PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT

UPPER LEVEL COURSE OFFERINGS

FIRST SEMESTER 2010-2011

PHL 301: Ancient Philosophy
TR 10:10-11:50
Pascal Massie

To be concerned with ancient Greek philosophy is to be concerned with philosophy’s ‘beginning.’ It is commonly acknowledged that philosophy (as understood in the Western tradition at least) finds its origin in Greece, about 2,600 years ago. Our task, however, is to move beyond this commonplace and think about the problem raised by the ascription of such a beginning. The Greeks themselves thought of ‘beginning’ (or ‘principle’) as ‘archē’ - something that is not simply a starting point left behind in subsequent developments (thus, something that is precisely not merely archaic, or primitive), but rather as what constitutes the source, the basis and the form that endures throughout what has grown out of it.
The leading question throughout this course is: ‘what is philosophy?’ In order to articulate it, we will begin with the Pre-Socratic conception of the cosmos and being raised by Parmenides and Heraclitus in particular; then, we will focus on the works of Plato and Aristotle (the main part of the semester) and conclude with Hellenistic philosophy.

PHL 311: Ethical Theory
TR 12:20 - 2:00
Peter Schuller

“All seek the apparent good,” is a classical statement about the moral life. (Emphasis on “apparent.”) As in most things, contradictions and obscurities in immediate thoughts about a topic drive the move to theory. In this course we will review the major moral theories--Virtue Theory, Natural Law (& Natural Rights) Theory, Utilitarianism, Deontologism, Emotivism, Perspectivalism, Nihilism–as presented by major philosophers. The formal organization of the course will loosely follow that of Alasdair MacIntyre’s influential book After Virtue. In it his enquiry traces how we got to the contemporary “catastrophe” in moral theory and practice by reviewing the history of moral theory backwards in time in order to comprehend what we have lost and how badly off we are. In this course, however, we shall read the original sources and not MacIntyre’s account; we’ll leave this book up to your future possible reading.

PHL 355: Feminist Theory
MW 2:15-3:55
Gaile Pohlhaus

In this course, we will investigate feminist theories not as one comprehensive system, but rather as varying ways in which feminists have attempted to speak about the category, position(s), and treatment of women given particular social and historical contexts. What does it mean to be a woman? Is it a biological concept? A cultural one? A political position within the social? What happens to the concept when we take into account others ways in which people are positioned in society such as race, class, sexuality, and nation? Is sex/gender a conceptual system we can do without? Emphasis will be placed on the dialogue and critique among a wide spectrum of feminist theorists. Throughout the semester we will return to questions regarding the role of theory for feminist politics as well as what the effects of bringing feminism to theory may have on the very nature of theory itself.

PHL 375: Moral Issues in Health Care
TR 10:00-11:50
Richard Momeyer

The goal of this course is to think together in an informed and critical manner about selected issues in health care. An attempt will be made with each issue addressed to consider the distinctive interests and perspectives of physicians, nurses, patients and the public. Issues considered include physician/patient relationships; lying, truth-telling, paternalism and trust; death and dying, including suicide, euthanasia, and the treatment of defective newborns; treatment of mental illness and patient rights; allocating scarce resources; the nature of health and the purposes of medicine.
How moral decisions are made in medicine—by what procedures, values, principles and parties—will be considered, mostly through examining a number of case studies. Students will be largely responsible for the presentation and case analysis, if not the selection. A previous course in philosophy, preferably PHL 131, is strongly advised.

PHL 390: Existentialism
TR 12:20-2:00
Elaine Miller

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the concept of existence became an explicit theme of philosophical reflection in an unprecedented way. In part a legacy of the Romantic reaction against the primacy of reason and rationalism in Enlightenment ideals, existentialism also owed its popularity to specific developments in the economic, political, and religious life of the nineteenth century, specifically, to the rise of capitalism and globalism, the success of “democratic” revolutions, and the demise of organized religion as a political force. Rather than resulting in undiluted optimism for the future, the flourishing of industry, technology, individualism, and secularism brought alongside them fear, uncertainty, and war. Existentialism examines both the anxiety and absurdity of life unmoored from belief in a single unifying transcendent to which all else can be referred (whether that be a beneficent deity or a philosophical system), as well as the resulting radicality of human freedom and human responsibility for self-creation and being-with-others. Existentialist thought broadly conceived generated a radical transformation of being and thinking that continues to challenge both excessively rationalist and dogmatic schools of thought. In the first part of the semester, we will examine texts by “pre-existentialist” thinkers (Kierkegaard, Nietzsche) whose work deeply influenced the emergence of existentialism as a philosophical school of thought. In the second part of the semester we will read texts by philosophers who either thought of themselves as existentialists, or whose texts have traditionally been closely associated with existentialism (Heidegger, Sartre, Beauvoir, Camus, Fanon).

