The summer programs bring together students and professors to explore the enduring ideas of Western civilization through the disciplines of political philosophy, philosophical anthropology, ethics, literature and Law.

2012 PHOENIX INSTITUTE NOTRE DAME 
SUMMER SEMINAR FOR THE
STUDY OF WESTERN INSTITUTIONS
JUNE 30 - JULY 28, 2012

OPENING SEMINAR
The Opening Seminar will provide a proper introduction to the summer course as a whole. Students will meet their professors, classmates and coordinators; review the calendar of curricular and extra-curricular activities, and learn all they need to know about life at Notre Dame. The Seminar will take place in the morning of Sunday, July 1st. Participation is compulsory for all students.

HEROISM RECONSIDERED 
Dr. John X. Evans 
Professor (em.) of English Literature
Arizona State University

Starting with the heroic quest paradigm that originated with Gilgamesh and Greek mythology, we will explore the attributes and evolution of heroism from ancient to modern times. Because the warrior-heroes of history have often ignored the common good with disastrous consequences, we will look at the various faces of heroism and ask if mankind would profit by loosening the grip that warrior-heroes have on the human imagination. Collaterally, we will explore what can be appropriated from competing models of the hero for personal strength of character, happiness, and humanity’s hopes for peace on earth. 

Texts: Homer’s Iliad (Robert Fagles’ translation); Virgil’s Aeneid, Book II; the Bible (Moses, David, Jesus); selections from John Milton’s Paradise Lost; selections from Early Christian Fathers;  Shakespeare’s Henry the Fifth (film); Alfred Lord Tennyson, Ulysses; war poetry of World War I (Wilfred Owen, On Passing the Menin Gate and Siegfried Sassoon, Dulce et Decorum Est); World War II war letters from Andrew Carroll’s Behind the Lines;  Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich; Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, and Sophie Scholl (film).

Dr. John X. Evans. Founding Director of the Phoenix Institute. Professor Emeritus of English, Arizona State University. Ph.D. Yale University. Works include: The Works of Sir Roger Williams, as well as articles in The Huntington Library Quarterly, Shakespeare Quarterly, English Studies, Recusant History, Religion and the Arts, and other academic journals.

AQUINAS AND MODERN DEMOCRACY
Dr. Bradley Lewis
Associate Professor, School of Philosophy 
Catholic University of America

The political writings of St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) are a great font of Christian political thought in the West. His notions about legitimate political authority, the natural law, just war and other topics remain very influential. We shall first examine Aquinas’s views by studying his own work. Then we will examine Yves Simon’s accounts of political legitimacy, the common good, democratic representation, and questions about work and culture. Simon’s 1951 book, Philosophy of Democratic Government, is one of the most important theories (both critical and constructive) of liberal democracy inspired by Aquinas’s ideas. By looking both at Aquinas’s own thought and its application to some important modern questions, we can hope to attain a better perspective on some central questions of political philosophy as well as contemporary affairs.

Dr. Bradley Lewis. Ph.D., Government and International Studies, University of Notre Dame. M.A., Government and International Studies, University of Notre Dame. B.A., Government and Politics, University of Maryland. Associate Professor at the School of Philosophy of The Catholic University of America. Associate Editor of The American Journal of Jurisprudence. 

SCIENCE AND RELIGION
Dr. John O`Callaghan
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Director of the Jacques Maritain Center
University of Notre Dame

A historical and philosophical examination of the relations, if there are any, between science and religion with particular reference to the Catholic intellectual tradition. Through the use of historical materials the course will attempt to isolate and examine philosophical difficulties that might be thought to obtain between the claims made by Christian revelation and various scientific theories about features of the world. Emphasis will be placed upon distinctive ways in which the intellectual tradition of the Catholic church has faced the issues raised. Figures to be considered may include Augustine, Aquinas, Galileo, Bellarmine, Darwin, Huxley, Dawkins, Newman, Leroy, Zahm, LeMaitre, and Hawking, as well as others. Topics to be discussed are Language, Meaning, and Revelation, the Nature of Science, Theory, and Hypothesis, Evolution, the Big Bang, Soul and Body, Creation versus Making, Providence and Chance. These topics will be considered through the examples of Galileo and Genesis, the Evolution of Species and the role of God in it, and Cosmology and the Big Bang.

Dr. John O`Callaghan. Ph.D., University of Notre Dame. Areas of interest include Medieval Philosophy, Thomas Aquinas, and Thomistic Metaphysiscs. He is the author of Thomistic Realism and The Linguistic Turn: Toward a More Perfect For of Existence, among others. Articles recently published include “Concepts, Mirrors, and John of St. Thomas: Reply to Deely" in American Catholic Philosophical Association; "St. Thomas Aquinas", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; “Actively Forgetting the Image of God: Nietzsche and Great Texts" in Finding a Common Thread: Reading Great Texts from Homer to O'Connor. Permanent member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas.

THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME
The Seminar will be held in the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana. The University is about two hours by car from Chicago’s O'Hare International Airport and about 90 minutes from Midway International Airport. Coach USA maintains a bus shuttle several times daily between campus and both Chicago O'Hare and Chicago Midway airports. The South Shore Line trains run directly from the Chicago Loop (corner of Michigan and Randolph) to South Bend Regional Airport in South Bend (about a two-hour trip). From the airport, the Notre Dame campus is approximately a 15-minute ride by car.

COST

$2,665.00 USD (Tuition, double/triple-occupancy accommodation, 5-Meals per week Meal Plan, fees for computer labs, libraries, and recreational facilities included).

Non-US Students who are selected to the program will receive the Form I-20 from Notre Dame University. 

This form is necessary in order to obtain student visas for entry into the USA. 

Because of the high cost of medical treatment in the United States, all students must purchase a medical insurance policy prior to arrival at the University of Notre Dame. 

All students must choose two out of the three courses offered. Please notice that the course on “Heroism Reconsidered” is mandatory for all first year students

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