Spring 2022

NOTE: This data is offered for your convenience only. The schedule data is updated regularly and may not reflect recent changes to the Schedule of Classes. For full, up-to-date course information please visit the Office of the Registrar's website. Thank you.

1115 - Introduction to Philosophy

1115.001

Instructor: Robert McKinley
Time/s: MWF 12:00-12:50

Philosophy is often said to begin from a sense of wonder or amazement that leads us to ask questions about the world and ourselves. But it doesn't end there, since philosophers then try to articulate and defend reasonable answers to these questions in critical dialogue with others. While most of us feel this wonder or ask these questions spontaneously, few take the time and effort to work out the answers for ourselves in an intellectually satisfying way. This class will give you practice with just that.  We will take an historical approach, following the broad trajectory of Western philosophy from the pre-Socratics to 20th century thinkers, with some consideration of the Indian philosophical tradition as well. Our questions will be largely metaphysical (what is the nature of reality? what is the nature of myself?) and ethical (what kinds of things are worth pursuing in life? how should I act?). Assessment will be through class participation, reading responses, and papers. Students should come away from this course with a general understanding of (some of) the history of philosophy and enhanced skills for reading and evaluating philosophical texts as well as composing philosophical arguments of their own.

1115.002

Instructor: Jason Barton
Time/s: MWF 11:00-11:50

In this course, students will be introduced to philosophy (i.e., “love of wisdom”) through the medium of the philosophy of religion. No prior familiarity with philosophy, religion, or the philosophy of religion will be assumed. Such a staging ground offers multiple angles of philosophical analysis: epistemology, ontology/metaphysics, ethics, logic, and so on. Students will encounter the following questions (and many more): Does God/do gods exist? Is it even possible to comprehend divine entities with our all-too-human concepts? How does God/do gods engage in revelation (if at all)? What does it mean to believe in God/gods? Drawing from different religious traditions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism, will enable students to investigate and interrogate the aforementioned questions from a variety of standpoints. Students should expect to purchase a textbook containing key readings (“Readings in the Philosophy of Religion: 3rd edition” edited by Kelly James Clark); however, all other texts will be made available to students at no cost.   

1115.003

Instructor: Cara Greene
Time/s: ARR

Philosophy comes from the Greek word philosophia, which means, “love of wisdom.” Accordingly, philosophy is a diverse field of study that explores and celebrates different ways of thinking about things like knowledge, ethics, logic, aesthetics, religion, and politics, among many others. Yet, you cannot have “love of wisdom” without having a lover of wisdom, or a thing that loves wisdom. Who is this “thing” that is capable of finding, acquiring, and loving wisdom? In this Introduction to Philosophy class, you will encounter a broad range of philosophical perspectives on the topic of human subjectivity. We will confront and attempt to answer questions like: What is the difference between the soul and the body? Is the soul composed of parts, or is the soul a unified thing? What divides the human from the natural world? What is the relationship between an individual and collective society? To tackle these questions, we will begin in the ancient world, reading selections from the work of Plato, Aristotle and Nagasena. Next, we will move to the modern era, reading selections from Descartes, Spinoza and Hume. Finally, we will transition to the 19th and 20th centuries, reading selections from Hegel, Marx, Freud and Fanon.  Course assignments will consist of weekly readings, discussions, 5 reading responses, 2 short papers, a midterm exam, and a final paper.

1115.004

Instructor: Michael Candelaria
Time/s: ARR

***First Half Term***

This course is an introduction to philosophy. We will survey the fundamental areas of philosophy including the following: philosophy of religion, ethics, freedom of the will, personal identity, and philosophy of mind. Our focus will be on arguments, their analysis and evaluation. Our approach will also be a historical one. We will begin with Greek philosophy, Plato and Aristotle, then we will consider medieval philosophy, Augustine, Anselm, and Aquinas. Turning out attention to modern philosophy we will examine Descartes, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. We will discuss nineteenth century philosophy in Marx, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche. An examination of twentieth and twenty first century philosophy will round out the course.

1115.005

Instructor: Zaccharia Turnbull
Time/s: TR 9:30-10:45

TBA

1115.006

Instructor: Justin Pearce
Time/s: TR 11:00-12:15

Most, if not all of us, have spent time in our lives asking philosophical questions: Are you and I seeing the same blue when we look at the sky? What is the meaning of life? What does it mean to be a good person? While many people view these philosophical questions as just pointless musings which don't really have any answer beyond one's opinion, in this course, we will take seriously the idea that philosophy relies on rigorous, well-reasoned arguments. The goal of this course is not to answer all our philosophical questions once and for all. The goal is simply to engage with some of the important philosophers of the past in order to determine what philosophy is, how we do it, and why we ought to do it at all. We're all born as philosophers who repeatedly ask our parents "Why?" over and over until we are met with the frustrated "Because I said so!" Throughout the rest of our lives, we are often told by other authorities "this is simply the way things have to be" or "it's just common sense." Our goal is to revive that child-like wonder and questioning - philosophy is about giving actual reasons where others simply want to appeal to authority or say "it's just obvious."  

