M.A. in Philosophy and Religion
Ph.D. in Philosophy and Religion
Integral Ecology Track
Featured Courses
Complete Course List
Summer 2007-2008 Courses and Syllabi
Syllabi are subject to change; please see final syllabus at first class meeting.
PARP 6110 - Cosmological Powers (3 units) with Brian Swimme - Tuesday, 3:00-6:00 pm
The course focuses on the microcosmic form of the cosmological powers pervading the larger universe. The universe operates using a variety of processes and laws and powers, such as the electromagnetic interaction, the second law of thermodynamics, and gravitation. These are the fundamental activities of the universe and they have given rise to all the complex beings throughout fourteen billion years of evolution.
This course examines the way in which humanity can be understood as a "hominized" form of cosmological processes. For instance, our affections can be understood as a later development of mammalian emotional bonding, which is itself a further development of the parental care found in some early fish, which can in turn be interpreted as a radical development of the bonding between all matter we call gravity. This is an approach to human self-understanding using contemporary scientific knowledge applied to the more ancient idea that each human is a microcosm of the larger enveloping whole.
PARP 6310 - Jung and Myth (3 units) with David Ulansey - Thursday 6:15-9:15 pm
This course will investigate the use and interpretation of mythology by C.G. Jung. We will begin with an extensive introduction to Jung's life and thought through a careful reading of his own central writings. Then we will examine Jung's studies of a series of mythological motifs: these will include among others the Great Mother, the Child, and the Hero. Next we will look at Jungian approaches to an interrelated family of Mesopotamian myths that lies behind much of later Western mythology-- namely, the myths of Inanna and Gilgamesh. Finally we will explore Jung's interpretation of the "Christ-Myth"-- the central myth of Christianity.
PARP 6391 - The Alchemy of Permaculture (3 units) with David Ulansey and Blair Carter - meets OFF SITE during spring break, 2/29-3/2 contact program for more details - Additional course fee T.B.A.
Our relationship to the vital earth we inhabit is inherently alchemical. But at this moment - evidenced by the looming planetary ecological crisis - the vessel of that relationship is on the verge of shattering. A crisis of this magnitude demands that we respond to the situation from a perspective that honors both exterior and interior landscapes. Our task is to examine how we have reached this critical point and to explore the possibilities of creating a more sustainable crucible for life. This ten day off-site residential field course (in Southern Oregon's Applegate Valley) will investigate the psycho-cultural origins of the planetary crisis and pursue direct practical solutions to it. Utilizing the ethic and practice of deep ecology and permaculture, we will aim to envision, create, and live a sustainable way of being. Activities will include lectures, discussions, wilderness field trips, hands-on experience with bioremediation, permaculture design principles, water-catchment, wild food and medicine foraging, organic dairy production, practice in sustainable community, and - most importantly - exploring our playful and joyous kinship with the wild and natural world. Readings will include E.O. Wilson on the ecological crisis, C.G. Jung and others on alchemy, and a variety of readings on permaculture and deep ecology.
PARP 6605 - Literature of Embeddedness (3 units) with Charlene Spretnak - meets Friday, Feb 29 from 6:15pm-8:30pm, Saturday, March 1 from 9:30am-5:30pm, and Sunday, March 2 from 9:30am-4:00pm
This course explores poetry and fiction that addresses, challenges, and corrects the Western philosophical perceptions of a radical discontinuity between humans and nature, body and mind, self and the world, and immanent and transcendent. The selected literature succeeds in various approaches to expressing human experience as embedded in, and indeed constituted by, subtle processes of the Earth community and the entire cosmos- that is, literature of participatory consciousness. Some of the authors speak from cultures that have never perceived the Western discontinuities. Others create characters who experience a sudden dissolution of false boundaries or gradually find their human-focused consciousness absorbed by and expanded to the far larger dimensions of the cosmological whole. As we will consider not only the content but also the ways in which the poets and writers accomplish their aims, this course is designed for students interested in participatory consciousness, literature, cultural history, and writing itself.
PARP 6780 - From Gilgamesh to Gnosis: The Mythic Structures of Western Religion (3 units) with David Ulansey - Tuesday, 6:15-9:15pm
This course will explore the mythic, symbolic, and archetypal patterns that lie at the heart of Western religion. The course will center on the ancient foundation myths of Western religion, and its goal will be to discover the ways in which an understanding of the origins and nature of these myths can help us clarify our own archetypal situation today. We will begin by tracing the earliest Mesopotamian roots of the symbolic systems of the West. We will then examine the structure of the core myths of the ancient Israelites as preserved in the anthology of texts known as the "Old Testament." The course will continue by investigating the merger of archetypal complexes-- including ancient Near Eastern ritual and myth, Israelite apocalyptic speculation, and Greek mysticism and cosmology-- that created the symbolic matrix out of which the Christian movement emerged. The early Christian "Gospels" will then be explored to see how elaborate layers of deep mythic imagery gradually became woven around the historical figure of Jesus. The course will conclude with an analysis of the fully developed "Christ-Myth" (combining the motif of the ancient dying and rising god with that of the cosmic descending and ascending redeemer) as found in sources ranging from the visionary mythmaker Paul to various Gnostic traditions.
PARP 7006 - The Wisdom of Teilhard de Chardin (3 units) with Brian Swimme and Robert McDermott - Wednesday, 3:00 - 6:00 pm
The emergence of modern ways of knowing and especially of modern science led to a secular-sacred split in much of western civilization and thereafter in industrial societies around the planet. This split manifests in a number of ways ranging from debates about education and the rights of animals to outright warfare. Teilhard articulates evolution as a physical-psychic creative process suffused with divine presence. His synthesis, taken together with the work of Alfred North Whitehead, Sri Aurobindo, Edgar Morin, Carl Jung, and Rudolf Steiner, provides a foundation for the first truly planetary cosmology.
PARP 7007 - American Philosophy (1 unit) with Robert McDermott - meets the following Fridays from 9:45am - 2:45pm: 2/1, 2/15, 2/29.
This one-credit course includes readings by and discussion of the thought of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, and John Dewey. It focuses on the great period of American philosophy from the publication of Emerson's Nature in 1836 to the last great works by John Dewey in the 1930s.
PARP 7008 - James Hillman and Archetypal Psychology: An Introduction (1 unit) with Richard Tarnas - meets from 9:30am- 5:30pm one weekend, 4/12 and 4/13.
This brief course offers an introduction to the ideas of James Hillman, the principal founder of archetypal psychology and one of the most influential thinkers in contemporary psychology and culture. From its beginnings in the late 1960s, archetypal psychology has brought creative vitality and brilliant insight to the field of depth psychology, at once affirming fundamental elements in the Jungian and psychoanalytic perspectives while sharply critiquing others. Above all it has called for depth psychology to move beyond the consulting room to engage the larger cultural, historical, and ecological issues of our time.
PARP 7701 - Integrative Seminar (3 units) with Robert McDermott and Kathy Anne Woodruff - meets 9 Fridays; see syllabus for details
This seminar provides an opportunity for PCC masters students to create a portfolio documenting their course of study as it comes to a conclusion. All students (approximately ten) will synthesize the various threads of their research as expressed in papers of enduring significance in a new essay to be presented to the class, and after appropriate refinement, to an assembly of PCC faculty and students. In this seminar students will address each other directly while the two instructors provide crucial but minimal direction and instruction.
