PHIL 106 - Philosophy & Contemporary Issues

Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)

Topic for 2021/22 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 2021/22b: Incarcerating Philosophies. (Same as URBS 106) This introductory philosophical course examines the topic of “Incarcerating Philosophies.” Philosophy is used both as a justification to incarcerate as well as that which is incarcerated. This course offers a philosophical survey of various relevant literatures in order to ask the following questions: What are the different methods and rationalities employed in order to incarcerate, and how are those methods used to fashion the incarcerated, criminal body? How have various Western philosophical programs and approaches, figures and texts responded to such incarcerating methods in order to question and oppose them critically and immanently? Readings include: Plato, Boethius, Jeremy Bentham, Antonio Gramsci, Martin Luther King Jr., Michel Foucault, Angela Davis, Frank Wilderson III, Michelle Alexander, Lisa Guenther, and others. Osman Nemli.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS