Global Arc

Racism is a blight wherever it exists and calls for racial justice are still essential.This course aims to show how philosophy is integral to thinking through some major issues to do with race, racism, and racial justice today.In this course we will consider broad questions vital to understanding current racial issues.What is race? What is racism? How does intersectionality complicate our understanding of these questions? We will also consider more specific questions and particular issues around racial justice. Is racial profiling wrong? What should we think about affirmative action? Should there be reparations for (past?) racial injustices?

The course will survey a range of different views about what it takes to be rational. Potential questions we will consider range from the everyday to the theoretical, including: Is there reason to vote in large elections if you know in advance that your vote will not swing the election? Could it be rational to make a sincere promise to spend the rest of your life with someone, given what is known about relationship failure rates? How should you respond to learning that you disagree with someone who seems equally well-qualified to judge the relevant issue?

This course focusing primarily on the Confucian tradition. Roughly half of the course will be spent on classical Chinese Philosophy from Confucius through to Hanfeizi. The second half of the course will begin with a very brief look at Chinese Buddhism, and go on to discuss in detail the development of Song and Ming Dynasty Neo-Confucianism. Students will acquire a basic knowledge of standard philosophical tools (how to reconstruct an argument from a text, how to assess the validity and soundness of an argument). They will also gain a working knowledge of the ideas of some of China's greatest philosophical thinkers.

Introduction to clinical and public health ethics. Topics within clinical ethics include: abortion, physician-assisted suicide, and hospital triage. We then explore the ethics of public health, tying the discussion to current political debates. For example, we will ask whether there is a universal right to healthcare. The course ends by examining issues that could potentially arise out of future biomedical and artificial intelligence technologies. During the semester, students can also expect to gain a background in the fundamentals of ethical theory.

Readings in translation from pre-Socratic philosophers and from Plato's dialogues, to provide a broad history of Greek philosophy through Plato. Topics covered will include: Socrates' method of dialectic, his conceptions of moral virtue and human knowledge; Plato's theory of knowledge, metaphysics, and moral and political philosophy. Two lectures, one precept.

Aristotle's most important contributions in the areas of logic, scientific method, philosophy of nature, metaphysics, psychology, ethics, and politics. Several of his major works will be read in translation. Aristotle's successors in the Greco-Roman period will be studied briefly. Two lectures, one precept.

A critical study of the metaphysical and epistemological doctrines of Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. Two lectures, one precept.

Readings in continental philosophy of the early modern period, with intensive study of the works of Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz. Topics to be specially considered include: Knowledge, understanding, and sense-perception; existence and necessity; the nature of the self and its relation to the physical world. Two 90-minute classes.

Topics in Kant's Philosophy: Ethical Thought offers an introduction to Kant's central ethical doctrines. Topics will include Kant's moral psychology and the 'good will'; imperatives and maxims; formulations of the moral law; humanity as an end in itself; the radical evil in human nature; the deduction of morality; the doctrine of right and the doctrine of virtue. Two 90-minute seminars.

This course consists of a close reading of Plato's Republic. We will be assessing its contribution to philosophy in the areas of Moral Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Epistemology, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Mathematics, and Aesthetics