Class Schedule
1. Where are you?
T 8/21: [380 BC] Plato, “The Allegory of the Cave” in The Republic VII 514a2 – 517c4 (P 186-189)
[1963] Hannah Arendt, Eichmann In Jerusalem (P 277-279)
[2007] “They’re Made Out of Meat”
2. What are you?
Reason
R 08/23: [1641] René Descartes, “Dedication,” “Preface,” “Synopsis,” and “First Meditation” in Meditations on First Philosophy (P 3-17)
T 08/28: René Descartes, Second Meditation” in Meditations on First Philosophy (P 17-24)
R 08/30: René Descartes, “Fourth Meditation” in Meditations on First Philosophy (P 38-45)
T 09/04: [1020s] Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna), The Cure: “The Soul” 1, §1-7; 9, §3-7 in Classical Arabic Philosophy: An Anthology of Sources (P 175-179, 205-209)
Experience and Memory
R 09/06: [1689] John Locke, “Of identity and diversity” (Book II, chapter xxvii) in Essay Concerning Human Understanding (P 133-150)
T 09/11: Instructor absent – in-class activity
[1740] David Hume, “Of personal identity” (Book I, Part 6, sect. 6) in A Treatise of Human Nature(P 164-171)
Consciousness
R 09/13: Instructor absent: No reading – in class workshop on empiricism and rationalism
T 09/18: [1781/1787] Immanuel Kant,Critique of Pure Reason, A103-A124 (P 230-240)
Ego
R 09/20: [1923] Sigmund Freud, “Consciousness and What Is Unconscious” and “The Ego and the Id” in The Ego and the Id (P 3-21)
Recognition
T 09/25: [1997] Axel Honneth, “Between Aristotle and Kant: Recognition and Moral Obligation” in Disrespect (P 129-142)
R 09/27: [2007] Iris Marion Young, “Recognition of Love’s Labor” in Recognition and Power: Axel Honneth and the Tradition of Critical Social Theory (P 189-212)
T 10/2: {Mid-term review in class}
R 10/04: Mid-Term Exam: {What are you? Reason, experience & memory, consciousness, ego, and recognition}
FALL BREAK – T 10/09
3. Whence are you?
Self
R 10/11: [11thC.] Ibn Tufail, Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān (P 95-118)
T 10/16: Ibn Tufail, Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān (P 118-142, end of 2ndfull ¶)
R 10/18:Ibn Tufail,Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān (P 142-166)
Society
T 10/23: [1754] Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality, preliminaries (P 1-25)
R 10/25: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality, Part I (P 26-54)
T 10/30: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality, Part II (P 55-85)
4. How are you?
Narrative
R 11/01: [1992] Paul Ricoeur, “Personal Identity and Narrative Identity” in Oneself as Another (P 113-139)
T 11/06: [1996] Marya Schechtman, “The Narrative Self-Constitution View” in The Constitution of Selves (P 93-135)
Non-narrative
R 11/08: [2012] Derek Parfit, “We Are Not Human Beings” in Philosophy 87 (P 5-28)
T 11/13: [2004] Galen Strawson, “Against Narrativity” in RatioXVII.4 (P 428-450)
5. Whither are you?
R 11/15: [1971]Harry Frankfurt, “Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person” in The Journal of Philosophy68.1 (P 5-20)
THANKSGIVING BREAK – T 11/20 + R 11/22
T 11/27: [2014] L.A. Paul, “Becoming a Vampire” and “The Shock of the New” in Transformative Experience (P 1-4, 105-123)
R 11/29: [2018] Agnes Callard, “Proleptic Reasons” in Aspiration: The Agency of Becoming (P 68-76, 90-107)
T 12/04: Looking back, through film– ANNIHILATION (2018) & MARGARET (2011)
On the final day of class we will discuss these two films and their relationship to the materials and themes of the course. It is your job to watch them at some point over the course of the semester; I will post streams to Moodle, and can also arrange for group screenings if people are interested.