We will begin with ancient philosophy and continue all the way to the 21st century, picking out a variety of important texts throughout history. All readings will be available on Learn. Grades will primarily be determined by argumentative papers and reading responses.  

1120 - Logic, Reasoning, and Critical Thinking

1120.001

Instructor: Tal Ben Itzhak
Time/s: MWF 9:00-9:50

This class aims at developing your skills in writing, argumentation, argument analysis, reasoning, and critical thinking. We will study the structures of argumentative texts and of different types of arguments (deduction and induction, descriptive vs normative arguments, etc.) as well as the elements of meaning and language that convey those arguments. We will also consider what constitutes a flawed argument, or logical fallacy. Throughout the class, we will practice our skills at spotting and analyzing arguments by reading texts on philosophical and ethical themes. Students will also practice their own argumentative skills by writing short essays in response to some of these texts. The logical and analytical tools acquired in this class will be highly useful to students in their future coursework by enabling them to read and analyze material efficiently and to write strong and well-structured papers. 

Required text: Critical Thinking, An Introduction to the Basic Skills (7th Edition), by William Hughes, Jonathan Lavery, Katheryn Doran (Broadview Press). (ISBN-13: 978-1554811977 ISBN-10: 155481197X)

1120.002

Instructor: Sanghyeon Kim
Time/s: MWF 12:00-12:50

This course aims to help you improve your critical thinking ability by understanding basic concepts of informal logic and applying them to your reading and writing tasks. As a result, this course will provide you with some academic skills that you may need for your future study. 

For this, you will primarily learn some essential concepts and tools for critical thinking and argument analysis in the first half of the course. Specifically, this course will mainly focus on the concepts of argument, language, various kinds of arguments, and fallacies that lead to undermining arguments. The second half of the course is designed to apply your conceptual understandings to analyzing and assessing others’ arguments and making your own. In doing so, you will finally write your paper on a specific topic. For this project, we will read some philosophical writings in class.

1120.004

Instructor: Klara Hedling
Time/s: TR 2:00-3:15

Logic, Reasoning and Critical Thinking is a course that will teach the skills of writing, argumentation, argument analysis, reasoning, and critical thinking. The first half of the course will cover how to identify and assess arguments, by introducing students to deduction, induction, validity, soundness, strength, and fallacy, among others. The second half of the course will apply the skills learned in the first part of the course through critical engagement with selected texts. We will explore various philosophical topics such as the problems of knowledge, personal identity, free will, mind and body relation et cetera. Classes will consist of lecture, discussion, and group work. Assignments will include readings, exams, presentations, a short paper, and a final paper.

1120.005

Instructor: Kedar Patwary
Time/s: TR 12:30-1:45

In what we say is “true” of the world, very little can be established by sense experience. The bodies of knowledge that we as members of the university produce, value, and utilize depend for the most part on our ability to reason. Further, the history of thinking about the world starting from ancient times has been fraught with reasoning which was later recognized to be faulty. This recognition of what constitutes bad reasoning and consequently good reasoning has itself evolved over millennia into a body of knowledge which we will undertake to study in this course. This will primarily aid us in not repeating similar mistakes when we argue for a certain position in our respective domains and therefore be in a position to construct strong arguments. Readings for this course will be drawn from both Western and Indian philosophical traditions. Assignments will include readings, one mid-semester exam, short papers, and a final paper. 

1120.006

Instructor: Capucine Mercier
Time/s: TR 11:00-12:15

This class will help you develop your ability to identify and criticize unsound arguments, to understand and criticize sound arguments and to create your own solid arguments. More generally, it will develop your skills in writing, argumentation, reasoning, and critical thinking.

We will study different types of arguments (deductive, inductive and moral arguments) as well as the elements of meaning and language that convey those arguments. We will also consider what constitutes a flawed argument, or logical fallacy. Throughout the class, we will practice our skills at spotting and analyzing arguments by reading texts on philosophical and ethical themes including feminism, death, epistemology, the nature of morality, animal rights and environmental ethics.

The logical and analytical tools acquired in this class will be highly useful to students in their future coursework by enabling them to read and analyze material efficiently and to write strong and well-structured papers. 

Required text: Critical Thinking, An Introduction to the Basic Skills (7th Edition), by William Hughes, Jonathan Lavery, Katheryn Doran (Broadview Press). (ISBN-13: 978-1554811977 ISBN-10: 155481197X)

1120.007

Instructor: Jack Swick
Time/s: TR 9:30-10:45

In this course we will develop skills in argumentation, critical thinking, and reasoning. The first part of the course will cover how to analyze and assess arguments by studying the elements of argumentation: deduction, induction, validity, soundness, and more. The second part of the course will focus on applying what we learned in the first part to an assortment of texts and other media. We will critically engage with materials from a variety of topics and traditions.

The argumentative and analytical skills gained in this class will be highly useful for students in their future classes and beyond.

