PHGA 5001 Introduction to Plato (3)
Study of Plato's developing thought, starting with
the materials he inherited from poetic and philosophical forerunners, and
analyzing how his original ethical-political interests compelled him to
confront epistemological, metaphysical, and theological concerns. Course
will focus mainly, but not exclusively, on early and middle dialogues.
PHGA 5002 19th-Century Philosophy (3)
Post-Kantian developments in philosophy from Hegel
to Nietzsche.
PHGA 5003 Natural Law Ethics (3)
A study of the natural law tradition in ethics:
its origins in classical philosophy, its integration with Christian thought
in the Middle Ages, and its application to selected contemporary problems.
PHGA 5005 Classical Modern Philosophy (3)
A study of the history of philosophy from
Descartes to Kant.
PHGA 5009 Introduction to Aristotle (3)
An introduction to the thought of Aristotle
through the study of the De Anima and the Metaphysics.
PHGA 5010 Introduction to St Thomas (3)
Historical, textual study of main themes in his
world-vision.
PHGA 5012 Introduction to St Augustine (3)
Survey of major themes in Augustine: nature of the
will, problem of time, moral psychology, political theory. There will be a
special focus throughout the course on the relation between faith and
reason. The course will use primary texts in translation, including On
the Freedom of the Will, Confessions, On the Trinity, City of God.
PHGA 5014 Modern Ethical Theories (3)
Exploration of contemporary ethical theories in
the analytic tradition: intuitionism, emotivism, prescriptivism, and
descriptivism.
PHGA 5015 Lonergan
(3)
An interpretive and critical examination of
Lonergan's Insight.
PHGA 5016
Contemporary Continental Philosophy (3)
A critical survey of contemporary continental philosophy.
PHGA 5098
Seminar: Philosophical Integration I (3)
This course supports the student in constructing
an adequately grounded and coherent personal synthesis of the five
systematic areas of philosophy, i.e., metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy
of the human person, philosophy of God, and ethics. Appropriate course work
in each of these areas, as well as in the history of philosophy, is
presupposed. For students in the MAPR program.
PHGA 5099 - Seminar:
Philosophical Integration II (3)
A continuation of PHGA 5098, Seminar:
Philosophical Integration I.
PHGA 5100 Logic I (3)
An introduction to symbolic logic.
PHGA 5301 Environmental
Philosophy and Ethics (3)
An examination of perennial philosophical questions relating to
environmental ethics.
PHGA 6168 Moral
Phenomenology (3)
An exploration of ethical theory in the phenomenological tradition.
PHGA 6251 American Pragmatism (3)
A survey of the central themes and figures of
American Pragmatism from Peirce to the present.
PHGA 6252 American
Philosophy (3)
A survey of the central themes and figures of American philosophy from
transcendentalism to naturalism---Emerson, Royce, Peirce, James, and Dewey.
PHGA 6256
Process Philosophy (3)
This course will cover a range of figures and
schools which have suggested process-oriented alternatives to the classical
metaphysics of substance. Texts from the history of philosophy which can be
considered conceptual precursors of process thought (Heraclitus, later
Plato, Aristotle, Hegel, etc.) will be read as preparation for a fuller
comprehension of the significance of figures such as Bergson, Whitehead, and
Hartshorne. More contemporary thinkers (Neville, Buchler, Dewey, etc.) will
frame the discussion of the present and future contribution of the process
tradition to the process of metaphysics.
PHGA 6354
Skepticism and Knowledge (3)
A close look at several skeptical arguments. A
major theme will be that almost no classic skeptical argument is incoherent
or self-refuting. On the contrary, many of the arguments are quite
plausible. To be avoided, they require the epistemologist to take
substantial and controversial positions, and to this extent skepticism may
be seen as a driving force of positive epistemology.
PHGA 6359 Nominalism (3)
Analysis of the works of the most prominent medieval nominalists (in particular, Ockham, Buridan, Albert of Saxony and Peter of Ailly) contrasted with some late-medieval realists (Cajetan, Soto and Suarez). The course shows that nominalism is not so much a distinctive ontological position as a distinctive way of construing the fundamental relationships between words, concepts and things.
