The Law, The Classics, and the Scriptures, Florida State University

The purpose of this three-credit course is to show how the humanities stands as one of three pillars of law as a learned profession, along with jurisprudence and social science. In this course we will first examine the role of the humanities in the context of the claim that law is a learned profession. We will then survey the general relationship of law and the areas of study traditionally grouped together as the humanities: history, philosophy, literature, religion, the performing arts (music, theater, and dance), and the plastic arts (painting and sculpture). With that background, the bulk of the course will first situate the two cultures of the Classical Mediterranean world most significant in our law, “Athens” and “Jerusalem,” then offer parallel accounts of their rise and decline, their common inclusion in the Roman Empire, and their reciprocal influence, after the decline of Rome itself, on the Medieval syntheses of Averroes, Maimonides and Abelard in their respective faiths: Islam, Judaism and Christianity. This information has been collected for the Post-Discipline Online Syllabus Database. The database explores the use of literature by schools of professional education in North America. It forms part of a larger project titled Post-Discipline: Literature, Professionalism, and the Crisis of the Humanities, led by Dr Merve Emre with the assistance of Dr Hayley G. Toth. You can find more information about the project at https://postdiscipline.english.ox.ac.uk/. Data was collected and accurate in 2021/22.