This course will provide an overview of various perspectives that have, and continue to, influence these discussions as evidenced in personal and public attitudes toward childhood and policies designed to address issues of childhood. Students will also examine the possible impact of these images on current political and social agendas as well as personal and public understandings of childhood. This course will focus on significant western myths that were developed in the Greek, Roman, Hebrew, early Christian, and modern scientific eras. That is to say, myths embody reflections on the nature of the universe as well as cultural ideals, and, as shared truths in a given culture, they provide a sanction for common action. More briefly, myths order the universe and shape the lives of those who share them.
Ultimate meaning is derived from it.
This course will concentrate o n how morality, understood as a subject of philosophical inquiry, is developed through common practices and expectations of a society and its members. The focus of this course centers on role models prevalent in seventeenth and eighteenth century French and British society. The perspective of this course is cross-disciplinary, for we will investigate selections from philosophical works such as those by Immanuel Kant and David Hume as well as cultural hallmarks such as Henry Fielding s Joseph Andrews , Samuel Richardson s Sir Charles Grandison , and Jean Jacques Rousseau s novels Emile and Julie. 13006 GH 302W Sec. The concept of genocide is now firmly established in our consciousness and language.