PHGA 6356
Topics in Epistemology (3)
The course explores in seminar format current
topics in epistemology, such as: theories of knowledge, theories of
epistemic evaluation, reliabilism, naturalized epistemology, skepticism,
foundationalism, contextualism, moral knowledge, religious knowledge,
reformed epistemology, methodology.
PHGA 6451
Philosophy of the Person (3)
Role of experience for the human individual.
Limitations of space and time on ideal experience. Divisions of
consciousness: mere states, instinctual, psychical, and intentional states.
Importance and relevance of intentionality to all major problems dealing
with the human individual. Cognitive acts, responses. The question of
freedom of the will; different ways to be enslaved. the soul, its nature and
possible immortality.
PHGA 6452 Philosophy of
Mind (3)
A study of major approaches to
defining the nature of mind and dealing with the mind-body problem.
Emphasis will be on contemporary Anglo-American literature.
PHGA 6456 The
Phenomenal Mind (3)
A study of "conceivability arguments" that provide doubts about the
adequacy of contemporary physicalism in explaining consciousness
reductively. Readings from, among others, David Chalmers and Joseph Levine.
PHGA 6457 The Mind-Body Problem (3)
A consideration of some of the difficulties involved in integrating the image of
ourselves as free, rational beings with the image of ourselves as complex biochemical systems and of whether these
difficulties can be overcome using the resources available to the currently
dominant philosophical theories.
PHGA 6458 Mind-Body
Problem in Historical Context (3)
A study of the historical background to the mind-body problem and of
contemporary discussions in the light of this background.
PHGA 6552
Philosophy of Science (3)
Probability, confirmation, induction, the "mental"
and the "physical," space, time, emergence, explanation in the biological
sciences.
PHGA 6600
Philosophy of Art (3)
Beauty and the nature of aesthetic experience.
What Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, and Heidegger had to say about art and
beauty. The artist in the world of today's communications media.
PHGA 6654 Thomistic Ethics (3)
A study of important topics in
Thomistic ethics, including: happiness at the end of human life; the nature
of moral responsibility; the distinction between the voluntary and the
involuntary in human action; the will and its acts; freedom of choice; moral
intentionality; the passions and emotions; habits and virtues; natural law,
human law, eternal law, divine law; and various theological topics such as
the supernatural virtues, divine law, grace, the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
PHGA 6659 Virtue Ethics
(3)
An analysis and discussion of virtue ethics theory.
PHGA 6805
Topics in the Philosophy of Religion (3)
This course will introduce and discuss a range of
topics in the philosophy of religion. Topics to be considered will include:
the propriety and possibility of natural theology; arguments for God's
existence; the problem of evil; the attributes of God; life after death.
PHGA 6806
Postmodern Philosophy of Religion (3)
A study of the religious import of postmodern
philosophy. Readings in such authors as Nietzsche, Heidegger, Derrida,
Foucault, Rorty, and Marion.
PHGA 6807 Wittgenstein and
the Philosophy of Religion (3)
An investigation of the variety of responses by philosophers of religion
to the work of Wittgenstein.
PHGA 6808 Lonergan's
Philosophy of God (3)
An inquiry into the philosophy of God and religion in Lonergan.
PHGA 7004 The
Philosophy of Plato (3)
Study of such dialogues as the Meno, Gorgias,
Symposium, Republic, and Theaetetus to see how Plato works out
the various problems of Greek culture on a higher philosophical level.
Dealing with problems of human excellence, meaning, and knowledge, the
dialogues reveal the unity of Plato's philosophy--culminating in the central
theme of the transcendent world of Forms.
PHGA 7005
Aristotle (3)
A developmental study of Aristotle's principal
texts.
PHGA 7009 Plato:
Being and Becoming (3)
Analysis of the form and content of Plato's ontology, with special
emphasis on the Republic and Timaeus.
PHGA 7010 Plotinus
the Platonist (3)
This course will investigate how Plotinus is both
a traditional Platonist, as well as an innovator in metaphysics and
epistemology.
