This is not an all-inclusive list. Students may propose other courses than the ones listed here.
Please look for relevant courses in these and other subject areas that have a contemplative dimension in BannerWeb and Mocha.
*Courses prefaced by an asterisk are those that contain a significant critical first-person dimension
Multidisciplinary Courses
University Courses
UNIV0540: Introduction to Contemplative Studies
Professor Harold Roth
Introduction to the new field of Contemplative Studies focusing on identifying methods human beings have found, across cultures and across time, to concentrate, broaden and deepen conscious awareness. We will study what these methods and experiences entail, how to critically appraise them, how to experience them ourselves, and how they influence the development of empathy, health, and well-being.
UNIV1520: The Shaping of World Views
Professor Onesimo T. Almeida
To many students, an exclusive emphasis on specialized studies fragments the "world" in which they live. A widespread feeling of loss pervades the minds of students who often come to universities to learn right from wrong, to distinguish what is true from what is false, but who realize at the end of four years that they have deconstructed their freshman beliefs, values, and ideologies, but have created nothing to replace them. This course examines the diversity of worldviews both synchronically and diachronically and surveys various explanations for such diversity. Conducted in English.
UNIV1700: Transformation of the Research University
Professor William S. Simmons
This seminar will focus on recent transformations of the academic, instructional and administrative character of the elite American research universities. Emphasis will be on selected pressure points (such as research funding, diversity, technology, market influence) that drive change and shape the future.
Humanities
Religion
Courses that consider contemplative experience as attained through religious practice
Religious Studies
RELS0065: On Being Human: Religious and Philosophical Conceptions of Self
Professor Thomas Lewis
An examination of classic and contemporary views on the nature of human existence. Central themes include human freedom, the relation between reason and emotion, and the significance of personal history and memory. We also ask how conceptions of who we are shape views about how we should live. Sources include religious and philosophical texts as well as recent films.
RELS0090B: Hindu and Christian Modes of Loving Devotion
Professor Donna Wulff
Explores two modes of devotion prominent in the medieval West and in medieval and modern India, both centering on the human incarnation of divinity, as Jesus Christ and as Krishna. The first considers the divine as child and plays on the paradox of the omnipotent God of the universe as a seemingly helpless infant. In the second, God is conceived as a lover and erotic passion serves as an image and avenue of religious realization. First-year students only.
RELS0120: The Foundations of Chinese Religions: Mystics, Moralists and Diviners
Professor Harold Roth
An introduction to the origins and early development of the indigenous religious thought of China from the oracle bone divination of the Shang Dynasty to the ethical philosophy of Confucianism and the cosmology and mysticism of Taoism. The course will seek to identify and elucidate the basic elements of the distinctive Chinese world view and demonstrate how they have shaped the nature of religious practice and experience and how they have been shaped by them. Works of interpretive scholarship will be used to supplement the primary texts in translation that will form the course. Optional lab section will give first-person experience with the ancient divination practices.
RELS0500: The Theory and Practice of Buddhist Meditation
Professor Harold Roth
Examines the theory and practice of Buddhist meditation in historical and modern contexts. Traces this practice from its origins in 6th-century B.C.E. India to its transmission to China, Korea, and Japan. Studies selected normative texts and explores how Buddhist meditation is practiced today in each of these regions, both as an individual practice and as part of a monastic regimen. Meditation lab related to weekly seminar. Topic for 2007: Meditation and Ethics. Prerequisites: Previous class on Buddhism.
East Asian Studies
EAST1880B: Daoism in the Classical Period
Professor Harold Roth
We will explore the key ideas and practices of the early Chinese Taoist tradition.
Philosophy
Courses on the nature of the human mind as it is envisioned in both Western and Non-Western cultural traditions
Classics
CLAS1120G: The Idea of Self
Professor Joseph Pucci
Literature gestures us toward a certain kind of knowledge not quite psychological, not quite philosophical. We read widely in the classical and medieval traditions in order to gauge the peculiar nature of what this knowledge tells us about experience and the ways in which expressions of selfhood abide or are changed over time. Authors include Sappho, Catullus, Horace, Virgil, Lucan, Anselm, Heloise, Hildegard, Carmina Burana, Abelard.
CLAS0840: Classical Philosophy of India
Professor James L. Fitzgerald
An introduction to the classical traditions of philosophy in India. After presenting a general overview of this discourse and its basic Brahminic, Buddhist, and Jain branches, the course will examine selected traditions and themes from both the several schools concerned entirely with gaining ultimate beatitude (the Highest Good) (the schools known as Samkhya, Yoga, Theravada Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism, Jainism, and Vedanta) and the schools that concentrate on issues of logic, metaphysics, and language and hermeneutics
Philosophy
PHIL0200C: Personal Identity
Professor Katherine Dunlop
What makes me the same person over time? How can we decide whether a person at a time is identical with a being alive at another time? We will consider the continuing existence of the body, the ability to remember experiences, and other criteria. Readings from classic (17th and 18th century) and contemporary sources.
