They help us ask: What is freedom? In this tutorial you will read from a selection of Foucault's texts (books, lectures, interviews) in order to acquire a firm grasp of his method of "critique" and his way of looking at the interconnections between forms of power and the knowledge associated with particular disciplines. Rather than seeing philosophy as an esoteric discipline, the pragmatic philosophers (with the possible exception of Peirce) see philosophy as integral to our culture and see themselves as public intellectuals. Key ideas and concepts such as the death of god, the use and abuse of history, the eternal recurrence, will to power, and master and slave morality will be addressed. (There will be optional, supplementary opportunity to engage with the Latin text for interested students with some facility with Latin.) In this tutorial we will exploit this characteristic of biomedical ethics by using a case-based approach to examining core concepts of the field. Topics will range from consideration of "mundane" technologies such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), prenatal genetic screening and testing, and surrogacy, to the more extraordinary, possibly including pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), post-menopausal reproduction, and post-mortem gamete procurement. And, Existentialists express their thought in philosophical treatises as often as in literary works. [more], The primary way we interact with others is through the use of language. Hence, being with others, being dependent on others, is regarded as a key structuring feature of human existence. We will then discuss philosophies of science which emerged out of various criticisms of this view - especially those of Popper, Lakatos, Kuhn and Feyerabend - and the challenges to the assumptions of scientific objectivity and rationality their works provoked. If Kundera is right, fictional narratives (such as novels) sometimes do the philosophical work that philosophy cannot do for itself. We will begin with an analysis of primary texts by Fanon and end by considering how Fanon has been interpreted by his contemporaries as well as activists and critical theorists writing today. use tab and shift-tab to navigate once expanded, Covid-19 is an ongoing concern in our region, including on campus. The objective is the presentation and writing of a senior essay (maximum 40 pages). [more], The aim of the course is to survey, analyze and discuss many varieties of relativism--semantic, epistemic, ontological and moral--from Plato's Theaetetus to contemporary social constructivism. Aside from its overwhelming influence on 20th and 21st century philosophy and intellectual culture, any book which contains the remark, " if a lion could talk, we could not understand him," deserves serious attention. Does freedom require leading (or avoiding) a political life? We got it anyway . Firstly, we will try to understand the mental lives of non-human animals. We conclude by considering some of the later Hindu holistic views of the self as responses to the Buddhist critique. We will examine this issue in Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, classic sources and contemporary articles. The picture that we find in the works of the tragedians, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides is markedly different. If not, should this concern us? The answer is not merely that they ask the question, "What gives meaning to a human life?" We'll also work on writing lucid prose that displays precisely the logical structure of arguments, engages in focused critique of these arguments, and forcefully presents arguments of our own. His thought influenced the thought of subsequent generations of philosophers. more broadly, what it is like to have a first person, waking perspective at all--resists explanation in any terms other than the conscious experience itself in spite of centuries of intense effort by philosophers and, more recently, by scientists. [more], "Faith is a fine invention," according to Emily Dickinson's poem, "when gentlemen can see; but microscopes are prudent in an emergency." and includes death notifications beginning January 1, 2020. . We will conclude by considering some critical appropriations of Marx by 20th Century philosophers, including Georg Lukacs, Max Horkheimer, and Theodor Adorno. Your email address will not be published. No domain of inquiry is immune to this destructive skepticism and confident relativism. A number of conceptual themes will emerge throughout the course of the term, including notions of exploitation and coercion, privacy and confidentiality, and the balance between public interests and individual rights. We will examine a variety of philosophical and scientific theories of emotion, as well as some issues concerning normative aspects of emotions: the role of emotions in a good life, and the concept of emotional maturity. Is film a creation of a single artist - the director, the author - or is it a result of a loosely synchronized and not quite coherent collaboration of many different people, each guided by her or his particular vision? of Western metaphysics; French Nietzscheans such as Foucault, Derrida and Deleuze as well as French feminist Luce Irigaray appropriate Nietzschean themes and concepts in their critical engagements with the Western philosophical tradition; and Anglo-American moral philosophers such as Bernard Williams, Alisdair MacIntyre, and Phillippa Foot (as well as Rorty) respond to and engage his critique of modern morality. Tragedy and philosophy were two of the finest achievements of classical Athenian civilization, and each attempts to reveal to the reader something fundamental about our shared human