HCRT-300: Art of Thinking: Philosophy

This class grapples with the hardest and deepest of all questions: Is life a matter of fate? Is knowledge power? Is there a soul? Is existence absurd? Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? Does morality even exist? We will read selections from historical philosophical texts and address intellectual watersheds that haunt the modern mind, from "Plato's Cave" in ancient Greece to Michel Foucault's "Madness and Civilization." Above all, we will learn an Art of Thinking, in which there are no answers, but there aremoments of insight and clarity. Students will be expected to read difficult material, write opinionated papers, and contemplate ideas that can profoundly alter our lives.