Spring

For many decades John Rawls’s theory of “justice as fairness” has been criticized from the left. One recurrent criticism is that justice as fairness cannot respond to the social pathologies that afflict modern societies. The criticism says (i) Rawls’s ideal society (his “well-ordered society”) cannot forestall the presence of significant social pathologies, and (ii) no alteration of justice as fairness that successfully responds to such pathologies could remain within a broadly liberal tradition. In the first half of the course we will read parts of A Theory of Justice as well as other Rawls writings to set the conceptual stage. In the second half we will read several recent writers from the tradition of the Frankfurt School (Axel Honneth, Rahel Jaeggi, Fabien Freyenhagen) as well as others (e.g., Miranda Fricker) who focus on social pathologies. We will ask whether (i) is true and, if it is, whether (ii) is true. (A)

The year-long Workshop will expose students to work in "general jurisprudence" from roughly the last five years, including some new and forthcoming work. General jurisprudence is that part of philosophy of law concerned with the central questions about the nature of law, the relationship between law and morality, and the nature of legal reasoning. ; Confirmed speakers include Emid Ataq (Cornell), Julie Dickson (Oxford), David Plunkett (Dartmouth), Stephen Sachs (Duke), and Kevin Toh (University College London). Students who have taken Leiter's "Jurisprudence I" course at the law school are welcome to enroll. Students who have not taken Jurisprudence I must contact the instructor with information about their prior study of legal philosophy. Detailed familiarity with Hart's The Concept of Law and Dworkin's criticisms of Hart is essential. A final paper of 20-25 pages is required.

What is the object of mathematics? Where does mathematics derive its certainty from? Does it originate from the pure intellect or from empirical experience? Why is mathematics miraculously efficacious” in its application to nature? What is lost and gained in the development of mathematics and how does it shape our worldview? These have been central issues that philosophers since the Antiquity have occupied themselves with, and in many ways, they have shaped the trajectory of the history of philosophy. Philosophers’ answers to these questions have constantly evolved in light of the development of the mathematical sciences as well as the intellectual context of each generation. This course introduces classical texts and debates on the above-mentioned epistemological issues, including the writings of Aristotle, Descartes, Kant, Helmholtz, Frege, Husserl, and beyond.

An examination of ancient Greek philosophical texts that are foundational for Western philosophy, especially the work of Plato and Aristotle. Topics will include: the nature and possibility of knowledge and its role in human life; the nature of the soul; virtue; happiness and the human good.

Topic: Autonomy and Liberation

This course explores and compares two determinations of the concept of freedom in the history of philosophy. In the first half of the course, we examine Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the German Idealists’ idea that to be free is to be autonomous, obeying only those laws that one has legislated for oneself. In the second half, we turn to the radical philosophies of anticapitalist Karl Marx and feminist Catharine MacKinnon. For Marx and MacKinnon, the central question of freedom is not autonomy but rather liberation: How can we transition from an unfree world to a free one? Philosophers from both halves of the course conceive of freedom as in some sense self-grounding. We will think deeply about what this means and thereby discover two potential challenges. (1) If all freedom and authority derives from autonomy, how can we make sense of autonomy itself? It seems it would need to create itself. (2) If liberation must come from ourselves, then it cannot depend on anything outside of the social world that already exists. But this means that the tools of liberation must come from the very systems that make us unfree. How is this possible? We will evaluate and compare these two challenges and see whether the philosophers can offer satisfying answers. 

Topic: A Life of One’s Own: Autonomy, Meaning and Selfhood

What does it mean to say that my life is my own, or that I am living my own life? The concept of autonomy bears directly on this issue: put very generally, if I am autonomous, I am the source of my reasons and actions. I am “my own person,” I live my life in a way that is up to me and is not distorted or manipulated by others. In this course, we will investigate what it means to be autonomous, as it bears on my ability to be “my own person” and to live “my own life.” Does the idea that my life, or my actions are my own, depend on my having a self? What does it mean for reasons and motives to be “my own”? How do I decide for myself how I should live? How should I understand the influence of others on who I am and what I decide to do? Do the demands of morality place inappropriate restrictions on my ability to decide how I should live? What, if anything, do I aim at in determining how I should live a life which is genuinely my own? We will begin by reading two accounts of agency and selfhood which explain human selves and human action interdependently, in terms of autonomy: a Humean account, by Harry Frankfurt, and a Kantian account, by Christine Korsgaard.  For both, the self is characterized structurally: what it is to be a self is for one’s beliefs, desires and intentions to be organized in a certain way. We will then explore issues that arise when we consider what it is to live one’s own life, including the nature and value of authenticity, the demandingness of morality, “selfishness” and self-effacement, and the pursuit of meaning in life. Finally, we will consider the psychoanalytic critique of morality, which will offer another perspective on these issues. Psychoanalysis emphasizes the ways in which who we are is not up to us, and that we must live with parts of ourselves we did not choose. What can psychoanalytic theory teach us about what it is to live one’s own life? Readings will be drawn from contemporary ethical theory, as well as psychoanalysis.

 
 

Is opera an archaic and exotic pageant for fanciers of overweight canaries, or a relevant art form of great subtlety and complexity that has the power to be revelatory? In this course of eight sessions, jointly taught by Professor Martha Nussbaum and Anthony Freud, General Director of Lyric Opera of Chicago, we explore the multi-disciplinary nature of this elusive and much-maligned art form, with its four hundred-year-old European roots, discussing both historic and philosophical contexts and the practicalities of interpretation and production in a very un-European, twenty-first century city.

Anchoring each session around a different opera, we will be joined by a variety of guest experts, one each week, including a director, a conductor, a designer and two singers, to enable us to explore different perspectives.

The list of operas to be discussed include Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppaea, Mozart's Don Giovanni, Rossini’s La Cenerentola, Verdi's Don Carlos, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Wagner's Die Meistersinger, Strauss's Elektra, and Britten's Billy Budd. (A) (I)

This seminar will consist in a close reading of Aristotle’s great contribution to philosophical psychology, his De Anima, which we will read in conjunction with Sean Kelsey’s much-anticipated manuscript on the subject.  Themes will include the relation between mind and world, the natures of perception and thought, the distinctions between different kinds of minds, the definition of "life."  The seminar will take the form of a reading group, in which various graduate students and faculty members will participate.  Students taking the course for credit will be expected to submit a term paper.  Hours to be arranged. (IV)