Fall
2002 Electives
Philosophy and Religion Department
Click on discipline or faculty name for information about electives offered by the
Philosophy and Religion Department in Fall 2002.
Fall 2002 Fall Electives (for information about GER courses offered by the
department, click HERE):
Fall, 2002 Electives:
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NOTE: Check linked documents for further information about the courses offered this
semester, including information about specific texts covered, writing assignments and
other work required, general grading policies, etc. For information about GER courses
offered by the department, click HERE.
PHILOSOPHY ELECTIVES
PHIL 270 – Philosophy of Mind
The course addresses many profound and important
questions about the mental. Here is a short list:
Do you have a soul and if you do, how long will
it last?
Do pet dogs and cats feel pain or do they just
“pain-behave?”
Could a computing machine exhibit genuine
intelligence or would it be, as John Searle's Chinese room analogy
purports to show, MERELY following rules?
These and related questions will be examined
carefully and investigated philosophically.
We will read the second edition of Philosophy of Mind,
George Graham’s brilliant introductory text from Blackwell
Publishers. The course will be non-technical and will not presuppose
any prior background in philosophy, psychology or cognitive science.
Counts toward the Cognitive Science minor and as a Philosophy
elective.
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In the last fifteen years, philosophical discussion in America
has taken some dramatic new turns. The positivism that dominated
American thought for fifty years has all but disappeared; French and
German philosophers such as Heidegger, Gadamer, Habermas, Foucault and
Derrida are now on the "must read" list in most graduate
departments of philosophy; and disciplinary boundaries between
philosophy, history and literary theory have steadily eroded. The level
of intellectual excitement in philosophy and the humanities in general
is at a fever pitch. This course will introduce students to the work of
several of the most important figures in this contemporary philosophical
scene: Thomas Kuhn, Richard Rorty, Jean François Lyotard, Jürgen
Habermas, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida and Hans-Georg Gadamer.
* This is an
Internet-assisted course, which means that the course will make
substantial use of Internet technologies such as e-mail, Web pages,
chat, Web conferencing, etc. to present course content and to supplement
classroom work.
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PHIL
231
–American Philosophers
Introduction to the grand themes of
political and social philosophy, including the following: the nature of political ideals;
the justification of democracy as a form of government; the connection of governmental
structure and authority to human nature; the meaning and scope of freedom; the ideals of
equality and justice; the morality of an individual citizen's decision to disobey a law;
and the viability of the notion of universal human rights. Primary readings will come from
the work of the great political and social thinkers of history, such as Plato, Aristotle,
Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Rawls.
NOTE: Fulfills GER requirement for Philosophy/Religion and also fulfills a
requirement for the major in Philosophy.
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PHIL 331 – History of Philosophy:
Ancient Philosophy
An introduction to the major figures
of classical philosophy in the ancient world. The course will focus on
the writings of Plato and Aristotle, the two greatest and most
influential thinkers in ancient philosophy, whose writings are still a
goldmine of creativity and conceptual subtlety for the twentieth
century. The course will include also the earliest beginnings of
philosophy in the fragmentary thought of the Pre-Socratics in the
sixth century B.C. Classical philosophy first defined the central
issues and ideas that came to shape Western culture, including the
ideas of truth, beauty, and goodness; democracy and freedom;
knowledge, reason, and experience; and reality, time, space, infinity,
and God. Modern thought can be understood only through its
relationship to classical thought and culture. This course will
provide an introductory overview of this early, formative period in
philosophy.
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PHIL 204 –
Biomedical Ethics
The field of biomedical ethics addresses the issues raised by
things like human cloning, managed care, assisted suicide, and genetic
enhancements. These are issues likely to affect us all, to varying
degrees, over the next few years. Much of biomedical ethics is already
in our cultural mainstream; Dr. Kervorkian and his videotape of a
suicide helped to make biomedical ethics a prime-time topic. Other
examples include plastic surgery on demand, induced multiple-births,
and the widespread prescription of drugs like Prozac to children. We
will discuss these, and issues away from the headlines, including the
practice of "selective abortion," based on the sex of the
fetus, or the notion of recruiting medical-research subjects using ads
in campus newspapers.
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RELIGION
ELECTIVES
RELG 263 – Religion and
Psychology (2 sections)
- MW 1-2:15pm
- Room:
- Call Number:
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- Tuesday 5:30-8pm
- Room
- Call Number:
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A survey of 20th-century religious
reflection in the light of psychological analyses.
