Sustainability Course Repository

Beginning with the theological, social and political unrest that resulted in the religious upheavals known as the Reformation this course will trace how these movements led to the political, cultural and intellectual revolutions of the 17th and 18th Century. In the first part of the course special attention will be given to the early history of the Jesuits and what this history tells us about the global impact of these religious upheavals. The second part of the course will compare revolutions i...

Read more about HONR-2240 : Revolution and Rebellion

This course will focus on one of the major problems afflicting the modern world - the widespread violation of human rights. The first part will examine the theoretical evolution and general history of the idea of human rights. We will consider the problem of human rights from historical, legal, philosophical, and theological perspectives and explore the nature of different types of human rights - including political rights, socioeconomic rights, women's rights, indigenous rights, workers' rights...

Read more about HONR-2250 : Human Rights in Modern World

This seminar examines the emergence of modern science in the 19th century and Big Science institutional global impact in the 20th century. It will include the study of animal electricity, natural history, and biological energetics leads to profound advances in understanding of life and the universe through the writings of Faraday, Darwin, Rutherford, and Einstein. Multidisciplinary, the seminar will feature a combination of biology, chemistry, physics, and earth science.

Read more about HONR-2310 : Electricity, Energy, Evolution

This class Introductionduces foundational statistical concepts (probability and inference) and traces critical turning points in the development of statistical thinking. Over the past four centuries, statistical methods have spread horizontally across disciplines, while simultaneously growing vertically in their sophistication. Growth in computing power and data collection continue to fuel the spread of statistical thinking to new areas of human endeavor, from astronomy and genetics to art and e...

Read more about HONR-2350 : The Evolution of Uncertainty

This seminar focuses on key ethical debates influencing public policy issues of the last 50 years. As with the Major Debates from the first year, it asks students to analyze the historical roots of this debate from a disciplinary perspective and examines its long-term effects. The topic for this course will change each year, as will the discipline from which it is approached.

Read more about HONR-2400 : Major Ethical Debates

This course investigates the major social science themes and perspectives of modernity associated with the Enlightenment tradition-positivism, rationality, economic and political liberalism-through a study of those who celebrated the virtues of this tradition and those who mourned its vices. The study ranges from the mid-17th century to the 20th . Authors covered include such thinkers as Locke, Rousseau, Smith, Mill, Marx, Weber and Gilman.

Read more about HONR-2510 : Capitalism and Its Discontents

This course investigates a 20th /21st -century response to the Enlightenment ideas of freedom and rational autonomy. This response focuses on the rise of a class of questions that relate to ideas of the self, identity and community within society and society's institutions. Particular attention is paid to the effects of modernization and globalization. Authors covered include such thinkers as Dewey, Du Bois, Freud, Levinas, Mead, Foucault, Nussbaum and Rawls.

Read more about HONR-2520 : Modern Self and Global Society

The main goal of this course is that you become well acquainted with the intellectual tradition known variously as The Age of Reason/Classical Liberalism/Modernity. This intellectual heritage is the basis of the legal, educational and social institutions in this country. It is not possible to participate intelligently in current discussions about government, economics, the family, crime, political correctness, sex, science, religion or any form of social morality without first understanding this...

Read more about HONR-2530 : 18th- and 19th-Century Social Theory

This seminar, which builds on the discussions of the polis during the first year, provides an Introductionduction to modern political philosophy through an examination of major political theories and developments from the age of absolutist monarchies to contemporary times. Major topics include the sovereign state, social contract theory, constitutional governments, democracy, and socialist thought, as these were developed in the writings of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Toqueville, Mill, Marx, Foucau...

Read more about HONR-2540 : Modern Political Theory

John Maynard Keynes wrote, The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. This course critically investigates the evolution of the dominant ideas that guide the economic aspect of modern society. The study ranges from the mid-17th century to the late 20th century. Authors covered include Turgot, Smith, Ricardo, Pareto, Keynes, Arrow and Sen.

Read more about HONR-2550 : The Evolution of Economics