Course Catalog - Philosophy
Introductory Courses
Philosophy 110 — Introduction to Philosophy
Fall, spring
In a certain way, philosophy needs no introduction. Each of us has had moments of wonder: “Why do we exist?” “Why is there so much suff ering in the world?” “Why does the world itself exist?” Th is one-semester course for fi rst-year students helps strengthen that sense of wonder by giving the student insight into what some of the greatest thinkers have had to say about these questions. Readings from Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Descartes and Kant. One unit.
Philosophy 120 — Introduction to Philosophy
Fall, spring
This course is identical to Philosophy 110, but is open only to second-year students. Students who have taken Philosophy 110 many not take this course. One unit.
Intermediate Courses
Philosophy 201 — Metaphysics
Annually
Aristotle described metaphysics as the “science which takes up the theory of being as being and of what ‘to be’ means taken by itself.” Before and since Aristotle, the meaning and signifi cance of metaphysics has been in dispute. While some thinkers have dismissed metaphysics as meaningless speculation, others have held it to be the center of Western philosophy. Using primary texts of classical and contemporary writers, this course studies the origins of metaphysics in ancient Greece, major developments of metaphysical thinking,
and contemporary challenges to metaphysics. One unit.
Philosophy 204 — Ethics
Annually
A study of moral philosophy with a twofold aim: (1) to give students an appreciation of the important historical and theoretical developments in moral philosophy; (2) to help students to think, write and speak clearly about important moral issues of our time. Examines both the thought of important Western philosophers such as Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, and John Stuart Mill, and topics of contemporary concern in personal and social ethics. One unit.
Philosophy 205 — Ethics and the Natural World
Alternate years
“Environmental ethics” poses a philosophical as well as a personal challenge to each of us. Moral theories tend to focus on the problem of how we treat one another. Our values tend to be human-centered. But current events suggest that now, more than ever, there is an urgent need for us to adopt some kind of ethical stance toward the natural world, one that does not regard our own (human) interests as the ultimate standard of value. How are we to respond to that need? In what sense is the “environment” a matter of moral concern to us? What is the “value” of nature? Such questions demand that we re-examine not only our fundamental conceptions of nature, but our basic understanding of ethics as well. One unit.
Philosophy 207 — Foundations of Ethics
Annually
Considers various challenges to the claims of morality, and whether and how moral philosophy can meet these challenges. Special topics include: the nature and justifi cation of an ethical life, the limits of practical reasoning, the subjectivity vs. the objectivity of value, relativism, confl icts of obligation, the idea of moral “truth,” and the sources and ultimate value of morality itself. Examines how these issues come to life in classical texts, and how they are treated in recent philosophical literature. Th e goal is to understand the foundations of morality (if there are any), and to gain insight into what is perhaps the most striking thing about human life-the fact that we have values. One unit.
Philosophy 209 — Theory of Knowledge
Annually
Do you know that you are not a brain in a vat being force-fed experiences by an evil scientist? Th is course considers Descartes’ skeptical arguments that we can’t really know whether the world is the way it appears to us. Th ese skeptical arguments lead us to consider what knowledge is, whether “knowledge” means the same thing in the philosophy classroom as it means outside it, and what justifies our beliefs. Writings of contemporary analytic philosophers are read and discussed. One unit.
Philosophy 215 — Symbolic Logic
Alternate years
An introductory study of the formal structure of reasoning patterns such as deduction. Includes an introduction to formal languages, sentential calculus, predicate calculus, and an investigation into logic’s value and limits. One unit.
Philosophy 224 — Contemporary Continental Philosophy
Alternate years
Focuses on a theme or question of general scope within continental European philosophy since Nietzsche. Topics may include subjectivity, historical consciousness, technology, and plurality. Philosophical approaches may include phenomenology, hermeneutics, existentialism, psychoanalysis, the Frankfurt School, and poststructuralism. One unit.
Philosophy 225 — Ancient Philosophy
Fall
Addresses some Greek conceptions of desire, beginning with Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. The discussion is centered on such problems as the relationship between human beings and nature, and between the human and the divine. Discusses diff erent approaches to love, passions and the soul in Plato’s Symposium and Phaedrus. Investigates the relationship between temporality and eternity in Plato’s theory of knowledge, happiness, virtue, and the nature of friendship are analyzed in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Finally, Epictetus’ Handbook shows how such concepts as dependency and autonomy play a major role in the stoic interpretation of desire. One unit.
