My Class Schedule

Since I am currently missioned to study philosophy, I thought I would share my class schedule this semester. We are already two weeks in, but I am thinking that this current semester will be my most difficult semester here at Fordham. After this semester, I hope never to take four classes again in the MAPR program. (It's a bad sign when you feel stressed the first week of classes)

Anyway, I thought I would give little excerpts from my syllabi:

Nineteenth Century Philosophy (required):
"Situated between Kant's Copernican revolution and Nietzsche's perspectivism, the nineteenth century experienced a radical questioning of the nature of truth and human understanding. The major reflections on the problem did not occur primarily in the abstract discourse of epistemological theory but in the concrete discourses of religious, social, and cultural critique."

I will be reading in this class from Hegel, Marx, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche.

Philosophy of Literature (elective):
"Philosophy of Literature is a doctoral-level graduate course devoted to examining central questions pertaining to the philosophical assessment of literature and the relationship between philosophy and literature as contested since the beginnings of the Western philosophical traditions...Issues to be addressed include the autonomy of literature, the nature of literary language, the distinction between poetry and prose, the relation of literature to history, the distinctions among literary, scientific, and everyday language, ontological and phenomenological accounts of the literary work of art, and, quite prominently, the status of author and reader in the constitution of the literary work."

Most of the philosophers I will be reading here fall under the realm of Continental Philosophy.

Introduction to the New Testament (elective):
"In this course we will study the origins of Christianity by analyzing its most important literature, now known as the New Testament, in historical context. Theological themes--such as doctrine of God, Christology, sin and salvation--will occupy our attention as they arise in the texts, but they are not our only concern. We will also explore issues of social history, contemporary hermeneutics, religious identity formation, Jewish-Christian relations, gender and sexuality, and political power."

We are reading a lot here.

Analysis for Ministry (required):
"Analysis for Ministry" is meant to foster the reflective habit and analytic ability called for by the Society (of Jesus). This course will attempt to bring faculty together from across the curriculum in order to engage students in a vigorous conversation on social justice and the methods of social and cultural analysis in the Christian tradition. The seminar will begin with a reading of the entire corpus of papal encyclicals on Catholic social doctrine. The course will then progress to relate the principles of this extensive body of magisterial teaching to theology and to economics."

We have about 5 professors team teaching this course. This course helps to form our "habit of reflection in a serious and systematic way on the experience of our human condition in the light of the Gospel."

I think overall that this should be a good semester content wise, but I just need to be able to keep up with the mounds of work already piling up for myself.