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Courses
Please findcourse descriptions, sections, and times for PHIL and RELG courses inthe Eagleservice schedule of Classes.
51 CORE Philosophy/Religion Courses
Habits of Mind
Cultural Inquiry
PHIL-211 Introduction to Asian Philosophy
RELG-145 Religion without Borders
RELG-185 The Religious Heritage of Asia
Ethical Reasoning
PHIL-120 Do the Right Thing
PHIL-220 Moral Philosophy
RELG-220 Religious Ethics
Socio-Historical Inquiry
RELG-105 Religious Heritage of the West
RELG-245 Stories of South Asia
Writing and Information Literacy II
PHIL-235 Theories of Democracy
Quantitative Literacy II
PHIL-200 Introduction to Formal Logic
Diversity and Equity
PHIL-211 Introduction to Asian Philosophy
PHIL-236 Ecological Justice: Ethics in a More-than-Human World
2024 Spring and SummerCourses
Please find Spring and Summer 2024 course descriptions, sections, and times for PHIL and RELG courses inthe Schedule of Classes.
Highlights
PHIL 391 Internship in Philosophy
Requisites: Permission: instructor and department chair. Cap 8 Students.
PHIL 380.001 (One credit, colloquium). Nonviolence: Philosophy and Practice
What is nonviolence? How can we define it, and how should we practice it? The world seems to grow increasingly violent as the days go by. Violence is not limited to visible and tangible manifestations of violence such as war, gun violence, or sexual violence. Social and structural violence such as discrimination, racism, sexism, and economic inequity are rampant in our communities as well. What would it mean to practice nonviolence in response to the pervasiveness of violence? Many people say nonviolence is a nice idea but is not practical. But would responding to violence with violence help resolve the situations we face? This one-credit colloquium serves as a brainstorming session about our perception, understanding, and ideas of nonviolence, prompting us to consider how we should define nonviolence beyond the simple conceptualization of non-harming or not-killing and how we can practice it in our daily life. Reading materials draw mostly from Buddhist tradition, but also include materials in non-Buddhist Asian religio-philosophical traditions as well as the Western philosophy. As their final project, participants create their own definition of nonviolence and proposal for how to practice it.
PHIL 396.002 Language and Identity
Linguistic identity tracks the relationship between language and identity; it is one way in which we can distinguish persons as discrete individuals while simultaneously recognizing the language communities to which they belong. In other words, language serves as an identity marker. This course is an investigation into linguistic identity, that is, the intricate relationship between language and identity. Linguistic identity is a subspecies of the psychological view of personal identity as it requires a mental connectedness to and continuity of one’s internal state, that coheres with his/her/their external linguistic expressions. It is a category of social identity in so far as one is a member of a community that speaks a particular language and is socially defined it.
This course unfolds in four units. Unit one introduces linguistic identity by answering the questions, “what is identity?” and “what is language?” Unit two renders an understanding of language as a subspecies of personal identity by exploring philosophical conceptions of language as an aspect of one’s personal identity. Unit three delves into language as a category of social identity by deconstructing language communities. The linguistic peculiarity of the United States serves as a case study in this unit. Unit four concludes the course by developing the notion of linguistic agency, that is, the ways in which the social and personal aspects of identity come in the language of a single speaker.
PHIL 4/618 Chinese Philosophy
Chinese Philosophy (3) Through close readings of primary texts in three major ancient Chinese philosophical traditions, Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, this course explores Chinese understandings of human nature, language, transcendentality, politics, and ethics. Crosslist: PHIL-418. Usually Offered: alternate springs (even years). Prerequisite: one course in philosophy.
PHIL 4/616 Feminist Philosophy
Feminist Philosophy (3) Posing questions about what we can know, how we perceive, and how we experience our bodies and interactions with the world is arguably a central preoccupation of philosophy. Canonical works such as the Confessions of Augustine and Rousseau, Descartes' vivid first-person account of his quest for certainty, Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological investigation of embodied experience, and Sartre's existentialist study of "the gaze" have historically placed narrative investigation of the nature of human experience at the center of the philosophical project. One way to understand the distinctive contribution of feminist philosophers and theorists of the late twentieth century is to see that body of work as telling another side of the story, one that radically recasts conceptions of embodiment, identity, ethics, and the body politic. This course focuses on feminist approaches to enduring philosophical questions, to which is added the larger question of difference not limited to that of gender or sex. Crosslist: PHIL-416.
