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Undergraduate Courses

PHED-UE 10 Learning and The Meaning of Life 4 Credits

What is the most important thing to which I should be devoting my life? This course explores the existential concerns animating questions like this, ones that inspire our lifelong, liberal learning. It focuses on classic works in Western philosophy, literature, and film and examines them as texts of education. Class meetings will be devoted to a mix of lecture and discussion.

Liberal Arts Core/CORE Equivalent - satisfies the requirement for Texts & Ideas for Steinhardt students.

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HSED-UE 1070 The University: What Was It? What Is It? What Should It Be? 4 Credits

This course explores the nature and function of higher learning beginning with the Greeks and the ancient academy through the medieval rise of the universities and the expansion of the corporate culture of higher education. Students will be exposed to a vast array of classical works from the fields of philosophy, sociology, economics and the humanities. Student will apply the works of such thinkers as Plato, Kant, Veblen as well as others to ask critical questions about what has shaped their contemporary college experience. Liberal Arts Core/CORE Equivalent - satisfies the requirement for Texts and Ideas

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HPSE-UE 1012 Ubuntu: Collective Consciousness in Everyday Life 4 Credits

Introduces students to the African philosophy of Ubuntu, which priorities shared humanity and collective consciousness across public and private life. Students define and analyze Ubuntu in the context of South Africa and the US, and examine individualism and collectivism, forgiveness and reconciliation and their implications for nation-building. Students experiment with concepts of Ubuntu in collaboration with students in South Africa and apply these concepts to contemporary social problems. Meets Steinhardt Core requirements for Texts & Ideas.

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