The course¿s objective is to familiarize the student with some of the central issues and discussions in Philosophy.
The course therefore aims at providing the students with an overview of traditional philosophical ¿problems¿ through the reading and commentary of some ¿canonical¿ texts.
PROGRAM:
- On Truth
F. Nietzsche: On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense
W. James: The Meaning of Truth
- Why should we call it love when it could be named Knowledge?
Plato: The Symposium ( a fragment)
R. Descartes: Metaphysical Meditations (the first 3 Meditations)
- Bodies, Minds and Identities
A. Damasio: Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain ( a chapter)
A. Sen: Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny ( a chapter)
- Why/how to be moral?
Ch. Korsgaard: The Sources of Normativity. Introduction.
F. Nietzsche: On The Genealogy of Morality: A Polemic. (Second Treatise).
- Philosophers in difficult times.
H. D. Thoreau: Life without Principle
H. Arendt: Thinking and Moral Considerations