Fall 2007 Course Descriptions
Phil 100-02
MWF 11:10 - 12:00
Introduction to Philosophy
Johanna Matocha
CL 218
An examination of key texts in the history of philosophy with an emphasis on issues of social justice and politics. This class will deal with what we can know and how we know it, looking into the political ramifications of these traditional philosophical topics.
PHI 100.03
MWF 12:10-1:00
Introduction to Philosophy
M. E. Peter
This course introduces some common themes and concepts developed in western philosophy, such as the self, freedom, morals, knowledge, reality, religion, and society. Our reading list will consist of Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Mill, Dewey, as well as more contemporary thinkers. The aim is to make visible how we are in a sense already proto-philosophers, how we often use philosophical concepts without realizing it. The hope is to begin to be more aware of them, more aware of ourselves, in thinking through these ideas we live by.
The readings will be difficult but rewarding. The writing assignments will be demanding and will include journal entries, two papers, and occasional quizzes.
Phil 100.05
TR 11-12:15
Intro to Philosophy
Sarah Tyson
This class will be an introduction to reading, writing and discussing Western philosophy. There will be a variety of short readings from Descartes, Nietzsche, Aristotle, Mill, Plato, and Marilyn Frye, among others. We will use these texts to ask questions like: what is philosophy? who gets called a philosopher? how has philosophy been relevant? why take a philosophy class? is philosophy relevant today?
Grades will be based on 3 4-5 page papers, a few shorter writing assignments, reading assignments and attendance/participation.
Phil 100.01W
MWF 9:10-10:00
Introduction to Philosophy (Writing Intensive)
Matt Whitt
This class will introduce students to the excitement and discomfort that come from doing-and not simply learning about-philosophy. Together, we will explore the works of Plato, Descartes, Nietzsche, Marx, Arendt and others in order to develop an idea of what philosophy is and how it might relate to us. While exploring issues of justice, goodness, certainty and freedom, we will again and again question the relation between these abstract concepts and life as we live it. If, as has long been claimed, philosophy fails to engage everyday life, we may be able to interrogate this very failure in order to gain new perspectives on life. To do so would be to do a kind of philosophy that does in fact engage our lives.
PHIL 100W.03
Sarah Hansen
Introduction to Philosophy
MWF 1:10-2
This course is a writing intensive introduction to the history of Western philosophy, its development, major texts, themes and questions. We will read texts by Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hume, Nietzsche, Sartre, Beauvoir, DuBois and Foucault. Some major concerns we will address: What is philosophy? What is the relationship between the mind and the body? What is the relationship between philosophy and politics? How do we act ethically? What constitutes the "self"? What is happiness? Is philosophy relevant today?
Several objectives will guide our questioning: (1) to gain an understanding of major movements in philosophy and their historical/intellectual context. (2) to develop skills of argumentation and productive communication. (3) to assess the extent to which philosophical questions affect our everyday lives, on Vanderbilt's campus and beyond.
PHIL 100W.07
TR 2:35-3:50
Introduction to Philosophy (Writing Intensive)
Dom Eggert
In a rapidly advancing age in which monkeys can control robotic arms hundreds of miles away with thought alone, scientists have spawned sheep-human chimeras with 15% human DNA, and our fastest computers can outsmart the world's greatest chessmasters, questions of human identity take on a new poignancy. In this atypical introduction to the discipline of philosophy, we will explore the impact of science and technology on ideas of what it means to be human, by discussing an assortment of classical and contemporary readings. Topics likely to be included are:
the mind-body problem; happiness and the good life; the ethics of human enhancement; the possibility of strong artificial intelligence and machine consciousness; the political implications of exponential growth in genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics; and issues concerning race, gender, and sexuality.
Intro to Ethics (105)
MW 10:10-11:00, discussion sections variable
Jeffrey Tlumak
Our central goal will be to understand, evaluate, and apply especially influential ethical theories developed over the course of two-thousand-five-hundred years of Western philosophical thought, so as to prompt critical self-examination of our own ethical belief systems. Our most general, guiding questions will be: What sorts of persons ought we to be? Which goals are ultimately worth pursuing? What makes an action right or wrong? More specific (sometimes overlapping) questions include: What are the roles of reason and desire in morality? What is the relation between morality and religion? How important are intentions and consequences in assessing moral worth? How important is morality to living a meaningful, happy life? Who counts morally, and to what extent? Do any truths of morality follow from human nature? What is the status of rights and responsibilities? Are the values we are talking about subjective or objective? Course requirements: do the readings, attend most class sessions, take a mid-term and (non-cumulative) final exam, and write two short (average 5-6 page) papers. Sole required text: Ethics: History, Theory, and Contemporary Issues, edited by Steven M. Cahn and Peter Markie (Oxford, 2006).
