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This course explores the changing role of human psychology in the history of political thought through the study of classic texts in philosophy and psychology. In roughly chronological order, we will examine several key philosophers’ accounts of the deepest human concerns—justice, happiness, and love—and the potential political life has to fulfill those yearnings. In the final part of the course, we will study Darwin’s evolutionary theory of human mental faculties in The Descent of Man, Freud’s theory of unconscious psychological drives, and current theories of evolutionary psychology. We will discuss how these different views of human nature suggest different approaches to politics and ethics.

We will read selections from the following works:

• Plato The Republic, The Symposium 
• St. Augustine: The Confessions, City of God 
• Hobbes The Leviathan 
• Rousseau Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
• Nietzsche Beyond Good and Evil
• Darwin The Descent of Man 
• Freud Civilization and its Discontents
• And selected articles on evolutionary psychology

This course explores the changing role of human psychology in the history of political thought through the study of classic texts in philosophy and psychology. In roughly chronological order, we will examine several key philosophers’ accounts of the deepest human concerns—justice, happiness, and love—and the potential political life has to fulfill those yearnings. In the final part of the course, we will study Darwin’s evolutionary theory of human mental faculties in The Descent of Man, Freud’s theory of unconscious psychological drives, and current theories of evolutionary psychology. We will discuss how these different views of human nature suggest different approaches to politics and ethics.

We will read selections from the following works:

• Plato The Republic, The Symposium 
• St. Augustine: The Confessions, City of God 
• Hobbes The Leviathan 
• Rousseau Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
• Nietzsche Beyond Good and Evil
• Darwin The Descent of Man 
• Freud Civilization and its Discontents
• And selected articles on evolutionary psychology

This course explores the changing role of human psychology in the history of political thought through the study of classic texts in philosophy and psychology. In roughly chronological order, we will examine several key philosophers’ accounts of the deepest human concerns—justice, happiness, and love—and the potential political life has to fulfill those yearnings. In the final part of the course, we will study Darwin’s evolutionary theory of human mental faculties in The Descent of Man, Freud’s theory of unconscious psychological drives, and current theories of evolutionary psychology. We will discuss how these different views of human nature suggest different approaches to politics and ethics.

We will read selections from the following works:

• Plato The Republic, The Symposium 
• St. Augustine: The Confessions, City of God 
• Hobbes The Leviathan 
• Rousseau Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
• Nietzsche Beyond Good and Evil
• Darwin The Descent of Man 
• Freud Civilization and its Discontents
• And selected articles on evolutionary psychology

This course explores the changing role of human psychology in the history of political thought through the study of classic texts in philosophy and psychology. In roughly chronological order, we will examine several key philosophers’ accounts of the deepest human concerns—justice, happiness, and love—and the potential political life has to fulfill those yearnings. In the final part of the course, we will study Darwin’s evolutionary theory of human mental faculties in The Descent of Man, Freud’s theory of unconscious psychological drives, and current theories of evolutionary psychology. We will discuss how these different views of human nature suggest different approaches to politics and ethics.

We will read selections from the following works:

• Plato The Republic, The Symposium 
• St. Augustine: The Confessions, City of God 
• Hobbes The Leviathan 
• Rousseau Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
• Nietzsche Beyond Good and Evil
• Darwin The Descent of Man 
• Freud Civilization and its Discontents
• And selected articles on evolutionary psychology

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Check back for updates.

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Philosophy of religion is the philosophical study of fundamental religious concepts and ideas.  In this course, we will survey some of the perennial questions and issues in philosophy of religion, focusing particularly (but not exclusively) on those pertinent to the great monotheistic traditions.  Of particular interest will be: (a) classical arguments for the existence of God, (b) the problem of evil (can the existence of evil be reconciled with the existence of God?), (c) the relationship between faith and reason (is religious faith rationally justifiable?), and (d) miracles (what is a miracle?  Is it ever reasonable to believe that a miracle has occurred?).

This course introduces students to the writings of Karl Marx as well as to those of his intellectual successors in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It will treat the nineteenth century context of industrialization and democratization in Europe in which Marx formulated his social, political, and philosophical critique, as well as the theoretical and philosophical legacy that followed through the twentieth century. The course will not focus on Soviet Marxism, but will examine how western Marxism’s critique of capital evolved in complex relationship to the existence of Soviet Marxism. We will spend roughly eight weeks reading Marx’s writings, and then seven weeks reading his  intellectual successors (including writings from Rosa Luxemburg, Georg Lukács, Walther Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Cedric Robinson, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Dipesh Chakrabarty, and Slavoj Žižek).  This course focuses on intellectual history, and students should thus expect to read philosophy and social theory throughout the semester.

Textbooks:

Robert C. Tucker, ed., The Marx-Engels Reader, 2nd edition (New York: Norton, 1978).Vincent Barnett, Marx (New York: Routledge, 2009).

Grading:
First paper: 25%

Second paper: 25%

Option II or III: 10- to 12-page paper: 50%

Final Journal: 30%!Class Presentation: 10%

Participation (including attendance and also sustained constructive contribution to classdiscussion): 10%

What are we humans doing when we go about our human business?  What happens when love goes wrong?  Is justice possible and what does injustice look like?  In what ways do our families define us?  Are we able to choose our own destiny even when dealt a tragic hand?  These are just some of the questions that the masterworks of theater have posed.  Theater poses these vital questions in gripping, spectacular ways, and the way a question is posed is likely meaningful to how we answer it.  Using three loose themes—Fate & Freedom, Love & Lineage, Justice & Judgment—we will uncover significant questions plays ask (and answers they provide) while paying attention to theater's form.  This form, drama, is almost universal across world cultures.  Better acquaintance with Sophocles, Euripides, Terence, Shakespeare, Molière, Goethe, Chekhov and other great playwrights might even help explain why during the pandemic, Americans with the relevant subscriptions stream eight hours of "content" per day.  More importantly, encounters with these plays will challenge us to think, feel, and perhaps even act (pun intended) more spectacularly.   

Readings:

Anonymous, Everyman; Aristotle, Poetics (selections); Chekhov, The Seagull; Euripides, Bacchae; Goethe, Egmont; Marlowe, Dr. Faustus; Molière, Psyché; Nottage, Sweat; Terence, Adelphoe; Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet, Richard II; Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus; Wilson, The Piano Lesson

Grading scheme:

5 short papers: 30%; 2 longer essays (plus re-writes): 25%; recitation of monologue: 10%; group performance: 10%; final exam: 15%; active participation and attendance: 10% 

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The first five books of the Bible—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy—contain well known stories such as the creation of the world, the flood, promises made to Israel’s ancestors, and the revelation of divine law through Moses. Collectively known as the ‘Torah’ in Jewish tradition and the ‘Pentateuch’ in Christian tradition, these five books remain influential in debates about the purpose and nature of the deity (God), the cosmos, law, ritual, ethics, history, family, and nationhood. In this class, we will read the entirety of these five books in translation, investigate the socio-historical circumstances that give shape to these books, and consider how these five books achieve the status of sacred literature. Attention will also be given to the transmission of these five books and its continued significance for its many past and present readers. (With permission of the instructor, students may complete a portion of the course requirements by reading selections from the Hebrew text with the instructor.)