Philosophy 230 — Medieval Philosophy
Spring
A study of selected medieval thinkers such as Augustine, Boethius, Dionysius, Anselm, Bonaventure, Aquinas, Scotus, and Ockham. Th e birth of scholasticism, an analysis of this philosophical movement in the 13th century, and its decline are presented. One unit.
Philosophy 235 — Early Modern Philosophy
Fall
A study of the origins of modern philosophy: Descartes’ turning toward the subject; his attempt at a justified method guided by the ideal of mathematical certainty; his influence on the development of European rationalism, Spinoza, Leibniz. Equal attention will be given to empiricist philosophers such as Bacon, Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume and their approaches to philosophy and science. One unit.
Philosophy 241 — Modern Philosophy
Spring
A study of the later development of modern philosophy including Kant’s new evaluation of metaphysics, epistemology, the nature of the sciences and morality and the idealist thought of Fichte and Hegel. Attention also to the thought of those opposing idealism, especially Marx and Kierkegaard. One unit.
Philosophy 242 — Logic and Language
Fall
An introduction to the 20th-century analytic philosophy and philosophy of language, which to a large part is guided by the conviction that traditional philosophical problems are based on linguistic and logical confusions. Familiarizes students with the formal languages of modern sentential and predicate logic, whose development was so important for the philosophical thinking within this tradition. It will reflect on the importance of language for understanding the world and will investigate related semantic concepts such as meaning, reference and truth. One unit.
Philosophy 243 — American Philosophy
Alternate years
A survey of the beginnings and development of American philosophic thought from the colonial period to the present. Detailed discussion of the work of Emerson, Peirce, and James and of important movements such as transcendentalism, pragmatism and analytic thought. One unit.
Philosophy 245 — Phenomenology
Alternate years
Explores the motivation and the methods of phenomenological philosophy. Focus is on Husserl’s development of phenomenology as a “rigorous science,” and its critical revision. Topics include the relation of Husserl’s “transcendental” project to the classical metaphysical tradition, the distinction between “pure” and “applied” phenomenology, the idea of a phenomenological psychology, and the infl uence of phenomenology in the philosophy of art. Readings include works by Husserl, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, and others. One unit.
Philosophy 246 — Philosophy and Literature
Alternate years
Explores the relationship between philosophy and literature. Reveals the enormous impact of philosophy on literary texts and tries to show how philosophy is present in all forms of intellectual life. Also tries to take seriously literature’s claim to be doing something that philosophy itself cannot do. The authors chosen vary, but include such fi gures as Shakespeare, Goethe, Nietzsche, Th omas Mann and Proust. One unit.
Philosophy 247 — Environmental Ethics
Alternate years
The Western philosophical ethical tradition is anthropocentric, meaning that what is good or right is based upon the wants, needs and interests of humans. From such a perspective, the environment is regarded as a resource to be managed or exploited for the benefi t of people. Many contemporary environmental ethicists carry on in this tradition, while others argue for an expanded ethical theory—one that takes into account the intrinsic values of animals, plants, species, ecosystems, and perhaps even the earth as a whole. In this course
we will survey these diff erent approaches with an eye to whether or not they are defensible. In doing so, we will consider issues such as animals rights, population control, the rights of future generations and wildlife restoration (e.g., prairies, forests). One unit.
Philosophy 248 – Existentialism
Alternate years
Existentialism was a movement in recent (1850-1950) French and German philosophy that heavily influenced subsequent European thought and literature. It saw human beings as free and troubled, lacking guidance from tradition, God, and nautre. Th is course explores existentialism through a reading of its philosophical exponents (Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, Tillich) and literary and philosophical authors (Dostoevsky, Camus). Both religious and atheistic existentialism are considered. One unit.
Philosophy 250 — Medical Ethics
Annually
Examines topics of current interest in biomedical ethics, and the role moral philosophy plays in public debate about controversial issues. Aim is to help students think, speak, and write clearly about these issues. Discusses moral justifi cation and an overview of several types of ethical theory. Considers such issues as the physician-patient relationship, truth-telling and confi dentiality, informed consent, reproductive technologies, abortion, the right to die, euthanasia and assisted suicide, the AIDS epidemic, human genetics, and justice in the distribution of health care. One unit.
