Course Descriptions of Augustana's Honors Courses
 For more information look at our catalog.

Foundations courses for first-year students in 2005-2006

  • 101 Self and Other (4)
    What is it like to be a self, to hold a point of view or to follow a way of life? What happens when a self encounters "otherness"? What kinds of relationships can or should exist between self and other? These questions will be addressed using influential Western texts that have laid the groundwork for significant answers to such questions.

  • 102 Community and Faith (4)
    When selves join together in communities, they become part of larger identities. Critical and historical perspectives focus on the traditions and writings of early Christian communities. Provocative questions will be raised about both the basis of community and the nature of faith.

  • 103 Vision and Visionaries (4)
    Building on the insights of the two previous terms of Foundations, this course examines selected extraordinary individuals whose vision has set them apart in some way from the communities in which they lived. The nature of the radical self—and the worth of alternative views of reality to the community that denies, collaborates with or is expanded by them—is questioned.

The first-year writing requirement (LS100) is met in this three-course sequence.



Logos courses for first-year students in 2005-2006
Students take three of these courses. In 2005-2006, Seeking Logos: The Dialogue between Theology and Science, Evolution of Scientific Principles, and Great Controversies in Science will be offered.

  • 121 [H] Evolution of Scientific Principles (3)
    A general introduction to the history of science, focusing on the logic, philosophy and methods of scientists from ancient Greece to the present.

  • 122 Seeking Logos: The Dialogue between Theology and Science (3)
    An examination of the historical interplay between the sciences and theology within the Western tradition, as they both attempt to understand and describe the nature of the world, the universe and the human being.

  • 123 [N] Exact Thinking: The Mathematical Dimension of Science (3)
    This course will show the historical dimension of mathematics, emphasizing its role as a liberal art. Topics will include the mathematics of the ancient Greeks, logic, probability and statistics, and graphing.

  • 124 [N] Great Controversies in Science (3)
    This course will critically examine various sides of some of the more prominent controversies in the natural sciences. Sample topics include arguments about the age of the earth, hot-blooded dinosaurs, and global warming.

  • 125 [S] The Sociology of Science (3)
    An analysis of scientific practice and scientific communities as human constructs embedded in particular sociocultural milieus; an inquiry into cultural variables that shape scientific inquiry and the institutionalization of the scientific enterprise.


  • 126 [L] Science and Literature
    The course explores the relationship of literature and science, the way authors draw on and address ideas from the world of science particularly ones that are culturally controversial and challenging, as well as how literature contributes to making certain visions of science possible.
Logos students also enroll in a LS100 writing class especially designed for them.


The sophomore (2xx level) course for 2005-2006

  • 220: Certainty/Uncertainty (3)
    How have people coped with uncertainty and worked toward certainty in the humanities, the arts, and the social and natural science? How do literature and the arts represent uncertainty of values? How has uncertainty challenged scientists, especially since the development of quantum mechanics and its Uncertainty Principle? How do philosophers, theologians and other thinkers work to increase uncertainty?


The junior (3xx level) course

  • You design it! Your Augustana College honors experience is culminated with an independent learning project. You can write a lengthy scholarly paper on an interdisciplinary topic of your choice. You can write a play; paint a portrait or abstract composition; explore an intellectual question through reading and interviews; compose and perform music--whatever you and the Honors Committee agree is a challenging, enriching project.



Frequently Asked Questions | Your Choice | 3 Years In Honors | The Courses | Main