PHIL

This course will examine several of the world’s great religions in terms of their history, texts, and impact on society. Students will examine the challenges to these religious institutions, as well as their own personal faiths, in the light of the modern scientific and technological culture in which we live.

This course is meant to help students understand the concepts and dynamics of critical reasoning to develop the ability and habit of critical reasoning and analysis. The course will help students appreciate the usefulness and importance of thinking and reasoning intelligently amidst the complexities of critical life issues, and to develop necessary critical thinking and reasoning skills that will enable them to reason correctly and effectively in important real-life situations. To this end, this course will investigate a variety of relevant topics, including models and types of thinking (for example, creative and imaginative thinking, realistic thinking, problem solving, crooked and fallacious thinking), language and thought, logic, analogy, the philosophy of reality, knowledge, experience and truth, and the use of the scientific method in critical reasoning and analyses.