Philosophy 254 — Philosophy East and West
Alternate years
By exploring Greek texts from the Pre-Socratics to Plato in relationship with the Sanscrit Upanishads, this course attempts to reveal the common metaphysical root of Western and Eastern traditions. Christian and Buddhist texts are also investigated in an attempt to show how the sharp polarity between Eastern and Western thought emerged. One unit.
Philosophy 260 — Philosophy of Art
Alternate years
By reflecting on what philosophers have said about art, this course investigates the idea that art itself performs a philosophical, perhaps even a moral, function. Art is supposed by many to have the power to reveal something, and to be in some way “good” for us. In considering whether this is so, we have to confront two basic questions. Th e fi rst is: Are there any “truths” about art (about what art is, about the purpose of art, about what makes art good or bad, etc.)? Th e second is: does art really reveal “truths” (What kind of truths? Truths
about what? Can these truths be rationally articulated? If not, why should we take art seriously?) We shall concentrate on these, and related questions. Readings from Plato, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Freud, Heidegger, Kandinsky, and Iris Murdoch. One unit.
Philosophy 261 — Philosophy of Mind
Annually
Questions concerning the nature of the mind and its relation to the body or questions about the essential capacities of human beings distinguishing them from plants, animals, and machines are raised. Different traditional and contemporary themes about the nature of the mind are discussed critically. Emphasizes topics such as the mind-body problem, the nature of consciousness, the explanation of action, and the problem of intentionality. One unit.
Philosophy 262 — Philosophy of Language
Alternate years
At the beginning of this century philosophy underwent, with the so-called “linguistic turn,” yet another Copernican revolution. Traditional philosophical problems were supposed to be solved or dissolved through an analysis of the meaning of linguistic expressions. Th is course tries to evaluate this kind of philosophizing through a systematic analysis of the philosophical project of a theory of meaning in its historical development. Readings include texts of Frege, Carnap, Quine, Davidson, Dummett, and Wittgenstein. One unit.
Philosophy 264 — Philosophy of History
Alternate years
Focuses on the growth of historical consciousness in the modern epoch, although it may also give attention to such Christian thinkers as Augustine. Emphasizes the contrast between the boldly progressive vision of Hegel, which celebrates scientifi c culture as the goal of history, and the more traditional vision of Vico (the Italian philosopher), which embodies a cyclical moment and defi nes historical culture more in terms of poetry than of science. Other authors typically read include Kant, Herder, Burckhardt, Nietzsche, Löwith, and Collingwood. One unit.
Philosophy 265 — Political Philosophy
Fall
Political philosophy addresses the questions of how and toward what end ought human beings live together, what a just and good society would be, and what makes power legitimate? Th ese questions are pursued through a reading of the history of Western political thought, including the work of Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, and J.S. Mill. Recent liberal theory also examined, focusing on the justice of welfare spending and the proper limits on government, using for example the work of John Rawls and Robert Nozick. One unit.
Philosophy 267 — Philosophy of State and Law
Spring
Examines the nature of liberal democratic politics in its relation to morality. Th e central question is: what are the rightful limits on and concerns of the government, law, and politics of a “liberal,” that is, free and democratic, society? “Neutralist” liberals argue that maximum individual liberty requires government neutrality toward particular moral ends or notions of the good life. Others, especially “communitarians” and “civic republicans,” fear that neutrality undermines both morality and community, and argue that government must promote both through endorsing some notion of the good life. What is the proper balance of liberty and morality? Th is question is pursued through the work of a number of important, most recent and American, political theorists. One unit.
Philosophy 269 — Philosophy of Law
Alternate years
Examines the nature of law and the place of law in human society. Considers the history of rule by law and refl ects upon its value. Th eories of law and of the relation of law to morality are explored. Th e course draws upon case histories and jurisprudential readings. It is not an introduction to legal reasoning, but a probe of the philosophical issues that underlie such legal concepts as equality, freedom of speech, evidence, obligation, rights, punishment, and justice. One unit.
Philosophy 271 — Philosophy of Science
Alternate years
An examination of the structure, function, value, and limits of science. Topics include the structure of scientific explanation, the role of experimentation, the nature of scientifi c progress, and the nature of scientific alues. Th is course also investigates whether the activities of science are both rational and ethical. One unit.
