PL 322 - Nature: Mundane and Sacred

(3.00 cr.)

Prerequisite: PL 201 and one additional PL 200-level course. Materialism and science have, historically, prospered together since the Enlightenment, but science in itself neither denies nor endorses a materialistic ontology. One danger of modernity is to accept materialism uncritically while at the same time allowing it to coexist with religious faith, unexamined. Students explore the issues that surround investing nature with a spiritual and sacred aspect yet not abandoning a scientific worldview. This course explores how these two outlooks are rooted in the history of Western thought, and how the two worldviews might be seen to form a coherent understanding of the world. IC/IES