The rich traditions that shape the Western world convey ideas, visions, and cultural practices that are shared, lasting, and tenacious. Whether dominant or prevailing values that many people of Western countries share or the folk traditions that grow out of small communities, these deeply rooted phenomena help us make choices about identity and affinity with family, community, history, values, and place.
Courses in this Foundational Area have varied emphases. Some examine powerful visions that philosophers, political theorists, historians, religious thinkers, scientists, and social critics have of the Western experience. Others explore competing ideas about human nature, liberty and equality, and the consequences of social change. Finally, some uncover those traditions growing out of the unique experiences of women, ethnic groups, and indigenous peoples as they express and preserve their own principles of social organization and cultural expression.
All courses in this area emphasize chronology and share a close attention both to the substance of the past and the ways to study it. Through direct engagement with primary texts, students learn to ask questions, debate ideas, and come to understand the ways that we experience the events and ideas of the past in our own lives.
