In this course, we will survey several problems that continue to motivate philosophical discussion and philosophical worry. Such problems will include: the problem of evil, the nature of the human soul, the existence of God, the extent of moral responsibility, the possibility and extent of human knowledge, and perhaps most importantly, what it means to lead a good life. The goal of this course is to illuminate fruitful ways of engaging with these philosophical problems, which means we'll wrestle with hard questions that rarely offer neat and tidy solutions. Be prepared to READ, REFLECT, and WRITE throughout the semester. On average, you should expect to dedicate roughly 4-5 hours each week to complete the required assignments for this course.

A philosophyer, asked by his five-year-old daughter what he did for a living, repoied, "I ask what there is, how we know, and what we should do about it." In this course we will touch upon each of these main questions. We'll begin with Socrates (as reported by Plato) as he tells his friends on the eve of his being put to death, what philosophy (the love of wisdom) is and how it has guided his life. We will then plunge into Descartes and the question of what the limits of knowledge are, and how much confidence we can place in our impression that there is a world outside our own minds. We shall then read Humes' dialogues on natural religion to reflect on whether one can prove the existence of God. Toward the end of the course we will read William James on Pragmatism. Throughout the course we shall also read essays by various thinkers from a reader on virtue ethics.

Philosophical issues and methodology illustrated through selected problems concerning values, knowledge, reality; and in social, political and religious philosophy.
Meets New mexico Lower-Division General Education Common Core Curriculum Area V: Humanities and Fine Arts (NMCCN 1113).

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The purpose of this course is to help students learn how to analyze, critique and construct arguments in context, in other words, how to read and write argumentative essays. Meets New Mexico Lower-Division General Education Common Core Curriculum Area V: Humanities and Fine Arts.

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An introductory survey of early and classical Greek philosophy. Figures: the Presocratics, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Topics: beginnings of scientific thought; theories of the self; the concept of being; ethical relativism, happiness, theories of justice.

A survey of ancient Greek philosophy, from the Presocratics (Parmenides, Heraclitus, Pythagoras, Democritus) through Plato and Aristotle. The goal of the course is to acquire a basic understanding of philosophical problems and solutions proposed by the most important Greek thinkers. Students will be asked to give accounts of these solutions and to intelligently criticize them in examination essays. Class time will be devoted to lectures and discussion on the assigned readings. Evaluation is based primarily on a map quiz (10%), two in-class examinations (50%) and a final examination (40%).
Texts: Robin Waterfield, The First Philosophers: The Presocratics and the Sophists. Oxford University Press.
C. D. C. Reeve and Patrick Lee Miller, Introductory Readings in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy. Hackett Publishing Company.

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The philosophies that emerged during the early modern period can be seen as a response to a two-fold challenge: 1) the skeptical challenge to human knowledge and 2) the challenge to find a scientific method appropriate for study of the natural world. We’ll begin the course by considering the growing popularity of skepticism after the Protestant Reformation, and examine the skeptical arguments forwarded in Montaigne’s Apology for Raymond Sebond. Having this background, we’ll examine the arguments of three “foundationalists,” Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz, each of whom addresses (in some way or another) the existence and goodness of God, the possibility of free human action, and our human place in nature. The “rationalists” will occupy us for approximately half the semester.
The second half of the course will be dedicated to three “empiricists”: Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. Their respective philosophies will be placed in the scientific context of the seventeenth century. After a look at Bacon’s New Organon, we’ll examine how the “empiricists” attempted to integrate the empirical method of science into their respective understandings of knowledge and nature. During the last two weeks of the semester, we’ll consider Kant’s blending of “rationalism” and “empiricism”, or better, his “transcendental” treatment of the possibility of knowledge.

In this course we will explore the history of metaphysics and epistemology through reading the works of Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant, and associated lesser philosophers.
Text: Roger Ariew and Eric Watkins, editors, Modern Philosophy: An Anthology of Primary Sources.

An historical study of philosophical trends and controversies that characterize the development of early modern philosophy. This survey will cover the philosophies of Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant.

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Existentialism grapples with some of the most difficult and problematic aspects of the human condition: freedom, anguish, self-deception, death, anxiety, meaningfulness. In this course, we will explore the ways in which several of the most important existentialist thinkers addressed these themes. We will focus on the question of what it is to live freely or authentically, and we will investigate the ways in which one can be alienated from oneself. Along the way, we will ask what, if anything, makes life meaningful. Readings will be drawn from Kierkegaard’s Sickness unto Death, Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground, Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morality and Gay Science, Sartre’s Being and Nothingness, Beauvoir’s The Second Sex and Ethics of Ambiguity, and Camus’ The Plague.

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Examination of soical and ethical problems assoicated with the business, engineering, medical and legal professions.

