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The Department of Philosophy of St.
Charles Seminary offers a basic course in philosophy
spread over three years which covers the main areas
embraced by the discipline of philosophy.
To be admitted to the first year of
philosophy class, a student must have successfully
passed the entrance examination in basic English and
Spirituality conducted by St. Charles Seminary.
Concurrently with the Philosophy
course in the seminary, the B.A. Course is followed in
St. Francis de Sales College, which is affiliated to
Nagpur University. The seminary and college courses
complement each other and provide a student with a solid
foundation in philosophy and other secular disciplines.
In both the seminary and college courses, special
emphasis is placed on philosophy so that a student is
made conversant with all the main branches of
philosophy. Those students who are not enrolled for the
B.A. Degree in the college are to follow the courses in
philosophy that are prescribed for the B.A. Degree.
They can do this privately or by attending the college.
The three-year course of philosophy
is organized as follows:
(a)
Seminary
Human Formation and Orientation
Subject
Introduction to Major
Seminary
Meditation/Mental
Prayer
Etiquette &Manners
Assertive Training
Assessing Motivation
Public Speaking Skills
Human & Christian Values
Liturgy & Rubrics
Prayer and Spiritual Direction
Mass, Confession and Rosary
Respecting our Human Body
Importance of Library
Meeting with the Dean
Importance of Library
Introduction to the Scripture: Old
Testament and New Testament (2 Credit)
What is the Bible? Number of books
in the Bible. The Deutero-canonical books. The
divisions of the Bible. What does the Hebrew Bible
consist of? What is Septuagint? What is the old Latin
version of the Bible made out of? What is Vulgate?
What is the Pentateuch? A short introduction to the
first five books of the Bible. How to read the Old
Testament? What is the New Testament, The contents of
the New Testament, A short introduction to the Gospels,
to the writings of St. Paul and St. John
Basic Catechism of the Catholic
Church (1 Credit)
An introduction to basic Catholic
beliefs, dogmas and doctrines. Faith formation is
deepened through the awareness, understanding and
acceptance of basic Catholic beliefs of the Church.
History of Salvation (2 Credits)
Going beyond an exploration of the
historical facts found in the Bible, the unfolding of
the love, fidelity, personal relationship that God has
for mankind and the manifold ways through which God
brought about salvation are studied. This is a
historical journey starting with creation, together
looking at God’s saving work in prophets, personalities
and events of the Old Testament and the New Testament,
and the relevance of the message of God’s continuing
work of salvation among us even today.
Methodology (1 Credit)
Purpose of Methodology, The art of
Scientific Presentation of written works, Parts of the
Paper, Capitalization, Punctuations, Direct and Indirect
Quotations, and Quotation marks. Citation I: Footnotes
and Endnotes. Citation II: Bibliographies.
Introduction to Philosophy (2
Credit)
Etymology, Definition, Branches of
Philosophy, Speculative and Practical Philosophy,
Approaches to Philosophy and The Scholastic Method of
Learning: Reading, Question
and Disputation.
Philosophy of Cosmos and
Philosophy of Science -Part -1 (3 Credits)
Definition of Cosmology. Basic
concepts of change such as terms of change, substratum,
form, substance, accidents, kinds of change, unity and
distinction among bodies. The hylomorphic theory of the
structure of bodies. Potency and act, Definition of pure
matter. Generation and corruption in nature. Definitions
of substantial forms. Determinism in changes.
Defininitions of quantity and quantitative parts in
bodies. Potentiality and actuality ratio. Definition of
continuum. Distinction between essence and quantity.
Divisibility of bodies.
Philosophy of Cosmos and
Philosophy of Science –Part- 2 (3 Credits)
History of Science. Emergence of
modern science. Universe as system. Exploring the
universe. Solar system. Origin and evolution of Life.
Evolution of man. Environment and resources.
Perspectives of place, space, motion, time. Modern
developments in Science and technology. New
perspectives.
General Psychology (1Credit)
Introduction; General Psychology:
Psychology as the Science of Human Behaviour,
Physiological and Psychological Foundations of Human
Behaviour, Nervous Systems. Motivations, Instinct and
Emotions.
Developmental Psychology (2
Credit)
Theories of Personality: A brief
presentation of the different theories followed by an
interpretation and an evaluation of each
Psychoanalytical theory, psychological theory, self-integratic
theory and behavioural theory. The Eight Stages of a
person’s Life according to Erick Erickson.
