PHIL 295 - Seminar on Philosophical Topics

FDR: HU
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Fall, Winter

Topic for Winter 2011:

PHIL 295: The Self and The Social World (3). This course takes as its starting point the question of the ‘other.’ When being a ‘self’ depends first on being recognized by others, then how do we relate to ‘other selves’ and engage in community with them? The course concentrates on the work of traditional philosophical accounts of selves and others, e.g., Hegel’s dialectic of master and slave, and feminist philosophers, race-theorists, and post-colonialist thinkers who problematize these traditional philosophies and offer alternative ways of speaking about self and other. The worry is that our traditional understanding of ‘otherness’ is not a positive construct that recognizes diversity, but instead a form of violence towards the other person. Among other questions, we explore: how do we perceive, and communicate with others who have different bodies, genders, cultures and histories? How do we see ourselves through the eyes of others? Can we speak for others? And, can we build bridges across differences and forge common ground? (HU) Verhage.

Topics for Fall 2010:

PHIL 295A:Seminar: Process Philosophy - Cancelled

PHIL 295B: Virtue Ethics (3). We examine the recent movement toward virtue-based theories in both normative ethics and metaethics. We read some of the seminal articles that sparked this renewed interest in virtue ethics, and then examine a fully developed neo-Aristotelian virtue ethical account (and some criticisms that have been raised to this account). (HU) Smith.

PHIL 295C: Seminar: What is Honor? (3). Not open to students who have taken a previous iteration of this course at any level. What is honor? It lies at the heart of Washington and Lee’s values, yet its hold on the wider American society is tenuous, and its meaning is unclear to many, not least to students struggling to comprehend a revered honor system. This course seeks to explore the concept of personal honor in historical, literary, and philosophical texts. We examine some key moments in this concept’s development from ancient Greece to our own times, exploring a variety of philosophical perplexities along the way. We read literary texts such as the Iliad, Gawain and the Green Knight, and To Kill a Mockingbird, some biography (Robert E. Lee) and autobiography (Frederick Douglass), and a philosophical manuscript entitled “Honor for Us”, and view a variety of films (such as The Good Shepherd, Troy, The Last Samurai, Glory)–each of which casts different light on honor. We also explore honor’s reach in our contemporary society, from the military to sports, from politics to religion. At the end of the course, we focus on Washington and Lee’s own honor system, in order to clarify and deepen our own sense of local personal honor. Students participate in seminar discussion on the texts and films and the issues they raise. The course’s central philosophical question is this: how can honor, born and reared in hierarchical, patriarchal, warrior societies, live or even thrive in a more egalitarian and peaceful home, such as Washington and Lee in the 21st century? (HU) Sessions.

PHIL 295D: Seminar: Jurisprudence (3). This seminar examines Natural Law Theory, understood as the theory of law that holds that there is an essential relationship between law and morality, such that moral validity is a condition for legal validity. Both classical and modern formulations of the theory are considered, and both religious and secular versions of the theory. Authors include Sophocles, Cicero, Aquinas, Blackstone, Austin, Fuller, Hart, Dworkin, Finnis, Murphy, and Bix. (HU) Mahon