PHGA 7011
Aristotle: Nature and Change (3)
A study of Aristotle's conception of nature and
his analysis of alteration and substantial generation through an examination
of the Physics, Metaphysics, On Generation and Corruption, Generation of
Animals, and other relevant treatises.
PHGA 7012 Aristotle:
Soul and Life (3)
An analysis of philosophical issues addressed in Aristotle's De
Anima, Generation of Animals, and related treatises.
PHGA 7013 Late Plato
(3)
A careful examination of Plato's epistemological and metaphysical
investigations in the late dialogues, e.g., the Theaetetus, Parmenides,
Sophist, Statesman, Philebus. Thorough acquaintance with the early and
middle dialogues is required.
PHGA 7014 Stoic Ethics: Old and New (3)
An examination of the Stoic’s ethics, by their own account the focal point of their whole philosophy. Our emphasis will be on the ancient Athenian and Roman discussions, but we will also consider efforts to establish the relevance of the Stoics for contemporary moral philosophy.
PHGA 7040 Aquinas on Mind (3)
This course will provide a survey of some major issues in Aquinas’
philosophy of mind and metaphysics, exploring the intriguing theoretical
alternative Aquinas’ position seems to offer “between” dualism and
materialism, based on his hylomorphist metaphysics.
PHGA 7046 Aquinas and
Contemporary Philosophy of Religion (3)
A study of Aquinas and some major contemporary authors on a selected
range of questions in philosophy of religion.
PHGA 7048 Bonaventure and Aquinas (3)
An examination of the theses distinctive of
Bonaventure and the early Franciscan (i.e., pre-Scotistic) school. The
distinctiveness of these theses will emerge by comparing and contrasting
Bonaventure and Aquinas on a number of different issues.
PHGA 7050 St
Augustine (3)
Influences on the development of the thought of
Augustine.
PHGA 7064 Aquinas's De Veritate (3)
Extensive reading from all three volumes of St. Thomas's De Veritate.
PHGA 7065 The Five
Ways of Aquinas (3)
A study of Summa Theologiae Ia, 2, on the existence of God.
PHGA 7066 Aquinas: Set Texts (3)
An examination of selected texts from Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae or Summa Contra
Gentiles, and a consideration of the
philosophical issues which they raise.
PHGA 7067 Late
Medieval Philosophy (3)
The course provides a comparative study of key
philosophical issues, such as the problem of universals. The course will
study salient texts from several philosophers: Scotus, Ockham, Suarez
PHGA 7068
Aquinas' Theory of Human Action and Morality (3)
A study of Aquinas' theory of human action both as
free action and as morally good or bad action. The course will focus on Summa Theologiae I-II, supplemented by selections from contemporary
Thomists.
PHGA 7069 Late
Medieval Philosophy (3)
An extended argument to show that when medieval metaphysical notions are
reconstructed against their proper theoretical background, they provide a
comprehensive framework for discussing major, contemporary philosophical
concerns.
PHGA
7072 Duns Scotus and Later Medieval Philosophy (3)
An introduction to the thought of John Duns Scotus (1266-1308). The main
focus will be on metaphysics and philosophical theology, but some aspects of
Scotus’s theory of cognition and ethics will also be considered.
PHGA 7073 Late Medieval Moral Theories (3)
An examination of the transformation of moral thought in the period spanning from the end of the thirteenth century to about 1350, with an eye on later developments. We shall focus on some key selections from the works of the foremost philosophers and theologians of the fourteenth century, especially John Duns Scotus (1265/66-1308) and William Ockham (1288-1347).
PHGA 7105 The
Rationalists (3)
An historico-critical examination of the origin and development of the
17th-century Rationalist tradition. Special attention will be given to the
texts of either Descartes or Leibniz and their respective role in
constituting this tradition.