PHIL 4/623 Existentialism
This course focuses on nineteenth and twentieth century existentialism, with a particular emphasis on the role of imagination in creating one’s identity. The class reads philosophical works by Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre, Heidegger, and de Beauvoir, as well as literary works by Camus, Dostoyevsky and also Sartre. Crosslist: PHIL-423.
PHIL 4/685.001 Philosophy and Psychoanalysis
This course serves as a rigorous engagement with philosophy and psychoanalysis. The primary focus of the course will be to inquire into the themes of the unconscious and its relation to subjectivity, dream-interpretation, mythology, death, and freedom through the work of Nietzsche, Freud, Jung, Sartre, Beauvoir, and Yalom.
PHIL 4/691 Internship in Philosophy
Requisites: Permission: instructor and department chair. Cap 8 Students.
PHIL-4/696.001 Political Aesthetics: Myths, Monuments, and Monies
A common approach to understanding the arisings of different kinds of political systems in particular places is to examine those systems’ bases in earlier analogues in governance. Doing so clarifies the roots of Roman empire in Roman dictatorship, the foundations of American republic in Roman republic, and the undergirdings of Indian parliamentary democracy in British parliamentary democracy. But this course goes on to focus on the artistic means by which proponents of those later governmental forms bolster them. By studying the ruling-related popular mythologies made by the imaginative writings of epic and novel works, the aspirational political images crafted by the castings of statuary, and the curated countrywide ideals enshrined by the engravings on coins and other types of currency, course participants locate in those influential artforms key vehicles for promoting powers that be, and are prepared to present on the political roles of additional cultural artifacts from other areas.
RELG 3/491 Internship in Religious Studies
Requisites: Permission: instructor and department chair. Cap 8 Students.
RELG-396.001 (one credit) Modern American Mythography: Edith Hamilton’s Mythology Shubha Pathak
In 1942, with the waging of World War II, the lesbian intellectual Edith Hamilton (1867–1963), having started a career as a popular writer after retiring as a prominent educator of and advocate for women, published her collection Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes. Thus continuing to put into print her knowledge (acquired since childhood) of Greco-Roman classics, and capping in New York the first part of her successful authorial career (which she soon would resume in Washington, DC), Hamilton interspersed her storied, vivid retellings with expert comments on her materials’ many sources. Hamilton’s portrayals of generations of gods and demigods, of long-suffering lovers and adventurers, of local Greek leaders, of Trojan War heroes, and of tragedied dynasties are the subjects of this five-class colloquium. In addition to attending and participating in it, students write brief reflection papers on the assigned readings completed in preparation for the colloquium’s sessions.
RELG-396.002 (One credit) Christianity and Capitalism
In this colloquium, we explore both historical and contemporary intersections between Christianity and capitalism, such as the teachings of the New Testament on wealth in their historical contexts, the role of Christianity in the perpetuation of American slavery, the corporate beginnings of the American religious right, the ideology of the “prosperity gospel,” or contemporary Christian responses to wealth inequality.
RELG 4/686.001 Mysticism
Mysticism (3) An introduction to the mystical literature of the world's great religious traditions: poetry, prayer, narrative and other writings from Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, Confucianist, and Native American traditions, deeply rooted in the religions from which they originated. The course explores what these mystical traditions have in common, their distinct teachings, and different metaphysical goals.
RELG 4/686. 002 Distraction, Attention, and the Human Condition
We live in an age of distraction with incessant demands on our attention. We often experience this as burdensome, but how should we think about these phenomena, the forces that direct them, and their relation to living well? This course will engage texts from the Buddhist and Christian traditions, drawing also on works in philosophy, cultural criticism, and cognitive science, to think deeply about distraction and attention as matters of spiritual, moral, and political concern. No prior study in religion is required.
RELG4/686.003 The Spirituality of Sports
This course explores sport as means of communion with the divine. In particular, we examine the ways in which culture, affect, and mood shape the rich varieties of ways athletes encounter the divine on the playing field, and whether such transcendent experiences lead to greater human flourishing and a more just world.
