Professor Greenfeld’s Last Class: Notes for online lectures on “The Science of Humanity,” delivered to students and scholars primarily from India, July 2025

Authors

• Liah Greenfeld

Keywords

civilizational dialogue, Indic political theory, emergent universals, comparative civilizations

Abstract

The question for this class is: What is humanity?

We all believe we all know what it is, don’t we? After all, there is hardly any subject more important for us, a question on the answer to which other subjects depend — political, social, economic. Answers to questions such as: what are human economic needs and desires; what political structures are optimal for humans; is democracy, for instance, a universal human desire; should politics in every nation be democratic, or, perhaps, authoritarian governments are better; is freedom a natural need, does it make life better, does equality?

Recommended Citation

Greenfeld, Liah (2026) "Professor Greenfeld’s Last Class: Notes for online lectures on “The Science of Humanity,” delivered to students and scholars primarily from India, July 2025," Comparative Civilizations Review: Vol. 95: No. 95, Article 22.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/ccr/vol95/iss95/22