Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy (Open for Admission)

Hybrid
Progamme Accreditation
126 credits
For students entering the program at the Freshman level
(Please click here for more info on the Freshman program)
96 credits
For students entering the program at the Sophomore level
(holders of a recognized Baccalaureate or Freshman diploma - equivalent to 30 credits)

Courses

General Education Common Core
PHI433Far­Eastern Philosophy
3 credits
The course is divided into two parts: the first part educates students to draw their knowledge from the sources of Far­Eastern philosophy and enhance their knowledge of the cultural environment therein. The second part allows students to comment on a range of texts relating to the two Chinese and Hindu traditions: LaoTse, Confucius, the schools and sacred writings of Indian Brahmanism, Buddhism and Vedanta.
PHI201Introduction to Philosophy
3 credits
The course will introduce students to philosophical thinking and practice. It will cover, on the one hand, the main philosophical currents, highlighting their specificity and their creative input and, on the other hand, the most representative authors in the history of philosophical thought. In an effort not to separate these themes and the fundamental questions of mankind, the course attempts to show the relationship that develops between the aforementioned notions, with the aim of addressing their impact on certain world views that constantly interpolate us within contemporary societies.
PSY201Introduction to Psychology
3 credits
This introductory course is also enrolled in general education as a prerequisite for students who will pursue psychology training. This course will provide students with the basic concepts in psychology and will facilitate their access to knowledge during their academic curriculum. It includes the following objectives: understanding psychology from a historical and a theoretical perspective (Gestalt, phenomenological, experimental, scientific, psychoanalytic and cognitive, etc.); understanding the various fields of psychology (clinical, experimental, developmental, educational, social, etc.) and the different methods used (experimental, clinical, psychometric, projective, etc.); providing an appropriate approach to personality issues - basic needs, affective and emotional (feelings, emotions), intellectual (cognition, memory) and social (social influence).
SOC201Introduction to Sociology
3 credits
This course provides a basic knowledge of general sociology: a) it presents an overview of the context of the event­emergence of sociology on the basis of the main founders and focuses on methodological perspectives and applied sociological methods and techniques; b) it focuses on the key principles of social themes, which description and definition have fueled and fed the many debates that are changing the discipline in the vast corpus of scientific knowledge. This course provides students with general sociology elements, sensitizes their "sociological perspective" and develops their critical reflection on various social issues.
MTR222University Working Methodology
3 credits
This course will provide first year students in humanities with essential methods for the preparation of their work during the years of study at the University. These methods are common to all material and address different levels, ranging from exercises promoting correct educational attitudes in the introduction to the methods of work, the investigation of a text, and finally, to the mastery of speech essential to establish exchange with others, orally and in writing, and to assert with confidence and autonomy. In addition, the objectives of this course will address data essential for the design, drafting and the realization of research work.
Common Core Electives
PHI449Islamology
3 credits
The course covers the range of religious sects and trends that have marked the history of Islam. The focus will be on the Umayyad and Abbasid periods that experienced the early schism in Islam within the divergence of views, in conjunction with the mastery of the profound meaning of the Qur'an, the invitation of the Prophet, the authenticity of the hadith, etc.; and the notion of government and the dimension of legality, frequently confused with moral and religious legitimacy. As a first step, the course covers the schools born at a pivotal moment in the history of Islam: the Kharijites, the Qadarites the Mu'tazilites, the Ash'arites, etc. Secondly the course will deal with ijtihad, the tqalîde among Maliki, Hanbali, and Hanifites Shafi'is on the Plan Sunni Islam, and Shi'ite strategy, Ja'fari, 'Alawite, etc., on the plan Shia Islam. The work will focus on this project of studies and interpretations relating to the concept of power in Islam. Wide room for manoeuver will be reserved for fiqh, the kalam, the allegorical exegesis, and falsafa - globally and within the framework of the course.
PHI456Modern and Contemporary Arab Thought
3 credits
The course focuses on two distinct but complementary parts. The first socio­political and historical part is the source of modern Arab thought, born in the Ottoman Middle East, of language and Arab cultural heritage. At the origin of this modern thought, expressed in the Arabic language and in the service of the promotion of the Arab society, are Lebanese Christians, mostly, and in particular, Syrian and Egyptian. New concepts circulate, such as “tolerance”, “freedom”, "equality", "brotherhood", "citizenship", etc., allowing the contribution of new transnationalistic, Arabic and nationalistic ideas, operating progressively in favor of the introduction of a democratic political regime that would terminate the dictatorship and the cult of "me" politically translated into a sultanate recognized as the shadow of God on earth. The second part focuses on the emergence of a political, socialist, communist, progressive, Baathist, Nasserist, and democratic thought; work of the enlightened Christians and Muslims in the Arab world in search of a new national ideology, which tried to contribute to the emergence of a state concept, an identity that includes all the components of a national community and a political philosophy capable of challenging the rapid changes within the global plan. The aim of the course is to enable students to grasp the dimension of Arab thought outside the religious framework that limits the concept of state and denies democracy the right to be admitted.
