Catalogue 2022-2023 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Philosophy Department
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Chair: Jamie Kelly;
Professors: Giovanna Borradori, Bryan Van Nordenab;
Associate Professors: Jamie Kelly, Barry Lamab, Christopher C. Raymonda, Jeffrey Seidman;
Assistant Professors: Osman Nemli, Sofia Ortiz-Hinojosa;
Visiting Assistant Professors: Rebecca Harrison, Matt Moss, Kathryn Pendoley;
Postdoctoral Fellow: Rachel Silverbloom.
a On leave 2022/23, first semester
ab On leave 2022/23
Philosophy as a discipline reflects both speculatively and critically on the world, our actions, and our claims to knowledge. It pays special attention to questions and problems that other fields neglect or may be unable to resolve. The Department of Philosophy offers a variety of courses of study that not only introduce students to the great philosophical achievements of the past and present but also aim to teach them how to think, write, and speak philosophically themselves.
Philosophy Major Advisors: The Faculty
Analytic Philosophy Correlate Sequence Advisers: Barry Lam, Sofia Ortiz-Hinojosa.
Comparative Philosophy Correlate Sequence Adviser: Bryan Van Norden.
Continental Philosophy Correlate Sequence Advisers: Giovanna Borradori, Osman Nemli
Ethics and Social and Political Philosophy Correlate Sequence Advisers: Jamie Kelly, Uma Narayan and Jeffrey Seidman.
History of Philosophy Correlate Sequence Adviser: Christopher Raymond.
Major
Correlate Sequences in Philosophy
The philosophy department offers six different correlate sequences. In each sequence a total of five units is required. Students may petition to count an appropriate PHIL 280.
Correlate sequences may be designed for other subfields in philosophy; for example, philosophy and gender, philosophy of science, and classical philosophy. However, students must obtain approval from the department for any correlate or alternative correlate sequence prior to the beginning of their senior year.
Philosophy: I. Introductory
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PHIL 101 - History of Western Philosophy: Ancient Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
a. The course concentrates on the ethical and metaphysical thought of Plato and Aristotle. We consider their answers to two questions that both see as intimately connected: What is a good life for a human being? And: what is it for something to exist? Jeff Seidman.
b. This course provides an introduction to philosophy in the ancient Mediterranean world, from the early Greek cosmologists to the Roman Stoics. Our focus is on competing views of eudaimonia (“happiness” or “flourishing”)—the ultimate goal of a human life—and how philosophy might help one achieve it. Key readings include Plato’s Socratic dialogues, Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, the letters of Epicurus, and Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations. Christopher Raymond.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
PHIL 102 - History of Western Philosophy: Modern Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
European philosophy in the modern period confronts problems about how we can know about the world in response to transformative changes happening in the sciences. Accordingly, philosophers in the modern period grapple in new ways with questions such as: How are we able to learn about the world? Why does the world appear to us to be different than the way it really is? What is the difference between the way things appear to be and how they really are? Are there limits on what we can know about the world, or none at all? What is a mind, and what does it have to do with the body? What is the relationship between God and the world, if any? What’s the best balance between freedom, authenticity, and security? In this course, we study the philosophical conversations about these questions among philosophers including René Descartes, Elizabeth of Bohemia, Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Margaret Cavendish, John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume. Kate Pendoley.
PHIL 101 is not a prerequisite for the course.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
PHIL 103 - History of Western Philosophy: Medieval
1 unit(s)
This course surveys roughly one thousand years of philosophical activity in the Middle Ages, encompassing the Christian, Islamic, and Jewish traditions. Key authors include Augustine, Boethius, Ibn-Sīnā (Avicenna), Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Maimonides, and Thomas Aquinas. Christopher Raymond.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2022/23.
Course Format: CLS -
PHIL 104 - Tragedy and Philosophy: Ancient and Modern Perspectives
1 unit(s)
Since Greek antiquity, philosophers have puzzled over the meaning, value, and purpose of tragedy. This course will trace their conversation from ancient Athens (Plato and Aristotle) to German Romanticism (Schopenhauer and Nietzsche) to the present (Stanley Cavell and Martha Nussbaum). Along the way we study several plays that have inspired the philosophical imagination, including works by Sophocles, Euripides, Shakespeare, and Edward Albee. Students learn to write carefully argued analyses of challenging texts, and to reflect on broader issues of literary interpretation, canonization and genre, and the ethical significance of art. If appropriate, the class will attend a theatrical performance, a film screening, or a live broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera. Christopher Raymond.
Open only to first-year students; satisfies the college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2022/23.
