91805

PHIL 116 "What is" Philosophy?

Ruth Zisman

. T . Th .

3:10 -4:30 pm

OLIN 203

HUM

Throughout the history of philosophy, philosophers have found themselves asking, “what is…?” What is truth? What is good? What is right? What is justice? What is love? What is freedom? What is the meaning of life? What is philosophy? In this course, we will examine canonical philosophical texts from antiquity to the present that pose “what is” questions. Specifically, we will address the assumptions, implications, and consequences of asking, “what is…?” What are we really asking when we ask what something is? What type of knowledge do we seek or hope to receive when we ask this? What value do we attribute to such knowledge? This course will introduce students to philosophical thinking, reading, and writing through an exploration of the above questions. Philosophers to be covered include: Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Kant, Mill, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, Arendt, Foucault, Deleuze. 

Class size: 22

91678

PHIL 125 Thoughts for the Times

Ruth Zisman

. T . Th .

11:50 -1:10 pm

OLIN 204

HUM

In Friedrich Nietzsche’s Untimely Meditations, he suggests that his thoughts are “untimely” precisely because he calls into question the values and practices of his time. Likewise, in Sigmund Freud’s Thoughts for the Times on War and Death, Freud suggests that there are certain events in human history (certain moments in time) that demand, indeed necessitate, our thinking. The question is: to what extent can we and/or should we understand the task of philosophy as a task of thinking for our times? What is the role of time—of one’s historical situation—in thinking? Is the philosopher capable of responding to the exigency of the times? Or is this role better served by politicians, journalists, poets? How can the philosopher theorize ‘universal’ structures (being, truth, value) and simultaneously ground his/her thinking in the ‘particularities’ of a given time? In this course, we will explore the work of thinkers throughout the history of Philosophy who have addressed these important questions. Thinkers to be covered include Plato, Rousseau, Kant, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Heidegger, Benjamin, Sartre, Arendt, Foucault, Zizek, Butler, Cornell, Ronell. Class size: 22

91680

PHIL 203 History of Philosophy I

Garry Hagberg

. T . Th .

3:10 -4:30 pm

ASP 302

HUM

A course closely examining selected texts in the history of philosophy, emphasizing historical connections and developments through the centuries from ancient Greece to 18^th-Century Britain. Authors include Plato (Republic), Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics), Epictetus, Augustine (Confessions), Aquinas, Descartes (Meditations), Spinoza, Locke (Essay Concerning Human Understanding, selections), Berkeley (Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous), and Hume. Issues include the philosophy of knowledge, art, education, society, ethics, religion, reason, perception, and, centrally, philosophical methodology. This course is prerequisite for PHIL 204: History of Philosophy II. Class size: 22

91681

PHIL 215 Existentialism

Daniel Berthold

. T . Th .

10:10 - 11:30 am

OLIN 201

HUM

Existentialism is a philosophic, literary, artistic, and social movement emerging during the second World War in France, but with roots tracing back to the Danish Christian philosopher Søren Kierkegaard and the German atheist philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in the nineteenth century. We will engage in a close study of selected writings of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre, Camus, and Heidegger, focusing on themes that have come to be regarded as common existentialist preoccupations, such as the rebellion against rationalism, the corresponding emphasis on subjectivity and perspectivism, the perception of the human predicament as absurd, the revaluation of values, and the necessity of anxiety and suffering for authentic existenceas well as emphasizing important differences of perspective and style between these five writers. Class size: 22

91635

PHIL / HR 234 Defining the Human

Robert Weston

M . W . .

11:50 -1:10 pm

OLIN 201

HUM

See Human Rights section for description.

91682

PHIL 237 Symbolic Logic

Robert Martin

. . W . F

10:10 - 11:30 am

RKC 103

MATC

Cross listed: Mind, Brain & Behavior An introduction to logic, requiring no prior knowledge of philosophy or mathematics.  This course aims at imparting the ability to recognize and construct correct formal deductions and refutations. Our text (available on-line free of charge) covers the first order predicate calculus with identity; we will cover as much of that as feasible in one semester.  There is software for the course, called Logic 2000, developed by Robert Martin and David Kaplan at UCLA in the 1990s and subsequently rewritten for the internet, that will assist students by providing feedback on exercises. Class size: 25

91683

PHIL 242 Relativism

David Shein

M . W . .