We begin with an introduction to
classic views of the religious person reached by such figures as
Freud, Jung, Fromm, and Maslow. Then we examine the implications of
such psychology for religious thought and life, as understood by
leading representatives of Jewish, Roman Catholic, and Protestant
traditions. (Marxist, feminist, and other critical insights are
included throughout the semester, but recent feminist religious work
receives special attention.) The approach stresses common required
readings, videos, and classroom lectures, plus discussion whenever
possible. Besides the common readings, course requirements include two
tests, one outside-reading-report, and a series of formal written
summaries and reflections.
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RELG 221 – Religion and Culture
This course takes an historical
approach in studying the interactions of Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam with the broader cultures they impact and inhabit. Students will
learn amazing amounts of interacting religious and secular history
(especially Western) in the first half of the course. In the second
half of the course, students will be immersed in fascinating
(sometimes terrifying) topics/foci. They will thereby gain insight
into dynamics still very much driving us (and driving us crazy) in
these first years of a new century and millennium. Students must
attend the classes, survive two tough tests, and faithfully work at a
variety of written journal assignments (thought questions, analyses,
long summaries of videos viewed during class time, etc.)
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RELG 206 – New Testament I: Jesus and
the Gospels
An examination of the
life and teachings of Jesus as interpreted in the theological treatises
known as the Gospels (with special stress on Mark and Matthew). Emphasis
will be placed on the texts themselves, the philosophical and
theological viewpoints of the writers in the context of the history and
thought of ancient Hebrew and Hellenistic culture. This is a basic
course for all students. Especially recommended for students of
literature and history. A follow-up course, Paul and the Early Church (RELG
206), will be offering in Spring, 2001.
RELG 352 - Kierkegaard
Soren Kierkegaard is often called the founder of the philosophy known as
Existentialism. He lived and wrote in early nineteenth-century
Copenhagen and declared his contempt for complacent bourgeois society
with his proclamation, “Truth is Subjectivity!” He held that the
purpose of life was to become what one already is -- namely “that
individual.” His denunciations of the church of his day made him a
social outcast but he proclaimed that “true” Christianity called
people to be radical individualists, to reject the mind-numbing
conformity of middle class life and to explore in radical ways one's own
freedom and its startling possibilities.
This class will read together and explore in
depth Kierkegaard’s writings. The issues at stake… personal
integrity, authentic existence, freedom of thought, the individual’s
struggle against group-think… will be equally of interest to Religion,
Philosophy, Literature and Psychology majors.
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RELG 213 - Buddhism
The Buddha was born in the 6th century BCE, during a period of intense
religious and intellectual ferment unparalleled in the history of India.
Like many of his contemporaries, he renounced wealth, home, and society
in search of a Truth that would liberate all beings. The truths he
discovered and the religion he founded profoundly influenced the history
of the entire Asian continent.
In this course we
will explore the Buddha's enigmatic teachings, and trace the varieties
of Buddhist doctrine and practice that developed out of his original
inspiration. We will cover both Hinayana and Mahayana schools, the
Buddhist monastic order, and how this religion has developed differently
in India, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, and Tibet. We will also look at
emerging Western interpretations of Buddhism. Topics covered include
eccentric Buddhist masters, meditative and devotional practices, depth
psychology, popular moral tales, Zen training in the arts and martial
arts, and Buddhist encounters with communism and other faiths.
This course is suitable
both as an introduction to Buddhism, and also for more advanced
students.
unparalleled in the history of
India. Like many of his contemporaries,
RELG 350 - Wicca & NeoPaganism
Over the past fifty years, a new set of religions
have emerged in Europe and the United States claiming to recreate
ancient, pre-Christian religions that worshipped nature and practiced
magic. Estimates of
people who practice Wicca (witchcraft) or Neopaganism in the United
States range from 100,000-500,000, making these religions easily as
populous as many Protestant denominations.
Within the last decade, these religions have gained greater
social respectability and have even become an accepted religious
affiliation within the United States Armed Forces. This course will introduce students to the variety of
religions co-existing under the Wicca and Neopaganism labels, examine
their shared beliefs and practices, and debate the many controversies
that arise around them. Specifically,
we will discuss the ancient and more recent history of Wicca and
Neopaganism (from classical Greek times through nineteenth- and
twentieth-century Europe to the American present), the significance of
polytheism and the worship of a goddess or goddesses, and the meaning
and uses of magic as both a technical resource and a spiritual
practice. Wicca and
Neopaganism are notable for their sense of fun, exploration, and their
curious melding of the very ancient with the postmodern.
Like the religions it studies, this course will have a broad
and entertaining sweep interpolated with some very pointed questions. This course
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