Ultimate Questions
Courses with this designation are designed to encourage students to articulate and evaluate core assumptions and the paradigms through which knowledge is acquired and assessed. Such courses engage in a critical analysis of fundamental beliefs, cultural practices, and competing truth claims with the aim to appreciate and negotiate ambiguity and to develop greater self-knowledge and wisdom as evidenced in the ability for meaningful dialogue, and awareness of social responsibility and understanding. While this mode of inquiry strongly emphasizes an assessment of cognitive systems and symbols, such courses also explore the metaphors, cultural language, and normative assumptions present in core questions, which culminate in examined insights into our actions and ways of belonging in communities, whether secular or religious. Ultimate Questions courses are designated UQ in this catalog and each semester’s registration materials.
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
In courses with UQ designation, students will learn and demonstrate growth from among the following:
- Identify and analyze or evaluate core assumptions and paradigms through which knowledge and/or values are acquired and assessed.
- Examine and analyze the ambiguities and tensions inherent in competing truth claims, fundamental beliefs, and/or cultural practices.
- Demonstrate greater self-knowledge and awareness of social responsibility through engaged self-reflection.
- Articulate and engage core questions that lead to examined insights into our actions and ways of belonging in communities.
Recognizing that other modes of inquiry engage many of these issues, in an Ultimate Questions course, these topics and method lie at the center of the inquiry rather than arising as implications drawn from work in other modes of inquiry.
All courses with UQ designation address the first learning outcome. In addition, they address at least one of the remaining three.
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| COMM 255 | COMMUNICATION: INTERACTION AND ADVOCACY | 4 |
| COMM 455 | RHETORICAL THEORY AND CRITICISM | 4 |
| DATA 135 | FAIRNESS AND RESPONSIBILITY IN DATA SCI | 4 |
| ECON 461 | HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT | 4 |
| ENVS 309 | RELIGION AND NATURE | 4 |
| GENS 342 | WOMEN IN RELIGION | 4 |
| HHPA 361 | SCIENCE: A CANDLE IN THE DARK | 3 |
| IDST 320 | HISTORY OF WESTERN THOUGHT I | 3 |
| IDST 321 | HISTORY OF WESTERN THOUGHT II | 3 |
| JAMS 335 | MEDIA ETHICS | 4 |
| JAMS 337 | MEDIA & THE LAW | 4 |
| LEAD 311 | LEADERSHIP, ETHICS, AND PERSUASION | 4 |
| LITR 311 | LEADERSHIP, ETHICS, AND PERSUASION | 4 |
| LITR 312 | ULTIMATE QUESTIONS IN LITERATURE | 4 |
| LITR 352 | DIVERSE VOICES IN LITERARY EXPRESSION | 4 |
| LITR 360 | LITERATURE AND LANDSCAPE | 4 |
| NURS 362 | PALLIATIVE CARE NURSING | 3 |
| PHIL 150 | FUNDAMENTALS OF PHILOSOPHY | 4 |
| PHIL 160 | PHILOSOPHY EAST & WEST | 4 |
| PHIL 180 | MORAL PROBLEMS | 4 |
| PHIL 185 | PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE | 4 |
| PHIL 210 | SPORT, PHILOSOPHY AND SOCIETY | 4 |
| PHIL 215 | BIOETHICS | 4 |
| PHIL 220 | DINOSAUR PHILOSOPHY | 4 |
| PHIL 230 | ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY | 4 |
| PHIL 245 | AESTHETICS | 4 |
| PHIL 270 | PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION | 4 |
| PHIL 280 | PHILOSOPHY & LITERATURE | 4 |
| PHIL 306 | ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS | 4 |
| PHIL 350 | MODERN PHILOSOPHY | 4 |
| PHIL 360 | PHILOSOPHY OF LAW | 4 |
| PHIL 365 | SOCIAL & POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY | 4 |
| PHIL 370 | 20TH CENTURY PHILOSOPHY | 4 |
| PHIL 375 | COMPARATIVE PHILOSOPHY: ASIAN THOUGHT | 4 |
| PHIL 380 | EXISTENTIALISM | 4 |
| PHIL 430 | TOPICS IN CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY | 4 |
| PHIL 460 | AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY | 4 |
| PHIL 470 | PHILOSOPHY OF MIND | 4 |
| POLS 220 | GREAT POLITICAL THINKERS | 4 |
| POLS 310 | AMERICAN POLITICAL THOUGHT | 4 |
| POLS 311 | LEADERSHIP, ETHICS, AND PERSUASION | 4 |
| POLS 313 | WHAT IS FREEDOM? | 4 |
| POLS 315 | POLITICS AND RELIGION | 4 |
| POLS 320 | LAW, RIGHTS AND JUSTICE | 4 |
| POLS 337 | MEDIA & THE LAW | 4 |
| POLS 380 | TOPICS IN POLITICAL THEORY | 4 |
| RELS 110 | APPROACHES TO RELIGION | 4 |
| RELS 111 | JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY & ISLAM | 4 |
| RELS 115 | RELIGIOUS ETHICS | 4 |
| RELS 120 | OLD TESTAMENT | 4 |
| RELS 130 | NEW TESTAMENT | 4 |
| RELS 140 | THE HOLY QUR'AN | 4 |
| RELS 160 | PHILOSOPHY EAST & WEST | 4 |
| RELS 218 | BUDDHISM | 4 |
| RELS 220 | CHRISTIANITY | 4 |
| RELS 230 | RELIGIOUS THINKERS | 4 |
| RELS 306 | RELIGION AND NATURE | 4 |
| RELS 309 | OLD TESTAMENT PROPHETS | 4 |
| RELS 315 | POLITICS AND RELIGION | 4 |
| RELS 320 | PILGRIMAGES: SACRED JOURNEYS | 4 |
| RELS 325 | FORGIVENESS AND RECONCILIATION | 4 |
| RELS 342 | WOMEN IN RELIGION | 4 |
| RELS 360 | DEAD SEA SCROLLS | 4 |
| RELS 373 | BUDDHIST LITERATURE | 4 |
| SOAN 210 | SPORT, PHILOSOPHY AND SOCIETY | 4 |
| SOAN 221 | RELIGION, SOCIETY AND CULTURE | 4 |