AMS 1314 What is America For? 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

The modern philosopher David Hume argued that “man, born in a family, is compelled to maintain society, from necessity, from natural inclination, and from habit.” We are all born into a particular political society. Good citizenship demands that we pursue the good of that political society. To do that, we must understand what that society is meant to achieve. In this class, we will explore this essential question: what is America for? We will reflect on how we, as rational and political animals, share and pass on a particular way of life. We will ask how we can rightly claim that there is one American way of life and one way to live it out when we live in a pluralistic society. We will ask whether American identity and purpose have changed—or remained the same—over time. We will take a multidisciplinary approach to these questions, incorporating elements of philosophy, religion, history, political science, and literature. We will consider the roles of religion and culture, urbanism and ruralism, and tradition and progress as we grapple with this essential question of national purpose.

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities

AMS 2010 Civil Discourse and the American Political Order 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Students will explore the concept of civil discourse along with the basic principles of American democracy and how they are applied in our republican form of government. Through a review of the us constitution, founding documents and landmark supreme court cases, students will understand how the nature and functions of our institutions of self-governance have been shaped. Students will then apply these lessons to case studies.

Attributes: General Education - Humanities, Satisfies 2000 Words of Writing Requirement

AMS 2183 Classics of American Thought I: English Settlement to the Civil War 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Multidisciplinary survey of the ideas, texts, and authors that have shaped the American tradition and its attendant concepts of freedom, democracy, equality, and nationhood. Learn about America’s cultural and political heritage by reading and discussing great works of philosophy, constitutional interpretation, science, political thought, history, and literature, and the arts, beginning with English settlement and concluding at the end of the Civil War.

AMS 2330 America Great Debates 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

This course surveys political concepts and debates regarding liberty and equality in American thought from the colonial period to the present. These ideas still influence political debates in present-day America. One of the course’s central themes is the three centuries’ long American conflicts between liberty and equality and between constitutionalism and democracy.

Attributes: Quest 2, General Education - Social Science, Satisfies 2000 Words of Writing Requirement

AMS 2814 Classics of American Thought II: Reconstruction through the Twentieth Century 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

This multidisciplinary course surveys the ideas, texts, and authors that have shaped the American tradition and its attendant concepts of freedom, democracy, equality, and nationhood. Students will learn about America’s cultural and political heritage by reading and discussing great works of philosophy, constitutional interpretation, political thought, history, literature, and the arts, beginning in Reconstruction and concluding at the end of the twentieth century.

AMS 3043 American Law 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Multidisciplinary rotating topics consider major American legal traditions from the colonial era to the present. Courses will focus on one major theme, such as free speech, rule of law and constitutionalism, considered by American authors and refracted through the American experience.

Prerequisite: 3 credits of AMS, ISS, HIS, PHI, POS, or ECO.

AMS 3334 American Conflicts 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Multidisciplinary rotating topics consider major American conflicts from the colonial era to the present. Topics focus on one major conflict in American political, social, cultural, or economic life.

Prerequisite: 3 credits of AMS, ISS, HIS, PHI, POS, or ECO.

AMS 3523 American Cultural Movements 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Multidisciplinary rotating topics which focus on major American cultural movements from the colonial era to the present. Topics include the historical, cultural, political, economic and social aspects of these major cultural movements.

Prerequisite: 3 credits of an AMS or ISS or HIS or PHI or POS or ECO course.

AMS 3607 American Characters 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

This multidisciplinary rotating topics course considers major American figures or groups from the colonial era to the present. Courses will focus on one major figure or set of figures such founders, Puritans, leaders and their roles in American historical, cultural, political, economic and social life.

Prerequisite: 3 credits of AMS, ISS, HIS, PHI, POS, or ECO.

AMS 3806 American Ideas 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Multidisciplinary rotating topics consider major American intellectual traditions from the colonial era to the present. Topics focus on one major theme, such as progress, liberalism, conservatism, environmentalism and freedom, considered by American authors and refracted through the American experience.

Prerequisite: 3 credits of AMS, ISS, HIS, PHI, POS, or ECO

AMS 4970 American Government, History, Literature, and Law Research Seminar 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

This course provides students with the support, framework, and deadlines for completing the senior thesis in the American History, Government, Literature, and Law major. The process of writing a senior thesis involves original research, with extensive use of primary materials, under the supervision of a faculty advisor in the Hamilton Center. This course helps facilitate that process by providing deadlines for thesis chapter completion and providing a workshop environment with peers.

