.500 SISTEK M. OLIVIA 



College Curriculmn 



A two year sequel in natural science at the college level com- 

 pletes the student's general education in science, preparing him 

 to pursue specialized scientific studies with creativity and pene- 

 tration or to advance within other disciplines while possessing 

 a clear concept of the powers and limitations of modern science. 

 Our conviction is that the fundamentals of natural science 

 are basic for a liberal education. Consequently, the policy at 

 Saint Xavier College is that all students, even those following 

 a professional education, must complete the basic two years of 

 college science. Usually general science courses at the college 

 level employ either the survey or the great books approach. 

 The Saint Xavier Plan offers a third alternative by accepting 

 as its responsibility the need to seek principles, evaluate these 

 and apply them to the detailed problems of local motion, 

 chemical alteration, vital activity and psychic behavior. 



The freshman is asked to carry out a dialectical search for 

 the basic principles of changeable being after a consideration 

 of the nature of scientific knowledge reveals the need for be- 

 ginning with first principles. Various options are carefully 

 considered, and the Aristotelian insight is chosen for further 

 analysis. The Saint Xavier approach is not to be confused with 

 the philosophical cosmology course often required by our Catho- 

 lic colleges. Rather it is structured to provide a frame of refer- 

 ence for comparisons with modern systems of science and it is 

 taught within the natural science division by specialists in that 

 field. Changeable being, nature, motion, the infinite, time, 

 place and space are analyzed as concepts fundamental to all 

 scientific explanations and not as metaphysical intrusions on 

 nature. The necessity of an "unmoved Mover" within this 

 realm of the three-dimensional world of experience provides the 

 student with a rational conviction independent of faith, which 

 is a powerful tool in the apologetics of everyday life. 



The three succeeding courses explore the means of using the 

 fundamental principles developed during the first semester in 



