This programme prepares students for the study of Catholic Theology.
The Foundation Year in Philosophy is required for students who wish to pursue the canonical ecclesiastical degree (5 years) granted by the Faculty of Theology, Catholic University of Portugal (UCP). Students enrol in the Foundation Year of Philosophy before taking the four-year Bachelor of Christian Studies programme at USJ.
This programme offers the modules English I and II, Latin I and II, Logic, Asian Philosophy, History of Classical Philosophy, History of Medieval Philosophy, Philosophy Knowledge, Philosophical Anthropology, and Axiology of Ethics. This programme also suits students interested in acquiring a solid philosophical foundation for further studies in the field of humanities, social science, and comparative religion.
The programme coordinator is Andrew Leong.
- Students learn the Latin language together
- Students study the history of ancient, and medieval European and Asian philosophy
- Students reflect on fundamental human values and ethics
- Students discover the relevance of logic and theories of knowledge
- Further studies to pursue canonical ecclesiastical degree
- Have an interest in studying languages and openness to intercultural experiences
- Have an interest in reflecting on the meaning of life and the quest for God
- Applicants who are Catholics or Christians are asked to provide a letter of recommendation from a priest, pastor, or professed religious (religious brother/sister, monk/nun). Applicants who are Catholic seminarians or lay people sponsored by a Catholic diocese must also provide a letter of recommendation from their local bishop. Members of a Catholic religious congregation (aspirants, novices, religious brothers/sisters, monks/nuns) must provide a letter of recommendation from their legitimate superior.
Study plan & description of modules
Please click on any specific module below to see its description.
Modules
Year 1
Integrated learning activities involving all skill areas help students practice and apply the fundamentals of English in a more varied setting and develop more accuracy and control of their spoken and written English. Reading activities promote vocabulary expansion and model accurate structure. Students participate in discussion forums and are introduced to presentation skills for groups and individuals. Logical thinking in both oral and written formats is guided. As well, students are introduced to the five-paragraph essay format and practice writing summative, descriptive and comparative compositions.
Students will concentrate on gaining grammatical control of their communication (subject and verb agreement, modal auxiliaries, singular and plural nouns, pronouns, articles, sentence structure, statements, questions, simple and compound sentences, prepositions, gerunds and infinitives, adverbs and adjectives, punctuation, and some complex sentence patterns). At the end of the module, students should be able to write a paragraph without making major grammatical errors. Development of the five-paragraph essay format will continue and students will practice writing compositions that are opinion-based, persuasive and begin to compare literature from different sources. Development will continue in regard to presentation skills and discussion forums.
This module provides practice integrating those reading skills necessary for academic success at university. These skills include reading for detail, inferring vocabulary in context, finding main ideas, critical reading, understanding sequence, summarizing, recognizing organization, and outlining. In addition, it emphasizes academic vocabulary. Students are introduced to language skills for research and are expected to apply previously taught presentation skills to give more analytical presentations. In this course students are also introduced to basic components of the research paper: abstract, data analysis and interpretation.
This module teaches advanced grammar necessary for academic writing. It includes a review of basic grammar and a detailed study of noun, adjective, and adverb clauses, as well as prepositional, participial, gerund, and infinitive phrases. It will also provide written composition practice. Students will be introduced to the argumentative essay structure including the refutation of counter arguments. Students will engage in more complex discussion forums, debates and participate in organizing public presentations.
This course is an introduction to church Latin. Assignments for each class will consist of vocabulary, grammar and translation. Students will also be encouraged to address the thought patterns that frequently underlie even the simplest statements of the Middle Ages.
This course is a continuation of beginning ecclesiastical Latin. There will be increased emphasis on readings from the Vulgate Bible, liturgies, hymns, and the writings of Latin Fathers.
Students will explore topics such as: mythical awareness, myth and reason; progressive awareness in the philosophical reflection of pre-Socratic thought; the anthropological and methodological discovery: Socrates and the sophists; Plato: the experience of universal knowledge; Aristotle: philosophy as the understanding of being; Hellenism and Neo-Platonism.
This course introduces students to the question of medieval philosophy; Christian medieval thought and the Greco-Roman pagan philosophy; Neo-Platonism and the Christian faith; philosophy and theology; Patristic thought: St Augustine; the scholastic: St Anselm; Jews, Arabs and Christians and Aristotelian thought; the great syntheses: St Bonaventure, St Thomas Aquinas, and John Duns Scotto; between the medieval and modern ages: the 14th century and William of Ockham.
Students will discuss the foundations of philosophical anthropology as it relates to the phenomenology of the human person; the cognitive dimension of existence: being-in-the world, spiritual knowledge, theory and praxis; he active and affective dimension of existence: will, love and freedom; ontology of the human person: body and soul, the spirit as person; the metaphysics of the human person: temporality and historicity, death and immortality; the issue of meaning.
Students will learn about topics such as: the moral structure of the human person; methodological questions; values and the value of morality: fundamental issues of axiology; characteristics and classification of values; moral value and spontaneous conscience: obligation; bases of moral value: analyses of the main moral systems; moral objective order: are moral laws universal and immutable? Ethical significance of natural law; the ethics of situations; natural law; subjective moral order; the manipulation of conscience; ethics and religion; morality and happiness; limitations of rational morality.
This course discusses the object and importance of the philosophy of knowledge, namely: faculties and levels of knowledge: sensibility and reason, singular and universal; problematic of knowledge: being and knowing, truth and certainty, common sense and science; classical theories of philosophy of knowledge: dogmatism and skepticism, idealism and realism.
The course introduces the students to formal logic and its use in evaluating the correctness of reasoning. Topics to be discussed include Simple Apprehension, Judgment and Reasoning. Emphasis is placed on deductive and inductive forms of reasoning. Attention will be given to its application in real life argumentation and persuasive discourse.
This course examines various Asian philosophical and religious traditions, including the East Asian philosophies of Hinduism and Buddhism, and the Chinese philosophies of Taoism and Confucianism. It offers the students an alternative to Western perspectives. It provides the students with an understanding of the significance of these philosophies in their own right.
