Although Mount Allison is presently restructuring its total curriculum, we do, at present, have (and will continue to have) a core curriculum programme in the Humanities, [the 1600 series].... It is our intention to examine the issue of core programmes in several of the new interdisciplinary majors and minors created in the new curriculum.
The [Proposal for Departmental Co-operation Regarding First Year Courses] reflects the common elements which unify the group of disciplines form the Arts I faculty, which typically attempt to illuminate contemporary concerns by drawing on the non-fictional literature of the past. The co-operating departments are Classics, History, Philosophy and Religious Studies. [A unique feature of this co operation is that] the group will offer in any given academic year sixteen half courses (eight each term) in the newly-created 1600 series, designed to provide an introduction to the areas of study represented by the four departments.... Any two of the 1600 series will be considered as an introduction to any of the disciplines, replacing existing 1000-level courses.
From the student's point of view, this proposal extends the range of choice available at a time when staff reductions are reducing departmental offerings. Through the use of half-courses, it creates greater flexibility together with the opportunity to become acquainted with a larger number of disciplines and methodology at an early stage of the student's University experience. The scheme also permits a greater degree of interdepartmental mobility in working out an Area of Concentration in the second and subsequent years. Students taking courses within this faculty for the purposes of satisfying University distribution requirements will meet with courses less specifically tailored to meet the specialized requirements of specific departments, and meet instead with courses designed to acquaint students with the broader themes which animate scholarship ... together with a selection of the literature which informs that scholarship.
ARTS I 1600-SERIES: (selections)
Philosophy 1601/2 Basic Issues in Philosophy. A study of Plato's The Republic can serve as an introduction to almost all the issues that are central to our western philosophical tradition. The problems of virtue...justice, order...knowledge, the nature of the psyche, beauty, etc. will all be touched on by a reading of this text....
Philosophy 1631/2 The Rise of Scientific Europe. The chief features of the development of European science will be studied within a comparative framework. Scientific developments in different countries and at different times will be compared and contrasted to discern the effects of varying social and political conditions, as well as religious and philosophical expectations. The new conceptual tools forged in this context -- in the era of Copernicus and Galileo, Newton and Lavoisier -- will exemplify the emergence of modern science in Europe...
History 1601/2 New Nations in North America. This course will examine the transfer of European ideas, institutions, political and economic structures to North America, and consider the reshaping of these by the North American experience, [especially in] the transition from the colonial experience to the realization of new states.
Classics 1611/2 Greece and Rome: The Foundations of Western Literature. The literary achievement of ancient Greece and Rome will be studied in its own context and as a foundation of the Western literary tradition. Selected readings in English representative of various genres, including epic and lyric poetry, drama, historiography, and philosophy will be examined with a critical appreciation.
Religious Studies 1611/2 The Bible: Introduction to the New Testament. An introductory course which studies the books of the New Testament in English from both historical and literary viewpoints, as well as considering their significance for the contemporary world.