Program Requirements
NOTE: THE MINOR CONCENTRATION IN PHILOSOPHY AND WESTERN RELIGIONS IS CURRENTLY NOT AVAILABLE.
Students will benefit most from this Minor concentration if they combine it with programs in Philosophy, Islamic Studies, Jewish Studies, Religious Studies, or Classics. Students are also encouraged to complete a minor concentration in one of the languages relevant to the academic field.
Required Course (3 credits)
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RELG 307 Bible, Quran & Interpretations (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : Jewish, Christian and Muslim scriptures as responses to earlier sacred texts and in the light of post-scriptural interpretations. The debates, polemics, interpretative strategies, and intellectual and spiritual sharing produced by these three religions in accepting, explaining, amplifying, modifying, and selectively rejecting their and other sacred scriptures.
Terms: Summer 2016
Instructors: Oegema, Gerbern (Summer)
Winter
Complementary Courses (15 credits)
15 credits selected as follows:
Students must complete 6 credits from the course lists for any two of the three categories below and 3 credits from the course list for the remaining category:
Philosophy and Western Religions
History of Philosophy
Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Thought
Philosophy and Western Religions
3-6 credits from:
Note: Students are strongly encouraged to take both PHWR 300 and PHWR 301.
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PHWR 300 Philosophy & Western Religions 1 (3 credits)
Overview
Philosophy & Western Religions : Introduction to the encounter between philosophy and the Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, from Antiquity to the 12th Century, covering the philosophical sources (Plato to Neoplatonism), the religious sources (Bible to Qu'ran), and their manifold syntheses in the thought of theologians, philosophers and mystics within the three religious traditions.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Restrictions: Open to students in Philosophy & Western Religions, Islamic Studies, Jewish Studies, Philosophy, Religious Studies, and to students of other units with permission of the instructor.
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PHWR 301 Philosophy & Western Religions 2 (3 credits)
Overview
Philosophy & Western Religions : Introduction to the encounter between philosophy and the three Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, from the 13th Century to the Enlightenment, covering the manifold syntheses of philosophical and religious ideas in thinkers from the Later Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the 17th Century and the Enlightenment.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Prerequisite: PHWR 300 or permission of the instructor.
Restrictions: Open to students in Philosophy & Western Religions, Islamic Studies, Jewish Studies, Philosophy, Religious Studies, and to students of other units with permission of the instructor.
History of Philosophy
3-6 credits, at least one of the following:
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PHIL 354 Plato (3 credits)
Overview
Philosophy : An examination of some of the philosophical problems (those in logic, epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics, e.g.) found in a selection of Plato's dialogues.
Terms: Winter 2016
Instructors: Magal, Oran (Winter)
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PHIL 355 Aristotle (3 credits)
Overview
Philosophy : An examination of selected works by Aristotle. The course considers issues in moral philosophy as well as those found in the logical treatises, the Physics and Metaphysics, and in the philosophy of mind.
Terms: Winter 2016
Instructors: Deslauriers, Marguerite (Winter)
Students completing 6 credits in the History of Philosophy category, may select 3 credits from the following:
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CLAS 415 Advanced Latin: Oratory (3 credits)
Overview
Classics : The reading of selected texts in Roman Oratory Prose in the original Latin.
Terms: Winter 2016
Instructors: Fronda, Michael (Winter)
Prerequisite: 6 credits of Intermediate Latin or permission of instructor
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CLAS 426 Advanced Greek: Philosophy (3 credits)
Overview
Classics : The reading of selected texts in Greek Philosophy Prose in the original Ancient Greek.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Prerequisite: 6 credits of Intermediate Ancient Greek or permission of instructor
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PHIL 356 Early Medieval Philosophy (3 credits)
Overview
Philosophy : An examination of selected works in the Christian, Islamic and Jewish traditions. Topics in moral and political philosophy, logic and metaphysics, philosophical psychology and epistemology, philosophy of science, and philosophical theology may be discussed.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2015-2016 academic year.
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PHIL 357 Late Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy (3 credits)
Overview
Philosophy : A discussion of the works of selected philosophers from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Topics for discussion may include God's knowledge of future contingents, issues in medieval logic, political and moral issues, and philosophical theology.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2015-2016 academic year.
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PHIL 360 17th Century Philosophy (3 credits)
Overview
Philosophy : An examination of the work of such seventeenth-century philosophers as Descartes, Hobbes, Gassendi, Malebranche, Leibniz, and the Cambridge Platonists.
Terms: Fall 2015
Instructors: Laywine, Alison (Fall)
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PHIL 452 Later Greek Philosophy (3 credits)
Overview
Philosophy : An examination of some of the major post-Aristotelian schools of philosophy. Texts from the Peripatetic, Stoic, Epicurean, Sceptical, Platonic, and medical traditions may be considered. Problems in logic, ethics, physics, epistemology, and metaphysics will be addressed.
