The Principia Program of Concordia College is a program designed to enable students to understand the nature of a liberal arts education (the type of education central to Concordia’s mission) and appreciate its value. Principia introduces students to the pleasures and responsibilities of participation in an academic community. Principia’s readings and artistic works address the theme of “The Examined Life.” Faculty from across the curriculum work together in developing the reading list and sharing pedagogical strategies to ensure that students are introduced to the habits of mind and the patterns of inquiry characteristic of liberal learning. Required of all first-year students.

Principia is a one-semester course which seeks

1. To help students understand their own values in light of those of classical thinkers;
2. To provide first-year students with a common intellectual experience;
3. To describe the skills of critical inquiry and use these skills in the examination of classical texts and disciplinary perspectives;
4. To enable students to relate these texts and perspectives to the analysis of current issues;
5. To develop an awareness of the linkage between private lives and public issues;
6. To provide opportunities for oral and written inquiry into historical and contemporary issues.

The current schema for selected texts is listed below. For more information, visit www.cord.edu/dept/principia/

SCHEMA FOR CHOOSING TEXTS
(Revised 5-23-2001)

STEP ONE: COMMON TEXTS

• Plato: Apology
• Bible: The Book of Job
• Agenda excerpt (Principia Anthology)
• Symposium (Fall Semester); Principia lecture or event (Spring Semester)
• Anti-Racism Weekend Workshop (Pending Arrangements)
• Winona LaDuke, Last Standing Woman

STEP TWO: PRIMARY TEXTS (CHOOSE TWO TEXTS FROM THE FOLLOWING LIST)

• FAITH UNIT: Confessions, Augustine (Chadwick translation)
• CREATIVITY UNIT: Life Stances, Meadows-Rogers
• COMMUINITY UNIT: The Chosen, Potok
• SCIENCE UNIT: “Connections Between Body and Mind” includes

1. Discourse on Method, Parts 2 and 4, Descartes
2. Phineas Gage video
3. Descartes Error (selections), Damasio; OR “The Mind-Body interaction in Disease” (article), Sternberg and Gold (items in #3 will be on reserve in the library)

STEP THREE: SECONDARY TEXTS (FROM THE FOLLOWING LIST CHOOSE ONE TEXT – OR UNIT GROUPING – FOR THE TWO UNITS NOT SELECTED IN STEP TWO)

• FAITH UNIT: Confessions, Augustine (Chadwick translation); The Inferno, Dante (Pinsky translation); The Seventh Seal, Bergman (film); Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life, C. S. Lewis
• CREATIVITY UNIT: Life Stances, Meadows-Rogers; “Beethoven, India and Creativity” (essay and sound recording of Beethoven and Ravi Shankar), Breedon; Looking for Richard, Pacino (video) (reading from Stanislavsky and/or “Actors on Acting” recommended)
• COMMUNITY UNIT: The Chosen, Potok; Sula, Morrison; The Visit, Dürrenmatt; Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl
• SCIENCE UNIT: (Note: All articles will be on reserve)

1. “Connections Between Body and Mind” includes Discourse on Method, Parts 2 and 4, Descartes, Phineas Gage video, Descartes Error (selections), Damasio; OR “The Mind-Body Interaction in Disease” (article), Sternberg and Gold
2. “The Extension of Human Vision into the far Reaches of the Universe” includes the following articles: “First Look Through a Telescope,” Galileo; “I Admit the Moon Has Seas,” Kepler; “Definitions,” Newton; “Measuring the Universe,” Shapley; “Classifying the Stars,” Cannon; “Lenses,” Dillard. Also recommended: “Black Holes,” Penrose; “Black Holes Ain’t So Black,” Hawking
3. “Exploring the Connections Between Nature and Human Culture” includes the following articles: “Tallgrass Prairie,” Tester; “Biodiversity: Population vs. Ecosystem Stability,” Tilman; “Habitat Destruction & the Extinction Debt,” Tilman et al.; My Father’s Garden (video); “The Land Ethic,” Leopold; “The Idea of a Garden,” Pollan; "The Ecorealist Manifesto,” (This unit includes a field trip to a prairie preserve).

STEP FOUR: CHOOSE ANY ADDITIONAL TEXTS AT FACULTY OPTION

Description submitted by: Jonathan Steinwand, 2001