Core
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The Core Sequence is a unique and central component of the OHS academic program that embodies the tenets of our mission. In Core courses, the subject matters of science, history of science, political theory, and philosophy provide a forum for developing a range of analytical and philosophical skills that can be applied broadly in both academic and public reasoning. The common intellectual framework that the Core provides is characterized by an ability to ask conceptual and foundational questions in a particular discipline, a preparation to think critically about work and discourse in these disciplines, and a mastery of the principles and practice of rigorous and logically informed reasoning.
The intellectual framework of the Core extends beyond the content and norms of thinking and writing in the individual disciplines of the courses. In Core, students study the standards and structures of reasoning common to work in the sciences and humanities alike, and that they encounter in each of their courses at OHS. Students will also develop basic skills for writing and presentation in order to express their thoughts, through extensive writing assignments and critical discussion on a variety of topics. The expertise, skills, and habits of mind cultivated in the Core program are therefore the foundation that both unifies our curriculum and prepares our students for subsequent achievement and citizenship.
The individual Core courses realize these goals in their themes, methods, and questions. In Methodology of Science – Biology (MSB), students examine the nature of strong statistical and biological evidence and also develop the technical skills to assess and employ such evidence. In History of Science (HSC), students extend the perspective from MSB in time and topics by learning various scientific disciplines beyond biology and their historical development. Students confront the circumstances under which scientific theory formation occurs, and learn to analyze the argumentative structure which grounds theories in evidence. The analysis of various theoretical views of political concepts and institutions that students undertake in Democracy, Freedom, and the Rule of Law (DFRL) in turn establishes a foundation for critically assessing rhetoric and equivocal use of concepts in political discourse. DFRL also shifts philosophical focus to the normative aspect of intellectual investigation, from the previous two courses that deal with descriptive theories in science. The Critical Reading and Argumentation (CRA) explicitly discusses analytical techniques highlighted in each of the courses, including reconstruction of an author’s position, identification of neglected possibilities and problematic assumptions and inferences, and effective use of thought experiments and counterexamples. The course further develops the philosophical perspectives highlighted in the other core courses.
Division Head of Core: Tomohiro Hoshi, Ph.D.
High School
OMSB9 - Methodology of Science: Biology
This year-long course introduces students to the methods and reasoning used throughout science. Using biological examples, students learn how evidence can be obtained for scientific claims from raw data based on statistical methods. Students are exposed to various statistical concepts and techniques to interpret data and make inferences from the interpretations. These techniques are be applied to the study of life, as students explore how organisms interact with each other and their environment, and the properties and processes of cells and molecules. Syllabus 
OHSC0 - History of Science: Great Ideas, Observations, and Experiments
This two-semester course sequence examines the great ideas and great observations and experiments that have shaped the development of science. Using a case study method, students examine the interplay between observations of the physical world, attempts to explain those observations, and the methods used to test the resulting explanations. As part of the methodology of the inquiry, students learn and practice the skills of philosophical analysis, logical argument, and criticism. Topics include Aristotle’s physics, psychology, biology, Ancient astronomies in Babylonian, Greek, Chinese, and Islamic cultures, ancient medical study, modern astronomy and physics, development of atomism, electro-magnetism, evolutionary theory, relativity theory, modern psychology and congnitive science, social sciences, etc. Syllabus
ODFRL - Democracy, Freedom, and the Rule of Law
This year-long course examines the foundations of civil society. Drawing on both historical and theoretical materials, the students study changing conceptions of how a state is and should be organized. In particular, we focus on different treatments of the interwoven concepts of democracy, freedom, and the rule of law. As part of their study, students practice the methodological tools of analysis relevant to philosophy and political theory, learn to formulate and evaluate hypotheses about the content of critical concepts, and develop a thorough knowledge of their political traditions and principles. These lessons contribute to the broader aim of the course, which is to prepare students for citizenship in their community by refining their ability to participate constructively in the discourse that draws on these conceptions of the state. While the course is organized around principles of American government, the readings are germane to democratic society generally. Readings include Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Madison, Jefferson, American founding texts, Lincoln, Addams, King, Burke, Tocqueville, Smith, Dewey, Mill, Berlin, Rawls, Nozick, Sandel, Sen, McMillan, Marx, Dicey, and Hayek. Syllabus
OCRA1 - Critical Reading and Argumentation
In addition to the unique problems and questions that constitute its subject matter, philosophy makes use of a variety of intellectual tools and argumentative strategies that are widely applicable to both academic and informal inquiry. This course helps students develop these resources through a careful analysis of exemplary pieces of philosophical argument and literature. To this end, we explore philosophical thinking about modes of reasoning as well as Core philosophical discussions of religious concepts, the nature and limits of knowledge, the nature and content of ethics, and the mind’s relation to the world. While the course emphasizes the cultivation of the tools and strategies of reading and argument, the materials encourage reflection on some of the foundational characteristics and assumptions in the disciplines of ethics, religion, and philosophy itself.
Readings include Plato, Anselm, Aquinas, Paley, Pascal, Leibniz, Voltaire, Mackie, Rachels, Aristotle, Mill, Kant, O’Neill, Nagel, Camus, Mann, Hume, Chisholm, Frankfurt, Freud, Descartes, Russell, Kafka, Marx, and Nietzsche. Syllabus