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The development of an undergraduate course to investigate the question, What is the value of a liberal arts education?

Scott Campbell, associate professor of philosophy, and Marjorie Roth, associate professor of music, of Nazareth College of Rochester, develop a course on the question, What is the value of a liberal arts education? Open to students from all majors and professional programs, the course reconnects the historical liberal arts with current educational practices in Western as well as non-Western cultures. By emphasizing the core habits of mind inherent in the original liberal arts which promote a healthy, balanced, and productive human life, the course extends into the larger concerns of the college faculty, programs, disciplines, and administration, helping students to see how a liberal arts education informs life beyond academia. The course is divided into three sections. The first section focuses on the meaning and purpose of education; the second section examines the origin, evolution, and illustration of the liberal arts from antiquity to the present; and the third section connects the Western notion of liberal education to its counterparts in Asian and Islamic thought. Readings for the course include: Martha Nussbaum's Cultivating Humanity, Aristotle's Metaphysics, Plato's Republic, Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, Remi Brague's Wisdom of the World, Dante's Convivio, W. H. Stahl's Martianus Capella and the Seven Liberal Arts, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Tao Te Ching. Weekly evaluative exercises serve as preparation for three research papers. The project directors also develop two web-based resources for the course, and make ample use of campus and Rochester community resources.