Prerequisite: 9 credits of AMS, ISS, HIS, PHI, POS, or ECO.

ISS 1020 Who Am I? The Self from Antiquity to 1700 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Who am I? What is identity and the self? Where does my identity come from and how is it formed? In this multidisciplinary and discussion-based course, we will explore these perennial questions by tracing the development of ideas about the self and identity in the western intellectual tradition.

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities

ISS 1104 Wisdom and Heroism 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

What did it mean to be wise and heroic in the Middle Ages? How do medieval European views of wisdom and heroism compare with modern views? We will explore these questions by examining different ideals of wisdom and heroism in medieval history, literature, philosophy, art, architecture, and music.

Prerequisite: Restricted to undergraduate degree-seeking students.

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities

ISS 1110 The American Idea 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

The United States of America has been described as the first nation in the world founded on a creed––a set of beliefs and ideas––rather than the more customary national origins of ethnicity and territory (or “blood and soil”) prevalent in the eighteenth century. It is this unique national nativity that is sometimes regarded as a foundation of the concept of “American exceptionalism.” This sense of creedalism continues to be a defining feature of the American identity, even if its particular features and meanings remain much debated––as they always have been. Thus the animating question for this course: what are the primary beliefs and ideas that shaped the United States at its birth, throughout its history, and into the twenty-first century? Ideas are also inseparable from the people who hold them and advance them. Who are some of the most notable and influential Americans who have developed, even in some cases personified, these ideas? How do they relate, if at all, to the American character and identity over time, and now in our contemporary moment? Using a combination of primary documents, core texts, and secondary readings, this multidisciplinary course will profile a series of ideas and the people who embodied them to trace the development of the United States itself.

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities, Satisfies 2000 Words of Writing Requirement

ISS 1123 The End of Empires: Imperialism to Decolonization 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Today, we live in a world which, for perhaps the first time in human history contains––officially at least––no empires. Yet less than 75 years ago, in the middle of the twentieth century, they suddenly disappeared throughout the world. How can we explain this transformation? What is the nature of the political world in which we now live? How is it so different to those that have come before – and why? What does it mean for a political community to be independent? This multidisciplinary course considers a stretch in the history of western civilization––from the age of imperialism to the era of global decolonization––in which a world inhabited by empires was replaced by one of nation-states.

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities

ISS 1163 Comedy and Citizenship 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

How is comedy an expression of citizenship? How do we use comedy as responsible citizens in a democratic republic? This course explores the Classical foundations of comedy in the Western tradition up through our contemporary experience.

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities

ISS 1165 The Politics of Nature 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

How does our conception of nature shape our political realities and fortunes? While today we are more aware than ever of the pressures posed by limited resources, fragile ecosystems, and rapidly changing climates, the history of political thought reveals a long-standing awareness of the interdependence between nature, the political edifice and the mediating force of technological development. By tracing out a series of core concepts, this course surveys a series of complex dynamics of dependence, control, crisis, and escape, that govern the interplay between man and his environment. The interdependence of the natural world, the artificial world we create, and the political edifice, often appears as a puzzle: how should we approach nature? What power, if any, does it hold over us? What is the role of artifice and technology in producing and mediating society’s most pressing challenges? How ought we reconcile our dependence upon nature with the desire and need to control certain forces of nature? If today we are more aware than ever of our own impact on our environment, a much longer tradition pays testament to the fact that this complex interplay is a two-way street. Man is, and continues to be, shaped in imperceptible ways by the technologies he produces, as these work with and on nature. This course excavates this rich tradition of social and political texts, through four distinct units that trace this relationship up to the contemporary moment. It offers students an opportunity to gain a wider appreciation of the historical contours of these pressing questions, as well as a renewed look at some of the most topical difficulties of today, including social media, climate change and the impact of our built environments.

