Although war has and always will be a part of mankind, this year’s Program for the Liberal Arts and Civic Engagement theme “Legacies of War” is coming to a close and Linfield is welcoming a new theme.

PLACE tries to promote civic engagement and social enterprise, and also create a social experience where people share their knowledge with each other.

The philosophy focused PLACE theme for the 2014-15 academic school year is “How Do We Know? Paths to Wisdom” according to Professor of Sociology and chair of the department Amy Orr.

“How Do We Know? Paths to Wisdom” aims to achieve half of the Linfield curriculum’s mode of inquiry requirements.

This includes the Natural World, Quantitative Reasoning and Ultimate Questions  LC requirements.

The theme’s goal is to combine the humanities with the sciences and to provoke asking questions from a variety of disciplinary perspectives.

“We passed the PLACE theme for 2014-2015 last year and the [new] coordinator for it is Jesus Ilduin, of the department of philosophy,” Orr said.

A liberal arts education embraces the connections among disciplines, which in turn fuels a process of collaborative understanding of the search for truth and knowledge.

Wisdom arises from each discipline, both  the sciences and the humanities have their own  strengths and the connections among them.

“How Do We Know?” explores these relations, ultimately asking: how might epistemological inquiry through the liberal arts enhance citizenship and strengthen community, according to Orr.

Voting at the April 7 Faculty Assembly meeting included adding information about the PLACE program in the college catalog.

The PLACE theme for 2015-2016 “Air, water, earth, and fire: the ancient elements on a changing planet” passed approval at the most recent Faculty Assembly meeting.