Required materials:Critical Thinking, An Introduction to the Basic Skills (7th Edition), by William Hughes, Jonathan Lavery, Katheryn Doran (Broadview Press). (ISBN-13: 978-1554811977 ISBN-10: 155481197X) Due to how expensive this textbook is, I recommend renting or getting a used copy.Handouts and essays posted on Learn.

1120.009

Instructor: Brian Gatsch
Time/s: ARR

How can you tell if an argument makes sense? What separates a good argument from a bad one? In this online course, students will learn the skills necessary to construct, analyze, and critically assess arguments.  Beginning with the basic principles of reason and logic, students will acquire the abilities necessary to extract arguments from philosophical texts, evaluate the strength of these arguments, and craft written responses to them.  We will also be analyzing classic philosophical texts that have profoundly influenced the structure and development of Western civilization.

Required text:  

Critical Thinking, An Introduction to the Basic Skills (7th Edition), by William Hughes, Jonathan Lavery, Katheryn Doran (Broadview Press). ( ISBN-13: 978-1554811977 ISBN-10: 155481197X) 

1120.010

Instructor: Lisa Gerber
Time/s: ARR

***Second Half Course***

Most intellectual endeavors involve argumentation. From short letters to the editor to complex philosophical essays, from everyday discussions to legal debates, arguments are constantly created and invoked to support or criticize points of view. The purpose of the course is to help you learn how to argue well so that you can analyze, critique, and construct arguments. 

The course material is organized into two sections. In the first section, we will do an introductory survey of important logical concepts and tools that are needed for analyzing arguments. The second section is an in-depth examination of philosophical issues surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic. In the face of this pandemic, we will see the importance of evaluating sources and authority, rooting out conspiracy theories, and creating strong arguments about the issues arising from this pandemic. These include evaluation of ongoing scientific research, mistakes in reasoning, and moral arguments such as how vaccines should be equitably distributed. 

Required texts: 

  1. Strunk and White, Elements of Style 
  2. Weston, A Handbook for Arguments 
  3. Handouts and Essays posted on Learn

2140 - Professional Ethics

2140.001

Instructor: Brian Gatsch
Time/s: ARR

This online course focuses on some of the ethical issues that arise in the context of professional life.  Beginning with an overview of three major ethical theories, we will consider how these theories, which traditionally concern personal morality, apply to life in a professional setting.  We will also examine the roles and obligations associated with professional life. What is the relationship between personal and professional codes of conduct? What distinguishes professions from other occupations?  Through the lens of various professions, we will look at issues such as lying and truth-telling, whistleblowing, confidentiality, and the obligations of professionals toward the public.  Using a combination of readings, case studies, and online discussion groups, we will explore these ideas in a philosophical manner, looking to understand the ethical principles at work.  This course will give students a solid introduction to ethical reasoning and will help to develop the tools necessary to apply ethical principles to real-world settings. 

Required text: 

Ethics Across the Professions: A Reader for Professional Ethics, 2nd ed, Clancy Martin, Wayne Vaught, and Robert C. Solomon, editors. OUP. (ISBN-13: 978-0190298708/ISBN-10: 0190298707) 

2210 - Early Modern Philosophy

2210.002

Instructor: Michael Candelaria
Time/s: TR 12:30-1:45

This course is a study of philosophy between 1600 and 1894, we will examine critical texts in Descartes, Leibniz, Spinoza, Locke, Berkeley, Hume and Kant. We will examine their theories of knowledge and being as expressed in rationalism and empiricism. We will analyze and evaluate their arguments and consider the consequences of their ideas for contemporary thought.

2210.003

Instructor: Penelope Haulotte
Time/s: ARR

Early modern philosophy is typically defined as the European philosophical tradition spanning from René Descartes to Immanuel Kant. This period is defined in part by the emergence of experimental and mathematical sciences developed in part by figures such as Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Bacon and Newton. These scientific discoveries implied a revolutionary overturning of religious orthodoxy throughout Europe, which in turn called for philosophical reflection: What of old religious beliefs can be maintained in the face of the successes of the natural sciences? Is there such a thing as a soul? How is the concept of a soul related to personal identity? Is knowledge possible, and if so, what are its limitations? What is the ultimate nature of reality? Does God exist? Do I exist? These questions were raised and addressed by a series of philosophers we will examine in this course: Montaigne, Bacon, Galileo, Descartes, Princess Elisabeth, Amo, Spinoza, Leibniz, du Châtelet, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. Throughout our readings we will address questions related to epistemology (the study of knowledge), metaphysics (the study of ultimate reality), and philosophy of mind. While one of the goals of the course will be to respect the historical circumstances of the authors in question, another aim is to show that the concerns of this period of philosophers remains relevant today.This class is graded via weekly discussion posts, a midterm, and a final paper. Regular participation is mandatory.