Philosophical Anthropology (3
Credits)
Introduction; What is Life?, The
Soul; Degrees of Life: Vegetative Life; Sensitive Life;
Intellectual Life, Sense Appetite; Intellectual
Appetite, The Human Soul, The Human Person from
Anthropological Perspective.
Social and Cultural Anthropology
(2 Credits)
Anthropology, a mirror for man,
dealing with the phenomenon of people and demonstrating
how perception of reality is culturally conditioned.
The concept of culture. Culture and World-view,
Ethnocentrism and Religion. Origin and development of
Races and Cultures. Religion as a cultural constant.
Cultural and Religious Pluralism. Stories and Theories
of religion. Cultural traits of Indian population.
Cultural analysis of Adivasi and Dalit Cultures.
Material Logic (2 Credits)
Introduction. The Three Acts of the
Mind, Division of Logic, Terms, Concepts, Universals,
Real and Rational Distinctions, Predictables and
Predicaments. Metaphysical Grades, Analogy and
Demonstration.
Philosophy of Knowledge (2
Credits)
Introduction, Critica or philosophy
of Knowledge as defensive part of Metaphysics; Truth and
its causes; Validity of Knowledge (its ontological
value); Certainty and Doubt, Theories of knowledge
(Idealism and Realism; Representationism and
Perceptionism).
Philosophy of Communication (2
Credits)
Definition of Communication, The
forms and types of communication, The Philosophy and
Psychology of Communication, Communication and Ethics,
the practical application of the various skills of
communication through workshop and exercise.
Philosophy of Being (4 Credits)
Introduction. The term ‘Being’. The
properties of Being. Distinctions. Potency and Act,
Essence and Existence, Substance and Accidents,
Causes/Causality, Activity and Operative Potency in
Contingent Beings. Modern and Contemporary
understanding of Philosophy of Being.
Philosophy of God (2 Credits)
Philosophical and Theological notions
of God. Theism and Atheism. Terminology. Fideism and
Rationalism. Existence of God. Demonstration of the
existence of God. ‘The Five ways’ of St. Thomas. The
“two ways” of hermeneutical phenomenology: The quest of
meaning and experience of contingence. The attributes
of the Prime Being. Conceptions of God in various
religions, philosophies, sects and the new age
movements. Some general and pastoral observations;
Atheism in our time.
Philosophy of Religion (2 Credits)
The phenomenological reality of
religion; its various definitions. The meaning and
scope of Philosophy of Religion. An evaluation of those
theories which militate against the belief in God,
especially the Sociological theory of Religion by Emile
Durkheim and Freudian theory of religion. The
problematic nature of Religious truth and language: the
peculiarity of religious language, the doctrine of
analogy, religious statements as symbolic, religious
language as non-cognitive, the language game theory,
etc. The problem of Religious Pluralism. The
conflicting truth claims by individual religions. A
philosophical framework for reconciling this pluralistic
phenomenon. A study of the Problem of Evil from the
stand-point of Indian Philosophical traditions.
Ethics (2 Credits)
Part I: Subjective factors in moral
life. Ethics: origin, relation to other studies,
scope. Conduct: Human acts, choice, commanded acts,
voluntariness, emotions, moods, desires.
Responsibility: Willing and non-willing, modifiers of
responsibility, principle of double effect. Conscience:
Morality, meaning, kinds of judgement and forming one’s
conscience.
Part II: The objective Good in moral
life. Good: definition, end, ought, and value. Law:
meaning, history, natural law, knowledge of law,
content. Natural law: absolute or relative, the eternal
law.
Sociology (2 Credits)
Basic Concepts: Society, Community,
association, Institution, Organisation, Attitudes, Role,
Status, Ethnocentrism, Values and Norms; Sociological
Theory, Problems and Issues, Socialisation, Culture,
Social Control and Social Change.
History of Ancient Philosophy (2
Credits)
Introduction, Pre-Socratic
Philosophers: The Ionians: Thales, Anaximandes. The
Pythagoreans, Heraclitus. The Eleatic Philosophers:
Parmenedes, Zeno. The Atomists: Empodocles, Anaxagoras,
Democritus. The Sophists. The Golden Age: Athens:
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Hellenism: the Cynics,
the Epicurians, the Stoics, Neo-Platonism, Philo of
Alexandria, St. Augustine, Boethius, the Carolingian
Renaissance.