Course Format: CLS -
PHIL 105 - Philosophical Questions Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
Topic for 2022/23a: Self & Meaning. This course examines philosophical approaches to self, meaning, and the relationship between the two. Who are you, what is it to be you, and how does that shape what you know? The first part of this course seeks to answer these questions. We start by asking questions such as: What is the relationship between your body and your mind? How is your body related to who you are? What do social roles or positions have to do with who you are? Then, we turn our attention exploring what it is for life to have meaning, how we should live, and what all of this means for questions about justice. How might the way you think about who you are shape what you do? What about the ways other people think about you? What does any of this mean about how you should make choices about what to do? What makes a life meaningful? What does any of this tell us about what makes for a just society? The central goals of the course are to help you work your way through complex ideas, develop your understanding through class discussion, and clearly communicate your views and arguments in your writing. Kate Pendoley.
Topic for 2022/23b: Mind and World. Is the world just someone’s dream? Or is it something that exists independently of human or divine minds, or that contains no non-material stuff at all? Perhaps it is something in between. These wildly opposite ideas have been espoused in many parts of the world in both ancient times and our own. People have also at different times thought that there are incorporeal spirits, magic, action at a distance due to a universal synchrony, and other phenomena. But how do we find out where minds end and the world begins – when we need to know the limits of our mind to be able to answer the question in the first place? In this course we explore this topic at an introductory level from a globally minded reading list, with a focus on class discussion and short writing exercises. Sofia Ortiz-Hinojosa.
Topic for 2022/23b: Life & Death. In this course we study, evaluate, and develop a set of interconnected puzzles, claims, and philosophical arguments about the nature of life and death and their ethical significance. People die. But what, exactly, is death? What is a person? What is it for a person to cease to be? How drastically can a person change without ceasing to be? Why do we value our continued existence? Is death a harm to the person who dies? If so, what does the harm consist in? Should we prefer never to die? Can changing our views about what persons are change our attitudes towards death? These questions lead us from the theoretical domain to the practical. We can and do bring persons into existence. Should we? What considerations are relevant to deciding? Is it permissible to end a person’s life? If so, in what circumstances? Do we owe things to the dead? Do we owe things to persons who are not yet alive? In pursuing answers to these questions, our purpose is also to master the art of philosophical debate: to reconstruct and assess arguments charitably, precisely, and clearly, and to formulate good objections and counterarguments. Work consists in inclass discussion and short essay assignments, with particular attention to the goals and norms of argument-driven writing. Matt Moss.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
PHIL 106 - Philosophy & Contemporary Issues Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
Topic for 2022/23 a and b: Philosophy & Technology. (Same as STS 106 ) This course studies the origins and development of the concept of technology. Beginning with its origins in ancient Greece, we trace the concept’s development during the industrial revolution, and conclude with contemporary reflections on the philosophy of technology. We read a range of different authors, but particular attention is placed on the accounts of technology proposed by Karl Marx and Martin Heidegger. Emphasis throughout is placed upon argumentative rigor, clarity, and precision. Jamie Kelly.
Topic for 2022/23 a and b: Philosophy of Love and Sex. This course focuses on contemporary and perennial questions about love and sexuality. What is love, and why are our romantic relationships so important to us? Are friendships and romantic relationships really that different? What, if any, is the relationship between love and sex? Are our current norms and practices surrounding sex good ones to have, or are there other ways we should be approaching sexuality? We explore topics such as romantic love, friendship, the nature of sex and sexuality, sexual ethics, taboos, and sexual identity through student-led discussions and deep engagement with philosophical texts. Rebecca Harrison.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
PHIL 110 - Early Chinese Philosophy Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
An introduction to Chinese philosophy in the period between (roughly) 500 and 221 B.C., covering Confucians, Taoists and others. Among the topics discussed by these philosophers are human nature, methods of ethical education and self-cultivation, virtues and vices, and the role of conventions and institutions in human life.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
PHIL 125 - Logic Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Logic is the study of valid deductive arguments. Our central question in this course is: what makes an argument good or bad, in the strictest possible sense that an argument can be good or bad? In answering this question, this course teaches a skill: how to construct logically good arguments, and how to show whether an argument is logically good or not. This skill is not only central to logic itself and philosophy, but is widely relevant — to the law, to programming, to scientific research, to math, to linguistics, and to persuasive writing and speaking generally. You learn: how to represent the logical structure of natural language arguments (arguments written in English, for example) in a formal language (written in logical notation); what the basic logical operators are — such as negation, conjunction, etc. — and how to work with them when you construct and evaluate arguments; how to recognize and apply logical notions like consistency and validity; and how to demonstrate the logical validity or invalidity of arguments written in the formal language. Work consists of problem sets and in-class exams. Matt Moss.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
Philosophy: II. Intermediate
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PHIL 205 - 19th Century European Philosophy Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
After a brief overview of Kant’s “critical revolution” and its immediate aftermath, we will examine the thought of four major European thinkers: Hegel, Marx, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche. Topics include the problem of alienation in a post-Enlightenment world; historical materialism and the concept of ideology; philosophical pessimism; and the hope that art can fill the spiritual void left by the collapse of religious belief. Christopher Raymond.
