Course Descriptions

Humanities

Please find below a selection of the courses associated with the Humanities program. For a complete list of courses, please consult the select Academic Calendar pages listed below.

Foundations in Humanities

200.40 – HUM/SSC: Honours Thesis
A guided capstone research and writing pro ject for seniors in Honours majors.

English

212.13 – ENG: Major English Writers I: Pre-19th Century
This course considers selected writers of the major genres of English poetry, prose, and drama from the Middle Ages to the 18th Century. Students will be introduced to the discipline of literary and textual criticism, and will develop writing and research skills.

212.23 – ENG: Advanced Writing
This course is designed to help the student develop further skills in written communication by means of vocabulary development, the study of organization and clarity, and the practice of various forms of writing such as exposition, argumentation, and creative expression.

212.24 – ENG: Literature of the Restoration and the 18th Century I
This course engages English prose, poetry, and drama from 1660 to the early 18th century. We will discuss textual responses to the changing cultural, political, and religious scene ushered in by the restoration of Charles II to the throne, as well as emerging forms of literature and the roles and writings of women. (Prerequisites: 212.13 and 212.14 or permission of the instructor)

Western History

211.11 – HIST: Western Civilization I: Ancient to Early Middle Ages
This introductory survey to Western history will examine selected issues, peoples, and events from ancient cultures to the Middle Ages. Students will be introduced to several approaches historians have taken to understand the past.

211.21 – HIST: Medieval History
This course studies the main developments in medieval European history.

Canadian His tory

211.13 – HIST: History of Canada I: Pre-Confederation
This survey of Canadian history explores some of the political, social, cultural, and economic developments up to Confederation.

211.14 – HIST: History of Canada II: Post-Confederation
This survey of Canadian history continues to explore some of the political, social, cultural, and economic developments since Confederation. Students may take this course without 211.13 – HIST.

Christian History

211.25 – HIST: Anabaptist Studies
This course traces the history of the Anabaptist movement(s). From sixteenth-century origins through a global expansion in the twentieth century, this course will consider theological, social, intellectual, and economic contexts of the radical Reformation and some if its later manifestations in various times and places.

211.26 – HIST: History of Christian ity I: Early Church to the Renaissance
In this introductory survey students will trace key developments in Christianity from the first to the fifteenth century.

Philosophy

213.11 – PHIL: Introduction to Philosophy
An introductory investigation of the main areas of philosophy: logic, metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. Our investigation will be sensitive to the historical roots from which philosophical thought has developed, but will be concerned primarily with understanding philosophy’s perennial questions and, when possible, providing some initial reasonable answers.

213.13 – PHIL: Critical Thinking
A course in practical logic, designed to help students think clearly and critically by learning to identify, analyze, evaluate, and construct arguments. The course includes the study of basic types of reasoning, the structure of argument, criteria of argument assessment, formal and informal fallacies, plus problems of clarity and meaning.

213.21 – PHIL: History of Philosophy
A brief introduction to the chief concerns and methods of the most influential western philosophers from ancient Greek times to the present.