19158

PHIL 101 Problems in Philosophy

William Griffith

. T . Th .

2:30 pm -3:50 pm

OLINLC 210

HUM

A problems or questions oriented course studying selected works from a variety of philosophers – some famous, some not. Authors include Plato, David Hume, Thomas Reid, C. S. Lewis, Jean Paul Sartre, William James, and others.

19196

PHIL 108 Introduction to Philosophy

Mary Coleman

M . W . .

10:30 -11:50 am

OLIN 203

HUM

Western philosophers address questions that most of us naturally find puzzling, such as: do we have free will?; do we know what the world around us is really like?; does God exist?; how should we treat one another? We will critically examine historical and contemporary texts that address these and other central themes of the philosophical tradition.

19162

PHIL 230 Philosophy and the Arts

Garry Hagberg

. T . Th .

2:30 pm -3:50 pm

OLIN 201

HUM

This course explores the ways that philosophers (and philosophically engaged critics) have approached issues concerning the nature and value of art. After a discussion of Plato’s influential account of representation and the place of art in society, we will turn to questions raised by painting, photography and film, and music. From there, we will turn to broader topics that cut across various art forms: Are serious (or “high”) and popular (or “low”) art to be understood and evaluated differently? How do we evaluate works of art, and why do we so often disagree on their value? And what, if anything, do the various items and activities that we classify as “art” have in common? Readings include Hume and Kant on taste, Stanley Cavell on the moving image, and Theodore Adorno and Walter Benjamin on mass culture.

19160

PHIL 237 Symbolic Logic

William Griffith

M . W . .

1:30 pm -2:50 pm

ASP 302

MATC

Cross-listed: Cognitive Science Students will learn to use several different symbolic systems, some developed thousands of years apart, in order to formally test the validity of deductive arguments expressed in ordinary language of various levels of complexity. Beginning from the common notion of a valid argument the course progresses through: truth tables; a system of natural deduction for propositional logic, which is proven to be consistent and complete; Aristotelian logic - immediate inference, mediate inference, the square of opposition; Venn diagrams; monadic quantificational theory; general quantificational theory, including identity. At each level both the characteristics of the formal systems and the interpretation of their schemata into English are kept in view. The course ends with a discussion of the extension of such work into higher orders of logic and the foundations of mathematics and the surprise (at the time) of Gödel’s incompleteness proof. No prerequisite.

19564

PHIL 244 Epistemology

David Shein

. T . Th .

4:00 pm –5:20 pm

OLIN 308

HUM

Do you know anything and, if so, what do you know? What does it mean to know something? Is knowing something different from believing it, thinking it, or being sure of it? Can you know something that is false? Does all knowledge come from sense experience or does some knowledge come from other sources? Can you know something without knowing that you know it?  In this class, we will examine these questions, and questions like them, and study the answers philosophers give to them.  Along the way, we will study the problem of skepticism, theories of truth and justification, the nature of belief, and the relationship between epistemology and rationality.  Authors to be read include: Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Plato, Descartes, Moore, Unger, Gettier, Goldman, Quine, and others.

19157

PHIL 247 Philosophy of Mind

Mary Coleman

M . W . .

3:00 pm -4:20 pm

OLIN 201

HUM

Cross-listed: Cognitive Science An introduction to the philosophy of mind. We will focus on contemporary readings and such questions as: is your mind something different from your body and, in particular, something different from your brain?; can you know for sure that the people around you have conscious mental lives?; might it be, in principle, impossible for a computer or robot to have a mind, no matter how fancy the program it's running is?; is it possible that you yourself don't have a mind?

19155

PHIL 260 Feminist Philosophy

Daniel Berthold

. T . Th .

9:00 -10:20 am

OLIN 201

HUM/DIFF

Cross-listed: Gender & Sexuality Studies, Human Rights, Social Policy The course will examine a variety of feminist philosophical approaches to issues surrounding modern culture's production of images of sexuality and gender. Some background readings will provide a sketch of a diverse range of feminist theoretical frameworks -- liberal, socialist, radical, psychoanalytic, and postmodern -- with readings from Alison Jaggar, Simone de Beauvoir, Annie Leclerc, Christine Delphy, Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray, Sarah Kofman, and Hélène Cixous. We will then turn to an exploration of such issues as the cultural enforcement of both feminine and masculine gender identities, the mass-marketing of popular cultural images of sexuality, gender, and race, the urban environment and women's sense of space, the intersection of feminism and environmentalism, the logic of subjection governing cultural ideals of women's bodies (dieting, exercise, clothing, bodily comportment), issues of rape, sexual violence and harassment, pornography, and feminist perspectives of different ethnic groups. We will also screen a number of films and videos, including the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearings, Madonna's "Truth or Dare," and documentaries on the pre-Stonewall femme-butch bar-scene culture of the 1950s and 60s, anorexia, rape on campus, the pornographic film industry, and several others.

19156

PHIL 315 Existentialism

Daniel Berthold

. T . . .

1:30 pm -3:50 pm

RKC 200

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 nineteen century. We will engage in a close study of selected writings of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre, Camus, and Heidegger. We will focus both on themes which 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 ¾ as well as emphasizing important differences of perspective and style between these five writers.

19205

LIT 3012 Wittgenstein's Lion: The Question of the Animal

Nancy Leonard

. T . . .

1:30 pm -3:50 pm

OLIN 310

HUM

See Literature section for description

19161

PHIL 357 Law and Ethics

William Griffith / Alan Sussman

. T . . .

9:30 -11:50 am

OLIN 304

HUM

Cross-listed: Human Rights This course will combine elements of two disciplines, law and philosophy, and will be taught jointly by a member of the philosophy program and a constitutional lawyer. Issues to be studied, broadly conceived, include justice, equality, liberty, and responsibility. More specifically, these will include affirmative action, sexuality, the right to die, and the insanity defense. We shall study opinions of the United States Supreme Court, and judges on Circuit Courts, as well as works by philosophers, including Aristotle, J. S. Mill, John Rawls, H. L. A. Hart, Lon Fuller, Isaiah Berlin, and Ronald Dworkin. Enrollment limited to 15. Permission of instructor required. Priority for admission will be given to students with upper-college standing and/or a previous course in philosophy.

19163

PHIL 371 The Philosophy of Kant

Garry Hagberg

. . . . F

1:30 pm -3:50 pm

OLIN 201

HUM

Cross-listed: German Studies An introduction to one of the classic texts of western philosophy, Kant’s magnum opus, The Critique of Pure Reason. Prerequisite: a previous course in philosophy and permission of the instructor.