UNDERGRADUATE SPRING 2015 COURSE DESCRIPTIONS. PHI 100-B HUM Concepts of the Person Main Focus

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1 UNDERGRADUATE SPRING 2015 COURSE DESCRIPTIONS PHI 100-B HUM Concepts of the Person Main Focus An historical introduction to philosophy through readings and discussions on topics such as human identity, human understanding, and human values. PHI TUTH 11:30-12:50 G. Jackson Greif I am a person. You are a person too. With this special designation, we assume we are intelligent, conscious, and feeling beings. We believe we are entitled to rights, subject to laws, and are responsible for what we do. It might seem, then, that we know what the criteria for personhood are that is, what characteristics one must minimally have to be a person. This is not the case. We are deeply uncertain what the necessary and sufficient conditions for personhood are. At times, it may even seem to us like personhood itself is a mere fiction. But, fictional or not, the concept of a person is an extremely useful one to have. In this course, we will investigate one possible condition of personhood: consciousness. We will ask, and attempt to answer, such questions as: what is the nature of consciousness, what is its relation to the brain, when and how do we ascribe consciousness to others, what is distinctive about human consciousness, what is self-consciousness? We will then entertain other related conditions of personhood: rationality, agency, identity, language and gender. PHI MW 4:00-5:20 A. Mohsen Happiness seems like a nice thing, right? Who doesn t want to be happy?! Aristotle notably argues that happiness is the highest goal for human life. So to better understand what happiness is and how we ought to achieve it this course will focus on a close reading of Aristotle s Nicomachean Ethics. However, we will also read a lot of contemporary philosophy to explore further questions surrounding personhood. What sets human persons apart from animals or machines? How do we live an authentic life in contemporary Western society? Additionally, a second aim of this course is to explore questions concerning the effect of technology on personhood. How is technology changing the nature of persons? And how are computers changing the ways we constitute and develop our identities? Does technology make it more difficult to be truly happy? Lastly, we will critique the very notion of happiness itself. How does our understanding of happiness shape our society or the world? Is happiness truly worthwhile if one person s happiness precludes another person s happiness? If not, then what is the highest goal for human life?! PHI TUTH 4:00-5:20 E. Boodman What ideas are at the heart of our self-understanding, and how do these ideas shape us, guide us or hinder us in being who we are? This introduction to philosophy asks what it means to be oneself, and looks at the role of selfquestioning and self-affirmation in being or becoming ourselves. Is selfhood a question of authenticity or the creation of a narrative? The capacity for doubting, reasoning or feeling? Is our selfhood centered around identity or identities? Collective or individual action? Autonomy or belonging? Through the works of Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Kant, Foucault, de Beauvoir, Fanon, Butler and others, we will trace why we are apt to think of our selves in the different ways that we do, and how our grappling with these concepts of the self -- questioning or affirming them -- may affect our self-conception and its relationship to the action of our lives. This is not a lecture course; students are expected to come to class having read the assigned texts and ready to discuss them in class.

2 PHI MWF 10:00-10:53 B. Conuel The world we encounter is populated with a certain peculiar class of entities to which we ascribe numerous curious properties: persons. What characteristics are essential in constituting a person? What's the relationship between personhood and mind? Personhood and body? Can we hold persons ethically responsible, and if so, on what grounds? How do we understand the persistence of personal identity over time? What are the roles played by nature and culture in the creation of a person? Are there elements of the person operating behind the scenes in ways we can know only indirectly? Is 'person' even a coherent and useful concept, or a vestigial hangover from outmoded metaphysics? We will approach these questions through the canonical texts in the history of philosophy that have defined how we talk about personhood beginning with the person in ancient thought, tracing the development of personhood up through the intricate treatments it receives in the 17th and 18th centuries, and culminating in the problem of theorizing the person in postmodernity. Particular attention will be paid to the contributions of Plato, Descartes, Nietzsche, and Freud. Class will be a mix of lecture and discussion, and students should come prepared to actively question and criticize all readings.