The only required text is Roger Ariew and Eric Watkins (eds.), Modern Philosophy: An Anthology of Primary Sources (third edition), Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2019, ISBN-13: 978-1624668050.  It is important to have the third edition. All other readings will be made available on Learn

2220 - Greek Philosophy

2220.001

Instructor: Paul Livingston
Time/s: MWF 10:00-10:50

Philosophy in the western tradition begins with the ancient Greeks and there is no better introduction to philosophy than to study their thought and writing. In this course, we will attempt to develop an original path of questioning in critical dialogue with the Greeks, with the aim of locating ourselves and the problems of contemporary life more centrally within the problematics that they already pursued.  Issues to be discussed include, among others: the nature of thought, reason and the soul; the structure of time and space; language, meaning, and truth; being, change and becoming; ethics and the good; democracy, equality, and social transformation; life and death.   Readings are from various Pre-Socratic philosophers, Plato, Aristotle, and Plotinus. Course requirements: weekly short reading responses, three short tests (in class), and final examination.

2220.002

Instructor: Carolyn Thomas
Time/s: ARR

This completely online course is an introduction to the ancient Greek beginnings of philosophy in the western tradition. We’ll read the ancient Greek philosophers themselves—several Pre-Socratics, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and several Stoics—and engage their fundamental questions and concerns, which today can still touch and interest every person. These questions include: What are nature and reality? What is a good life? What are being, becoming, and change? What are reason, language, truth, and knowing? What are love and friendship? What is education? And, what is philosophy itself?

Required weekly work includes readings, written discussion posts, and reading quizzes. Additional required semester work includes a midterm exam and a final exam. Coursework is due at the end of each week, at midnight on Sunday nights. You must have reliable Internet access, but no other special equipment is required

2225 - Greek Thought

2225.002

Instructor: Joachim Oberst
Time/s: TR 12:30-1:45

TBA

334 - Indian Philosophy

334.001

Instructor: Pierre-Julien Harter
Time/s: TR 12:30-1:45

This course is a course in philosophy and does not require prior acquaintance of South Asian culture. Students will be introduced to the cultural, historical, and religious background necessary to understand primary texts dating from 500 BCE to the 20th century. Our goal will be to get a general survey of some of the issues, debates, schools, authors, and famous texts that make up the 2,500 year-long, rich history of Indian philosophy. The course will privilege introducing students to the diversity of schools of thought, positions, and literary forms of Indian philosophy to approach the kinds of questions that preoccupied Indian philosophers and to get a sense of the procedures they used to provide answers. We will read texts from the Brahmanical (“Hindu”) traditions as well as the Buddhist, Jain, and “secularist” philosophers. We will proceed thematically rather than chronologically by addressing ontological questions (“realists” vs. “non-realists”), epistemological questions (the “means of knowing”), ethical questions (non-violence, action, and personal transformation). We will reserve the very end of the course to read some 20th century philosophers, such as K.C. Bhattacharyya and Ambedkar, so as to showcase the vitality of Indian philosophy. The course will articulate a historical with a critical approach, in other words, we will wonder whether the issues discussed by Indian philosophers can still be ours to be concerned about and we will try to evaluate the truth-value of their ideas and arguments. Students should expect to write short response papers and short essays during the semester. A final exam will offer the opportunity to review the materials read throughout the semester.

341 - T: Existential Thought

341.001

Instructor: Joachim Oberst
Time/s: TR 3:30-4:45

TBA

354 - Metaphysics

354.001

Instructor: Brent Kalar
Time/s: MWF 11:00-11:50

Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the nature of “being” or “reality” in the most general sense. Traditionally, it has been regarded as central to the discipline of philosophy, or even as philosophy itself. Further, it is notoriously challenging intellectually. Accordingly, students in this course should expect to work hard and struggle with some very difficult reading. The payoff, however, is proportionally great: a significant sharpening and deepening of the mind and a more profound understanding of its fundamental questions. This course will introduce students to the subject through a sequential examination of four key “moments” in the history of Western metaphysics. We will begin with the work that gave the subject its name, Aristotle’s Metaphysics. In this work, Aristotle establishes a “science of being qua being,” and sets the terms of the tradition in his focus on what became known as “substance.” Then we will turn to the true heart of the metaphysical tradition, Scholasticism. From the 12th to the 16th centuries, philosophers like Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus, and Francisco Suarez established a rich discourse of systematic metaphysics based on Aristotle. We will look at the overall structure of this discourse through a contemporary introduction to it. Next, we will turn to the arguable high point of early modern metaphysics, the system of Baruch Spinoza’s Ethics. Spinoza is notable for his turning of scholastic categories into a form of monism with a strong naturalistic tendency. Finally, we will look at the fate of metaphysics in the twentieth century through the recasting of the question of being qua being in the Existentialism of Martin Heidegger. Grading will be based upon discussion participation (15%), two short essays (worth 20% each), and a writing-intensive take-home final exam (45%).

356 - Symbolic Logic

356.001

Instructor: Kelly Becker
Time/s: MTWR 2:00-3:40

***Second Half Course***

One great thing about the human mind is its ability to draw inferences.  Better still is to do this well.  In this course, you will learn two new languages developed to clarify the notion of logical entailment, which will help you understand the nature of valid inference.  The course is good preparation for further work in logic or mathematics, but you can also take the tools you will acquire into any academic or professional discipline that requires clarity of thought.  No prerequisites.  Grades based on quizzes, homework, and exams.  Text: Bergmann, Moor, and Nelson, The Logic Book 6/e (McGraw-Hill).  Consider renting the book.  It’s one of the best available, but the most recent addition has a significant number of typos and is quite expensive.

