This course is inspired by Freud?s idea that human self-understanding advances during great revolutions in thought. We study several revolutions in science and belief, from Marx to Darwin, and consider whether a general model applies to them all. How have ideas about the universe and human beings? place in it changed dramatically at certain points in history? Do revolutions in thought have a common structure? What revolution are we living in today? This course is part of an Honors symposium titled ?The Copernican Lens: Dawn and Limits of Certainty in Physical Science and the Humanities?, which runs concurrently with three other ?Copernicus Lens? courses in other fields during the same semester. Taking its point of departure from the revolution in astronomy introduced by Nicolaus Copernicus, the symposium explores the intersections of types of thinking about the universe and humanity across history, especially the relationship between scientific and humanistic thinking. The implications of key transformations in scientific and humanistic thought are traced in the realms of philosophical ideas about humans? place in the world, and historical understandings of the development of science, belief, and truth itself. The course will be run in a seminar, discussion-based format, meeting twice a week for discussion (Mondays & Wednesdays) and once a week (Fridays) for a shared plenary with the other three ?Copernicus Lens? courses. Among the requirements of each course in the Honors symposium is participation in plenary sessions when the students from all four courses meet together. The four instructors (Professors Nathan Schwadron [Physics], Subrena Smith [Philosophy], Rachel Trubowitz [English], and Paul Robertson [Classics, Humanities and Italian Studies]) have planned the plenary sessions around common activities and learning materials, approached from the individual perspectives of their own discipline. By learning from each of the professors, the students in all the courses will gain an understanding of the different disciplinary perspectives that can be applied to the study of science in its cultural and historical contexts. The course qualifies for ?Historical Perspectives? credit in the Discovery Program because it introduces students to major developments in the history of science and belief that have significantly shaped contemporary life. Through study of specific episodes and historians? interpretation of them, students will gain an understanding of the methods of historical inquiry. They will also come to grasp the historical contingency of beliefs and assumptions through entering imaginatively into worldviews different from those of the present.

This course provides an introduction to religion, exploring the various ways that this phenomenon has been understood, approached, practiced, and studied across human history. The course will examine the different ways that religion can be defined, drawing from a variety of humanities and other disciplines. Foundational theories explaining the origins, persistence, and continued relevance of religion will be compared and applied to different traditions. Topics include concepts of divinity, rituals, myth, mysticism and spirituality, pilgrimage, death and the afterlife, and ultimate reality.

In this co-taught topics course, students will study art, philosophy, history, and cultures of a particular region of the globe, most often one underrepresented in the traditional study of Western Humanities. Students will consider internal diversity, change over time, and interactions with other regions. Topics may include Africa, the Indian Ocean, Latin America, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, South or East Asia, or associated diasporas. May be repeated if specific topic is different.

This course offers a comparative study of world religions. The focus of the course is to acquire a broad overview of world religions through an examination of sacred texts, art and iconography, as well as religious experience and practice. Theological, philosophical and cultural influences are considered as religious language is examined. Religions considered are: Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, religions of Africa, as well as primal religions.