40 courses with the subject PAR, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
Introduces students to thinkers foundational to liberal arts education who pursue the examined life, inquiring into human existence, knowledge, and moral goodness (Liberal Studies P4).
The study of historical theories of virtue, duty, and the common good, along with moral education; and contemporary moral dilemmas (e.g., abortion, animal rights, genetic engineering) (Liberal Studies P4).
Religious Ethics and Moral Problems introduces students to the comparative study of religion and its application to a range of moral problems: sexuality and family, globalization, poverty, human rights, church-state relations, economic justice, environmental decline, and policy, health and health care inequities, war and peace, and more. First, we will study the relationship of religion to ethics in worldviews and religious systems. Second, the course will teach students to analyze pressing moral issues through the lens of diverse religious ethical systems. The specific moral problems addressed in any given semester may vary (Liberal Studies P4).
Historical, political, and theological contexts in which the major religious traditions of Asia (Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Taoism) developed, with attention to distinctive ethical principles (Liberal Studies P6).
Historical, political, and theological contexts in which the Abrahamic religious traditions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) developed with attention to noted ethical principles (Liberal Studies P4).
Study of classic utopian visions of ideal societies, along with criticisms arising from the implications for human freedom in such communities. 3 Seminar.
This course will look at a variety of New Religious Movements or “minority religions” such as Neopaganism, the Nation of Islam, the Church of Scientology, the Branch Davidians, and the Church of Satan. Students will become familiar with the tools and methods of the academic study of religion, and will critically analyze the merit of controversial concepts like “cult.” By the end of the course, students will be literate in the history of these traditions and in how religious identity connects to other social categories, such as race, gender, and sexuality.
An examination of key conceptual and ethical questions concerning love and sex. Is love really essential to a good life? What defines sexual perversion? (Liberal Studies P4).
Argument analysis; validity, strength, soundness of deductive and inductive arguments; logical fallacies; practical uses of critical reasoning in legal, scientific, and ethical case studies.
Study of the historical events, processes, and key persons involved in the emergence of the early Christian church, stressing philosophical-theological disputes forming early Christianity (Liberal Studies P4).
As a global religion, no single expression of Islam and no simple definition of Muslim communities exist. This course investigates the diversity and vitality of Islam in its historical and contemporary contexts and people. (Liberal Studies P6)
We will explore the intersections of religions and genders by investigating how religious world-views have been shaped by and have helped to shape the perspectives and practices of individuals and societies. In addition to learning about gendered identities and roles in various religious traditions, we will consider how issues of gender and sexuality are interrelated with social, cultural, and religious values. We will discuss how religious and cultural ideas and ideals are historically constructed and capable of change. Study of women’s narratives and visions-feminist theologians, women mystics, female writers-as they reflect on spiritual life, marginalization, moral imagination, and community. (Liberal Studies P6).
An intensive seminar teaching the skills of research and writing in the humanities, while studying theories and problems of the good life. Organized around a series of hypotheses about what constitutes a good or meaningful life, the course engages works from a variety of philosophers, theologians, authors of great literature, and social activists, as well as deep thinkers who are difficult to fit into any one of those boxes. The course aims to develop philosophy and religion majors and minors as critical readers and writers, familiar with the resources necessary for research in the field, and able to produce work that is both personal and disciplined.
Study of select Greek and Roman thinkers and texts (e.g. Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Virgil, Lucretius, Augustine) on issues such as human flourishing, knowledge, justice, virtue, pleasure, and the divine. (Liberal Studies P4).
Rejecting authority of tradition, rationalists, and empiricists, like Rene Descartes and Francis Bacon, inaugurate modern natural science by demanding new methods and principles of reasoning (Liberal Studies P4).
Study of one or more main currents of 19 th -21 st century European “Continental” philosophy, such as Existentialism, Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, German Idealism and Romanticism, Marxism, Critical Theory, Feminism, and Poststructuralism. (Liberal Studies P4).
