Credit Hours - 3

Addresses the legacy of the seventeenth century European Enlightenment and its antecedents in the Abbasid Empire, when the reliance upon the individual’s systematic reasoning to understand the world took precedence over appeal to authority of ancient texts.  The seminal influences of Ibn Al-Haythem, René Descartes, Gottfried Leibniz, Spinoza and others will be introduced.

Credit Hours - 3

Introducing the realist (naturalist) vs. idealist (subjectivist) debate about the subject matter of history, the structure of historical explanation, methods and criteria for studying antiquity, the controversy concerning Black Athena.

Credit Hours - 3

Concerning fundamental issues in philosophy of the arts; problems examined include the nature of art and aesthetic experience, the relationship of art objects to the reality they represent, artistic expression, and authenticity.

Credit Hours - 3

Reappraises basic principles assumed in mainstream philosophical canons to reveal their gendered context: public vs. private domains, essential vs. accidental qualities, innate vs. learned behaviour, human rights vs. women’s rights—exposing implications of the fact that both men and women inhabit a social world which is bifurcated by gender; exploring the various connotations of masculinity vs. femininity, and the nature of prejudice.

Credit Hours - 3

Philosophical reflection is conveyed in a variety of genres and styles of expression beyond the treatise form.  African literature written in English and in French translated into English will be examined as a vehicle of social protest and transformative political critique, as spiritual inspiration, as a conveyance for moral precepts and lessons of history.

Credit Hours - 3

A logical and exegetical analysis of the key ideas and concepts that constitute the framework of Aristotle’s philosophy, in the areas of investigative methodology; metaphysics, ethics, humanity, and theology.

Credit Hours - 3

A cross cultural examination of African traditional thought about fundamental aspects of human existence as reflected in conceptions of God, nature, personhood, destiny, morality, the good society.

Credit Hours - 3

A study of nineteenth and twentieth century Western philosophical ideas about moral agency in everyday life, the existence of God, and the nature of the self, based on the works of Kierkegaard, Sartre, Camus, and others. 

Credit Hours - 3

A study of questions arising about the concept of person in seminal texts that focus on the foundations of morality, political theory, cognitive science, psychology, theology, the interface between philosophy of mind, of language, and cross cultural metaphysics.

Credit Hours - 3

The general notion of education is investigated as a process and an activity, through a confrontational examination of the notion of pedagogy, drawing upon both classical and modern texts, such as Plato, J.S. Mill, John Dewey, Franz Fanon.

Credit Hours - 3

A study of Roman art and architecture from their prehistoric Etruscan, Italian, and Greek origins. The aesthetical component of the study reflects various technical achievements and improvements, and involves the assessment of works of art and architecture on the basis of their moral and intellectual value, the issue of artistic creation or insight, stylistics, works of art and mimetic illusionism.

Credit Hours - 3

A study of the issue of Greece’s indebtedness to the civilisations of Egypt and the Near East, it also critically reviews some Afrocentrist theses on the subject and the issue of the racial identity of the Egyptians from the pre-dynastic era in Nubia and Egypt (5500-3100 BC) to the Macedonian occupation of Egypt (332-30 BC).

Credit Hours - 3

This involves a critical evaluation of the sources of information on classes of women, their position and role in the family and society; social and psychological barriers to the human rights of women, especially the law on women, as it relates to their education, employment, marriage, rights of succession and inheritance, participation in public decision-making; women and religion; sexism and male chauvinism in Greek literature; women achievers.

Credit Hours - 3

A study of gender issues with emphasis on women, covering the conception, images and roles of, as well as the assumptions about, women in ancient Roman society, literature and art. 

Credit Hours - 3

Introduces excerpts of seminal texts to reveal lasting controversies and questions that concern basic assumptions central to the canons of metaphysics, epistemology, foundations of morality, social commentary and political thought.

Credit Hours - 3

The nature of religious and philosophical thinking. The nature, concerns and methodology of Philosophy of Religion. Aspects of religious faith and practice that provoke philosophical questions, e.g., arguments for and against the existence of God; life after death; miracles; prayer and providence; the problem of evil; meaning and problem of religious language; analogy. Verification. Reason, Faith and Revelation. Humanism. Religious pluralism and truth. 

Credit Hours - 3

Definitions, meaning and nature of theology from Christianity, Islam and African Indigenous Religions (AIR) perspectives; Methodological issues – basic theological orientation; exegesis and interpretation, academic and popular approaches; importance of context in theologizing; some key theological elements in AIR, Christianity and Islam. Some contemporary theological issues in relation to culture, religion, ecology, health and development. 

Credit Hours - 3

An historical account of key genres in ancient Greek and Roman literary works, traced from their folkloric orality and prototypes to their conscious classical developments, as illustrated through critical discussion of sample texts.

Credit Hours - 3

A study of the multiple sources of contemporary civilisations, demonstrating that certain lifestyles and life-conditions in antiquity conduce to our biological species more effectively than do certain modern lifestyles and conditions, and that increasingly glo

Credit Hours - 3

A broad and general study of ancient Graeco-Roman civilisations, highlighting processes in the development of material culture and the major trends and developments in social (including religious), constitutional (including political), and literary (including philosophical) history.

Credit Hours - 3

Introduction to propositional logic, elementary techniques of natural deduction, basic concepts of validity and soundness, distinguishing the syntactic analysis of reasoned argument from the varied criteria used for assessing other uses of language.  

Credit Hours - 3

Designed to stimulate thought and discussion through the reading of extracts from primary texts that address central problems in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and political philosophy.  The aim is to help the student develop analytic skills by distinguishing problems that are philosophical from those that are social, political, scientific, historical, theological, or doctrinal.