358 - Ethical Theory

358.001

Instructor: Brent Kalar
Time/s: MWF 10:00-10:50

Ethical theory (also called “moral philosophy”) concerns the nature of the human good and right action, human excellence, what makes a human life worthwhile, the structure of practical reasoning, and the basis of moral evaluation and moral obligations. We will examine select highlights from the Western tradition of theorizing about such issues, from early reflections in ancient Athens to the 21st century Anglo-American academic context. We will open with the proven gold standard of works of ethical theory, Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle develops a theory of ethics as a branch of the “political” (i.e., civic) life, centered on the practice of moral and intellectual virtue, and aiming at a condition of human flourishing known as “eudaimonia” in Greek (happiness, well-being). Next, we will examine the grand Medieval synthesis of Greek philosophy and Judeo-Christian theology in the “natural law theory” of St. Thomas Aquinas – the ethical theory that has more than any other underwritten traditional ethics in the West. We will see how the ancient and Medieval ethical paradigms focused on the fulfillment of human nature through the achievement of the virtues. Since the 18th century, however, this traditional ethical focus has been continually challenged by the two dominant modern ethical theories, most widely-known as “deontology” and “consequentialism.” Both of these, in contrast to the earlier theories, emphasize adhering to universal moral requirements as the core of the ethical life. First, we will examine the leading deontological theory, the ethical constructivism of Immanuel Kant. Kant attempts to show how universal moral requirements can be generated from an analysis of the form of rational agency. We then will take a look at the seminal statement of the most influential mode of consequentialism, J. S. Mill’s utilitarianism. Mill sees universal moral requirements as based in the natural desirability of pleasure. Finally, we will end our survey with a recently-published work by one of the greatest contemporary moral philosophers, Alasdair MacIntyre, who criticizes what he perceives as the inadequacies of modern ethical theories, and attempts to reconstruct a Thomistic-Aristotelianism for our own (late-capitalist) era. Grading will be based upon discussion participation (15%), two short essays (worth 20% each), and a writing-intensive take-home final exam (45%).

372 - Modern Social and Political Philosophy

372.001

Instructor: Carolyn Thomas
Time/s: TR 3:30-4:45

Are you trying to make sense of our contemporary political situation? For example, what makes a “conservative” conservative, a “liberal” liberal,  a “Marxist” Marxist, a “totalitarian” totalizing, a "state" a state?  And how we human beings can—and should—best live together, given our human nature, needs, interdependence, and individuality? And whether the contemporary it matters if democracy is in peril? If so, modern social and political philosophy can be helpful.

PHIL 372 aims for students to gain understanding of modern, continental European and American political philosophy and social thought, beginning with Hobbes and continuing through Locke, Rousseau, Mill, Tocqueville, The Federalist, Marx, Nietzsche, Arendt, Fanon, Rawls, and recent socio-political thinkers such as Baudrillard, Agamben, and Zizek. The course also aims to give us insight into the political structures, institutions, rights, duties, and forces that underly and influence our contemporary American and global political situation. We will study and discuss such questions as: What is the ’social contract’ under which we live?  What is the ‘state' and its responsibilities to its members? What are rights? Is inequality unjust--or necessary--in human society? Are force and violence ever justified? What is terror? What is socio-political estrangement? What is, and should be, education? How does technology influence human society?  

Course requirements include: class attendance and participation, textbook purchase, thoughtful reading of assigned texts, short discussion posts/response papers, occasional quizzes, and two exams. 

442 - Sem: Henry David Thoreau

442.001

Instructor: Lisa Gerber
Time/s: TR 11:00-12:15

This course explores the rich and vibrant work of Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862). In his time, as in ours, Thoreau has been cast in dichotomies. He is criticized as a narcissist and misanthropist who cared little about his fellow humans. He is praised for this eloquence in articulating a philosophy of life as well as an exuberant relationship with nature. In this course, we will move beyond these dichotomies to explore the complex work of Thoreau-from his praise of deliberate living in Walden, to his social activism expressed in his essays, to his natural history writing. We will investigate his influences, such Asian philosophy, as well as his influence on others, such as on Gandhi and Martin Luther King.  

