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Fall 2008: Philosophy or Religion or Other
Summer 2008: All
Previous Course Brochures:
Spring 2008
Fall 2008
Philosophy
PHIL 105 Western Philosophy
.001 MTh 11:20-12:35PM Gougelet, D
.002 MTh 12:45-2:00PM Gougelet, D
.003 MTh 2:10-3:25PM Gougelet, D
A historical introduction to the Western philosophical tradition. Students
closely examine classic and contemporary texts on the nature of reality, truth,
morality, goodness, and justice; the possibility of knowledge; faith, reason,
and the existence of God; and the issue of freedom and determinism.
.004H TF 2:10-3:25PM Feder, E
The history of philosophy, like that of humanity, may be read as a history
of love and desire. From the famous “Platonic love” that seeks
wisdom to the historical desires that make up human consciousness for Hegel,
from the medieval passion for God to the postmodern desire for Otherness,
love and desire have been central to the philosophical constructions of human
identity, moral meaning, and the very project of understanding. In this course
we undertake a survey of Western philosophy from the perspective of love and
desire, exploring the ways in which these terms have been understood and have
in turn formed our philosophical understanding.
.005 MW 5:20-6:35PM Erfani, F
In this course, a historical introduction to the Western philosophical tradition,
students closely examine classic and contemporary texts on the nature of reality,
truth, morality, goodness, and justice; the possibility of knowledge; faith,
reason, and the existence of God; and the issue of freedom and determinism.
This is a foundation-level course in the General Education Program, Area 2: Traditions that Shape the Western World, Cluster 2: Western Heritage and Institutions.
PHIL 220 Moral Philosophy
.001 TF 9:55-11:10AM TBA
The theories concerning the nature of goodness found in Western philosophy.
The major discussion issues are traditional principles for evaluating goodness
and telling right from wrong; the difference between fact and value; the justification
of normative judgments; objectivity in ethics; and the relationship between
moral and nonmoral goodness.
.002 TF 12:45-2:00PM Carr, R
Over the course of the semester, we will critically analyze the major classical
and contemporary approaches to moral philosophy and their application to a
number of contemporary moral problems, including human rights, homosexual
rights, war and peace, environmental protection, abortion and euthanasia,
AIDS, racial and gender justice, and hunger and poverty.
This is a second-level course in the General Education Program, Curricular Area 2: Traditions that Shape the Western World; Cluster 2: Western Heritage and Institutions.
Prerequisites for General Education credit:GOVT-105 Individual Freedom vs. Authority, HIST-115 Work and Community, JLS-110 Western Legal Tradition, PHIL-105 Western Philosophy, or RELG-105 Religious Heritage of the West.
PHIL 230 Meaning & Purpose in the Arts
.001 MTh 9:55-11:10AM Pathak, S
This course focuses on the interpretation of works of art through increased
understanding of the artworks themselves, the lives of those who create them,
and the societal influences on these artists. In addition to considering ancient,
medieval, and modern criticism of a variety of forms of literary and visual
art, students will interpret the oeuvres of particular artists of interest
to them.
This is a second-level course in the General Education Program, Curricular Area 1: The Creative Arts, Cluster 2: Understanding Creative Works.
Prerequisites for General Education credit: ARTH-105 Art: The Historical Experience, COMM-105 Visual Literacy, LIT-120 Interpreting Literature, or LIT-135 Critical Approach to the Cinema.
PHIL 235 Theories of Democracy & Human Rights
.001 MTh 11:20-12:35PM Peach, L
.002 MTh 3:35-4:50PM Peach, L
In this course, we will examine the classic and contemporary theories about
the nature and moral foundations of democracy and human rights, as well as
contemporary problems regarding democracy and human rights. Examples of the
former include the dangers of democracy, the problems with “free trade
democracy,” and democracies in different cultural contexts. Examples
of the latter include the debate over human rights as political and civil
only or also social, cultural and economic; group rights as human rights;
and the complications of nationality, gender, and sexuality in thinking about
the universality or cultural relativism of human rights.
This is a second-level course in the General Education Program, Curricular Area 2: Traditions that Shape the Western World, Cluster 2: Western Heritage and Institutions.
Prerequisites for General Education credit: GOVT-105 Individual Freedom vs. Authority, HIST-115 Work and Community, JLS-110 Western Legal Tradition, PHIL-105 Western Philosophy, or RELG-105 Religious Heritage of the West.
