Fall 2001; MWF 10:00-10:50; Gasson 210; Carney 007 (DG)

Andrew Peach

Carney 236; 552-3218, ext. 1

Office Hours: M 3:00-4:30, W 3:00-4:30, or by appointment

This two-semester, twelve credit course fulfills the university’s core requirements in philosophy and theology. In addition to the type of assignments required of any college course—regular readings assignments, written projects, and classroom lectures and discussion—this course requires a significant commitment to community service for the entire two-semester course, as well as attendance at weekly discussion groups.

As this format should indicate, this course is a yearlong process of contemplation and action. In the classroom, we will grapple with some of the most fundamental questions about human existence: In what does true human happiness or fulfillment consist? How is an individual’s fulfillment related to the common good or the good of society as a whole? Are the two compatible? Upon what principles should individuals act, and upon what principles should human society be founded? What is justice? What are the causes or reasons for social inequality or suffering in our society or any society? In your field placements, you will encounter men, women, and children who are experiencing the consequences of some form of social injustice or personal tragedy. In a mutually reinforcing way, the classroom and field projects are intended to deepen your understanding of and involvement in these great problems and mysteries of human existence.

Required Texts: (All of the following are in the theology section at the campus book store)

• Jonathan Kozol, Savage Inequalities

• Plato, The Republic and Other Great Works

• Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics
• The Catholic Study Bible: College Edition
• The Essential Augustine
• St. Thomas Aquinas: On Politics and Ethics

As indicated above, this course consists of two major components: classroom and community service. 40% of your grade will be determined by your performance at your field placement. Your placement supervisor will issue you a grade that will be incorporated into the overall grade for the semester. (During the end of the first class, members of the PULSE council will explain in more detail the placement process and the steps you will need to take during the next few weeks.) 60% of your grade will be determined by "classroom" performance, which means the following:

• Attending, participating in and preparing for class/discussion groups. Given the nature of the course, regular attendance at lectures and discussions groups, as well as active participation in and preparation for these meetings, are required. (If the instructor feels that students are coming to class unprepared, reading quizzes will be given.) Lack of preparation, the failure to engage in the course, or unexcused absences from either class or discussion group will result in a reduction of the grade at the instructor’s discretion. Discussion groups will begin meeting the week of September 24 at the following times: Wednesdays at 2:00 or Fridays at 1:00. The class will be equally divided into the two sessions. On September 14, each student must submit to the instructor a U-View print of his/her schedule as well as time preference. The instructor will assign students to one of the two discussion groups. (I will try to accommodate as many requests as possible, although each group needs to have half of the class.)

• Exams. Two exams will be given. The first exam will cover roughly the first half of the semester, and the second exam will cover roughly the second half of the semester.

• Papers. Four papers, each approximately four to five pages in length, will be due during the course of this semester. Each paper will have the following format: the first half of the essay will examine a particular and narrowly defined topic from one of the readings leading up to the due date of the essay, and the second half will relate this topic from the readings to some aspect of your field experience. Both the topic itself and the way in which the topic is related to the field experience will be chosen by the student.

• Institutional Analysis. During the second semester, students will write a structured analysis or evaluation of the organization at which they performed their community service. By mid-semester of the first semester, however, guidelines for composing this analysis will be given, as well as further details about the nature of this project.

• Each paper, as well as the mid-term, will count for roughly 15% of your grade; together they will constitute roughly 75% of your grade. Your final exam will count for the remaining 25%. However, these percentages are not absolute; your participation in and preparation for class can either help or hurt your grade, as the instructor sees fit.

• If a paper is late one class day, it will be docked two-thirds of a letter grade. E.g., a paper that would have earned a B+ would instead receive a B-. If a paper is late two class days, it will be docked another two-thirds. E.g., a paper that would have earned a B+ would receive a C. No papers will be accepted after two class days. Missing an exam will result in a failure for that exam.

For the most part, regular class meetings will be a mixture of lecture and discussion of the salient points from the reading. The format of the discussion groups will be explained at their first meeting, either Wednesday, September 26 or Friday, September 28. In general, the course will take an historical approach to the questions under examination, though every era will always be analyzed in the light of our current situation. We want to know how we got here, in 21^st century America, and whether or not we left something behind that we should have retained. Beginning with the ancient world, we will examine the two great roots of Western civilization: Greek philosophy (for us, Plato and Aristotle) and the Judeo-Christian religious tradition (for us, the Bible). Then we will see their attempted synthesis in the early and middle Medieval period, in the thought of St. Augustine of Hippo and St. Thomas Aquinas. In the second semester, we will examine "early modern" thought, especially the emergence of the "social contract" as an explanation of or noble myth about the origins and nature of civil life, as well as the ideas of the Enlightenment, which continue to inform almost all contemporary discourse about the structuring of human society.

In order to insure flexibility, each Friday the following weeks assignments will be given in class. However, the following is a rough schedule of the overall plan for the semester:

Sept. 5: Introduction to the course.

Sept. 7-10: Jonathan Kozol, Savage Inequalities

Sept. 12-26: Plato, The Republic, Apology, and Crito

Sept. 28-Oct. 12: Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics

Oct. 15-Nov. 12: The Hebrew and Christian Scriptures (a.k.a. The Bible)

Nov. 14-Nov. 26: St. Augustine, The Essential Augustine

Nov. 28-Dec. 7: St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Thomas Aquinas: On Politics and Ethics

Dec. 10: Review/Pulling the first semester together

The above dates are rough ones, but unless further notice is given, the following dates are set in stone.

Sept. 14: Hand-in U-View schedule and discussion group time request

Sept. 19: Town Meeting, 7:00 pm, Devlin 008

Sept. 26/28: First Discussion Group Meeting

Sept. 24: First Essay Due

Oct. 12: Second Essay Due

Oct. 19: Mid-Term Exam

Nov. 2: Third Essay Due

Nov. 30: Fourth Essay Due

Dec. 13: Final Exam