Introduction to Medical Ethics
Philosophy 108
R. McIntire
Remarkable advances in medical technology, daring experimentation and research, changes in how health care is provided and the complexity of the institutions that train and support the practitioners of health care have outpaced and confused our ability even to isolate the relevant issues, much less articulate reasoned responses to them and generate fair and responsible policies to implement our best judgment. "Can we do this?" has given way to "Should we do this?" From the attending physician to the parent of a patient, to medical researcher and, even, to the Surgeon General, the question of what we ought to do in the medical context has become more persistent, more urgent and more complex. As the social and political climate presses the public debates on many fronts, it is increasingly important that the discussion of these emotionally charged issues be informed by the best information and the most carefully reasoned considerations we can offer. This course offers an opportunity to explore important contributions to the conversation, to map what we can of the landscape of medical and biomedical issues, to practice articulating arguments in support of difficult positions, and to strengthen argumentative and writing skills.
Philosophy 115F, Section 5
First-Year Writing Seminar
Green Cities
MWF 10:10 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
Jonathan E. Bremer, Ph.D. (Philosophy), M.U.R.P. (Urban Planning)
In this course, we will apply ethical theories to urban environmental issues. It has long been a prevalent view that cities are environmentally unsustainable or “unfriendly,” and historically, the modern urban planning movement originated from this perspective, committed as it was to ameliorate the overcrowded conditions and rampant disease characteristic of urban life in the nineteenth century. We will see, however, that some contemporary cities are environmentally sustainable in significant respects, and many other cities can and should be made to become that way. Making cities environmentally sustainable, further, is more than just planting trees, preserving green space, or establishing recycling programs. It is also about land use integration, participatory democracy, and social equity. To address these and related concerns, key topics for the course include interpretations of “nature” and “sustainability,” human settlement patterns, democracy, economic sustainability, sprawl, environmental justice, and the implementation of urban environmental principles. Some authors whose works we will read are Garrett Hardin, Ian McHarg, Kevin Lynch, Richard Sennett, Mike Davis, and Anne Whiston Spirn. This course integrates ethical theory and environmental urban planning, and students in the seminar will actively contribute to this exciting field by engaging in class discussion, organizing a group presentation, and writing three original essays.
PHIL 115
Jonathan Neufeld
Music, Self, and Society
TR: 9:35 - 10:50
In this seminar, we will investigate a number of philosophical questions about music and musical meaning with an ear toward contemporary music that students actually listen to. Philosophy and music share an uneasy and sometimes turbulent relationship. Plato fears music's effect on the balance of soul and society. Friedrich Nietzsche celebrates music as a check on an overreaching Reason and enervating morality. Theodor Adorno sees in some modern music, but no popular music, a glimmer of hope for freedom within an ever more tightly administered world. A number of contemporary philosophers, following 19th century music critic Eduard Hanslick, argue that music itself does not really mean anything at all. What, if anything, can music tell us about ourselves and about our society? Are all of these questions simply mistakes resting on an over-intellectualized notion of what music is? No special knowledge of music is required, but we will do some listening that will be partially determined by the class's interests.
PHIL 115F-15
First Year Seminar
Limits of the Human in Philosophy and Film
Professor Kelly Oliver
TR 2:35-3:50
We will examine the limits of what counts as human in relation to both animals and machines in philosophy and film. Within the history of philosophy, we will take up the following questions: What is the relation of human beings to other animals? What are our ethical obligations to them? What does the study of animals tell us about ourselves? Can we imagine a machine, computer or robot that could be considered a person? What criteria would such a machine have to meet? Could we have ethical obligations to robots or androids? How do we define ourselves as human against both animals and machines? The use of films will make vivid these philosophical questions.
