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Course Criteria
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0.00 Credits
This course will focus on what is known as the mind-body problem, the problem of understanding the relationship between the mind and the brain. Your entire mental life-everything you think, feel, and desire- obviously depends on the chemistry of the brain. Furthermore, scientists have made impressive discoveries about which parts of the brain are responsible for which parts of your mental life. But what exactly is the relation between the two? Is the mind simply the same thing as the brain? Or does the brain somehow cause the mind to exist? Or could the dependence be somehow mutual?
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The question of the meaning of life is one of the most important questions you will ever ask. You're probably already started to wrestle with it, and if you haven't yet, you will sooner or later. In this intensive one-week course, we will focus on fundamental issues that arise when we try to think seriously about what makes life meaningful. In trying to understand the nature and possibility of human fulfillment, we will explore the following 'big' questions: What is human nature? What is the self? Are humans free, or is everything determined? What is morality? What is happiness? What is the best way to live? What ultimately matters? Where does God fit into all this (if anywhere)? Does the question of the meaning of life have one true answer, the same for everyone? And finally, does it even have an answer at all? In pursuing these questions, we will rely on both the thoughts of the great philosophers and on our own principled reflections. Students enrolling in this course should expect to use the analytical processes of philosophical inquiry throughout an engaging week that will both challenge and reward them.
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This course will introduce students to current controversies in bioethics concerning the use of biotechnologies to enhance human traits. We will discuss the ethical issues raised by cosmetic surgery, cosmetic psychopharmacology, genetic enhancements, genetic screening, eugenics, and the alternative reproductive technologies. We will consider such questions as: What if anything is morally suspect about cosmetic surgery? Is taking Prozac or some such drug to change one\'s personality morally problematic? -- Parties to these debates approach the issues from a variety of moral frameworks or moral theories, including: rights, consequentialist, ethics of care, and human flourishing. We will consider each topic from several of these theoretical approaches and see how they yield different moral judgments.
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0.00 Credits
Environmental ethics is a subfield of philosophy that asks what our moral obligations are with regard to the environment. This course is divided into two halves. In the first half of the course, we will ask what sorts of things have value. Does the realm of moral consideration extend past human beings to include animals, plants, and nature itself? Do animals have rights? How does environmental concern figure into the worthwhile life? What role do consumer goods play in a good life? How do we know? In the second half of the course, we will try to determine what sorts of policies actually help protect the environment. Good intentions are not enough to make good policy. We will learn what economics and other social sciences tell us about human behavior and how to shape institutions. We will examine issues in wildlife management, human population, resource use, and more.
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Philosophy focuses around questions we all think about, and which can evidently only be answered by thinking rather than by observing or experimenting or acting. Can we know anything? Would that require being certain? What does it mean to have conscious experience, and how closely are such mental things related xsto physical brains? Are our wills free, even though it seems as though every event is determined by previous causes? Are there good arguments for believing in the existence of a god or gods? Are there standards, such as reason, for how we should think? Are there standards for how we should act, such as morality, or social justice? And more.
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In 1993, Haddaway asked, “What is love?” A decade later, Eminem implored those seeking authenticity: “Lose yourself in the moment.” The techno question and the rap exhortation are both tied to long-standing issues all reflective people must ask—what is it to love healthily and happily, and how can I live truly as myself?
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What is democracy? How does it work? How should it work? The principles of democracy are widely espoused throughout the world and they form a central plank of America’s civic identity. Yet there is little public discussion of exactly how democratic mechanisms do and should work; the US constitution, for example, is rarely criticized at all in mainstream debates, least of all on democratic grounds. This class will equip students with the knowledge and skills to analyze and critique real democratic structures and to see how democratic considerations can give us new ways to think about pressing social and political issues.
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0.00 Credits
The social psychologist Roy Baumeister said, “Self-regulation failure is the major social pathology of the present time.” The economy is in crisis because people have been borrowing and spending irresponsibly; our health care system is burdened in part because people eat too much and do not exercise; we have recovery groups for drug-abuse, compulsive gambling, sex addiction, and even excessive internet use. We appear to be a country losing to temptation. And yet the very idea that we can freely and knowingly act against our own best judgments can seem puzzling. In this course, we will examine the following questions pertaining to weakness of will: How, if at all, is weakness of will possible? Do we give into temptation freely or are we moved by irresistible desires? What is the relationship between motivation and evaluation? Is it always irrational to act against your best judgments? Is being too self-controlled a vice? We will adopt an interdisciplinary approach to these questions. While most of the readings will be drawn from philosophers dating from Plato to the present day, we will also read articles by psychologists and economists. Students enrolling in this course will be taught basic analytic tools to dissect and evaluate complex arguments from a variety disciplines.
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Are there limits to what parents can make their children do? When should the state step in and act in the interest of children despite the parents’ wishes? Should the state be able to tell people who they can marry or with whom they can start a family? Do children have the same kinds of rights as adults? What can we do about gender inequality within families? These are the sorts of questions we will be discussing in this class. We will be engaged primarily in contemporary political philosophy with a critical eye to how these influential theories of justice understand the family and the upbringing of children.
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Globalization is transforming the relationship between world events and U.S. politics. After 9/11 and Iraq, foreign affairs are no longer distant affairs, yet confusion abounds. This course provides pathways to understanding, usable to students as future voters and global citizens. It combines traditional perspectives on war and trade with a new look at world politics, tracing today's patterns of integration and violence.
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