Term: Fall 2015 Course Title: Plato Course Number: Philosophy 6704 Section Times/Days: Monday 4:00-6:30 Instructor: Dr. Eric Perl Course Description/Principal Topics: Careful study of a range of Plato s dialogues. Principal dialogues to be studied include the Phaedo, Phaedrus, Republic, Parmenides, and Sophist. Central themes will include Plato s use of myth; the metaphysics of form; the orientation of the soul; knowledge and opinion; appearance and reality; the good. Student Learning Outcomes: Students should emerge from the course having a close familiarity with Plato s thought and with interpretive strategies for approaching the dialogues. Prerequisites/Required Background: None Required texts: Plato, Complete Works, ed. Cooper (Hackett, 1997). Course work/expectations: Regular attendance, preparation, and participation in class discussions Short paper Term paper (about 20 pages)
TERM: Fall 2015 COURSE TITLE: Kant COURSE NUMBER: PHIL 6738 SECTION TIMES/DAYS: Thursdays 4:00-6:30 pm (tentative) including in Finals Week INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Jeffrey Wilson COURSE DESCRIPTION/PRINCIPAL TOPICS Every significant philosophical movement of the 19 th and 20 th centuries, whether belonging to continental European or Anglo-American analytic thought, has its source in, or is responding in some form, to Immanuel Kant s Critique of Pure Reason. In Division One (the Transcendental Analytic) of this seminal work of modernity, Kant declares space and time to be not qualities of things but forms of our intuition of objects of appearance. He explicates the categories that he takes to be constitutive of experience as expressions of the fundamental unity of consciousness that are irreducible to Descartes famous cogito, ergo sum. Kant magnifies the role of imagination over previous thinkers by ascribing to it the functions of the primordial transcendental production of time and of the schematization (i.e., translation) of the categories into temporal terms that enables them to apply to actual objects of experience. In Division Two, Kant claims to resolve the antinomy that arises in early modern philosophy between rationalist and empiricist positions by demonstrating that both positions are radically unfounded. This entails the euthanasia of traditional metaphysics and a critique of all theology from principles of reason. This course is a close reading of Kant s Critique of Pure Reason with selected commentaries. PREREQUISITES/RECOMMENDED BACKGROUND Matriculation in the Philosophy M.A. program. REQUIRED TEXTS Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason. Translated by Paul Guyer and Allen Wood. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. [ISBN 0-521-65729-6] COURSE WORK/EXPECTATIONS Close reading, faithful attendance, a class presentation, and a final paper of a length and quality that it could be submitted for presentation at a philosophy conference without revision.
Term: Fall 2015 Course Number: PHIL 6746 KIERKEGAARD Days and Time: Wednesday 4:00 6:30 PM Instructor: Elizabeth A. Murray Course Description/ Principle Topics The focus of this course is the issue of self-constitution in radical freedom as it is developed in Kierkegaard s pseudonymous authorship. We will study topics surrounding the central notion of repetition (Gentagelse) including the nature of dialectic, choice, commitment, self-consciousness, inwardness, earnestness, and temporality. We will study the meaning of truth, for Kierkegaard, and through the notion of the paradox, we will explore the boundary between the ethical and the religious. Our study of the nature of the self will also involve investigation of the relation of the self to the other. Student Learning Outcomes Students will be able to trace the philosophical thought, which emerges in Kierkegaard s aesthetic and ethical works. Students will be practiced in the hermeneutic skills necessary for pseudonymous works. Students will learn Kierkegaard s place in the history of philosophy those who influenced his thought and his continuing influence. Students will learn the meaning of self-appropriation for Kierkegaard, and develop the practice of philosophic reflection themselves. Students will produce a scholarly essay suitable for publication in a journal or presentation at a professional conference. Students will be practiced in presentation of their work and philosophic dialogue. Required Texts: Selections from Either/Or. Vol. I and II, in Bretall s A Kierkegaard Anthology. PUP, 1946. Fear and Trembling in Fear and Trembling and Repetition. Hong translation. PUP, 1983. Philosophical Fragments in Philosophical Fragments and Johannes Climacus. Hong translation. PUP, 1985. The Concept of Anxiety. Reidar Thomte translation. PUP, 1980. Selections from Concluding Unscientific Postscript,Vol. I. Hong translation. PUP, 1992. The Sickness Unto Death. Hong translation. PUP, 1980. Selections from Works of Love, in Bretall s A Kierkegaard Anthology. PUP, 1946. Course Work: One term paper Attendance at and participation in seminars One or two seminar papers and presentations
TERM: Fall 2015 (continuation from Spring 2015) COURSE TITLE: Teaching Orientation and Practicum COURSE NUMBER: PHIL 6990 01 SECTION TIMES/DAYS: TBA INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Mark Morelli COURSE DESCRIPTION/PRINCIPAL TOPICS The Teaching Orientation and Practicum (TOP) is a two-semester sequence of eight workshops (beginning in January) that prepares M.A. candidates in philosophy to teach an introductory course in philosophy through reading, writing assignments, discussions, interviews with professors, and the construction of a course syllabus. This is a non-credit course that leads to the granting of a certificate of participation. Students must register for TOP for both Spring and Fall semesters to participate. M.A. students who participate in TOP are eligible to apply for Philosophy Teaching Fellowships. STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES By successful completion of this course, students will: Understand the fundamentals of good college instruction. Be able to enter the classroom with confidence when teaching their first college course. Value excellence in college instruction. PREREQUISITES/RECOMMENDED BACKGROUND Restricted to students matriculated in the Philosophy M.A. program, who normally register for TOP during their second and third semesters. REQUIRED TEXTS Readings to be provided. COURSE WORK/EXPECTATIONS On-time attendance and participation in at least six of the eight workshops; completion of all eight writing assignments, interviews, and exercises. Term: Fall 2015
Course Title: Environmental Philosophy Course Number: Philosophy 6998 2 Section Times/Days: T 4:00 6:30 p.m. Instructor: Dr. Scott Cameron Course Description/Principal Topics: Though this class will begin with a romp through some major debates in environmental ethics, we will spend the bulk of the semester working in the broader field of environmental philosophy an essential reorientation: for one cannot clarify, much less resolve outstanding ethical perplexities without addressing the deep epistemological and metaphysical challenges posed by our relation to the all-too-familiar and thereby all the more easily misunderstood natural world. Student Learning Outcomes: Through the course requirements of reading, class participation, individual reflection, and writing, the student should Understand: -some of the central problems people have faced in attempting to give an account of whether and how we can gain insight into the world around us Be able to: -critically evaluate contemporary positions -draw insightful connections between these positions and the student s own pre-critical views, attitudes and actions -communicate the student s insights in clear, competent, critically reflective prose Value: -the contributions of prior philosophers to resolving these difficult questions -the necessity of one s own critical reflection -the search for even better solutions as part of the student s commitment to passing on a world as good as and ideally better than the one the student has inherited -the role of art in contemporary life. Prerequisites/Required Background: None Required texts: We ll be working from PDF s of original articles available on mylmuconnect Course work/expectations: Seminar presentation or paper presentation (determined by number of students enrolled): P/F Final paper: By default,* 100% *In the normal course of events, your class paper grade will be your final grade. I do, however, reserve the right to adjust grades downwards by 0.33 gradepoints (e.g., from an A- to a B+) one time for the P/F segment in the unlikely event someone shoots for an F.