3 PHI 103-B HUM Philosophic Problems An introduction to philosophy through the analysis of one or more aspects of contemporary life such as technology, war, international relations, families and friendships, or race, class and gender. A variety of texts are used. PHI TUTH 4:00-5:20 W. Mattingly This course offers an introduction to the philosophy of nature geared towards making sense of and rethinking our place in the world as agents of environmental changes both sweeping and devastating. Problems such as industrial pollution, freshwater scarcity, large-scale deforestation, and the mass extinction of plant and animal species have brought the environmental crisis to the forefront of public attention. But the mainstream tendency to approach them primarily as specialized scientific problems demanding macroeconomic reforms and sophisticated technological solutions can prevent us from raising more fundamental questions about how they are framed, and perhaps even sanctioned, by our understanding of nature. From the popular picture we are apt to feel excluded, relegated to the status of eco-friendly consumers or else passive observers. Our aim in this course will be to reapproach this predicament as a matter that concerns each of us philosophically as well as personally. To accomplish this we shall undertake a close reading of philosophical thinkers who explore three basic, interrelated questions: (i) What is nature? (ii) What is our relation to nature? and (iii) Who are we that enter into this relation? By bringing these studies to bear on contemporary environmentalist movements, critically examining and reframing some of their underlying assumptions, we shall attempt to turn the world of texts to account towards wisely negotiating our place in the natural world.

4 PHI 104-B HUM CER Moral Reasoning Main Focus An historical introduction to philosophy through inquiry into the formation justification, and evaluation of moral judgments. Students introduced to the major theories and problems of ethics, such as utilitarianism, Kant's categorical imperative, ethical relativism, egoism and classical conceptions of the good and virtue. Against this background students engage in discussions of contemporary moral issues. PHI TUTH 1:00-2:20 A. Platt This course will examine what makes an action morally right, what makes a human life (or for that matter any life) a good life, and what it means for a person to be virtuous. We will survey ethical theories, including those of Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Francis Hutcheson, Immanuel Kant, J.S. Mill and W.D. Ross. We will also discuss how these ethical theories apply to contemporary moral issues regarding topics such as genetic engineering, cloning, abortion or environmentalism. PHI MWF 10:10:53 C. Manno How should we live? Is there an objective foundation to morality? And can we provide reasons for why acting morally is better than acting out of mere self-interest? In this course we will examine these foundational moral questions in regards to the obligations we have to others as social beings. We will address how moral questions are intimately bound up with human freedom and flourishing, and will directly address the tension that may arise between the common interest of society and the private interests of individuals. The prevailing theme of this class will be an examination of the relationship between ethical behavior and political life, with a particular emphasis on the question of the ethical responsibility of democratic citizens. Authors will include Plato, Aristotle, Rousseau, and Marx. We will use the theoretical tools these thinkers provide to examine contemporary social and moral issues such as economic inequality, environmental destruction, immigration, healthcare, and social recognition. PHI MWF 11:00-11:53 A. Sitzman This discussion-based course will address how the translation of thought into action is informed by the degree to which we recognize ourselves as moral beings. We will attempt to determine if rational argument alone is enough to cultivate an ethical life, and conversely, if the narrative of human action is distinguishable from the evolution of moral values. To this end, we will trace the role of courage in philosophy from its prized position among the Greeks to its diminished role among modern thinkers. On the one hand, we will examine the ancient use of myth to describe the moral reality where contemplation and action exist as one. On the other hand, we will look at the increasing role of fear in determining the concealed motivations of modern man. Finally, the course will require students to make connections between past perspectives on moral virtue and current events. This combination will enable students to effect the translation of their own ideas into action on the contemporary stage.

5 PHI MW 8:30-9:50 P. Nelson This course is a survey of moral reasoning throughout the history of western philosophy starting with the ancient Greeks and ending with the existential philosophers of the 20th century. During our semester together, we will explore the writings of the Greeks: Plato and Aristotle; the modern philosophers: Hobbes, Hume, Mill and Kant; and some 19th and 20th century thinkers: Marx, Nietzsche, and Sartre. Students will be required to write two short essays and to take two exams at the midpoint and end of the course. This is not a lecture course, so students should expect to come to class having done the assigned reading and prepared to discuss the material. PHI TUTH 4:00-5:20 D. Susser This course is about right and wrong. What does it mean to do right or do wrong? What counts as right and what counts as wrong? How do we know? More specifically, what does it mean to do what s right as a professional? Say, as a professional scientist or engineer? What moral responsibilities do experts and specialists have, as experts and as specialists? We ll examine these questions by way of real-world situations. We will consider a variety of case studies, from the development of nuclear weapons to digital surveillance and online privacy. And we will look to classical and contemporary philosophical accounts of morality to guide us. This course is reading and writing intensive. Attendance is mandatory. Students will be expected to read complex texts, ask questions, make arguments, and write short essays.

