Fall 2004 Course Descriptions
(Phil. 330.01, W 3:10-5:00) Seminar: Kant's Critique of Pure ReasonInstructor: Jeffrey Tlumak
A careful, sympathetic, systematic study of Kant's magnificent Critique of Pure Reason. (Note: I've ordered the new edition of Norman Kemp Smith's wonderful translation (Palgrave Macmillan), but if you already own either the Pluhar (Hackett) or the Guyer and Wood (Cambridge) translations, you may use it, and we can attend to some philosophically relevant differences as we proceed.)
(330.02, M 6:10-8:00) Derrida
Instructor: David Wood
We will trace the development of Derrida's ethical, political and religious concerns from his early philosophy of differance to his work from the late 1980s onwards, with special emphasis on his encounter with the thought of Levinas. Was his thinking 'ethical' from the beginning, or does this concern reflect a genuine change of focus? Is Derrida just a 'private ironist' (as Rorty claims), or on the contrary, seriously engaged with fundamental questions of public concern? Topics to be dealt with will include: friendship, hospitality, democracy, promising, the gift, alterity, responsibility, death, the ghost, mourning, 9/11, God, and messianism.
(Phil 294A.01, TR 1:10-2:25) Ethics and Terrorism
Instructor: John Stuhr
This course considers critically questions of value that are central to human life. Are moral values or the value of human life absolute? Are they relative? Is it possible to reason about values at all, and is it possible to establish that some values are more justified than others? If so, how? And, what is the relation between moral theory and moral practice--actually leading a good life and being a good person. This course introduces students to these questions and related issues that every person inescapably must confront. The course approaches these topics in two ways: through the writings of several key thinkers in the history of philosophy (including Plato, Aristotle, Epictetus, Kant, Mill, Nietzsche, Dewey, and Camus) and through recent analyses of the contemporary issue of terrorism. The course focuses not simply on understanding this material but also on critical reflection on human values--both one's own values and those of others; ultimately, the course focuses on the application of this reflection to action in daily life. Accordingly, the theoretical readings by key thinkers will serve to illuminate practical problems posed by terrorism; in turn, the focus on the dimensions of terrorism will provide a practical basis for judging the adequacy of different theories. This course is first and foremost a course on ethics and ethical theory; that theory is illustrated and applied to issues of terrorism. The course will include informal lecture and lots of discussion, and it is intended for undergraduate students. Course requirements will include analytical papers on the reading, a small group project on terrorism, and a final exam.
(Phil 260, TR 2:35-3:50) Twentieth Century Continental Philosophy
Instructor: David Wood
A central theme in the work of twentieth century continental thinkers is the question of the other. It is at the basis of ethics, politics, sexual difference, our relation to animals, to nature, to the mad, to death, to 'alien' cultures, and to God, not to mention our understanding of language and social existence. And it is a critical theme in what could be called the conscience of the post-modern - that the other not be excluded, but not be too quickly included either. We will attempt to disentangle some of the puzzles in this area by reading selections from the work of such thinkers as Husserl, Heidegger, Foucault, Derrida, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Irigaray, Lyotard, Levinas, Ricoeur and Blanchot.
(Phil. 246.01, MWF 2:10-3:00) Philosophy of Language
Instructor: José Medina
This course focuses on core issues in semantics and pragmatics: meaning and reference, communication, speech acts, interpretation and translation, and metaphor. We will study all the major positions in contemporary philosophy of language, reading central figures in analytic philosophy (such as Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, Austin, Quine, and Davidson) as well in other traditions (such as Derrida, Gadamer, Habermas, Ricoeur, and Butler).
