HIST 131 PZ -Fundamentalism and Rationalism

This course embraces a robustly comparative framework, juxtaposing the Islamic renaissance of the 9th- 12th centuries with the European Enlightenment of the 17th- 18th centuries. We examine a set of theological and philosophical problems that these movements shared, problems including the nature of God, the role of human reason, free thinking, and the status of natural philosophy. We focus on different schools of thought while addressing the underlying themes of rationalism and fundamentalism - issues that continue to exert their influence. We will trace the comparative thread of the course through the writings of seminal writers in each tradition; they include al-Farabi, Spinoza, Avicenna, Descartes, Ghazali, Leibniz, Averroes, Kant, and Ibn Tufayl.

For up-to-date information on current course offerings and details, please refer to the Pitzer class schedule on MyCampus2 Portal.