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities, Satisfies 2000 Words of Writing Requirement

ISS 1202 Freedom and Equality: Great Books from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

The question at the heart of this course is: what does it mean to be free and equal? What are the origins of our modern sense of justice, and how did individuals confront powerful and sometimes tyrannical leaders and institutions with new concepts of freedom? When did people and states start to insist that they were free and that they were equal? How do those past meanings differ from our own? This multidisciplinary course considers a stretch of Western civilization’s history—from the Renaissance to the Age of Democratic Revolutions—in which the values and virtues of individual and corporate liberty and equality were insisted upon by authors, artists, and statesmen. In this period there emerged a new way of social and political organization—self-government—and freedom and equality were considered necessary for self-government. This course will trace the emergence of modern conceptions of freedom and equality through reading and viewing a range of works of politics, literature, art and economics.

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities

ISS 1203 Conflict and Character: Great Books in the Ancient World 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

In this course, we ask the question: how do we develop the character to handle life’s conflicts and tragic events? We will pursue answers to this problem through a study of ancient Western drama and philosophy. We will read Plato and Aristotle Stoics to grapple with classical philosophical accounts of the relationship between virtue, practical reasoning, and human flourishing. We will also read four tragedies: Sophocles’ Antigone and Oedipus the King, Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound, and Euripides’ Hecabe. Through our study of these plays, we will explore questions concerning ethics, responsibility, and luck. We will reflect on how the study of philosophy and dramatic literature can enrich our experience and understanding of each, and how that knowledge can help move us through the deepest difficulties of life.

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities

ISS 1260 Faith and Reason in Jewish Thought 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

This course examines the following questions: what is the relationship between religious belief and human reason? How much of life do we attribute to prophecy, miracles and providence, and to what extents do we rely on human initiative, effort and creativity? Are the positions of faith and reason reconcilable, or in perennial conflict? This course will reflect on these questions in relation to western tradition.

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities

ISS 1262 God and Science in the Western World 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

How does belief in God shape the way one views the natural world? This course considers the relationship of thinking about God and thinking about nature from classical antiquity until the early twentieth century. It addresses the history, key themes, principles, terminologies and methodologies of multiple humanities disciplines regarding the relationship of religion to science in the Western world.

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities, Satisfies 2000 Words of Writing Requirement

ISS 1295 Religious Freedom in Historical Perspective 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

What does religious freedom mean, and how has its definition evolved through history? Those questions lie at the heart of this course. Different faith traditions and strains of secularism interpret these components of religious freedom in particular ways. Understanding this conceptual diversity is a crucial task for the modern age of western thought.

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities, Satisfies 2000 Words of Writing Requirement

ISS 1296 Romanticism: The Storm of Feel 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

What is the place of feeling in modern life? What is the value of desiring things we can never have, or mourning things we have already lost? Can even positive experiences of love, longing, and awe create a ‘storm’? And can negative emotions like fear, dread, and confusion have a positive meaning? These are questions raised by the Romantic movement, which this course will survey in literature, philosophy, and the arts from Western canon.

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities, Satisfies 2000 Words of Writing Requirement

ISS 1297 Ancients and Moderns 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Are we better than the Ancient Greeks and Romans? What do we owe them, and how have we surpassed their achievements? What does it mean to define ourselves as “modern” in contrast to classical antiquity? These and related questions are the focus of this course, which explores the ancient-modern dynamic in Western culture from the Renaissance through the Enlightenment. Readings will include selections from such writers and thinkers as Homer, Aristotle, Vergil, Petrarch, Erasmus, Bacon, Hobbes, Milton, Swift, and the American Founding Fathers.

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities, Satisfies 2000 Words of Writing Requirement

ISS 1340 Rhetoric and Leadership 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

How do leaders use rhetoric to persuade others? What role does the art of rhetoric have in the making of politics, art, and community? This course will draw from ancient and modern perspectives, looking at both philosophical explorations of rhetoric and practical examples of it.

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities, Satisfies 2000 Words of Writing Requirement

ISS 1443 Life, Liberty, and Happiness 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

What constitutional arrangements secure life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? How can heterogenous populations live together as fellow citizens? These and other questions have captivated Western public life and culture since antiquity. We will examine them through a wide range of sources: philosophical, legal, historical, sociological, political, and literary.

