A couple phraseology comments. "We already see Silicon Valley frothing at the mouth as they envision hundreds of thousands of users looking for personal transformation outside the walls of academia." "Frothing at the mouth" usually means enraged to the point of hysteria. "Licking their chops" might be a better phrase to apply to their dog and wolf like appetites. Then bottom of page five: "abstract." Your use of the term is quite correct, I just personally cringe every time I hear or read it. It is just used too much. I think plain old "general" is a better term here. Beyond the nit-picky, what you are doing sounds very exciting and it should be done, well, generally; at every university and college. I love your God and Good Life course. I wish there had been such a course where I went to college. There the intro to philosophy course was essentially the history of how science and empiricism emerged from the superstition and falsehood of the dark ages. I'm glad you are getting support for your project at Notre Dame and elsewhere. You might look into The Great Issues course taught at Dartmouth the fifties. It was required of all seniors and I never met a graduate from those years who did not love the course. Many went so far as to say it was the only course of which they had any significant memory thirty years on. The faculty killed the course because teaching a general knowledge course - that word again - was not helping them get tenure. But I think faculty are in a different place now. The existential threat is obvious. Best wishes!
Thanks for putting this out on Fb. Let me give everything another read and I'll say more. Meanwhile, keep up the good work.
A couple phraseology comments. "We already see Silicon Valley frothing at the mouth as they envision hundreds of thousands of users looking for personal transformation outside the walls of academia." "Frothing at the mouth" usually means enraged to the point of hysteria. "Licking their chops" might be a better phrase to apply to their dog and wolf like appetites. Then bottom of page five: "abstract." Your use of the term is quite correct, I just personally cringe every time I hear or read it. It is just used too much. I think plain old "general" is a better term here. Beyond the nit-picky, what you are doing sounds very exciting and it should be done, well, generally; at every university and college. I love your God and Good Life course. I wish there had been such a course where I went to college. There the intro to philosophy course was essentially the history of how science and empiricism emerged from the superstition and falsehood of the dark ages. I'm glad you are getting support for your project at Notre Dame and elsewhere. You might look into The Great Issues course taught at Dartmouth the fifties. It was required of all seniors and I never met a graduate from those years who did not love the course. Many went so far as to say it was the only course of which they had any significant memory thirty years on. The faculty killed the course because teaching a general knowledge course - that word again - was not helping them get tenure. But I think faculty are in a different place now. The existential threat is obvious. Best wishes!