Committee on Social Thought AUTUMN 2015 Course Schedule --- 1
30104. Introduction to Metaphysics: Existence, Truth,
KIMHI, Irad
1:30-4:20p
F 305 xPHIL 23007/ PHIL 33007
Activity
R
An introduction to metaphysics for advanced undergraduate students with prior background in philosophy and for graduate students. We shall focus on the
history and logic of the philosophical concepts of actuality (i.e., activity, existence truth). Among the themes which we shall discuss in this class are (1) Did
existence emerge as a distinct concept in Greek philosophy? (2) The emergence of modal metaphysics in Islamic philosophy. (3) The essence/existence
distinction and the arguments for the existence of God. (4) Kant’s thesis: existence is not a real predicate. (5) Frege’s thesis: truth is not a real predicate.
Through the course we shall engage with the treatment of similar themes in the first part of Heidegger’s “Basic Problems of Phenomenology.”
We shall read from the writings of Aristotle, Avicenna, Thomas Aquinas, Suarez, Descartes, Kant, Frege, Wittgenstein, Lewis, Kripke.
35001. Theatricality in Modern Art from 1700 to Present
POP, Andrei
1:30-2:50p
F 505 xARTH 35001
TR
Grads/Advance Undergrads
We examine the dramatic dimension of art in the modern era broadly speaking, paying attention to recurring themes like the Aristotelian theory of action, the
Diderotian theory of acting, and the linguistic theory of speech acts, as well as to momentous historical events like the French Revolution, the rediscovery of
antiquity, and the advent of photography and motion pictures. Paradigms that have been influential in one or another discipline like Michael Fried’s theory of
theatricality (in art history), Heinrich Kleist’s theory of puppets (in German literature and theatre theory) and Friedrich Nietzsche’s theory of tragedy (in music
and philosophy) and will also be scrutinized. While the texts come mainly from the history of theatre and art history, the range of artworks needing theatrical
interpretation will be just what we will be trying to establish together (but figures as diverse as Watteau, Fuseli, Mendelssohn, Wagner, Manet and Picasso will
play a role).
39127. The Political Thought of James Madison
LERNER, Ralph
9-10:20a
MW
F 305
xFNDL 29127
Grads and ug
L15 (60/40)
A close examination of the philosophic underpinnings of Madison’s political thought.
45403. Sem: Christians, Muslims, and Jews in
NIRENBERG, David
3-5:50p
F 505 xHIST 81303
Medieval Spain 1
T
Christianity, Judaism, and Islam in medieval Spain developed in interaction with and thinking about each other. This course will explore how the three
religions were “coproduced” – shaping and reshaping themselves through processes of simultaneous identification and dis-identification with their rival
“siblings” and neighbors. We will pay special attention to the way in which Christian communities constituted themselves through their relation to Islam and
Judaism, from roughly 1250 to the expulsion of the Jews and the conquest of Muslim Granada in 1492. The emphasis will be on primary sources, and we will
draw on pictorial, architectural, archival, and literary materials. Reading knowledge of Spanish is helpful but not required. Students with a relevant language,
such as Latin, Catalan, Castilian, Hebrew, or Arabic, will be encouraged to work with documents in that language.
PQ: Spanish helpful but not required. Students with reading knowledge of Latin, Catalan, Castilian, Hebrew, or Arabic will be encouraged to use them.
49800. Reading Course: Non-Social Thought
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Open only to non-Social Thought Graduate Students: enter section from faculty list on web.
49900. Reading Course: Social Thought
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Open only to Social Thought students: enter section from faculty list on web.
50201. New Narratives of Secularization and Sacralization
JOAS, Hans
9-11:50a
F 505 xSOCI 50101/AASR 50201
T and 9:30a-12:20p on W.
GRADS Only.
While secularization theory was for a long time dominant in the sociology of religion and in the wider discourse about religion in the public sphere, the last
years have brought not only serious critiques of that paradigm, but also interesting alternatives. Perhaps the most influential and wide-ranging of these is
Charles Taylor’s magisterial book “A Secular Age”. A considerable amount of time in this class will be devoted to a close reading of this work, but we will also
Committee on Social Thought AUTUMN 2015 Course Schedule --- 2
study texts by David Martin, a much less known, but very important British sociologist of religion and pioneer of the revival of a historical and comparative
sociology of religion (see now the “David Martin Reader”), by José Casanova (“Public Religions in the Modern World”), and by myself (“Faith as an Option”,
Stanford UP 2014)
This course will be taught twice a week during the first five weeks of autumn quarter (beg. September 29 thru October 28, 2015).
50400. Logic, Truth, and Pictures
POP, Andrei
10:30-1:20p
F 505 xARTH 50400
R
The course aims at the logic of pictures, but because it is controversial whether such a topic exists or should exist at all (some arguing that pictures are
alogical, others that they require a logic sui generis), the course will be less a primer in “Visual logic” or “logic of artifacts” than a preliminary investigation of
what sets pictures apart from and how they are like other modes of thinking. Resemblance, reference, and fiction will be recurring topics; we begin with
questions about the nature and peculiarity of pictures and move on to the prospects of arguing about and through pictures, concluding with the question of
their relation to truth. We will actually look at pictures besides talking about them. We will also ask what kind of objects beside conventional two-dimensional
images and sculptures might usefully be called pictures. Reading will include classics (Plato, Gombrich), as well as some of the instructor’s own work in
progress, based on the ideas of Gottlob Frege.
PQ: Grad only. Some previous background in philosophy recommended but not necessary; German reading skills desirable.
55507. Kierkegaard’s The Sickness unto Death
LEAR, Jonathan
59900. Dissertation Research
Staff
1:30-4:20p
F 505 xPHIL 50123
M
This seminar will be a close reading of Kierkegaard’s classic text, written under the pseudonym of “Anti-Climacus”. Among the topics to be discussed are the nature and
forms of despair, hopelessness and hopefulness, faith, sickness, guilt and sin.
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Admission to Candidacy or Consent of Instructor.
Enter section from faculty list on web.