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This course traces the evolution of such topics as karma and rebirth and the nature of the liberated mind as discussed in the Buddhist traditions of India, Tibet, East Asia and the modern West. The course serves as a foundation for higher-level courses in Indian Buddhist philosophy and Zen Buddhist philosophy. The aim of the course is to provide a basic familiarity with the canonical literature of Buddhism and the key thinkers of different Buddhist traditions and the cultural contexts in which they wrote. In addition to accumulating this basic knowledge, students will be expected to cultivate skills in reading original sources in translation, identifying and criticizing the moves made in the arguments in those texts, and expressing their insights in clear prose.
Prerequisite: one course in Philosophy

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This course is a survey of India’s diverse philosophical traditions. We will begin with the most ancient strata of Brahmanical (Hindu) thought, the Upanisads of the Veda. Then we will study the oldest philosophical system of the Brahmins, Samkhya, which will familiarize students with the basic elements of the Hindu world-view. We will move on to early Buddhism, followed by an examination of one of the earliest Buddhist systems – but by no means the easiest! – Madhyamaka (which presupposes an understanding of the development from so-called Hinayana to Mahayana Buddhism). We will then look at the Bhagavad Gita as the distillation of “epic” thought. Finally, after considering some of the metaphysical and epistemological controversies of the classical period (in relation to certain Nyaya texts), we will study the two most influential systems of Vedanta thought, Advaita and Visista Advaita.
Texts: Patrick Olivelle, The Upanisads (Oxford)
Walpola Rahula, What the Buddha Taught (Grove)
Jay Garfield, The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way (Oxford)
Barbara Stoler Miller, The Bhagavad Gita (Bantam)
And a small packet of readings available through UNM Bookstore.
Requirements: In-class midterm and final exams; one 4-5 page paper; weekly homework questions and reflection papers.
Prerequisite: one course in Philosophy

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This course is an introduction to philosophy in Mexico. We will begin by examining the debates in the sixteenth century concerning the rights of the AmeriIndians that revolve around competing definitions of rationality. Then, we will concentrate our attention on the origins, development and institutionalization of Auguste Comte’s and Herbert Spencer’s positivism in the nineteenth century and the anti-positivistic reaction in the twentieth that drew inspiration from Schopehauer’s voluntarism, Bergson’s vitalism, Husserl’s phenomenology, and Heidegger’s existentialism. Our course will culminate with an exploration of Marxist philosophy and Dussel’s ethics of liberation. Of special interest will be the manner by which Mexican philosophers appropriated European philosophy and adapted it to their own particular concerns. One of the main guiding principles of our study will be the search for a genuine and authentic Mexican philosophy. There will be some consideration of pre-columbian philosophy, feminism, and what can be loosely called post-modernism.

COURSE DESCRIPTION IS FORTHCOMING.

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The aim of this course is to provide students with a comprehensive overview of the main figures and movements of twentieth-century Continental philosophy (i.e., twentieth-century European philosophy situated primarily in France and Germany). Many of the philosophical approaches and orientations informing work done in various sectors of the theoretical humanities today are linked to the Continental philosophical tradition. A shared tendency generally found throughout the figures and movements of this tradition is an emphasis on such factors as history, ideology, language, and sexuality as overwhelmingly important influences shaping who we are and how we experience ourselves and the world around us. The course will begin with Edmund Husserl and end with Jacques Derrida, covering a wide range of figures in-between. The movements covered include: phenomenology, existentialism, Marxism, structuralism, post-structuralism, psychoanalysis, feminist theory, and deconstruction.
Prerequisite: 201 or 202 or 244

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‘Philosophy’ literally means love of wisdom. Thus the nature and status of knowledge itself is of fundamental importance to philosophers. We will begin with the skeptical claim that we can know almost nothing at all. We will then turn to the problematic traditional analysis of knowledge as justified true belief. After discussing a famous refutation of this account and assessing new ones, we will inquire into the nature of justification. When does a true belief constitute knowledge? When it is based upon firm foundations? When it coheres with my other true beliefs? When it is caused in a reliable way? Finally, with the time remaining, we’ll explore related questions about knowledge, such as the value of knowledge, the ethics of belief, and whether what counts as knowledge is relative to subjects or their communities.
Text: Sosa, Kim, et al. eds., Epistemology: An Anthology, 2/e (Wiley-Blackwell).
Prerequisite: 202

