Mark Rothko 1949Mark Rothko Green WhiteMark Rothko No.10, 1950Mark Rothko Orange Brown Mark Rothko White Center

HUM 321: Humanities and Critical Thinking: The Critique of Religion

Course Description:

In contrast to many philosophy departments where critical thinking is understood almost exclusively as an evaluation of the cogency of arguments and logic, in the humanities ‘critique' involves locating forms of thought within its social and historical contexts. In this course, we will trace the origins of the idea of ‘critical thinking' to a diverse range of often conflicting and mutually incompatible confrontations with religion, in general, and Christianity in particular.

Required Texts:

  • Freud, Future of an Illusion (Norton)
  • Feuerbach, Essence of Religion (Prometheus)
  • Marx, Marx-Engels Reader (Norton)
  • Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols/Anti-Christ (Penguin)