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We have various images of how the ideal human being should live. This course seeks to answer this question from a philosophical point of view through various philosophical methods.
There are two notable features in this course. First, the course attempts to use the images of ideal human beings taken both from western culture and Japanese culture, highlighting similarities and differences that transcend the difference of cultural background. In doing so, the course engages participants to seek what their ideal human being looks like.
Second, the course will utilize classical philosophy texts such as Descartes’s and Kant’s philosophy texts, but also Muneyoshi Yanagi’s writings on the works of Japanese folk art (Mingei) and Kenji Miyazawa’s poem.
This course addresses the following topics:
1. Rationality and intellect as an ideal capacity for human beings
2. Anti-intellectualism and its problems
3. Beauty and the image of ideal human beings
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The question of the nature of the mind and its relation to the body (e.g. the brain) is discussed at length, with attention given to dualism, behaviorism, physicalism, and functionalism. Other topics are the nature of action, free will and determinism, and the problem of personal identity. Coursework counts 40%; one 3-hour examination in June counts 60%.
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This semester-long course introduces the Zen culture of Kyoto to Japanese and foreign students of Doshisha University. It especially focuses on the main teachings, philosophical values, aesthetics, practices, and applications for daily life. By doing specific activities, writing assignments and oral presentations, students increase their knowledge and the meaning of what they have learned from their interactions and shared experiences. The course compares between the different branches of Japanese Zen, and the Zen manifestations in other countries to strengthen final debates and discussions as well as to aid in the formation of group research projects for final evaluation.
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What kind of anthropology is it that we, as scholars and students of the discipline, should or need to be advocating – also and especially with a view to current timely demands for conceptual and structural decolonization? How has anthropological critique questioned the fundamentals of the discipline (of anthropology) itself? Which programmatic pathways have been sketched out to indicate constructive ways forward? What do we think of them; which others would we like to raise; why? Does the inclusion of, and focus on theory from the South already constitute a fundamental change? How might anthropology engage constructively with thinkers and theoretical contributions from the global South? In which ways, finally, does it matter that we as researchers and social agents are inevitably positioned in certain ways, often belonging clearly to regions of the Global North or South? This seminar course will pursue these and related questions with a view to some classic and some recent readings, both from within and outside anthropology, and engaging with theorizing from the South, especially from Africa.
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The subtitle to Søren Kierkegaard’s The Sickness unto Death captures both the tone and the overall project for this seminar as: A Christian Psychological Exposition for Upbuilding and Awakening. From this point of orientation, an exploration of the Kierkegaardian oeuvre will unfold that focuses on what he believes to be the earnest need of attending to the dual existential tasks of self-examination and the strengthening of the inner being through spiritual upbuilding. In “building up” from his spiritual diagnosis on the various forms of existential despair – and by way of his cycle of discourses on the “lilies of the field and the birds of the air” – this course will ultimately arrive at Kierkegaard’s proclamation of “how glorious it is to be a human being.”
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This course introduces how games serve as a medium for communicating philosophical ideas. The course answers questions such as what is freedom? Are moral dilemmas possible? and What is reality? Equally, philosophy can shed light on the nature of games. For instance, can games be art? What is skill and luck? What is the nature of artificial intelligence? This course serves to explore some of these issues, using games and philosophical texts in tandem to explore various issues about what it is to be a human, and what it is to be a gamer.
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This course provides a pluralistic introduction to philosophy and education though a broad survey of the diverse philosophical perspectives, problems, and approaches to education and educational research around the world.
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This course surveys the history of Indian philosophy both classical and modern. The course begins with lectures on the Rig Veda and the Upanishads, followed by a presentation of the main metaphysical and epistemological doctrines of some of the major schools of classical Indian philosophy such as Vedanta, Samkhya, Nyaya, Jainism, and Buddhism. The course concludes by considering the philosophical contributions of some of the architects of modern India such as Rammohan Ray, Rabindrananth Tagore, and Mohandas Gandhi.
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This course develops students’ familiarity with modern philosophy through an examination of the thought of Spinoza and Leibniz. Students are introduced to the central metaphysical, epistemological, and moral claims of each philosopher, through a reading of primary texts. They develop an appreciation of the historical context within which the thought of Spinoza and Leibniz developed. The course examines the similarities and differences between these two crucial thinkers in the modern period, and set out their approaches to topics such as the nature of substance, knowledge, and morality.
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This course examines the rise of humanitarianism as a dominant way in which both powerful and weak actors conceptualize and respond to a range of social problems and processes, such as political conflict, emancipation, poverty, and migration. This is core terrain for anthropology, because the figure of the human lies at the center of humanitarian discourses and forms of action. In this course we historicize humanitarianism and ethnographically investigate the possibilities and limits of humanitarian frameworks and action as ways of confronting the challenges that face our world.
Pagination
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