Core Curriculum

• CAS CC 101: Core Humanities I: The Ancient World
  Begins in the ancient Near East with the origins of Mesopotamian civilization and the Hebrew Bible. Continues with an overview of Greek civilization and careful study of Homer, Greek tragedy, Thucydides, and Plato.
• CAS CC 102: Core Humanities II: Antiquity and the Medieval World
  Focusing on ethical themes and questions from the Western and Eastern traditions, the course includes Aristotle, Confucius, Lao Tzu, the Bhagavad Gita, Epictetus, Vergil, the Gospels, and Dante. Chronologically, the course covers the late-classical period in Greece, the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, and the medieval world.
• CAS CC 105: Core Natural Science I: The Evolution of the Physical Universe and of the Earth
  Traces the evolution of the physical universe and our scientific understanding of it. Special classes devoted to dialogue among professors in the sciences, philosophy, and theology. Topics include Big Bang theory, evolution of the stars, laws of the physical universe, evolution of the earth, and planetary ecology. Laboratory work includes night labs in the observatory.
• CAS CC 106: Core Natural Science II: Biodiversity – Causes and Consequences
  Historical, conceptual, and factual study of the evolution of life, biodiversity, and the ethical and social questions raised by technology. Specific topics include the nature of the scientific enterprise, the fossil record, evolutionary biology, genetics, and the environment. Assignments include computer-based and experimental laboratory work.
• CAS CC 201: Core Humanities III: The Renaissance
  From the late Middle Ages through the burgeoning of Renaissance humanism to the baroque period. The origins of modern political and scientific thought and of the comic novel. The flowering of English poetry, Petrarch, Montaigne, Rabelais, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Descartes, and Milton, as well as the music of Bach and the art of Michelangelo.
• CAS CC 202: Core Humanities IV: From the Enlightenment to Modernity
  From the philosophes and the Age of Reason through the Romantic Revolt and the origins of modernity. Voltaire, Swift, Rousseau, the music of Mozart, Goethe's Faust, the Romantic poets, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Nietzsche, and Dostoyevsky.
• CAS CC 203: Core Social Science I: Foundations of the Social Sciences
  Provides a historical framework for understanding the origins and concerns of the social sciences and the major events and processes that have shaped the twentieth century both in the United States and around the world. Readings are drawn from classic works of social and political theory: Aristotle, Tacitus, Ibn Khaldun, Hobbes, Rousseau, Tocqueville, Weber, Marx, and Durkheim.
• CAS CC 204: Core Social Science II: The Problem of Inequality
  Focuses on the problems of inequality and the response of contemporary social scientists. Topics include psychological and sociological models of human identity, race and immigration, and contemporary theories of justice, globalization, and the international order. The course includes significant study of American society.

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