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities, Satisfies 2000 Words of Writing Requirement

ISS 1681 What is the Common Good? 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

This course explores the concept of the common good, as articulated in philosophy and illustrated in drama, literature, and film. We begin by studying the blueprint for a concept of the common good that Aristotle sets out in the Politics and Nicomachean Ethics, and its full development in St. Thomas Aquinas. Armed with this theoretical background, we apply ourselves to questions such as: how should regimes and authority figures provide for the common good through the law? What does pursuing the common good involve when the demands of justice are in tension with general beneficence? How compatible is value pluralism with the pursuit of the common good? We will read Sophocles, Lincoln, Martin Luther King, and St. Thomas More, among others, to reflect on the nature of leadership, justice, dissent, and principle, and how we can pursue the common good while remaining true to our conscience.

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities

ISS 1684 What is Democracy? 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

This course traces the changing ideal of democracy from ancient Athens to the present day, drawing on classic works by Plato, Aristotle, Rousseau, Tocqueville, Marx and Arendt. It studies the development of this idea over time and charts the dizzying variety of meanings that have been assigned to it, while engaging with the arguments of its sharpest and most perceptive critics.

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities, Satisfies 2000 Words of Writing Requirement

ISS 1691 Immortality 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

In this multidisciplinary course, we will explore the long history of Western thinking about immortality in its many senses: figurative survival through memory of great deeds, personal salvation after death, elevation to status as a literal god, restoration to bodily life, and collective survival as a species. We will see how hope, skepticism and changing expectations of immortality shaped the epic poetry, philosophy, religious literature, novels, and art of the Greeks and Romans.

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities, Satisfies 2000 Words of Writing Requirement

ISS 1700 Why Spy? 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Why spy? Spying has long been an important part of how countries relate to each other and defend themselves. But why do they do it? This course will approach this question from several different perspectives by reading stories of Cold War espionage (both fiction and nonfiction). We will examine it at a national level, asking what role intelligence plays in countries’ foreign policy and international relations. We will examine it at a personal level, asking why people choose to join their countries’ intelligence services, and why some people choose to spy on their own countries for foreign governments. We will also pose it skeptically, asking how we ought to think about morality and immorality in a world full of deception. Along the way, we will also consider bigger questions that the world of spy craft poses for our everyday lives and in relationship to Western thought. What is the role of knowledge and information in decision-making? What level of uncertainty and risk are we willing to accept when making big decisions? How can we trust that what we know is true?

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities, Satisfies 2000 Words of Writing Requirement

ISS 1711 Why Fight? 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

What justifies the use of force? No democratic citizen is exempt from considering this question, but our answers are often contradictory jumbles. To gain clarity we will explore the works that laid the moral foundation for the modern way of war, from the Bible and the Iliad to the thought of Karl Marx. In this interdisciplinary course you will discuss poems, plays, films, histories, and philosophical accounts about war in the Western canon and beyond. Its subtitle could be “From Zeus to the Atom Bomb,” because we will be traveling from the Classical to the Nuclear Age. Combining the techniques of literary studies, philosophy, history, and religious studies, we will strive to understand our own responses to arguments, works of art, visions, and fantasies about the nature of war. How have these cultural forms influenced the crucial decisions of human beings, and how do they impact our thinking now? We will also consider scientific explanations for the ubiquity and persistence of warfare, wondering whether natural science alone can explain human conflict. Lastly, we will consider if we have entered a “post-modern” phase of war, with the War in Ukraine as our object of consideration, a war documented in dizzying detail on social media.

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities, Satisfies 2000 Words of Writing Requirement

ISS 1712 Just War 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Can war be just? What is a ‘just cause’? The idea that war can and should be just holds a middle position between the refusal to impose any moral restraints on the waging of war (realism) and the rejection of all warfare as immoral (pacificism). Western just war theories gradually developed from the confluence of Greek philosophy, Roman Law, and the Judeo-Christian scriptural tradition. Just war theory asks two essential questions. Is the cause for going to war just (jus ad bellum)? And, Is the conduct of the war just (jus in bello)? This multidisciplinary course surveys just war thinking from antiquity to the First World War. It includes historical case studies so that students can develop their own concepts of jus ad bellum and jus in bello.