Honors Seminar: Phil 181
Understanding Other Cultures
Jose Medina
What are the problems and obstacles that we face in understanding other cultures? In our multicultural society and in the globalized world of the 21st century it has become crucial to determine how different cultures can understand each other and engage in a dialogue that makes possible not only their peaceful coexistence, but also their rich life in common. In this seminar we will study the conditions of possibility of intercultural dialogue, and we will examine how to identify and repair possible distortions in the understanding of one culture from the perspective of another. We will read philosophers and social scientists with conflicting views about the best way to achieve intercultural understanding. We will read texts in Multiculturalism, Post-Colonial Theory, and the debate between Universalism and Relativism.
Phil 202.01
MWF 1:10-2:00
Formal Logic and Applications
Robert Talisse
A standard course in formal logic. We begin with the basics (validity and soundness, truth functions, truth tables, tests for various logical properties) and progress to derivations in sentence and predicate logic. Along the way, we confront a range of philosophical issues and problems occasioned by formal logic.
PHIL 210
MWF 11:10-12:00
Ancient Philosophy
Elizabeth Jelinek
A fascinating development in philosophy took place in ancient Greece about 2600 years ago. Instead of using mythology to explain phenomena, the Greeks attempted to use human reason to understand the world around them. It is this change in methodology that marks the beginning of the Western philosophical tradition. Though the Greeks were not the only culture undergoing a philosophical transformation, this course focuses exclusively on the birth of philosophy in ancient Greece. We will survey the major works of the Pre-Socratics, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Our investigation will include an examination of Greek philosophers' answers to questions such as, "How do we acquire knowledge?" "What is justice?" "What is happiness?" "How did the world begin?" and "What is the relationship between humans and the universe?" For more advanced topics, we will refer to contemporary authors such as McKirihan, Vlastos, Reeve, Lear, and Bostock.
PHIL 222
American Philosophy
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 most fully 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 culture that draws on pragmatism. The course aims to provide an understanding of American philosophical traditions, the relation of American philosophy to the history of philosophy more generally, and the connection between American philosophy and American culture. In addition, and at least as importantly, the course seeks to provide an opportunity for students to reflect on the value and viability of American philosophy, especially pragmatism, in light of contemporary cultural issues. The course format is informal lecture and as much discussion as class size permits. Course requirements include short analytical papers on reading questions and a final project.
Phil 226
Phenomenology
Lisa Guenther
Phenomenology is the study of how objects appear to consciousness. By temporarily bracketing out certain concerns (such as "Does this object exist? Is it real?") the phenomenologist seeks to uncover the basic structures of experience. The aim of this exercise is not to remain at a level of abstraction, but to return with greater clarity to concrete lived experience. In Husserl's words, the orientation of phenomenology
is: "To the things themselves!" In this course, we will study the basic concepts and methods of phenomenology, such as intentionality, horizon, and the phenomenological reduction. We will also study the way readers of Husserl, such as Merleau-Ponty and Levinas, have dealt with some of the questions raised by phenomenological analysis. For example: What role does the body play in experience? How do history and culture affect the way one experiences the world? And how does one experience another consciousness without either reducing the other to an object or presuming direct access to the other's subjectivity?
Required Texts:
Edmund Husserl. Cartesian Meditations: An Introduction to Phenomenology. Trans. Dorion Cairns. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1999.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Basic Writings. Ed. Thomas Baldwin. Evanston, IL: Northwestern UP, 2004.
Additional required texts will be photocopied and distributed in class.
Phil 235
Gender and Sexuality
Lisa Guenther
This course looks at different ways of seeing - and overlooking - the sexed, gendered and racialized body. We begin by examining different theories of how gendered identities are constructed in a situation of patriarchy. Since the earliest days of feminist philosophy, many writers have argued that femininity is not a natural consequence of being born female, but an artificial and damaging social construct.
While many contemporary feminists build on this claim in different ways, some have also challenged it from different directions. For example:
Does femininity have the same meaning in different racial and economic contexts? Is femininity always oppressive? Isn't masculinity just as artificial as femininity? Is it true that sex is purely biological and gender purely social, or could it be that our categories of sex are also socially constructed to some extent? In response to questions such as these, we will examine recent feminist approaches to sex, gender, race and sexuality. In particular, we will explore the feminist challenge to binary oppositions between mind and body, nature and culture, reason and emotion, in an effort to think through sexual difference non-hierarchically.