6 PHI 105-G HUM CER Politics and Society Main Focus An historical introduction to philosophy through an analysis of political theories, theories of action, and styles of political life. Main themes will include the relation of the individual to the state, the scope of social responsibility, and the nature of human freedom. PHI TUTH 1:00-2:20 H. Cormier This course is an introduction to political theory that emphasizes the connection between politics and moral thinking through Western history. In this course we will develop our ability to understand and criticize the moral and political arguments that have shaped our culture and society. We will finish by discussing and debating some significant contemporary political issues that have moral overtones and consequences. PHI MW 4:00-5:20 O. Stephano In this course we will undertake a philosophical investigation of some central concepts in political theory. We will examine the role and legitimacy of state power through explorations of autonomy and authority; study various approaches to justice, entitlement, and rights; and consider questions of coercion, marginalization, and oppression. The course will focus on developing your skills as a philosophical reader and thinker, and engaged participation via class discussion will therefore be a central component. PHI MWF 11:00-11:53 R. Cormier Political philosophy often focuses on the institution of the state as the proper locus of issues concerning justice, equality, representation, war, and so on. By contrast, this course will look at how these issues intersect within global cities, our major economic outlets and possible sites of political resistance. After a brief historical overview (the Greek polis, Alexandria, Haussmann s renovation of Paris), our central themes will include philosophies of the urban (Situationism, rhythmanalysis), dissident street art, city planning, technology, transit, the Olympics, and homelessness. We will look at how these themes play out in both Western (Paris, London, NYC, Brasília) and non-western (Beijing, Hong Kong, Sochi) contexts. Students will be evaluated primarily on the basis of two papers, questions submitted at the beginning of each class, and some small assignments. Students are also encouraged to travel to and engage with NYC (taking direction from our readings) for credit.

7 PHI 108-B HUM ESI Logical & Critical Reasoning Main Focus The principle aim of this course is to help a student acquire the skills of thinking, reading, and writing critically. The student develops a sensitivity to language and argumentation that is applicable to a wide range of situations and subject matters. PHI TUTH 10:00-11:20 TBA PHI MW 4:00-5:20 H. Fluss "A study of the basic principles of formally correct reasoning. This includes studying criteria for distinguishing valid from invalid argumntation; developing and practicing strategies for the evaluation of arguments in various contexts; analysis of arguments and pseudo-arguments appearing in formal (symbolic) and non-formal (natural language) contexts. No prerequisites, except willingness to do regular homework, to fulfill all requirements (quizzes and exams), to attend every class, and to keep an open mind at all times (strictly enforced)." PHI TUTH 4:00-5:20 S. Whited The study of logic is the study of how we think coherently and consistently and thus of how we can better think. Logic is the form that gives shape to the matter of all disciplines. In this course, we will cover the basic structures of various types of logical thinking, as well as when and how these structures break down. Students should come away from this course with a better sense of the basic building blocks of thought, reasoning, inference, and argumentation, as well as a sense of what it means to (be able to) think about thought. PHI MF 1:00-2:20 E. Headstream Logic is often regarded as the most foundational of all intellectual disciplines. Logic expresses the rules by which we think and thus sets the standards of coherence or incoherence that all other areas of thought must measure up to. Logic determines what counts as a valid argument or a good reason for holding a belief. But logic also lays down the ground rules for thinking critically and analyzing claims in everyday life. Thus, in this course we will explore the nature of logic and apply logical reasoning in order to evaluate claims in political speech, advertising, and news media.

8 PHI 109-B HUM Philosophy and Literature in Social Context Main Focus The role of literature and philosophy in understanding and critically assessing personal experience and social life. The links among literary texts, philosophical issues, and political and social commitments are explored. Topics include the relations between language and experience, the role of philosophical thinking through literary texts, and the significance of literary expression in different cultural and historical situations. PHI TUTH 11:30-12:50 C. Anglemire This class will be on Aristotle s Nicomachean Ethics and Poetics, select dialogues by Plato, and Greek tragedy and poetry. The emphasis will be on developing an understanding of different characters and people and the choices they make, on developing interpretive skills to unlock various kinds of texts and contexts, and on developing selfknowledge.

