Introduction to Philosophy

Introduction to Philosophy is a Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies class taught by Christoph Cox.

This course satisfies Division I requirements.

Course Description
This course focuses on a set of epistemological and metaphysical questions that have occupied philosophers from Plato through postmodernism: What is truly real? What do we really know? What is the relationship between the mind and the body? What is the self, if there is any such thing? Are my actions freely chosen, or are they entirely determined by forces outside of my control? We will address these questions through the close reading and discussion of texts by Descartes, Hume, Berkeley, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Sartre, Debord, Spelman, and others. During the first part of the course, students will write a series of short essays. The final weeks of the course will be dedicated to a longer piece of self-initiated and -researched philosophical writing.

Learning Goals

 * Multi-Cultural
 * Project-based
 * Reading
 * Writing

Previous Semesters Offered

 * Spring 2009 -- taught by Jonathan Westphal
 * Spring 2008