Prerequisite(s): One 100-level course in Philosophy or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
PHIL 210 - Neo-Confucianism and Chinese Buddhism Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Introduction to Neo-Confucianism, one of the most influential intellectual movements in China and all of East Asia. Neo-Confucianism combines a profound metaphysics with a subtle theory of ethical cultivation. There is also some discussion of Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism whose views of the self and ethics are the primary targets of the Neo-Confucian critique. No familiarity with Chinese culture is assumed, but a previous 100-level course in philosophy is a prerequisite because this course assumes students have the ability to tackle subtle issues in metaphysics, personal identity, and ethics.
Prerequisite(s): One 100-level course in Philosophy, Chinese-Japanese, or Religious Studies, or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
PHIL 215 - Phenomenology & Existential Thought Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Phenomenology and Existentialism are two interrelated philosophical movements originating in Europe in the early to mid 20th Century. Both are concerned with describing human experience, and addressing a number of questions that arise in the process. These include perennial philosophical concerns like “What is my relationship to the world I encounter in perceptual experience?” “How do I know other people exist?” and even ”What, if anything, gives life meaning?” In this course, we discuss phenomenological and existentialist approaches to these questions, and to topics as wide-ranging as how we relate to objects in everyday experience, how awareness of our own mortality structures our lives, the role of the body in our experience of the world, how to understand other people as just as much a “subject” as I am, and what (if any) moral, ethical, and political commitments might arise from existential/phenomenological responses to these questions. Figures discussed include Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, De Beauvoir, Levinas, and more. Rebecca Harrison.
Prerequisite(s): One 100-level Philosophy course or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
PHIL 220 - Metaphysics Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Metaphysics is the study of reality and existence in general. At the most abstract level, metaphysics asks: What exists? What is at stake when we ask such questions? How should we go about trying to settle them? The course focuses on a set of specific metaphysical questions, including: Do we have free will? Is free will consistent with determinism? What is a cause? What is time? What is necessity? What is possibility? What is identity? What is a person? How do persons persist through time? These questions may appear intractable, vague, even pretentious. Our goal in this course is to make them precise and clear, then to offer transparent, intuitive, and definite answers. We accomplish this by focusing on highly specific arguments and puzzles, and learning the skills for assessing, and constructively responding to, debates in metaphysics. Matthew Moss.
Prerequisite(s): One 100-level course in Philosophy or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
PHIL 222 - Philosophy of Language Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Language is our primary means of expressing our thoughts. Language is also one of our primary means of representing the world. For these reasons, philosophers of language have engaged in two interrelated projects: first, to offer a theory of linguistic meaning itself; second, to find novel approaches to traditional problems about the mind and reality through the study of how we use language to express thoughts, communicate, and represent the world. We survey the philosophical research on meaning and truth, as well as the puzzles that such research seeks to illuminate, solve, or explain away. Particular attention is given to the meanings of names (“Socrates”, “Antarctica”), definite descriptions (“the table”, “the oldest living person”), pure indexicals (“I”, “now”, “tomorrow”, “here”), demonstratives (“that”, “this”) and modals (“might”, “must”, “should”, “possibly”, “necessarily”), and their significance for metaphysics and epistemology. Matthew Moss.
Prerequisite(s): One previous course in Philosophy.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
PHIL 224 - Philosophy of Mind Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
What is a mind, and what is it to have one? This course is an introduction to contemporary philosophy of mind, and we also read some contemporary work in the cognitive sciences. We begin by asking how thoughts and feelings fit into the physical world. Is a science of consciousness even possible? Could an AI have feelings? Could a Martian experience pain? Do bees have thoughts? Is science better equipped to explain our thoughts than our feelings, or should we explain feelings in the same way we explain thoughts? Toward the end of the semester, we ask what our understanding of the social world reveals about the nature of our minds and our experiences of the world. Kate Pendoley.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
PHIL 226 - Philosophy of Science Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as STS 226 ) The way scientific investigation works is more complex than what we are taught when we learn about the scientific method in school. What is scientific investigation, how does it work, and what makes it a good way to learn about the world? Philosophy of science aims at understanding and answering these questions. In this course, we investigate these concerns through the following questions: What is scientific reasoning, and how is it different from the reasoning we use outside of science, if it is? Does science discover objective truths about the world? Many of our past scientific theories have turned out to be wrong. Should we trust our current theories? Why do we accept one theory over another? How might science be biased, and what, if anything, can we do about it? How do the different sciences fit together, if they do? This course draws on historical and current scientific cases across biology, neuroscience, social science, and physics. Toward the end of the course, we turn our attention to a major, new scientific methodology and ask about its virtues and limitations. Is data analysis transforming the scientific landscape and pushing us toward a new scientific revolution? Kate Pendoley.
