Undergraduate Program Status
Elective | 3rd year | Philosophy | |
Elective | 2nd year | Philosophy | |
The course addresses philosophical issues related to the Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions. All three related religions arose in the broader Mediterranean realm and were heavily indebted to Hellenistic philosophical ideas. Rational reflection played an essential part in all three traditions, but different schools represented widely different approaches, reflected in modern philosophies of religion. Secular criticism countered the traditional arguments in various ways. The course will cover the basic arguments and their criticisms concerning the central issues of religious thought.
The course will familiarize students withbasic historical information and analytic clarity on most central issuesof religious thought, like the existence of a god, divine properties like temporality and unchangeability, the role of language, theodicy, issues of ethics, the soul and the afterlife. Students will coverthe most important pro and contra argumentsrelated to the class topics. Thestress will be on thelogic and structure of religious inquiryand the difference between conceptual schemes and types of argumentations.