September 9, 1998
I. General Criteria:
All courses offered for the Ways of Knowing
requirements should meet the following criteria:
Extensive substantive content.
Explicit introduction to problems within the
area of inquiry and to various approaches and pathways toward
understanding these problems.
Attention to the creation, development, and
modification of models, multiple theoretical perspectives, and
interpretations pertinent to the subjects explored, currently and
over time.
Accessibility, when possible, to both majors
and non-majors.
II. The Categories
Exposure to different ways of thinking in
multiple disciplines is crucial to the development of critical and
creative thinking. While the following categories will not satisfy
every member of this community, they are intended to all-inclusive
and overlapping, to encompass the entire range of our endeavors. The
committee believes that every corner of our campus will be able to
provide or contribute to courses that meet the Ways of Knowing
requirements. Furthermore, we believe that many departments will
offer courses in more than one category.
Approaches to the Past (2
courses): Courses in this category will give sustained, focused
attention to aspects of the past that have exerted or continue to
exert considerable influence on human history or experience. "History
or experience" are here understood in the broadest possible terms. In
addition to courses focused on major epochs (classical civilization)
or complex historical phenomena (the Reformation, colonialism),
courses in this category might focus on the emergence of scientific
thinking, the rise of democracy, comparative religious traditions,
the evolution of primates and hominids, or aspects of philosophical,
artistic, or literary traditions. Where at all possible, courses
should include primary documents, texts or artifacts and should offer
multiple interpretive approaches. Preference will be given to courses
that are chronologically broad in scope, OR comparative in
focus OR wide-ranging in perspective. Such courses could be
offered by faculty in a range of departments in all divisions or they
could be developed collaboratively by faculty from different
departments.
Encounters with Texts and The Arts
(2 courses): Courses in this category should invite students
to analyze firsthand significant products of human intellect and
imagination. "Texts and the Arts" is meant to be construed as broadly
as possible to include major works of literature, philosophy,
religion, art, film, music. The focus should be on helping students
to learn how to read critically and independently. Ideally, courses
in this category would emphasize multiple interpretive possibilities
or standpoints--different methods for interpreting a novel, for
example, or different approaches to sacred texts, or different ways
of understanding a portrait or a building. Where possible, these
courses would analyze works from more than one genre.
Interpreting Human Behavior: Individual,
Social, Cultural (2 courses): Courses in this category should
provide students with an introduction to and some understanding of
the psychological, social, or cultural dimensions of human behavior.
"Human behavior" is intended in the broadest possible sense. Courses
might focus on cognitive or linguistic phenomena, on social
institutions or structures, or on comparative cultural development.
These courses would communicate a sense of the range of approaches to
the study of human behavior by 1) examining a variety of cultural or
social contexts, OR 2) examining one culture or society from a
variety of perspectives, OR 3) examining encounters between or
among different societies, OR 4) analyzing experimental,
statistical, or other empirical data in ways that are applicable to a
variety of social and cultural contexts.
Engaging Science and Technology (4 courses): Courses in this category are intended to provide students insight into the key methodological and epistemological approaches in science and technology as well as to expose them to a portion of the knowledge base that now exists. Two courses in this category should have an explicit, substantial focus on how we know what we know and how we have accumulated over time the body of knowledge on which much of modern society is based, and should examine the implications of that knowledge and its applications. These courses will be designed to enhance insight into how hypotheses and theories are developed and tested, and how observations and experimental results become established as scientific facts and form our shared understanding about underlying principles. The recursive nature of this process will be emphasized, in that insights from experiments not only may confirm the original ideas but also generate new and unexpected hypotheses. Two courses in this category should incorporate this theoretical perspective where possible, but will primarily provide an in-depth view of a more specific body of knowledge in science or engineering.