Prerequisite(s): One 100-level course in Philosophy.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
PHIL 228 - Epistemology
1 unit(s)
Epistemology is concerned with what knowledge is and what its limits are. What’s the difference between knowing something and just making a good guess? Do we gain knowledge about the world through our senses? Through reasoning? Through what others tell us? What makes something a good source of information, and how do we know? Who gets to decide what counts as knowledge? In the first part of the course we study historical and contemporary approaches to these questions. Then, we turn our attention to the emotions and knowledge. Sometimes emotions seem to be the enemy of reason and feel as if they are beyond our control. Then again, sometimes it seems like our ‘gut’ feeling is required for making moral choices. This part of the course asks how emotions might shape our knowledge, what we can learn from emotions, as well as how our understanding of emotion itself is shaped by the social world. Are emotions required for moral knowledge? What, if anything, can we learn about ourselves from our emotions? About the world? What roles do emotions play in constructing and maintaining systems of power, and how might this shape how we understand ourselves and our world? Kate Pendoley.
Prerequisite(s): One course in Philosophy, or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2022/23.
Course Format: CLS -
PHIL 234 - Ethics Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Why be moral? What does morality ask of us? What is the relation between morality and self- interest? What is happiness? What is the relation between a happy life and a meaningful life? Are there objective answers to ethical questions? or are whatever answers we give no more than the expressions of our subjective attitudes? These are some of the questions this course seeks to address. We proceed by reading seminal texts in the Western moral philosophical tradition alongside writings by contemporary moral philosophers. Jeffrey Seidman.
Prerequisite(s): At least one 100-level course in Philosophy.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
PHIL 236 - Philosophy of Law
1 unit(s)
This course introduces students to the philosophical analysis of law and legal institutions. Topics may include legal positivism, natural law, legal formalism and realism, as well as questions about constitutional interpretation and legal discretion. Jamie Kelly.
Prerequisite(s): One 100-level course in Philosophy.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2022/23.
Course Format: CLS -
PHIL 238 - Social and Political Philosophy Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This course introduces students to some historical and contemporary debates within political philosophy and in contemporary debates about various social problems and their connection to political philosophy.
Topic for 2022/23a: Knowledge, Ignorance, Power. This course primarily takes up texts from feminist philosophy, critical philosophy of race, and queer theory in order to engage a series of related questions about the relationship between knowledge, ignorance, and power: How is what we know (and how we know it) related to social and political life and systems of power? How is one’s intelligibility, within a set of dominant norms and discourses, often determinative of the livability (and grievability) of one’s life? In what way is ignorance not always reducible to a “lack” of knowledge, but can also be something that is systematically produced? What are some ways that we can resist violent discourses of knowledge and ignorance, and what liberatory practices of producing knowledge are being imagined and generated today? Rachel Silverbloom.
Prerequisite(s): One 100-level course in Philosophy.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
PHIL 240 - Philosophy of Art and Aesthetics Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This course examines 19th and 20th century Continental philosophical approaches to the work of art, examining various aesthetic systems. Topics studied include: what constitutes a work of art and what is its work (or labor); aesthetic criteria; various interpretive schemas for approaching a work of art; the experience of either individual spectator and the experience of a larger group of recipients; and the relationship between the work of art and the world it is a part of. Questions asked include: what is art, and who is an artist? How is one to define or understand the beautiful (along with the ugly, sublime, and abject)? What does one expect or demand from a work of art? What is the origin and purpose of (a work of art)? What is the relationship between a particular artwork and art, more generally? How do the arts relate to one another? And how does technology transform (the work of) art? Osman Nemli.
