Current Courses

This is the Test Course

Discuss foundations for success in life, college, and career. Develop skills for civic leadership, well-being, and academic scholarship.

Examine civic conflicts and controversies, with a view to understanding their root causes. Explore readings from classic and contemporary texts on political theory, ethics, and practice.

Examines what humans can know, how they reason, what thinking is, and how humans communicate to persuade others. Readings in logic, epistemology, and rhetoric include classical writers such as Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian as well as modern and contemporary thinkers and leaders, with emphasis on case studies of effective persuasion.

Explores the origins of social scientific thought in the history of political philosophy and traces the development of one or more of the social sciences in modern times. Focuses on fundamental ideas about human nature, civil society, and politics, explored through reading such authors as Aristotle, Aquinas, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, Weber, Durkheim, and Freud.

Examine debates about constitutionalism and citizenship in American and Texas political experience. Investigate the philosophical and historic foundations of American institutions from the founding period through the contemporary era. Discuss the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.

Examine the roots of American institutions and practices from ancient times (Greek city-states, the Mosaic law, Roman politics), medieval practices and institutions, English constitutional history (Magna Carta, Glorious Revolution), and the Enlightenment (Locke, Montesquieu, Sydney). Discuss the American colonial experiment in self-government. Explore the Revolution, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitutional convention. Address the early republic and significant constitutional moments in American experience.

Examine classical liberal thought as it relates to political and economic liberty. Investigate how classical liberal ideas about political and economic liberty influence the modern development of democracy and capitalism. Explore potential tensions between democracy and capitalism. Studies empirical evidence and classic writings on relationship between democracy, capitalism, and human flourishing.

Introduction to statistical methods used in civics with emphasis on concepts and applications. Utilize a variety of real data to discuss key concepts, such as sampling distributions and basic data analyses.

Investigate the nature, grounds, and consequences of moral excellence in political communities. Discuss close reading of classical texts (such as Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius, Cicero, Aquinas), contemporary philosophical analysis (such as Foot, Anscombe, MacIntyre), results of scientific research, and reflections on history, biography, and literature (such as Shakespeare, Austen). Focus on application to contemporary problems.

Study of selected plays of Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylus, Aristophanes, and others with a focus on themes of virtue, justice, and leadership qualities.

Close readings from primary texts that have shaped or that reflect deeply upon American democracy, including the Declaration of Independence, The Federalist Papers, and Tocqueville’s Democracy in America.

Examine the ancient and medieval origins of modern constitutionalism. Explores the works of authors such as Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Augustine, Machiavelli, Montaigne, Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Gibbon, Hamilton, Madison, Tocqueville, Thoreau, Marx, Mill, Arendt, Berlin, Rawls, and Nozick.

Examine the relationship between theology (both revealed and natural) and political theory in the Western world. Discuss the political significance of theological ideas such as the proposition that all human beings are created equal; that all human beings are created in the image of God; beliefs in divine providence and judgment; metaphysical foundations of natural law and free will.

Discuss a practical application of the studies of strategic behavior to leadership. Examine games leaders must play and strategies they can use to orient a team toward a common goal.

Survey the ideas that have structured the American economic system and the implications of these ideas for civic life and citizenship. Examine philosophical and theoretical questions of political economy, as well as the policy challenges of the modern welfare state and globalization.

Explore the story of America’s Constitution, from its colonial roots to its modern moment. Examine the history behind the document that has governed our lives and liberties for more than two centuries. Study original sources from the great debates and landmark cases of our constitutional past.

Examine the Declaration of Independence, a document Thomas Jefferson considered his crowning achievement. Study Jefferson’s perspectives on wide-ranging subjects such as the nature of rights, equality, the political regime ushered in by the revolution, religion and educational reform.

Examine how thinkers in the ancient world, both Western and Eastern, conceived of political authority. Engage in close readings of texts by Homer, Sophocles, Plato, Confucius, Laozi, and Han Feizi to confront enduring questions about virtue, order, and political wisdom.

Examine major writings of Niccolo Machiavelli (1468 – 1527) in order to determine his understanding of grand strategy and military strategy. Learn the place of war in Machiavelli’s overall understanding of human life and compare his strategic thought with that of other great theorists of war such as Sun Tau and Clausewitz. Examine Machiavelli’s own long experience with military matters as a Florentine official as well as his posthumous presentation of himself as the discoverer of “new modes and orders” that will provide the foundation for what we have come to call the modern world.

Examine the origins and development of the nation-state through the political ideas and historical experience of the Jewish people. Explore biblical and modern texts that address themes of national identity, peoplehood and sovereignty. Analyze the contribution of Jewish thought and the history of Israel – from antiquity to Zionism and the modern State – to the broader development of nationalism.

Explore the works from twentieth-century geopolitical authors such as Hans Morgenthau, Henry Kissinger, Halford Mackinder, and Zbigniew Brzezinski. Discuss current and historical geopolitical issues in a seminar format. Identify connections between these works and international politics.

Provides a format for reflection during a professional internship in civic leadership, resulting in improved ability to both articulate preferences and skills, and to match them with appropriate career-related choices. Perform fieldwork in research and analysis related to civic leadership.

Examine the first book of the Hebrew Bible and approach it as a source of deep insight into the origins, nature, and aspirations of human beings and the necessary conditions for a decent and elevated life. Consider Genesis alongside selected works of Greek poetry and philosophy to appreciate the spiritual and intellectual tension between Athens and Jerusalem that gives Western civiliation its distinctive vitality.

Examine the concept and history of revolutions, beginning with the English Revolution of the mid-17th century and continuing via the French, Russian, Chinese, Iranian, and other revolutions to the Occupy movements and Arab Spring of the early 2010s. Explore issues around the definition and justification of revolution, the people and ideology behind revolution, the opponents of revolution, and what qualifies as success in revolution. Compare and consider revolutions through history as an iterative process.

Introduction to Microeconomics – Analysis of the economic behavior of individual consumers, firms, and workers. Demand, supply, and market equilibrium. Impact of taxes, externalities, and market power on equilibrium.

Cultivate an awareness of the relevance of ethics, politics, and economics, as well as an appreciation for the limitations of each discipline and necessity of thinking through their interactions.

Practice researching and prepare to share findings for public discourse related to philosophy, politics, and economics. Prerequisite: Philosophy, Politics, and Economics 320 with at least a C or consent of the director of the program.

Course descriptions are not available for UT Signature Courses (UGS) taught by SCL faculty.

Course descriptions are not available for UT Signature Courses (UGS) taught by SCL faculty.

Course descriptions are not available for UT Signature Courses (UGS) taught by SCL faculty.

Course descriptions are not available for UT Signature Courses (UGS) taught by SCL faculty.

Course descriptions are not available for UT Signature Courses (UGS) taught by SCL faculty. Note that for this course, discussion sections are on Mondays at 8a, 9a, 10a, 11a, 12p, and 1p.