Philosophy 273 — Philosophy of Medicine
Alternate years
The philosophy of medicine includes the metaphysical, epistemological and methodological aspects of medical practice and medical research. Th is course explores some of the theoretical and conceptual issues that form the basis for medical knowledge and thus infl uence the practice of medicine. Topics include the nature of health and disease, normality and pathology, the assumptions and goals of medicine, changes in the theoretical structure of medicine over time, the nature of medical knowledge, and methods of reasoning
in medical research and practice. One unit.
Philosophy 274 — Philosophical Anthropology
Alternate years
Is there such a thing as human nature or are we just the result of history and culture? Inquiry begins with reading of ancient Greek authors, who address the issue by refl ecting on the human condition with respect to nature at large and the political world in particular. Focus turns to modern and contemporary authors, who allow us to examine such issues as human contingency, the possibility of action, and the roots of violence and aggression. One unit.
Philosophy 277 — Philosophical Perspectives on Women
Alternate years
Surveys the classic literature of Western philosophical views on women and the feminist response to it. Attention to feminism as a method of analysis as well as to representative issues whose philosophical significance has been identifi ed by feminism, e.g. gender, friendship, dependence. One unit.
Philosophy 278 — Philosophers on War and Peace
Alternate years
Explores some major philosophical issues concerning war and peace viewed through the classic writings of Kant, Clausewitz, Lenin, William James, Tolstoy, Gandhi and contemporary authors. Emphasis is on the questions of the possibility of eliminating war, the morality of war both conventional and nuclear, and the moral problems involved in maintaining a policy of nuclear deterrence. One unit.
Philosophy 282 — Philosophy of Religion
Alternate years
Th is course is divided into two parts, both of which confront concepts and names for God with experiences of evil. Th e fi rst part studies the tradition of theodicy, with attention to Augustine, Boethius, Leibniz and contemporary liberation theology. Th e second part looks closely at the experience of extreme evil in genocide. Readings from P. Levi, E. Eiesel, E. Levinas, P. Celan and post-Holocaust “death of God” thinking. One unit.
Philosophy 285 — Philosophy of Mythology
Alternate years
Examines both philosophy’s ground in mythical thinking and the tension that arises between the two spheres. Th emes vary from semester to semester and will generally include, in addition to compendiums of Indian or Greek mythology, such authors as Plato, Vico, Schelling, Hegel, and Goethe. One unit.
Philosophy 286 — Classicism in Art and Thought
Alternate years
Enlightenment culture is supposed to have liberated itself from ancient world-views. Th at is how “modernity” is defi ned. But it still expresses itself in classical terms. What is the meaning of this? Why do we remain wedded to a way of picturing the world which we claim to have progressed beyond? Th ere are lots of superfi cial explanations. Th is course searches for a deeper understanding of what “classicism” is all about, and goes on to explore its recurrent manifestations in Enlightenment art and thought. Th emes include order
and disorder, freedom and desire, harmony and dissonance, individuality and the whole, unity and disunity, tragedy and reconciliation, nature and reason, and how we picture of ourselves in relation to the broad structure of reality. One unit.
Philosophy 287 — The Philosophy of Architecture
Alternate years
More than any other art, architecture shapes our environment and the way we live. This raises serious and difficult questions about what architecture is and does, about the status of architecture as art, about the truths (if any) which it expresses, about the relationship between architectural forms and the character of human life, and about what it means to dwell. Such questions lie at the intersection of art and philosophy. In addition to readings from traditional and contemporary literature in aesthetics and architectural theory, this course reflects on these issues by looking at and responding to architectural examples. It examines the philosophy of architecture by studying architecture philosophically. One unit.
Philosophy 288 — Death
Alternate years
Explores the antinomy of reason that is occasioned by the phenomenon of death, i.e. do we or do we not fully “die” when we die?, and the transformative rather than theoretical: how can we ourselves most eff ectively prepare ourselves for the deaths we will one day encounter? Th e image of Socrates, who faces his own death with supreme courage, serves as a model for the “philosophical” relationship to death. The readings for this course vary, but typically include Heidegger’s Being and Time and Plato’s Phaedo. Texts from Eastern Philosophy also play a prominent role. One unit.
