Advanced Topics in Philosophy

"I really enjoyed the class... everyone came from different view points which made the discussions interesting and multi-faceted."

- From a 2012 Student Program Evaluation

Course Description

Students collectively choose two traditions/themes in the study of philosophy to explore together as a class. This course is designed for students who want to engage in lively debate on a philosopher's ideas, closely read primary texts, and debate how a philosopher’s ideas are manifest in the world today. As a class, students choose two of the following seven areas of philosophical inquiry:

• Students read and discuss Plato's Symposium and Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics to begin exploring their respective treatises on Love and Human Excellence. Students debate questions related to the dialogue on Love that Plato develops through the voice and character of Socrates. In the Ethics, students discuss the topic of human excellence and answer the question of how humans should best live their lives. In a practical sense, what is the purpose of human life and what is the ultimate goal of human endeavor?
   
• Through a reading of Seneca's Moral Essays students try to understand Stoicism and its impact on philosophy as a way of life. Discussions focus on the central questions of what is the Stoic Ethic of clear judgment and what does it mean to free oneself of the passions and attachments that bring anguish and suffering to our lives. How might the Stoic Ethic be effective or a compelling way of thinking in the world today?
   
• In American Philosophy and Pragmatism students seek an answer to what, if anything, can be considered distinctly American philosophical thought? Via a reading of Cornel West's The American Evasion of Philosophy: A Genealogy of Pragmatism, students explore West's thoughts on Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, John Dewey and their foundational places in American thought and experience.
   
• The section on Social and Political Philosophy culminates in a class debate on Freedom Democracy vs. Equality Democracy as alternate theories of democracy. An essential question for students will be how does each 'type' of democracy inform our national debates on American public policy? In teams divided for this debate, students read, defend, and make the case for John Locke's Second Treatise of Government or Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Social Contract.
   
• Students interested in Philosophy of Art or Philosophy of Education study and discuss one of John Dewey's seminal works, either his aesthetic thoughts in Art as Experience or his theories on education in Democracy and Education. Students seek to answer what is art and how do we recognize it collectively and socially? How does one become an artist and is art the province of an artist or does art also matter to the viewer? Or; how central is education to the American democratic project? Is a good education essential for citizens and their participation in society? What responsibilities does a society or a government have towards educating its people? Do the former questions have any meaning or practical reference in the US Constitution?
   
• Through reading and discussion of Albert Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus, Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit, Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, students begin a dialogue and exploration of Existential Theory and Drama. In addition to the readings students have an opportunity to critique film and other art forms that have existential themes at their core.
   
• "Does anyone know the moral effects of food? Is there a philosophy of nourishment?" Philosophy of Food and the Body: students explore an alternate take on traditional western philosophy, what direction could philosophy have gone if physical or bodily nourishment were worthy of reflection for ancient and modern philosophers. In Cooking, Eating, Thinking: Transformative Philosophies of Food students read some of what Hindu, Buddhist, Judaic, Muslim and Native-American traditions have to say about food, the body and our material world. In addition, students review some contemporary reflections on food and the body- e.g., the clamor for and against vegetarianism, the ideas supporting the slow and local food movements and the environmentalist approach to sustainability and health.

Instructor(s)