History of Medieval Philosophy (2
Credits)
Introduction, Scholastic Period:
John Scotus, Eriugena, St. Anselm of Canterbury, The
influence of Islamic and Jewish Philosophers on
Christian philosophers. Full development of
Scholasticism: St. Albert the Great, St.
Bonaventure, St. Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus,
William of Ockham.
Modern Philosophy (3 Credits)
Rationalism:
Descartes, Spinoza, Leibnits. Empiricism: David
Hume, William Barkley.
Immanuel Kant. Arthur Schopenhauer.
Positivism: Auguste Comte. German Idealism:
Hegel.
Contemporary Western Philosophy (3
Credits)
Marxism (Karl Marx); Neo-Positivism,
Linguistic Philosophy (Ludwig Wittgenstein, Rudolf
Carnap); Vienna Circle; Pragmatism (William
James).Existentialism Introduction: Meanings,
Definitions and Explanations; Existentialism as a
Philosophical Movement. Its Relation to Atheism and
Phenomenology, Kierkegard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Marcel,
Sartre, Phenomenology Husserl, Max Scheler,
Merleau-Ponty
Hermeneutics (1 Credit)
Meaning, Definition and Explanation,
The views of Dilthey, Schleiermacher, Ricoeur, Gadamer
and Heidegger, What is deconstruction? Hermeneutic
Traditions in India.
Indian Philosophy (4 Credits)
The origin and the development of the
Indian Culture, Religion and Philosophy. the special
aspect of Indian Philosophy characterized as ‘darshana’.
The salient features of Indian thought along with the
formation of different philosophical schools both Astika
and Nastika, including a brief outline of the various
periods of evolution of philosophical thought in
India. A general understanding of Sruti, Smriti and
Dharmasastra literature. The progression of Indian
thought through naturalistic Polytheism, Henotheism,
Monotheism and finally towards Idealistic Monism. The
gradual development of the conception of the Upanishadic
Absolute (Brahman-Atman) as well as the Acara Mimamsa of
the Upanishadic rishis. A detailed study of the
Lokayata darshan, Bauddha darshana and the Jaina
darshana.
Indian Philosophy (2 Credits)
A detailed study of Yoga and Purva
Mimamsa systems of thought. A general study of the
Samkhya thought to help appreciate Yoga Philosophy and
Yoga Ethics. The study of Jnana Mimamsa and Tattva
Mimamsa of the Mimamsa system bring in the focus the
divergent positions of Bhatta and Prabhakara schools.
Social Work (120Hours)
(b)
College Courses
Formal Logic (6 Credits)
Introduction, Traditional Logic or
Aristotelian Logic and the Theories of Category. Laws of
Thought, Laws of valid conversions. Rules, moods and
figures of Syllogism Fallacies. Logical Foundations of
Induction.
Ethics (6 Credits)
The Categorical Imperative, It
definition and some moral theories. Theories of
punishment. Theories of Conscience. Russell’s view on
Ethics. Hedonistic Theories such as Utilitarianism.
Indian Ethical theories like Charvaka theory, Nishkama
Karmayoga of the Bhagavad Gita.
Bertrand Russell (3 Credits)
The study of Russell’s book ‘Some
Problems of Philosophy’: an understanding of the
universe and the reality behind it.
Indian Philosophy (3 Credits).
Nyaya-Vaiseshika, Samkhya and
Vedanta: main tenets and theories of these systems.
Compulsory English (6 Credits)
Supplementary Language (6 Credits)
Optional Subjects: Economics,
History, Political Science, Literature (6 Credits each)
Visiting
Professors: Department of Philosophy
Fr. Albert D’ Souza (Sociology)
Fr. Amirtha Raj, O.P. (Developmental
Psychology)
Fr. Francis Arackal, O.P. (Philosophy
of God)
Fr. Glenn Morris, O.P. (Philosophy of
Being & History Modern of Philosophy)
Fr. Joy Mathew, O. P. (Philosophy of
Knowledge)
Fr. Varghese Karikulam, C.M.F.
(History of Medieval Philosophy)
Fr. Moses O’prem
An Orientation Programme for the
First Year Philosophy Students is organized from 24th
June to 20th July.
Seminars will be conducted (whole
day) during the Divali holidays in the college.
Week Days: 2 classes |