Philosophy 289 — Ethical Issues in Death and Dying
Alternate years
The ethical problems involved in caring for the terminally ill are among the most controversial issues of our day. Th is course examines ethical, philosophical, and public policy dimensions of death and dying. Topics include the defi nition of death, truth-telling with dying patients, suicide, euthanasia, deciding to forgo lifesustaining treatment, decisions on behalf of children and incompetent adults, the debate about futile care, and public policy issues. One unit.
Advanced Courses
Philosophy 302 — Philosophy of Psychology
Alternate years
Addresses long-standing philosophical issues concerning the foundations of psychological research. It discusses questions such as, can a machine think? Can psychology be reduced to neuroscience? To what extent is human behavior similar to animal behavior? How adequate are biological accounts of “abnormal” behavior? And, what is consciousness and can it be explained from a scientifi c perspective? One unit.
Philosophy 303 — Philosophy of Social Science
Alternate years
Is it possible to study and explain human actions and human aff airs using the methods of the natural sciences? Or does the study of human beings require its own methodology because human beings have thoughts, a free will, and can behave rationally? Th is course tries to fi nd an answer to these questions by studying the most prominent responses to the above query provided by philosophers, historians and social scientists. Readings include works by authors such as Weber, Geertz, Hempel, Collingwood, Davidson, Winch, Marx
and Habermas. One unit.
Philosophy 304 — Problems in Metaphysics
Alternate years
Contemporary metaphysics addresses questions about the nature of reality such as: What is time? What are we? Is consciousness a physical brain process, or something non-physical? Th is seminar will take up some of these questions, readings are both historical and contemporary. One unit.
Philosophy 305 — Science and Values
Alternate years
Science is usually seen in contemporary society as a privileged route to knowledge, and as value-neutral in its pursuit of truth. Th is seminar is intended to stimulate thought about the mutual infl uence of the natural sciences and human values. It is not a course in “applied ethics” or the ethics of technology. Rather, its goal is to come to a deeper appreciation of the conceptual underpinnings of scientifi c knowledge and how values are essential elements of these conceptual underpinnings. Th e seminar will be a study of classic texts and
contemporary developments in the philosophy, history, and sociology of natural science. Both theoretical aspects and historical examples of how scientifi c facts and theories are constructed are discussed. A central theme is the debate about realism vs. constructivism in the philosophy of science. Th is includes a consideration of objectivity and subjectivity in the realms of both fact and value. Also discussed is the view that science off ers the best description of reality and the diff erent types of “scientism,” and the overvaluing of science in comparison with other ways of learning about the world. One unit.
Philosophy 306 — Problems in Moral Philosophy
Alternate years
This seminar addresses the relationship between theories of the mind and corresponding political theories. Among the course reading are Plato’s Republic, where the association between the structure of the soul and the structure of diff erent cities is explicit, and Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, where the study of the soul’s structure is functional to the analysis of happiness in the polis. Th e second part of the seminar addresses two modern paradigms: Hobbes’ Leviathan and Rousseau’s Second Discourse on the Origin of Inequality. Two
radically diff erent theories are discussed which address human nature, the possibility of happiness, and the power of emotions while distinguishing themselves from their ancient models. One unit.
Philosophy 307 — Metaphysics and Natural Science
Alternate years
Th is is a course naturalistic metaphysics which compares the speculative conceptions of philosophers to recent work in the natural sciences (this semester, physics). Readings of three 19th - and 20th-century “process” philosophers (Schelling, Peirce, Whitehead) who hoped to answer fundamental metaphysical questions from a naturalistic perspective. Each is coupled with a scientist’s exposition of relevant parts of contemporary physical theory, particularly, the Big Bang origin of the universe (Weinberg), complex systems (Prigogine), and quantum mechanics (Polkinghorne). Goal is to use the science to educate the philosophy, and the philosophy to educate the science, hence to understand the natural world through a dialogue between the two. One unit.
