SPEL COURSES

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PHIL 550A/ PLSC 679J  Hegel’s Philosophy of Right /PENSKY
T 4:25-7:25       
Intensive exegetical seminar studying Hegel's philosophy of law and politics. The great majority of the seminar will be taken up with a close reading of Hegel's text. In addition the seminar will study topics closely related to the text: the context of Hegel's philosophy of law and politics in the works of Rousseau and Kant; relevant precedents in the philosophy of law, specifically conflicts between the Historical School and theories of natural law; Hegel as critic of democracy in the theory of estates; issues of nationalism, national belonging and collective political sovereignty; the contemporary relevance of Hegel's Philosophy of Right for issues in current democratic theory.
        Course Requirements: regular active participation in ongoing seminar discussion; rotating discussion leadership; research paper..
Prerequisites: Two courses in philosophy

PHIL 605A   Advanced Topics in Ethics: Moral Dilemma/TESSMAN
R 1:40-4:40
The “moral dilemmas debate” begins with the question of whether there such a thing as a genuine moral dilemma, namely a situation of moral conflict in which there is a compelling moral reason to enact each of two possibilities, where it is not possible to enact both. We’ll go well beyond this question, to questions that include: Is it wrongheaded to conceive of the task of ethics as providing a perfect decision procedure for resolving moral conflicts? When a dilemma can be resolved, does one of the initial moral requirements get cancelled? What moral conditions give rise to dilemmas? Must we pay attention to the role and the impact of moral dilemmas in order to give good descriptions of what actual moral life is like? Do aspects of one’s social position (race, gender, etc.) affect the “dilemmaticity” of one’s moral life? Strict prerequisite of two prior philosophy courses.
Prerequisites: Two courses in philosophy.

PHIL 504 Philosophy of Art/ZINKIN
W 1:40-4:40
Classical readings in the philosophy of art from Plato to the present, with %50 of the class devoted to the 20th century. Questions include What is art? How do we evaluate art? Is there an objective standard of taste? The relation of aesthetics to epistemology and moral theory. Readings will most likely include: Plato Aristotle, Hume, Kant, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Adorno, Greenberg, Shapiro, Danto, Goodman, Walton.

PHIL 508 Theorizing Politics/BAR ON
M 1:40-4:40
 This course engages readings that are concerned with the theorization of politics. The topics included are the possibility and methodology of the theorization of politics, the time and space of politics, agency and power, political speech, action, and judgment.

COLI 691F/ PHIL 550T Actually Existing Communism/ HAVER
R 4:25-7:25
 
This seminar seeks to elucidate a single proposition: the principle of the common is not property, but circulation.  We will seek first of all a philosophical elucidation in texts by Karl Marx and Nishida Kitaro.  In Marx, we will pay particular attention to the constitution of the Industrial Reserve Army as a specifically circulatory collectivity that as such is the very possibility of poiesis.  In Nishida, we will pay especial attention to his formulation of the concept of the co-immanence of the many and the one in contradictory self-identity.  Correlatively, we will attempt to think actually existing communism as the constitution or auto-poiesis of the common in various practices of circulation, in the practices of an ontological promiscuity that does not reduce appropriation to property.

COLI 574V/PHIL 640N  Specters of Comparison/ERTURK-LENNON
R 1:15-4:15
Comparison, which posits a likeness between the dissimilar, is always profoundly haunted by the question of its ground and judgment. This seminar will examine the comparative logic of capitalist modernity in the works of Marx, Weber, Adorno and Horkheimer, Foucault, Heidegger, and Benjamin. We will ask the following questions: How is equivalence established between nonequivalent objects? How are actual social relations quantified and converted into abstract representations, and is there an ethics to modern forms of comparability? How does language reflect and produce these operations? Or, to put it differently: What are the forms through which difference "haunts" us? We will pay special attention to figures of the double and the ghost in Hoffmann and Freud. Other topics to be covered include rationalization and the disenchantment of the world, the modern uncanny, metaphor as exchange, "mediauras," colonial comparison, and the ethics of incommensurability.

PIC 645A/ PHIL 647M  Narratives of Survivance/ALLEN
M 3:30-6:30           
Emergent diasporic and feminist narratives, drawn primarily from recent African and Asian visual productions, literatures, and theorizings, will be the focus of the class. 

Motile debris, the residue of post-, neo-, and trans- colonial implosions, scatters everywhere, not into a collection of readily identifiable categories, but into a fractious gnawing at the marrow of contemporary life. Ever in relation to memory and vast forgetting, omissions, burials, and denials, the course will examine the critical implications and promise of narratives that persistently erode predictable parameters, that inhabit transborder flows, unstable dimensions, gelatinous intervals and glossy strands. Might such entangled narrative forms render ecologies of survival?