3:10 -4:30 pm

OLIN 204

HUM

Cross-listed: Science, Technology, & Society A semester-long investigation of philosophical relativism.  The first half of the semester will focus on epistemic relativism and the second half will focus on moral/cultural relativism.  While this will introduce us to several fundamental modes of philosophical inquiry (among them, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of language, and meta-ethics), the focus of the class will be a detailed exploration of relativism as a philosophical position.  Authors to be read include: Richard Rorty, W.V. Quine, Thomas Kuhn, Bernard Williams, Peter Winch, and others.  A prior course in philosophy is desirable but not necessary. Class size: 22

91782

PHIL 251 Ethical Theory

Jay Elliott

M . W . .

10:10 - 11:30 am

OLIN 306

HUM

Cross-listed: Human Rights In Plato’s Gorgias, Socrates and the sophist Callicles engage in a fundamental disagreement about how a human being should live: Socrates contends that we ought to live justly, and that it is by practicing justice that a person will be most happy. Callicles, on the other hand, rejects the value of justice and instead argues that “wantonness, lack of discipline, and freedom… are virtue and happiness.” This disagreement is an early and paradigmatic instance of a debate within ethical theory. Such debates raise a series of profound philosophical questions, including: What is the best life for a human being? What does ethical knowledge consist in? How can ethical disagreements be resolved? This course will introduce students to the tradition of philosophical reflection on these questions through close examination of a series of key figures and texts in the history of moral philosophy. The purpose of the course is to help students develop skill in reading, discussing, and writing about philosophical arguments concerning the nature and foundations of ethics. In addition to Plato, our main readings will be drawn from David Hume, Immanuel Kant, and John Stuart Mill. Class size: 18

91400

PHIL / LIT 3071 Philosophy & Literary Method

Nancy Leonard

. . . Th .

1:30 -3:50 pm

OLIN 310

HUM

See Literature section for description.

91685

PHIL 326 The Ethics of Consent

Alan Sussman

. T . . .

1:30 -3:50 pm

HEG 200

HUM

Cross-listed: Human Rights Since the 17^th century, Western philosophy has been infused with the notion of individual autonomy and its political and legal analogue, consent. In the political sphere this encompasses the social contract and the consent of the governed. In the legal sphere it requires an examination of the use of state power to fulfill the terms of private agreements. In the ethical sphere it necessitates questions of obligation.

Voluntary or autonomous consent normally serves to authorize one’s participation in mutual economic or personal exchange. But is one’s consent voluntary if induced by duress or contaminated by circumstances of severe economic or social inequality? Should unjust agreements be enforceable? What if a just agreement between two parties causes an injustice to a third? For what length of time should one’s consent remain valid? What does it mean if I “change my mind?” Many consensual affairs are conducted in private. But some private agreements are – or perhaps ought to be - subject to regulation to promote the public good. Others may be considered so intimate that the state should never interfere. We will examine ethical criteria used to determine when public intervention into private consensual conduct may be justified, and when not. Readings will include selections from Hobbes, Hume, Wertheimer, Nozick, Fried, Feinberg and a number of judicial decisions. Class size: 15

91686

PHIL 365 Philosophy of Stanley Cavell: Language, Skepticism, and the Arts

Norton Batkin

M . . . .

1:30 -3:50 pm

OLIN 305

HUM

Stanley Cavell’s understanding of philosophy as a culture’s criticism of itself has offered repeated challenges to our ideas of where and how philosophy may find its expression. His studies of the origins of modern philosophical skepticism with Descartes and Shakespeare, of Wittgenstein’s appeal to our shared language in the face of skeptical doubt, of Thoreau’s and Emerson’s attempts to found an American philosophical expression, and of film’s achievement of genres expressing the ambitions and demands of our democratic culture have insistently recalled us to philosophy’s engagement with the everyday. We will take up these and other topics in essays and selected readings from Cavell’s principal texts and works by Descartes, Shakespeare, Wittgenstein, Austin, Thoreau, Emerson, and American and European film. Prerequisites: A previous course in philosophy and permission of the instructor. This course fulfills the single-philosopher requirement for junior philosophy majors. Class size: 15

91684

PHIL 371 Kant's Critique of Pure Reason

Daniel Berthold

. . W . .

1:30 -3:50 pm

OLIN 305

HUM

A close reading of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. The Critique is unquestionably one of the most influential (and one of the most difficult) texts in the history of philosophy, presenting Kant’s reconceptualization of what it means to know, his reconfiguration of the nature of space and time, and his reimagination of the structure of human understanding at its relation to the world. Prerequisite: two previous courses in philosophy. This course fulfills the single-philosopher requirement for junior philosophy majors. Class size: 16

91687

PHIL / PS 420 Hannah Arendt Seminar: The Educated Citizen

Roger Berkowitz

. T . . .

4:40 -7:00 pm

ARENDT CNTR

HUM

See Political Studies section for description.