PHIL 240
Aesthetics
Johnathan Neufeld
TR: 1:10-2:25
The leading accounts of the nature of art, the character of aesthetic experience, and the nature of artistic creation. The course will focus on the emergence of the emergence and development concepts of aesthetics and artistic autonomy in the 18th and 19th centuries. We will look at texts from Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, Hume, Burke, Kant, Schiller, Hegel, Schopenhauer, and Niezsche.
Phil 244
MWF 2:10-3:00
Philosophy and the Natural Sciences
Elizabeth Jelinek
What is science? A non-expert's answer may be: Science is a discipline which endeavors to seek truth about natural phenomena through experimentation. But Shakespeare's three witches experimented with frogs' toes and rat tails, and sought the truth from the images cast in their boiling cauldron, and yet we certainly do not consider them to be scientists. What, then, distinguishes science from pseudo-science? This course will focus on the classic issues in the philosophy of science that this question has inspired. We will address topics such as the Demarcation Problem and the Grue Paradox, and then move on to more advanced issues, such as the nature of scientific explanation, the confirmation of scientific theories, theories of truth, and the distinction between science and metaphysics. Finally, we will investigate some recent debates in philosophy of science today, such as the controversy concerning teleological language in biology. Authors include Russell, Hempel, Carnap, Putnam, Popper, Kuhn, van Fraasen, Kitcher, Rosenberg, and Cartwright.
PHIL 246
Philosophy of Mind
Jose Medina
This course is a survey of central problems in the philosophy of mind: the relationship between mind and body, the nature of consciousness, the problem of other minds, the status of self-knowledge, and the possibility of artificial intelligence. Especial attention will be given to the complex relationship between personal identity, consciousness, and the unconscious. We will read both historical figures and contemporary authors. We will also consider philosophical assessments of psychological research on mental illness and personality disorders.
Phil 252.01
MWF 12:10-1:00
Social and Political Philosophy
Robert Talisse
An examination of central issues and arguments in contemporary political theory concerning justice, liberty, rights, autonomy, pluralism, political justification, democracy, conflicts between individuals and collectivities, and the nature and scope of political authority.
Phil. 254
Philosophy of Law
TR 9:35-10:50
Kevin Davis
This course will address central problems in contemporary philosophy of law, including the nature of law, law’s relation to morality, theories of adjudication, and the conditions for holding people responsible under the law. We will consider debates over whether law must be justified by moral principles, how society should respond to violations of law, and the nature of reasoning used by judges when interpreting laws and deciding legal disputes.
We will also look at some particular issues in American law that reflect conflicts in beliefs about the purposes of law, including the appropriate scope of the freedom of expression, the nature of legal due process, and the meaning of equal protection under law.
The course format will be primarily discussion; we will use a variety of activities to talk about the readings, including some in-class presentations and debates.
Philosophy 301
John Stuhr
This seminar is intended for, required of, and limited to all first-year philosophy graduate students (and, in 2006 only, all second-year philosophy graduate students). The course seeks to provide students with an opportunity to: reflect on and develop academic research, reading, and writing skills; plan a successful personal program of graduate study, professional placement, and professional advancement; and critically consider multiple aspects and styles of successful teaching. The course will draw on brief contemporary readings, presentations by several philosophy professors, and campus centers and resources for research, teaching, and grants and fellowships. This course will function as a seminar. Most class meetings will include both informal presentations and substantial discussion. Students are expected to participate actively and fully in all class meetings. Requirements include preparation for, attendance at, and participation in all seminar meetings and several brief writing assignments drawn from readings, discussions, and other on-campus events.
Psychoanalysis
Phil 352.01: Graduate Seminar
Kelly Oliver
Mondays 3:10-5:00
This course will introduce some of the major concepts and contributions to psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, and Julia Kristeva. Specifically we will focus on their accounts of the origins of civilization or the social. In some cases, this entails tracing parallels between individual and group identity, subjectivity, and the acquisition of language. In addition, our exploration of their works will revolve around their use of animal examples and metaphors to explain the human psyche. Psychoanalytic concepts we will discuss include: Neurosis, Phobia, Dream Interpretation, Oedipal Complex, Perversion, The Unconscious, Desire, Ego, Drives, Symbolic-Imaginary-Real, Castration, Symbolic-Semiotic, and Abjection, among others.