In “Water Works,” Noriko Ambe cuts tracks, distortions, and lands of emptiness into books of anatomy, geography, and dictionaries.  Her aim is not to cut perfect lines, but to stay with the process.  Similarly, participants will keep a record, which may be in any medium, essay, creative writing, film, multimedia, etc., of their reflections and journeys during the course.  Drawing from that record, participants will develop individually or in small groups one or two projects.  
BIOL 570 /PHIL 630B Evolution and Human Affairs/TBA
TBA

FALL 2007

PHIL 650J/COLI 535K Continental Philosophy: Nietzsche/GUAY
This class will consist in a close reading and analysis, with reference to selected secondary literature, of _The Gay Science_. This work of Nietzsche’s spans his so-called middle and late periods, and in addition to its extended treatment of the theme suggested by the title, namely the interrelation between knowledge and some version of flourishing, contains some of Nietzsche’s most famous passages, such as those concerning the death of God and the eternal recurrence.
Prerequisites: two courses in philosophy.

PHIL 605R Law and Medical Ethics/GOTLIB
This course provides an advanced introduction to, and a further exploration of, issues at the intersection of medicine, biotechnology, moral theory, and the law. Among the questions we will explore are: How are we to reconcile the apparent need for new medications and treatments with the morally troubling implications of research on human subjects? Ought biotechnologies be regulated, and if so, how and by whom? What is the relationship between autonomy, personhood, and the right to die? Is there a right to health care, and, given resource scarcity, how do we ration it justly? Topics to be discussed will include human autonomy and rights, informed consent, confidentiality, and privacy, dying and decision making at the end of life, research ethics, abortion, disability, and national and international perspectives on health care rationing. The readings will be drawn from both philosophical and interdisciplinary sources, with a focus on the questions that arise when moral theory is confronted by the demands of medical practice, biomedical research, and public policy.

PHIL 508 Political Philosophy: Justice Beyond Borders/PENSKY
An introduction to contemporary political theory through an examination of current work on justice and its relation to national belonging. What does justice require that we do to, for, or with one another? What sort of political society, what sorts of institutional arrangements and distributions of benefits and burdens, are just? What does justice demand that we do to, for, or with those who are distant from us? The principle focus of the course is to understand the controversy over "global justice" within contemporary liberal political theory, pitting liberal nationalists against cosmopolitans. We will read recent work by John Rawls, David Miller, Michael Walzer, Will Kymlicka, Thomas Pogge, Seyla Benhabib, Jurgen Habermas, Simon Caney, Kok-Chor Tan, Joshua Cohen, Allen Buchanan, Samuel Scheffler, Bhiku Parekh, Henry Shue, Jeremy Waldron, and others. Students will be expected to make regular written presentations to the seminar, and will submit a mid-term and final paper.
Prerequisites: two courses in philosophy.

PHIL608E/COLI 574A/PLSC 679H Machiavelli, Arendt, & Democratic Theory/BAR ON
Both Machiavelli and Arendt re-envisioned democratic theory in an attempt to address the political crises of their time. Arendt's efforts benefited from her critical readings of Machiavelli who himself was a critical reader of earlier writers about democracy. Could a critical reading of Machiavelli and Arendt today be helpful for the kind of re-envisionings of democracy that are needed in light of today's political crisis?

SPEL SEMINARS
SPRING 2007

PHIL 650H Continental Philosophy: Levinas and the Ethics of Phenomenology/ FRIEDMAN W 1:10-4:10
This reading intensive seminar will place the ethical thought of Emmanuel Levinas in the tradition of Husserlian phenomenology. We will begin with a reading of Husserl’s central (teachable) work, The Cartesian Meditations. Through a slow reading of the text, we will examine the central tools and ideas of his transcendental phenomenology: the natural attitude, reduction, transcendental reduction, and apperception. We will also examine the development of Levinas’ thought as he moves from Husserl to his own ethical phenomenology.

Much of Levinas’ philosophical study of time and subjectivity flows from the unanswered questions of Husserl’s “Fifth Meditation,” specifically the approach to and relationship with alter ego, another person. Levinas’ earliest works directly engage the core problems of Husserlian phenomenology, specifically internal time consciousness and the constitution of world-time through the encounter with the other. As we read through Levinas, we will explore how questions of transcendence, subjectivity, intersubjectivity, and temporality give way to an ethical philosophy built on notions of alterity and responsibility. We will focus on Time and the Other, and Levinas’ two major works, Totality and Infinity and Otherwise than Being.

In the final section of the seminar, we will work through a selection of his essays and lectures in which he grounds his ethical phenomenology in classical Judaic texts and traditions. Additionally, we will compare Levinas’ work with that of another student of Husserl, Edith Stein.
Prerequisites: Two courses in philosophy.

PHIL 605Q Moral Subjects and Moral Conditions/TESSMAN
T 1:15-4:15
Ethical theorists must offer accounts of the subjects (i.e. the people) about whom they are theorizing, as well as of the background conditions for their theory. What qualities should the moral subjects be assumed to have? What sort of background conditions should be assumed? Should the ethical theorist stipulate some idealized qualities for the moral subjects and background conditions? Or must ethical theory draw on descriptive accounts of actual people and actual life conditions? This course will present students with a variety of possible moral subjects and moral conditions (idealized and non-idealized, given through stipulation or through descriptive accounts taken from narrative or from empirical work). We will evaluate and (re)construct ethical theories in light of our reflections about the moral subjects and moral conditions.