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities

ISS 1715 The Art of War 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

For centuries, generals have searched for an “art of war” that could be used to defeat their enemy but what is an “art of war”? The art of war is closely tied to the term “strategy.” Strategy derives from the ancient Greek word strategos. Translated literally it means "the general's art." In general, it refers to military matters such as the overall conduct of a war. Likewise for centuries, military practitioners and theorists have written on strategy and the key figures who have shaped the theory and practice of war and statecraft. This multidisciplinary course provides global, comparative perspectives on strategic thought from antiquity to today, surveying both classical and current themes of strategy in search of an “art of war.” It includes historical case-studies from the Western canon so that students can develop their own concepts of strategy and the art of war.

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities, Satisfies 2000 Words of Writing Requirement

ISS 1716 War and the Human Condition 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

How does war shape the human condition? In the present era, Western countries are generally sheltered from war. But this is an anomaly. Most human societies have had to reckon with war and grapple with its effects. Moreover, they have tended to regard this reckoning as important for developing their own way of life. Without that reckoning, their societies might atrophy, ossify, and slide into decadence. The resurgence of concerns about the potential for open warfare between China, Russia, and the United States demonstrates the need to consider war’s effects and the persistent questions its possibility poses for human societies. This discussion-driven course explores war’s effects on the human condition through a variety of disciplines and approaches. To study these effects we draw from philosophy, literature, ancient and modern history, and illustrate these effects through a number of literary sources, including drama, novels, memoirs, and film.

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities, Satisfies 2000 Words of Writing Requirement

ISS 1810 The Search for Meaning in a Secular Age 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

What does it mean to live in a secular age? How does living in a secular age offer new opportunities and challenges for the perennial human quest for meaning? This multi-disciplinary course tackles these fundamental questions. Drawing on philosophy, sociology, and political science from the Western canon, we will examine three senses of secularity. The first is a political sense, where religion is largely if not entirely removed from public life, as is the case in many modern liberal democracies. The second sense of secularity is sociological, and it is identified with a situation in which there has been significant decline in religious belief and practice (recently discussed in terms of the rise of the “nones,” that is, those who answer “none” when asked for their religious affiliation). The third sense of secularity is an existential sense, where it has to do with a change in the circumstances of the human quest for meaning, namely, where there has been a move from a condition in which a traditional religious outlook was taken for granted to one where it is regarded as one option among others. This third sense of secularity will be our primary focus, though we will also be concerned with its relationship to the other two senses of secularity. In exploring the existential (or lived) sense of secularity, we will examine philosophical writings on meaning in life from religious, secular, and spiritual-but-non-religious perspectives, seeking to understand what makes for a worthwhile life. Finally, we will explore how secularization has influenced politics today on both sides of the political spectrum and consider what role spirituality and religiosity might still have in public life.

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities

ISS 1811 Religion, Revolution and the Person 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

What does it mean to be a ‘person’? How does the person relate to other people, to society, and to God? Some of the greatest writers, philosophers, poets, and artists of the Russian nineteenth century considered the questions of the revolutionary transformation of society and the restoration of faith from the standpoint of the individual person. For them, not just philosophy, but also literature, poetry, and visual art were paths to understanding the self and its purpose in the world. By considering questions of identity and appearance, activism and contemplation, reason and irrationality through seemingly prosaic themes such as fingernails, overcoats, and simple arithmetic, this course will reveal a variety of perspectives of the nature and value of human personality and ask students to reflect on their own approach to the person in the modern age and in relation to Western tradition.

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities, Satisfies 2000 Words of Writing Requirement

ISS 1812 The Crisis of Liberalism 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

What exactly is liberalism, and what is the source of its crisis in Western thought? Is liberalism responsible for its own failures? Does it lead to the dissolution of community, family, and religion? Has liberalism led us inevitably toward an illiberal future? What, if anything, can be done to preserve freedom and equality?

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities, Satisfies 2000 Words of Writing Requirement

ISS 1884 Capitalism and Its Critics 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Does the capitalist system erode community or enhance it? That is this course’s central question. This multidisciplinary course examines a range of contemporary concerns over the role of capitalism in shaping our society. In it students will consider both the origins and the future of capitalism.

