Javascript is currently not supported, or is disabled by this browser. Please enable Javascript for full functionality.

   
    Nov 23, 2024  
American University Catalog 2017-2018 
    
American University Catalog 2017-2018 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Foundational Area 2: Traditions that Shape the Western World


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.

Traditions that Shape the Western World: Goals


  • explore the diverse historical and philosophical traditions that have shaped the contemporary Western world
  • read and discuss fundamental texts from those traditions, situating the texts in their appropriate intellectual contexts
  • develop the student’s ability to critically and comparatively reflect on religious and philosophical issues, in dialogue with others both past and present

Wildcard Courses


Wildcards are original, timely courses, affording an opportunity to try out new ideas. New courses are often (but not always) offered as wildcards as a prelude to proposal for a permanent place in the General Education program. Subject to the approval of the General Education Curriculum Committee, wildcards can be offered by any teaching unit. Offerings vary each semester.

Sophomore Seminars


Sophomore Seminars are interdisciplinary or multi-disciplinary courses that integrate approaches and methods from two or more disciplines. Students are exposed to multiple modes of thinking about subjects, concepts, and problems, and engage in evaluating complementary and competing ways of knowing. Sophomore Seminars can be offered by any teaching unit at the 200-level under the GNED prefix, and are specifically designed to meet the learning goals of two or more Foundational Areas. Offerings vary each semester.