This course's main goals are articulated around one overarching activity: the comprehension of human experience as reflected in Italian literary documents of the pre-modern period, ca. 1225-1650, and the application of that knowledge to contemporary issues. Although the points of comparison are not necessarily direct (we start with Aristotle rather than modern philosophers), all the questions addressed are of vital interest to anyone who asks the fundamental philosophical questions of life. Who am I? What am I doing here? How should I live? and so on.