Philosophy 308 — Problems in Epistemology
Alternate years
Prominent in contemporary theory of knowledge is the attack on “foundationalism,” the belief that claims to knowledge can receive ultimate or philosophical justifi cation. Foundationalism has been central to the mainstream of philosophy since Descartes, although arguably it is as old as Plato. Th us “antifoundationalism” is a deep challenge to philosophy. Th is course examines the antifoundationalist critique, and the attempt to save philosophy from it, focusing primarily on the work of Richard Rorty, Michael Williams, and Hilary Putnam, but with selections from a number of earlier philosophers, including James, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Quine, and Heidegger. One unit.
Philosophy 316 — Problems in Aesthetics
Alternate years
Selected issues or texts in the philosophy of art explored in depth. One unit.
Philosophy 332 — Problems in Phenomenology
Alternate years
Selected issues or texts in the Phenomenological good is explored in depth. One unit.
Philosophy 334 — Hermeneutics
Alternate years
A study of the theory of interpretation as constitutive of human knowing and action. Examines classical and contemporary theories about interpretation, but also demands that the participants enter the practice of hermeneutics in an eff ort to understand selected diffi culties of the modern and contemporary world. One unit.
Philosophy 335 — Philosophical Naturalism
Alternate years
Philosophical naturalism holds that all reality is in or is continuous with physical nature, hence nothing is supernatural, purely non-physical or “ideal.” Th is also means the conclusions of natural science are directly relevant to the philosophical investigation of reality (that is, metaphysics). Th e historical problem for this view is to account for things that appear to be non-physical, like life, consciousness, knowledge, numbers, possibilities, God. Th is course encounters a variety of recent naturalisms to see whether they can handle these issues, reading John Dewey, W.V.O. Quine, Justus Buchler, Hans Jonas, and Hilary Putnam. One unit.
Philosophy 350 — Pre-Socratic Philosophy
Alternate years
A study of the origin of Western philosophy and science before Socrates. It investigates the relationship between myth and philosophy, the development of various schools of philosophy (Pythagoreans, Eleatics), and concludes with a discussion of the sophists. Emphasis is placed upon the study of the texts of Pre-Socratic philosophers and the interpretations of modern scholars. One unit.
Philosophy 354 — Plato
Annually
“Platonism” has fallen on hard times in the contemporary philosophical marketplace. As a way of thinking about ethical, epistemological, or metaphysical issues, it is seen as an enterprise which is more or less bankrupt. Th e goal of this seminar is to overcome the modern prejudice against Platonism by rereading Plato, and understanding what he really has to say. Do his works represent a coherent philosophical vision? If so, what does this vision off er us? One unit.
Philosophy 358 — Aristotle
Annually
“All human beings by nature desire to understand.” Or so Aristotle claims, in the fi rst sentence of his Metaphysics. Th e goal of this seminar is to understand this claim. What is Aristotle’s conception of (our) “nature,” and how is it related to his conception of reality as a whole? Is our nature most fully realized when our desire (to understand) is most fully satisfi ed? If so, what does this involve? What does it mean to be fully human? What does Aristotle think we ultimately discover in our attempt to understand the world? We shall pursue
these questions, in depth, by exploring the fundamental connections between-and the signifi cant tensions within-Aristotle’s Metaphysics, Physics, Ethics and Poetics. Ultimate focus is on Aristotle’s conception of tragedy, and the philosophical implications of the work of two tragic poets (Sophocles and Euripides). Attention is also given to whatever seems to separate Aristotle’s way of thinking and our own. One unit.
Philosophy 362 — Augustine
Alternate years
Th is seminar introduces the thought of Augustine through study of some main works in relation to key themes in Greek philosophy (chiefl y Plotinus) and Christian theology. Augustine’s Confessions are generally read, but depending on the topical focus in a given year, this may be followed by study of his City of God, De Trinitate, or passages from other works. One unit.
Philosophy 366 — Thomas Aquinas
Alternate years
A detailed study of seleted texts of St. Th omas Aquinas with reference to other signifi cant medieval figures. Th e focus is on understanding St. Th omas’ thought both as an intellectual achievement in its own right and as part of a continuous tradition of philosophical and theological inquiry. Topics of special interest will include: the existence and nature of God, creation and the nature of reality, human and divine knowledge, as well as problems in ethics and politics. Late medieval Scholasticism involved a rediscovery of and sustained
dialogue with Aristotelian thought. Th us, participants in this course benefit from a prior knowledge of ancient Greek philosophy, although it is not a prerequisite for enrollment. One unit.
