Success in fulfilling desires? 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. We will conclude by considering some critical appropriations of Marx by 20th Century philosophers, including Georg Lukacs, Max Horkheimer, and Theodor Adorno. The College Mission Statement says that "Williams seeks to provide the finest possible liberal arts education by nurturing in students the academic and civic virtues, and their related traits of character." What constitutes my knowledge of myself as a person, and does that knowledge differ in any significant respect from my knowledge of physical objects and of other people? In this course we will investigate the the broad topics of consciousness and thought by surveying the many approaches to mind that yield the contemporary debates. The first, shorter part will focus on the writings of the three classics of American pragmatism--Charles S. Peirce, William James and John Dewey--and analyze their reaction against traditional epistemology, as well as the positive philosophical ideas that they had to offer. For example, many people would agree that 'Keith's favorite unicorn' is a meaningful expression. [more], This course is a survey of 17th- and 18th-century European philosophy, with a focus on metaphysics and epistemology. Furthermore, they share the conviction that the most important components of a successful life are within the control of the individual human being. Cy Walsh was detained under mental health supervision after the Supreme Court found he was mentally incompetent when he stabbed his father to death in July 2015. Is film today really distinct from a number of new, emerging visual media? We will read works by three of Socrates' contemporaries: Aristophanes, Xenophon, and especially Plato. The millennia old problem of whether human suffering is compatible with God's perfection is called "the problem of evil." [more], Animals are and always have been part of human life. Do our beliefs have their meanings one-by-one? Does film accurately capture reality, as no other art does? It is, in fact, quite difficult to get through any course of study in the liberal arts without some familiarity with Plato. Why should one obey the law (if one should)? Of particular interest will be how language can be used to establish, reinforce, and resist power relationships involving race and gender. The first, shorter part will focus on the writings of the three classics of American pragmatism--Charles S. Peirce, William James and John Dewey--and analyze their reaction against traditional epistemology, as well as the positive philosophical ideas that they had to offer. Political parties. S. Peirce, and John Dewey. Could the world be made up of sensory properties only? His later work, best known through posthumously published Philosophical Investigations, continues to influence contemporary thinking about language, mind, action, knowledge, ethics, religion, aesthetics, culture, and of course, philosophy itself. [more], Kant's Critique of Pure Reason is perhaps the most significant text in the history of philosophy. scientific theories. This first-year seminar will examine the philosophy of education through educational autobiographies: works that tell the story of a moral and intellectual education. In this tutorial, we will investigate the nature of skepticism and the varieties of relativism it encourages. In framing and answering these questions, we will discuss subjective experience (or phenomenology) of mental illness; holism vs. reductionism; functional, historical and structural explanations of psychopathology; theory formation, evidence, and the role of values in psychology and psychiatry; the diversity and disunity of psychotherapeutic approaches; relationship between knowers and the known; and relationship between theoretical knowledge in psychiatry and the practices of healing. Are we rationally justified in drawing causal inferences? To do this we will explore topics that might traditionally be considered "women's issues" in healthcare, such as medicine and body image (e.g., cosmetic surgery, eating disorders), reproductive and genetic technologies, and research on women and their health care needs. Is patriotism incompatible with cosmopolitanism, and if so, which of the two should we value? Should we revise logic in light of empirical discoveries in, for example, physics or psychology? And what present practices and ways of thinking and knowing might be questioned using Foucault's tools, genealogy in particular, for resisting unnecessary constraints on freedom and the perpetuation of unnecessary suffering? Unsurprisingly, philosophers have proffered a variety of answers to these questions, prompting one philosopher to remark, half-jokingly, that "there are as many definitions of philosophy as there are philosophers." Readings will be drawn from recent work in the Frankfurt School and poststructuralist traditions of critical theory as well as anti-racist, anti-colonial, feminist and queer theories that draw upon them. Writer: Teamo Supremo. Second, we will engage in some current philosophical debates concerning the concept of freedom in metaphysics, ethics, and political philosophy. However, the status of loyalty as a virtue has always been suspect: it has been