PHIL 302/602 Nineteenth Century Philosophy
.001 M 5:30-8:00PM Stam, J
This course explores continental philosophy from Hegel through Nietzsche.
Beginning with the Kantian background, we move from Hegel to Schopenhauer,
Feuerbach, Kierkegaard, Marx, and Nietzsche. Consciousness, will, history,
freedom, religion, and different applications of the dialectical method, will
be among the major themes. Emphasis will be on concentrated reading of the
texts—some of them difficult—and the continuities and contrasts
among these thinkers.
Prerequisite for PHIL-302: PHIL-105 Western Philosophy or permission of instructor.
PHIL 314/614 American Philosophy
.001 TF 2:10-3:25PM Carr, R
From the time of the Civil War to the outbreak of WWII, three American philosophers
made original entries into the encyclopedia of philosophy. The entries come
under the heading "Pragmatism", a theory of meaning that accounts
for the ways in which thinking enters into experience and experience determines
the truth of our concepts and beliefs. Charles Peirce (1839-1914), William
James (1842-1910), and John Dewey (1859-1952) are the classical pragmatists
and their works are the subject of this course. Some consideration will be
given to Alain Locke, a little heralded pragmatist of this period who was
the intellectual spokesman of the Harlem Renaissance, and neo-pragmatism.
Prerequisite for PHIL-314: one introductory course in philosophy.
PHIL 317/617 Race and Philosophy
.001 T 5:30-8:00PM Feder, E
An introduction to the emerging area of critical race theory in philosophy.
The course examines the development of “race’ as an object of
philosophy beginning in the early modern period, explores the way in which
analysis of race has brought philosophy into public conversation, and the
ways that philosophers have treated race and racism.
Prerequisite for PHIL-317: PHIL-105 Western Philosophy or permission of instructor.
PHIL 319/619 Buddhist Philosophy
.001 W 5:30-8:00PM Park, J
This course explores Buddhist philosophy through a close reading of major
Buddhist texts in three sections of Buddhist scriptures, Buddhist thinkers,
and modern developments. The topics we will discuss include the function of
the mind in Buddhist epistemology, the role of language in Buddhist literature,
and Buddhist ethical paradigm. Readings include: The Lankavatara Sutra,
Vimalakirti Sutra, Zen Master Dogen, and modern Japanese thinker
Nishida Kitaro.
Prerequisite for PHIL-319: one course in philosophy.
PHIL 386/686 Selected Topics in Philosophy: Philosophy and Film
.001 Th 8:10-10:40PM Erfani, F
The objective of this course is to analyze film philosophically. Even though
it is clear that many films depict philosophical themes, our focus is on concepts
of philosophical aesthetics in film, such as the particularity of the medium,
authorship, the ontology of film, the role of narratives, and the response
of the audience. In terms of application, we will mainly focus on the case
of Iranian cinema and its philosophical relevance. Students are expected to
make time outside of class meetings to watch a number of films which we will
cover in class.
Prerequisite for PHIL-386: PHIL-105 or permission of instructor.
PHIL 391/691 Internship in Philosophy
.001 T 8:10-10:40PM Feder, E
An internship provides the opportunity to test the claim that philosophy is
the kind of discipline that teaches transferable skills such as critical reading,
analytical problem-solving and clear and careful writing. These skills are
desirable since many research institutes, non-profit organizations, think
tanks and legal and business organizations--all of which Washington supports
in abundance--are in search of individuals with such skills. Students enrolled
in the internship will design, in consultation with the internship coordinator,
a reading list and individual syllabus appropriate to their internships. Students
will meet together throughout the semester, beginning the second week of classes.
Prerequisite: permission of instructor.
PHIL 392/692 Cooperative Education Field Experience
Prerequisite: permission of department chair and Cooperative Education office.
PHIL 486 Colloquium of Philosophy: José Ortega y Gasset
.002 Oliver, A
8:10-10:40PM on 9/24, 10/15, & 11/12
1:00-6:00PM on 11/07
José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955) was chair of metaphysics at the University
of Madrid and editor of the influential journal Revista de Occidente.
He was also one of the intellectual leaders of the Spanish Republican government
and became a member of Parliament. In this colloquium we will read Ortega's
Revolt of the Masses (1930), which, in the twentieth century, has
played a role similar to that played by Rousseau's Contrat Social
in the eighteenth century and Karl Marx's Das Kapital in the nineteenth.
In Revolt of the Masses, Ortega responds to population growth in
Europe and the United States and the rise of the "mass-man."
Prerequisite: one course in philosophy.
