POL 295 - Special Topics in American Politics

FDR: SS2
Credits: 3 in fall and winter, 4 in spring
Prerequisites: First-year or sophomore standing or instructor consent. A seminar in political science for students at the introductory or intermediate level. Topic, hour, and instructor are announced prior to registration. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.

Fall 2013 topic:

POL 295: Reason and Revelation in the American Founding (3). Were the American Founders guided by reason or revelation? Were they humanist or pious? This course examines two major influences on the thought and actions of the American Founders: science and religion. The American Founding is marked by a deep concern for political virtue. Disagreements arise about the proper source of that virtue. The course begins with the foundational arguments of the Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment, then moves to how those arguments are expressed in the political and religious texts of the early American republic. The writings of Locke, Hobbes, Smith, Madison, Jefferson, Paine, and Adams will be examined along with sermons from the Revolutionary period. (SS2) Hale. Staff.