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Welcome to Introduction to the Liberal Arts .Our new course theme is “Exemplary Lives.” We will reflect on texts whose themes allow us to consider the question of what makes a life exemplary. Our discussions will naturally include lives that are flawed and how those flaws may be woven into a life that still might be considered exemplary. Our inquiry will begin with an inward looking autobiography and then move to other modes of discovery. We will consider how others might view a life “from the outside” in a biography. We will investigate the discovery of lives in the past and how individuals have dedicated and defined their exemplary lives in terms of the pursuit of understanding in a discipline. To conclude the course, we will discover how exemplary lives might be understood in different cultures. This final text will also serve as a “bridge” to the sophomore course that you will take, Global Perspectives. The first text that all sections will read is Dreams from My Father : A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama. All students should read the first section of this book ("Origins") by the time that they arrive on campus. Summer study questions for this section can be found here. |
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Contact: Christopher Fasano (cfasano@monm.edu) |
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