For classes
in philosophy and religion
Project guidelines and more!
Grading standards, projects, logic, writing, and presentations plus
Academic Dishonesty--cheating and plagiarism.
Comparative Religious Thought I.
March, 2011
Dear friends,
Due to new
hardware and software, I can no longer maintain this website normally, and I am
gradually migrating to
http://sites.google.com/a/kent.edu/jwattles. Please enjoy this website for
any good you may receive here. Come visit the new site, and, most of all, enjoy
increasing truth, beauty, and goodness day by day.
Your brother,
Jeff
Aesthetics
Problems in the Philosophy of Religion
PODCASTS on a variety of
topics are found here:
https://ksutube.kent.edu/showall.php?author=jwattles .
Introduction to Ethics:
https://deimos.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/BrowsePrivately/kent.edu.1360926463.01360926465
;
Aesthetics:
https://deimos.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/BrowsePrivately/kent.edu.1358166115.01358166117
;
portions of a seminar on virtue
ethics and the arts
https://deimos.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/BrowsePrivately/kent.edu.1361924997.01361924999
The sophists
PLATO (427-347 BCE).
A brief introduction to Plato,
including some summaries. Here's Socrates' famous dilemma for religious ethics: The Euthyphro dilemma: explanation and
reply. Socrates had to defend himself in court for (among other
things) challenging conventional religious thought: The Apology.
Convicted and in prison Socrates reasoned that he should not escape:
The Crito; contrast Frantz Fanon
theory of counterviolence; here's a written
assignment to help you think how to resolve the clash between Socrates and
Fanon. Now you are ready for Plato's teaching on the forms.
The Phaedo is Socrates' last dialogue--on the
immortality of soul--just before he died. The Symposium
explores eros and beauty; see here also notes on the critique of Plato's
concept of love by theologian Anders Nygren, Agape and Eros.
Plato's main dialogue on justice, political order, education, psychology,
goodness (the form or idea of the good) is The Republic.
Here's an epistemological adventure with the Ion.
ARISTOTLE (384-322 BCE)
NICOMACHEAN ETHICS
DESCARTES (1596-1650). Susan
Bordo's feminist critique of dualism and other cultural
contributions to pathology
KANT (1724-1804). Kant's ethics. Kant's Idea of history.
MILL
and Utilitarianism
WILLIAM JAMES (1842 -1910). Notes and questions on several chapters of William
James, The Varieties of Religious Experience. ub
The
project on positive attitude
Nikolai Berdiaev (1874-1948) on personality
Emmanuel Levinas
Jacques Derrida
Theodicy. This is the attempted answer to
the "problem of evil": how can one consistent affirm the existence of a
perfectly good, all-knowing, all-powerful Creator God and at the same time
honestly acknowledge the variety and extent of evils in our world?
The Feminist ethics of Nel Noddings
Notes on Garrett Thomson, On the
Meaning of Life
Creation and evolution: notes on an
anthology of articles and a synthetic perspective on the cluster of problems.
Introduction to Philosophy
Introduction to Ethics
Aesthetics resources:
selected
student project reports; Philosophy of Expression;
Aesthetics class notes; Arts Project;
Aesthetics
Practices and Excellences Questionnaire; Beauty in
Goodness exercise
Project reports
from various religion classes, Spring 2009. Here are results from the
project on centering on the indwelling spirit of God
(or however the individual interprets the adventure) from Fall 2009.
From the Interfaith Center at the
Presidio in San Francisco (http://www.interfaith-presidio.org/links.html)
come the following links.
The Interfaith Center at the
Presidio's activities and interests focus around grassroots
interaction. The following links mostly derive from international
organizations concerned with local interfaith relationships. Most of
them offer a variety of links, with the largest selection coming
from United Religions Initiative and beliefnet.com.
http://www.beliefnet.com
This is a vast portal that covers all sorts of religious matters.
For anyone interested in faith and practice from dozens, even
hundreds of points of view, will find a rich menu at this portal.
CoNexus
http://www.conexuspress.com
CoNexus, under the leadership of Joel Beversluis, is the largest
distributor of interfaith resources. Joel edited "The Sourcebook," a
must-have book for those involved in day-to-day interfaith work.
Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions
http://www.cpwr.org
The 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions initiated the modern
interfaith movement, and CPWR in Chicago, keeps the memory and
experience of large interfaith gatherings alive today.
http://www.globalpeaceworks.org
Creating peace among religions through international, interfaith
volunteer service projects.
International Interfaith Centre
http://www.interfaith-center.org
Based in Oxford, UK, the IIC supports organizations and individuals
in furthering peace, respect, and understanding between people with
different faith beliefs.
North American Interfaith Network
http://www.nain.org
NAIN is a 15-year-old network of interfaith and ecumenical workers,
mostly from Canada and the United States, who meet once a year.
The Pluralism Project
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~pluralsm
The Pluralism Project at Harvard University is the best source of
information about religious diversity today.
United Religions Initiative
http://www.uri.org
URI is a network of nearly 200 Cooperation Circles in 36 countries,
all dedicated to promoting daily, enduring interfaith cooperation,
an end to religiously motivated violence, and cultures of peace,
justice, and healing for the Earth and all living beings. They also
have one of the best interfaith portals anywhere, including a
remarkable section for kids and pages of well-organized links.
World Congress of Faith
http://www.worldfaiths.org
WCF is one of the first and continues among the best providers of
interfaith publications.
Religions for
Peace (USA)
http://www.rfpusa.org
Religions
for Peace - USA gathers representatives of religious communities
in the U.S.; promotes multi-religious cooperation for peace and
justice; builds on the spiritual, human, and institutional resources
of its communities; enhances mutual understanding; and acts for the
common good. |