PHGA 7106 Kant I: Critique of Pure Reason (3)
The aim of this course is to achieve an
appreciation of, and some facility with, the problems and mode of
philosophizing that dictate the arguments in Kant's Kritik der reinen
Vernunft. Accordingly, the course is organized along thematic lines
that, while corresponding to specific passages and sections of the Kritik,
provide a route through the text as a whole. After an initial introduction
to the structure and context of the work as a whole, the course will focus
primarily on the positive doctrines of Kant's critical or transcendental
philosophy as presented in the Transcendental Aesthetic and the
Transcendental Analytic of the Transcendental Logic.
PHGA 7107
Kant II: Kant's Moral Philosophy (3)
A study of Kant's major ethical writings,
including the Groundwork Of The Metaphysics Of Morals, the Critique of
Practical Reason, and The Metaphysics of Morals. (Please note that PHGA 7106
is not a prerequisite for this course.)
PHGA 7109 Descartes (3)
An analysis of the Regulae, Discourse on Method, Meditations,
Principles, and Passions of the Soul.
PHGA 7111 Locke, Hume and Reid (3)
A critical investigation into the metaphysics and
epistemology of Locke, Hume, and Reid, as well as an exploration of their
relevance to contemporary debates.
PHGA 7112 Descartes and Montaigne
(3)
An examination of the contrasting moral
philosophies of these two figures at the beginning of the modern era, with a
look back to their ancient roots (especially Skepticism and Stoicism), as
well as a look forward to their relevance for contemporary discussions (for
example, moral theory, moral luck, and moral emotions).
PHGA 7113 Cartesianism
(3)
The course studies the reception of the philosophy
of Descartes, as it branches into distinctive schools. Two schools in
particular are studied: the mechanistic (e.g., La Mettrie) and the
occasionalist (e.g., Malebranche). Contemporary critics (Maritain, Ryle) and
supporters (Husserl, Marion) are studied as part of the perduring
controversy over Cartesianism.
PHGA 7114 Presocratic Philosophy (3)
A close reading of Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, and other
pre-Socratic philosophers.
PHGA 7130 Kant and Fichte
on Knowing (3)
An investigation of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and Fichte's Wissenschaftslehre.
PHGA 7131: Between Kant and Hegel (3)
An attempt to
bridge the apparent gap between Kant and the German Idealists, and to show that the movement from Kant to German
Idealism is not discontinuous at all, but rather a natural unfolding of the
critical tensions and difficulties implicit in the Kantian system itself.
PHGA 7149 Hegel's
Phenomenology (3)
A reading of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit in the context of
his other writings and in conversation with various other philosophers.
PHGA 7152 Hegel (3)
Selected readings from Phenomenology of Spirit, Philosophy of Right, preface to Philosophy of History. Aimed at development of main
themes of Hegel's thought, especially its historical dimensions and its
relation to subsequent Marxist development.
PHGA 7153 Husserl’s
Later Thought (3)
An investigation of Husserl's later philosophy by way of a careful
reading of selected texts from the 1920s and 1930s.
PHGA 7159 Kierkegaard (3)
Sources, development, influence of Kierkegaard's
thought.
PHGA 7160 Marx
(3)
Objective investigation of Marxism as a
philosophy.
PHGA 7161 Nietzsche (3)
Detailed investigation of principal Nietzschean
themes.
PHGA 7164
Nietzsche and 20th-Century Thought (3)
An investigation of Nietzsche's thought from his early On the Birth
of Tragedy to the works of his twilight period, ending with Ecce Homo and the Antichrist. Nietzsche’s
influence on recent French thought will be traced through the use of
commentaries by Deleuze, Derrida, and Kaufman as well as Heidegger’s
critical Nietzsche courses and essays.
PHGA 7165 Hegel and
the State (3)
A study of Hegel’s Philosophy of
Right in relation to such political theories as Locke’s, Rousseau’s and
Marx’s.
PHGA 7166 German Idealism (3)
An examination of the German
idealist critique of Kant, with emphasis on Fichte.
PHGA 7167 Kierkegaard and Levinas (3)
A comparative study with special
attention to the critique of speculation and ontology, transcendence,
alterity, revelation, responsibility, politics and history—all in relation
to their respective ethics.
