Intellectual Heritage
Prerequisite: Composition C050, R050, H090 or its equivalent.
Requirement: Intellectual Heritage X051 or X091 (3 credits) and Intellectual Heritage X052 or X092 (3 credits); normally, students should take Intellectual Heritage I in the semester immediately following the completion of Composition C050 and Intellectual Heritage II immediately after completing I.
Intellectual Heritage represents the most distinctive feature of Templešs Core Curriculum. It stands apart from other Core courses as the single universal requirement of the Core. Intellectual Heritage provides a unique commonality in the education of Temple undergraduates, namely a common cultural literacy, through the intense study and discussion of materials selected from the major texts that have influenced our thinking and social behavior over three millennia.
Intellectual Heritage is both comparative and interdisciplinary. Both semesters of the course include units on non-western cultures and the history of science in addition to the more traditional texts drawn from literature, religion, philosophy, and political theory.
The course includes works from the time of Homer to the 20th century. However, it is not a survey of Western Civilization. Students will read primary texts in depth; secondary readings will be used sparingly, if at all. Lectures and class discussions may take historical and cultural contexts into account, but the main focus is on the texts themselves. Whether a class's work explores the meaning of a work in its own time or its relevance today, it is designed to provoke comparative discussion of a variety of conceptions of humankind and the impact and power of seminal ideas.
Intellectual Heritage constitutes two of the five writing-intensive courses required in the Core. In addition to essay questions on the mid-term and final examinations, students will write several papers and/or complete other written assignments.
X051 Intellectual Heritage I (3 credits)
X052 Intellectual Heritage II (3 credits)
X091 Honors Intellectual Heritage I (3 credits)
X092 Honors Intellectual Heritage II (3 credits)