PHIL1520: Consciousness
Professor Christopher Hill
Topics will include: forms of consciousness, physicalist and representationalist theories of qualia, pain and other bodily sensations, emotional experience, conscious thought, higher order representation theories of consciousness, self-representation theories, global workspace theories, blindsight and related phenomena, and the roles of attention and working memory in perceptual consciousness.
PHIL1770: Philosophy of Mind
Professor Jaegwon Kim
Questions concerning the nature of mentality and its relation to the body. Selections from the following topics: mind and behavior, mind as the brain, mind as a computing machine, thought and language, action and mental causation, intentionality and consciousness, emotion and volition, the nature and possibility of a science of mind. Prerequisite: one course in philosophy or background in cognitive science.
Literature
Courses that concentrate on contemplative dimension in the creation and/or appreciation of creative writing
Comparative Literature
COLT0610A: The Far Side of the Old World: Perspectives on Chinese Culture
Professor Dore Levy
A survey of traditional Chinese culture focusing on the major literary and artistic achievements of six major periods in Chinese history, including philosophical texts, poetry, various forms of the fine arts, and vernacular fiction and drama. A broad range of primary materials will give the student greater insight and appreciation of Chinese culture in general and also provide a foundation for further study of East Asia in other disciplines.
COLT1810P: Literature and Medicine
Professor Arnold L. Weinstein
The purpose of this course is to examine a number of central issues in medicine-disease, pain, trauma, madness, the image of the physician-- from the distinct perspectives of the sciences and the arts. Literary texts will be drawn from authors such as Sophocles, Hawthorne, Buchner, Strinberg, Gilman, Tolstoy, Kafka, Anderson, Hemingway, Ionesco, and K. Harrison; theorists will include Foucault, Sontag, Scarry and others.
Science
Courses that concentrate on scientific explanations of the human mind and its cognitive functioning, both on an individual and cultural level
Psychology/Sociology
PY0030: Personality
Professor Brian Hayden
PY001: Elementary Psychology
PY105: Music and Mind
PY107: Psychological Theory
ENGN1930F: Entrepreneurship and Good Work: Engineering Dreams
Professor Josef Mittlemann
In this course, students examine the concepts of creation, organization, promotion, management and risk of ownership, to wit: entrepreneurship. This is done in the context of 'good work'. Using a combination of relevant case studies,, readings, guest lectures and discussion, each participant builds a theory and framework to explore what defines innovative and meaningful engagement during one's working years. Written permission required.
Cognitive and Linguistic Science
*CG00011: Perception, Illusion, and the Visual Arts
Professor William Warren
COGS0138: An Ecological Approach to Perception and Action
Professor Warren
COGS001: Approaches to the Mind
COGS008: Meaning and Thought
COGS042: Human Cognition
COGS044: Perception and Mind
COGS1050: Music and Mind
Professor Laurie M. Heller
Explores music perception in terms of auditory and cognitive processes such as auditory perception, memory, and learning. Lectures, discussions, and demonstrations review and analyze a body of scientific research on the psychology of music. Problem sets and a collaborative laboratory project. Prerequisites: COGS 0010 and MUSC 0010 or permission of the instructor.
Anthropology
AN0131: Religion and Culture
Professor William S. Simmons
AN0153: The Ancient Body: Past Ideas about Human Physiology
Professor Stephen Houston
Neuroscience
BN001: The Brain: An Introduction to Neuroscience
BN105: Cognitive Neuroscience
Creative Arts
Courses that study the role of contemplative experience in the creative arts
Literary Arts
*LR 100: John Cage Seminar: Mind, Methods, and Materials
Professor Thalia Field
*LR 100: Deep Ecology and Textual Forms
Professor Thalia Field
*LR 100: Buddhism and Creative Practice
Professor Thalia Field
*LR 176 Still and Moving Minds: Contemplative Practice in Literature
Professor Thalia Field
*LR 176 Section 10: Poetry, Mind, and World, Outside and Inside
Professors Forrest Gander and Susan Bernstein
Theatre Arts
*TA 32: Creative Collaborations
Professor Michelle Bach-Coulibaly
*TA 33: Mande Dance, Music, and Culture
Professor Michelle Bach-Coulibaly
*TA 127: Non-Western Theatre and Performance
Professor John Emigh
*TA 128.008: New Works/ World Traditions
Professor Michelle Bach-Coulibaly
East Asian Studies
EAST1950F: The Karma of Words
Professor Janine T. Sawada
This course is an opportunity for students to further their understanding of East Asian Buddhist attitudes and values by investigating characteristic themes in literature as a whole, rather than by studying formal scriptures and doctrinal tracts. Participants will explore tensions between the religious and poetic impulses and learn to recognize Buddhist symbols in Chinese and Japanese poetry, fiction and plays. Recommended: a course in Asian religions.
EAST1950K: Losing Yourself in Love in Pre-Modern Chinese Poetry, Fiction and Drama
Professor Kathryn Lowry
A seminar focused on larger-than-life loves in Chinese drama, fiction, and poetry. The course will explore how passion, feeling, and subjectivity was increasingly viewed as essential to human nature and society from the 15th century onward.