PHGA 7169 The Idea of Transcendental Phenomenology (3)
An investigation of the meaning, nature, and possibility of transcendental philosophy. In particular, the course will focus on distinguishing transcendental philosophy both externally from a metaphysical approach to consciousness and internally by distinguishing the transcendental philosophies of Kant, Husserl, and Heidegger (of the 1920s). The course will also explore competing conceptions of transcendental philosophy found in 19th-century neo-Kantianism and contemporary analytic philosophy.
PHGA 7206 Early Heidegger
(3)
A close textual study of Being and Time.
Themes: the question of being and the destruction of the history of
ontology; being-in-the-world; care; truth; being towards death; temporality;
historicity; the phenomenological method; the influence of Aristotle,
Kierkegaard, and Husserl; transition to the "later Heidegger."
PHGA 7207 Later
Heidegger (3)
A study of the “turning” (Kehre) from the early to the later writings. Topics include overcoming the history
of metaphysics; the problem of humanism; the significance of early Greek
thinking; the critique of technology; poetry, language, and thought; the end
of philosophy; the event (Ereignis) of appropriation; and the epochs
of Being.
PHGA 7210
Whitehead (3)
An analysis of the development of the philosophy
of organism in Whitehead's earlier works and its full expression in Process
and Reality.
PHGA 7216 Logical
Investigations (3)
A close reading of the text of
Husserl’s first and enduring classic with the aim of understanding its
nature both as a philosophy of logic and as a breakthrough to phenomenology.
PHGA 7226 Habermas:
Critical Theory (3)
Historical, critical, and philosophical reflection
on Habermas's Theory of Communicative Action I & II. Issues
considered will be the nature of communicative action, the interpretation
and critique of modernity, the distinction of life world, the colonization
of life world by system in late capitalism and state socialism, and the
critique of instrumental reason.
PHGA 7227 Maritain and Neo-Thomism (3)
This course will take up one of the most important books of the
Thomistic revival of the Twentieth Century, Jacques Maritain’s 1932 Degrees
of Knowledge. We will consider this volume for its contribution to
epistemology in general and for its crucial role in the development of Neothomism. The course will also involve considerable study of certain medieval
texts that were crucial to Maritain’s project (especially works by Aquinas and
John of St. Thomas).
PHGA 7229
Derrida (3)
A study of major texts of Jacques Derrida dealing
with such themes as writing, différance, and deconstruction, as well as his
relation to traditional and contemporary figures.
PHGA 7230 Levinas (3)
A study of Levinas’s phenomenology of the other against the background
of Husserl, Marcel, Buber, and Sartre. Attention will be paid to his
critique of metaphysics.
PHGA 7231
Foucault (3)
A study of the development and concerns of Michel
Foucault's thought, including his early existentialist-phenomenological,
middle structuralist, and later genealogical approaches. both his
programmatic, methodological writings and his concrete studies of medicine,
psychiatry, prisons, sexuality, schools, and the family will be examined.
PHGA 7233 French
Poststructuralism (3)
A seminar on the major works of Foucault and Derrida. Themes discussed
include the relation of these thinkers to structuralism, to Heidegger, and
to Husserl; the end of philosophy; the death of the subject; the linguistic
turn; ethics and politics; religion; art; madness; power; technology; media;
capitalism; sexuality; and war.
PHGA 7234 Husserl’s
Later Logic (3)
A careful reading of Husserl’s Formal and Transcendental Logic with special attention to Husserl’s
discussion of the apophantic and mathematical traditions in logic, of their
underlying unity, and of transcendental grounding of judgments and the
logical.
PHGA 7251 Peirce (and the Problem of Universals) (3)
An introduction to Peirce’s general philosophical project by way of an investigation of selected concepts and problems.
PHGA 7252 William James (3)
A study of the pragmatism of
William James, its origins, its implications for epistemology, morals, and
religion, and its influence on American thought and culture.
PHGA 7253 Dewey (3) Green
An examination of the major works of John Dewey
with a view to grasping the broad lines of his thought and assessing its
contemporary relevance.