RELG 4/696.001 Political Aesthetics: Myths, Monuments, and Monies
A common approach to understanding the arisings of different kinds of political systems in particular places is to examine those systems’ bases in earlier analogues in governance. Doing so clarifies the roots of Roman empire in Roman dictatorship, the foundations of American republic in Roman republic, and the undergirdings of Indian parliamentary democracy in British parliamentary democracy. But this course goes on to focus on the artistic means by which proponents of those later governmental forms bolster them. By studying the ruling-related popular mythologies made by the imaginative writings of epic and novel works, the aspirational political images crafted by the castings of statuary, and the curated countrywide ideals enshrined by the engravings on coins and other types of currency, course participants locate in those influential artforms key vehicles for promoting powers that be, and are prepared to present on the political roles of additional cultural artifacts from other areas.
Seminar Courses
PHIL 380.001(One credit, colloquium).Nonviolence: Philosophy and Practice
What is nonviolence? How can we define it, and how should we practice it? The worldseems to growincreasingly violent as the days go by. Violence is not limited to visible and tangible manifestations of violence such as war, gun violence, or sexual violence. Social and structural violence such as discrimination, racism, sexism, and economic inequity are rampant in our communities as well. What would it mean to practice nonviolence in response to the pervasiveness of violence? Many people say nonviolence is a nice ideabutis not practical. But would responding to violence with violence help resolve the situations we face? This one-credit colloquium serves as a brainstorming session about ourperception, understanding, and ideas of nonviolence, prompting us to consider how we should define nonviolence beyond the simple conceptualization of non-harming or not-killing and how we can practice it in our daily life.Reading materials drawmostly from Buddhist tradition, butalso includematerials in non-Buddhist Asianreligio-philosophical traditionsas well asthe Western philosophy.As their final project, participants create their own definition of nonviolence and proposal for how to practice it.
PHIL 396.002“ LanguageandIdentity”
Linguistic identity tracks the relationship between language and identity; it is one way in which we can distinguish persons as discrete individuals while simultaneously recognizing the language communities to which they belong. In other words, language serves as an identity marker. This course is an investigation into linguistic identity, that is, the intricate relationship between language and identity. Linguistic identity is a subspecies of the psychological view of personal identity as it requires a mental connectedness to and continuity of one’s internal state, that coheres with his/her/their external linguistic expressions. It is a category of social identityin so far asone is a member of a community that speaks a particular language and is socially defined it.
This course unfolds in four units. Unit one introduces linguistic identity by answering the questions, “what is identity?” and “what is language?” Unit tworendersan understanding of language as a subspecies of personal identity by exploring philosophical conceptions of language as an aspect of one’s personal identity. Unit three delves into language as a category of social identity by deconstructing language communities. The linguistic peculiarity of the United States serves as a case study in this unit. Unit four concludes the course by developing the notion of linguistic agency, that is, the ways in which the social and personal aspects of identity come in the language of a single speaker.
PHIL 4/618Chinese Philosophy
Chinese Philosophy (3) Through close readings of primary texts in three major ancient Chinese philosophical traditions, Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, this course explores Chinese understandings of human nature, language, transcendentality, politics, and ethics.Crosslist: PHIL-418. Usually Offered: alternate springs (even years). Prerequisite: one course in philosophy.
PHIL 4/616Feminist Philosophy
Feminist Philosophy (3) Posing questions about what we can know, how we perceive, and how we experience our bodies and interactions with the world isarguably acentral preoccupation of philosophy. Canonical works such as the Confessions of Augustine and Rousseau, Descartes' vivid first-person account of his quest for certainty, Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological investigation of embodied experience, and Sartre's existentialist study of "the gaze" have historically placed narrative investigation of the nature of human experience at the center of the philosophical project. One way to understand the distinctive contribution of feminist philosophers and theorists of the late twentieth century is to see that body of work as telling another side of the story, one that radically recasts conceptions of embodiment, identity, ethics, and the body politic. This course focuses on feminist approaches to enduring philosophical questions, to which is added the larger question of difference not limited to that of gender or sex.Crosslist: PHIL-416.
PHIL 4/623 Existentialism
This course focuses on nineteenth and twentieth century existentialism, with a particular emphasis on the role of imagination in creating one’s identity. The class reads philosophical works by Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre, Heidegger, and de Beauvoir, as well as literary works by Camus, Dostoyevskyand alsoSartre.Crosslist:.
PHIL 4/685.001Philosophy and Psychoanalysis
This course servesas a rigorous engagement with philosophy and psychoanalysis. The primary focus of the course will be to inquire into the themes of the unconscious and its relation to subjectivity, dream-interpretation, mythology, death, and freedom through the work of Nietzsche, Freud, Jung, Sartre, Beauvoir, and Yalom.