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities, Satisfies 2000 Words of Writing Requirement

ISS 1885 Utopias and Dystopias 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

What would the ideal society look like? Utopias allow their authors to create alternate worlds, free of constraints of scarcity, gender, customs, science or even human nature. Utopian writing also poses dangers: there is a fine line between utopia and dystopia. This course will examine these ideas in relationship to the Western tradition.

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities, Satisfies 2000 Words of Writing Requirement

ISS 2105 The Origins of the Contemporary West: I (Ancients to the Scientific Revolution) 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Multidisciplinary survey of the big ideas in Western Civilization and the societies and cultures which helped to form them. Students will learn about the West's cultural heritage by reading and discussing great works of philosophy, history, politics, literature, art and science from antiquity to the seventeenth century. Begins with creation stories in the Hebrew and Greek traditions and ends with the Scientific Revolution.

ISS 2106 The Origins of the Contemporary West: II (Enlightenment to Modernity) 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Multidisciplinary survey of the big ideas in Western Civilization, and the societies and cultures which helped to form them. Students will learn about their cultural heritage by reading and discussing great works of philosophy, history, politics, literature, arts and science from the eighteenth century onwards. Starts with the Enlightenment and ends in the twentieth century.

ISS 2122 The History of Political Economy 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Political economy is grounded on the dual convictions that political institutions affect economic growth and that economic conditions affect political decisions. Students will review great works in the history of political economy, focusing not just on the development of economic thought but on the ways economic thought necessarily connects to political and social structures in modern market economies.

ISS 2262 Political Violence and Power 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

In this course, we’ll survey the history of political violence to better understand our present. We’ll explore fin-de-siècle anarchism, Soviet communism, German Nazism, anti-colonial struggles, jihadism, violent extremist groups on the far left and on the far right, and more. Students will read original historical documents, familiarize themselves with social-scientific analysis, and study people they may find strange, dangerous, or evil.

Attributes: Quest 2, General Education - Social Science

ISS 2290 Conflict and Character: Great Books in the Ancient World 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

How do we develop the character to handle life’s conflicts and tragic events? Through our studies we will reflect on how the study of philosophy and dramatic literature can enrich our experience and understanding of each, and how that knowledge can help move us through the deepest difficulties of life.

ISS 2291 Great Books of the Medieval World 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Multidisciplinary exploration of Great Books written in the medieval Western world. During this period Christianity moved from being proscribed and persecuted to being the established religion of Western nations. The core texts of the era grapple with many of the questions which arose from that transformation. Authors to be considered include Augustine, Boethius, Alfarabi, Averroes, Maimonides, Aquinas, Dante, Petrarch, Chaucer, Julian of Norwich and Luther, among others.

ISS 2292 Great Books of Early Modern World: Renaissance to Enlightenment 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Multidisciplinary exploration of Great Books written between the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. These core texts raise questions that have occupied Western societies ever since. Authors to be considered include Machiavelli, Montaigne, Shakespeare, Hobbes, Milton, Locke, Swift, Hume, Rousseau, Voltaire, Gibbon, Franklin, among others.

ISS 2293 Great Books of Modern World 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Multidisciplinary exploration of Great Books written in the modern West, between the French Revolution and the twentieth century. These core texts raise questions that continue to occupy Western societies. Authors to be considered include Burke, Brönte, Tocqueville, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Freud, Eliot, Joyce and Faulkner, among others.

ISS 2294 Theories and Structures 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

The course draws on empirical and theoretical perspectives from a range of disciplines tracing the evolution and development of the state system, from its rise in the seventeenth century through to the new emergence of new challenges in the globalized world of the early twenty-first century. Students will investigate the questions posed to the world order by new structural developments and explore the competing interpretations scholars have proposed to help us understand them.

ISS 2400 The Rule of Law 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

This course examines core debates and perspectives on the nature of constitutional government, from antiquity to the present. It will begin with an examination of contemporary constitutional controversies in America, France, and Israel. It will then examine how great thinkers and practitioners have sought to define (and defend) constitutional government. The course will study various differing and sometimes clashing views among these writers and practitioners about the political and legal arrangements most conducive to constitutional government. Perspectives to be considered include: Aristotle and Xenophon on the constitutions of Greek cities, Isaac Abarbanel on the constitution of ancient Israel, John Locke and Montesquieu on the executive, the separation of powers, and the danger of tyranny, Edmund Burke and Madame de Staël on constitutional monarchy, and the views of constitutionalism at the American founding expressed by Federalists, anti-Federalists, and Thomas Paine.

