Humanities Major

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FINE ARTS (Fine Art)
Offered by the Department of English and Fine Arts.

Fine Art 375. Introduction to Film Studies. A structured introduction to cinema. Course will take a thematic or chronological approach to the study of film as art form, with attention to film-making techniques, narration, forms of genre and modes of production.

Fine Art 452. Art in History. A chronological historical survey of art antiquity to the present. Includes study of the major periods, schools, and styles of art, and biographies of important artists. This course is interdisciplinary; discussion will include music, drama, and dance as necessary to provide students with historical/social and political contexts of art masterpieces. Test and class lectures will be augmented with slides, videotapes, music selections, guest artists and lecturers, and actual art objects.

Fine Art 458. Music Appreciation. Survey of music of the Western world and a study of basic elements, forms and styles in representative works by major composers. Emphasis on listening, understanding and appreciation. Voluntary field trip to an area concert during cadet time. Knowledge or talent in music is not required.

Fine Art 459. Intro to Drawing and Design. This course teaches drawing and sketching from the ground up. Designed for students with no practical studio experience. Course assignments will include hands-on class exercises and homework projects. Students will learn to apply the principles of design to common design tasks. They will gain practical experience in sketching and using gesture and contour modes of drawing.  

Fine Art 461. Advanced Studio Art. A studio course for students who have previous art studio experience. Students design art projects which provide more artistic and technical challenges than Fine Art 463 or 464.

Fine Art 463. 3-D Studio Art: Clay and Sculpture. An introductory course to practical 3-D processes in art. Students will work with coil, slab, hand-built, and wheel-thrown pottery. They will plan and create clay, wire, assemblage, and carved sculptural projects in relief and in-the-round. Students will make preparatory sketches for their projects.

Fine Art 464. 2-D Studio Art: Painting and Printmaking. A course in practical 2-D processes in art. Students will learn figure drawing, watercolor, and acrylic painting and complete several projects in each medium. They will also complete several projects in printmaking: relief, etching, monoprint, or collograph.

Fine Art 477. Fine Arts in the U.S.A. This course offers an interdisciplinary approach to the arts in the Unites States with emphasis on the United States. A chronological approach to the content will explore common themes in the arts by studying archeology, painting, sculpture and music. Students can expect to experience the arts through slides, musical selections, guest artists, film, videotapes and other media.

Fine Art 495. Special Topics. Selected special topics in fine art.

Fine Art 499. Independent Study. Subject and meetings arranged with the instructor.

HUMANITIES (Hum)
Offered by the Department of the Humanities Division.

Hum 200. Introduction to the Humanities. Interdisciplinary course. A seminar-style introduction to the intellectual history of Western Civilization through literature, philosophy, the fine arts and the history of law and science. The course aims to lay the foundation for further study in the disciplines of the humanities, to enhance integrated knowledge and critical thinking and to prepare students for advanced study.

Hum 400. Humanities Seminar. Interdisciplinary course. A seminar focused on the history of Western Civilization, through literature, the arts and philosophy. Related topics include the history of law and history of science and their impact on trends in the humanities. This approach is invaluable for enhancing integrated knowledge and critical thinking and is excellent preparation for cadets wishing to pursue graduate studies.

Hum 430. The Holocaust. The subject of the Holocaust, the destruction of the Jews of Europe and others at the hands of the Nazis and their collaborators, is of great significance in the history of human civilization. The extensive documentation of this systematic genocide lends itself to the academic examination of critical lessons in the study of human history and behavior, as well as ethical issues. Through this investigation cadets can also understand what it means to be a responsible citizen and soldier.

Hum 461. Russian Literature. A study of representative Russian authors (such as Pushkin, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Sholokhov, Pasternak and Solzhenitsyn) in their historical and cultural setting and their impact on the shaping of the national character of the Russian people.

Hum 463. Far Eastern Literature. An historical survey and analysis of major literary works of the Far East with emphasis on China and Japan.

Hum 475. Army Heritage and Operations Survey of the United States Army, its history and traditions, doctrine, and tactics. Prepares cadets for commissioning as Army officers and attendance at the Army’s Basic Officer Leader Course Phase II (BOLC II) by familiarizing them with the history and heritage of the Army; providing a basic understanding of fundamental Army operational and tactical doctrine; and introducing cadets to small unit leadership, doctrine, tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP) of company grade leadership – Troop Leading Procedures (TLP). Written assignments, land navigation, and Tactical Exercise Without Troops (TEWT). Priority given to cadets with submitted written requests for Army Service Transfer (cross commissioning).

Hum 495. Special Topics. Selected topics in humanities.

PHILOSOPHY (Philos)
Offered by the Department of Philosophy.

Philos 310. Ethics. A critical study of several major moral theories and their application to contemporary moral problems with special emphasis on the moral problems of the profession of arms. Highlighted are the officer’s responsibilities to reason and act ethically; develop critical thinking skills; know civic, cultural, and international contexts in which the U.S. military operates; and learn influential normative theories about ethics and the foundations of character.

Philos 311. War, Morality and the Military Profession. An in-depth examination of the moral issues raised by the profession of arms. Presumes an understanding of moral theory, as a minimum: relativism, egoism, utilitarianism and deontology.

Philos 330. Introduction to the Philosophy of Science. An analysis of the basic assumptions and principles of the sciences. Types of topics considered include the scientific method, scientific laws, theory construction, scientific explanation, probability, the relationship between the social sciences and the physical sciences and the relationship between the sciences and the humanities, especially in the formation of values.

Philos 360. Applied Reasoning. An introduction to basic deductive and inductive applied logic. Includes an analysis and evaluation of the notions of evidence and good arguments in fields such as law, medicine, science, engineering, behavioral and social sciences and military studies.  Students will be expected to concentrate on reasoning in a specific field of interest.

Philos 370. Introduction to Symbolic Logic. A course in formal logic that examines propositional and predicate languages, model theory, quantifiers, proofs, identity theory and properties of logical systems.

Philos 382. American Philosophy. An examination of the philosophic background of Puritanism, the Revolutionary period, transcendentalism and pragmatism with special reference to the thought of major American philosophers such as Pierce, James, Royce, Santayana and Dewey.

Philos 390. Great Philosophers. An in-depth study of central Western philosophers and their systems of philosophy. Philosophers read will include some of the following: Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Leibniz, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche.

Philos 395. Philosophy of Law. This course will serve as an introduction to legal philosophy and its relations to moral reasoning. Emphasis on the nature of law, its authority, its relations to morals, the controversies over judicial decision making, the justification of states interfering with the liberty of individual citizens, the various different or competing senses of “justice,” the question of responsibility and the justification of legal punishment.

Philos 400. Comparative Religion. A philosophical survey of selected world religions, possibly including “extinct” religions now known only through texts and other artifacts. Faith traditions to be surveyed in every offering of the course include Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Course syllabus lists additional traditions to be examined in a given semester.

Philos 401. Philosophy of Religion. Topics covered include concepts of the divine, grounds for belief in a deity, theories of salvation, the problem of evil, the roles of revelation and reason in religion, problems of religions language, and the role of religion in moral theory.

Philos 410. Medical Ethics. Ethics applied to biomedical issues using a seminar approach. Ethical problems considered will include informed consent, refusal of treatment, suicide, killing and letting die, paternalism, allocation of health care, patient confidentiality, codes of medical ethics and specific case analyses.

Philos 495. Seminar in Philosophy. Selected topics in philosophy.

Philos 499. Independent Study. Philosophical research guided by an instructor.