Courses of Study for the PCC PhD and MA Programs

The PCC programs have been designed to help shape the intellectual, moral, and spiritual leadership necessary for meeting historic global challenges.

Drawing upon some of the most powerful ideas and impulses of our philosophical, scientific, and religious traditions, the faculty has constructed an intensive multidisciplinary course of study to help accelerate students' journeys into their particular leadership roles within this work.

Students may earn either their MA or PhD, with a track in Integral Ecology, if they choose.
Both the MA and the PhD programs strive to embrace the degree goals throughout the curriculum, and should be understood in the context of an overarching commitment to the cultivation of creative vitality and spiritual insight.

MASTER OF ARTS PROGRAM GOALS

Upon completing the degree, MA students will:

• Understand the unprecedented evolutionary challenge of the ecological, cultural, and spiritual crisis that is currently facing the Earth community.
• To develop a critical and appreciative understanding of the history of ideas and culture, with a focus on the Western worldview, such that the student is able to navigate across disciplinary boundaries (e.g., philosophical, scientific, psychological) and identify key paradigmatic assumptions.
• Clarify and deepen the relevance of ideas studied to one's personal life and aspirations, with an eye to their implications for the transformation of culture and society at large. .

MA CURRICULUM

The master's curriculum consists of 36 semester units (the equivalent of two years' full-time study). While some weekend and intensive (on-site and retreat-style) courses are available, the program is residential.

FEATURED COURSES

Each semester the program offers 8 to 12 courses covering a variety of topics. In Spring of 2012, these courses include:

• Spirituality and Moral Action - Prof. Jacob Needleman
• The Creative Imagination - Prof. Jacob Sherman
• Subtle Activism - Prof. Sean Kelly and David Nicol
• Touch the Earth - Prof. Elizabeth Allison
• Integral Economics - Bruce Thompson
• The Ecology and Poetry of Trees - Kathren Murrell Stevenson
• Integral Taiji - Prof. Sean Kelly
• Sri Aurobindo and Rudolf Steiner - Prof. Robert McDermott
• James Hillman and Archetypal Psychology: An Introduction - Prof. Richard Tarnas
• Integrative Seminar - Prof. Elizabeth Allison and Kathy Anne Woodruff
• Psyche and Cosmos II: Transits in Depth - Prof. Richard Tarnas

MA students are required to take two classes: the Introduction to PCC course and the culminating Integrative Seminar. The remainder of the coursework is to a large extent self-directed, allowing students the flexibility to choose which courses to take among the many options available.

INTEGRAL ECOLOGY TRACK: MA REQUIREMENTS

Students in both the MA and PhD programs may select the Integral Ecology track as a focus for their studies.

MA students who select the Integral Ecology track take 36 units of coursework, with 12 units devoted to Integral Ecology. This focus includes 6 units of electives, one required seminar, Perspectives on Integral Ecology, and 3 units of an individualized internship or fieldwork.

Please contact the Program Coordinator at 415.575.6270 for full curriculum details.

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY PROGRAM GOALS

Upon completing the degree, PhD students will:

• Be capable of pursuing scholarly inquiry and engaging ideas from a transdisciplinary perspective, including a sufficient mastery in depth of at least one subject area, with an eye to the paradigmatic assumptions and implications for the transformation of culture and society at large.
• Comprehend the broad outlines of the evolution of Western thought, and be conversant with the principal ideas and themes of major figures of Western intellectual and spiritual history from classical antiquity to the postmodern era, so as to have a basic understanding of the origins of the currently dominant cultural worldview and its relation to the challenges of our moment.
• Engage in cooperative dialogical inquiry, listening sensitively as well as articulating effectively in a spirit of heartfelt and rigorous collaborative learning.
• Write with intellectual clarity at a high level of scholarly competence, stylistic precision, and rhetorical persuasiveness.

CURRICULUM

The doctoral curriculum consists of 36 semester units (the equivalent of two years’ full-time study). While some weekend and intensive (on-site and retreat-style) courses are available, the coursework is primarily residential.

