MemoTo: General Education CommitteeFrom: Jesse Covington, Department of Political ScienceCC: Susan PenksaDate: January 13, 2019Re: POL-030 and the G.E. CurriculumThis memorandum makes two requests:- That POL-030 no longer be counted as a writing-intensive course. - That POL-030 be allowed to continue fulfilling the “Common Contexts: Philosophical Reflections onTruth and Value” (PRTV, hereafter) requirement in the General Education curriculum. I have outlined below some of my thoughts on why the latter of these is appropriate and haveattached several items for your review. These include a course syllabus, course writingassignment, and information on one of the course texts. I want to thank the committee forgranting me an extension to continue developing the course and this proposal. Also, myongoing participation in the G.E. program review/assessment meetings for the PRTVrequirement has been very helpful to me in a number of respects. As things currently stand,the three learning outcomes for that have been identified for the PRTV requirement involvestudents’ facility with basic philosophical questions, the Christian liberal arts tradition (bothcontent and skills), and Christian worldview thinking. My comments below reflect myunderstanding of the 2005 G.E. document, but are largely organized around the PRTVlearning outcome goals produced by these meetings.The Political Science department has re-titled POL-030 from “Contemporary PoliticalIdeologies” to “Political Theory and Ideology” (PTI, hereafter). There are several reasons forthis change. The addition of “political theory” to the title reflects that the content of the courseextends beyond ideologies to encompass political theory more broadly. Moreover, the newtitle better suits the role of the course in the political science curriculum as an introduction topolitical theory as it is addressed in upper division theory courses. The new title omits theword “Contemporary” because while contemporary thinking remains quite important to thecourse, the relevance of historical political thought makes the new title more descriptive. Philosophy: There remain fundamental continuities with POL-030 as taught by BruceMcKeown and I think that some of the changes I have made to the course may bring it evenmore closely in-line with the goals of the Philosophical Reflections GE requirement. GlennTinder’s book Political Thinking remains a core course text. As the attached materials onPolitical Thinking indicate, Tinder engages students in questions of metaphysics and ethicsthroughout his book, addressing epistemology to a lesser extent as well. Tinder’s approachinterfaces well with how I frame the project of political philosophy: it addresses basicquestions of essence and meaning/value in relation to politics. The 2005 G.E. document listsemphases on either truth or value as central to the goals of the “Philosophical Reflections”requirement. As students read, discuss, and write about various political ideologiesthroughout PTI, basic philosophical questions play an ongoing role (see attached writingassignment).1Worldview: Tinder identifies core truth commitments regarding human nature, evil, eternallife, and knowledge as foundational for the study of political theory—an approach thatfacilitates introducing students to Christian worldview thinking in relation to politics. They cansee the direct relevance of Christian faith for evil, human nature, eternal life, etc., andsubsequently for the political questions addressed in Tinder’s book and throughout thecourse. I teach Tinder’s book in tandem with Al Wolters’ Creation Regained: Biblical Basicsfor a Reformational Worldview. As the class explores with Tinder how fundamental questionsabout existence and morality relate to politics, students simultaneously investigate theimplications of Christian faith for these questions more broadly. These two books are centralto the first segment of the course, but their content continues to shape class analysis ofvarious ideologies throughout the semester. One way that I link this first part of the course tosubsequent segments more focused on specific ideologies is by my use of David Koyzis’book Political Visions and Illusions: A Survey and Critique of Contemporary Ideologies.Koyzis self-consciously seeks to apply a biblical understanding of the world (using a similarapproach to Wolters’) in his analysis of political ideologies. Using this text helps students thinkcritically about the basic commitments of various ideologies, assessing these in relation toChristian faith. Liberal Arts: All of PTI is rooted in the liberal arts tradition in that it seeks to relate politicaltheory to an integrated understanding of academic inquiry, faith, and life. Lines of connectionbetween political theory and other disciplines are inescapable throughout (theology, history,and philosophy stand out in this regard). Moreover, PTI’s emphasis on critical reading,writing, and discussion aims to help students develop skills that are applicable across thedisciplines (see attached writing assignment, in addition to the syllabus). Regarding theChristian liberal arts, Westmont’s G.E. document reads: “These themes include, amongothers: an exploration of what it means to be human; what it means to live a good life; andwhat it means to pursue justice as a citizen of both this world and the Kingdom of God. As aresult of having fulfilled these requirements, students will have an appreciation for thedevelopment of the Christian Liberal Arts tradition.“ While the preceding two paragraphssuggest the relevance of PTI to the first set of concerns, “appreciation for the development ofthe Christian Liberal Arts tradition” is less obvious. While I am still exploring how to do thisbetter, one of the ways in which I am pursuing this is through requiring students to readWestmont’s 2005 General Education document in tandem with Allan Bloom’s “TheDemocratization of the University.” This aims to help them locate Westmont’s approach to theliberal arts in the context of broader changes within American higher education. Bloom’sarticle carries distinctly political implications, which makes it particularly apt for the course.