2010 Fall Proseminar Class Notes

Return to Philosophy Proseminar

August 31, 2010

Introductory Class:

• Student Introductions: Prompt:
• General awareness and curiosities about history of philosophy (pitch for timelines)
• Philosophy Problem 101
• What If . . . Searle's Brain Replacement

Student Interests (in no particular order):

• Eastern Philosophies -- Daoism
• Postmodernism
• Applied Ethics / Env. Ethics / Business Ethics
• Political Philosophy
• Descartes / Scientific Revolution
• Phenomenology
• Philosophy NOW
• Aesthetics
• Philosophy/Econ - Game Theory
• Lonergan
• Analytic
• Feminism
• Existtentialism
• Kant

September 7

Investigating Philosophy as a Discipline

Question for investigating Philosophy as a discipline

1. What is philosophy?
2. What are the major fields of Philosophy? See this wiki list.
3. What are some basic concepts, issues, and methods of each? Browse.
4. What are the major temporal epochs of Western philosophy?
5. Is philosophy a global phenomenon? What is comparative philosophy? How do you identify philosophy in other cultures? (See course unit)
6. What is the difference between continental and analytic philoosphy? (Course unit)
7. What are: existentialism, postmodernism, positivism, romanticism, enlightenment philosophy, scientific revolution, renaissance, neo-platonism, scholasticism, game theory, cognitive science, moral psychology, ...
8. How does philosophy relate to literature and religion?
9. What are contemporary philosophers saying about art & politics?
10. Why did language become so important in 20th century philosophy?

Major Sub-fields

• See this wiki list of major fields in Philosophy.

September 14

Topics to browse and possibly report back on for this week: the field of genetic engineering, transhumanism, torts, the field of Philosophy of Law. Additional scholarship on Hart & Honore's view. Research on HLA Hart.