9 Intermediate Courses PHI 200-I GLO HUM Introduction to Ancient Philosophy TUTH 2:30-3:50 T. Hyde This course is a survey course designed to provide the background in ancient philosophy requisite for more advanced work in philosophy. It will begin with an historical introduction starting with the Bronze Age and ending with the fall of Rome. Then it will touch on all of the major and minor figures from Thales at the start of the 6 th century B.C. to Plotinus of the 3 rd century A.D. and cover in detail: (i) the Presocratics, (ii) Socrates, the Sophists, Plato and Aristotle, (iii) The Hellenic movements of Skepticism, Stoicism, and Epicureanism. Four exams will test a very large body of factual and historical knowledge as well as philosophical understanding. PHI 206-I GLO HUM Intro to Modern Philosophy MW 2:30-3:50 A. O Byrne In the early modern period (roughly 1500 to 1800), philosophy concerned itself with a set of persistent questions: What can I know with certainty? Is there free will? Can we prove that God exists? What is the nature of perception? This course is an introduction to how key thinkers from this period including Descartes, Spinoza, Hume, Hobbes, Locke, and Kant responded to these philosophical challenges. PHI 220-C QPS Introduction to Symbolic Logic MWF 10:00-10:53 G. Mar This course is a self-contained introduction to the formal techniques of symbolic logic. It presupposes no prior knowledge of philosophy or mathematics. It does not aim at justifying results about logical systems. Instead the purpose of this course is to impart a skill the ability to recognize and construct logically correct derivations. In the lectures, the concepts and heuristics involved in learning logic will be illustrated with puzzles, games, and word play. We will be using the Kalish-Montague-Mar system of natural deduction. Students who succeed in this course tend to be the ones who work systematically on homework exercises in the accompanying computer workshop in the Logic Lab (Harriman 243) and complete them in a timely manner. Students who truly excel in the course tend to be the ones who learn to love logic, who reinforce their own learning by sharing their knowledge with others, and who get hooked on the aesthetic pleasures of solving a good logic problem. PHI 247-G CER HUM Existentialism TUTH 10:00-11:20 A. Kim We will explore existential philosophy through literature and film. The course begins with a brief examination of existentialist themes in the Western philosophical tradition, and then turns to an in-depth study of novels, plays, and films on existentialist themes and in the existentialist style. Writers will include Nietzsche, Plato, Kierkegaard, de Beauvoir; Dostoevsky, Camus, Sartre, Beckett.

10 PHI 264-D ARTS HUM Philosophy and the Arts: Jazz TUTH 4:00-5:20 L. Simpson The aim of this course is to encourage you to think critically about works of art and artistic practice. Included among the issues we shall address are the nature of aesthetic evaluation; the meaning of aesthetic terms; the nature and ethical dimension of musical improvisation; philosophical analyses of art works; the meaning of music; the semantic and epistemological status of aesthetic claims, etc. We shall ask such questions as, Are aesthetic judgments merely subjective assertions of taste? What is a work of art? What kind of a thing is an art work? In particular, what exactly is a musical work? Where, when and how do "Put a Ring on It," Summertime, Stairway to Heaven or Stravinsky s Rite of Spring exist? What about improvisations based upon those works? What is the difference between a folk or popular practice and an artistic practice? How culturally universal is the notion of the aesthetic experience? What is the connection between music and the emotions? We shall address these issues and questions with a special focus on that form of aesthetic modernism known as jazz music with the aim of developing a philosophy of jazz. PHI 268-H STAS Science Technology and Society TUTH 4:00-5:20 R. Crease This introductory course examines different topics involving current science issues from different philosophical perspectives. For instance, what is the nature of inquiry? What is the nature of discovery? What is the role of instruments and perception? What is the nature and role of laboratories? What are the practical, conceptual, and cultural underpinnings of scientific activity? What are the possibilities and dangers, if any of research? What philosophical issues are raised by current events in science? The course proceeds historically, from the time of Bacon, Galileo, and Descartes to the present. PHI 277-G CER HUM Political Philosophy TUTH 1:00-2:20 D. Susser Far from their image as aloof, impractical, and speculative wonderers, philosophers are deeply engaged in politics and public policy. They have contributed to important public debates, about everything from education reform to climate change, by urging policymakers to think critically about the meanings of proposed policies and about their ethical implications. In this course, we will examine four case studies: the development of nuclear weapons, affirmative action policies, debates about pornography, and the issue of surveillance and online privacy. We will ask about them, what are just policies to pursue? Who gets to decide? On what basis? What is the role of experts in the decision-making process? What is the relationship between science and technology? How do science and technology impact public policy and how does public policy impact science and technology? To get a handle on these questions we will examine different theories of justice. We will think about social groups and the nature of oppression. We will investigate the ethical implications of science and technology research. And we will ask, how can we as citizens help to create a more just society?

