2016-2017

This course will consider the practices of philosophy through a critical examination of different approaches to teaching precollegiate philosophy. Philosophy at the precollegiate level is common outside of the U.S., and there is a growing movement in the U.S. to try to provide greater opportunities, in both public and private schools, for K12 students to experience the joys of philosophizing. But what are the different options for teaching precollegiate philosophy and which are best? That is the main question that this course will address. Students in this course will also have the opportunity to include an experiential learning component by participating in the UChicago Winning Words precollegiate philosophy program. (A) (B)

Are some acts wrong "whatever the consequences"? Do consequences matter when acting for the sake of duty, or virtue, or what is right? How do "consequentialist" ethical theories, such as utilitarianism, address such issues? This course will address these questions by critically examining some of the most provocative defenses of consequentialism in the history of philosophy, from the work of the classical utilitarians Bentham, Mill, and Sidgwick to that of Peter Singer, one of the world's most influential living philosophers and the founder of the animal liberation and effective altruism movements. Does consequentialism lend itself to the Panoptical nightmares of the surveillance state, or can it be a force for a genuinely emancipatory ethics and politics? (A) (B)

Some of the greatest ethical and political challenges confronting the world today are related to environmental issues: for example, climate change, loss of biodiversity, the unsustainable use of natural resources, and other threats to the well-being of both present and future generations. Using both classic and contemporary works, this course will highlight some of the fundamental and unavoidable philosophical questions informing such environmental issues. Can a plausible philosophical account of justice for future generations be developed? What counts as the ethical treatment of non-human animals? What does the term "natural" mean, and can natural environments as such have moral standing? (A) (B)

This course provides an introduction to philosophy though a consideration of the extraordinary diversity of its historical pedagogical practices and literary (and non-literary) forms and genres. "Philosophy" has been everything from a way of life to an academic profession, and "philosophizing" has been conducted in such forms and genres as Socratic conversation, scholastic debate, lectures, group discussions, dialogues, aphorisms, fables, poetry, meditations, novels, reviews, essays, treatises, music, and more. Cultivating some sense of this diversity is crucial to understanding many of the deep differences between philosophical perspectives, past and present. (A) (B)