COURSE Code: GASA H30
Philosophy can be defined as the love of wisdom, or more specifically, as the rational and critical inquiry into the fundamental questions of human existence. This course takes a historical approach to the central problems of philosophy. Students will critically examine the ideas and theories of the great philosophers in ancient and medieval philosophy. The course will begin with the pre-Socratic philosophers and their philosophy of nature. Students will then examine Socrates' moral philosophy and Plato's and Aristotle's metaphysics, ethics, and epistemology. The course then focuses on the great medieval philosophers, Augustine, Aquinas, and Anselm, and their attempt to understand the nature of sin, faith, and reason, and their arguments to prove God's existence. The course concludes with a study of Descartes' philosophy and his attempt to lay the foundations of our knowledge of the self, nature, and God.