(Phil. 242.01, TR 11:00-12:15) Philosophy of Religion
Instructor: Jeffrey Tlumak
We will explore major issues arising from a philosophical examination of religion, with much heavier but not exclusive focus on theistic religions. Topics include the nature and significance of religious and mystical experience; the nature of and relation between faith and reason; the attributes traditionally associated with a monotheistic God and the force of some non-traditional conceptions; the classic arguments for the existence of God; the most serious rational objections to belief in God, especially the problem of evil; the most serious deflationary accounts of the phenomenon of religion, such as the Freudian treatment of religion as illusion; the problem of applying human words meaningfully to God; the possibility and identifiability of miracles; the varying concepts of and arguments for and against life after death; the relation between religion and science; the question whether such seemingly divergent religions can all be said to be true (or point to the same truth); the connection between religion and ethics (whether ethical norms can or must originate in God), and whether religion offers a distinctive vision of human moral fulfillment. Our central goals will be to understand the issues, appreciate what's at stake, clarify our main options, argue their merits and demerits, and develop the ability to continue to think about them in meaningful and helpful ways. Our sole text is Philosophy of Religion: An Anthology, ed. Louis P. Pojman (Wadsworth, 2003). Typical format: Mini-lectures to set up issue, then progress through discussion. Total reading: Approximately 400 double-column pages. Writing requirements: Three (average 6-8 page) papers and a straightforward final exam.
(Phil. 240.01, TR 9:35-10:50) Aesthetics
Instructor: Gregg Horowitz
In this class we will use four central questions to focus an investigation of modern aesthetic theories: What is taste? What is beauty? What is art? What is art for? Our aim is to explore how the capacity for taste develops, how beauty differs from other qualities of objects, what makes something a work of art, and why we value art. We will read works by major philosophers from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries who thought systematically about these matters: Hume, Kant, Schiller, Hegel, Nietzsche, and Freud. Finally, we will also try to understand why it is that thinkers of this period first put these questions in good enough shape that we can try to answer them. In other words, we will ask if there is something about the modern world that makes the fate of taste, beauty, and art a matter in special need of philosophical attention. No background in philosophy is required.
(Phil. 235.01, TR 1:10-2:25) Feminist Philosophy
Instructor: Diane Perpich
The primary aim of this course is to introduce students to major questions and theoretical divisions within contemporary feminist thought and to enable them better to understand and appreciate the diversity of feminist theory. Lecture and discussion will focus on identifying and distinguishing core positions such as liberal, Marxist-socialist, psychoanalytic, and post-structuralist feminism. However, we will be attentive to the way in which most of the feminists we read defy easy classification and to the ways in which all of them attempt to problematize their relationship to the mainstream (or "malestream") philosophies by which they are influenced. Through discussions and writing assignments, students will be encouraged to reflect on the relationship between theory and practice and to consider the role of feminist analysis in producing social change in a wide range of personal, professional, and political issues.
(Phil 222.01, TR 11:00-12:15) American Philosophy
Instructor: John Stuhr
This course surveys important perspectives, ideas, and theories in the writings of major American philosophers. The course will focus on pragmatism as developed in the work of Charles Peirce, William James, John Dewey, and George Herbert Mead, and will examine pragmatism in the context of classical American philosophy more generally. In addition, the course will examine the larger intellectual and cultural context of American thought through reference to earlier intellectual traditions (for example, puritans, American enlightenment figures, and transcendentalists) and writers often marginalized or ignored (for example, women writers, Native American oratory, and African American thinkers). Finally, the course will examine recent work on American thought and culture that draws on pragmatism. The course will include Informal lecture and as much discussion as class size permits. Course requirements will include class participation, quizzes, and a final individual project.
(Phil. 202.01, MWF 1:10-2:00) Formal Logic
Instructor: José Medina
This course focuses on the study of formal languages and techniques of formal reasoning. It covers both sentential logic and the predicate calculus. Basic concepts of modern formal logic will be applied to diverse areas. We will study symbolization, translation, proofs, arguments, truth tables, and derivations.
(Phil 115W.13, TR 11:00-12:15) "Ethics of Life and Death"
Instructor: Russell McIntire
Almost every medical decision has an ethical dimension, especially those that occur at the very edges of life itself. In this seminar we will focus on the cluster of medical ethical issues surrounding abortion, euthanasia, and physician-assisted suicide. As medical technology advances, our questions have dramatically changed from "Can we do this?" to "Should we do this?" As the social and political climate presses the public debates, it is increasingly important that the discussion of these emotionally charged issues be informed by the most carefully reasoned considerations we can make. Efforts will be made to assure that this seminar experience will provide an opportunity to explore important contributions to the conversation, to practice articulating arguments in support of difficult positions, and to strengthen argumentative discussion and writing skills.