Prerequisite(s): One 100-level Philosophy course or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
PHIL 250 - Feminist Theory Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as WFQS 250 ) This course explores the relationship between Feminist Theory and history in two ways. First, we trace one possible historical narrative of Feminist Theory by engaging selected texts from diverse perspectives that address the themes of identity and subject formation. Then, we address the question of history itself: What have feminist thinkers had to say about history and what kinds of histories have they, in turn, generated? In what different ways have feminist theorists engaged history and its prominent figures, schools of thought, etc., and in so doing, both built upon and troubled their theoretical inheritances? How are those who work and write in feminist discourses often excluded in/by dominant histories, and how have/do they resist and revolt against that exclusion? In exploring these questions, we attend to the ways in which not only sex and gender, but also race, class, and sexuality play a pivotal role in feminist theories. Rachel Silverbloom.
Prerequisite(s): One unit of Philosophy or Women’s Studies.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
PHIL 262 - Latin American Philosophy
1 unit(s)
(Same as LALS 262 ) In 1942, Leopoldo Zea wrote that, “What belongs to us, what is properly Latin American, is not to be found in pre-Columbian culture […] our way of thinking, our worldview, is similar to the European. […] Still, we do not feel it to be our own”. The purpose of this course is to examine the root of this claim and its status, as well as the anxiety it provokes. We begin by studying available pre-colonial sources from the Americas, including a peek into Aztec and Mayan philosophy, with a goal both toward adequate interpretation and toward seeking echoes of this early thinking in later Latin American writing. We then move into colonial-era philosophy, where the issues of emancipation and the rights of indigenous groups and women were playing out on a global scale. This unit includes readings on Bartolomé de las Casas, Sor Juana, Toussaint Louverture, and Simón Bolívar. We then do a unit on the identity movement in the 19th and 20th century, where various minds were grappling with the existentialist problem and (im)possibility of forging a national, racial, or ethnic identity. Readings might include José Martí, Samuel Ramos, Leopoldo Zea, Franz Fanon, Ofelia Schutte, and Gloria Anzaldúa. We end with a discussion of whether there is a distinctive Latinx philosophy, and what philosophy in Latin America looks like today. Sofia Ortiz-Hinojosa.
Prerequisite(s): At least one course in Philosophy, or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2022/23.
Course Format: CLS -
PHIL 285 - Merleau-Ponty Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This course focuses on the philosophical work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, one of the central figures of the mid-20th Century philosophical movement known as Phenomenology. Merleau-Ponty famously argues that the body (rather than the mind) is the true subject of perceptual experience. His work has had a significant influence not only on philosophical studies of perception, but on fields as diverse as psychology, ethics, and the philosophy of art. In this course, we engage with Merleau-Ponty’s magnum opus, the Phenomenology of Perception, and explore some of the impact Merleau-Ponty’s work has had on contemporary thought. Rebecca Harrison.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS -
PHIL 290 - Community-Engaged Learning Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Supervised by the department faculty.
Course Format: INT -
PHIL 291 - The Vassar College Journal of Philosophy
0.5 unit(s)
The intensive provides students with support in selecting a thematic focus for the yearly issue of the Journal. It also guides them through the various stages of the process of blind-reviewing submissions. In most cases, the four essays that are accepted for publication are sent back to the authors for revisions and then go through a final round of edits before being published. The students also become familiar with the scholarly book review genre. They commission and/or write themselves two books reviews, which go through a rigorous editing process. Finally, after studying the genre of the scholarly interview, they conduct one themselves, meeting with a distinguished scholar on the theme of the Journal, gathering their thoughts and responses, transcribing the materials, editing it in a suitable way, and gaining the scholar’s agreement to publish it. Throughout the year, students disseminate the Call for Papers and promote the visibility of the Journal on professional venues while managing the coordination of tasks among the members of the Editorial Board, which is typically comprised of five to seven Philosophy Majors. The rhythm and duration of meetings change throughout the year based on the stage of production of the publication. We meet every two weeks, but at some key times, typically in connection with the finalizing of the manuscript and the editing of the essays, book-reviews, and interview, we spend as long as a whole afternoon together. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. The intensive is intended for the Editors-in-Chief of the Journal, and is open to two more students from the Editorial Board (most likely the Editors of the Book Review section). Giovanna Borradori.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Not offered in 2022/23.
