Aquinas and Kant both maintain that human knowledge, in spite of the great range of its competence, is not adequate for the pursuit of the ultimate or essential ends of life. Aquinas, for whom knowledge is insight, and Kant, for whom knowledge is function, agree that faith is an intellectual act without which the human mind cannot manage its most basic interests. In spite of their profound differences about the nature of knowledge, they both claim that, in the context of human life fully viewed, we need to do something with our minds that reaches beyond the range of its cognitive activity. In this course, we propose to explore and critically compare the theories of faith proposed by these two authors and the convictions about what it means to be human that serve as their context. This will be a difficult task both because it is so hard to grasp what an act of faith might be and because the subject matter cuts across so many complex subjects such as epistemology, theology, and ethics. Nevertheless, a careful reading of the texts of these authors should throw a light on the topic that justifies the effort it demands. Undergraduates who have completed less than 51 credits must have the permission of the assistant dean for BALS to register.