Contemplative Studies Courses
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Humanities ( Religion | Philosophy | Literature )
Science
The Creative Arts
This is not an all-inclusive list. Students may propose other courses than the ones listed here.
*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.
HUMANITIES
RELIGION
Courses that consider contemplative experience as attained through religious practice
RELIGIOUS STUDIES
RELS0065: On Being Human: Religious and Philosophical Conceptions of the Self
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.
RELS0260: Religion Gone Wild: Spirituality and the Environment
Professor mark cladis
A study of the dynamic relation between religion and nature. Religion, in this course, includes forms of spirituality within and outside the bounds of conventional religious traditions (for example, Buddhism and Christianity, on the one hand; ecofeminism and the literature of nature, on the other). Topics in this study of religion, philosophy, and ecology will include religious depictions of nature, humans, environmental justice and environmental degradation.
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
Core Courses
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.
philosophy
PHIL0020: Mind and Matter
Professor eoin ryan
This course will investigate the puzzling relationship between mind and matter. Most people can see the plausibility of two different institutions: (i) our minds and our bodies are different (our minds just don't seem physical as our bodies do, even to the extent that the laws of physics do not apply); (ii) brains are the seats of minds, which makes minds very much material. To accept one option and take it that our minds are material, means we have to explain how the world of matter can generate mental phenomena; and this is no easy task. The other option is also problematic: if we take mind and matter to be entirely separate substances, the how and why of their interaction is just mysterious. Indeed, the explanational gap is very similar in either case.
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.
SCIENCE
Courses that concentrate on scientific explanations of the human mind and its cognitive functioning, both on an individual and cultural level
Core Courses
PSYCHOLOGY
PY0030: Personality
Professor Brian Hayden
PY 0182: The Cognitive Neuroscience of Emotion
Professor Luiz Pessoa
COGNITIVE AND LINGUISTIC SCIENCES
*CG00011: Perception, Illusion, and the Visual Arts
Professor William Warren
CG 0138: An Ecological Approach to Perception and Action
Professor Warren
ANTHROPOLOGY
AN0131: Religion and Culture
Professor William S. Simmons
AN 0153: The Ancient Body: Past Ideas about Human Physiology
Professor Stephen Houston
Related Courses
PSYCHOLOGY
PY001: Elementary Psychology
PY105: Music and Mind
PY107: Psychological Theory
COGNITIVE AND LINGUISTIC SCIENCES
CG001: Approaches to the Mind
CG008: Meaning and Thought
CG042: Human Cognition
CG044: Perception and Mind
NEUROSCIENCE
BN001: The Brain: An Introduction to Neuroscience
BN105: Cognitive Neuroscience
THE CREATIVE ARTS
Courses that study the role of contemplative experience in the creative arts
Core Courses
ENGLISH (Literary Arts Program)
*LR 100: John Cage Seminar: Mind, Methods, and Materials
Professor Thalia Field
*LR 100: Deep Ecology and Textual Forms
Professor Field
*LR 100: Buddhism and Creative Practice
Professor Field
*LR 176 Still and Moving Minds: Contemplative Practice in Literature
Professor 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 Bach-Coulibaly
*TA 127: Non-Western Theatre and Performance
Professor John Emigh
*TA 128.008: New Works/ World Traditions
Professor Bach-Coulibaly
EAST ASIAN STUDIES
*EA 0126: Japanese Prints, Contemplation, and Engagement
Professor Roger Keyes
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