PHIL 498 Honors Project in Philosophy
Prerequisite: permission of department and University Honors Director.
PHIL 520 Seminar on Ethical Theory: Recent Contributions
.001 W 2:10-4:50PM Reiman, J
In this course we will examine some important recent contributions to ethical
theory, looking at a series of books published in the last two decades. We
will start with a careful reading of John Rawls’s Justice as Fairness:
A Restatement (published 2001). This is Rawls’s final statement
of his liberal theory of justice, a theory which has in large measure shaped
moral philosophical discourse among English-speaking philosophers since the
appearance of his A Theory of Justice in 1971. Then we will examine
a number of works challenging Rawls’s theory, in greater or lesser degree.
We will start by considering Amartya Sen’s Inequality Reexamined
(originally published 1992), in which Sen defends the “capabilities
approach” which he contends is superior to Rawls’s way of determining
people’s just entitlements. Then we will look at Eva Feder Kittay’s
Love’s Labor (published 1999), which argues from a feminist/care
perspective that Rawls has omitted a crucial feature of social existence that
is essential to justice. This will be followed by Jürgen Habermas’s,
Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action (published 1990), where
Habermas puts forth his theory of “discourse ethics,” an approach
that he contends is more realistic than Rawls’s approach. We will close
the semester by evaluating Rosalind Hursthouse’s On Virtue Ethics
(published 1999), which calls for placing moral theory on an Aristotelian
basis rather than the Kantian basis on which Rawls’s theory is developed.
Prerequisite: PHIL-220 or permission of instructor.
PHIL 797 Master's Thesis Seminar
Prerequisite: permission of department chair.
Religion
RELG 105 Religious Heritage of the West
.001 TF 8:30-9:45AM Schaefer, M
The contribution of religion to Western civilization. An exploration of the
religions that have formed the foundations of Western civilization, including:
Greco-Roman and other Ancient Pagan Traditions, Judaism, Christianity, Islam,
Unitarianism, Mormonism, and American Civil Religion. Where possible, primary
source texts, including the scriptures of the religions, will be used.
This course is a foundation-level course in the General Education Program, Curricular Area 2: Traditions that Shape the Western World, Cluster 2: Western Heritage and Institutions.
RELG 185 Forms of the Sacred
.001 TF 3:35-4:50PM Greenberg,
G
Since we live in both the global village and in our own national, but multicultural,
universe, some knowledge of Eastern religions can be a real asset. The course
covers three major religious traditions: the traditions developed in South
Asia which form Hinduism, Buddhism as it developed in India and is transformed
in East Asia, and the indigenous religious traditions of China and Japan.
Throughout the course, the manifestations of religion in both high and popular
culture and religion’s influence on issues of gender, social structure
and personal behaviors will be addressed.
.002 TF 9:55-11:10AM TBA
An introduction to the methods of studying the history of religions. A brief
survey of comparative analysis of major eastern religions and philosophies,
including Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Daoism, and Confucianism.
This is a foundation-level course in the General Education Program, Curricular Area 3: Global and Multicultural Perspectives, Cluster 2: Multicultural Experience.
RELG 210 Nonwestern Religious Traditions
.001 TF 11:20-12:35PM TBA
How non-Western religious traditions function as systems of symbols, how they
interact with both indigenous religious traditions and external religious
traditions such as Islam and Christianity, and how they respond to modernization
and imperialism.
This is a second-level course in the General Education Program, Curricular Area 3: Global and Multicultural Perspectives, Cluster 2: Multicultural Experience.
Prerequisites for General Education credit: ANTH-110 Culture: The Human Mirror, LIT-150 Third-World Literature, RELG-185 Forms of the Sacred, SIS-140 Cross-Cultural Communication, SOCY-110 Views from the Third World.
RELG 386/686 Selected Topics in Religion
.001 How to Compare Myths
MTh 12:45-2:00PM Pathak, S
In addition to surveying themes common to myths from different parts of the
world, this course examines five major approaches to the cross-cultural comparison
of myths (anthropological, historical, psychological, literary critical, and
sociological), and aims to provide students with the historical awareness
and methodological knowledge required both to compare myths of different cultures
and to criticize constructively the comparative work of others.
.002 Peace and Religion
T 8:10-10:40PM Greenberg, G
This course analyzes the meaning and role of peace in Judaism, Christianity
and Islam; Hinduism, Jainism and Sikhism. Drawing from the respective scriptures,
developed historically, students will gain insight into an essential theme
of religious identity and tap sources for understanding international conflicts
and peace-efforts. Taught by a scholar in the field of religious studies.
