Search for Truth--Syllabus
This is the Syllabus.
This course is a senior religion elective. It is an overview of the History of Western Philosophy. This course is broken down into five units. We briefly cover what philosophy is and logic (unit 1); then the major philosophers of Classical Philosophy (unit 2); the major philosophers of Medieval Philosophy (unit 3); the major philosophers of Modern Philosophy (unit 4); and the major philosophers of Existentialism (unit 5).
This course fulfills a requirement for the UC and CSU systems. We read excerpts from many philosophers, including Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Marx, Nietzsche, and Sartre. It is therefore a very different type of religion course.
Some of my personal goals for this course are:
- for the student to know what Philosophy is (and what it isn't and why it is a "religion" course);
- for the student to recognize that the ideas we hold today depend in large part on the great thinkers who went before us (the development of ideas);
- for the students to shape critically their own worldview by questioning themselves and dialoguing with others (including the great thinkers of the past).