11 Upper Division Courses PHI 306-I HFA+ Modern Philosophy D. Dilworth The course will illustrate a dialogic approach to bottom line paradigms in the history of philosophy by way of engaging the interface and interplay of the writings of three of the first-tier thinkers of the modern world--david Hume, Immanuel Kant, and Charles S. Peirce--each of whom each staked out wholesale ground on the perennial, global issues of philosophy. Kant s discovery of the synthetic a priori was famously inspired by Hume s skeptical empiricism; Peirce reconfigured the 18 th c. confrontations of both Hume and Kant in expanded phenomenological, normative, metaphysical, and semiotic categories aligned with the burgeoning scientific Zeitgeist of the 19 th century. The cumulative convergences and divergences of this triangulation of transformative paradigms of modern philosophy will be traced by exegetical readings of (1) Hume s Enquiries concerning Human Understanding and concerning the Principles of Morals (1748, 1751); (2) Kant s Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics (1783) and Critique of the Power of Judgment (1790); (3) Peirce s mid-19 th c. formulations of the methodological options for the fixation of belief, as well as triadic metaphysico-cosmical elements of mind and nature and their application in his architectonic classification of the heuretic or truth discovering sciences. PHI 310-K HFA+ USA American Philosophy TUTH 10:00-11:20 D. Dilworth The course will study the origins of American Pragmatism in representative writings of Emerson, Peirce, and William James. Beginning with Emerson s small classic Nature (1836), and such essays as The Method of Nature, The Over-soul, and Circles (1841); The Poet and Nature (1844); Fate, Beauty, and Illusions (1860), and such poems as The Sphinx, The World-Soul, Bacchus, and Wood-notes, Emerson s Transcendentalist writings portrayed the perceptual signs of nature as symbolically sacramental. They formed the literary-philosophical precedent to Peirce s doctrine of the mind s instinct-based capacity for transparent sign-functions in the sciences and arts. Overlapping Emerson s career, the young Peirce published post-cartesian and post-kantian epistemological essays such as Some Consequences of Four Incapacities (1867), The Fixation of Belief and How to Make Our Ideas Clear (1878); he developed three phenomenological and metaphysical categories in A Guess at the Riddle ( ) and five Monist series papers ( ); he expanded his system by way of articulation of three normative categories (Esthetics, Ethics, Logic) in an overall classification of the sciences (1903). In later-career writings such as Essays in Radical Empiricism and Some Problems of Philosophy James complemented Emerson and Peirce in essential ways, expressing the metamorphoses of experience as creative relations in continuous, including cosmically co-conscious, transitions. Readings: Emerson, Essays and Lectures, The Library of America; Peirce, Essential Writings, Indiana U. Press, vol. 1 & 2; Wm. James, Writings, The Library of America. PHI 347-G HFA+ Hermeneutics and Deconstruction L. Simpson An exploration of the major assumptions, commitments, methods, and strategies of hermeneutics and deconstruction. The course examines how these two recent schools of thought have developed out of the contemporary philosophical scene and how they have had such a significant impact on literary theory, art criticism, text theory, social theory, and the history of philosophy. Readings include selections from the writing of Heidegger, Gadamer, Jauss, Ricoeur, Derrida, Kristeva, Lyotard, Kofman, Irigarary, and others.