PHIL-4/696.001 Political Aesthetics: Myths, Monuments, and Monies
A common approach to understanding the arisings ofdifferent kindsof political systems inparticular places is to examine those systems’ bases in earlier analogues in governance. Doingso clarifies the roots of Roman empire in Roman dictatorship, the foundations of Americanrepublic in Roman republic, and theundergirdingsof Indian parliamentary democracy in Britishparliamentary democracy. But this course goes on to focus on the artistic means by whichproponents of those later governmental forms bolster them. By studying the ruling-relatedpopular mythologies made by the imaginative writings of epic and novel works, the aspirationalpolitical images crafted by the castings of statuary, and the curated countrywide ideals enshrinedby the engravings on coins and other types of currency, course participants locate in thoseinfluential artforms keyvehicles for promoting powers thatbe, andare prepared to present on thepolitical roles of additional cultural artifacts from other areas.
PHIL 631 Modern Moral Problems “Development/Underdevelopment”
In 1972, Peter Singer published “Famine, Affluence, and Morality,” an essay that gained notoriety because it framed global inequality as a potential public affair and, thus, a moral problem. In many ways, Singer’s essay (along with others) formed an emerging philosophical conversation on what can be called the moral response to global issues of (under)development, including poverty, famine, and resource inequality. More than fifty years later, these problems still pose profound moral challenges, but they have also been made more complex by (among other factors) competing accounts of the truth of narratives describing ‘economic development’ and by the awareness of global warming, since most blueprints for development suppose fossil-fuel-based industrialization or nationalized exploitation of natural resources. This course revisits the context in which modern moral philosophy (in an anglophone context) first began to approach global public affairs and examine arguments that extend through the present day. In this course, we interrogate the moral issues that arise from critical historical reflection on the idea of development, emphasizing what have been called “Third World”,“Fourth World,” and “Global South” perspectives. And we also reflect on moral futures for the idea of “development” bytaking into accountthereal challengeof ethical and sustainable alternatives to greenhouse gas emissions.
RELG-396.001(one credit)Modern American Mythography: Edith Hamilton’sMythology ShubhaPathak
In 1942, with the waging of World War II, the lesbian intellectual Edith Hamilton (1867–1963),having started a career as a popular writer after retiring as a prominent educator of and advocatefor women, published her collection Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes.Thuscontinuing to put into print her knowledge (acquiredsince childhood) of Greco-Roman classics,and capping in New York the first part of her successful authorial career (which she soon wouldresume in Washington, DC), Hamilton interspersed her storied, vivid retellings with expertcomments on her materials’ many sources. Hamilton’s portrayals of generations of gods anddemigods, of long-suffering lovers and adventurers, of local Greek leaders, of Trojan Warheroes, and oftragedieddynasties are the subjects of this five-class colloquium. In addition toattending andparticipatingin it, students write brief reflection papers on the assigned readingscompleted in preparation for the colloquium’s sessions.
RELG-396.002(One credit)Christianity and Capitalism
In this colloquium, we explore both historical and contemporary intersections between Christianity and capitalism, such as the teachings of the New Testament on wealth in their historical contexts, the role of Christianity in the perpetuation of American slavery, the corporate beginnings of the American religious right, the ideology of the “prosperity gospel,” or contemporary Christian responses to wealth inequality.
RELG 4/686.001 Mysticism
Mysticism (3) An introduction to the mystical literature of the world's great religious traditions: poetry, prayer,narrativeand other writings from Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, Confucianist, and Native American traditions, deeply rooted in the religions from which they originated. The course explores what these mystical traditions have in common, their distinct teachings, and different metaphysical goals.
RELG 4/686. 002 Distraction, Attention, and the Human Condition
We live in an age of distraction with incessant demands on our attention. We often experience this as burdensome, but how should we think about these phenomena, the forces that direct them, and their relation to living well? This course will engage texts from the Buddhist and Christian traditions,drawing also on works in philosophy, cultural criticism, and cognitive science, to think deeply about distraction and attention as matters of spiritual, moral, and political concern. No prior study in religion isrequired.
RELG4/686.003The Spirituality of Sports
This course explores sport asmeansof communion with the divine.In particular, weexamine the ways in which culture, affect, and mood shape the rich varieties of ways athletesencounterthe divine on the playing field, and whether such transcendent experiences lead to greater human flourishing and a more just world.