Syllabi
Selected Examples
PHIL 346: Philosophy of Color
A philosophical exploration of the phenomenon of color. Our experience of color an important aspect of our experience of the world—poses puzzling problems of metaphysics, epistemology, and aesthetics. To address these and related philosophical issues, this course draws upon multidisciplinary sources, examining: the science, natural history, and aesthetics of color; the symbolism of colors and color patterns in culture and in literature; the relation of color and emotion; and the claim of Western “chromophobia.” This course is approved to meet the Integrative Thinking: Interdisciplinary requirement.
PHIL 214: Choice, Chance, Luck, and Fate
An examination of a central issue of metaphysics: free will and the factors that may constrain or deny it. The affirmation that human beings may choose their actions, which provides the basis for moral responsibility, is set against the deterministic view that all changes in behavior, all “choices” are caused. The course considers various theories—libertarianism, compatibilism, and “hard” and “soft” determinism; in addition, attention is given to interpretations of chance, randomness, luck, and fate as affecting human possibilities.
PHIL 331: Emotion
A philosophical exploration of the nature and role of emotion in human life. The course examines emotionality as a human capacity, emotional response as an experience, and specific emotion-types, such as anger and fear. We seek to understand the relation between reason, passion, and knowledge; the place of emotions in the good life; and the connections between emotions and morality, including particular virtues and vices (e.g., fear to courage). Topics include emotions across cultures; emotional normativity; and philosophical issues related to specific emotion-types, such as envy, jealousy, and embarrassment. This term there is a special focus on anger. The course incorporates source material from ancient to contemporary philosophers. It draws upon examples from literature and the arts and is informed by recent work in sociology, anthropology, biology, psychology, and neuroscience.
FYS 134: Secrets and Lies
This seminar explores “the ethics of concealment and revelation.” We seem to have a great deal of difficulty with the virtue of honesty and the principle of truthfulness in contemporary personal, professional, and public life. Why do we keep secrets, tell lies, guard our privacy, or betray others? Has our evolution tilted us toward openness and trust, or toward secrecy and guile? What is our responsibility to the truth?
We will examine such practices as: Privacy, Secrecy, and Confidentiality (at the personal, professional, organizational, and governmental levels); Revelation
(confessing, whistle-blowing, informing, and outing); Lying and Deception (in their many forms, as well as other forms of truth-distortion, along with methods of detecting them); Betrayal, Treachery, Fraud, and the Fake (in several realms); Self-Deception (in four accounts); and Related Moral Concepts, such as the ideals of trust, loyalty, honesty, authenticity, and integrity. In the end, we shall need to think through the value of Truth.
The seminar takes a philosophical perspective, but it draws upon the insights and research of several disciplines and opens up many lines of interdisciplinary inquiry. This seminar meets the Gettysburg Curriculum requirement of Effective Communication: First Year Writing. It may also be counted toward a major or minor
in Philosophy.
PPR 591l: The Ethics of Belief and Ignorance —
a graduate class I taught at Lancaster (UK)
This seminar explores the ethics of believing, denying, and seeking knowledge in an era called "post-truth." Epistemology has, from its beginnings had a normative
(regulative) edge as well as its descriptive task. These norms appear to be both epistemic and ethical. The latter rise in importance with the shift to social and virtue epistemologies, with the challenges of a "post-truth" environment, and with recent work on the structure of ignorance. Of particular importance are issues related to epistemic authority and the range of epistemic agency.
