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From the Stoics to Ubuntu: Philosophies of the Good Life — PHI2149.01

Instructor: Paul Voice
Days & Time: TU,FR 2:10pm-4:00pm
Credits: 4

This class examines a variety of answers to the ancient question: How do I live a good life? We鈥檒l engage with thinkers from diverse traditions across time and space as we clarify our own understanding of what makes life worth living and as we articulate a more developed conception of the good life.

Terrible Choices: Philosophy & Tragedy — PHI4226.01

Instructor: Catherine McKeen
Days & Time: TH 1:40pm-5:20pm
Credits: 4

The tragic protagonist is a person pushed to the breaking point- dealing with disaster, fate, suffering, unspeakable loss, and often the consequences of their own bad decisions. Greek tragedy shows human beings struggling in a world that often seems brutal, senseless, and beyond their control, where contingency is a hard fact of life. As such, tragedy raises significant philosophical questions: Does human life have purpose? How should we respond to trauma and suffering? How does one live an ethical life in a deeply flawed world?

Kant Seminar: The Three Critiques — PHI4266.01

Instructor: Paul Voice
Days & Time: WE 2:10pm-5:50pm
Credits: 4

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) describes his own work in metaphysics by analogy with Copernicus鈥檚 revolution in astronomy. He constructs a system of thought that attempts to move beyond the empiricism of Hume and the rationalism of Leibniz and Wolff. His method 鈥 critique 鈥 and his theory 鈥 transcendental idealism 鈥 have profoundly influenced all subsequent philosophy.

Language Documentation, Revitalization, and Reclamation — LIN4115.01

Instructor: Alexia Fawcett
Days & Time: MO,TH 1:40pm-3:30pm
Credits: 4

This course addresses the theories, methods, ethics, and actual outcomes of language documentation, revitalization, and reclamation work. Students will examine the causes and consequences of language endangerment, strategies for revitalization, and community-led initiatives in reclaiming linguistic and cultural heritage. Case studies from around the world will provide insight into real-world applications of language work and the diversity in form that this work takes depending on context.

The Scriptorium: Found Families — WRI2165.01

Instructor: Alex Creighton
Days & Time: MO,TH 10:00am-11:50am
Credits: 4

The Scriptorium, a 鈥減lace for writing,鈥 is a class for writers interested in improving their critical essay-writing skills. We will read to write and write to read. Much of our time will be occupied with writing and revising鈥essai means 鈥渢rial鈥 or 鈥渁ttempt鈥濃攁s we work to create new habits and productive strategies for analytical writing.

The Scriptorium: What Is Culture? — WRI2168.01

Instructor: Alex Creighton
Days & Time: MO,TH 1:40pm-3:30pm
Credits: 4

The Scriptorium, a 鈥減lace for writing,鈥 is a class for writers interested in improving their critical essay-writing skills. We will read to write and write to read. Much of our time will be occupied with writing and revising鈥essai means 鈥渢rial鈥 or 鈥渁ttempt鈥濃攁s we work to create new habits and productive strategies for analytical writing.

Plato: Symposium — PHI2163.02

Instructor: Catherine McKeen
Days & Time: TU,FR 10:30am-12:20pm
Credits: 2

It is 416 BCE. A group of Athenian men are gathered together for a party, a celebration, a symposium. Among the company are the tragic playwright Agathon, Agathon鈥檚 lover Pausanias, the beautiful but doomed Phaedrus, the comic playwright Aristophanes, the doctor Eryximachus, and the (also perhaps doomed) philosopher Socrates. Diotima, a priestess from Mantinea, puts in a surprise appearance. Alcibiades, the glamor boy of Athens, makes a late, splashy, gate-crashy arrival. There are the usual snacks and drinks.

SCRIPTORIUM: MONSTERS — WRI2159.02, section 2

Instructor: Camille Guthrie
Days & Time: TU,FR 10:30am-12:20pm
Credits: 4

This Scriptorium, a 鈥減lace for writing,鈥 functions as a class for writers interested in improving their critical essay-writing skills. We will read to write and write to read. Much of our time will be occupied with discussion, writing, and revising鈥essai means 鈥渢rial鈥 or 鈥渁ttempt鈥濃攁s we create new habits and strategies for our analytical writing. We will write in various essay structures with the aim of developing a well-supported thesis; in addition, we will revise collaboratively, improve our research and citation skills, and study grammar and style.

Epistemic Justice — PHI2162.01

Instructor: Catherine McKeen
Days & Time: TU,FR 10:30am-12:20pm
Credits: 2

How does one鈥檚 social positionality affect one鈥檚 status as a knower? Who is heard? Who is believed? This seven-week course is focused on questions of justice and power in relation to knowledge. We will engage with recent work in social epistemology鈥攑hilosophical theories of belief and knowledge鈥攚ith an emphasis on feminist epistemologies, anti-racist epistemologies, and epistemologies of resistance. These approaches stress that knowers are embodied, situated, embedded in communities, and have multiple, intersecting social identities.

SCRIPTORIUM: MONSTERS — WRI2159.01, section 1

Instructor: Camille Guthrie
Days & Time: TU,FR 2:10pm-4:00pm
Credits: 4

This Scriptorium, a 鈥減lace for writing,鈥 functions as a class for writers interested in improving their critical essay-writing skills. We will read to write and write to read. Much of our time will be occupied with discussion, writing, and revising鈥essai means 鈥渢rial鈥 or 鈥渁ttempt鈥濃攁s we create new habits and strategies for our analytical writing. We will write in various essay structures with the aim of developing a well-supported thesis; in addition, we will revise collaboratively, improve our research and citation skills, and study grammar and style.

Sets and Structures — MAT2121.01

Instructor: Andrew McIntyre
Days & Time: MO,TH 1:40pm-3:30pm
Credits: 4

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, mathematics underwent a vast expansion, into new, exciting, and increasingly counter-intuitive realms. The subject risked mystification and mutual incomprehensibility between experts in different sub-fields. In the first part of the twentieth century, a group of French mathematicians, under the pseudonym Bourbaki, undertook an ultimately successful program to use the foundation of set theory to put all of mathematics onto a common conceptual and logical foundation.