Spring

Topic: Heidegger’s Critique of German Idealism

Martin Heidegger claimed that the entire western philosophical tradition reached its ‘culmination’ (Vollendung) in the philosophy of German Idealism. In this course we will take this diagnosis seriously, work to understand its presuppositions and implications, and attempt to assess its cogency.

Our procedure will be to conduct an intensive study of Heidegger’s interpretations of Kantian and Hegelian metaphysics. We will read in their entirety Heidegger’s major works on Kant’s theoretical philosophy from the 1920s through the 1960s, as well as his central writings on Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit and Science of Logic. In addition to supplementary readings from Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, we may also read excerpts from Aristotle, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Christian Wolff, and Alexander Baumgarten. It is possible we may also cast occasional side-long glances at the status of metaphysics in thinkers who either decisively influenced Heidegger’s critique of the tradition or were decisively influenced by it (e.g. Nietzsche, Derrida).

This will be an introduction to philosophy through the music of Taylor Swift. We'll explore a range of philosophical themes using Swift's lyrics as a starting point. Such themes include the nature of love and desire, the ethics of fantasy, memory and nostalgia, revenge, aesthetics, and autonomy. No prior experience with philosophy required, nor does one have to be a Swiftie. (A)

This course introduces students to key concepts, texts, and figures from the phenomenological tradition as it emerged and developed in Germany and France over the late-19th and 20th centuries. Students will engage with questions of intentionality, temporality, embodiment, finitude, and meaning-making. The course will pay particular attention to continuities and discontinuities between key figures. Major figures covered include Edmund Husserl, Edith Stein, Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Hannah Arendt, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Simone de Beauvoir, Frantz Fanon, and Jean-Paul Sartre. (B)

Advanced Study: Philosophy

Preparing papers to submit to journals for review and revising papers in response to the feedback received from journal editors and referees is an essential part of professional academic life, and students applying for academic positions with no publications to their name are at a disadvantage in today’s highly competitive job market. The Department of Philosophy has therefore instituted the Paper Revision and Publication Workshop to provide our graduate students with support and assistance to prepare papers to submit for publication in academic philosophy journals. The workshop was designed with the following three aims in mind:

1. to provide students with a basic understanding of the various steps involved in publishing in academic journals and to create a forum in which students can solicit concrete advice from faculty members about the publishing process;

2. to direct and actively encourage students to submit at least one paper to a journal for review on a timeline that would allow accepted submissions to be listed as publications on a student’s CV by the time they go on the academic job market; and

3. to create and foster a departmental culture in which the continued revision of work with the ultimate aim of publication in academic journals is viewed as an essential aspect of the professional training of our graduate students and in which both faculty and students work together to establish more ambitious norms for publishing while in graduate school.

Disasters tax efforts to make sense of human experience to the limits. Whether the death and devastation are wrought by war, plague, storm, or earthquake, disasters bring an abrupt end to life as we once knew it. Such moments shift the human urge to explain and understand into overdrive. This seminar explores the efforts to make sense of disasters, from late Antiquity to the present, in philosophy, science, literature, and theology. Readings will center on specific examples of disasters, drawing upon primary sources wherever possible.

This course explores how the theory of justice relates to political practice and change. We will examine different theories about the relationship of theory to practice, including utopianism, system failure analysis, and pragmatism. We will consider what role both the idea of a just society and an analysis of the unjust status quo plays in our theorizing about justice. Among topics to be explored include the role of the utopian horizon in practice; how to be a realist without being a cynic; whether the addressee of political philosophy is universal or particular; what the role of the oppressed is in both theorizing and bringing change; and how the political philosopher relates to agents of change. Along the way we will engage with thinkers such as Erik Olin Wright, G.A. Cohen, Elizabeth Anderson, Tommie Shelby, David Estlund, and Pablo Gilabert. Time-permitting we may also examine a few historical texts that engage directly with these questions, including Aristotle, Kant, Marx, and Lukács. (A) (I)

This course is an introduction to the central ideas of Wittgenstein--in philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics and logic, philosophy of mind, epistemology, philosophy of religion, metaphilosophy, and other areas of the subject. We will attempt to understand, and to evaluate, these ideas. As part of this attempt, we will explore Wittgenstein’s relation to various others figures—among them Hume, Schopenhauer, Frege, and the logical positivists. (B)

The question what to do is commonly said to articulate the fundamental concern of the practical intellect. But when it comes time to explain what it means, philosophers often substitute, for the original question, various other questions. Substitutes include, “What should I (or one) do?,” “What would it be good (or right) to do?,” “What is there most (or sufficient) reason to do?,” and “What is the best (or an adequate) option?” In this advanced research seminar, we will approach a range of foundational topics in practical philosophy—e.g., intention, action, agency, practical reason and normativity—by considering the question what to do in its natural habitat, an arbitrary moment of an ordinary day. Readings will include contemporary literature and a manuscript by the instructor. (I)