12 PHI 369 Philosophy of Mathematics MW 2:30-3:50 G. Mar The Philosophy of Mathematics is a critical examination of philosophical issues raised by the striking appearance of mathematical knowledge that appears to be both objective (independent of the human mind) and universal (the same cross culturally, and, presumably, extra terrestrially). The various philosophies of mathematics Platonism, empiricism, logicism, intuitionism, and formalism have arisen to explain how such knowledge is possible. More recently, new perspectives Darwinian naturalism, cognitive science, computational experimental mathematics, and chaos and complexity theory have been explored. We will investigate questions raised by mathematical knowledge and mathematical practice. What is number, geometry, computation? Can the foundations of mathematics be constructed using logic and set theory? Why is the abstract, seemingly unworldly, realm of mathematics so unreasonably effective in applying to the physical universe? Are there mathematically problems which are, in principle, unsolvable such as the Continuum hypothesis and can we prove this mathematically? How did the Institute for Advanced Studies become the world class center for mathematical research? While the U. S. has first class mathematicians and logicians at its institutions of higher learning, why is its secondary education relatively bad (while the U. S. pours more money per student into education than any other nation, several years ago it was ranked 24th in the world for mathematics education)? How can one improve one s ability to think mathematically? This is not a mathematics course, or a course aimed exclusively at mathematicians. Perhaps you have had the experience of learning mathematics from a teacher who taught you to perform operations by rote without any real understanding of the purpose or the beauty of the mathematical theory that is the basis of that algorithm. This course is also for anyone who wants to improve their ability to think creatively and mathematically. Although this is not primarily a course in mathematics, we cannot responsibly philosophize about mathematics without have some firsthand examples of mathematical thinking and examples of some of the most beautiful proofs in the history of mathematics before us. We will therefore regularly pose classic recreational mathematics puzzles and paradoxes, take historical excursions into the development of various fields of mathematics, and hopefully, catch a glimpse of the joy of mathematics which has built some of the most lasting achievements of the human race. We also want to have a great deal of intellectual fun in doing so. PHI 373-G HFA+ The Problem of Evil TUTH 10:00-11:20 A. Flescher What is the nature of evil? Is evil adequately described as the presence of a satanic or monstrous entity, something at once unalterable and recognizable to everyone it threatens, something potentially for which the one who performs evil is genetically predetermined? Or is evil, rather, to be conceived as something which is part of or at least necessary to know the good, something, which like death, is a natural part of the life cycle? Alternatively might we see evil as no more than evil, that is, as a mere label, and as such, a perspective from which we can wrest ourselves with the right sort of self-reinvention? In this case evil is a subjectively internalized, or at least a culturally informed, designation. Or, finally does it make most sense to see evil as not the presence of something, but rather the absence of a goodness without which humans languish? In this case, evil consists of the most mundane human activities, activities in which, given the right situations, we ourselves can come to participate. The course divides into four sections examined under the following headings: (1) evil as the presence of badness (i.e. evil as substantively and radically separate from the good; Manicheanism); (2) evil as the presence of goodness (i.e. evil as tantamount to the good; theodicy); (3) evil as the absence of badness (i.e. evil as perspective; subjectivism and relativism); (4) evil as the absence of goodness (i.e. evil as privation; Augustinianism). We will address the problem of evil from scientific, social-scientific, and philosophical perspectives and from fictional and non-fictional narrative accounts, as well as from cinematic sources, paying close attention to recent empirical evidence that supports one or more of the four models described above. Some concrete case studies include the idea of evil genes and connecting psychopathy to damaged brains (section 1); meaning in the context of disease, death and the dying process (section 2); cross-cultural conceptions of good and bad medical practice (section 3); and the examples of obedience to authority (a defense employed in Nuremburg by captured Nazis) as depicted by Zimbardo in his Stanford prison experiments (section 4).

13 PHI 376-G HFA+ Philosophy and Medicine TUTH 2:30-3:50 G. Jackson Greif In this course, we will address major issues in the philosophy of medicine. Some topics will be well known within the practice of medicine: informed consent, the limits of viability, killing versus letting die. Other topics will be familiar to the study of philosophy: free will in a natural world, the possibility of self-deception, the social construction of health. We will do our best interpolate these two discourses, by combining medical case studies with philosophical essays. There will also be an audiovisual component to this course, intended to motivate still other topics in philosophy and medicine: how is illness visualized with new technologies, what relationships should prevail in patient care, who is the ideal physician?

14 SEMINARS PHI ESI Junior Seminar TU 3:30-6:30 H. Cormier This is a class mainly on the distinctively American philosophy called pragmatism, a view of truth and meaning that is today one of the main philosophical movements of the West. We ll pay special attention to three features of this philosophical view: first, its historical origins in opposition to aspects of modern philosophy, or Western philosophy since the 17th-century rise of modern science; second, its connections to the kinds of Darwinian scientific thought that arose in the nineteenth century; and, third, the moral and political ramifications of understanding truth and meaning pragmatically. PHI 401-G HFA+ Plato's Late Dialogues TUTH 11:00-12:20 L. Miller Plato's late dialogues capitalize on the vision and images of the middle books of the Republic to critique, modify and perhaps correct his proposals about the infamous Platonic Forms. To follow his lead we will read intensively the key passages from the Republic and the Parmenides, then move to the Theaetetus and Sophist. Students may expect to write homeworks for each class and do the usual written exams on all of this. All students will, in turn, be expected to start off discussions in class with written summaries of the previous meeting--and to take turns on different days leading our discussion. Wrapping our empirically habituated and socially mediated thoughts and favorite self-deceptions around something like any Platonic Form puts us in a position parallel to those in his dialogues--we're not in Kansas anymore! Welcome to a semester of close reading and careful thinking with one of the greatest philosophers! It will help you to have the exact translations of each dialogue ordered through the bookstore! You will thank me!