Specialization
PHI448Arab­Muslim Thought in the Middle Ages
3 credits    |    Pre-requisite: PHI210
The course of Arab­Muslim philosophy is envisaged in the form of problems: the theory of Knowledge - the topic of Reason in Arab­Muslim philosophy and the question of the compatibility of Reason and Faith (Mu‘tazila, Ibn Tufayl, Ibn Rushd); God - the traditional proofs of his existence and attributes (Ibn Sina); the Universe - the hierarchy of beings, creation or non­creation of the world (Ibn Sina, Ghazali, Ibn Rushd); morality and politics (Al­Farabi); sociology and history (Ibn Khaldûn); and the Mystique (Ibn ‘Arabi, Al­ Hallaj).
PHI458Contemporary Philosophy I: Phenomenology
3 credits    |    Pre-requisite: PHI455
The main objective of this course is to study phenomenological thought in two particular ways. The first one analyzes the principles of phenomenology, in the manner elaborated by Edmund Husserl. The second one brings to light the numerous manifestations of the phenomenological practice and its particular development by the French phenomenological school, which is essentially represented by M. Merleau­Ponty, J. Derrida, E. Levinas, M. Henry and J.­L. Marion.
PHI459Contemporary Philosophy II: Existentialism
3 credits    |    Pre-requisite: PHI458
Starting with the knowledge of Existentialism,”Kierkegaard, Heidegger and Sartre”, the course initially questions their take on existential and “existentiale” philosophy, on contemporary thought, as well as on the distinction between Heidegger’s philosophy and that of Sartre. Secondly, the course discusses major ontological questions raised by Existentialism such as freedom, anxiety, responsibility, death, and God. Finally, the course examines how structuralism in its foundations (Lévi­Strauss, Michel Foucault), presents itself as a critique of Existentialism.
PHI455German Idealism
3 credits    |    Pre-requisite: PHI333
This course aims to analyze the truth systems constructed by Fichte, Hegel, Schelling and the great fundamental institutions that structure all idealist comprehension of the truth. This course will be divided into three parts. Firstly we will study Fichte and his vision of the fundamental task of philosophy. In this manner, we will look at the themes of the self-awareness, the Being and the Apparition according to his masterpiece “The Science of Knowledge” of 1812, and we will also examine Fichte’s three images of the Absolute and philosophy of religion, as they are developed in “Die Anweisung zum seligen Leben oder auch die Religionslehre”. Secondly, we will read “The Phenomenology of Spirit” of Hegel, which is based on the major philosophical orientations that form the systematical structure of the truth. The main analysis is over the dialectic of knowledge and the three moments of the autorealisation of the Spirit: Art, Religion and Philosophy. Lastly, we will study the evolution of Schellingian thought from 1801, with the emergence of the philosophy of absolute identity - until Schelling’s intermediate philosophy in Stuttgarter Privatvorlesungen.
PHI210Greek Philosophy
3 credits
This course is divided into two parts: the first part examines pre­Socratic sources that give students the proper tools to acquire philosophical thinking in their quest for the nature of things, and in their attempt to unveil both natural and human phenomena. It thus includes the main schools of thought such as the School of Miletus (Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes), the Pythagorean school (Pythagoras), the Ionian school (Heraclitus), the Eleatic school (Parmenides), as well as the Sophists. The second part deals with Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.
PHI453Hermeneutics
3 credits
Having originated within the context of biblical interpretation, hermeneutics was freed from its dogmatic and institutional limits to become a discipline that mediated and reconciled stylistics, trans­linguistics, word­for­word linguistics and dissertation analysis, as well as a reading of the world as text. It is the restoration and disclosure of meaning that interprets and identifies the significance of the written and spoken word. The course traces the journey that this discipline has made from Schleiermacher to Ricoeur, as well as Dilthey, Heidegger, Gadamer, Szondi, Jaussand and Appel.
PHI420Logic and Philosophy of Knowledge
3 credits    |    Pre-requisite: PHI333
This course initially outlines a perspective of language as an object of study that shows how much of the philosophy of the twentieth century developed as a "philosophy of language" (Analytic Philosophy). Secondly it deals with the general theoretical framework of the argument as a discursive act, based on the theory of acts of language (speech acts), that the two philosophers Longshaw John Austin and, later, John Searle paved the way for. Thirdly, general issues related to logic are discussed, and are treated by the induction and deduction master concepts - truth and validity. A brief discussion is given on the methods and endorsements of formalization. The formal approach is exemplified, when it comes to conducting the analysis and evaluation of simple deductive arguments, called syllogism.
PHI301Medieval Philosophy
3 credits    |    Pre-requisite: PHI210
This course is designed to analyze the highlights of the thought of St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas and Meister Eckhart. We seek, from the analysis of the Augustinian singular experience of truth, to understand in depth the issues relating to the problem of knowledge, the metaphysics of inner experience, the self­certainty based on the truth of God inherent in our interiority, temporality and eternity and the unitive and tripartite constitution of the same soul to the constitution of the Trinitarian life in God. We will study, starting from a critical reading of the writings of St. Thomas, the themes related to the receipt of Thomistic Aristotelian heritage, the question of creation and the evidence of the existence of God, the question of analogy and the problem of knowledge. A contemporary reading of the mystic Meister Eckhart, which largely contributed to the emergence of German philosophical speculation, will be analyzed as well. The research will, at this level, tackle Eckhart’s unitive structure of knowledge and life, that animates the vital relationship between God and man.
