This spring a new class will be offered to GCC students by Professor Kevin Mack —Philosophy 121: History of Philosophy and the Islamic World. The class will cover the history of philosophy and how ideas have changed and evolved over time, and will teach students about some of the most influential thinkers of different periods of human history.

Compared to other philosophy classes offered at GCC, this one is different from the rest. Currently, there’s a History of Philosophy in the Ancient World class, which teaches about philosophers like Aristotle and Plato, and there is a class on the modern history of philosophy, which teaches about philosophers like Locke, Kant, and Descartes. This new class will talk not only about these philosophers, but also those from the Islamic world. Mack says the class will look at thinkers who come from different religions and backgrounds. There will be lessons on Jewish, Christian, and Muslim philosophers, and how they each approached philosophy. Some of the philosophers that will be taught about in this class, like Ibn Sina and Ibn Rushd, aren’t known as well as Aristotle or Plato, and their ideas about life tend to be under-studied. Learning about these philosophers will give students a new perspective on how they view our world.

Philosophers from the Islamic world loved other philosophers like Aristotle and Plato, but they found that most of the ideas from ancient Greek philosophy went against the belief systems of thinkers from the Middle East. “They love Aristotle, they love Plato, but they also believe in the Bible and the Quran, and sometimes philosophy contradicts the Bible,” said Mack. These philosophers didn’t want to get rid of either their religions or their philosophies, so they used reason, which they believed God gave them, to figure out what the ultimate reality is. 

Students don’t need any background knowledge on philosophy to take the class, since it will be a beginner course. They will read a little bit of the Quran and talk about the history of what is today known as the Middle East, and will be given enough background on philosophy to understand the course contents. Classes like this one exist in four year universities, but they’re rare in community colleges. GCC is the first community college in the state of California to offer this course.

Since the subject of philosophy has no right or wrong answers, there will be no tests in this class, and grades will be calculated through contract grading. To get an A in the class, Mack says that students will have to complete most of the assigned work. Students’ work will be graded on the amount of work that they do, as opposed to the material they create, since most topics will be subjective. This class also meets the IGETC requirements and transfer requirements to USC, CSU, and UC for those that need them, as well as GCC’s Cultural Diversity requirement. Students can sign up for the class through the student center on the GCC website.

Margarita Avagyan can be reached at [email protected].