Gateway to Politics and Christian Civilization: Integral Methodology
(Short 2-5 Week Courses)
Course Description (Two Week Video Class): THE SOCIAL SCIENCES have long been dominated by an empirical descriptive methodology limited to observable phenomena. This has been both a strength and a weakness. Since all the social sciences are also human sciences, they should better reflect man whom they endeavor to know and to serve. This is becoming more and more apparent as avant-garde social scientists disillusioned by the limits of a strictly empirical approach increasingly include a spiritual dimension in their research.
Since man is a composite of body and soul and society is a human construct, an integral methodology uniting empirical and philosophical dimensions as well as a theological one, seems apropos. The body can be studied under a microscope but the soul cannot. For this reason, it has been ignored to the detriment of both the social sciences and of humanity whom these sciences are intended to benefit. Thus, in this course, we will study science, philosophy, and religion as diverse ways human beings have endeavored to understand themselves and the world they live in.
Gateway to Politics and Christian Civilization: Politics and Jewish Law
(Short 2-5 Week Courses)
Course Description (Two Week Video Class): SINCE POLITICS IS THE STUDY of the common good or of the good life for men and women living in community, it rests upon the previous study of psychology and ethics.
This course provides an in depth understanding of the functions and purposes of government followed by a demonstrated presentation of the best structure of government (democracy, aristocracy, monarchy etc), as well as detailed insight into the best form of government and a careful analysis of the distinction between best structure and form, which is a topic rarely touched upon by political philosophers.
Beyond this, the case is made for the necessity of education for political leaders along with a thorough understanding of the function of law and a proper distinction between and relationship of rights and liberties. The course ends with a look at the function, purposes and importance of written constitutions and the relationship among reason, law, and religion.
Gateway to Politics and Christian Civilization: Psychology (What is Man)
(Short 2-5 Week Courses)
Thus in this course, we will endeavor to acquire and adequate and well developed definition of man using both empirical science and philosophical deduction to reach demonstrated conclusions pertaining to the human body and soul and their working together as a composite unit.
Of special importance will be the comparative study of primate and human language development, the relationship of sign language and symbolic language to various types of thinking including sense based memory and imagination and the various spiritual dimensions of rational thought, which distinguishes human beings from all other animals. In the process, w e will discover clearly demonstrated differences of kind, which make human beings a unique species. Central to this study is an attempt to understand the human soul, the various reasons its existence is necessary and reasons why it is understood to be a spiritual substance capable of separate existence form the body.
In this research, we are indebted to the pioneering work of Greatest Books authors: Aristotle, Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint John Paul II.