Intellectual Foundations

Approved April 25, 2005

Within the context of broadly understood historical eras, students will:

1. Demonstrate knowledge of Western ways of thought in one or more historical period, including at least two foundational fields of thought (e.g., science and religion, or artistic expression and political philosophy)
    
2. Demonstrate knowledge of the development of Western civilization in one or more historical period, including its cultures, geography, institutions, societies, polities and economies.
    
3. Demonstrate knowledge of an era in terms of the historical periodization, continuities and discontinuities, in Western civilization.
    
4. Relate the development of Western civilization to that of other regions of the world.

Note: The first three learning outcomes correspond to the first of the SUNY Trustee’s learning outcomes. The fourth is identical to the second of the SUNY Trustee’s learning outcomes. The committee responded to the following passage SUNY’s commentary, requiring that Western Civilization courses have

(i) a focus on an aspect of western civilization that is reasonably construed as foundationally important; and

(ii) relate that focus to the overall development of western civilization.