History

Philosophy helps develop one’s moral imagination in ways necessary to meet contemporary challenges and opportunities concerning the promotion of the global common good. This proposed class on ethics will proceed with the assumption that philosophical claims—e.g., about human nature, our sociality, and its normative implications—are constantly being made throughout our world, and that it’s the task of the student of philosophy to uncover and examine such claims. As such, this course attempts to promote ethical reasoning and reflection, in order to help prepare students to become responsible global citizens. This can be problematic insofar as students’ limited experiences of the world, along with inherent psychological limitations, make it difficult for them to envision the global implications of their actions and decisions. Philosophical reflection helps in this respect since it has, almost since its inception, encouraged students to expand these limits in order to consider as nearly as possible the global (or even universal) implications of ideas and actions. The whole point of philosophy, on this view at least, is to consider things as much as possible in terms of their relations to everything else and to allow such considerations to challenge one’s preconceived notions of common sense and social custom. Through both reading great works in the history of philosophy and an emphasis on critical, open-ended discussion, this course will attempt to develop students’ moral imaginations by encouraging them genuinely to consider multiple, often contradictory views and to examine their own most deeply held beliefs.

This seminar and project-based course gives students a chance to deeply explore the cultural, political, economic, and social trends that define the 21st century. Students emerge from the class as informed global citizens able to engage the world they will face after graduation. Guided by the issues relevant in the moment, topics vary with the headlines, but prominent themes include politics, war, and social upheaval, contemporary art, film, music, and popular culture. In State of the World, students learn to critically engage with and challenge their own cultural perspectives through a variety of group projects that are led and overseen by students. In addition to refining distinctly historical skills, students develop and practice skills essential to their lives beyond Stevenon, including presenting their work, offering and receiving critique, and publishing research findings as an online magazine-style journal, a film, or other media creation.

The modern world, loosely defined as the last four centuries, from the global Renaissance to the present, has been defined by massive transformation––social and political upheaval and revolution, industrialization, urbanization, global exchange and conflict, migration, and imperialism and colonization. This course combines a chronological and thematic approach to explore the historical roots of modernity. In endeavoring to consider the dynamic changes that modernity brings, students critically examine diverse perspectives––including people of color, young people, and women––as well as multiple points of view––oppression as well as resistance, emigration as well as immigration, the enslaved as well as the enslavers. This course challenges students to think historically, objectively, and globally, to evaluate historical sources, and to grapple with a variety of complex textual, visual, and physical materials to explore the modernization of the world and its role in shaping our contemporary world.