PHI445Metaphysics
3 credits    |    Pre-requisite: PHI210
The purpose of this course is to present a reflection on metaphysics and its relation to primitive philosophy, which discusses, for example, "The science of Being as Being." It is divided into three areas. The first focuses on Aristotelian metaphysics. The second reflects upon the problems of the world, the soul and God, from the analysis of two antithetical philosophers, Leibniz and Spinoza. The third examines the different theories of the nineteenth and twentieth century, taking an in­depth look into the philosophies which were eager to put an end to metaphysics; philosophies which are attributed to Kant, Nietzsche, Heidegger and Habermas.
PHI333Modern Philosophy
3 credits    |    Pre-requisite: PHI301 or PHI210
The students will be introduced to two great philosophical currents, both stemming from the works of Francis Bacon, rationalism (Descartes, Leibniz and Spinoza) and empiricism (Locke, Condillac, Hume), leading to Kant’s philosophy of knowledge ­ critical rationalism.
PHI447Moral and Political Philosophy
3 credits    |    Pre-requisite: PHI210
The course aims to consider a reflection on the foundations and the meaning of democracy, in order to find the place of morality in politics; knowing that the two concepts "moral" and "politics" are written mostly in separation rather than in conjunction. This is how we can understand the great debates relative to moral and political philosophy, from the ancient Greeks ­ particularly those of Plato and Aristotle ­ until modern or contemporary times. Starting with an approach to these two concepts, the course is essentially questioning, on one hand, the need for the interaction of these two areas of morality and politics, and also that of their separation. Students will analyze in-depth the answer to these questions by drawing on texts of classical and modern philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, Max Weber, Hannah Arendt and Julien Freund, who have pondered this topical issue.
PHI327Philosophical Anthropology
3 credits    |    Pre-requisite: PHI210
The question “What Is Man?” is at the heart of philosophical questioning. Starting from the anthropocentrism need of philosophy, the course firstly explores the meaning of the question about the essence of man through its history, the challenges imposed by the cyborg, the computational world or gender theory (Gehlen, Leach, Butler, Blumenberg, etc.). The course questions the difficulties of defining the human being through current changes by building on the thinkers of classical humanism and post­humanism. Secondly, the course presents the basic categories of philosophical anthropology and offers a thorough analysis of the being­in­relation (or the human being-in­relationships) and discussion of political, social and cultural implications, with reference to contemporary thinkers of otherness (Levinas, Buber, Marion, etc.)
PHI325Philosophical Reading
3 credits
An analytical and critical reading of a philosophical text in its entirety is a necessary and formative exercise. After an introduction to the author and his work, and in context of the work in question, a reading workshop, directed and supervised by the teacher, will develop around the statements of work, comments and thematic overviews, for the establishment of a reference file. The workshop will be provided each semester by a different teacher, for a greater variety of approach. The work chosen by the teacher in charge of the course generally will correspond to its competences. It must, however, be a major and referential work in the history of thought. A list of authors will be established for this purpose, such as Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Descartes, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Husserl, Arendt, Derrida, Merleau­Ponty, etc. The work chosen will be announced at the beginning of each semester.
PHI419Philosophy and Sciences
3 credits    |    Pre-requisite: PHI333
This epistemology course centers around a double axis: firstly it tackles the gnoseological question with an inquiry into the genesis of knowledge or the basic stages of the transition from anthropomorphism to anthropocentrism (Kepler, Galileo, Newton). Secondly it tackles methodology in reference to exact sciences and deals with the requirements of the elaboration of a scientific method: its different stages, the means it uses, in order to avoid, overcome or circumvent all sorts of epistemological conundrums that stand in the way of an objective scientific progress (Bachelard, Popper), with a thorough critical study of the validity of its founding criteria (Wittgenstein).
PHI485Philosophy and Societies
3 credits    |    Pre-requisite: PHI447
This course introduces students to a philosophical reflection upon the concept of society. Firstly, it attempts to identify the origin of society, through the problem related to the two corollary concepts of nature and culture. Secondly, the course tackles factors maintaining a social link, explaining the relationship between the state as artifact according to Aristotle, and political societies. There are thus different possible societies such as the individualistic society, communitarian society, holistic society, closed society, open society, etc. Finally, starting from a general approach to social institutions, the course questions the concept of distributive justice and what follows as a dilemma between procedural justice and communitarian justice; which leads ipso facto to a topical problem, that of justice as a social, political and legal recognition.
Capstone
PHI375Internship
3 credits
The purpose of the course is to propose several approaches to the current teaching of philosophy in high schools, and to highlight the various and complex problems specific to this area. It is divided into three parts: the first is an appropriation of various acquired theories relative to the plan of pure didactics. The second is an appropriation of the acquired theories related to the specialized philosophy didactic. The third is testing these theories acquired by a teaching internship in schools, which confirms the skills already acquired by the student concerning both pedagogical and philosophical plans.