Philosophical ideas in film; philosophical ideas about film and about the interpretation of film (Liberal Studies P4).
Consideration of ways of making reflective claims about art; emphasis on development of a personal viewpoint. (Liberal Studies P4)
Selected topics, such as proofs for the existence of God, immortality, the problem of evil, and the nature of religious belief, action, and experience (Liberal Studies P4).
The nature of law and legal reasoning; classical and modern theories of law; law, freedom of expression, equality, justice, and responsibility explored through case studies. (Liberal Studies P4)
A survey of the major philosophical theories of mind, and a study of some select moral and social scientific implications of those theories. (Liberal Studies P4)
This interdisciplinary course maps out the central concepts, debates, and questions of feminist thought through classic and contemporary texts in philosophy, religious studies, women’s and gender studies, and related disciplines. (Liberal Studies P4)
This course focuses on the various philosophical discourses around issues and questions of race. Topics include debates about the status of race, portrayals of race in cultural media, issues of racial and social justice, the relationship of race to personal and group identity and more. The course addresses the intersections between race, sex, class, and gender, and also examines how well philosophers have listened to and incorporated marginalized voices and perspectives into their philosophical inquires and outlooks on the world. (Liberal Studies P4)
An exploration of a seminal text or thinker in philosophical or religious thought (Liberal Studies P4).
Study of the varied meanings of mysticism in thought, religion, and culture. (Liberal Studies P6)
Investigates how the American conception of “wilderness” has evolved and the consequences for wilderness preservation, ecological, and aesthetic appreciation of the wild (Liberal Studies P4).
Ethical theories surrounding autonomy, beneficence, and justice, applied to concepts of health, disease, and personhood; patient-provider relationship, life-death issues, health policy, genetic engineering, and biomedical research (Liberal Studies P4).
Environmental and animal ethics concern how humans ought to relate to non-human animals and nature. Traditions and approaches both ancient and modern will be considered. Guiding contemporary concepts, such as sustainability, biodiversity and personhood will be critically assessed, and the ethical dimensions of current problems, such as invasive species management, will be explored. (Liberal Studies P4).
What is “religion” and how do we study it in college? How should you approach the religious practices and ideas of communities with which you disagree? Do you need to be a member of a religious community to study it? How do religion and culture shape one another across time and space? This course will not provide you with a single answer to those questions. Instead, it will introduce you to classical and contemporary theories of religion (what it is), and different methods (or approaches) to studying it.
An examination of how religion and the fundamental problems of religious thought have been portrayed in classic and contemporary film (Liberal Studies P6).
Exploration of the perennial problems of human suffering and the quest for moral meaning as exemplified in imaginative creations in literature, philosophy, and religious thought (Liberal Studies P6).
Introduction to the philosophy and practice of Buddhism, considering its various manifestations from different historical periods and geographical locations. (P6)
Introduction to a range of primary texts and traditional practices important in different Hindu cultures. (P6)
Historical-critical study of key texts of medieval Catholic theologians, Anselm and Aquinas, later Scholasticism, Erasmus’ humanism, followed by examination of Reformation theologians, Luther and Calvin (Liberal Studies P4).
Critical investigation of scientific methods, processes of discovery, and varieties of explanation. Consideration of the conflicts between religious and scientific claims, with attention to pivotal cases such as Galileo’s dispute with the Church and creationism’s fight with evolutionary biology. Explore constructive models of religious-scientific interaction as well (Liberal Studies P4).
An interdisciplinary study of indigenous religious beliefs in North America using anthropological, linguistic, as well as religious studies to study North American Religious traditions (Liberal Studies P6).
Independent Study. R6
Discussion of whether global justice can be achieved, in light of political realism, poverty, women’s inequities, war, markets, with concern for human liberty and rights.
Topics in Philosophy and Religion.
Seminar in Philosophy and Religion.
Source: Western Carolina University's catalog, linked per course · table learning_unit · CourseShelf publish 61