(Phil.115.07, TR 2:35-3:50) Freshman Seminar: Ethics and the Profession
Instructor: Stuart G. Finder
This course is a philosophical investigation into common ethical issues facing professionals, their communities and those who receive their services. As such, two clusters of concerns associated with professions serve as the focus for the course: those addressing the general interplay between ethics and professions in general (for instance, the nature and scope of professional responsibility, the meaning of trust in professional-client relationships, and so on), and those more specifically focused on critical issues in individual professions such as engineering, law, medicine, and teaching.
(Phil 115W.01, TR 9:35-10:50) Freshman Seminar: Human Nature
Instructor: Diane Perpich
This course examines influential conceptions of human nature in the philosophical tradition from Plato to Sartre. Special attention will be paid to the way in which various boundaries are created between humanity and its 'others' (for example, animals or gods) and within and between different human groups (for example, different races, ethnicities, and genders).
(Phil 115, TR 1:10-2:25) Freshman Seminar: "Race and U.S. American Democracy"
Instructor: Lucius Outlaw (Jr.)
The objective of this seminar is to explore critically the founding principles, conditions, customs, habits, and practices that defined and gave shape and direction to the development of the United States of America as a purportedly "democratic" nation-state. Achieving democracy, 'with justice for all', has been compromised-and was at the Founding-by agendas for social, political, economic, and cultural orderings according to which power, in various forms, was to be gained and exercised predominantly, and to their advantage, by a particular racial group and its ethnic subgroups-"white" people-while curtailed or denied for persons of other racial and ethnic groups. We will work to enhance our understandings of what continues to be one of this country's most enduring and vexing challenges: how to achieve and maintain a stable and just "democratic" nation-state with a demographically dynamic population consisting of varying numbers of similar and different racial and ethnic groups. We will explore these matters through a historically informed reading of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, which will provide us with a particularly acute perspective on the U.S. American democratic republic as it was being developed during the first half of the 1800s and assess the legacies of those developmental efforts and consequences.
(Phil. 100W.07, TR 2:35-3:50) Intro to Philosophy
Instructor: Stephen Faison
What is time? Where is space? What do we refer to when we say "I"? We regularly use these terms, but what do they really mean? Are all events caused? If so, does this mean our will is not free? This course will address these and other interesting and fun metaphysical issues, and will feature readings from Augustine, Descartes, Locke, Hume and others.
(Phil. 100W. 06, TR 11:00-12:15) Intro to Philosophy
Instructor: Caleb Clanton
The aim of this course is to introduce students to philosophical thinking by examining and discussing a wide range of material stemming from Ancient Greek thought to 20th Centruy American thought. We will try to understand some of the more important questions with which major thinkers throughout the Western tradition have struggled. In doing so, we will attempt to adopt these questions as our own so as to take seriously their significance and relevance in our own lives today. How should we live? What is the meaning of life? What is knowledge and can we have it? Does God exist? So what? These are but a few of the sorts of questions we will take u throughout the semester. As this is "W" (writing intensive course), we will devote some class time to discussion of the writing process.
(Phil. 100.04, MWF 2:10-3:00) Intro to Philosophy
Instructor: C.J. Boyd
This section promises to be historical both in scope and in theme. While reading important traditional figures, we will focus not only on each philosopher's place in history, but also on their conceptions of and comportment toward history and the tradition in which they find themselves. In taking this historico-critical approach to the history of ideas, we will read each text both for its explicit as well as its latent content, dis-covering implicit politics in metaphysical positions, ethical commitments tied to aesthetic views, and, generally sussing out connections between the many areas of philosophical inquiry. A tentative list of the figures to be studied include: Nietzsche, Kant, Maimonides, Aristotle, and Dewey. This course is intended for the student eager for a challenging approach to standard philosophical issues, though no philosophical background is required.
(Phil 100.02, MWF 11:10-12:00) Intro to Philosophy
Instructor: Rachel Everett
Enter into the ongoing, long-running conversation of the ever-pressing and often strange questions that people seem to keep asking. An introduction to philosophy is an introduction to the great history of people pursuing wisdom and the good life.
