Contemporary Civilization

The purpose of COCI CC1101-COCI CC1102  “Contemporary Civilization,” or “CC,” as it is popularly known, is to introduce students to a range of issues concerning the kinds of communities—political, social, moral, and religious—that human beings construct, and the values that inform and define such communities. Founded in 1919 to prepare students to confront "the insistent problems of the present," Contemporary Civilization has evolved continuously while remaining a constant element of the Columbia College curriculum. The course asks students to read texts that offer a wide range of perspectives, to experiment with ideas, follow their own inquiries, and present their own perspectives about the issues that these texts raise. In doing so, students develop their skills as thinkers and communicators. 

The aim of Contemporary Civilization is not to endorse or celebrate the often conflicting— and sometimes troubling — ideas of the authors studied in class, but rather to engage with them critically. By exploring a range of perspectives, students will gain a better sense of the ideas that have shaped the world they have inherited, develop the power to imagine experiences and understand opinions different from their own, and test their own values in a way that may strengthen them or prompt revision. The ultimate goal of Contemporary Civilization is to foster a community in which students can share their perplexity, deepen their understanding of the world and their place within it, recognize the limits of their own perspectives and experiences, and engage respectfully with one another across their differences.

Because Contemporary Civilization is a year-long course, readings are necessarily selective. Every three years, faculty revise the syllabus, and many instructors supplement readings with their own selections. The factors that lead to the adoption of a text include historical influence, the demonstrated ability of a text to provoke productive discussion, and the relevance of a text's ideas to the pressing problems of the present. Among the authors currently required in the course are Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Augustine, Ibn Khaldun, Christine de Pizan, Machiavelli, Luther, Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Adam Smith, Immanuel Kant, Mary Wollstonecraft, Alexis de Tocqueville, Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, David Walker, J.S. Mill, KarlMarx, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, W.E.B. Du Bois, B.R. Ambedkar, Hannah Arendt, Gandhi, Frantz Fanon, Martin Luther King Jr., Michel Foucault, Simone de Beauvoir, Barbara Fields, the Combahee River Collective, and readings from the Bible and the Qur'an. The current reading list also includes units. on Epicureanism and stoicism; medieval rationalism and mysticism; the Conquest of the Americas; revolutions and rights; race, gender, and sexuality; and climates and futures. 

Registration Procedure

All information concerning registration in COCI CC1101-COCI CC1102 is included in the registration materials sent to students. Students normally take Contemporary Civilization in their second year at Columbia.

All Core Curriculum courses, including Contemporary Civilization, must be taken for a letter grade. Students may not drop or withdraw from Contemporary Civilization after the Core drop deadline (which is also the end of the Change-of-Program period). For more information, see Registration—Dropping Core Courses.

Courses of Instruction