Philosophy

Taoism is an important school of ancient Chinese philosophy, and Laozi is the core text of Taoism. This course is conducted around the main philosophical concepts and topics in the text of Laozi. The seemingly loose text of Laozi is reorganized. On the basis of in-depth interpretation of the text, we are able to make the chapters as well as the internal specific expression of the text show their relationship in terms of meaning, and thus a “substantive system” can be organized in a text with a “formal system.” The course emphasizes text reading as the starting point for any discussion, and attempts to demonstrate how resources can first be sought from within the text, rather than from outside, to interpret the main ideas of Laozi and construct his main ideas. The class explains the connotation and significance of the core ideas and concepts of Laozi, on the basis of which, some misunderstandings about the philosophy and Taoism of Laozi are clarified. It guides students to experience the unique spirit of Laozi philosophy, and leads students to reflect on the possible relevance of classical thinking to the contemporary world. The course integrates the cultivation of philosophical speculative thinking into classroom oral expression and academic writing training. 

After taking this course, students grasp the explanation of the origin of Taoism, the status and development of Taoism in Chinese philosophy, and the discussion between Laozi and Laozi, to know the basic situation of different editions of Lao Zi, especially the relationship between the unearthed documents and the handed down literature, to understand the tradition of Chinese annotation, and to understand the relationship between Laozi and Laozi’s annotation.

This course is designed to develop the ability to analyze and critically evaluate arguments from a logical point of view. It provides a basic understanding of such concepts as reasons, implication, validity, and fallacies. It teaches the logical principles of deductive and inductive inferences and the techniques of applying them for determining the validity of arguments. Elements of good reasoning from an informal perspective are covered.

This course discusses the historical and scientific context that created the concept of bioethics. It examines issues and current debates generated by new advances in the field of life sciences and biomedicine. This course also explores the plurality of ideas and values encompassing these issues in today's democratic societies. Topics include: bioethics and law; gender, moral pluralism, and cultural diversity; the rights of the patient in health care; sexual and reproductive rights; assisted reproduction; human genetics; end of life; justice and health.

The content of the course may vary on occasion, but its point of departure is the heritage of Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Marx, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Freud, and Husserl. All these thinkers had a major impact on the European continent and together they animated the currents that have influenced European philosophy ever since: phenomenology, existentialism, and post-structuralism represented by amongst others Heidegger, Sartre, Foucault, and Derrida. A common collective term for this tradition is “continental philosophy,” even though not all philosophers on the continent have embraced this tradition and even though it has many adherents outside of the continent. The course accentuates the historical connections of continental philosophy and highlight the points in common with British and American philosophy. The course recommends students have completed previous courses on the history of philosophy as a prerequisite.

This course discusses the development of German philosophy in the 19th century and its historical tragedy in the 20th century. This includes a discussion of the links between Marx and Marxism, between Nietzsche and the German political/ideological right-wing, between the Vienna Circle and the scientific revolution of the early twentieth century, as well as between German academic philosophy and Nazism. The course has a tripartite structure, which is loosely modeled on Heribert Boeder’s account in his DAS VERNUNFTGEFÜGE DER MODERNE (Freiburg 1988). The course begins by acknowledging that, after Hegel, philosophy has no longer been pursued as a unified whole but as a reflection on specific strands of thinking. A first strand of reflecting the "essence" of human being runs from Karl Marx (The Work of Human Being) over Friedrich Nietzsche (The Values of Human Being) to Martin Heidegger (The World of Human Being), a second strand of reflecting the sciences starts with Gottlob Frege (The Language of the Sciences), goes on to Moritz Schlick (The World of the Sciences) and ends with Michael Polanyi (The History of the Sciences). The third strand reflects the interpreted life, starting with Wilhelm Dilthey (The History of Interpreted Life), continuing with Edmund Husserl (The World of Interpreted Life) and concluding with Ludwig Wittgenstein (The Language of Interpreted Life). These three strands with their interconnections reveal a unity of philosophy that differs from the common but unhelpful distinction between continental and analytic approaches. Thinkers of all three strands proclaimed to end philosophy. However, like all arts and sciences in Germany, philosophy took part in paving the way for totalitarian ideologies and thus has to consider its role in the ‘immoral end’ of the 20th century. The course concludes with a more confident outlook. Like a phoenix from the ashes, philosophy has risen again in an unexpected form. The course ends with Jürgen Habermas and Joseph Ratzinger, who in their late dialogue nearly come to an agreement.

This course examines some of the main philosophical debates that have arisen in Latin American and Chile. It analyzes the works of five Chilean thinkers (Luis Oyarzún, Gabriela Mistral, Patricio Marchant, Juan Rivano, and Humberto Giannini) and two Latin American feminist intellectuals (Rosario Castellanos and Silvia Rivera Cuiscanqui).

This course examines the political, social, and moral dimensions of what people say and what they know. It covers how speech is connected with moral wrongness, harm, liberty, resistance, and social justice and how knowledge may be inextricably linked with what we hear and learn from news media, social media, radio, television, and the internet. It considers some contemporary topics in social epistemology and philosophy of language such as lying, bullshitting, dogwhistling, grandstanding, misleading, and silencing.

Science is a source of a great deal of our knowledge about the world, but what gives it its claim to epistemic authority? Is there something special about the scientific method, or is it an extension of everyday reasoning? To what extent can science tell us about things we can’t observe? And how might we reconcile a positive answer to the previous questions with the knowledge that science is a social enterprise and subject to many of society’s failings?