• be able to describe the Catholic intellectual tradition, summarize the Norbertine traditions, and explain the relationship between these two traditions and the Liberal Arts education offered at St. Norbert College.

• be able to illustrate the contribution of the humanities and fine arts, social sciences and natural sciences to a liberal education.

• enhance their skills of critical thinking, speaking, listening, and writing on a college level. These skills also include the ability to manage scholarly sources in the intellectual activities of description, analysis, and synthesis.

The first six weeks of Communio are dedicated to exploring the College's three traditions, the liberal arts tradition, the Catholic intellectual tradition, and the Norbertine tradition. The second nine weeks of Communio are dedicated to a common question or theme explored from diverse disciplinary perspectives among four or five interrelated sections. The theme for our five sections is the self. In this specific section, we will use the methods and theories of psychology to explore the self.

When someone says, “So, tell me about yourself.” How do you respond? What and how do you think about yourself? Where does your self-knowledge come from? Does your understanding of yourself affect the way you behave? What are the consequences of the desire to think well of yourself? How has culture shaped the way you think about yourself? We will consider these and other questions as the second nine weeks progress.

We will begin with a chapter, The Self, from Psychology: Briefer Course, by William James (1892). It is an adaptation for undergradaute students of a chapter James included in Principes of Psychology (1890). Many argue that Principes of Psychology is the most important English-language text in the history of modern psychology. James' treatment of the self laid the foundation for much of what came later in the psychological study of the self. We will relate James’ observations about the self to more current research and to a variety of contemporary issues.

Seeking after an understanding of the self is not a new or trivial undertaking. In the sixth century BCE a temple to the Greek god Apollo was erected at Delphi. Early accounts report that carved into the temple was the phrase γνωθι σεαυτον (gnothi seauton = "know thyself"). Welcome, you are about to join in a search for understanding, self-understanding, that is as old as Western civilization.

• Syllabus

• Readings

• Links

  • Communio: A Liberal Arts Seminar. St. Norbert College

  • James, W. (1890) Principles of psychology, Vol. 1. New York: Holt. (Chapter 10, The Consciousness of Self)

  • Self-knowledge. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

  • The Self. Discovering Psychology. Annenberg Media, WGBH Educational Foundation. Watch this excellent half-hour telecourse segment on-line. This program explores how psychologists study the origins of self-identity, self-esteem, and the social determinants of self-concepts. It also considers some of the emotional and motivational consequences of self-esteem.

• College Policies

  • Academic Honor Code See page 4 and following of The Citizen: A Student Guide to the St. Norbert College Community.

  • Writing Across the Curriculum Program -- General Writing Policy

  • Services to Students with Disabilities

• Forward Campus E-Mail I communicate frequently with students using the campus e-mail system. If you have an established e-mail account with an off-campus provider, and you would like to eliminate the hassle of checking both your on- and off-campus e-mail, you can forward your on-campus e-mail to an off-campus e-mail address.