Course Format: INT -
PHIL 292 - The Vassar College Journal of Philosophy
0.5 unit(s)
The intensive provides students with support in selecting a thematic focus for the yearly issue of the Journal. It also guides them through the various stages of the process of blind-reviewing submissions. In most cases, the four essays that are accepted for publication are sent back to the authors for revisions and then go through a final round of edits before being published. The students also become familiar with the scholarly book review genre. They commission and/or write themselves two books reviews, which go through a rigorous editing process. Finally, after studying the genre of the scholarly interview, they conduct one themselves, meeting with a distinguished scholar on the theme of the Journal, gathering their thoughts and responses, transcribing the materials, editing it in a suitable way, and gaining the scholar’s agreement to publish it. Throughout the year, students disseminate the Call for Papers and promote the visibility of the Journal on professional venues while managing the coordination of tasks among the members of the Editorial Board, which is typically comprised of five to seven Philosophy Majors. The rhythm and duration of meetings change throughout the year based on the stage of production of the publication. We meet every two weeks, but at some key times, typically in connection with the finalizing of the manuscript and the editing of the essays, book-reviews, and interview, we spend as long as a whole afternoon together. Enrollment by permission of the instructor. The intensive is intended for the Editors-in-Chief of the Journal, and is open to two more students from the Editorial Board (most likely the Editors of the Book Review section). Giovanna Borradori.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Yearlong course PHIL 291 -292.
Not offered in 2022/23.
Course Format: INT -
PHIL 293 - Wagner and Philosophy
0.5 unit(s)
This Intensive provides a philosophical introduction to Richard Wagner’s monumental four-part music-drama, The Ring of the Nibelung (1876), one of the most revolutionary – and controversial – creations of modern culture. After an initial survey of the mythical and philosophical background to the work, we dedicate one week to analyzing each of the Ring’s four parts, which explore the conflicts between love and power, freedom and fate, human law and primeval nature. Screenings are arranged outside of class, and students have access to the entire cycle through Vassar’s subscription to the Metropolitan Opera on Demand. In the final week, students present on their individual research into the Ring’s complex reception history, in thinkers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, George Bernard Shaw, Thomas Mann, Theodor Adorno, Alain Badiou, and Roger Scruton. No prior musical knowledge is assumed, though students learn to identify the work’s principal themes and their transformations. Christopher Raymond.
Prerequisite(s): One course in Philosophy or Music or German Studies, or permission of the instructor.
Second Six-Week Course
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2022/23.
Course Format: INT -
PHIL 298 - Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Supervised by the department faculty.
Course Format: OTH
Philosophy: III. Advanced
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PHIL 310 - Seminar in Analytic Philosophy Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Topic for 2022/23a: What Imagination Teaches. When you dream about flying, traipse across stage as a Shakespeare character, get mad when Harry Potter is a jerk in book 5, wonder how the world might have been had the Archduke Franz Ferdinand not been shot, guess what might cheer up your stressed-out friend during finals, salivate at the thought of baked mac & cheese, figure out just the right way to build a maze lab rats will find challenging, or conjure up a new piece of visual art, we could say you are using your imagination. What is this fantastic, mysterious mental faculty, and how does it work? Is imagination involved in mental imagery, pretend play, understanding fiction, empathy, counterfactual reasoning, problem solving, and creativity – or are these different mental activities altogether? Sometimes we say we “only imagined” an event, or that something was, “just our imagination.” Can imagination only ever mislead us, or might it sometimes teach us new things? Can we imagine things that are impossible? Can we imagine the perspective of someone unlike ourselves? Can people lack imagination, the same way people can lack sight? Finally: can we use our imagination to influence our social and political future? In this seminar, we discuss these issues, drawing on ancient and contemporary philosophers and scientists. Course focus is on sharing ideas through group discussion and introducing students to advanced research and writing methods in philosophy. Students are encouraged to pursue their own interests in writing their final pieces. Sofia Ortiz-Hinojosa.
Prerequisite(s): One course in Philosophy, Cognitive Science, or Psychology, or permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
PHIL 320 - Seminar in the History of Philosophy Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
Topic for 2022/23a: Marx on Justice. In this seminar we study the debate over Karl Marx’s stance on justice and morality. On the one hand, Marx is a vociferous critic of capitalism, whose outrage and scorn reflect a deep moral condemnation of capitalist exploitation. On the other hand, Marx’s theory of history seems to commit him to viewing both justice and morality as ideological concepts, tied inextricably to existing relations of production. Scholars of Marx have struggled to explain Marx’s account of justice, with one interpreter concluding that ”at least sometimes, Marx mistakenly thought that Marx did not believe that capitalism was unjust, because he was confused about justice” (G.A. Cohen, Mind, vol. 92, no. 367 (1983): p.444). In order to make progress on these issues, we study a broad range of Marx’s works, as well as analyses by G.A. Cohen, Ziyad Husami, Charles Mills, Nicholas Vrousalis, and Allen Wood. Jamie Kelly.
