Course Descriptions

PREC 104 Athens, Rome and Jerusalem: From Ancient to Modern
Greek, Roman and biblical texts continue to be read because they stand at the beginning of a long tradition, but also because they are voices in a sustained dialogue over time about important human questions. The texts we will read in this course represent cultures that, for all they have in common, are radically different. There are some cultural constants -- love, war, politics, poetry -- but those constants are understood in different ways over time and across cultures. Through close reading and discussion, this course will engage us in conversations that began in Athens and continue to the present.

PREC 105 Challenge of Sustainability
All human societies live in relationship with their surrounding natural environments. They draw on them for resources and in doing so inevitably change them. Today, as human populations have grown and modern societies have become more materially productive and interconnected, our impact on the global environment has increased dramatically. What does it mean for a society to be in a sustainable relationship with its environment? What can we learn from past societies? What are the challenges to sustainability at local, national and global levels? What changes might sustainability entail?

PREC 106 Cinematic Visions: Movies and the Meaning of Life
In this course we will use films to explore a variety of questions: What does it mean to be human? Who are we, and how do we know? What do we want out of life, and how should we go about getting it? What are our responsibilities to others? What does it mean to live "the good life?" We consider the ways in which film addresses these questions. Does film reflect the answers, or does it create them? In addition to film, we will use works from psychology, philosophy, and film studies to explore these issues.

PREC 107 Creating Monsters
One becomes a monster either by committing some "monstrous" act or by possessing some properties that designate them as essentially "other." This course examines and evaluates the psychological, sociopolitical, and ethical processes through which this occurs and will attempt to answer the question: What does the status of monsters tell us about what it is to be human? To do so, we will look at Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, William Shakespeare's Othello, Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem, and a number of shorter readings and films.

PREC 108 Creativity
This course will explore the phenomenon of creativity as an aspect of human (and non-human) behavior across a wide range of professional and academic fields, including the arts, social science, science, and the humanities, as well as an occurrence within nature. It will study creative thinking in relationship to critical thinking, both in theoretical and practical terms. It will engage questions about imagination, intuition, insight, inspiration, improvisation, empathy, creative problem solving, innovation, invention, and entrepreneurship.

PREC 109 Dying & Death
"Men fear death," says Sir Francis Bacon, "as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other." People have always tried to cast a little light into this darkness, but death has remained mysterious and impenetrable. The course offers an opportunity to take death "out of the closet" and examine it from many perspectives. Does death deprive life of all meaning, or is it a necessary condition of meaning? To what extent is our culture based on a denial of death, and to what extent are our conceptions of death shaped by our culture? What happens to us physically when we die, and what happens to us psychologically when others die? This course will raise questions about the path ahead and help inform us about how to think about and begin a search for answers to those questions.

PREC 110 Happiness
While it is likely that most people would agree that happiness is a central goal in life, we vary on what we believe happiness is and how to achieve it. This course will consider how happiness has been defined though time and different cultural and academic traditions. We will consider both empirical and normative questions of what leads to happiness. In our readings we will consider both Eastern and Western philosophical conceptions of happiness as well as contemporary scientific explorations of happiness and wellbeing.

PREC 111 Water & Humanity (How Water Shapes Humanity)
Water is an essential resource that has always connected humans with the environment. From the development of irrigation to the privatization of water rights, our efforts to control water have served as a defining feature throughout our history. In this course we will examine our relationship with water, beginning with early mythology and examples of cultural connections. Historical studies will illustrate water's importance in building cities and societies, and an examination of modern water issues will reveal our likely future as a species dependent upon freshwater availability.

PREC 112 Learning to See Water
This course will ask students to critically examine aspects of the social world that are often invisible (the way that water is invisible to fish). There are moments in our lives when we might feel invisible, for instance, and other moments when we do not recognize our own power or privilege. We will use the published work of essayists, researchers, novelists, and historians to improve our ability see what might otherwise be invisible or taken for granted. This course will challenge us to see, to recognize, and to empathize; we will learn to think analytically about difference, power, and choice.

PREC 113 Love
It may be true that "all you need is love," but why do we feel that need to love and be loved? This course explores four types of love (Affection, Friendship, Romance, and Unconditional Love) as they are expressed in both the arts and sciences, including literary/artistic and critical/theoretical perspectives, clinical research findings and movies and songs—and whatever else students bring to the course via individual projects and presentations.

PREC 114 Voyage to Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
Exploration, colonization, and cultural domination are common themes in human history. This course uses the setting of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) to investigate the enterprising tendency of human nature. Initially removed from the influence of neighboring societies and cloaked with mystery, especially with the creation of the large "Moai" statues, its isolated history will be examined. Rapa Nui also provides a remarkably contained setting in which to observe and question human exploration, as well as to understand the development of societies -- and their collapse.

PREC 115 Science Fiction & Human Identity
Do humans differ in a fundamental way from thinking machines? What is the relationship of the body to our conception of the human, and how might it change with the advent of genetic or cybernetic augmentation? What is the likely endpoint or destiny of humankind? Science fiction stories can be read as thought experiments designed to explore deep questions about what it means to be human. Drawing on a variety of readings and films, our goal in this course will be to explore the issue of human identity as seen through the lens of science fiction.

PREC 116 The Social Life of Food
Eating is an ordinary activity with profound social implications. Our modern food system has utterly transformed what and how we eat. This course examines food in a broad social context, exploring the modern revolution in eating but also the impact of this revolution on our attitudes and assumptions about what food is and how we consume it. In addition to analyzing food science and food fads over time, we will consider the politics, ethics, and ecological impact of our contemporary food culture.

PREC 117 Putting Down Roots: Sustainability and the Ecology of Place
Place can be defined at various scales, but almost all humans live and work at a local scale. In the 21st century it is obvious that we must live more sustainably than we did in the 20th century. How do place and sustainability relate? Place is far more than just physical location - the meaning of place comes from social-cultural interactions coupled to the ecology and history of place. Can we live sustainably without a connection to place? How do we put down roots in today's world? And why are roots important in a technological, fast-paced global culture?

PREC 118 War
War has been part of human experience since the dawn of history. It is an instrument wielded by states and revolutionaries, combining brutal violence and high strategy, condemned and justified by theologians and philosophers. Today, as populations grow, resources diminish and its destructive power expands, war seems more omnipresent and threatening than ever. We will draw on insights from the natural sciences, anthropology, history, literature, philosophy, psychology, political theory and the fine arts to explore this central human phenomenon.

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