argued that it is incompatible with impartiality, fairness and equality, and claimed that it is always exclusionary. What is the relationship between the mind and the body? If loyalty is a virtue, what are the proper limits of its cultivation and expression? This site was launched in Spring of 2020, and includes death notifications beginning January 1, 2020. We'll attempt to answer this question by examining recent philosophical work on the nature of free will and responsibility. [more], Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) is probably the greatest philosopher of the 20th century. In this course, we will study the most important and influential chapters of the, Topics in Philosophy of Race: Hegel and Africana Philosophy, double? Diamond investigated the methodology of moral philosophy, paying special attention to the role of literature. Throughout the course, our focus will be on the best theoretical and practical knowledge we now have to diagnose, explain, and alleviate mental illness. Can we be mistaken about how well our lives are going, or about what has value? How do I know that I am one? Critical theory aims not merely to understand the "struggles and wishes of the age" as Marx one described it, but with emancipation from domination. And, Existentialists express their thought in philosophical treatises as often as in literary works. Our tools in this course will be logic and reason, even when we are trying to determine what the limits of reason might be. The stoics and skeptics both claimed a Socratic imprimatur for their own thought. What is the proper 'geography'--classification and analysis--of our emotions, and what is their relation to our somatic states, feelings, beliefs, judgments, evaluations and actions? If not, should this concern us? See the college's. Must the freedom or fulfillment of some people require the subordination of others? Why read the history of philosophy? Introduction to Critical Theory: The Enlightenment and Its Critics. Which characteristics of persons give them moral status? Can science contribute to our understanding of these issues? Are there metaphysical and ideological assumptions in contemporary psychiatry, and if so, could and should they be avoided? Is a world with AI's overall better or worse for us? We will prepare for the Republic by reading two Socratic dialogues: the Euthyphro and the Meno. Our main goal will be to prove things about this logical system rather than to use this system to think about ordinary language arguments. Our aim is to enrich our understanding of the discipline in order to evaluate its value and limitations. We will examine basic questions in the philosophy of law: What is the relationship between law and morality? Emboldened by our confidence in skeptical arguments, we claim that knowledge is inevitably limited, that it depends on one's perspective, and that everything one believes is relative to context or culture. While social justice and distributive justice are deeply intertwined in the health care context and we will discuss both, we will focus primarily on the concept of distributive justice. Some of the questions we will ask are: What is the nature of filmic representation? Our goal will be to characterize phenomena like those above with logical and mathematical precision. [more], This course will examine central questions in normative ethics, including the following: Which features of actions are morally important and why (e.g., their motive, their intrinsic nature, or their consequences)? between law and morality? has taken on an exciting urgency. Our texts will include Gottlob Frege. After several weeks on the Republic we will turn to Shakespeare's last play: The Tempest. Who is equal? this class, we will attempt to carry on the noble tradition of corruption by philosophy. [more], The aim of this tutorial is to critically examine the nature, importance, and ethical value of personal attachments and loyalties. What is the nature of language? (v) Either you are reading or you are a fish. Science is only "true" for some people, agnosticism is the only alternative to foolish superstition, and moral relativism and, consequently, nihilism are obvious. In this course, we will examine some central texts in ancient Greek and Roman moral philosophy. We will examine well-known philosophical arguments for and against the existence of God (including the ontological argument, the cosmological argument, the teleological argument, the argument from religious experience, and the argument from evil). In this course we will seek to comprehend the dimensions in which Existentialism is a distinctive intellectual tradition. Conversation is dynamic--the back and forth exchange of information is a process that grows and adapts to the surrounding context. This course is an advanced seminar devoted to a comprehensive examination of Fanon's political thought. Leibniz wrote his New Essays in 1704 as a critical response to Locke's Essay of 1690. We also introduce the practice of meditation as a way to observe the mind and raise questions concerning the place of its study in the mind-sciences. Against the first, people often don't seem to reason very well. Are we capable of disinterested altruism, or are we motivated solely by