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The Great Ideas Programme is an interdisciplinary liberal arts programme. It is designed to provide students with the opportunity to explore some of the perennial questions of human existence through the reading and discussing of original works by men and women from across the ages. All courses are team-taught by a minimum of two instructors to ensure an interdisciplinary perspective.

To complete the Great Ideas Major, students are required to complete the following
thematic courses:

Second year: GRID 2012 Introduction to Great Ideas (12 ch)

Third year: 12 credit hours in upper-level Great Ideas courses (GRID 3006, 3106, 3206, 3306)

Fourth year: 12 credit hours in upper-level Great Ideas courses (GRID 3006, 3106, 3206, 3306)

1006. Introduction to Great Ideas
This course, open to all students, is an opportunity to read and discuss books from a variety of disciplines as an introduction to the study of significant ideas, ancient and modern. Themes will include ideas of the good life, justice, love, friendship, and others. Typically studied will be texts such as Plato's Republic, Malory's Morte d'Arthur, Shakespeare's Hamlet. and Austen's Emma. This course is not a required course in the Great Ideas Major and will not count toward the Major. 6 credit hours.

2012. The Quest for the Good Life
An introduction to the study of significant ideas through thoughtful reading. This course is designed to approach the perennial issue of "The Quest for the Good Life." This will be done through close reading and discussion of a wide range of influential works. These will include works both ancient and modern, all selected because they speak to and illuminate the core question. Texts will vary from year to year, but may include works such as Aristotle's Ethics, the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, Dante's Divine Comedy, Machiavelli's The Prince, More's Utopia, Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women, and Camus' The Plague. Prerequisites: completion of 24 credit hours at the 1000 level. 12 credit hours.

3006. Faith, Reason, and Imagination
This course is designed to explore the ways in which we apprehend truth, the ultimate objects of knowledge, and the interaction between fundamental ways of knowing. The modes of faith, reason, and imagination will be explored through literary and philosophical works which present one or more of them as paths to knowledge. Texts will vary from year to year, but may include works such as Aristotle's Poetics, Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, Aquinas' Summa (selections), Selections from Luther, Confucius' The Analects, Sidney's Defence of Poetry, Lanyer's Slave Deus Rex Judaeorum, Descartes' Meditations, Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, and Lewis' Surprised by Joy. Prerequisite: GRID 2012 or permission of the instructors. 6 credit hours.

3106. Love and Friendship (ENGL 3656; PHIL 3106)
This course will explore the interrelated themes of friendship, love, and beauty. Each theme will be examined separately and as connected to the others. Ancient and modern texts will be used to examine the ways that different ages have addressed these fundamentally personal and yet common human experiences. Texts will vary from year to year, but may include works such as Plato's Symposium, Spenser's The Faerie Queens, Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor, Rousseau's Confessions, Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, LeGuin's Left Hand of Darkness, Woolf's Orlando, and Bellow's Ravelstein. Prerequisite: GRID 3006 or permission of the instructors. 6 credit hours.

3206. Human Nature and Technology (ENGL 3666; PHIL 3206)
This course will study the way in which diverse thinkers have considered the question of human nature. This question will be sharpened with a consideration of the way in which human beings considered as natural beings use and are affected by technology. Texts will vary from year to year, but may include works such as: Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, Bacon's New Atlantis, Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Grant's Technology and Empire, Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz, Heidegger's The Question Concerning Technology, Shelley's Frankenstein, Gaskell's North and South, Achebe's Things Fall Apart, and Sterling's Holy Fire. Prerequisite: GRID 2012 or permission of instructors. 6 credit hours.

3306. Justice
In this course we will explore the nature of human community and the question of justice. Themes to be addressed will include an individual's responsibility to others, the role of community in promoting human happiness, the manner in which we are both limited and fulfilled by justice, and the relationship of justice and law. Texts will vary from year to year, but may include works such as: Plato's Republic, Aquinas' Summa Theologica, Sayers' Gaudy Night, Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Cary's Tragedy of Mariam, Marx' The German Ideology, Hegel's Philosophy of Right, and King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail." Prerequisite: GRID 3206 or permission of the instructors. 6 credit hours.

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