Introduction to Civic Thought

Catalog description

This course investigates the human capacity for living civically—constituting communities of citizens who share power and responsibility for common action. It will introduce you to ways the human potential to think and act as a citizen has been realized in different historical forms. Because citizenship is always exercised in a particular context, we will pay special attention to our own context—the history and practice of the American self-government, with its distinctive shortcomings and accomplishments. And because civic life is always developing in response to new challenges and opportunities, this course aims to cultivate the civic habits of thought that will help you better play your own, unprecedented role in this distinctively human undertaking. IC. PA-4A.