The course, broadly speaking, looks at sources of authority in each field, definitions of truth, and the processes by which lawyers, scientists, and theologians arrive at those truths. The professors debate a series of topics, each of which serves as a lens, clarifying their views. By the end of the semester, they'll have touched on such themes as justice, free will, dissent, approaches to classification, causality and probability, and views of the future. During the first class, students watch a brief video about the international black market for human organs. Women in India lift their bright saris to show scars across their torsos, from where they had donated kidneys.
Some students raise their hand in assent.
Other students raise their hand. Cox then asks students to turn to people who had disagreed with them and discuss their relative positions. The former view holds that the soul is imprisoned in the body, implying a separation between the two. The Hebraic view sees body and spirit as unitary, rendering something like organ removal problematic. Gould takes the floor next.