SOME COURSES I HAVE DEVELOPED AND TAUGHT

Selectively Annotated

Inside the Mind: Philosophy of Mind, Consciousness and Self

This course is an investigation of various philosophical questions concerning the nature of mind, consciousness and self. The course travels a winding path from the classical mind-body problem (How does mind relate to matter?) to issues concerning the relationship of consciousness to biological life, the environment and brain (Is consciousness in our heads?) and the relationship of technology and culture to the mind (Can technology “extend” our minds, in some sense?). In the last section of the course, we will think about questions concerning the self, hallucination and dreaming (Is the self real or an illusion, like a dream?).

We’ll address these issues from two angles: narrative and dramatic; and theoretical-discursive. Through reading Oliver Sacks, MD’s masterfully written case histories of patients suffering from neurological disorders, we will come to understand mind, consciousness and self as personal experiences and realities. To supplement Sacks we will also view two films that will place mind, consciousness and self in surprising and puzzling dramatic, aesthetic and philosophic contexts. Our theoretical/discursive investigations of mind will draw on contemporary philosophies of mind, cognitive science and neuroscience. These discipline will help us frame the issues more abstractly, in relationship to concepts, theories and arguments. They will also allow us to delve a bit into some of the very recent work being done in the sciences of the mind on vision, self and sleeping and dreaming.

Philosophy of Happiness

A philosophical exploration of concepts, values. experiences of and contexts for happiness and its pursuit. The course centers on the question of what happiness is as both an “internal” experience and part of one’s “inner world,” and as a contextual reality that includes but also extends beyond one’s subjective inner world. The course can be viewed as tracing a circle; it begins and ends with the question what role does happiness play in a good life? Questions we’ll consider in the class include

How important is living virtuously to living happily?
Are our claims to know when we are happy accurate? Can I be mistaken about my judgments about my own happiness?
How important is happiness as an internal psychological state – as compared with other values? Is happiness overrated? Could the pursuit of happiness have a dark side?
What internal and external conditions and circumstances make us happy and unhappy?
Do luck and fortune figure into our being happy?
What place does suffering have in a “happy life?”
How does the experience of happiness differ across individualistic and collectivistic societies?
In what way does urban design and place in general affect subjective well-being?
How do natural places affect our happiness?

Transforming the Self

An exploration of a neglected dimension of the Western Philosophical Tradition -- philosophy as a contemplative, spiritual practice. Philosophy often addresses questions and issues raised at fundamental levels of our conceptual and theoretical frameworks. For example, what can we say about our belief in free will if we accept the findings of brain science? Knowledge here is primarily its own end. Discourse remains theoretical. Contemplative philosophy makes use of theoretical methods of analysis and judgment but puts these at the service of practical goals. The goals can be seen to operate on two levels.

On one level, contemplative philosophy has a therapeutic orientation, helping practitioners cope with and even resolve personal, psycho-existential issues, such as anxiety in the face of death.
On a second level, contemplative philosophy is itself a broad spiritual orientation and set of practices for living in the world or cosmos and transforming one’s life.

We’ll focus on a variety of ways of doing contemplative philosophy. We’ll read from Alain De Botton’s best-seller The Consolations of Philosophy. The focus here is on making philosophy a tool for reflection on everyday issues, like not having enough money. We’ll gain an appreciation of the ancient philosophical-therapeutic perspectives of Epicureanism and Stoicism, two of the most influential philosophical schools in the ancient Hellenistic and Roman worlds. We’ll read a good portion of the Meditationsby the second century Stoic philosopher-emperor, Marcus Aurelius. We’ll look at a variety of issues, including how to approach sensory pleasures, anger and the fear of death. The second part of the course begins by looking at Friedrich Nietzsche’s therapeutic philosophy for dealing with adversity, and then takes up two twentieth century contemplative philosophers, writing in journal form: Henry Bugbee and Simone Weil.

Simone Weil’s Gravity and Graceis a collection of aphorisms taken from her daily journals. This work sketches a radical philosophical vision of self-effacement, purification and self-sacrifice as the path to liberation.

In his evocative masterpiece, The Inward Morning, Bugbee uses a philosophical journal to develop a challenging contemplative philosophy of life, rooted in a Zen-like immersion in sensory experience and a listening responsiveness in the present moment.

The course will conclude with our looking at contemporary “philosophical practice,” Socrates Café and philosophical counseling.

Existentialism

We focus on the philosophy of existentialism, through fiction, prose and films. Our anchor will be the philosophical prose of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre and Beauvoir. Each of these philosophers develops a transformative philosophy of human existence, that implies a rethinking of the meaning of human existence. They attempt to capture the experience of individuality – of what it is that makes one one’s ownmost self – and diagnose the various ways we flee from oneself, in the face of the anxiety or angst arising from one’s freedom. But they also articulate a hope-filled vision of authentic individual and social existence. The fictional stories of Sartre, Camus, and Beauvoir offer emotionally haunting descriptions of our experience of angst and our varied responses to it -- everything from flights into conventionality and bad faith, to the search for new ways of being human. To deepen our understanding of the existentialist diagnosis of our situation and prescription for change, we’ll view films by Reed (The Third Man), Malick (Days of Heaven),Antonioni (L’Eclisse), Heneke (Caché) and Kieslowski (Le Bleu).

Philosophy of Religion

Our initial focus will be on concepts, theories and arguments about the “objects” of religious/spiritual beliefs, experiences and practices – especially, various notions of Sacred Reality or the Religious Ultimate. In the second part of the course, we will look at various accounts and stories discussing or showing how theistic and nontheistic religious and spiritual beliefs, experiences and practices embody specific emotional, practical and “existential” significances. In a nutshell, these accounts address the deepening of “inwardness” through attention, imagination, doubt, self-questioning, love and reverence. Throughout we will draw on a variety of writers and texts located within or in relation to various religious traditions, especially Abrahamic Monotheism (Judaism, Islam and Christianity), Buddhism, Hinduism, and writers and texts highlighting spiritual beliefs, practices and experience unaffiliated with – and perhaps even opposed to -- religious traditions

Introduction to Philosophy

Critical Thinking

Informal Logic

The Meaning of Life

Contemporary Moral Problems

History of Ancient Philosophy

History of Modern Philosophy

COURSES OFFERED THROUGH OASIS

Buddhism as Philosophy

An overview of key Buddhist philosophical concepts and theories, with a special focus on the Four Noble Truths and the Three Characteristics.

Marcus Aurelius and the Examined Life

A discussion-based course starting from a reading of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations. Each week we focus on various “disciplines” that MA rehearses and applies in his daybook, the Disciplines of Judgment, Desire and Action.

The Pursuit of Happiness

We use Sisela Bok’s Exploring Happiness and Dan Haybron’s A very Short Introduction to happiness to think about competing theories of happiness, with a view to arriving at our own prefered theo