Required Texts 

Thoreau, Henry David, Walden (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006) 

Thoreau, Henry David, Essays of Henry David Thoreau, Lewis Hyde, Editor (North Point Press, 2002 

Course Packet from UNM Copy Center

454 - Sem: Comparative Metaphysics

454.002

Instructor: Pierre-Julien Harter
Time/s: T 4:00-6:30

What is a universal? When we talk about “justice,” “human being,” “the nature of a cow,” do we actually mean anything? Are universals no more than concepts or abstractions? Are they real? Do they manifest through particulars? Are universals more real than their particulars, or the reverse? Do we think only with universals? If language is constituted by universals and universals are not real, does language ever access reality? These are the kinds of questions this course will address through a study of different texts written by Western and Indian authors on the question of universals. In the West, the debates surrounding that question took shape during the Middle Ages (we will read texts from realist and nominalist thinkers both in the Islamic and Latin scholastic traditions), but grew from an interpretation of Greek philosophy (Plato, Aristotle, and Porphyry). They have continued throughout the 20th century and we will explore some of the creative solutions that were proposed. In India, the question emerged from debates between Buddhist and non-Buddhist thinkers on epistemological and ontological controversies. We will study how Indian philosophers discussed whether perception gave us access to particulars only or to universals as well, and whether reasoning can allow us to know reality if it uses universals. We will also address the issue of the status of language and whether words refer to particulars or universals, a question we will investigate from the Buddhist theory of exclusion (apoha) and some of its Nyāya’s responses. The question of universals also picked on ontological considerations regarding the ultimate constituents of reality and whether we can talk of essences or natures of things (svabhāva), including our own self (ātman). This will occupy the last part of the course.

The course will adopt a historical approach, situating each of the debates within its own intellectual context, with the goal of developing a critical reflection regarding these questions, which are at the center of epistemology, ontology, and the philosophy of language.

The course will differentiate expectations and assessments between undergraduate and graduate students. Students should expect to write weekly short responses and a final paper.

457 - Sem: Philosophy of Education

457.001

Instructor: Paul Livingston
Time/s: M 4:00-6:30

This seminar will aim to open an inquiry into the meaning of education, under contemporary conditions, as it intersects and interrelates with philosophy as a range of practices and modes of the conduct of life.   Our inquiry will not be confined to “philosophy of education” in a narrow sense but will aim to interrogate some of the multiple dimensions (for instance political, ideological, ethical, technological) in which education in philosophy and philosophical conceptions of education inform, and are informed by, the contemporary problems of an individual or collective life. What are the roles of philosophy and philosophical education in the understanding, communication, and transmission of prevalent conceptions of meaning, practice, belief, culture, or value? How does philosophical education interact with the functions of power or authority in preserving and enforcing conformity and collective belief in, or the reproduction of, existing structures of authority, dominance, ideology, or technology, including in schools? In what way, if any, can philosophical education or a philosophy of education be liberating or emancipatory and how does a philosophical practice of education offer to provide or promote distinctive terms, bases, or forms for the pursuit of modes of social and political critique and the potential for transformation? We will pursue these questions, among others, with a view to interpreting and reflecting on the temporalities of life, thought, and experience that are practiced and pursued in various philosophical projects and the specific methods, conceptions, and relationships of education they suggest, entail, or demand.

Readings likely to include texts by: Plato, Rousseau, Nietzsche, Emerson, Dewey, Wittgenstein, Montessori, Rancière, Friere, Arendt, Althusser, Nussbaum.

458 - Sem: Ethics of Hunger

458.001

Instructor: Ann Murphy
Time/s: R 4:00-6:30

This course examines the ethical and political significance of hunger in several registers: as a form of structural violence under colonial and neocolonial regimes, as an ethically meaningful site of psychic and corporeal vulnerability, and as a form of devotional practice and political resistance, as in fasts and hunger strikes.  We will be reading Thomas Malthus, Karl Marx, Jean-Paul Sartre, Frantz Fanon, Amartya Sen, Vandana Shiva, Emmanuel Levinas, Simone Weil, Josué de Castro, and Enrique Dussel, amongst others. While the course materials draw from economics, geography, anthropology, literature, and philosophy, we will be principally concerned with the ethical significance of hunger in a philosophical register.  As such, the topic of hunger will be approached through several philosophical methodologies: critical phenomenology and dialectical materialism in particular.

