Below is a listing of the Graduate classes being offered for Spring 2009. For information on specific times, days and instructors, please check  the Master Class Schedule on NOVASIS.

PHI 7330- 00 Medieval Philosophy CRN:

Days: R 5:30 - 8pm

In this course, we will explore the rich and diverse philosophical traditions of the Middle Ages.  In particular, we will examine the appropriation, development, and intermingling of Platonism(s) and Aristotelianism(s) in the writings of Jewish, Christian and Muslim philosophers such as Augustine, Pseudo-Dionysius, Avicenna, Anselm, al-Ghazali, Averroes, Maimonides, Bonaventure, Aquinas, Duns Scotus, Dante, Meister Eckhart, and William of Ockham.  Some of the specific issues to be considered will likely include mysticism; ascent; negative theology, divine naming, and the possibility of knowing God; creation and/or the eternity of the world; the soul; knowledge and other modes of cognition; the encounter between philosophy and the Abrahamic faiths; and the interrelation of Islamic, Jewish, and Christian philosophies.

Since I anticipate that students will be coming to the class with widely varying backgrounds and aspirations, the course will be designed to nurture as many different interests in medieval philosophy as possible, including first flirtations, preparing for comprehensive exams, developing competency to teach medieval philosophical texts to undergraduates, and cultivating a sophisticated understanding of the history of philosophy from late antiquity until the early modern period.  In keeping with this pluralistic approach to the study of medieval philosophy, I welcome suggestions from interested students regarding specific issues you would like to explore in the course.

Written assignments for the course will likely include a conference length paper (10-12 pages) and a handful of shorter, exploratory pieces that will be used to facilitate class discussion (2-3 pages each).

Instructor: Michael Waddell
Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate Arts and Sciences

PHI  7710 -  Kant's Critique of Pure Reason CRN:

Days: R 2:30 - 5

This class will be a close-reading of Kant’s major work. Secondary literature will be assigned to complement the reading. Requirements: class presentations and final paper.

Instructors: Dalia Nassar
Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate Arts and Sciences

PHI  8070 - 00 Nietzsche CRN:

Days: W 6 - 8:30

This course aims to comment on a number of subjects in Nietzsche’s philosophy by grouping them under a few common themes – genealogy, life, existence, politics, woman, and Dionysus.  Success at interpreting the pathos of distance, nihilism, the death of God, will to power, eternal recurrence, self-overcoming, revaluation of values, the herd, bad conscience, masks, style, the body, music, and the problem of Socrates will be measured against an understanding of what motivated Nietzsche, beginning in 1886, to revise his earlier work and fashion the views that dominate his last writings: Beyond Good and Evil, On the Genealogy of Morals, The Case of Wagner, Twilight of the Idols, The Antichrist, and Ecce Homo.  Study of these texts will be supplemented by attention to the notes collected as The Will to Power and to several contemporary commentaries.

Instructors: John Carvalho
Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate Arts and Sciences 

PHI 8090 - 00  American Philosophy CRN:

Days: M 3 - 5:30

This is an introduction to the thought of the most important philosophers of America’s classical period, roughly 1875 to 1935. The seven philosophers examined, in this order, are Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, Josiah Royce, George Herbert Mead, George Santayana, John Dewey, and Alfred North Whitehead. They are the key proponents of the American versions of the movements named idealism, naturalism, and the most famous and distinctively American movement of them all, pragmatism. Science, evolution, religion, ethics, psychology and educational theory are important concerns to these authors. The teacher will tend to relate each position to that of Dewey. 
The required texts, to be read in this order, are: 1) Max H. Fisch, ed., Classic American Philosophers; 2) William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, 3) George Herbert Mead, Mind, Self and Society; and 4) John Dewey, Reconstruction in Philosophy.
There will be a take-home final examination worth 30% of the student’s grade. Class participation counts for 10% of that grade. Three ten-page papers are required, each worth 20% of the final grade. One must be on William James, one must be on John Dewey, and the third must be on any other author the student chooses. Due dates within the semester will be assigned for each of these papers.  In these papers,  the student is asked to explain some aspect of the philosopher’s thought as it applies to a  problem, issue, controversy or difficulty in modern or contemporary life, world affairs, society, politics, art, morals or the like.  The student is required to obtain the teacher’s approval for the topic before beginning the paper.

Instructor: Joseph Betz
Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate Arts and Sciences

PHI 8220 - 001 Heidegger's Being and Time CRN:

Days: W 3 - 5:30

This course will focus primarily on Heidegger’s most influential and well-known work, Being and Time.  In the context of a reading of this work, we will also consult several of his courses given during the 1920’s that provide a background for understanding the issues raised by this text.  A good secondary source to consult is Theodore Kisiel The Genesis of Being and Time (University of California Press).  Magda King’s commentary published by SUNY Press is, in my view, one of the best.  We will use the translation by Joan Stambaugh as our primary text, though I recommend also purchasing the older Macquarrie and Robinson translation.  Richard Polt has a good collection of critical essays.

 Course Text

--Martin Heidegger, Being and Time, trans. Joan Stambaugh, SUNY Press, 1996

 Background Texts

--Martin Heidegger, Basic Problems of Phenomenology (highly recommended), Indiana, 1982

--Martin Heidegger, History of the Concept of Time, Indiana, 1985

Instructors: Walter Brogan
Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate Arts and Sciences

PHI 8250 - Merleau-Ponty CRN:

Days: T 2:30 - 5

We will read Phenomenology of Perception with an eye toward assessing its contribution to the development of phenomenology and its implications as well for existential philosophy. We will read several essays in Signs to observe Merleau-Ponty’s dialogue with the social sciences and his incipient development of a communicative ethics and politics. And we will read The Visible and the Invisible to get a sense of his ontology of “flesh” and what it might mean for the contemporary scene.

 Books: Phenomenology of Perception
            Signs
            The Visible and the Invisible

Requirements: an exam (part take home); a paper; classroom presentations of articles and books that offer a wide spectrum of reaction to Merleau-Ponty’s work.

Instructors: Thomas Busch
Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate Arts and Sciences

PHI 8720 00  Benjamin and Adorno CRN:

Days: T 5:30 - 8

We will examine the thought of early 20th Century critical theorists Theodor W. Adorno and Walter Benjamin.  Both thinkers commit themselves to understanding the task of philosophy as a form of Erkenntniskritik, epistemological critique, that takes into view questions of experience, history, and politics. Our considerations will be shaped around the following thematics: the critique of culture and modernity; the politics of philosophical thinking; the transformations of experience in thinking through fragments and ruins; the role of theological remnants; the motility of rhetoric, affect, and politics. 

We will begin by studying Benjamin's critique of experience and knowledge in his study on German mourning play and his unfinished, fragmentary Arcades Project.  Benjamin's influence on Adorno's philosophy will be hard to miss in particular when we turn Adorno's Negative Dialectics. Finally, we will devote ourselves to examine the differences between Benjamin and Adorno by reading their commentaries and correspondences on reading Baudelaire and Kafka as critics of modernity.

Instructor: Annika Thiem
Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate Arts and Sciences