Philosophy of Food Course Core Course Proposal

Philosophy of Food Core Course Proposal

1. Course Description

Official description:

• Course Description: The Core Integration Seminar (CIS) engages the Year Four Question: “Imagining the possible: What is our role in the world?” by offering students a culminating seminar experience in which students integrate the principles of Jesuit education, prior components of the Core, and their disciplinary expertise. Each section of the course will focus on a problem or issue raised by the contemporary world that encourages integration, collaboration, and problem solving. The topic for each section of the course will be proposed and developed by each faculty member in a way that clearly connects to the Jesuit Mission, to multiple disciplinary perspectives, and to our students’ future role in the world.

Mine:

• This course on the Philosophy of Food engages the Year Four Question: "Imagining the possible: What is our role in the world" by challenging students to develop a personal "philosophy of food" that will have normative implications for their role in the world. The contemporary problems motivating the course are the state of the US and world food systems, as well as issues raised by "food politics" today, such as sustainability, health and the promotion of justice. These problems and issues require integration and collaborative problem solving not only because they involve complex problems addressed by many disciplines of knowledge, but also because they raise questions of identity, tradition, and moral integrity. Since questions about the assessment of knowledge, identity, tradition, and values are integral to the Core Learning Outcomes, the problem of developing a Philosophy of Food provides a good opportunity to integrate prior components of the Core in the process understanding food. The principles of Jesuit Education and Mission will be exemplified in the execution of the course.

2. Core Learning Outcomes

• 1. integrate the principles of a Jesuit education, prior components of the Core, and their disciplinary expertise (knowledge).

• 2. clearly and persuasively communicate with an audience of diverse educational backgrounds, personal experiences, and value commitments using ideas and arguments based on evidence, logic, and critical thinking (skill).

• 3. assess the ways in which the Core has transformed the commitments and perspectives that will inform their future endeavors (attitude).

A general overview of the course topic and approach

This course is focused on helping students develop a philosophy of food. The research questions chosen for the course include:

• 1. What is Food?

• 2. What is food culture and what is distinctive about food as a form of culture?

• 3. What does the "deep history" of human experience of food tell us about the place of food in culture and the problems humans have had with food?

• 4. How do food ways and gastronomy shape food cultures?

• 5. What are the challenges of nutrition science as a field of knowledge and what is the state of knowledge about nutrition, broadly?

• 6. What is a nutritious diet?

• 7. How did the US food system develop? What are some of its characteristic problems from political, enivronmental, and social justice perspectives?

• 8. How do our food choices raise ethical, environmental, and social justice concerns?

• 9. How do our food choices raise aesthetic questions and questions about subjective satisfaction? How does the history of gastronomy inform this question?

• 10. How should I critically assess my own food practices in light of my understanding of the nature of food and food culture?

In the context of a philosophy course, these questions call for both in-depth study and the integration and development of basic constructs of knowledge (especially for food, food culture and identity, and nutrition) and values for addressing the questions with a consistent and well-grounded philosophy. The course is divided into six units:

• 1. Background/Intro
• 2 .Food Culture and History
• 3. Nutrition and Nutritionism
• 4. US Food System and Politics of Food and Western Diet
• 5. Ethics of Food
• 6. Gastronomy (Cucina) and Food Ecology

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