Accreditation

This accreditation commission of evalag, Evalag-Baden-Württemberg http ://www.evalag.de, accredited this program and awarded the evalag international label for program accreditation.

Mission

The principal mission of the philosophy degree program is to provide undergraduates and graduates with a broad and intensive training in philosophy and offer them the opportunity to develop critical thinking competencies, in order to analyze the major issues of our time and to have the ability to handle complex logical arguments.
These skills will empower them to enter the labor market and gain access to higher education and research.

Program Educational Objectives

1. Graduates will become qualified teachers and professionals in philosophy in secondary education schools.
2. Graduates will make careers in interdisciplinary environments such as journalism and media.
3. Graduates will demonstrate all the skills necessary to pursue a graduate course and carry out excellent research.
4. Graduates will become leaders in the conversion of thinking.

Student Learning Outcomes

a. Students will correlate the various fields of human sciences, and target the interaction between philosophy and other sciences.
b. Define the key concepts of philosophy and delineate the historical and theoretical issues that give it meaning and value.
c. Recognize that philosophical wisdom is transboundary, and prioritize the Arab world and the Far Eastern world.
d. Rigorously approach a research methodology that combines epistemological, ethical and technological principles.
e. Assess the contribution of classical philosophy and tradition as the foundation of modernity.
f. Reframe Greek philosophy within Arab­Islamic thought.
g. Develop a rational approach to compare the different currents or tendencies and philosophical schools.
h. Create questioning situations that highlight reflection upon ontological and anthropological problems.
i. Build up an ethical­political knowledge and integrate it into action.
j. Formulate a metaphysical problem within a strictly philosophical perspective.
k. Validate the parameters of meaning in their various linguistic, artistic and religious expressions.
l. Structure and diagram a philosophical work and report critical synthesis.
m. Put into practice the knowledge acquired, evaluate training, and master the fundamental skills pertaining to teaching philosophy and pedagogy
Holy Spirit University of Kaslik
Tel.: (+961) 9 600 000
Fax : (+961) 9 600 100
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