NVCC COLLEGE-WIDE COURSE CONTENT SUMMARY
PHI 211-212 - THE HISTORY OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY (3 CR.) (3 CR.)

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Provides an historical survey of representative philosophers from the pre-Socratics to the present. Introduces the student to the development of philosophical thought through selected readings of original works and appropriate critical materials. Lecture 3 hours per week.

GENERAL COURSE PURPOSE

To introduce the student to the history of and the thought of the major philosophical thinkers of the Western tradition through a critical reading of representative texts beginning with the works of early Greek philosophers extending through the philosophical tradition down to the present day. Each period of philosophy will be represented: Classical Modern, and Contemporary so tat the student will gain a comprehensive understanding and appreciation for the historical as well as perennial philosophical questions and the answers proposed by the greatest thinkers in the Western traditions.

ENTRY LEVEL REQUIREMENTS

None

COURSE OBJECTIVES

At the completion of this course the student will have developed a clear and comprehensive understanding of the general movement of philosophical thinking from the first Greek Philosophers to the present day. Specifically the student should be able to:

A. Identify topics and themes relevant to each period in the history of philosophy.   B. Discuss the questions underlying the topics and themes in a coherent, meaningful, and critical fashion.

C. Appreciate the distinctive features of the thought and world-views of each period in western philosophical history.

D. Interpret in a coherent and constructive fashion some of the fundamental texts of the first rate thinkers of the Western Philosophical tradition.

E. Assess the value of the contributions the major philosophers and their schools have made to our thinking and our way of life.

 MAJOR ELEMENTS OF CONTENT

Two or more of the following thinkers for any one period:

A. Classical Period: Pre-Socratic Philosophers such as Heraclitus, Parmenides Anaximander, Empeuocles, Democritus, Xenophanes etc.; Golden Age Athenian Philosophers: Socrates, Plato, Xenophon, Aristotle etc.; the Middle Period Philosophers: Sextus Empiricus, the Stoics, Plotinus, the Neo-Platonists etc.; the Latin Speaking Philosophers: Cicero, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, etc.; the later period of Antiquity: Augustine, Boetius etc. The Medieval Philosophers: Abelard, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure, Duns Scotus, etc. (PHI 212) B. Modern Period: Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Leibnitz, Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Marx, James, Pierce, and Dewey etc.

C. Contemporary Period: The Existentialists: Jaspers, Marcel, Sartre, Camus etc.; Heidegger, Gadamer, Voegelin, Habermas etc. The Process Philosophers: Whitehead, Hartshorne etc.

 Revised 10/95
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