Topic for 2022/23b: Plato’s Republic. In this seminar we undertake a close study of Plato’s Republic, one of the most influential and challenging texts in the history of philosophy. We approach the dialogue from various angles, with attention to the interplay between theoretical argument, historical context, dramatic irony, poetic allusion, and literary form. One of our goals is to understand how the diverse inquiries pursued in the dialogue—into the virtues of cities and individual souls; the role of art in education; the complexity of human motivation; and the nature and value of philosophical insight—fit together into a unified whole. We read the Republic in English translation, but a satellite group can be arranged for students with Greek who wish to read selected passages in the original. Christopher Raymond.
Prerequisite(s): One 200-level course in Philosophy or permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
PHIL 330 - Seminar in Ethics & Theory of Value Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
Topic for 2022/23a: Social Reproduction Theory. This seminar explores the philosophical literature on Social Reproduction Theory. This is a strand of Marxist feminism that focuses on the relationship between capitalist exploitation and oppression. In particular, Social Reproduction Theory seeks to understand the role of unwaged work in the creation of surplus value. We examine the theoretical foundations of Social Reproduction Theory, its contemporary formulation, as well as some criticisms and alternatives. Authors include Tithi Bhattacharya, Angela Davis, Silvia Federici, Susan Ferguson, and Lise Vogel. Assignments in this course are oriented around a single, ongoing research project. Students aree required to conduct independent research culminating into two separate writing assignments submitted near the end of the semester. Along the way, students defend a research prospectus, prepare an annotated bibliography, and lead an in-class discussion. Jamie Kelly.
Topic for 2022/23b: Examining Effective Altruism. In his 1972 article, “Famine, Affluence and Morality,” Peter Singer argued that people in affluent nations who do not give away most of their money to help the global poor are acting in a way that is morally wrong. Within academic philosophy, that article has been both influential and highly controversial. Outside of academic philosophy, it has spawned a practical movement, Effective Altruism (EA), with chapters at many colleges, and web-sites like givingwhatwecan.org and 80000hours.org that offer ideas and forums for debate to people who want to live by the principles of EA. The logic of EA has led to some surprising conclusions: for instance, that because there may be many more future people than there are people alive now, it may be more important to spend money researching ways to prevent existential risks to human civilization than to spend it feeding hungry people. We examine arguments for EA, debates within the movement, and critiques of EA that have been offered both from within and from outside of academic philosophy. Jeffrey Seidman.
Prerequisite(s): Two intermediate or advanced Philosophy courses, or permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
PHIL 340 - Seminar in Continental Philosophy Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Topic for 2022/23b: Dialectics and Deconstruction. This course engages with the encounters between dialectical philosophy and deconstruction. Both dialectics and deconstruction eschew being reduced to a ‘method’ somehow imposed on any subject matter from without, and both begin with the claim that their mode of reading and interpretation begin immanently from the material or issues studied. What, then, are they and how do they relate (if at all) to one another? How does deconstruction approach dialectics, and what is the dialectical response to deconstruction? What, if anything, is the third element mediating or relating one to the other? Starting with sections from Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, the course examines how dialectics and the labor of the negative operate and mediate subject and object. Moving between dialectical and anti-, or non-dialectical thinking, the course then moves to Derridean deconstruction and fundamental non-concepts associated with it. Topics addressed include: philosophical writing, concept creation, subject-object relations, history and temporality, politics, and Readings include the works of: Hegel, Marx, Heidegger, Kojève, Fanon, Adorno, Derrida, Nancy, Malabou, Zizek, Comay, among others. Osman Nemli.
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: CLS -
PHIL 350 - Seminar in Modernism, Postmodernism, and Hermeneutics
1 unit(s)
The Modernism/Postmodernism/Hermeneutic divide stretches across many different disciplines, including philosophy, literary theory, history, religious studies, political science, anthropology and others. Roughly, these approaches argue over whether rationality, truth, and ethics are culturally and historically universal (Modernism), incommensurable (Postmodernism) or dialogical (Hermeneutics). This course explores these approaches with an emphasis on how they apply in the context of one culture trying to understand another. Requirements include regular class participation that shows familiarity with the readings and many brief essays. Bryan Van Norden.
Prerequisite(s): At least one course in Philosophy, Chinese-Japanese, or Religious Studies at the 200-level, or permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2022/23.
Course Format: CLS -
PHIL 374 - Ideas, Sound, and Story: Podcast Production
1 unit(s)
(Same as AMST 374 and MEDS 374 ) This is a course on narrative audio production that focuses on the study and production of various nonfictional genres in the American podcasting landscape, including audio documentaries, investigative reporting, confessionals, art pieces, storytelling for academic purposes, and others. Students learn the craft of audio production from getting tape, tape-logging, writing for audio, story and tape-editing, and sound-tracking. Students complete various technical assignments, and submit a final 10-minute piece, with regular progress graded throughout. In order to model the highly competitive nature of the podcasting production space today, students must be highly-motivated, highly-organized, and grading is very rigorous, with the highest of standards and strict deadlines. Barry Lam.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 1-hour period.
