Philosophy

This course examines the background of contemporary philosophy of language and the main controversial topics. Students learn to read and analyze the literature in this field, so as to have a preliminary ability to study philosophy of language. The course is divided into two modules. The first module introduces the meaning theory of language; the second module introduces the reference theory of language.

This course examines modern philosophy and analyzes how history has become a philosophical problem; how the philosophy of history entered the 20th century and how its different from the historical theory; how it affected the different paths of research methods in the two disciplines of philosophy and history.

This version of the Medical Ethics course includes an Independent Study Project (ISP) done under the direction of the instructor. The minimum reading is between 20 and 25 articles from established academic periodicals/magazines. The ISP is 10-12 pages and counts for 1/3 of the overall grade for the course. This course provides students with an introductory investigation into the question of if, when, and how ethical considerations can or must play a role in the practice of the medical profession. It makes students aware of the fact that the health sciences are not operating in a moral vacuum and that a good knowledge of both older and recent ethical debates in this particular field is of the greatest significance. This course consists of three parts. The first part of the course gives an introduction to some fundamental European philosophical ideas of what it means to be a human being. This introduction is accompanied by an introduction to the most important ethical theories of the West. The second part of the course discusses a general framework of medical ethics as it could play a guiding role in the day-to-day practice of those who are members of the medical profession or related areas. The third part of the course discusses some of the most important and well-known ethical problems that can be found within the medical field. There are lectures, discussions, and the study of cases that reflect the most important problems and topics that make up the moral challenges of the medical discipline of today. 

Is knowledge of the world possible? And is there even an objective world for our knowledge to be about? These are the topics of skepticism and relativism. Skeptics challenge our ability to know anything about the world. Relativists contest that there is no absolute, objective truth. In this class, we will study both historical and contemporary thinking about these perennial topics. We will address ancient arguments for skepticism, but also look to more contemporary relativistic thinking about science, morality, and other matters.

This course addresses the interdisciplinary applicability of phenomenology, including best practices, use and application in a non-philosophical context, what qualifies a discipline or practice as phenomenological, and the core commitments of phenomenology. The first third of the course offers an introduction to core ideas and figures in phenomenology. It makes clear how phenomenology, by offering an account of human existence where the subject is understood as an embodied, socially, and culturally embedded being-in-the-world, is not only addressing specific issues relevant to several disciplines from within the humanities and social sciences, but also contributing to the philosophy of the human sciences. The rest of the course looks at successful applications in qualitative research and psychology, in discussions of gender and race, in health care (primarily psychiatry and nursing), in cognitive science (primarily developmental psychology and neuroscience), and in the social sciences (including sociology, anthropology and political science). The course offers some reflections on what a phenomenological interview might look like and discusses how ideas from phenomenology can be used in corporations and private companies.