condition. Second, we will engage in some current philosophical debates concerning the concept of freedom in metaphysics, ethics, and political philosophy. Are we capable of disinterested altruism, or are we motivated solely by self-interest? Right? Our focus will be on recent influential work in this area. We will try to determine what is the scope and nature of an adequate theory of emotions, what are the desiderata for such a theory, and what should count as evidence in its favor. Some understand its aim to be to answer normative questions about the nature of truth, justice, goodness and rationality. Unit Notes: Public Health concentrators may use either PHIL 211T Ethics of Public Health or PHIL 213T Biomedical Ethics to fulfill their 3-elective requirement, but they may not use both courses to do so. In this tutorial we will read from Ancient, modern and contemporary philosophical sources as well several relevant studies in the social sciences and positive psychology movement in order to engage questions concerning happiness. This theoretically oriented work will provide the background for subsequent examination of specific topics, which may include, among others: justice in health care financing and reform; justice in health care rationing and access to health care, with particular attention to the intersections of rationing criteria with gender, sexuality, race, disability, and age; justice in the procurement and allocation of organs for transplantation; obesity and personal responsibility for illness; and justice in medical research, including "double standards" for research conducted in low resource settings. falsity of all our beliefs? We will, undoubtedly, have to adjust the syllabus to respond to breaking international, national and local news. Should we value other things (say justice or passionate commitment and curiosity) over happiness? . [more], In this course we will study Aristotle's Metaphysics concentrating of books gamma-theta. What if they are more fair? Williams relatives. Pascal's wager is a different approach: it argues that even though proof of the existence of God is unavailable, you will maximize your expected utility be believing. It puts an end to the Early Modern traditions of Rationalism and Empiricism, and it stands at the beginning of both the Analytic and Continental traditions in contemporary philosophy. We will then turn to a variety of more recent attempts to give a clear characterization of causation. In our attempts to make headway in answering such daunting questions, we investigate recent debates in critical theory concerning subjection and resistance, intersubjective recognition and redistribution, social pathologies and the idea of a political unconscious. Secondly, we will try to make sense of the moral dimensions of our relationship to animals. . Finally, we will analyze the current debate about cognitive credentials of science and about proper approaches to the study of science, which came to be known as "the science wars.". some of the Hindu views about the self and the mind and consider their ethical implications. Perhaps, then, economics is not primarily a predictive science, but instead a descriptive, historical, and/or mathematical one. Others maintain that these questions will only yield to methods that incorporate our broader insight into the nature of the world including, perhaps, feminist thought or science. Questions include: Does the world decide the truth and falsity of all our beliefs? Were they simply too unsophisticated and confused to understand what is for us the irresistible power of skepticism and relativism? Authors will include Plato, Anselm, Aquinas, Pascal, Paley, Hume, Kant, Kierkegaard, and several contemporary philosophers. Its probing and intimate reflections on the meaning of human life, the nature of God and mind, time and eternity, will and world, good and evil, love and sexuality have challenged every generation since Augustine's own. Are happiness and pleasure the same thing? We will first get clear on the formal semantics of first-order logic and various ways of thinking about formal proof: natural deduction systems, semantic tableaux, axiomatic systems and sequent calculi. Student interest will be taken into consideration in deciding what additional topics to cover. Our readings will include the relevant works of Plato, Sextus Empiricus, Carnap, Quine, Davidson, Goodman, Elgin, Hacking, Krausz, Foot, and Williams, among others. In this tutorial we will exploit this characteristic of biomedical ethics by using a case-based approach to examining core concepts of the field. Are there ethical considerations that should govern both film production and spectatorship? How do logic and language relate? Some of the questions we will consider are: Are moral standards relative to cultural frameworks? What is the body? How important are honor, money, love, work, friendship and our connections to others to our happiness? The debate between Realism and Idealism concerns whether reality is composed of mind-independent matter, or mind-like substances. Are there incompatible but equally true ways of describing the world? We will examine the wager in its original home of Pascal's Pensees, and look at William James' related article, "The Will to Believe." Beginning January 1, 2020. students with some facility with Latin. mind-independent matter, mind-like. This issue in Hume 's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, classic sources and contemporary.. In the works of the phil walsh death williams college normative questions about the nature of,! Be on recent influential work in this area, or are we capable disinterested. 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