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According to Aristotle, and to a long tradition beginning with Aristotle, at the center of metaphysics is ontology, the search for the fundamental categories of being. This is not a universally shared conception of metaphysics. Many analytic philosophers, influenced by such thinkers as W.V.O. Quine and Michael Dummett, choose to explore metaphysics through logic and language, as if metaphysics were about our ways of describing reality, rather than about reality itself. In this course we will eschew the linguistic/logical conception of metaphysics, and pursue the Aristotelean program, through the work of contemporary philosophers who endorse an ontologically serious approach to metaphysics. We will first read Parts I and II of Keith Campbell’s Metaphysics: An Introduction (1976). (This book is out of print but I have arranged to make the relevant sections available to students via UniversityReaders.com.) This gives an overview and history of metaphysics conceived in the mode I prefer. Then, we will read E.J. Lowe’s 2006 book, The Four- Category Ontology: A Metaphysical Foundation for Natural Science (Oxford). We will also read John Heil’s 2003 book, From An Ontological Point of View (Oxford). The emphasis will be on coming to a scientifically respectable understanding of particulars, universals, substances, properties, relations, and causal powers.
Prerequisite: 101 or 201 or 202

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One great thing about the human mind is its ability to draw inferences. Better still is to do this well. In this course, you will learn two new languages developed to clarify the notion of logical entailment, which will help you understand the nature of valid inference. The course is good preparation for further work in logic or mathematics, but you can also take the tools you will acquire into any academic or professional discipline that requires clarity of thought.
Text: Bergmann, Moor, and Nelson, The Logic Book 5/e (McGraw-Hill).

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This course will examine three of the most important and influential answers that have been given to the question Socrates asks at the beginning of Plato's Republic, "How should one live?" We will also think about whether this question actually has a general answer at all. After a substantial 'introductory' period, the course will be organized into three sections. The first will be spent on Kantianism and the second on utilitarianism. The final section of the course will be spent on (i) Aristotle’s argument that philosophy, at most, can only provide a rough outline in response to Socrates’ question and (ii) Bernard Williams’ argument that it cannot provide any answer at all.
Prerequisite: 101 or 102 or 201 or 202

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COURSE DESCRIPTION IS FORTHCOMING.
Prerequisite: One course in Philosophy or Religious Studies

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19-Nov-This course has been cancelled. Our apologies for the inconvenience.

A study of Nietzsche's philosophical thought. Topics may include: Nietzsche's ethical critiques; the will to power thesis; agency and free will; truth; meaning; eternal recurrence and the affirmation of life.
Prerequisite: 202

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Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) is widely recognized as one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century, yet many of the views at the heart of his “later” work remain shrouded in confusion and controversy. Focusing on a few of the works Heidegger composed after Being and Time (1927), this seminar will seek to clarify, explain, and critique Heidegger’s views on the significance of art, poetry, and language; his understanding of metaphysics as ontotheology; his reading of Nietzsche and Jünger and his linked critique of technology as nihilism; his views on Plato and the future of education; the relation between his thought and politics; his famous response to Sartre and humanism—and, of course, we will address the issue of when exactly Heidegger’s “later” work begins and how best to characterize its most distinctive philosophical features. This course is good (indeed, indispensable) preparation for understanding much subsequent work in continental philosophy and the other theoretical humanities, which often take Heidegger’s insights as their own point of philosophical departure. For instance, Heidegger’s later work decisively shaped the concepts and concerns of such major continental thinkers as Arendt, Agamben, Badiou, Baudrillard, Blanchot, Cavell, Deleuze, Derrida, Dreyfus, Foucault, Gadamer, Irigaray, Lacan, Levinas, Marcuse, Rorty, Taylor, Vattimo, and Žižek (to name but a few), and this is true even where these thinkers approach Heidegger’s thought quite critically (as they all do, in their own distinctive and interesting ways). One thus needs to understand Heidegger in order to see where these thinkers are coming from, even if his is a thinking they seek (more or less successfully) to leave behind.
Required texts: 1). Heidegger, Pathmarks (Cambridge UP, 1998); 2). Heidegger, Off the Beaten Track (Cambridge UP, 2002); 3). Thomson, Heidegger on Ontotheology (Cambridge UP, 2005); 4). Figal, ed., The Heidegger Reader (Indiana UP, 2009); 5). Heidegger, Logic as the Question Concerning the Essence of Language (SUNY UP, 2009).
Prerequisite: 201 or 202 or 244 or 421

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A survey of American philosophy from the Puritans to the pragmatists. We shall concentrate on three writers before pragmatism: the Puritan Jonathan Edwards, the transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the author of the “Declaration of Independence” and third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. Among the pragmatists, we shall consider the “classical pragmatists” William James, Charles Sanders Peirce, and John Dewey, and from contemporary pragmatism, Richard Rorty, Hilary Putnam, and Richard Bernstein.
Course requirements: a short paper, a midterm examination, and a final examination during finals week.
Texts: A Jonathan Edwards Reader, ed. John Smith et al. Yale University Press
Jefferson: Political Writings, ed. Joyce Appleby et al. Cambridge University Press
Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essays and Poems, Library of America
Pragmatism: A Reader, ed. Louis Menand.
Prerequisite: 201 or 202