RELG 498 Honors Project in Religion
Open only to students in the University Honors Program.
Prerequisite: permission of department chair and
university honors director.
Other
GNED 230 Asian Philosophy
.001 MTh 2:10-3:25PM Park, J
The course offers an introduction to Asian philosophy. Students will read
major philosophical texts, both classical and modern, and consider the issues
of the human nature, the ultimate reality, being and non-being, moral theory,
social responsibility, and more in the context of Asian philosophical traditions.
Readings will include: Mencius and Daode jing in the Chinese
tradition, The Four-Seven Debates in the Korean tradition, the Bhagavad-gita
and Gandhi in the Indian tradition, and Nishitani Keiji in the Japanese philosophical
tradition.
Summer
2008
PHIL 105.B01 Western Philosophy
MW 5:30PM-8:00PM Erfani, F May 19 – June 26
In this course, a historical introduction to the Western philosophical tradition,
students closely examine classic and contemporary texts on the nature of reality,
truth, morality, goodness, and justice; the possibility of knowledge; faith,
reason, and the existence of God; and the issue of freedom and determinism.
This course is a foundation-level course in the General Education Program, Area 2, Cluster 2: "Traditions that Shape the Western World".
PHIL 220.F01 Moral Philosophy
MW 5:30PM-8:40PM Erfani, F June 30 – August
7
The theories concerning the nature of goodness found in Western philosophy.
The major discussion issues are traditional principles for evaluating goodness
and telling right from wrong; the difference between fact and value; the justification
of normative judgments; objectivity in ethics; and the relationship between
moral and nonmoral goodness.
This course is a second-level course in the General Education Program, Curricular Area 2, Cluster 2: Traditions that Shape the Western World.
Prerequisites for General Education credit: Individual Freedom vs. Authority, Work and Community, Western Legal Tradition, Western Philosophy, or Religious Heritage of the West.
PHIL 230.F01 Meaning and Purpose in the Arts
TTh 5:30PM-8:40PM Greenberg, G June 30 –
August 7
Leading theories of the nature, purpose, and meaning of artistic activities
and objects examined through writings of philosophers, artists, and critics
of ancient and modern times. Both Western and non-Western viewpoints are considered.
Student projects apply critical ideas to particular works in an art form familiar
to them.
This course is a second-level course in the General Education Program, Curricular Area 1, Cluster 2: The Creative Arts.
Prerequisites for General Education credit: Art: The Historical Experience, Visual Literacy, Interpreting Literature, or Critical Approach to the Cinema.
PHIL 235.F01 Theories of Democracy and Human Rights
TTh 5:30PM-8:40PM Erfani, F June 30 – August
7
This course analyzes traditional Western theories of democracy and rights,
both separately and in relation to each other, as well as contemporary approaches
such as Habermasian, post-modern, feminist, and critical race theory. It also
considers the East-West debate on human rights.
This course is a second-level course in the General Education Program, Curricular Area 2, Cluster 2: Traditions that Shape the Western World.
Prerequisites for General Education credit: GOVT105G Individual Freedom vs. Authority, HIST115G Work and Community, JLS110G Western Legal Tradition, PHIL105G Western Philosophy, or RELG105G Religious Heritage of the West.
PHIL 686.N01 Philosophy and Education: Integrating Ethics
MTWTh 5:30PM-8:40PM Feder, E May 19 – June 6
In this course, we will work to identify the ways that ethics can (and arguably
should) be integrated at different levels of our teaching—in teaching
the theories we will be learning about, certainly, but perhaps more importantly,
in helping students identify ethical questions emerging in their studies—of
history, culture, politics, literature, or science—and in asking questions
about our own pedagogical practices. We will study canonical works in ethical
theory, and put the frameworks they articulate to work in an examination of
a variety of narratives in contemporary film, short story, as well as personal
narrative.
RELG 170.C01 Introduction to the New Testament
MW 1:00PM-4:10PM Schaefer, M May 19 – June 26
Literary, historical, and theological study of the New Testament. Particular
attention to Jesus, Paul, and the development of the Christian movement.
RELG 185.B01 Forms of the Sacred
TTh 5:30PM-8:40PM Greenberg,G May 19 – June
26
An introduction to the method of studying the history of religions. A brief
survey of primal religions and Judaism, Christianity, and Islam provides a
basis for comparative analysis of the major Eastern religions: Hinduism, Buddhism,
Chinese religion, and Shinto.