Philosophy

This course mainly explains Plato's dialogue (Fido and Socrates' Defense) and Descartes' First Collection of Philosophy and other classic Western philosophical texts, so that students can understand the way philosophers explore the world order and the inherent tension of philosophical life. 

This course introduces students to the relations between philosophy and theology in thought about God, with particular attention to the Western tradition from Plato to the present, including themes in metaphysics and epistemology. It examines traditional and revisionary approaches to thinking about the reality of God, and the interplay of claims that God is both knowable and ultimately beyond comprehension.

This course teaches students certain key literary texts and the philosophical topics they explore. It also allows students to explore certain key conceptual issues concerning the relations between philosophy and literature. Topics include: what is the distinctive contribution that literature and philosophy each make towards an understanding of religion and morality in the broadest senses of these terms? Are there topics which can best be understood from a philosophical, rather than literary, point of view, or vice versa? What kinds of critical concepts does one need in exploring philosophical, alternatively, literary texts? Can one even speak of texts as "literary" and "philosophical" in such a broad-brush way? And, most importantly, what are the respective contributions of philosophy and literature to a humane education? There is no requirement to read foreign language texts in the original languages, but students are encouraged to do so if possible.

This course explores the opportunities and threats presented through cyberculture in our information society. It discusses the possibilities and limitations of improving living conditions inherent to scientific-technological development. This course analyzes the links between technology, law, philosophy, and social interests of the groups that promote and develop it. Topics include: the new information economy; human rights on the internet; expansion of beliefs, fundamentalism, and political phenomena such as populism via social networks; the new digital economy.

This course provides a general overview of how the relationship between thought, knowledge and feeling (judgment of the beautiful or the sublime) is considered in modern Western philosophy. By learning to distinguish not only between thought and knowledge but also between cognitive judgment and aesthetic judgment, students are expected to become capable of reflecting critically on their own presupposed knowledge and discovering the role of imagination.

This class will focus on the topic of "how to understand the traditional Taijiquan", and both philosophical and practical perspectives will be discussed by mind and felt by body. On the philosophical side, the Taijiquan's special concepts (inner Qi - inner energy), methods("If you feel comfortable then you are right"), thinking way (forget yourself and just follow your opponent), theory system (get a will by your mind, get Qi by your will, to move by your Qi ) will be discussed to show a panoramic view of traditional Taijiquan, which also with the comparative discussion between Chinese "Gongfu (kung fu) philosophy" and western philosophy.

This course serves as an introduction to classical thought. By careful analysis of philosophical classics, it aims to present the profoundness and richness of ancient philosophy.

This course is about the philosophy of first contact - that is, philosophical problems generated by first encounters with alien phenomena, agents, and experiences. The course addresses special problems of categorization (e.g., How can we identify phenomena and experiences that do not fit standard frameworks?), translation and communication (e.g., How can we decipher the meaning of radically unfamiliar languages?), philosophical psychology (How should we emotionally respond to radically unfamiliar phenomena?), as well as ethics and politics (What do we owe to foreign agents in the context of first contact, and what special dangers do such situations pose?) raised by such encounters. The course begins by considering general questions of philosophical psychology, and then moves on to consider specific instances of first contact, and their significance. 

This course covers moral philosophy, the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature, extent, and foundation of obligations, duties, virtues, practical reasons, and moral rights. Precise topics vary from year to year; representative topics include: Where do moral obligations come from, and what motivates people to follow them? How do we know what we morally ought to do? Do people have moral right; what about animals? What reasons do we have to help those in need? Do we have moral duties to ourselves; to our loved ones? Is the aim of providing a fully general, informative, moral theory achievable? Is there a universal human morality?

Among the many fields of modern logic research, modal logic has been deeply applied in many fields from humanities to software design because of its good balance between expressiveness and complexity. In this course, the concepts and methods of modal logic will be introduced with its application in modeling time, knowledge, necessity, and social behavior. In this way, students will be brought into an environment similar to actual research and experience the interaction between different concepts and needs in theory and practice. This course will guide students to become familiar with classic textbooks, manuals, and important articles, and enable students to explore and learn deeper content on their own when they have further interest.