Course Outlines for 2023-2024
Course outlines will be available in mid-August and posted as they become available.
Please refer to course descriptions and archived course outlines.
1000 Level Courses
2000 Level Courses
3000 Level Courses
4000 Level Courses
4th Year HUMS Seminar Descriptions
HUMS 4901B/CLCV 4800A with Professor MacIsaac (Winter 2024)
Plato and the Sophists
About a third of the course will be looking at the works of 5th century sophists such as Gorgias, as well as looking at the political situation of Athens that made sophistical rhetoric an attractive tool for young aristocrats. The other two-thirds will look at Plato’s depiction of and criticism of sophistry, in his dialogues Protagoras and Gorgias, and probably a few other shorter ones.
HUMS 4903A/RELI 4850B/RELI5850B with Professor Salmond (Winter 2024)
Hermeneutics: Interpreting texts
Large-scale religious traditions generally rely on texts regarded as sacred scripture. But how are we to understand what these texts mean? This seminar examines modes of understanding internal to religious traditions (both Western and Asian) while also examining philosophical thinking concerned with the whole question of interpretation (hermeneutics) extending beyond religion to include literary theory. Our purview extends to texts of that broader canon referred to as “Great Books” and may extend to works of visual art or symbolism. We will be guided by a rubric of did, has, and could. What did the text mean originally in the intent of its original composers? What has the text meant according to commentators over its history of reception? Finally, what could the text mean for us today? This last question is clearly different from the previous two and is located at, or beyond in some perspectives, the frontier of scholarly endeavor. We will examine a range of case studies from a variety of traditions and historical periods and students will develop their own case study into a final presentation and paper.