In this course we examine the relationships among two sets of discourses: philosophy, religion, and literature, on the one hand; faith, reason, and atheism, on the other hand.\u00a0 We do so in order to assess the thesis that the apparently disparate approaches taken by these discourses to conceiving the breadth and diversity of human expression are connected by their commitment to the inviolable singularity of both self and other \u2013 to the idea that the self has no existence outside the other and thus no existence outside the values of diversity and inclusiveness of the other.\u00a0 But does this mean in turn that the self, in order to be itself, must, from the beginning, be other than itself?\u00a0 Does it mean that philosophy has a faithful core?\u00a0 Does it mean that faith has a self-critical rationality?\u00a0 Does it mean that atheism rests on \u2013 begins and ends with \u2013 a faith?\u00a0 Does it mean that literature is equally rational and faithful?\u00a0 Overall, the course addresses itself to the question of whether a focus on the idea that the self\u2019s inviolable singularity is constituted by and inseparable from the other and, indeed, from its own otherness, provides a humanistic basis, a humanistic methodology, for thinking about that which constitutes both single individuality and the connections among individuals \u2013 a basis and a methodology for working through our multiple, and often conflictual, relationships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","course-by-level":[139],"huma-course-category":[],"huma-course-by-term":[],"class_list":["post-186933","huma-courses","type-huma-courses","status-publish","hentry","course-by-level-139"],"yoast_head":"\n