Philosophy

Next Semester

Courses scheduled for the Spring of 2021 include:  

18-104-01  Introductory Topics

Topics chosen introduce students to philosophical questions and methods in relation to historical or contemporary issues and often from an interdisciplinary perspective. May be repeated with change in topic. (H)

18-184-01  Theories of Race and Ethnicity

An introduction and survey of contemporary race theory, with emphases on intersections with gender, class, nationalism and imperialism. This course also focuses on the ways race has been constructed as a category of identity across various cultures, academic disciplines and historical periods, and on the relationship between race and ethnicity as categories of difference. Contributes to Feminist Studies and Race and Ethnicity Studies. (H)

18-194-01   Introduction to Feminist Philosophy

An historically informed introduction to key texts in feminist theory. Our approach to the issues and debates will be interdisciplinary and readings will be drawn from a range of disciplines such as philosophy, anthropology, sociology, psychoanalysis, and cultural studies. Contributes to Feminist Studies and Race and Ethnicity Studies. (H) (SJ)

18-304-01   Selected Topics

Lectures and readings on subjects of special interest. Subjects to be announced. May be repeated with change in topic. (H)

18-394-01   Psychoanalysis

An examination of central notions and issues in the development of psychoanalytic theory and a reflection on that theory’s continuing relevance and importance, with a particular emphasis on the works of Freud and Lacan (H)

18-604-01   Reading Philosophy

A guided effort to focus and improve students’ capacities for engaged, thoughtful, critical and independent reading of philosophical forms of argumentation and analysis. Writing assignments and discussions will be focused on the detailed articulation and understanding of one or two important texts. Offered every spring. Should be taken in sophomore or junior year. Prerequisite: One Philosophy course. (WA) (H)

18-624-01   Critical Histories: Being, Structure, Change

This course focuses upon the conceptual categories through which human beings negotiate their experience of themselves and the world and examines how those categories are formed and gain or lose currency. In every age and currently, ideas about order and structure; what kinds of things there are and how they relate; how things work, be, or become the things they are; and how we are to understand both the processes of change and the background within which change occurs, such as space and time itself, shape both how we see ourselves and the world and how we act in it. Prerequisite: One course in Philosophy. (H) (CRITICAL HISTORIES).