B2 Core Program · Upper-Intermediate French
L'Humanisme pour décrypter notre époque
When the Renaissance Illuminates the Present
Long before artificial intelligence, social media, and information overload, Renaissance humanists were already asking questions that remain urgent today: Can we freely shape our lives? Should education fill the mind with facts or train judgment? Can technology liberate thought while also weakening our independence? Through Montaigne, Rabelais, Pico della Mirandola, Sartre, and La Boétie, this course brings humanist ideas into the present and invites you to read, debate, and understand your own time in French.
Who It's For
Who this course is made for
B2 learners who want to strengthen speaking and reading through literary and philosophical texts
Learners interested in the Renaissance, humanism, philosophy, and French intellectual history
Anyone concerned with AI, information overload, education, and free will
Learners who want to express doubt, position, concession, and hypothesis with greater precision
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, I can…
Move from classic texts to contemporary debates and build the advanced French needed to analyze ideas, question assumptions, refute arguments, and express personal judgment with nuance.
Understand the central ideas of humanism, free will, and self-creation
Read and discuss Montaigne, Rabelais, Pico della Mirandola, Sartre, and La Boétie
Compare how printing and the internet transform knowledge, truth, and public debate
Use the subjunctive, conditional, concession, and emphasis to argue with nuance
Develop and defend a personal viewpoint on information overload and algorithms
Course Content
Four themes, from humanism to contemporary critical thinking
Four units move from the question of how we become ourselves to knowledge, education, and modern technology. Classic excerpts, podcasts, videos, and guided discussion turn Renaissance thought into a tool for understanding today's world.
SOMMAIRE · Course OutlineLe Nouvel Homme
The New Human and Free Will
From Pico della Mirandola and Montaigne to Sartre, explore self-creation, personal choice, and modern self-improvement culture
L'Imprimerie vs Internet
Printing vs the Internet
Through Gutenberg, Rabelais, and the classics, examine information revolutions, fake news, and independent thought
Une tête bien faite
The Education Debate
Use Montaigne and Rabelais to debate accumulated knowledge, judgment, and modern education
La Boétie et le smartphone
The Art of Voluntary Servitude
Explore conformity, consumer culture, social pressure, smartphones, algorithms, and invisible forms of control
Vocabulary
L'humanisme, la Renaissance et l'Antiquité
Humanism, the Renaissance, and Antiquity
Le libre arbitre, l'épanouissement et l'introspection
Free will, self-fulfillment, and introspection
L'imprimerie, les classiques et la transmission du savoir
Printing, classics, and the transmission of knowledge
L'esprit critique, l'infobésité, les algorithmes et les fake news
Critical thinking, information overload, algorithms, and fake news
La liberté, le conformisme et la servitude volontaire
Freedom, conformity, and voluntary servitude
Grammar
Le subjonctif
Expressing doubt, necessity, fear, judgment, and restrictive conditions
La nuance et la simultanéité
Nuance and simultaneity
La concession et l'opposition
Concession and contrast
L'hypothèse et l'irréel
Hypothesis, the conditional, and unreal situations
La mise en relief et la réfutation
Emphasis and forceful refutation
