PHIL 320 - Seminar in the History of Philosophy

Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)

Topic for 2018/19a: Wittgenstein. A study of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and Philosophical Investigations. Topics include the clash between traditionalist and resolutist readings of Wittgenstein’s writings, and the status of Kripke’s response to his treatment of rule-following. Special attention is paid to criticisms and defenses of Wittgenstein’s philosophy. Douglas Winblad.

Topic for 2018/19b: Plato’s Erotic Dialogues. In this seminar we examine several Platonic dialogues in which erôs (“love” or “erotic desire”) is a central theme: Charmides, Lysis, Symposium, Phaedrus, and Theaetetus. We begin with an overview of ancient Greek conceptions of sexuality and gender, to see how Plato transforms this cultural inheritance in representing Socrates’ “erotic art” of philosophy. The erotic settings of these dialogues occasion profound and deeply puzzling reflections on beauty, virtue, friendship, desire, language and reality, and the nature of truth and knowledge. Christopher Raymond.

Prerequisite(s): Upper-level Philosophy courses or permission of the instructor.

One 3-hour period.