GS101-1212- Freedom and Authority
GS101-1222- Freedom and Authority
PS115/EN115/GS101- Concepts of Freedom from Ancient to Modern
Times
GS204-General Studies, Spirit & Nature, Religion &
Science
"Freedom and Authority" was the first interdisciplinary course at Colorado College and has been taught here for over 40 years. It is a two-block course focusing on the conflict between individual freedom and the limits imposed on this freedom by the state and its laws, by religious institutions and scriptures, and by attitudes of the society in which we live. As an interdisciplinary course, it studies literary, philosophical, religious, historical, and scientific texts in a thematic context. It focuses on four main themes: personal authority, social authority, political authority, and religious authority. Behind all of these themes are questions: What constitutes personal identity? What are the sources of our individual values and commitments? How much of what we are can be traced to ethnic and cultural background? What should one do when conscience and laws conflict? How does the individual relate to the group? How do authority and power work to constrain and mold individuals? How do sources of authority legitimate themselves? Through reading, writing, discussion, and critical thinking we will grapple with these and other questions surrounding the human condition.
Block I: Phoebe Lostroh (Biology and Feminist and Gender Studies)
Block II: Owen Cramer (Classics)
The course as a whole meets Critical Perspectives: The West
in Time (2 units).
Block I of this section will include 19th, 20th and 21st century texts about
biology, personal identity, gender, and race; the political and social authority
of science; and case studies in freedom, authority, and human health. We will
use these topics to address questions such as: What constitutes personal identity?
How much of what we are can be traced to ethnic and cultural background? How
does the individual relate to the group?
How do authority and power work to constrain and mold individuals? How do
sources of authority legitimate themselves?
Block II will embed these current issues in an ongoing history of thought
and action in the Western world: ideas of the soul and mind in Homeric epic,
Platonic philosophy and the Christian appropriation of Hellenistic Judaism;
invention of free will and the prehistory and history of Liberal ideas from
the Epicureans through Rousseau and Adam Smith to the 21st century; and the
promise and challenge of democracy, ancient and modern.
A two-block course with one instructor in each block; one grade
will be given for the course as a whole.
Blocks I and II: Dennis McEnnerney (Philosophy)
The course as a whole meets Critical Perspectives: The West in Time (2 units).
Block I of this section will begin with a brief consideration
of differing contemporary perspectives on freedom and authority and then turn
to a study of ancient Greek beliefs and practices, with a focus on how the
Athenian attempt to balance freedom and authority by means of democratic action
may offer a useful critical perspective on modern society and government.
The course then will examine the question of whether modern peoples, lacking
the traditions of earlier eras, can in fact develop moral perspectives that
could frame or inspire meaningful and autonomous lives. Here the focus will
be on the cultural and religious forces that offer individuals direction and
meaning in their lives. Next, the course will turn to the modern social and
economic structures that both promote a sense of individuality and limit actual
autonomy.
Block II will begin with a critical examination of enlightened rationality,
scientific progress, and technological society. Finally, the course will seek
to unpack some dilemmas of governing for freedom, particularly as large-scale
quasi-democratic states become absorbed in global orders. Here we will concentrate
on developments that corrode critical engagement with others and the broader
civil order, and on the ambiguities of power. Our question will be, how can
democratic freedom be made substantive in an age of manipulative political
marketing, inhumane struggles for power, and elusive global structures?
GS101-1222 will likely spend 2-3 days away from Colorado Springs, either at
the BACA campus or at the Colorado College cabin.
A two-block course with one instructor; one grade will be given
for the course as a whole.
Block I & II: Tim Fuller & John Simons, PS115/EN115/GS101, Concepts
of Freedom from Ancient to Modern Times
The course as a whole meets Critical Perspectives: The West in Time (2 units).
This interdisciplinary course explores enduring questions in the Western tradition:
What does it mean to be free? What are the basic ideas of freedom that figure
prominently in the Western tradition? What is freedom for? Is there a rational
use of freedom? Discussion will spring from readings in ancient, medieval,
Renaissance and modern philosophy, politics, religion and literature, and
complementary films. Texts to be chosen from among the following philosophers,
writers, filmmakers: The King James Bible, Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Sophocles,
Shakespeare, Locke, Rousseau, Mary Shelley, Dostoevsky, Camus, Alfred Hitchcock,
Ridley Scott, Kazuo Ishiguro.
A two-block, team taught course; one grade will be given for the course as
a whole.
Blocks I & II: Keith Kester, GS204, Spirit & Nature, Religion &
Science
The course as a whole meets Critical Perspectives: The West in Time (2 units).
Come and explore the realms of spirit and nature, and within
those realms the human spirit and human nature. Examine where good and evil
are to be found. Study the parallels and differences between religion and
science, between human creativity and creativity in the evolution of life.
Discover meaningful relationships between: 1) the natural and the supernatural;
2) natural history and natural theology; 3) immanence and transcendence; 4)
the animate and the inanimate; 5) the sacred and the secular. Consider how
a person of integrity can be both religious and scientific. Explore our world
in both natural and religious settings. Become aware of the diversity of life,
and of religions, and look for ways to nurture and protect both diversities.
Come away looking at our world and all its components, including the spiritual
and the natural, in new and different ways.
The course will trace the evolution of religions, the development of the theory
of evolution in 19 th century Victorian England by both Charles Darwin and
Alfred Russell Wallace and consider the response to the theory in both scientific
and religious circles, both then and now. We will explore faith and the plurality
of religions through Paul Tillich's Dynamics of Faith and Diana Eck's Encountering
God, consider The Sacred Depths of Nature with Ursula Goodenough, reflect
on human-human and human-nature interactions and the nature of evil with the
aid of Rosemary Reuther's Gaia and God and Lance Morrow’s Evil: An Investigation,
experience different religious communities, and read and recite nature poetry.
Field projects will include exploring 1) bio-diversity in the San Luis Valley,
and 2) the geologic history of the Garden of the Gods and Queen's Canyon.
We will be participating in two community service learning projects: 1) surveying
parts of the newly-developed Cheyenne Mountain State Park for signs of wildlife;
2) studying the effect of prescribed burns on plant diversity in riparian
zones at the Baca campus. Class will be held at the Baca campus (located about
175 miles southwest of campus) for one week during Block I.
A two-block course taught by one instructor; one grade will
be given for the course as a whole.