480 - Philosophy and Literature

480.001

Instructor: Iain Thomson
Time/s: TR 3:30-4:45

What is the relationship between philosophy and literature?  How should we understand the border between these two domains?  In order to answer those questions rigorously, we would first need to know both:  What is “philosophy”? and:  What is “literature”?  Hasn’t “philosophy” been understood, since Plato, as that discipline (or meta-discipline) responsible for asking questions of the form, “What is X?” — including not only “What is literature?” but also “What is philosophy?”?  If so, then wouldn’t it be a kind of philosophical apostasy to imagine that literature could illuminate philosophy about itself?  Is it obvious, however, that the question “What is philosophy?” can be answered from entirely within philosophy?  If not, if addressing this “purest” of philosophical questions actually requires stepping outside or beyond philosophy, would not “literature” be one of the names for this outside?  And what form would the answer take?  Would it be literary?  Or philosophical?  Or, would it not rather be — in some yet to be clarified sense — both?  Of course, those philosophers who like to imagine philosophy as a science rather than an art will tend to envision the domains of philosophy and literature as dichotomous categories or complementary sets (sharing no intersection).  Such philosophers may admit that literature can be philosophically interesting, but they will also suspect that a work which attempts to be both philosophy and literature is likely to succeed at neither.  Any yet, didn’t the first philosopher to exclude the poets from his philosophical realm do so while writing in the literary form of a dialogue?  Plato was not himself blind to the paradoxes entailed by his literary-philosophical exclusion of literary philosophy.  It is, rather, as if Plato realized that literature could only be banished from philosophy by a literary philosophy, a philosophy which implicitly undermines the very exclusion which helps define it by establishing its borders (and thereby also opening them to policing, crossing, undermining, and so on).  As if externalizing this struggle, the recent history of philosophy — from Kierkegaard to Derrida — is full of important philosophical works written in a seemingly “literary” style (whatever that might be, or not be), coexisting unhappily alongside the persistent suspicion that literary philosophy remains hopelessly dilettante, if not simply oxymoronic.  In order to question this philosophical prejudice from the side of philosophy (but without thereby taking philosophy’s side), to explore it by seeking to understand one of its most powerful (and undeniably dangerous) answers, our course will focus on the self-described greatest work of the most influential philosopher between Hegel and Heidegger, namely Friedrich Nietzsche.  Nietzsche self-consciously situates his greatest work, ­Thus Spoke Zarathustra:  A Book for All and None, at the intersection of the philosophical and the literary, and thereby calls this border profoundly into question — and with it the entire post-Platonic philosophical (or metaphysical) order it both presupposes and reinforces.  Our simple yet ambitious goal will be to learn to read this book, a book which seeks to teach its (real or true) readers how to read it (by requiring us to learn what Nietzsche calls “the art of slow reading”).  This will be our way of seeking to understand (both from within and without) what it can mean to think philosophy and literature together (as well as, perhaps, what dangerous explosions such a collision may cause). 

Prerequisites:  This course will include a good deal of demanding reading, and so is intended only for careful, diligent, and ambitious students.  Grades will be based on two philosophical papers (roughly 45% each), with the final 10% of your grade based on regular homework assignments (in which you will learn to practice Nietzsche’s “art of slow reading”).  This course is good preparation for:  learning how to read (well). 

Required text:  Friedrich Nietzsche, The Portable Nietzsche, W. Kaufmann, ed. (NY:  Penguin).

486 - Sem: Levinas

486.001

Instructor: Iain Thomson
Time/s: W 4:00-6:30

In this course we will seek to understand the ethical philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas—that major 20th century Continental philosopher perhaps best known as the thinker of alterity — by carefully studying his most important and influential work, Totality and Infinity:  An Essay on Exteriority (first published in 1961).  This famous text is neither the first nor the last in which Levinas develops his own critical alternative to the dialectical and phenomenological projects of Hegel and Heidegger.  But Totality and Infinity contains Levinas’s clearest statements of his most famous views, including his conception of alterity — that is, both the other person and the absolute otherness which an other person paradoxically conveys through their face — as well as his original thinking of such fascinating and important philosophical concepts as desire, the invisible, totality, transcendence, infinity, atheism, justice (and injustice), ethics, freedom (and its ethical limits), enjoyment, corporeality, need, affectivity, ipseity, nourishment, mysticism, joy, love, separation, habitation, the feminine, labor, possession, the body, the child, the gift, economy, work, expression, pluralism, the will, death, time, patience, ambiguity, fecundity, fraternity, and peace.  As that begins to suggest, Totality and Infinity articulates an entire philosophical vocabulary, one through which Levinas presents and motivates his ethical ideal of the stages (and pitfalls) on the way to human fulfilment. 

Course Requirements:  This course will require a significant amount of difficult and challenging reading.  To facilitate your understanding of these works, attendance will be required.  (If I conclude that class attendance needs to be enforced, that may be done with brief in-class quizzes on the assigned reading.)  Final course grades will be based on any such quizzes and (much more significantly) on two short but carefully composed and highly polished papers (for undergraduates) or one final research paper (for graduate students).    

Required Text:  1).  Emmanuel Levinas, Totality and Infinity.  (The French original is also recommended: Emmanuel Lévinas, Totalité et Infini.)

554 - Sem: Comparative Metaphysics

554.002

Instructor: Pierre-Julien Harter
Time/s: T 4:00-6:30

What is a universal? When we talk about “justice,” “human being,” “the nature of a cow,” do we actually mean anything? Are universals no more than concepts or abstractions? Are they real? Do they manifest through particulars? Are universals more real than their particulars, or the reverse? Do we think only with universals? If language is constituted by universals and universals are not real, does language ever access reality? These are the kinds of questions this course will address through a study of different texts written by Western and Indian authors on the question of universals. In the West, the debates surrounding that question took shape during the Middle Ages (we will read texts from realist and nominalist thinkers both in the Islamic and Latin scholastic traditions), but grew from an interpretation of Greek philosophy (Plato, Aristotle, and Porphyry). They have continued throughout the 20th century and we will explore some of the creative solutions that were proposed. In India, the question emerged from debates between Buddhist and non-Buddhist thinkers on epistemological and ontological controversies. We will study how Indian philosophers discussed whether perception gave us access to particulars only or to universals as well, and whether reasoning can allow us to know reality if it uses universals. We will also address the issue of the status of language and whether words refer to particulars or universals, a question we will investigate from the Buddhist theory of exclusion (apoha) and some of its Nyāya’s responses. The question of universals also picked on ontological considerations regarding the ultimate constituents of reality and whether we can talk of essences or natures of things (svabhāva), including our own self (ātman). This will occupy the last part of the course.

