Bruce Bigelow & Ken Colburn
This is a course in the liberal arts. Liberal education, rooted
in a vision of the common good and the inherent value of community
and the individual, has long been a cornerstone of higher education
in the United States. As such the skills of oral and written
communication, analysis of data, and critical thinking are
nurtured. In addition, values which support democratic citizenship
including knowledge of social problems, tolerance and understanding
of ethnic and cultural diversity, and lifelong learning are
encouraged.
A liberal arts perspective focuses on such critical questions
as: What is the good life and how can individuals attain it? What
is a good society, that is, what are the requirements for a just
and vibrant collective life? And how are these two matters
connected--does the possibility of attaining a good life for the
individual necessarily require the existence of a good society?