Year three of the four-year Thomas Aquinas College curriculum. All courses are year-long.

Note Concerning “Equivalent Credit Hours”: Equivalent Credit Hours are based on an analysis of the Thomas Aquinas College curriculum in terms of equivalent semes­ter hours of conventional college subjects. It should be noted, however, that these are approximate. The integrated nature of the curriculum would make a precise calculation somewhat artificial, so the estimates can be regarded as fairly conservative.

 

 

Theology 3 (St. Thomas on Theology, God, and Law)

 

The bulk of this course focuses on St. Thomas Aquinas’s account of the nature of theology as a science, his five ways for proving the existence of God, proofs for God’s essential attributes (e.g., simplicity, goodness, infinity, unity), and concludes with a discussion of the beatific vision. The remaining part of the course focuses on St. Thomas’s treatise on law, examining his definition of law and his discussion of the nature and various kinds of law (e.g., God’s eternal law, the natural law, the divinely revealed law, and human positive law).

Readings

  • St. Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae, I, qq. 1-12; I-II, qq. 90-97

Credit Hours: 6.0

 

 

Philosophy 3 (Ethics and Politics)

 

This course is an investigation into the best life, as presented in Aristotle’s “philosophy of human things”. Using the Nicomachean Ethics, the course first takes up the definition of happiness, the moral and intellectual virtues, the importance of friendship, and the active and the contemplative lives. With the Politics as a guide, the course then turns to a consideration of the nature, principles, ordering, conflicts, and maintenance of the political community: justice, prudence, and the common advantage are key matters of investigation.

Readings

  • Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics and Politics

Credit Hours: 6.0

 

 

Natural Science 3 (Mathematical Physics; Dynamics and Mechanics)

 

This course is an introduction to mathematical physics. Selections from the writings of Galileo uncover controversial issues concerning the infinite and the nature and causes of motion. Galileo’s treatment of uniform and naturally accelerated mo­tion introduces the students to kinematics. Extensive reading in Newton’s Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy leads to a unified dynamic account of motion both on earth and in the heavens, overturning the ancient cosmology once and for all and vindicating the astronomy of Kepler’s New Astronomy.

Readings

  • Galileo: Two New Sciences
  • Descartes: Principles of Philosophy
  • Newton: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy

Credit Hours: 8.0

 

 

Mathematics 3 (Analytic Geometry and Calculus)

 

In the first semester, after a brief look at the beginnings of modern algebra, the students take up the analytic geometry of Descartes, from whose Geometry they learn to solve three- and four-line locus problems. The second semester begins with a consideration of Archimedes’ method of determining curvilinear areas. The principles, methods and goals of integral and differential calculus are introduced through the works of their principal inventors, Newton and Leibniz. Trigonometric, exponential, and logarithmic functions are introduced in a formal way and their derivatives and integrals are studied. The year’s study culminates in a proof of the fundamental theorem of calculus.

Readings

  • Viete: Introduction to the Analytic Art
  • Descartes: Geometry
  • Archimedes: Quadrature of the Parabola and Measurement of the Circle
  • Selections from Leibniz, Newton, Barrow, and others

Credit Hours: 6.0

Equivalent Credit Hours

  • 1.5 (Algebra)
  • 1.5 (Analytical Geometry)
  • 3.0 (Calculus)

 

 

Music (Music Theory)

 

This course begins with a consideration of the different ways in which music can be studied: as a fine art, as a liberal art, and as a part of ethical science.  The remainder of the course consists primarily of an investigation of music in the first two ways.  In the portion dedicated to music as a fine art students primarily seek an understanding of the essential principles of music through a theoretical investigation of melody, rhythm, and harmony.  In the portion dedicated to music as a liberal art they examine two main points: first, various ancient and modern solutions to the problem of tuning; second, a theory proposed to explain mathematically the phenomena of consonance and roots in chords.  As part of the course students consider the differences between tonal and atonal music, learn the basic principles of music analysis, and produce an analysis of a Mozart sonata before writing a basic composition of their own.  Choral singing and Gregorian chant are generally components of the course.  

Readings

  • Zuckerkandl: The Sense of Music
  • Boethius: On Music
  • Kalkavage: On the Measurement of Tones
  • Gustin: Tonality
  • Mozart and various other composers: Scores for analysis

Credit Hours: 4.0

 

 

Seminar 3 (Early Modern Philosophy, Literature, History, and Politics)

 

This course provides an intensive study of the philosophy, literature, and history of the early modern period. Some of the questions taken up include the following: origins of modern natural science; the relationship of philosophy, science, and rhetoric; justice and political expediency; modern political philosophy; modern epistemology; the relation of modernity and religion; American political thought.

Readings

  • St. Thomas Aquinas: On Kingship
  • Machiavelli: The Prince and Discourses on Livy
  • Luther: The Freedom of a Christian
  • Cajetan: On Faith and Works – Against the Lutherans
  • Council of Trent: Decree on Justification
  • Bacon: New Organon
  • Descartes: Rules for the Direction of the Mind, Discourse on Method, Meditations
  • Pascal: Pensees
  • Cervantes: Don Quixote
  • Shakespeare: Julius Caesar, Henry IV Part 1, Richard II, Macbeth, Othello, Hamlet, King Lear, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Sonnets
  • Corneille: Le Cid
  • Racine: Phaedre
  • Spinoza: Theologico-Political Treatise
  • Hobbes: Leviathan
  • Milton: Paradise Lost
  • Locke: Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Second Treatise on Government
  • Berkeley: Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge
  • Hume: Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
  • Gibbon: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
  • Leibniz: Discourse on Metaphysics
  • Rousseau: Discourse on Inequality and Social Contract
  • Kant: Critique of Pure Reason
  • Declaration of Independence
  • The Federalist
  • Lincoln: Speeches and Debates with Douglas

Credit Hours: 8.0

Equivalent Credit Hours:

  • 2.5 (Literature)
  • 2.5 (Philosophy)
  • 1.5 (Political Science)
  • 1.0 (History)
  • 0.5 (Theology)