Not offered in 2022/23.
Course Format: INT -
PHIL 390 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Fall
0.5 unit(s)
Yearlong development of an extended philosophical essay in consultation with a faculty adviser. Participation in a senior proseminar is required. Osman Nemli.
Students must register for 390 for fall semester and PHIL 391 for spring semester.
Yearlong course 390-PHIL 391 .
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: INT -
PHIL 391 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
Yearlong development of an extended philosophical essay in consultation with a faculty adviser. Participation in a senior proseminar is required. Osman Nemli.
Students must register for PHIL 390 for fall semester and 391 for spring semester.
Yearlong course PHIL 390 -391.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: INT -
PHIL 392 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
1 unit(s)
By special permission only. This one semester course may be substituted for PHIL 390 -PHIL 391 after consultation with your advisor. Participation in a senior proseminar is required. The Department.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: INT -
PHIL 393 - Reading the Analects of Confucius
1 unit(s)
Confucius is one of the most influential figures—as historical individual and as symbol—in world history; and the Analects, the sayings attributed to Confucius and his disciples, is a classic of world literature. Nonetheless, how to understand both figure and text is constantly under dispute. In this course we conduct an in-depth examination of the historical context of Confucius, and his views on the virtues, human nature, ethical cultivation and his Way for living and organizing society. Requirements include faithful attendance and weekly response essays. Bryan Van Norden.
Prerequisite(s): At least two courses in Philosophy, or permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Not offered in 2022/23.
Course Format: INT -
PHIL 394 - Philosophy of Mental Illness Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
(Same as STS 394 ) This interdisciplinary intensive focuses on two main issues: psychopathological categorization and diagnosis, and ethical issues that surround categorization, diagnosis, and treatment of mental disorders. We ask questions such as: what are the biological, physical, sociological, and individual characteristics that do influence, and which are the characteristics that should or should not influence, psychopathological taxonomy and diagnosis? What can we learn about mental illness from the disability rights movement? And are current treatment options the optimal approach for general and particular mental illnesses? After an initial seminar-style period of common reading and discussion, students are expected to pursue individual research projects that may involve a short-term production or creative component, with instructor approval. Sofia Ortiz-Hinojosa.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: INT -
PHIL 395 - Intensive Reading Philosophy Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
An intensive study of a particular text or author offered by various members of the faculty with expertise in that text or author. Jamie Kelly.
Topic for 2022/23b. Reading Kant. Participants in this Intensive undertake a detailed reading of Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. First published in 1781, Kant’s “First Critique” is one of the most important texts in the western philosophical tradition. It is also one of the most difficult, and often misunderstood. Over the course of the semester we work through both A and B editions of the book, and cover the Transcendental Aesthetic, Analytic, and Dialectic, as well as sections of the Doctrine of Method. Students are expected to read the book carefully, paying particular attention to the methodological approach developed and refined by Kant over the course of the First Critique. We meet once a week to discuss a substantial portion of the text. Students should have prior experience studying the history of philosophy. We read the Critique of Pure Reason in English, but students with any knowledge of German are encouraged to also consult the original. Jamie Kelly.
Prerequisite(s): Two intermediate or advanced courses in Philosophy or permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Course Format: INT -
PHIL 397 - Reading Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics
1 unit(s)
Participants in this intensive undertake an in-depth reading of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. The NE is one of the two or three most influential works of moral philosophy in the western philosophical tradition. It is a book which is at once strange to us (written 2400 years ago, in a culture that is very foreign to our own), and yet, at key points, strikingly resonant now. We read Aristotle’s text carefully in order to reconstruct the best arguments for his views that we can; but we also test those arguments, and ask whether their conclusions are, in the end, defensible. Could Aristotle be right that a person can live a good life only insofar as they possess and exercise virtues of character such as courage, justice, and generosity? Is Aristotle right that there is such a thing as an (objectively) good life for a human being at all? How much, if any, of his specific picture of a good life should be defended, and how much should be jettisoned?
We meet once a week to discuss a substantial portion of the text. Students should have prior experience studying the history of philosophy, preferably within the western philosophical tradition. We read the Nicomachen Ethics in English, but students with any knowledge of Greek are encouraged to also consult the original. Jeffrey Seidman.
Prerequisite(s): Two intermediate or advanced Philosophy courses (preferably in the history of philosophy), or permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Not offered in 2022/23.
Course Format: INT -
PHIL 399 - Senior Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
The department.
Course Format: OTH
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