The course will adopt a historical approach, situating each of the debates within its own intellectual context, with the goal of developing a critical reflection regarding these questions, which are at the center of epistemology, ontology, and the philosophy of language.

The course will differentiate expectations and assessments between undergraduate and graduate students. Students should expect to write weekly short responses and a final paper.

557 - Sem: Philosophy of Education

557.001

Instructor: Paul Livingston
Time/s: M 4:00-6:30

This seminar will aim to open an inquiry into the meaning of education, under contemporary conditions, as it intersects and interrelates with philosophy as a range of practices and modes of the conduct of life.   Our inquiry will not be confined to “philosophy of education” in a narrow sense but will aim to interrogate some of the multiple dimensions (for instance political, ideological, ethical, technological) in which education in philosophy and philosophical conceptions of education inform, and are informed by, the contemporary problems of an individual or collective life. What are the roles of philosophy and philosophical education in the understanding, communication, and transmission of prevalent conceptions of meaning, practice, belief, culture, or value? How does philosophical education interact with the functions of power or authority in preserving and enforcing conformity and collective belief in, or the reproduction of, existing structures of authority, dominance, ideology, or technology, including in schools? In what way, if any, can philosophical education or a philosophy of education be liberating or emancipatory and how does a philosophical practice of education offer to provide or promote distinctive terms, bases, or forms for the pursuit of modes of social and political critique and the potential for transformation? We will pursue these questions, among others, with a view to interpreting and reflecting on the temporalities of life, thought, and experience that are practiced and pursued in various philosophical projects and the specific methods, conceptions, and relationships of education they suggest, entail, or demand.

Readings likely to include texts by: Plato, Rousseau, Nietzsche, Emerson, Dewey, Wittgenstein, Montessori, Rancière, Friere, Arendt, Althusser, Nussbaum.

558 - Sem: Ethics of Hunger

558.001

Instructor: Ann Murphy
Time/s: R 4:00-6:30

This course examines the ethical and political significance of hunger in several registers: as a form of structural violence under colonial and neocolonial regimes, as an ethically meaningful site of psychic and corporeal vulnerability, and as a form of devotional practice and political resistance, as in fasts and hunger strikes.  We will be reading Thomas Malthus, Karl Marx, Jean-Paul Sartre, Frantz Fanon, Amartya Sen, Vandana Shiva, Emmanuel Levinas, Simone Weil, Josué de Castro, and Enrique Dussel, amongst others. While the course materials draw from economics, geography, anthropology, literature, and philosophy, we will be principally concerned with the ethical significance of hunger in a philosophical register.  As such, the topic of hunger will be approached through several philosophical methodologies: critical phenomenology and dialectical materialism in particular.

586 - Sem: Levinas

586.001

Instructor: Iain Thomson
Time/s: W 4:00-6:30

In this course we will seek to understand the ethical philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas—that major 20th century Continental philosopher perhaps best known as the thinker of alterity — by carefully studying his most important and influential work, Totality and Infinity:  An Essay on Exteriority (first published in 1961).  This famous text is neither the first nor the last in which Levinas develops his own critical alternative to the dialectical and phenomenological projects of Hegel and Heidegger.  But Totality and Infinity contains Levinas’s clearest statements of his most famous views, including his conception of alterity — that is, both the other person and the absolute otherness which an other person paradoxically conveys through their face — as well as his original thinking of such fascinating and important philosophical concepts as desire, the invisible, totality, transcendence, infinity, atheism, justice (and injustice), ethics, freedom (and its ethical limits), enjoyment, corporeality, need, affectivity, ipseity, nourishment, mysticism, joy, love, separation, habitation, the feminine, labor, possession, the body, the child, the gift, economy, work, expression, pluralism, the will, death, time, patience, ambiguity, fecundity, fraternity, and peace.  As that begins to suggest, Totality and Infinity articulates an entire philosophical vocabulary, one through which Levinas presents and motivates his ethical ideal of the stages (and pitfalls) on the way to human fulfilment. 

Course Requirements:  This course will require a significant amount of difficult and challenging reading.  To facilitate your understanding of these works, attendance will be required.  (If I conclude that class attendance needs to be enforced, that may be done with brief in-class quizzes on the assigned reading.)  Final course grades will be based on any such quizzes and (much more significantly) on two short but carefully composed and highly polished papers (for undergraduates) or one final research paper (for graduate students).    

Required Text:  1).  Emmanuel Levinas, Totality and Infinity.  (The French original is also recommended: Emmanuel Lévinas, Totalité et Infini.)