Attributes: Quest 2, General Education - Social Science, Satisfies 2000 Words of Writing Requirement

ISS 2440 Introduction to Philosophy, Politics, Economics and Law 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Introduces students to core debates, concepts, and tools that will help them understand the complex interplay of philosophy, politics, economics, and law in the modern world. Students will learn how philosophical, political, economic, and legal analyses can complement (and challenge) each other. The aim is for students to develop a multidisciplinary point of view that will allow them to analyze and address contemporary problems in a fuller way than any one disciplinary lens permits.

ISS 2445 Legal Reasoning: How to Think Like a Lawyer 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Introduces students to the basic principles of legal reasoning, including rules, standards, facts, precedent, authorities, analogies, custom, equity, and the burden of proof. Students will examine how legal reasoning functions in practice and they will learn about how it compares to forms of reasoning in other fields and disciplines. Provides preparation for students considering law school or interested in legal thinking.

ISS 2683 What is Statecraft? 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

How do governments manage their scarce resources while pursuing a broad array of ambitions? How can policymakers utilize different types of power (cultural, economic, military and the like) to achieve their goals both effectively and efficiently? In a rapidly evolving and intricate world, how can leaders discern short-term and long-term priorities, opportunities, and threats? The key to addressing these issues is the concept of strategy––which is about aligning objectives with the resources at hand––and statecraft, which is the art and practice of managing the nation’s affairs.

Attributes: Quest 2, General Education - Social Science, Satisfies 2000 Words of Writing Requirement

ISS 2710 Grand Strategy I: Athens to American Revolution 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

How do nations achieve their aims through warfare? What influence do individual leaders, regime type, or ideology have on the course of conflicts? What lessons can be derived from history? How does diplomacy interact with military power, and how do alliances serve national interests? By looking both to primary and secondary sources across genres, explore these questions by tracing the rise and fall of great powers from ancient Athens to the American Revolution.

ISS 2921 History of Ideas Colloquium 1-3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

The colloquium in the history of ideas enhances multidisciplinary knowledge through a particular lens, civilization, or time period. The instructor determines the subject and scope of inquiry for each section.

ISS 3441 Liberty and Order: Philosophical, Political, Economic and Legal Perspectives 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

How do we strike the proper balance between liberty and order in the political, economic, and legal domains? How do we avoid the extremes of anarchy on one side and authoritarianism on the other? This multidisciplinary course identifies ways this balance has been struck in the past and how it might be achieved in the present day.

Prerequisite: 3 credits of AMS, ISS, PHI, POS or ECO.

ISS 3442 Human Flourishing: Philosophical, Political, Economic and Legal Perspectives 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

What does it mean to live well or to flourish as a human being? This fundamental question lies squarely at the intersection of philosophy, politics, economics, and law. This interdisciplinary course introduces students to the long-running debate in the western intellectual tradition about this question. Students will analyze the strengths and weaknesses of different theories of human flourishing and they will evaluate their ethical, social, political, economic, and legal consequences.

Prerequisite: 3 credits of AMS, ISS, PHI, POS or ECO.

ISS 3444 Major Figures in Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Explores the lives, writings, debates, theories, and history of major figures in Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law. Learn both historical and modern perspectives on major figures, with each offering focusing on a single figure.

Prerequisite: 3 credits of AMS, ISS, PHI, POS or ECO.

ISS 3680 Contemporary Challenges 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Multidisciplinary focus on contemporary challenges facing modern states. Includes the theory and application of intelligence, diplomacy, military power, and related tools of statecraft to national defense policy formulation, peacemaking, and power projection to confront present-day national and international challenges.

Prerequisite: 3 credits of AMS, ISS, HIS, PHI, POS, or ECO.

ISS 3682 Statecraft and Strategy 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Multidisciplinary focus on the connection between statecraft and strategy, both of which are necessary for states to navigate in international politics and conflict. Examines how states use diplomatic, economic, military, intelligence, and cultural tools to achieve their strategic ends. Topics focus on major themes and figures in the history of statecraft and strategy.

