Courses

• CAS NS 223: Nautical Science
  An introduction to the technologies of operation at sea. The concepts of navigation (piloting, celestial, and electronic), naval architecture, ship construction, marine engineering systems, and the physics of sail are taught from their bases in astronomy, mathematics, and physics.
• CAS NS 224: Practical Oceanographic Research
  This course in oceanography is designed to provide the student with a knowledge of the equipment and methodology used in the study of the oceans. Each student collects and analyzes data in support of a research project in a selected aspect of oceanography aboard the SSV Westward or SSV Corwith Cramer.
• CAS NS 291: Introduction to Scientific Research
  An introduction to the performance of scientific research through lectures, discussions, and readings about the design of projects, understanding of scientific literature, and ethics of research and publication. Includes 4-6 weeks of practical research experience.
• CAS NS 320: Ocean Science and Public Policy
  Examines the connections among science, culture, and marine related public policy. Through a case study of a single policy issue, explores the power, use, and limitations of science and the scientist's voice in determining ocean policy.
• CAS NS 321: Oceans in the Global Carbon Cycle
  An exmination of the role of the oceans in the climate system, addressing topics such as the global carbon cycle, the thermohaline circulation, and aspects of global change including warming and sea level rise.
• CAS NS 322: Maritime History and Culture
  Examines the impact of maritime ventures on the societies they contacted. Focus on the resulting social, political, economic, and cultural changes in the Atlantic and Pacific, and on responses documented in the post-Colonial literature of indigenous people.
• CAS NS 323: Marine Environmental History
  Sources and methods of the historian are used to examine the role of human societies in environmental change in the oceans and coastal regions, including overfishing, pollution, invasive species, and climate change.
• CAS PH 100: Introduction to Philosophy
  Introduction to the nature of philosophical activity through a careful study of selected great works such as Plato's Apology, Descartes' Meditations, Lao Tze's Tao Te Ching, Pascal's Pensées, and Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
• CAS PH 110: Great Philosophers
  A comparative introduction to the life and thought of six preeminent philosophers from classical times in both the Western and Eastern traditions.
• CAS PH 150: Introduction to Ethics
  Who ought we to be, what ought we to do, what ought we to strive for? Examination of our obligations to ourselves, to other humans, and to the natural world in light of ethical theory and contemporary problems. Readings from a wide range of texts in philosophical ethics.
• CAS PH 155: Politics and Philosophy
  A study of the theoretical foundations of modern industrial democracy, with special attention paid to the Enlightenment. Readings from Machiavelli, Locke, D'Alembert, Rousseau, Madison, and Tocqueville.
• CAS PH 159: Philosophy and Film
  An introduction to philosophy via reflecting on philosophical issues connected with film as a medium. Topics include general aesthetics, representation, emotion and narrative, genre, fictionalism, and whether film can be immoral. Topic for Spring 2011: TBA.
• CAS PH 160: Reasoning and Argumentation
  A systematic study of the principles of both deductive and informal reasoning, calculated to enhance students' actual reasoning skills, with an emphasis on reasoning and argumentation in ordinary discourse.
• CAS PH 241: Philosophy of Personality
  Consideration of the nature and problems of self-understanding and self-realization. Psychological and philosophical perspectives on pattern, growth, and maturity in personality. Particular attention to philosophical issues associated with the place of emotion in the healthy personality; rationality, freedom, and responsibilty.
• CAS PH 242: Philosophy of Human Nature
  Consideration of ways in which questions about human nature have received philosophical formulation through analysis of such concepts as depth, courage, authority, intensity, possibility, transcendence, tradition, adventure, unity, sex, struggle, and peace. Discussion of past and recent work in philosophical anthropology.
• CAS PH 244: How Are We To Live? Ethics in Action
  A rigorous, critical approach to a number of difficult ethical questions that arise in everyday life, including questions about life and death, morally responsible healthcare, special duties to family and friends, and the moral status of animals.
• CAS PH 245: Philosophy and Religion
  Introduction to religious thought, exploring the aims of human life, the place of God in the good life, and the role of contemplation and action in the spiritual quest. Readings from Plato, Aristotle, Bible, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Augustine, Maimonides, Ghazzali.
• CAS PH 246: Indian Philosophy
  Indian philosophy in a comparative context, with special emphasis on Hindu nondualism.
• CAS PH 247: Introduction to Chinese Philosophy
  An introduction to the Chinese philosophical tradition, including a study of classical Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Mohism, Legalism, and modern developments.
• CAS PH 248: Existentialism
  Analysis of existentialism as a movement or orientation in contemporary philosophy. Topics include contingency and the grounds for belief and value; depth, superficiality, and the intense life; commitment and open-mindedness; tragedy and the healthy self; boredom, anxiety, and adventure; and existentialism as a philosophy of the possible.

Note that this information may change at any time.

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