PHGA 7256 Mind, Signs, and Ontology (3)
An examination of Peirce’s developed philosophy of signs in its logical, epistemological, and metaphysical aspects in the context of some of the main medieval and classical approaches to signs and signification.
PHGA 7352
Epistemology of Moral Belief (3)
A critical examination of the cognitive status of moral belief. The
course will begin with a survey of basic epistemological considerations.
These will then be used to evaluate whether, to what extent, and in what
respects, knowledge is possible in morality. Topics to be considered
include: ethical relativism and absolutism; cognitive and noncognitive
theories of ethics; and moral dilemmas.
PHGA 7357 The Epistemology of Disagreement (3)
An investigation of the interesting epistemological consequences of disagreement, especially philosophical disagreement.
PHGA 7455 Freedom and Responsibility (3)
An examination of arguments for and
against the reality of human freedom. The course will pay special attention
to treatments of the subject coming from contemporary English-speaking
philosophers.
PHGA 7456 Heidegger and the Political (3)
A consideration of the political dimension of Heidegger’s thought, emphasizing the challenges that have grown up in the wake of his thinking, from Agamben and Badiou to Zizek, Levinas, and Derrida.
PHGA 7540 The Philosophy of Technology (3)
An examination of the questioning
of technology in its essence and the currently received approach to the
problem of technology and its applications in practice.
PHGA 7554
Galileo and Descartes (3)
A study of the respective responses of Galileo and
Descartes to the Copernican theory.
PHGA 7558 Galileo, Bacon, and Descartes (3)
An examination of the respective
models of a science of nature in Galileo, Bacon, Descartes, Newton, and
Leibniz.
PHGA 7658 Personal Autonomy (3)
An examination of the rich and growing literature on personal autonomy that
derives from Harry Frankfurt's hierarchical accounts of autonomy in terms of the “higher-order
will.”
PHGA 7659
Contemporary Problems in Moral Philosophy (3)
An examination of issues under current discussion
in the contemporary literature of moral philosophy, including
methodological, epistemological, axiological, or moral-psychological
developments.
PHGA 7662 Moral Intentionality (3)
An investigation of the structures of moral experience and of things
taken in their moral significance and, in particular, the
nature of both evaluative and volitional experience. While the course will be primarily concerned with developing a
phenomenological account of moral intentionality, we shall also investigate the
historical background against which such theories were developed.
PHGA7664 Continental
Philosophy of Literature (3)
The philosophical analysis of
literature within the context of German and French philosophies from the late
18th to the late 20th centuries. We shall focus on three sets of issues and their interrelation: hermeneutics, or the philosophy of interpretation, and its claims
concerning the meaning of literary works; the
question of authorship or authorial intention; and claims about the “death of the
author” in the wake of structuralism, and responses to such claims.
PHGA 7671 Contemporary Virtue Ethics (3)
An examination of recent work in virtue ethics.
PHGA 7753 Foucault and
Habermas (3)
An exploration in general of the
relationship between rationality and social critique in Foucault and
Habermas. Some of the themes to be considered are the relationship between
truth and power, the legitimacy of equating rationality and science, the
question concerning the foundations for critique, the meaning of modernity
and the Enlightenment.
PHGA 7757 Justice and the Other (3)
An exploration of justice,
difference, and otherness.
PHGA 7762 Community and Democracy (3)
This course will explore the prospects for
critical and transformative philosophy of the diverse democratic community
by focusing on ideals of community and democracy, as well as on strategies
for their progressive realization developed by John Dewey and contemporary
American pragmatists, feminists, and cultural pluralists. Also to be
considered are alternatives presented by left communitarians like Sandel and
Walzer, and by right communitarians like MacIntyre and Taylor.
PHGA 7857 Topics in Contemporary Metaphysics (3)
An investigation of certain fundamental puzzles having to
do with the nature of existence, vagueness, and physical composition (the
relation between a physical thing and the stuff that composes it).
PHGA 8001 Seminar in Philosophical Education (3)
Detailed investigation of
methods in the teaching of philosophy and preparation for teaching Fordham core courses.