self-interest? We also examine the Yogacara school, which offers a process view of reality focusing on the analysis of experience. Later Wittgenstein is a controversial, polarizing figure; but serious reading of his work is invariably intellectually enriching and fertile. We turn first to two of Plato's most famous dialogues, Philosophical Approaches to Contemporary Moral Issues. Furthermore, many of the issues that Aristotle takes up in these books remain of central importance in contemporary philosophy. [more], Some of the discoveries made by physicists over the last century seem to show that our common sense views are deeply at odds with our most sophisticated and best confirmed scientific theories. We pursue this reflection by examining the views of James, Husserl, Sartre and Merleau-Ponty, particularly as they concern the methods for the study of the mind and the relation between consciousness, reflexivity and the body. When AI is fully realized, it is likely to be amongst the most important things to happen to our species. Some of the questions which we will discuss are: What is a person? The abstract philosophical question before us is. Do particular case histories offer good explanations of psychopathology? According to Hegel, subjects are both historically and socially constituted; they are formed through their relations with other subjects. Student interest will be taken into consideration in deciding what additional topics to cover. Are there ethical considerations that should govern both film production and spectatorship? Mill, W.E.B Dubois, John Rawls, Charles Mills, Jurgen Habermas). [more], The core activity of this seminar is the careful reading and sustained discussion of selected works by Plato and Aristotle, but we will also engage such other thinkers as Epictetus and Augustine, and, from a political and theoretical point of view, selections from the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. Why read the history of philosophy? About 3,000 people flocked to an Adelaide Crows training session as the emotional aftermath to the death of coach Phil Walsh continues. Death Date Jul 3, 2015: Birth Sign: Pisces: Phil Walsh Height, Body Info. In this tutorial we address some (certainly only some) of the current debates in critical and ethical theory that have been fueled by Nietzsche's work. Our readings will come primarily from philosophy, but will be supplemented with material from anthropology, physics, psychology, and linguistics. limits of language? Does free inquiry clash with concern for others, or do they (or can they) work together? Locke is the first great Empiricist Realist, and Leibniz the greatest Rationalist Idealist. In this course we take up questions such as the following: What sorts of subjects do we find in modern Western societies? The course will present the essential ideas of relativity theory and quantum theory and explore their implications for philosophy. Is it forced on people who endorse cultural pluralism as their political ideal as the only tenable philosophical position? From there it is a natural transition to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Reasoning and Inference: The Philosophy of Logic, and thinking within formal systems and how to prove various things within these systems. The Wittgenstein of the Tractatus is known as the "earlier Wittgenstein," the Wittgenstein of the Investigations is known as the "later Wittgenstein." United States portal. How do our thoughts refer to objects? This discussion will lead us to the relativist and social-constructivist views developed within contemporary science studies. The goals of this course are to improve the critical thinking of the students, to introduce them to sentential and predicate logic, to familiarize them with enough formal logic to enable them to read some of the great works of philosophy, which use formal logic (such as Wittgenstein's. If there are such things--we'll call them propositions--what are they like? We will begin with Aristotle's Poetics and will continue with Hume's Of Tragedy, Hegel's various writings on tragedy, and Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy. Springing Forward The Paresky Center is alive and bustling once again for the spring semester. those issues in and of themselves, and to consider the ways in which selected classical and contemporary moral theories characterize and address those moral dimensions. Thus, the concept of person plays a significant role in most branches of philosophy, e.g. His son was arrested after police were called to a domestic dispute at the home in Somerton Park at 2am ACST on Friday. The real question, then, seems to be whether, and how, free choice is possible amidst all of these influences. What, if anything, justifies our scientific knowledge? At least, let's assume that you are for the sake of argument. Taking this as our starting point, in this course we will examine a number of conceptual and ethical issues in the use and development of technologies related to human reproduction, drawing out their implications for such core concepts as "motherhood" and "parenthood," family and genetic relatedness, exploitation and commodification, and reproductive rights and society's interests in reproductive activities. For