Terms: Winter 2016
Instructors: Laywine, Alison (Winter)
Jewish and Christian Thought
3-6 credits from:
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JWST 261 History of Jewish Philosophy & Thought (3 credits)
Overview
Jewish Studies : An introduction to Jewish philosophy and thought from the Hellenistic period (Philo) to the beginning of the modern era (Spinoza) focusing on topics such as prophecy and philosophy, God and the world; the Law as a canon of ethical rules and as a political constitution. Survey of the treatment of such issues by Jewish thinkers from Philo to Maimonides.
Terms: Fall 2015
Instructors: Holanda de Souza, Igor (Fall)
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JWST 337 Jewish Philosophy and Thought 1 (3 credits)
Overview
Jewish Studies : Focuses on either a period, a current of thought or the work of a thinker in the history of Jewish thought from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, paying particular attention to the relationship of Jewish thinkers to intellectual trends in their respective cultural contexts. Contemporary Muslim and Christian theologians and philosophers.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Winter
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JWST 338 Jewish Philosophy and Thought 2 (3 credits)
Overview
Jewish Studies : Focuses on either a period, a current of thought or the work of a thinker in the history of Jewish thought from the Middle Ages to Modern Times, paying particular attention to the relationship of Jewish thinkers to intellectual trends in their respective cultural contexts. themes and concerns of Jewish theology and on Jewish responses to contemporary trends in European thought.
Terms: Winter 2016
Instructors: Holanda de Souza, Igor (Winter)
Winter
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JWST 358 Topics in Jewish Philosophy 1 (3 credits)
Overview
Jewish Studies : Topics in Jewish philosophy. Topic varies by year.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2015-2016 academic year.
All texts in English
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JWST 359 Topics in Jewish Philosophy 2 (3 credits)
Overview
Jewish Studies : Topics in Jewish philosophy. Topic varies by year.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2015-2016 academic year.
All texts in English
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JWST 474 Maimonides' Mishneh Torah (3 credits)
Overview
Jewish Studies : Study of the Moses Maimonides' Mishneh Torah, including such subjects as idolatry, repentance, and sacrifices, to torts, contracts, and public law.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2015-2016 academic year.
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JWST 543 Maimonides as Parshan (3 credits)
Overview
Jewish Studies : Biblical Interpretation in the Guide of the Perplexed and related writings.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Requires Departmental approval
Restriction: Not open to students who have taken JWST 540
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JWST 562 Medieval Islamic and Jewish Philosophy (3 credits)
Overview
Jewish Studies : Deals with the manifold points of contact between medieval Muslim and Jewish intellectual history. Muslim and Jewish philosophers, theologians and mystics belonged to the same currents of thought, used the same language and studied the same sources in translation, proposing similar answers to questions that arose in the context of their respective religious traditions.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Prerequisite: one course in Greek, Islamic or Jewish Philosophy, or permission of instructor.
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RELG 334 Christian Thought and Culture (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : Explores the Christian narrative and theological worldview, in relation to western religion, ethics, philosophy, science, and culture, with reference to both primary and secondary literature.
Terms: Winter 2016
Instructors: Farrow, Douglas B (Winter)
Winter and Summer
Prerequisite: One prior course in Christianity, or History of Western Thought or by permission of the instructor.
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RELG 341 Introduction: Philosophy of Religion (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : Introduction to the subject. Faith and reason, theistic arguments, values and destiny, the problem of evil, religious language.
Terms: Fall 2015
Instructors: Green, Garth (Fall)
Fall
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RELG 423 Reformation Thought (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : An examination of issues and persons in Europe and the British Isles that contributed to ecclesiastical and social change during the 16th and early 17th centuries.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2015-2016 academic year.
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RELG 439 Religious Dialogues (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : A comparative survey of the literature of Western religious dialogues, addressing the history and diversity of debates concerning religion. Texts to be discussed include dialogues by Plato, Cicero, Augustine, Boethius, Anselm, Cusanus, Leo Hebraeus, Erasmus, Thomas More, Jean Bodin, Leibniz and Hume.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2015-2016 academic year.
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RELG 532 History of Christian Thought 1 (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : The development of Christian theology in the Patristic and Medieval periods. Focus on the controversial development of Christian doctrines and disciplines through intensive exposure to primary texts.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Prerequisite: At least six (6) credits at the 300 level in Christianity or the Christian Bible.
Restriction: Not open to students who have taken RELG 320
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RELG 533 History of Christian Thought 2 (3 credits)
Overview
Religious Studies : The development of Christian theology in the Reformation, Post Reformation and Modern periods through intensive exposure to primary texts.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Fall
Prerequisite: At least six (6) credits at the 300 level in Christianity or the Christian Bible.
Restriction: Not open to students who have taken RELG 327