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MET IS 420: The Moral Self: Psychological, Religious, and Spiritual Perspectives
This course will examine morality through three related yet different lenses: psychology, religion and spirituality. With war, terrorism, global climate change, geological disruptions, and other threats, humans tend to feel more vulnerable, more insecure, and to seek deeper understandings of themselves and their world. Accordingly, issues such as abortion, capital punishment, and stem-cell research take on new meanings as morality evolves with culture. How do we develop a moral understanding of what is appropriate behavior for ourselves and others around us? Is morality carved in stone or is it subject to change, depending upon life experience, religion, secular and social orientation, and other factors? The goal of this course is not to definitively answer questions but to generate them; not to agree on moral issues, but to facilitate understanding of others views; not to criticize, but to comprehend the strengths and limitations of each paradigm. -
MET IS 421: The Art of Rhetoric in Life and Work
The art of rhetoric is one of the original liberal arts and is a part of the trivium that includes grammar and logic. Rhetoric is as old as human communication and as diverse as the human imagination. In the twenty-first century, rhetoric has new forms and meanings but retains some of the dynamics of the classical age of Greece and Rome. This course is a study of the art of rhetoric in everyday life and work from both theoretical and practical perspectives with an emphasis on writing and interpretation. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Critical Thinking. -
MET IS 450: Botany without Borders
Online offering. Introduces students to practical problems in botany with a dual emphasis on plant evolution and plants in human affairs. The course crosses borders in time and geography as we examine the broad sweep of plants and their role on Earth over the past 300 million years. Plant form and function, evolution of seed plants, plant ecology, ethnobotany (human uses of plants), endangered plant communities, and prospects for conserving plant biodiversity are highlighted in this interdisciplinary course designed for undergraduates. While its focus is rigorously scientific, the course incor Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Scientific Inquiry I. -
MET IS 460: Romanticism and Its Off-Shoots: Countering the Enlightenment in Philosophical Literature and the
This course explores various currents, paradoxes, and extensions of Romanticism, especially as this movement took shape in Europe and America, with a special focus on philosophical literature and the visual arts. We will begin with some central ideas and themes of German Romantic thinkers, exploring how these ideas and themes are also evoked by British and American writers as well as by European and American painters. We will identify and analyze Romantic themes and styles in early German expressionist films, in British gothic fantasy movies, and in American motion pictures about western front Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Aesthetic Exploration. -
MET IS 480: Physics of Motion: Something in the Way it Moves
Mechanics is the study of the motion of objects and the forces acting on objects. It is hoped that the student will share some of the excitement felt by great scientists such as Galileo and Newton when they discovered many of the principles on which the physics of motion are based. The course assumes that the student has a working knowledge of algebra, but the emphasis will be on a conceptual understanding of physics rather than on advanced mathematics. Many demonstrations and animations will be presented in the course. Students will become familiar with the physics of everyday situations. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Scientific Inquiry I. -
MET IS 491: Directed Study
Independent study under faculty guidance. Prior approval of program director required.
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