Prerequisite: 3 credits of AMS, ISS, HIS, PHI, POS, or ECO.

ISS 3713 War 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

This multidisciplinary course focuses on war and warfare from the perspective of history, politics, diplomacy, strategic studies, political economy, philosophy, literature and related humanities and social science disciplines. Courses will focus on major themes related to war and warfare from antiquity to the present.

Prerequisite: 3 credits of AMS, ISS, HIS, PHI, POS, or ECO.

ISS 3714 Theoretical Frameworks 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Multidisciplinary focus on the theories underpinning decision-making related to war, statecraft, and strategic thinking. Focuses on major themes and subjects such as the state system, ideologies of the modern world, realism, and similar topics.

Prerequisite: 3 credits of AMS, ISS, HIS, PHI, POS, or ECO.

ISS 3930 Special Topics in Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Special topics in Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law.

Prerequisite: 3 credits of AMS or ISS or PHI or POS or ECO.

ISS 3932 Philosophical and Literary Traditions and Ideas 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Rotating topics course focusing on the major philosophical and literary traditions and ideas in Western literature. Courses will focus on one major theme, such as Love, Death, or Life.

Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or higher.

ISS 3934 Political and Historical Traditions and Ideas 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Rotating topics course focusing on the major political and historical traditions and ideas in Western literature. Courses will focus on one major theme, such as Justice, Sovereignty, or Liberty.

Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or higher.

ISS 4910 PPEL Research Seminar 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Students will apply the methodological, theoretical, and historical knowledge they have gained in the PPEL major by conducting an original research project about a topic of real-world significance. Students will be guided through the research and writing process; review papers that have been recently published in undergraduate PPE journals; and present their research at the end of the semester.

Prerequisite: PPEL majors.

ISS 4911 War, Statecraft, and Strategy Research Seminar 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Students will apply the methodological, theoretical, and historical knowledge they have gained in the WSS major by conducting an original research project about a topic of real-world significance. Students will be guided through the research and writing process; and present their research at the end of the semester. Student mastery of this course will be displayed through written and oral assignments. All course assignments will be directed towards the completion of a research paper.

Prerequisite: 9 credits of AMS, ISS, HIS, PHI, POS, or ECO.

ISS 4920 Great Books & Ideas Thesis Writing Workshop 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Provides students with knowledge base and experience to engage in scholarly writing and develop arguments in order to properly write a high-quality thesis on a topic within the scope of the Great Books and Ideas degree program. An investigation into the conventions of identifying a legitimate research “problem,” and will move on into the nuts and bolts of developing and articulating your central “argument.”

Prerequisite: Great Books major of junior or senior standing.

ISS 4931 Big Problems in Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Students will examine a major contemporary problem at the intersection of Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law. Students will be provided an opportunity to learn about a topic area, then engage in scholarly debate and writing on the topic. Rotating topics may include political polarization, global justice, climate change, etc.

Prerequisite: 6 credits of AMS or ISS or PHI or POS or ECO.

ISS 4940 PPEL Internship 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: S/U

PPEL majors may earn academic credit for completing a relevant internship. Students are responsible for identifying and securing their own internships and the internship must be pre-approved by the Hamilton Center’s Director of Undergraduate Studies before the beginning of the semester in which it is to take place. Relevant internships include positions in government, public policy, law, financial institutions, non-profits, business, or consulting. 140-hour internship.

Prerequisite: PPEL majors.

ISS 4970 Great Books & Ideas Senior Thesis 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

Faculty supervised thesis work for the Great Books and Ideas degree.

Prerequisite: ISS 4920.

PHI 1680 AI, Philosophy & Society 3 Credits

Grading Scheme: Letter Grade

In the past few years, the capabilities of AI-based systems have grown explosively due to the development of a new technology, large language models. These systems, known informally as “chatbots,” are trained on a significant portion of the text and images that humanity has collectively produced over centuries. As a result, they have developed the ability to perform tasks that we normally associate with human-level intelligence, such as writing essays, writing computer programs, and passing graduate-level exams. In this course, we will explore the philosophical and social implications of this powerful new technology. This course will engage with research from several academic disciplines, including computer science, psychology, philosophy, and economics, as well as the Western canon.

Attributes: Quest 1, General Education - Humanities