PHIL 550R Hegel’s Philosophy of Spirit/WEISS
MW 8:30-9:55
The entire course will be devoted to the close study of a single text, Hegel's Philosophy of Spirit, with particular attention to the facets of Hegel's "dialectical" theory of mind that not only undergird his radical approach to human emancipation, but also point in a radically anti-materialist direction, opening the way for serious consideration of psychic phenomena and other psycho-social realities denied by mechanical science.
Two papers totaling about 15 pages. One midterm exam

PHIL 666K/PIC 603A Consciousness, Science and Religion II/ DIETRICH R 1:15-4:15
Consciousness, Science, and Religion are quintessential human properties. Which is odd because they are in such conflict. Science and religion clash: they make different and substantial claims about the world. Though it tries, science cannot explain consciousness. And yet consciousness is necessary for both science and religion. In this course, we will examine this unhappy, tripartite partnership. This is part 2 of the course offered in Fall 2006. The Fall course concentrated on science and religion. Part 2 will concentrate on science and consciousness. We will read an important new philosophy book advocating a positive, rational dualism -- the view that consciousness is not a physical property of this universe.
Prerequisites: Two courses in philosophy.

PHIL 505 20th Century Ethics/KNAPP
M 2:20-5:20
This course will be a graduate-level introduction to 20th-century normative ethics. In the first half of the course we will survey some issues concerning features that are commonly thought to determine the moral status of acts. This will involve us in discussions of the nature and significance of well-being, equality, the constraint against harming, and several other factors. In the second half of the course we will survey some of the most prominent foundational theories in normative ethics theories that try to say precisely which features of actions are morally relevant and why. Here we will discuss consequentialism, virtue theory, and several forms of deontology. The goal of the course will be to gain a critical understanding of some of the central positions and arguments that shape contemporary philosophic work on the question of how one ought to live.

PHIL 621B Aristotle’s Metaphysics in Context/PREUS
TR 8:30-9:55
Detailed study of Aristotle’s Metaphysics in relation to the metaphysical theories of his predecessors, to some of the other books in the Aristotelian Corpus, and to subsequent metaphysical theories, especially among Aristotle’s commentators, ancient, medieval, and modern.
Text: Aristotle’s Metaphysics, tr. Joe Sachs, Green Lion Press, 1999

SPEL SEMINARS
FALL 2006

PIC 608T “H” Political Theory: Radicalism and
Conservatism /WEISS
Comparative study of the two "wings" that have dominated our political culture since at least the time of the French Revolution. Though texts have not been finalized at the time of this writing, my tentative plan is to concentrate on contrasting views concerning the alleged "universality" of the West and allied questions about the legitimacy of "imperialism."
There will be three or four papers; no exams.
Prerequisites: Two courses in philosophy , of which one is a course in social, ethical or legal philosophy.

PHIL 601W Justice, Gender and Globalization/BAR ON
This course engages readings on justice and globalization with a special emphasis on gender and explores the feminist contributions to theories of global justice.
Prerequisite: Two courses in philosophy, of which one is a course in social, ethical or legal philosophy.

PIC 550K “H” William James/WEISS
Philosopher, physician, psychologist, and religious apologist, William James is perhaps the most radically challenging of all American thinkers. In this course, we will read his most famous works, including The Will to Believe, and The Varieties of Religious Experience.
There will be three or four papers; no exams.
Prerequisites: Two courses in philosophy.

PHIL 666K /PIC 603A Consciousness, Science, & Religion DIETRICH
Consciousness, Science, and Religion are quintessential human properties. Which is odd because they are in such conflict. Science and religion clash: they make different and substantial claims about the world. Though it tries, science cannot explain consciousness. And yet consciousness is necessary for both science and religion. In this course, we will examine this unhappy, tripartite partnership. Our texts will be very new philosophy books on consciousness and it place in the universe, and the scientific explanation
(i.e., atheistic explanation) of religion, which may or may not actually work, to put it mildly.
Prerequisite: Two courses in philosophy.

PHIL 508 Social and Political Theory /ARTHUR
Contemporary political and social philosophy owes much of its current importance and interest to John Rawls’ monumental work A Theory of Justice. We will begin with a close reading of that work, which not only revived social contract theory but also contributed significantly to our understanding of an array of related issues including political obligation, democracy and the rule of law. But Rawls also has much of interest to say about other topics including the good life for persons, moral psychology, and the nature of persons as well as philosophical method. The rest of the course will study some important critical works and alternative approaches to social and political philosophy.

PHIL 605P Comparative Ethics/GOODMAN
Explores and critically examines the ethical ideas of ancient Chinese and Buddhist thinkers, and compares these ideas with contemporary Western consequentialism and deontology. Authors to be studied include Mencius, Mo Tzu, Han Fei Tzu, Shantideva, Parfit, and Korsgaard

PHIL 650F/COLI 574J Topics in 20th Century Continental Philosophy/GUAY
Topic determined in advance. May be repeated for credit with different topics.