Courses for Summer 2013
SUMMER TERM I
(June 3-28)
PHILOSOPHY 215 A: SYMBOLIC LOGIC Professor Zorn
Period 2 (10:50-1:00)
This course will focus on mastering the techniques of modern logic, including truth tables and the method of proof in the propositional and predicate calculus. We will also look briefly at the philosophy of logic and some of the applications of logic in philosophy and in fields outside philosophy. In the process, students will acquire the grounding in rigorous and clear thinking required for serious inquiry in philosophy or any other subject.
INQ 120 C: THE MORAL OF THE STORY Professor Wisnefske
Period 2 (10:50-1:00)
Non-fiction narratives provide a clear view into how individuals see their moral lives. This is especially true in slave and prison narratives where issues of right and wrong, suffering, and human dignity come into sharp relief. They help us respond to questions such as, 'Are there some things we should never do, and why?' In this course we will examine such narratives in order to consider how individuals made the moral evaluations and judgments they did. We will also study major moral perspectives in Western philosophy and religion in order to see how they form and inform our moral judgments. This will help us better understand the bases of our own moral convictions.
INQ 270 A: MYTH, PHILOSOPHY, AND NATURE Professor Zorn
Period 1 (8:30-10:40)
We will look at different ways in which people have approached the natural world, ranging from mythological accounts of the world and its origins to rationalistic attempts to understand natural processes in early Greek philosophy and in the tradition of medieval and modern science that it inspired. We will consider what mythological approaches to the world have in common with more naturalistic approaches developed in the western world and how they differ, as well as ways in which contemporary understandings of the world embody elements of both.
INQ 271 A: COWBOYS AND INDIANS AROUND THE WORLD Professor Larson-Harris
Period 2 (10:50-1:00)
This course will examine how the American West has been portrayed at home and in other countries to learn what this tells us about the function of cultural representations. We will use history, fiction, and film to explore how individuals have used the American West to construct new identities and to critique their own culture. This class will investigate the nature of those myths and explore how they were shaped and what effect they had on our own and other cultures. Myths of the American West have been created by other countries as well. The course will explore how some groups of Europeans adopted Indian roles and lifestyles. Both European and Asian cinema have found the Western a fertile genre for both critiques of the United States and expressions of their own archetypes. The course will relate these films to the historical circumstances that produced them.
SUMMER TERM 2
(July 1-27)
INQ 271 A: SCIENCE VS RELIGION? Professor Wisnefske
Period 3 (1:30-3:40)
"Science vs. Religion?" This course examines the clash between science and religion in the Western world. It will focus on the debates between the natural sciences and Christian thought from the 17th century to the present over such questions as evolution, the origin and destiny of the universe, and the status of our knowledge of nature. We will examine how contemporary physicists, biologists, and theologians understand the controversies that arose during this time, and what room they see for compatibility between science and religion today.