Readings will include: Freud’s Totem and Taboo, The Interpretation of Dreams; selections from Lacan’s Écrits; and Kristeva’s Powers of Horror, among others.
David Wood and others*
Values and the Environment:
Theoretical Perspectives & Transformational Practice
Phil 352.02
T 6:30-8:30
Environmental issues, in particular those associated with climate change, are a central ethical challenge of our generation. This graduate course explores intersections between values and practice in relation to technology, social norms, political economy, and possibilities for cultural transformation. This course arises from the work of the Ecology and Spirituality research group of the Center for the Study of Religion & Culture, a group of faculty from a wide array of disciplines who have been collaborating intensely for over two years. This interdisciplinary course is open to students from any discipline. In coordination with this course there will be a program of visiting speakers and an environmental film series. For especially serious students we offer in addition a mentoring program and a Summer 2008 fellowship program. Advanced undergraduates may petition to take this course.
TOPICS INCLUDE: Dimensions of global climate change, Environmental ethics, fundamental theoretical orientations (individualism, anthropocentrism, ecocentrism, holism, ecofeminism, animal rights, deep ecology), religious perspectives, patterns of consumption & sustainability, social and global justice, political ecology, law and economics, limits of free-market environmentalism, prospects for radical transformation (technological solutions, norm activation, social activism, lifestyle change and community design, international cooperation, utopian visions).
*With contributing faculty from the CSRC’s Eco-Spirituality Research Group: Beth Conklin (Anthropology), Richard King (Religious Studies), Florence Faucher-King (Sociology), Mike Vandenbergh (Law), Jonathan Gilligan (Earth & Environmental Sciences), Brooke Ackerly (Political Science), Gay Welch (Religious Studies).
David Wood
HEIDEGGER: BEING AND TIME
Phil 353.01
M 6:10-8.00
This seminar focuses on Heidegger’s 1926 classic: Being and Time. We will engage in a close reading of selected parts of the book, together with a discussion of some of its most important critics such as Derrida, Levinas, Nancy, Irigaray, Habermas, and Dreyfus.
Phil 353.02
Figures in Philosophy: Nietzsche
Charles Scott
A study of Nietsche's thought in The Birth of Tragedy, Beyond Good and Evil, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and On the Genealogy of Morals.
Philosophy 353.03
Figures in Philosophy: Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason
Wednesdays, 3:10-5:00
Jeffrey Tlumak
A careful reading and discussion of Kant’s masterwork, organized around a few pivotal goals such as understanding and evaluating the crucial arguments for and implications of transcendental idealism. Our only required text will be the first Critique, but I also will discuss Kant’s overall critical project, for example, by discussing how Kant’s practical philosophy relates to the first Critique’s account of theoretical cognition. After painstaking review, I still prefer the Kemp Smith (Palgrave-Macmillan) translation, so will order that edition through the bookstore. But I welcome your use of either the Wood-Guyer (Cambridge) edition (which admittedly is increasingly becoming the translation referenced by contemporary scholars) or the Pluhar (Hackett) edition in addition or instead. Indeed, occasionally it will be philosophically valuable to worry about translational disagreements.
Philosophy 353.05
Aristotle Seminar
L. E. Goodman
Study of the chief works of Aristotle, including the Nicomachean Ethics, Physics, Metaphysics, De Anima, Organon, Politics, Rhetoric, & Poetics. The main goal of the seminar is a comfortable facility with Aristotle’s core theses and arguments, allowing students to situate themselves philosophically, critically and creatively, in relation to his ideas. Seminar participants offer oral presentations and a seminar paper that interprets, analyzes, and critiques Aristotle’s approach to a chosen problem, and defends a thesis of the writer's own about how that issue might be addressed.
This year’s secondary sources:
David Charles and Michael Frede, Aristotle’s Metaphysics Lambda (Oxford U.P., 2000)
Amelie Rorty, Essays on Aristotle’s Poetics (Princeton University Press)
Martha Nussbaum & Amelie Rorty, Essays on Aristotle’s De Anima (Oxford U.P.,1996)
Goodman and Talisse, Aristotle’s Politics Today (SUNY Press, 2007)
Eugene Garver, Confronting Aristotle’s Ethics (University of Chicago Press)
Robert Mayhew, The Female in Aristotle’s Biology (University of Chicago Press, 2004)
