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Course Criteria
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1.00 - 3.00 Credits
Practical experience in a professional setting. Work is directed by the employer and evaluated jointly with the faculty supervisor. Prerequisite: permission of instructor
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3.00 Credits
How can we understand our world? In western culture, science dominates all our answers to this question. But there are other ways. They can be found in the mythologies of ancient and modern peoples. This course will compare the scientific and mythological ways of seeing the world and their more subtle connections. In particular, we will turn to the remarkable events in Ancient Greece of 800-400 B.C. and discover how the scientific approach actually grew slowly out of mythological thought itself.
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3.00 Credits
The Italian physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was the decisive figure in the rise of modern science. First, he ushered in a new era in astronomy when he aimed a 30-powered telescope at the sky in 1610. Second, he revolutionized the concept of science when he argued that the book of nature is written in the language of mathematics. Finally, he astounded the theologians, who eventually condemned him to life imprisonment, when he claimed that the scientist's search for the truth cannot be constrained by religious authority. This course will study Galileo in the broader intellectual, social, and religious context of early modern Europe.
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3.00 Credits
This course is a historical and philosophical examination of theories and portrayals of the emotions. We will examine different philosophical and scientific accounts of such emotions as love, hate, desire, anger, jealousy, pride and grief, and the historical development of those accounts. A number of questions will guide our readings and discussions. How have philosophers and scientists portrayed the relationship between emotions, and reason, will and morality. In what aspect or aspects of human nature are the emotions grounded—the body, the mind, or both? How are the emotions related to personality and behavior? Can one examine one’s emotions and control them, or change the way the emotions affect our behavior? Can philosophical and scientific theories about the emotions be tested and validated? And since beliefs about emotions change throughout history, and also from culture to culture, does this imply the emotions change as well? Does love, for example, have the same meaning in Ancient Greece, Medieval England, and modern day America; or in modern day America, Saudia Arabia, China, and Germany? The course readings will be a combination of writings by the most philosophers and scientists from Aristotle and Plato to contemporary neuro-scientists and philosophers.
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3.00 Credits
The first part of this course will sample philosophical issues surrounding relativity theory. These issues include the nature of space-time theories, the conventionality of simultaneity, and the openness of the future; we will also discuss the physical possibility of time travel in relativistic spacetimes. The second part of this course is meant as an introduction to the philosophy of quantum mechanics. Our goal will be to understand what an interpretation of quantum mechanics is and why anyone would want one. We will also explore interpretations that have been proposed, and the frailties to which they are prone. A theme linking both parts of the course is the question of physical determinism. While some background in physics would be useful for this course, it is not essential. For as we go, we will study the formalisms relevant to the philosophical questions we'd like to pose.
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3.00 Credits
This course explores the principal ways in which scientific knowledge is attained in the natural sciences and in the behavioral/social sciences, and it examines fundamental philosophical questions concerning the reliability and limits of scientific understanding. The major topics of discussion include: Explanation, confirmation, realism and the nature of theories, the growth of scientific knowledge, space and time, and causality and determinism.
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3.00 Credits
The free will debate is as old as philosophy itself; despite this, it is no closer to resolution today than it was 2500 years ago. This course will examine some of the central questions in that debate: Is free will compatible with determinism? Does it require the ability to have done otherwise than what we actually did? How are we to understand this ability? Must we be the ultimate sources of our own actions? Is this notion even coherent? If not, where does this leave us? Related questions concerning the topic of moral responsibility will also be explored.
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3.00 Credits
The Mechanical Philosophy is the name we give, though was coined by Robert Boyle, to the late 16th, 17th Century movement that constituted a prominent intellectual development in the rise of modern science and philosophy. It also provided a new foundation for social theorizing and a new way to think about persons. This course will look at the mechanical underpinnings, and theoretical development of certain major concepts in the 'new science’. More specifically, we will examine the ideas of matter and motion as they occur in some of major theoretical texts of Galileo, Descartes, Huygens, Hobbes, Hooke, Boyle, Wren, Wallis, etc. At least one session will be spent on the "anti" mechanical tradition. Another session or two will address the historiographic problem recently raised by Garber (et al.) as to whether the mechanical philosophy is a useful historical construct. Course requirements include a seminar presentation on a text, and term paper.
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1.00 Credits
Seminar course encourages an integrated exploration and analysis of arts events, utilizing specific examples of interdisciplinary approaches in the arts combined with direct experience of multiple arts events available to students throughout the term.
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