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Transformative Ideas

Transformative Ideas offers students the opportunity to participate in courses that promote open and civil cross-disciplinary dialogue about “Transformative Ideas” — those enduring questions and big ideas that change lives, link cultures, and shape societies around the world.

Fall 2024 Courses

The Good Life: Religion, Philosophy, and Life's Ultimate Concerns (CLST 210; ETHICS 210; HISTORY 266; JEWISHST 210; PHIL 214; PUBPOL 229; RELIGION 210)

What does it look like for a human life to go well? What leads to human flourishing or ‘happiness’ or ‘success’? What is freedom? Love? Justice? What is the basis for ethics? What is our relationship to the natural world? What is the significance of death? How do our beliefs (or lack thereof) about God or the gods shape how we view the world? We will examine how philosophical or religious traditions around the globe have answered life’s biggest questions. Traditions may include Confucianism, Islam, Christianity, Stoicism, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, scientific naturalism, expressive individualism, and utilitarianism.

This course examines the nature, ends, and practice of medicine as it relates to the human condition. How can medicine foster human flourishing and well-being—individual and social—against the experience of injury, pain, and suffering? Beginning with ancient Greece and its Hippocratic corpus, students explore answers to this question within a variety of historical and contemporary contexts. Taught by an interdisciplinary team of scholars that includes medical professionals, the course highlights the importance and professional relevance of posing big questions about personal meaning and human values at stake in the practice of medicine.

The aim of this course is to familiarize students with how teleology and notions of purpose have influenced, and continue to influence, various areas of biology and philosophy. Is there purpose in the world, or is the idea of a goal-directed purpose a bankrupt notion that refuses to go away? To consider this question we will examine the roots of teleological explanations in ancient thinking, objections to it that arose during the modern period, how Darwin’s theory changed the landscape, and then we will consider some of the current debates regarding teleology as they impact contemporary philosophy and science.

What does looting reveal about the nature of human creativity, ideals, and values? Who owns the past? Or, better, who decides who owns the past? Finally, how does ownership of the past shape the present–and the future? This course is a study of cultural heritage theft from antiquity until today with attention to the materiality, temporality, geography, ethics, aesthetics, economics, and politics of plunder and its display.

What is power? How is it created, transferred, or lost within a polity? What happens when one entity seizes power from another? Must violence always be at the center of that event, or can shared culture animate the accumulation and maintenance of power in a society? This Transformative Ideas seminar examines how insights in political theory and theater studies have addressed these questions. Concepts include ambition; sovereignty; violence and coercion; collectivism, especially nationalism; and rhetoric. Key writers include Aristotle; Plato; Machiavelli; Sophocles; Shakespeare; Weber; Arendt; Douglass; Soyinka; Alfred Jarry; Caryl Churchill; June Jordan, and Lynn Nottage.

4 Duke Immerse Courses on Civil Discourse 

PUBPOL 290S-20 Uncivil Discourse: The Media’s Role in America’s Argument with Itself

PUBPOL 290S-30 Free Speech on the College Campus: Embracing the 1st Amendment and Civil Discourse

PUBPOL 290S-10 The Public Sphere and Democratic Process

https://immerse.duke.edu/?page_id=2405 

Seminar version of Public Policy Studies 290.

Human Agency and Responsibility: The Stories of 2,500 years

Loving, Living, Learning: The Art of Love in Western Literature

Theoretical and practical understanding of the elements of effective advocacy, especially as applied to policy issues. Focus on oral communication (both formal public speaking and interactive exchange), written exposition, and presentation skills. Emphasis on the human dimensions of the communication process-voice and body behavior, audience evaluation, focus, control and self-awareness. Identifies techniques for minimizing communication distraction, developing confidence in presentation situations, and analyzing informational requirements.

The digital age has enhanced human life in many ways: communication is faster, medicine is better, and our knowledge of the world is deeper. But it has also changed the nature of work, society, and our sense of well-being, and raised fundamental questions about the meaning and purpose of human life. This course asks what it means for humans to flourish in a digital age. It considers how new technologies through the centuries have impacted human flourishing, making certain aspects easier and others harder, and perhaps even altering our conception of what flourishing looks like. Our ultimate goal is to ponder together how we should practically live in today’s digital age.

Americans today live in a time of deep political polarization, intellectual isolation, and intense partisanship. We rarely have genuine and open interactions with those with whom we disagree; when we do, we often do so on the assumption that they are not just wrong but are irrational and immoral. This class aims to explore this phenomenon in its sociological, political, ethical, and psychological dimensions. What are the causes, costs, and remedies of our polarization? Can friendships exist across ideological divides? Students are asked to openly discuss controversial political topics, while attempting to cultivate intellectual virtues and build a community of trust amid disagreement.

This Transformative Ideas course, geared to sophomore STEM majors, introduces the most pressing questions about science and religion. Core topics will include faith and reason; the origins of the universe; the existence of fine-tuning; evolution, randomness and design; the neuroscience of free will; the science of the soul; and science and morality. Other possible topics may include: recent theories of consciousness in psychology; the relationship between God and time; God and the epistemology of mathematics; religion and advances in AI; the neuroscience of religious experience; the possibility of miracles; and historical episodes in the development of science vis-à-vis religion.

The course will provide an overview of research in the scientific study of human strengths and happiness. We will discuss psychological theories, research, and intervention techniques that help us understand the positive, adaptive, and creative aspects of human behavior. How can psychologists explain the fact that despite difficulties, most people manage to live lives of dignity and purpose? We will learn about the beginnings of the field of positive psychology and how researchers define and measure happiness. Then, I will discuss misconceptions about happiness (e.g., can money buy happiness?) and the scientifically validated factors/strategies to help us thrive. We will end by reviewing critically what we learned and evaluating the limitations of the available science of happiness.

A significant part of this class is dedicated to providing the impetus to put better habits into place. Knowledge alone cannot build happiness; we need experiences. Therefore, I will provide practical exercises to try in your personal life. I will also push you to consider how these strategies can be implemented to not only boost your own happiness but also to make a difference in other people’s lives.

Finally, we will critically evaluate the limitations of positive psychology research, including issues such as ethics, replication crises, cross-cultural variations, and barriers related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. We will also explore the potential role of emerging technologies like AI in promoting or hindering happiness.

By the end of the course, you will hopefully be able to:

  • Understand the science of the factors that contribute to happiness, as well as the pitfalls and misconceptions in such a pursuit.
  • Critically evaluate the quality of scientific studies and related media articles on positive psychology.
  • Integrate some of the principles and helpful strategies in your own life to increase your own happiness and make a difference in your community.
Overview of research in the scientific study of human strengths and happiness with emphasis on the practice of strategies to nurture them. Students will 1) learn about conceptualization and measurement of happiness; 2) critically examine the science on factors/strategies hindering or promoting happiness such as excessive valuation of happiness, positive emotions, spirituality, social connections; 3) gain exposure to practical exercises to promote resilience throughout college and beyond; 4) consider how these strategies can build more resilient communities. Recommended prerequisite: Psychology 101.

From Babylon and Persia to Greece and Rome, empires have risen and fallen, but they always seem to make a comeback. Their defenders point to the stability they bring to a chaotic world. Their detractors point to the harsh rule required to maintain them. This course will explore arguments for and against empire, drawing on history, philosophy, and political theory, with a special focus on the Greeks and Romans. Then, in light of the parallel problems of empire and global governance, we will ask what lessons we can learn for the practice of international affairs today. Contemporary topics will include global institutions, foreign intervention, East Asia policy, and NATO and Eastern Europe.