Liberal Arts

This course is a general introduction to the study of art and aesthetics. In this course students will approach art history through the analysis of artistic achievements in Western culture. Students will trace the development of specific themes throughout Greek and Roman antiquity into Christian developments (early Christian, Byzantine, medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods), as well as the later transformation of these selected themes in the modern and contemporary periods.

This course will examine the key contributions of Greek and Roman cultures to the development of Western civilization. We will start with the 6th century B.C.E., the start of Ancient Greece, up to the 6th century C.E. with the Fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476. A cultural and interdisciplinary approach will be taken. Greco-Roman cultures will be defined in the first part of the course by inter-relating political, social, economic, and cultural developments. Through the students’ engagement with a wide variety of textual and visual sources, students will gain an understanding of the term “classical antiquity.” In the second half of the course, students will apply their knowledge of the Greco-Roman heritage to later developments and contexts from post-classical to contemporary times.

Birth of the Modern World familiarizes students with the forces and events that shaped the world from around 1450 to 1900, and reflects a chronological continuation of the material studied in The Middle Ages. This course takes students on a global journey from the Renaissance to the eve of the 20th century. The material focuses on both Western and non-Western societies and the increasing interaction between the two.

In this course, students will apply the skills they acquired in Approaches to the Greco‐Roman Heritage to an analysis of the rise of Western Europe from approximately 800 to the Age of Discovery. The major topics to be covered include: the triumph of the Catholic Church; the Feudal Era (knighthood, chivalry, the courtly romance, marriage, family, and social status); the evolution of the nation-state; the effects of plague and pestilence; the Renaissance (humanism, secularization, and the re-emergence of the individual); the Reformation; and the expansion into new worlds. In this course students will apply their knowledge of the principles and methods of historical work to examine the medieval period in order to become more familiar with the methods employed by historians to study the past.
(Prerequisite: 332-110-LE, or permission of the instructor)

The World Today familiarizes students with the forces and events that have shaped and changed the world since 1914 and reflects a chronological continuation of the material studied in The Birth of the Modern World. This course traces a dynamic and winding path from the outbreak of the First World War to the world as we know it in the twenty-first century. The course will focus on the Western and non-Western societies, and the interaction between the two.

This course is designed to introduce students to the principles and methods of valid research, critical analysis and effective writing in the general area of the Liberal Arts. Guiding students from the first steps in research work to the finished written product, the course will not only provide students with the skills they need to develop and master at each level, but will also help them to understand the underlying ideas, issues and problems involved in research and writing in the different fields and disciplines included in the Liberal Arts. Above all, the course aspires to generate among students the abiding enthusiasm for learning that comes from scholarly research and writing in the Liberal Arts.

In the Liberal Arts Seminar course, students will solidify research skills acquired in their first-year courses, more specifically Liberal Arts Methodology and Principles of Logic and Math. Taking a step further, this course emphasizes interdisciplinarity, or the integration of several disciplines and their methods in the research process. Students will formulate a research question, justify using an interdisciplinary approach, identify relevant disciplines, and conduct proper research, to eventually produce an interdisciplinary understanding of their topic. Doing so, students will further develop their knowledge and research skills in the Liberal Arts fields and disciplines.
(Prerequisite: 360-141-LE)

This course gives students an opportunity to explore in some depth a topic of their own choosing, using a multi-disciplinary approach. For example, a student might investigate ideas about personal identity in literary works and philosophical theories. Or, Anthropology, History and English could provide sources for a study of attitudes towards nature. While some proposals may not be appropriate for this course, students should feel free to propose any theme they would be interested in probing.
(Prerequisite: 360-341-LE)

In this course students will gain an understanding of the structure of arguments, both deductive and inductive, and will practice evaluating such arguments. The exercises done in all modules of the course will emphasize the mastery of written language, and the clear articulation of thoughts.

This course will examine the central doctrines of 17th through 19th philosophical thought, in the context of the major institutions (scientific, religious and political) that influenced their development, and upon which, in turn, they exerted influence. Among the major figures covered are Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche. Twentieth century developments examined will include schools such as pragmatism, existentialism, and phenomenology.

The focus of the course will be on the turning points in the history of science. Although the course will look at the history of science from ancient times, the key period studied will be the modern era. The story of the modern emergence of empirical science begins with Copernicus, and culminates with Newton’s formulations of the Universal Law of Gravity and the Three Laws of Motion and the aftermath of these. Special attention will be given to the work and method of Galileo as the key pioneer in the development of what we today refer to as the scientific method. The story of the subsequent development of science will be traced, followed by the beginnings of a new revolution which characterizes the twentieth century.

In this course, students will focus on the philosophers of ancient Greece: the pre-Socratics, Plato, and Aristotle. The process of acquiring a critical understanding of some of the specific theories put forward by these thinkers will be guided by a number of general aims. First, the concern will be to understand the birth and early development of Western philosophy in its own historical context. The second general goal will be to develop an appreciation of the importance of ancient Greek philosophers for determining the subsequent shape of Western civilization. Third, the value of studying ancient philosophy is not merely historical. As many of the ideas developed then are still quite relevant, students will also examine what ancient philosophy can offer to the analysis of contemporary society and its problems. Finally, the study of these ancient philosophers will provide a vehicle for helping students develop basic skills in thinking philosophically.

In Social and Political Philosophy, students will become familiar with key thinkers who have shaped the way we view social and political ideas and institutions in the West. We will encounter texts addressing notions such as democracy, liberalism, communism, freedom, justice, and equality in order to better understand the foundational ideas behind our contemporary socio-political situation and its various challenges. Social and Political Philosophy is designed to enable students to make meaningful connections between socio-political notions and developments in history, the sciences, and the arts.

This course introduces students to the study of religion, paying particular attention to the following three interrelated items: first, the origin, evolution, and contemporary expressions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; second, the contribution of ancient Greek philosophy to the development of these three religious traditions; and, third, secularization and the re-emergence of religion in the 20th and 21st centuries. Over the course of the semester, students will have the opportunity to compare and contrast these three Western religious traditions to non-Western religious traditions, e.g., Buddhist and Native American.