Liberal Studies (LS)

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Related Mason Website: M.A.I.S. (http://www.gmu.edu/departments/mais/)

500 Religious Worlds in Transition (3:3:0). Examines a selection of non-Western and pre-Western cultures and religions, both ancient and modern, and examines their responses to an evolving world. Each culture is viewed from two standpoints: first, for its own construction of values, its conceptions of the relationship of the sacred to the world, the human condition, and "success" in human life; second, for its responses to the inevitable crises of history and the forces of change. In this context, Western culture is seen to be but one of many such constructions in transition, one of many ways of being in the world, more or less successful according to culturally determined conceptions of success itself.

502 Religions in Conflict and Dialogue (3:3:0). Examines the nature and patterns of religious conflict and explores ways of engaging in dialogue. Exploration of religious pluralism for dialogue is the main theme of the course.

511 Contemporary Values (3:3:0). Students identify personal, social, political, and religious values operative in contemporary society; examine their foundations and interrelationships; and examine in depth at least one area of human life in which values are both important and contested.

513 Existence, Faith, and Doubt (3:3:0). Examines the idea of religion, of the essential features and variations belonging to religious existence, of the challenges to religious self-understanding posed by contemporary interpretation of religious consciousness, and of the responses to those challenges through a hermeneutics of the religious symbol.

515 Time and the Human Condition (3:3:0). Explores Western culture's changing interpretations of the meaning and value of time and an examination of the ways these changing interpretations reflect diverse understandings of the meaning of the human condition.

520 Science, Reason, and Reality (3:3:0). Advanced exploration of the interrelations between science, reason, and reality. Explores philosophical perspectives such as: the logical empiricist approach, the Popperian falsifiability orientation, Kuhn's historicism, Newton-Smith's rationalism, a modeling approach by Van Fraasen, and Hacking's experimental realism.