|
|
Course Criteria
Add courses to your favorites to save, share, and find your best transfer school.
-
3.00 Credits
In this course you will learn how to work with original source texts, not textbooks, and you will gain the skills necessary to succeed in college. The professor will guide you and your classmates as you develop your abilities as a reader, a writer, and a discussion participant. Different texts require different analytic techniques, and in this course you will learn to see how great authors organize and present ideas. In so doing, you will learn to organize and present your own ideas in both oral and written form. Course reading lists may vary slightly from year to year. (You can place out of this class by successfully completing a placement examination and then passing either Social Sciences 1 or Humanities 2.) Reading List Abbott, Flatland US Constitution Selected Supreme Court Cases Plato, Meno Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics King, Letter from Birmingham Jail Copernicus, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
-
3.00 Credits
IS2 is a math class like no other! In this course you will develop an understanding and appreciation of mathematics by studying a variety of mathematical and geometrical systems, both ancient and modern. You will learn to use specific mathematical terms and forms of reasoning that will increase your ability to think logically and express yourself with precision. Course reading lists may vary slightly from year to year. Reading List Euclid, Elements, Vol. 1 Aristotle, Posterior Analytics Bonola, Non-Euclidean Geometry Descartes, Rules for the Direction of the Mind Descartes, Discourse on Method Einstein, Relativity Nagel and Newman, Godel's Proof
-
3.00 Credits
Integrative Studies 5 & 6 are designed as a unified, full-year sequence to be taken in your last full year of studies at Shimer. The readings in this course are arranged chronologically in order to demonstrate their historical relationship to one another. As you read, you will discover a wide range of connections between these texts and those you'll already have studied in other Shimer courses. As a result, you will experience first-hand the richness of the great intellectual traditions upon which the Shimer curriculum is based. Course reading lists may vary slightly from year to year. (Prerequisites: Final-Year status and successful completion of the Basic Studies Comprehensive Examination.) Reading List Inanna The Epic of Gilgamesh Homer, The Iliad Hesiod, Theogeny Bible Sappho, Poetry Aeschylus, Oresteia Plato, Republic Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, On The Heavens Herodotus, Persian Wars Thucydides, Peloponnesian War Virgil, Aeneid Ptolemy, Almagest Marcus Aurelius, Meditations Tacitus, Agricola and Germania Augustine, City of God Beowulf Aquinas, Summa Theologica Dante, The Divine Comedy
-
3.00 Credits
Course reading lists may vary slightly from year to year. Reading List Pisan, Treasure of The City of Ladies Chaucer, Canterbury Tales Luther, 95 Theses More, Utopia Copernicus, On The Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres Shakespeare, Tempest Galileo, On the Heavens Bacon, New Organon Milton, Paradise Lost Cervantes, Don Quixote Kepler, Epitome of Copernican Astronomy Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding Kant, Prologomena to any Future Metaphisics, Foundation of the Metaphysics of Morals Goethe Faust Hegel Reason in History Nietzsche Use and Abuse of History
-
3.00 Credits
Historical and logical methods are used to understand and analyze the atomic theory of matter. The basic question of the course is: What is the world?made of? Scientific models which purport to answer this question have historically been classified under the science of science of chemistry. Hence, Natural Sciences 1 is a chemistry course that begins with the Ancient Greek philosophers and continues into the early twentieth century. It starts with the idea that matter is composed of Thales' one element or Empedocles' four elements, and ends with Mendeleev's periodic table of some ninety-odd elements ordered in terms of weight. The course focuses upon several key concepts, such as weight, structure, and complexity,? in an attempt to understand the material basis of the world. Reading List Aristotle, Physics Philip Wheelwright, The Presocratics Lucretius, On the Nature of the Universe Antoine Lavoisier, Elements of Chemistry Francis Bacon, New Organon Stanislao Cannizzaro, Sketch of a Course in Chemical Philosophy Selections from: Robert Boyle, Amedeo Avogadro, Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, James Prescott Joule, Blaise Pascal, Pierre Bulong, Georg Stahl,Joseph Priestly, Bejamin Thompson, John Dalton.