PHL 410.T/510.T: Truth and Objectivity
MW 2:15-3:55
William McKenna

This course will be about objectivity and truth. Our questions will be: What is objectivity? How is it attained? What gives objectivity its positive value? Particular attention will be paid to the concept of objectivity known as “the view from nowhere” and to a concept of objectivity called “situated objectivity” that is the opposite of the “view from nowhere” concept. Two concepts of truth, absolute and relative truth, will be studied in their relation to these concepts of objectivity.
Another aspect of the course will be to study how concepts of objectivity and truth are instantiated in human life. In this connection issues of “diversity” and “multiculturalism” in social and political life will be looked at in order to see the extent to which objectivity and truth play a role in the differences, in the conflicts to which these differences give rise, and in ways those conflicts are or can be resolved.

PHL 430/530: Seminar in Plato
MW 12:20 - 2:00
Peter Schuller

“All of Philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato,” wrote Whitehead. But this has been made an impotent truth by treating Plato as an old, dead dog, fit for the Museum of Stuffed Theories. Yet Plato’s main opponents–the Sophists–are very popular again today; and his alternatives to their positions are again germane. The same is true concerning the issue of reductivism (again, wildly popular) versus anti-reductivism. In other words, the chief issues are: is there any deep reality? Can we know it? Where does humanity fit (and is there humanity) in the grand scheme of things? How should we live? To guide us in these issues we shall do a close reading of several of the so-called middle and late dialogues, including Phaedo, Theaetetus, Parmenides, Sophist, Statesman, Philebus, and Timaeus.
Early on we will have to clear away superficial nonsense about, and bad interpretations of, crucial aspects of Plato’s work.
For example, first, we shall see some evidence for the dominant (Aristotelian) variety of interpretation: that Plato believed in fixed, separate, substantial “Forms” which also served as perpetual essences in a static ontology and epistemology.
We will then see that this interpretation must ignore at least four crucial kinds of elements in Plato’s writings: his dialogue form of writing (and the matter of literary form and content is again a “hot” topic in several sectors of philosophy); his salient use of metaphor; his own characterizations of his dialectical method; and his critiques of just such (static) theories as are often ascribed to him.
So, in more usual taxonomies, we shall investigate: knowledge; being; the possibility of a rationale for the existence of the world; what it is to be human; progress in our lives; the issues of pleasure and desire; goodness; and the politics and ontology of Sophistry.

440.I / 540.I: 17th Century Philosophy
T 2:15-5:45
Keith Fennen

In this seminar we will study works by Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz along with brief selections from other philosophers of the 17th century. While we will discuss each thinker’s overall philosophical system, our readings will center on notions of human agency, action and passivity, power, and the model of human nature that each of these thinkers develops. We will consider these topics in light of each philosopher’s physics and metaphysics.

PHL 459/559 Political Philosophy Seminar
R 4:10-7:40
Emily Zakin

This seminar will be devoted to an in-depth and comprehensive study of the work of Hannah Arendt, one of the most influential political theorists of the twentieth century. We will read all or most of her major works, including Origins of Totalitarianism, The Human Condition, On Revolution, and Life of the Mind, as well as some of her collected essays and lectures. By grappling with the various distinctions she makes, between, for instance: human rights and citizens’ rights; the political and the social; public and private; action and work; freedom and happiness; and power and violence, we will aim to develop a strong understanding of her critique of modernity and its political impasses. We will also make some effort to situate Arendt with regard to various precursors and interlocutors, including perhaps some but not all of the following: Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, Carl Schmitt, Walter Benjamin, Claude Lefort, Jacques Ranciere, and Julia Kristeva.

ALSO AVAILABLE
PHL F110 Cultural Differences: Worlds Apart?
PHL 101 Knowledge World, God, Morality
PHL 103 Society And The Individual
PHL 104 Purpose/Chance In The Universe
PHL 105 Theories Of Human Nature
PHL 131 Problems Of Moral & Social Values
PHL 221 Problems-Metaphysics &Knowledge
PHL 263 Informal Logic
PHL 273 Formal Logic

HONORS COURSES
PHL 101.H Knowledge World, God, Morality
PHL 180.A Existential Themes in PHL/Lit
PHL 301.H Ancient Philosophy