Core courses
In their second year, Arts and Humanities majors enroll in core courses that provide the foundation for the Arts and Humanities concentrations. They also take electives from core courses offered in other majors.
From prehistoric times, human populations have moved across the globe. Driven by environmental, economic, political, and social forces, they have carried with them and have been exposed to new customs, new technologies, and new ideas for structuring societies and interacting with other peoples. They have also brought war, disease, and reduced cultural and biological diversity. Through theoretical and empirical readings about cross-cultural, transnational, and global encounters, this course provides you with the analytical tools to examine the large sweep of such events and movements in the period since 1400 from a variety of perspectives, to understand their causes, their impacts, the counter-currents they engendered, and what we can learn from them. Throughout we pay attention not only to what happened in the past, but to how historians have interpreted these developments.
What’s ethically significant about being human, or about our identities as members of various social groups? What do we owe to animals, to ecosystems, to future generations, to AI, and how do our answers to these questions rely on theories of identity? How do social and political institutions and structures limit and enable who we are? How might we reimagine the boundaries of humanity to challenge oppressive and unjust power dynamics? In this course we will examine the origins and enduring justifications for core ethical beliefs, as well as challenges to the idea that there are universal ethical norms by exploring the emergence of different conceptions of humanity and human values from a wide range of globally diverse perspectives. While the course introduces students to many historically significant philosophical voices, most of our classes focus on applying philosophy to concrete contemporary ethical challenges, particularly in the areas of environmental ethics, data ethics, bioethics, and feminist ethics. Note: This course provides the foundations for, and is a prerequisite for, the Philosophy, Ethics and the Law concentration in the Arts & Humanities major. AH111 also counts toward the Minor in Sustainability because it addresses a broad range of environmental ethical topics, including food ethics, climate ethics, and environmental justice.
A fundamental characteristic of the arts is that they are transformative. They lead us to see ourselves in new ways, to re-conceptualize our world, and to rethink our relationship to it. Consequently, the arts are often harbingers and pacesetters for social change. This course explores the use of creative expression in the visual arts, literature, and music to question and sometimes resist authority, to reassess ideological constructs, and to advocate change in social and political systems as well as in the arts themselves. Under what circumstances are such efforts likely to be successful? How do we determine success? To address these issues, the course draws examples from literature, the visual and performing arts, and music from different parts of the world. This course is a foundation and a prerequisite for the Dynamics of the Arts and Literature concentration in the Arts & Humanities major.
Design affects the objects, spaces, and ideas of everyday life, from door handles and physical spaces to laws and the virtual spaces in which we experience our lives. Building on a broadly conceived and interdisciplinary understanding of “design,” this course covers approaches to design that are useful for all types of design practice. We explore how people and their technologies and material worlds have co-evolved over time. We also consider ethical questions related to design and practice transferring principles from one design field to other design fields. We conclude by covering recent developments in design studies that will directly equip you to recognize the contingency of different design logics and the intricacies of design trends that emerge in the future. You’ll leave this course with a deeper and more nuanced knowledge of your technological and material worlds, a robust foundation to further practice various types of design, and a nuanced set of tools to participate in the building and crafting of your communities as a designer and/or citizen. Note: This course qualifies as part of the Interdisciplinary Minor in Sustainability because it addresses sustainable design. Students learn how social, technological, and ecological systems interact in design processes and products and how to use the tools of design for more just and sustainable outcomes.
Concentrations Courses
In their third year, Arts and Humanities majors select a concentration, begin taking courses within it and begin work on their capstone courses. They also take electives chosen from other Minerva courses (other concentration courses in Arts and Humanities, core and concentration courses in other colleges).
In the fourth year, Arts and Humanities majors enroll in additional electives chosen from Minerva’s course offerings within or outside the major. Additionally, they take senior tutorials in the major, and finish their capstone courses.
Normative ethics is the study of ethical systems that provide answers to the question of how one ought to act in situations of moral significance. Moral dilemmas involve choices between mutually exclusive alternatives, each of which carries significant burdens. This course introduces you to theoretical frameworks from a wide range of global perspectives, including Greek, Confucian, and African virtue ethical theories, Kantian and Utilitarian moral theories, and Feminist and Buddhist ethical theories centered on care and compassion. Students study ethical theories in their social and historical contexts and then apply them to address moral decisions and dilemmas arising from reproductive and sexual ethics, the ethics of care work, the ethics of markets, climate change ethics and green tourism, and the distribution of scarce health resources. This course supports and is a prerequisite for both the Philosophy, Ethics and the Law Concentration and the Interpretation and Meaning Concentration in the Arts & Humanities major because the course provides students with experience in closely interpreting philosophical texts in their social and historical contexts, and supports students as they integrate contextual knowledge into their evaluations of each perspective.
What is the law, why should we obey it, and what constitutes an ethical legal system? Are human rights universal or culturally relative? How should customary laws relate to constitutions, if at all? We examine fundamental legal concepts and practices, as well as the evolution of diverse understandings of law and its application from the perspectives of legal systems throughout the world. We then consider topics in legal theory such as the role of constitutions and customs, the theory of punishment, the purpose of civil disobedience, the roles of law in constructing social identities, the relationship between national and international law, and the nature and practice of human rights law. This course supports and is a prerequisite for both the Philosophy, Ethics and the Law Concentration and the Global and Comparative Humanities Concentration in the Arts & Humanities major because the course examines legal theory from a wide range of global perspectives, helping students draw comparisons and cross-cultural critiques of assumptions we find in legal theories.
As individuals, we lead both private and public lives. Political and social institutions provide the framework within which we interact with others and pursue our personal goals and ambitions. What is the proper role of these institutions, and how can we change them for the better? How are our social and political institutions the result of design thinking and how can we critically reflect on the design dynamics in play to contribute to more democratic or more just institutions? This course explores these questions by examining central topics in social and political philosophy, including democracy, justice, the family, and the nature of social identity. We investigate how political and social systems ought to be designed, with special consideration to international issues including environmental pollution, humanitarian intervention, global poverty, migration, and secession. Note: This course supports and is a prerequisite for the Philosophy, Ethics and the Law Concentration and the Design Across the Humanities Concentration in the Arts & Humanities major. It also counts toward the Minor in Sustainability because it examines social and political values underpinning institutions of peace and justice featured in contemporary societies, including democratic principles that aim to reduce inequality and poverty, mobility design through immigration and border policies, and the use of design thinking to challenge western conceptions of sustainable development. This course examines democratic principles that aim to reduce inequality and poverty, mobility design through immigration and border policies, and the use of design thinking to challenge Western conceptions of sustainable development.