-
3.00 Credits
Natural Sciences 2 explores the interaction among living organisms. Consideration is given to the level of genetic units within the organism, the level of species, the environmental level, and the level of human concern. The concept of evolution provides groundwork for this inquiry into biological organization. Readings are organized so as to provide movement from general theoretical viewpoints to biological precision and back to the more general. The relationships between evolution, on the one hand, and cellular organization, genetics, the environment, animal behavior, and philosophical thought, on the other hand, are foci for discussion. Reading List Aristotle, On The Soul, Parts of Animals Charles Darwin, Origin of Species Gregor Mendel, "Experiments in Plant Hybridization" Konrad Lorenz, On Aggression Jane Goodall, Through a Window Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Zoological Philosophy Stephen Jay Gould, The Panda's Thumb
-
3.00 Credits
Within the context of the physical sciences, this course explores the nature of scientific explanation. We examine the development of the theories of falling bodies, gravitation, light, electromagnetic forces, and relativity. The investigation of physical theories leads the student to attempt to answer such crucial scientific questions as these: What phenomena need to be explained? How are they explained? What constitutes a satisfactory explanation? What is the nature of physical reality? (Prerequisite: Natural Sciences 1 and Integrative Studies 2) Reading List Isaac Newton, Opticks, Philosophy of Nature Albert Einstein and Leopold Infeld, Evolution of Physics Albert Einstein, Relativity Selections from: Galileo, Hans Christian ?rsted, Christiaan Huygens, Thomas Young, Augustin-Jean Fresnel, C.F. du Fay, Benjamin Franklin, James Clerk Maxwell
-
3.00 Credits
Natural Sciences 4 focuses on the question: What is life? In searching for an answer, students come to an understanding of modern quantum physics. They examine the complexity of DNA and RNA and the causal relationship of those substances to the laws of genetics studied in Natural Sciences 2. The concept of evolution is widened to include not only the microscopic (molecular evolution) but also the macroscopic (the universe as a whole). The course culminates in an extension of biological inquiry to the levels of knowledge and human interaction. (Prerequisite: Natural Sciences 2 and 3) Reading List Erwin Schr?dinger, What is Life? Werner Heisenberg, Physics and Philosophy George Gamow, Thirty Years That Shook Physics Richard Feynmann, QED Freeman Dyson, Origins of Life Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan, Origins of Sex: Three Billion Years of Genetic Recombination
-
3.00 Credits
This course concerns the relationship of the individual human being to the society of which he or she is a member. By critically studying this relationship, we ask whether the individual is really free or is determined by society's norms, and whether these norms themselves might be a product of individual or social creation. Other considerations in the course include the development of personality and the role of culture. (Prerequisite: Integrative Studies 1) ?Reading List Ruth Benedict, Patterns of Culture Sigmund Freud, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis Jean Piaget, The Moral Judgment of the Child Lawerence Kohlberg, "Moral Stages and Moralization" Nancy Chodorow, "Family Structure and Feminine Personality" W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice émile Durkheim, Suicide Karl Marx, selections Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
-
3.00 Credits
Social Sciences 2 concerns political judgment and the values which underpin it. The search for the "good life" through politics has been a human quest since antiquity. One's education as a citizen of the state is the foundation of the classical formulation of a liberal arts education. The central objective of this course is the education of such citizens, those who participate through public judgment in shaping the political world. Such an education requires an understanding of the founding documents of the American political system as well as other seminal works of Western thought?Reading List Plato, "Republic" Aristotle, Politics St. Thomas Aquinas, "Treatise on Law" Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan John Locke, Second Treatise on Civil Government Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Social Contract The United States Declaration of Independence The United States Constitution The Federalist Papers Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations CHarles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, The Sprit of the Laws Mary Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Women
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|