example, we commonly attribute to Plato a theory of the Forms on the basis of his claims in the so-called "middle dialogues" (mainly Republic, Phaedo, and Symposium). His thought influenced the thought of subsequent generations of philosophers. Of particular interest will be the extent to which discourse dynamics are built into the meanings of linguistic expressions vs. the extent to which they're consequences of our rational cognition. Some of them explicitly engage meta-philosophical debates; others exemplify particular philosophical styles and methods. Some of the questions that we will discuss are: What is psychopathology and what are its causes? View Phil Walsh's email address (p*****@kw***.com) and phone number. [more], The sentence "Every cookie is chocolate chip and three of them are oatmeal raisin" is a perfectly grammatical sentence of English, but it's self-contradictory. [more], This course involves independent study under the supervision of a member of the department. Does it advance our thinking and increase our knowledge of the world? Near the end of the semester, we'll also examine some evolutionary explanations of religious belief. This seminar will try to establish, with as much accuracy as the subject allows, what are the central tenets of American Pragmatism, how they have shaped contemporary epistemology and the philosophy of science, and finally, to what extent are pragmatist approaches to human knowledge philosophically sound and fruitful. Embodiment and Consciousness: A Cross-Cultural Exploration. Why then should we spend our time studying people who in addition to having these surprising beliefs have been dead for 2500 years? Our texts will include Gottlob Frege, The Foundations of Arithmetic, Bertrand Russell, Principles of Mathematics, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. We will ask, for example, what these theories tell us about the nature of space, time, probability and causality. Cognitive science synthesizes research from cognitive psychology, computer science, linguistics, neuroscience, and contemporary philosophy. PHIL 119 - 01 (S) SEM Justice, Democracy and Freedom Division II Writing Skills. What are some of the necessary conditions for democracy? We will then turn to some specific social forms in the second unit, and ask whether they promote or preclude our freedom. [more], This course is an introduction to philosophy through three major themes: The nature of the universe, the existence of gods, and the mind/body problem. Finally, we will consider how the concept of freedom is applied in contemporary social contexts, such as speech, religion, voting, and sexuality and gender. What is his legacy today? Our tools in this course will be logic and reason, even when we are trying to determine what the limits of reason might be. Wittgenstein's two masterpieces, the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and the Philosophical Investigations, stand like opposing poles around which schools of twentieth-century analytic philosophy revolve. If time permits, we'll also look briefly at some recent post-Rawlsian debates about the nature of distributive justice (e.g., luck vs. relational egalitarianism, or global justice). In this course, we will examine a number of Greek tragedies and philosophical writing on tragedy and the tragic. Your email address will not be published. argument, the cosmological argument, the teleological argument, the argument from religious experience, and the argument from evil). We will closely analyze classical arguments by Augustine, Avicenna, Aquinas, Anselm, Maimonides, Descartes, and others. Hegel and Karl Marx. Moreover, the ethical issues that are implicated in responses to the pandemic reflect the range of those manifested across the field of public health as a whole. Background readings include sources rooted in traditional modes of bioethical analysis as well as those incorporating feminist approaches. The issue of prediction was also raised by economist Donald McCloskey who, in 1988, asked his fellow economists, "If you're so smart, why ain't you rich?" The issue of prediction was also raised by economist Donald McCloskey who, in 1988, asked his fellow economists, "If you're so smart, why ain't you rich?" In this way the goal of the course is significantly different from that of Logic and Language (PHIL 203). The course will begin with the "received view" of science, advanced by logical empiricists, which assumes the objectivity and the rationality of science and argues that induction is the main scientific method. This is a formal course, but no prior logical or mathematical background will be expected. Of course, this question cannot really be answered, nor is there any value in trying to answer it, and any "answer" will only be "true" for you. The debate never transpired - indeed, Leibniz suppressed his New Essays - because of Locke's death in 1705. We conclude by considering the relation between first and third person studies of the mind, focusing on the concept of the embodied mind as a fruitful bridge between these different traditions. 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. Beyond this common ground, however, epistemologists are much divided. 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