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This course is an advanced seminar on the philosophy of Plato. The seminar will focus on problems and topics chosen by members of the seminar. These might include but are not limited to: the nature of the philosopher; Plato’s moral psychology or metaphysics and epistemology or political philosophy; Socratic philosophy in the early dialogues; love and friendship; Plato’s aesthetics.
All students should order this title: Plato Complete Works, ed. Cooper and Hutchinson, Hackett
Prerequisite: 15 hours of Philosophy coursework

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Almost everyone claims to want happiness. But what is happiness? Philosophers have answered this question in a bewildering number of ways, arguing that happiness is identical to pleasure, or to struggle, or to harmony amongst one’s motives and drives, or to bestowing a narrative shape on one’s whole life, or to perceiving one’s life as meaningful. In this course, we will critically assess these conceptions of happiness. In addition, we will ask what role happiness plays in ethical theory. What is the connection between the happy life and the good life? Should happiness be one of our goals? Should it be our most important goal? We will explore how different conceptions of happiness generate conflicting answers to these questions.
The readings will be drawn from a variety of sources. We will begin with Bentham’s and Mill’s argument that happiness is pleasure. We will investigate how Mill’s nervous breakdown led him to rethink his conception of pleasure, and we will read Oscar Wilde’s literary explorations of the Bentham/Mill conception of pleasure. We will then turn to Schopenhauer’s argument that happiness is impossible, and that accordingly we live in the worst of all possible worlds. We will examine Nietzsche’s claim that we pursue pain and struggle rather than happiness; Rousseau’s and Freud’s arguments that civilization renders happiness problematic and perhaps unachievable; Alexander Nehamas’ arguments that what we are really concerned with is the narrative shape of our whole life; and Susan Wolf’s claim that happiness, meaningfulness, and goodness are three distinct and possibly conflicting measures .
Prerequisite: 15 hours of Philosophy coursework

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Over the course of the past two centuries, philosophy on the European Continent has displayed a profound ambivalence as regards the physical sciences. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the German idealists Schelling and Hegel construct their ambitious philosophies of nature on the basis of the scientific developments of their time; at the end of the nineteenth century, Engels, drawing on a combination of Hegelian philosophy and Marx’s historical materialism, seeks to elaborate a dialectical materialism encompassing the various branches of the natural sciences. But, during this same century, aspects of romanticism, Marxism, and existentialism herald subsequent critiques of post-Galilean scientificity as limited, nihilistic, and vulgar vis-à-vis the multifaceted richness of lived human experience. Starting early in the twentieth century, the majority of Continental philosophers become suspicious of, if not utterly hostile to, the empirical, experimental sciences of modernity. Both mathematized science generally and the life sciences specifically come to be viewed as lamentably reductive and objectifying; from this perspective, a perspective shared by a number of figures on both the right and left sides of the political spectrum, such disciplines are seen as deeply and incorrigibly complicit with a range of afflictions plaguing modern industrial societies and their inhabitants. Now, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, a handful of theorists influenced by the past two centuries of Continental European philosophy are critically questioning this picture of the physical sciences as ideologically problematic through and through, a picture many still accept today. This seminar will begin with an examination of some of the early Marxists’ enthusiastic anticipations concerning the ideological and political potentials of the natural sciences. It will then leap forward by many decades to the later Foucault’s 1970s elaborations of his concept of “biopower,” using this concept as a means to examine recent discussions of the social and subjective impacts of biology and its offshoots in particular. Then, in the final part of the semester, attention will be turned to efforts by a number of contemporary thinkers to reassess in creative and productive manners the relationship of Continental philosophy to the sciences. The authors covered will be: Joseph Dietzgen, Frederick Engels, V.I. Lenin, Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, Roberto Esposito, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Alain Badiou, William E. Connolly, Catherine Malabou, and Slavoj Žižek.
Prerequisite: 15 hours of Philosophy coursework

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This is a seminar-tutorial focusing on Vedanta texts for Ph.D. students specializing in Indian philosophy. Reading knowledge of Sanskrit is required. We will be reading selections from texts in which the affinities between Advaita and Madhyama are particularly evident: Mandanamisra’s Brahmasiddhi, Sankara’s Agamasastravivarana, and the mahapurvapaksa of Ramanuja’s Sribhasya. The following reference works are recommended:
Patrick Olivelle, The Upanisads (Oxford)
Thomas Wood, The Mandukya Upanisad and the Agama Sastra (Hawaii)
Michael Comans, The Method of Early Advaita Vedanta (Motilal Banarsidass)
Allen Thrasher, Advaita Vedanta of Brahma Siddhi (Motilal Banarsidass)

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