Liberal Studies - Saint Anselm College

Liberal Studies from Saint Anselm College is a Campus Bachelor Liberal Arts and Science degree that prepares you for a Liberal Arts career. The Liberal Studies Program at Saint Anselm College is one of perhaps a dozen programs in the United States that offers a curriculum using the Great Books as its reading list. It aims at a breadth of knowledge, without being superficial, that comes from being versed in the principles and methods of various arts and sciences , rather than at know-how of a distinctive sort, like engineering or business. Every effort is directed at making a good beginning by getting at what is primary in the different arts and sciences. The curriculum of the program introduces the student to a comprehensive study of philosophy, literature, theology, history, and, to a lesser extent, mathematics and the experimental sciences through some of the greatest works in these fields. By reading and discussing great works, students acquire the habits of mind that mark the liberally educated person. The program has strong roots in history. One can point to an old and long honored tradition of liberal education which reaches back to a beginning many centuries before Christ. The works of the greatest minds have, until recent times, always been the preferred material of study. And the discussion method of teaching is as old as Socrates. Classes are small seminars with no more than twenty students rather than lectures. Learning is essentially an activity that the student does within himself, and he is the primary agent in his education. This is why daily preparation and regular participation in the seminars is such an important part of the program. Students are made to think about what they have read, discuss with others what a text means, and discern for themselves whatever truths are contained in it. Original texts are read in preference to textbooks. Though a professor presides at the seminar, the professor is not the primary teacher, but simply the leading student among less advanced students. The real teachers are Plato, Cicero, St. Augustine, Shakespeare, and Dostoyevsky, the authors of the Great Books. Some works are deserving of more careful treatment than others. Courses called \\\"preceptorials\\\" respect this need by devoting an entire semester to the study of only one or two books. The preceptorials offered change from year to year and try to take into account the interest of the students in the program. The Liberal Studies Program is administered by the Department of Philosophy. Eight semester courses are unique to the program; the remainder of the required courses are drawn from the regular college offerings, with the heaviest concentration in philosophy and theology. This is in recognition that philosophy provides the analytical tools needed to appreciate fully the great works studied and that the ultimate aim and crown of the program is a wisdom which only philosophy and theology can reveal. View more details on Saint Anselm College . Ask your questions and apply online for this program or find other related Liberal Arts and Science courses.