Spring 2025

Taught by Mark Johnston

Topics covered will be the mind-body problem, personal identity, the possibility of life after death, the self, the will and the ground of moral status.

Spring 2025

Taught by Eric Gregory

The parable of the Good Samaritan is one of the most celebrated teachings of Jesus. By looking at diverse religious and secular interpretations of this story and its themes, this seminar examines the nature and scope of morality in an age of globalization (including debates about immigration, global poverty, and humanitarian intervention). The questions raised by these issues are neither abstract nor limited to public policy. They involve practical decisions that face ordinary people in everyday life. In fact, so the seminar will argue, they reveal basic understandings of politics, human nature, and the place of morality in life itself.

Spring 2025

Taught by Gabriel Citron

The most penetrating critiques of Christianity have the power to unsettle our sense of self and disrupt our most natural ways of being - for Christians and non-Christians alike. For these critiques don't focus on attacking religious beliefs alone; rather, they target many of the deepest values, attitudes, and tendencies at the core of Christianity and Christian-molded cultures, and perhaps even at the core of our humanity. This course explores some of the key 19th and 20th century critiques of Christianity. It will involve opening ourselves up to the self-reckoning demanded by the likes of Kierkegaard, Emerson, Nietzsche, Baldwin, and Butler.

Fall 2024

Taught by Andrew Chignell

We are what we eat—morally as well as molecularly. So how should moral concerns about animals, workers, the environment, our health, and our communities inform our food choices? Can we develop an effective and just model for feeding growing populations while respecting religious, class, and cultural differences? The main goal of this course is not to prescribe answers to these questions, but to give students tools to reflect on them effectively. These tools include a working knowledge of the main ethical theories in philosophy, and a grasp of key empirical issues regarding the production, distribution, consumption, and politics of food.

Fall 2024

Taught by Gabriel Citron

We suffer. Sometimes more, sometimes less - but we all suffer, and often profoundly. What is it about the human condition that seems to make suffering inevitable? What can we do to deal with it? One approach is to try to change the external conditions causing the trouble. A very different approach sees the most important change as being within ourselves. Can we eliminate - or at least assuage - our suffering by changing the way we direct our attention (Netflix...), by changing the way we experience (drugs...), or by changing our manner of desiring (spiritual practices...)? We will approach these questions practically and theoretically.

Fall 2024

Taught by Jonathan Gold

This course examines the philosophy, history, and methods of Buddhist meditation. Primary readings will be Buddhist works on the nature of the mind and the role of meditation on the path to liberation (nirvana). We will ask how traditional Buddhist views have been reshaped by modern teachers, and we will interrogate the significance of current research on meditation in the fields of neuroscience, psychology and the philosophy of mind. In addition to other coursework, students will be practicing meditation and keeping a log and journal.

Fall 2024

Taught by Eric Gregory

With a focus on contemporary controversies in public life, this course surveys philosophical and theological perspectives on the ethos of liberal democracy oriented toward rights, equality, and freedom. For example, what do Christian beliefs and practices imply about issues related to feminism, racism, nationalism, and pluralism? What is the relationship between religious conviction, morality and law? Special emphasis on selected political and economic problems, bioethics, criminal justice, sexuality, the environment, war, immigration, and the role of religion in American culture.

Fall 2024

Taught by Hans Halvorson and Z Quanbeck

This course investigates the concept of "objectivity" with special reference to its relationship to science and religion. We will examine the revolt against objectivity by 19th-century religious thinkers such as Kierkegaard, and the impact this revolt might have had on the development of the sciences—in particular, on the major revolutions in physical science in the 20th century (e.g., Einstein's relativity, and quantum physics). We will also consider the scope of objectivity in the social sciences, as well as the relationship between objectivity and values in accepting scientific theories, making religious commitments, and forming beliefs in other domains.

Fall 2024

Taught by Austen McDougal

An examination of the most influential theoretical, pragmatic, and moral arguments regarding the existence and nature of God (or gods). Along the way, we consider debates about whether and how we can talk or think about such a being, and about whether mystical experience, miracles, and the afterlife are intelligible notions. Finally, we consider whether religious commitment might be rationally acceptable without any proof or evidence, and whether the real-world fact of religious diversity has philosophical implications. Course readings will be taken from both historical and contemporary sources.