课程

核心需求

近年来, an ever expanding need for specialized competence in almost every field has encouraged at many colleges and universities the proliferation of narrowly focused and highly technical courses. This trend has seriously weakened the coherence and credibility of traditional liberal education. The result is a fragmentation of intellectual life. Many students and even faculty now find it difficult to communicate with one another across the linguistic and cultural barriers created by their professional specializations. 电子游戏软件本科课程, 尤其是核心课程, 是为了对抗这些趋势而设计的吗.

哲学 Core courses are designed to introduce students to what the greatest thinkers in our tradition (from Socrates to Aquinas to Nietzsche) have had to say about such issues as our origin and destiny, the foundations of ethical and political life, 信仰与理性的关系. Contemporary criticisms of the various traditions in philosophy are also taken seriously; we take these critiques not as occasions for debunking the past but as opportunities for fresh re-considerations of perennial questions.

Upon completing any course sequence which confers Core credit 在哲学, 学生应该能够:

• Articulate a range of the basic philosophical questions fundamental to human inquiry and the various perspectives from which these questions have been addressed.
• Demonstrate an awareness of the social and political as well as individual dimensions of human nature and human existence.
• Understand the historical development of the values and principles that guide their lives and reflect critically on these values and principles as they apply to their personal situation.

The Core requirement for all 电子游戏软件 students includes six credits in philosophy. There are a number of ways in which students can fulfill the requirement. The following is a brief description of philosophy Core courses and of the requirements they fulfill:

• 人的哲学. This course presents the philosophical tradition not as an object of historical curiosity but as a source of fundamental human questions and of the most thoughtful attempts to answer these questions. We choose authors who deal with questions of existential import our origin and destiny, the foundations of ethical and political life, 信仰与理性的关系. Fulfills the six-credit philosophy Core requirement.
• Perspectives I: Perspectives on Western Culture. This course focuses on the major philosophical and theological texts of the Western tradition from classical and biblical times to the present. Fulfills the six-credit philosophy Core requirement and the six-credit theology Core requirement.
• 透视II:现代主义与艺术. This course discusses the philosophical influences on the architecture, 文学, 音乐, “现代主义”时期的视觉艺术. Fulfills the six-credit philosophy requirement and the three-credit 文学 Core requirement and the three-credit fine arts Core requirement.
• Perspectives III: Horizons of the Social Sciences. Least traditional and most ground-breaking in its interdisciplinary approach, the third perspectives course reflects on the philosophical underpinnings of the social sciences of economics, 法律, 政治科学, 和社会学. Fulfills the six-credit philosophy requirement and the six-credit social science Core requirement.
• 观点四:新的科学视野. This course examines the cultural and philosophical impact of key scientific discoveries as they are described in the original works of great innovators, 比如欧几里得, 卡丁, Vieta, 伽利略, 牛顿, 拉瓦锡, 达尔文, 爱因斯坦, 波尔. Intelligent discourse about science presupposes familiarity with the language and methods employed by scientists and mathematicians. 因此, this course gives concrete and detailed attention to mathematical demonstrations and to scientific experiments. Fulfills either (1) the six-credit philosophy Core requirement and the six-credit natural science core requirement, or (2) the three-credit mathematics Core and three-credits of the natural science Core.
• 人与社会责任(PULSE). This course offers its students the opportunity to integrate supervised social service or social advocacy field work with the study of philosophy and theology. Students read and discuss many of the same texts treated in Perspectives I. Their discussions of these texts are enriched by their encounters and experiences at their field placements. Some 300 students (ten sections) participate in this program each year. Fulfills the six-credit philosophy Core requirement and the six-credit theology Core requirement.

Our department is strongly committed to interdisciplinary programs. 我们的跨学科核心项目, 视角与脉搏, are increasingly cited as models of innovative undergraduate instruction. These programs have been awarded substantial grants from the Bank of Boston, 代顿·哈德逊基金会, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.