Philosophy 368 — Meister Eckhart
Alternate years
This course typically focuses on Eckhart’s sermons (which he composed in German) rather than the more formal philosophical treatises (which he wrote in Latin). It is in the sermons where Eckhart’s mysticism is most pronounced. As a result, they serve as an ideal basis for evaluating the relationship between philosophy and mysticism. In addition, the question is raised to what degree Eckhart’s thinking reveals the essence, not only of Christianity, but of religion as such. In this regard, Eckhart commentaries from Buddhist and Islamic thinkers may also be considered. One unit.
Philosophy 370 — Kant
Alternate years
A reading course in the primary sources, concentrating mostly on Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason and Critique of Judgment. Th e reading and discussion focus on Kant’s theory of knowledge, as well as his metaphysical, aesthetic, and anthropolical views. Th e approach is both historical and critical. One unit.
Philosophy 375 — Hegel
Alternate years
An in-depth study of the philosophy of Hegel. Th is includes a probing and testing of his positions on the nature of reality and his theory of knowledge. Emphasis is on the philosophy of history, the history of philosophy, the state, and religion, and on their contemporary relevance. One unit.
Philosophy 380 — Nietzsche
Alternate years
Friedrich Nietzsche is one of the archetypal modern masters. His notions of the “death of God,” the “will to power,” amor fati, the Dionysian and Apollinian, the overman and many others have entered the consciousness of the 20th century. His infl uence was (and still is) immense. Th e seminar is an in-depth study of Nietzsche’s work. Th e discussion will be focused on the question of creation and negation, on nihilism and its overcoming, on the sense of morality and the criticism of Christianity. Nietzsche’s books used in class are:
Th e Gay Science, Th us Spoke Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil, Genealogy of Morals, Twilights of Idols, Th e Anti-Christ, and Ecce Homo. One unit.
Philosophy 383 — Heidegger
Alternate years
Th is course consists of a reading and discussion of some of the major works of Heidegger. Attention is given to his criticism of Western philosophy, his understanding of truth, his teaching on the meaning of being human (Dasein), his pursuit of the question of the meaning of Being, and his critique of technology. One unit.
Philosophy 391 — Wittgenstein
Alternate years
An intensive reading course focusing on Wittgenstein’s early Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and his late Philosophical Investigations. Topics of special interest include the author’s views on philosophy, the constitution of linguistic meaning, truth, and the problem of solipsism. Th e course also tries to evaluate Wittgenstein’s contribution to and relevance for contemporary philosophy. One unit.
Philosophy 400 — Tutorials
Fall, spring
Independent study of various topics of special interest to individual students and faculty directors. Normally, tutorials will only be off ered for topics that are not covered by regularly off ered courses. One unit.
Philosophy 497 — Fourth-Year Thesis
Fall, spring
The fourth-year thesis should in some way represent the culmination of a student’s work in philosophy, drawing on previous background and developed interests. It is therefore best undertaken in the spring semester of the fourth year. A student who is interested in writing a thesis must submit to the Chair of the Department a brief prospectus (2-4 pages) describing the proposed topic. Th is prospectus should clarify the problems, issues, or themes which the thesis will address, and present an initial plan of research. Ideally, the prospectus would provide at least a rough outline for the project as a whole. It should include a preliminary bibliography. Th e deadline for submitting a prospectus is the Monday following the Th anksgiving vacation. Once the prospectus is submitted, the Chair will review it in consultation with the prospective advisor who will approve the prospectus or suggest revisions. It is recommended that a student interested in submitting a prospectus meet with a potential advisor well in advance of the deadline. Th e prospectus is meant to ensure
that the student has a coherent and manageable topic. It also ensures that substantive work on the thesis itself can begin at the outset of the spring semester. Equipped with an initial reading list, the student should be able to undertake preliminary research over the Christmas vacation. Th e completed thesis is to be submitted to the advisor and two additional readers (one of whom may be from outside the department) not later than the last regular day of classes. Th e readers will be chosen by the student together with the advisor and
Department Chair. Shortly after the thesis is submitted (usually during the study period), the student will have the opportunity publicly to present, and to defend, his or her work. After the defense, the advisor (in consultation with the readers) will determine a letter grade for the thesis. One unit.
* The courses and descriptions listed above are taken directly from the official College Catalog.