Philosophy

This course introduces and analyzes a number of lesser known perspectives and claimed solutions to problems that humanity and the world have been facing over the past 200 years by focusing on a range of spiritual and esoteric groups and movements. The course focuses on three major themes: global history and ideas about global communities; nature, ecology, sustainability, and animistic spiritualities; and human nature, ethics, and activism.

This course examines contemporary theories of justice such as those of Sen, Rawls, and Dworkin in the light of the distinction between theory and practice that we inherit from Aristotle. Of particular interest are those approaches to modern political problems that combine the unique insights that emerge from a sensitivity to conceptual history with the unquestionable moral progress that is owed to the ethical outlook of modern democracy.

This course examines the historical origins and development of welfare states. In addition, the course analyzes the principles and values underlying the welfare state such such as (different conceptions) equality, personal responsibility, and exploitation; and different philosophical proposals about how trade-offs between different principles and values should be made. The course interprets the welfare state as an idea, practice, and set of institutions in a historical and philosophical context; analyzes contemporary debates about the welfare state from a historical and philosophical perspective; and discusses crucial social and political themes related to the welfare state from an interdisciplinary perspective.

The course analyzes culture as an ethical construction, and ethics as cultural production. Topics include: culture, identity, and processes of subjectivation; ideology; hegemony, culture, and common sense; cultural criticism and emancipation; cultural distinction and exclusion; normative potential of the awareness of injustice in subordinate groups; ethical and epistemic decolonization processes; the multiculturalist program and its failures; interculturality and intersectionality.

This course begins with 12 fundamental problems in philosophy, and takes the list of these problems as a cue to introduce the main part of this course, i.e., the four main positions of the materialist conception of the nature of mind, which include: behaviorism, identity theory, eliminative materialism, and functionalism. When each position is addressed, the reasons for supporting it and main objections against it are provided to the audience respectively. The whole course is materialism-oriented, but there is still enough space for discussing its competing positions like dualism. This course also focuses on the correlation between philosophy and Artificial Intelligence.

The so-called period of “Enlightenment” in European history provided a wide range of debates that continues to provoke critical engagements in the following centuries. This course provides a comprehensive introduction to one of the most profound questions in Enlightenment debates, a question that is still seen by many as highly relevant to today's social and political theory, as well as moral and legal philosophy; that is, what constitutes a just society? The course covers texts constituting the “canon” in Enlightenment social and political thought, and will end with a brief reflection on how such debates might still preoccupy some of our own understandings of the nature of politics and sociability.

One of the greatest and most influential ancient philosophers, Aristotle once remarked, “Wonder is the beginning of philosophy”.  What he was referring to is our habit of asking fundamental questions about our everyday life, such as, “Suppose I am certain that I am right about something, what is that certainty based upon?”; “Suppose I am engaged in a discussion with someone regarding a controversial matter, what can objectively guarantee the stringency of my argument?” Thinking about and discussing such questions forces us to reconsider the things we have always taken for granted and ultimately, lead us to more fundamental questions about the proper nature of truth and knowledge as such. Assignments during the course include the following: the nature of philosophical inquiry, problems of knowledge and truth (including the understanding and evaluation of arguments), and ethics.