After completing coursework, doctoral students must also take two comprehensive examinations, write a dissertation proposal, and write the dissertation itself. The total time for completion ranges from 4 to 8 years.
Doctoral students who have not completed an MA in the program are required to take the Introduction to Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness seminar. The remainder of the coursework is to a large extent self-directed, allowing students the flexibility to choose which courses to take among the many options available.

For complete curriculum requirements, please contact the Program Coordinator.

COURSE LIST

Students select from the following list to fulfill the electives requirement. Other courses not listed here may also satisfy the electives requirement (with advisor approval). Certain courses are offered every year, but many are offered on a rotational basis.

While most courses are open to both MA and PhD students, doctoral students engage with the material at a deeper level and with a greater degree of academic rigor and precision.

Integral Ecology Track: PhD Requirements

PhD students in Integral Ecology weave lived understanding of the pressing issues of our current time into a cogent and well-articulated analysis in class, conferences, and the community.

Students who select this track at the doctoral level take 36 units of coursework with 9 units devoted to Integral Ecology. They also write at least one essay in an Advanced Seminar on the theme of Integral Ecology.

PhD students in this track are required to take two comprehensive exams, the second of which is specifically focused on Integral Ecology.

Finally, as with the traditional PhD, students in the Integral Ecology track must write a dissertation proposal and a dissertation. The average time to complete the degree is between 4 and 8 years.

REQUIRED COURSES

PARP 6004 Introduction to Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness
PARP 7701 Integrative Seminar (MA only)
PARP 6525 Perspectives on Integral Ecology (Required for Integral Ecology MA only)
PARP 6898 Proposal Writing I: Beginning (Required for PhD only)
PARP 6899 Proposal Writing II: Completing (Required for PhD only)

Electives
Course options may vary. Designated Integral Ecology electives are in green.

PARP 6110 Cosmological Powers
PARP 6225 Synchronicity and its Implications
PARP 6270 Asian Spiritual Masters
PARP 6285 Modern Western Esotericism: Theosophy and Anthroposophy
PARP 6315 Epic of the Universe
PARP 6391 The Alchemy of Permaculture
PARP 6500 History of Western Worldviews I: From the Greeks to the Enlightenment
PARP 6506 The Great Turning
PARP 6522 Science, Ecology, and Contested Knowledge(s)
PARP 6523 Environmental Ethics
PARP 6525 Perspectives on Integral Ecology
PARP 6538 Krishna, Buddha, and Christ
PARP 6540 A History of Western Worldviews II: From the Romantics to the Postmodern
PARP 6557 A Cosmological Perspective on the Modern World
PARP 6570 Evolution of Consciousness
PARP 6743 Hill of the Hawk I
PARP 6744 Hill of the Hawk II
PARP 6746 The Earth Journey
PARP 6748 Nature and Eros
PARP 6754 Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy
PARP 6821 Archetypal Process: Whitehead, Jung, and Hillman
PARP 7001 Psyche and Cosmos I: Transpersonal Psychology and Archetypal Astrology
PARP 7002 Psyche and Cosmos II: Transits in Depth (Practicum)
PARP 7007 American Philosophy
PARP 7008 James Hillman and Archetypal Psychology: an Introduction
PARP 7014 Planetary Crisis and the Birth of the Diamond Soul
PARP 7078 Teilhard and Steiner
PARP 7079 The Mysticism of Swedenborg
PARP 7105 Archetypes, Art, and Culture
PARP 7107 Advanced Seminar: Interpretation of Science
PARP 7134 Integral Cosmology: Sri Aurobindo and Whitehead
PARP 7400 Psyche and Spirit: From the Psychology of Religion to Transpersonal Theory
PARP 7820 Advanced Seminar: Hegel and Jung
PARP 8150 Advanced Seminar: Nietzsche’s Life and Work
PARP 9568 The Planetary Era: Toward a New Wisdom Culture