semester. Several months and dozens of books later, he might not have much in the way of knowledge or answers, but he'll spend three hours talking about it anyway. Follow Professor Kozlowski's other projects online at his webpage: professorkozlowski.wordpress.com A...

Professor Kozlowski welcomes his new students to the summer session of the Philosophy of Love and Friendship...with a two-hour long lecture about how the class is going to work. Enjoy!

Today, apropos of nothing, Professor Kozlowski tackles one of his favorite books: Joseph Heller's popular, stylish, satirical masterpiece - Catch-22. We'll look at its legacy, its themes, and the message it offers to our own absurd systemic hellscape here in 2025. (And maybe one day we'll tackle some other favorite re-reads as well!) If you want more lectures like this, contribute to t...

Professor Kozlowski, concluding his serious of insanely ambitious General Humanities I videos, attempts to cram the whole thousand-year history of Medieval Europe into ninety minutes.

Professor Kozlowski concludes his General Humanities lecture series with an analysis of two Medieval lays - Sir Orfeo and Sir Launfal. Here we'll see how the Medieval writers adapt and understand the pagan traditions underlying their own culture as a part of their Christian faith.

Professor Kozlowski here expresses his very limited knowledge and very uninformed interpretation of the Qu'ran, especially as it pertains to Jews, Christians, and the afterlife. He then goes on to explore Ibn Sina's thoughts on the afterlife as presented in The Book of Healing . None of this should be considered authoritative or rooted in expertise. Professor Kozlowski is absolutely still...

Professor Kozlowski wanders well out of his comfort zone and scholarly experience to discuss the history of the two great powers of the medieval world: the Byzantine (Roman) Empire and the Islamicate World. He apologizes for the roughness of his knowledge and understanding, but hopes that he can help make this discussion a more integral part of the study of world history.

Today Professor Kozlowski tackles another favorite philosophical work in Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy - a foundational text of medieval Christian philosophy and one of the most articulate discussions of virtue, the character of God, and the Problem of Evil in Christianity's history.

Professor Kozlowski tackles the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount, the veiled allusions of the Kingdom of Heaven parables, and the moral quandary of identifying hypocrisy in the Gospel of Matthew.

Professor Kozlowski takes a stab at unraveling one of the most famously knotty wisdom texts in the Old Testament: Ecclesiastes. Is it wisdom? Is it nihilism? Does it have a pat moral? Let's find out.

Professor Kozlowski tempts the wrath of the Internet by discussing the history of Judaism and Christianity by recounting the major events and themes of the Christian Bible. Along the way we'll revisit some important moments in ancient history, bump into some early Christian heresies, and talk about different perspectives on Christian teaching. ...hopefully without starting any flame wars... If...

Professor Kozlowski tackles the classic of 2nd century stoicism, Epictetus' Enchiridion . Along the way we'll discuss the virtues (and vices) of stoicism, outline its similarities to Buddhism, and contextualize the stoics against the Roman political world in which it developed - and the contemporary world that it continues to influence and shape.

Professor Kozlowski somehow crams everything a General Humanities student needs to know about Plato and Aristotle into one hour-and-a-half-long lecture. Which is nonsense. Go read more Plato and Aristotle.

Professor Kozlowski takes on a triple threat of Bronze-Age(ish) underworld stories, namely: The Egyptian Book of the Dead, Inana's Descent to the Underworld (Sumerian), and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Along the way, we'll try to make some sense and find patterns among these dense, difficult, and disparate texts, and set the foundation for the later Greek and Roman (and Christian) understa...

Professor Kozlowski kicks off his historical study in General Humanities I with a survey of the ancient Bronze Age cultures of the Near East (Babylon, Egypt, and Greece), as well as their legacies and inheritors in the wake of the Bronze Age Collapse.

Professor Kozlowski concludes his week-long analysis of Homer with an examination of Achilles through the last chapters of the Iliad and his reappearance in the Odyssey.

Professor Kozlowski tackles the Iliad and Odyssey from a bird's eye perspective, looking at the trajectory of Achilles' rage and his missteps in the search for honor.

Professor Kozlowski discusses the syllabus and expectations for the Spring 2025 section of General Humanities 1.