Courses

This course surveys and engages philosophical issues connected to technology, and the human manipulation and transformation of nature. For example, is the human good essentially tied to technological development? Should technological advancement be allowed to constrain or even determine social, political and moral decisions? Is technology an essentially neutral means to ends otherwise determined or do technological means bring with them their own ends? What are the differences between the natural and the artificial? Has technology taken the place formerly held by religion or spirituality?

Since philosophy's roots in ancient Greece, philosophers have traditionally utilized critical analysis and the tools of reason and logic in pursuing answers to philosophical questions. However, the analytic focus of contemporary philosophy has been shaped most significantly by the philosophical tradition launched by Bertrand Russell, G.E. Moor, and Gottlob Frege at the dawn of the twentieth century.

Explores the foundations of religious belief and faith, particularly the issue of the rationality of religion. The role of methodology is examined, including the value of deductive, inductive, and abductive reasoning; also the question whether the method applicable to religious belief is unique to it. The work of recent philosophical theologians and their critics is examined and evaluated.

This course examines the triumph of secular naturalism in academic/educated culture, and proposes rational grounds for advancing historic Christian theism. Trinitarian faith is viewed here as having the structure of theories that postulate the existence of unobservable objects. These theories adopt a unique method of defining the entities or beings postulated to exist; this method is shown to be compatible with historic theism. Moreover, the Resurrection of Jesus is identified as the central tenet for which evidence additional to that found Holy Scripture is needed in our secular context. The Shroud of Turin and contemporary visions of Jesus are shown to offer such evidence. While no objection is registered to allowing science to explore any features of the Universe, Christian theism is presented as supplementing such scientific knowledge.

This course examines the character of Philosophy as an academic discipline, with particular attention to the kinds of claims that are central to its inquiry, such as Logic, Metaphysics, Epistemology, Ethics, and Aesthetics. The feasibility of the claim that Philosophy is an objective discipline, and that its contributions are as significant as the factual matters handled in any social or natural science, are examined. Various subfields within Philosophy are given special attention, including Ethics, Logic, Epistemology, and Metaphysics.

Students investigate physical reality employing basic principles of Newtonian mechanics which allow the description and explanation of motion: three-dimensional kinematics, dynamics of particles and rigid bodies including work, energy, momentum, rotational motion, simple harmonic motion, and fluids.

The basic principles of classical electromagnetism and waves: mechanical waves, Coulomb's law, electric fields, Gauss's law, Faraday's law, AC circuits, electromagnetic waves, geometrical optics.

A survey of the development of scientific theories, emphasizing the ideas that emerged in physics in the twentieth century. The course is designed so that general audience students become engaged with the conceptual aspects of topics in relativity and quantum mechanics.

An introduction to stellar and galactic astronomy, and to the tools and techniques of astronomy. Discussion of the types of stars and their formation, energy production, and end states; the nature of nebulae, star clusters, black holes, galaxies, and quasars; modern cosmology; astrobiology. Several daytime and night-time observation sessions are undertaken. Historical, philosophical, and Christian theological perspectives are considered.