Page 190 of Boston College 2006-2007 University Catalog by Boston College University

Aristotles Physics B1 and then returns to the beginning of Greek thought, considering Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Empedocles, and Plato (focusing on the Theaetetus and the Timaeus). John Sallis PL 625 The Problem of Self-Knowledge (Fall: 3) The unexamined life is not worth living. Socrates proclamation forms the basic assumption of this course. However, important developments in Western culture have made the approach to self-knowledge both more difficult and more essential. During the first two weeks, we shall examine the history of self-knowledge and especially how post- Nietzschean philosophers have challenged traditional solutions of this problem. After this historical survey, we will begin the journey into your own self-knowing, choosing and loving. Joseph F. Flanagan, S.J. PL 670 Technology and Culture (Fall: 3) Cross Listed with MC 670, SC 670 See course description under the Sociology Department. William Griffith Graduate Course Offerings PL 576 Two Existentialisms: Sartre and Marcel (Fall: 3) Offered Periodically No philosophers more directly address the problems ordinary people think to be the most important than the existentialists. And, no two existentialists form a more perfect and total contrast than Marcel and Sartre: theist versus atheist, humanist versus nihilist, personalist versus rationalist, mystic versus reductionist. We will enter into each of these opposite world views by careful, thoughtful Socratic reading of a few key texts. Peter J. Kreeft PL 604 Social Construction (Fall: 3) This course explores recent claims that important categories of social life notably including race, ethnicity, and gender are not grounded in nature, but are inventions of human societies. We treat the content of such claims, reasons adduced for them, and some of their implications for individual attitudes and social policies. Jorge Garcia PL 702 Hermeneutics of Religion (Fall: 3) This seminar explores recent debates in continental philosophy of religion about the God who comes after metaphysics. Beginning with the phenomenological approach of Husserl, Heidegger, and Levinas, the course will proceed to a discussion of more recent retrievals of the God question in hermeneutics and deconstruction Ricoeur, Derrida, Caputo, and Marion. Key issues explored include the critique of omnipotence, God as possible/impossible, theism/atheism/post-theism and the question of interreligious dialogue and pluralism. Richard M. Kearney PL 704 Platos Republic (Fall: 3) Offered Periodically This is a graduate level seminar on Platos Republic. We will do an intensive close textual reading of the Republic, examining issues including: Platos political philosophy, and Platos understanding of virtue ethics, and the role of philosophy, poetry, and rhetoric in the dialogue. Marina B. McCoy PL 718 Problem of Representation (Fall: 3) The notion of representation, rooted in such experiences as luminous reflection, art or craft productions, is at first more a metaphor than a concept. But it has proved to be crucial to our understanding of reality and the very possibility of our knowledge. A representation is a repetition of a same thing under another form. We will study, mainly in the Medieval period, how such a difference has been elaborated in metaphysics and epistemology, and became an essential tool of the classical philosophical discourse. Jean-Luc Solere PL 720 Platonic Theories of Knowledge (Spring: 3) Offered Periodically The purpose of this course will be twofold: to explore Platonic considerations of perception and memory in the Theaetetus and dialectic in the Sophist; and to investigate what Plotinus does with this Platonic inheritance in his major study of the soul and its way of knowing. Both philosophers show the intersection of perception and intellectual knowledge in a way that is essential for understanding the Platonic project as a whole and especially the possibilities and limits of human knowledge. Gary M. Gurtler, S.J. PL 736 Theories of Metaphor (Spring: 3) Offered Periodically This course will look at theories of metaphor as a way into important theories of language. We will look at theories of metaphor as a way of considering and perhaps bridging the gap between analytic and continental philosophy in the theories of W.V.O. Quine, John Searle, Donald Davidson, Paul Ricoeur, and Jacques Derrida. We will also consider some of the important theories of metaphor proposed in the twentieth century by Max Black, I.A. Richards, George Lakoff, Robert Fogelin, and others. Eileen C. Sweeney PL 738 Ethics and the Question of Pleasure (Spring: 3) We will examine the controversial role of pleasure in moral life, from Antiquity to modern times. Jean-Luc Solere PL 742 Hermeneutics and Narrativity (Spring: 3) This seminar explores the hermeneutic philosophy of narrative as it relates to questions of memory, history, fiction and human identity. Though based largely on the later work of Paul Riceour, Time and Narrative and Memory, History, and Forgetting, the seminar will also look at recent debates on holocaust/genocide testimonies and questions of repressed memory in trauma and therapy. Richard M. Kearney PL 746 Rawls Political Philosophy (Fall: 3) Prerequisite: Familiarity with the Works of John Rawls Offered Periodically The year 2002 was marked by the death of John Rawls, who was often referred to as the most important political philosopher of the twentieth century. Toward the end of his life, Rawls worked very hard to complete his work publishing a series of books including The Law of Peoples, Justice as Fairness Revisited, Lectures on Moral Philosophy and his Collected Papers. His famous Theory of Justice and Political Liberalism complete the Rawlsian corpus. David M. Rasmussen PL 753 Recent Metaethics (Spring: 3) This course treats accounts that philosophers offered in and since the twentieth centurys last three decades, of the nature, ontology, language, justification, and epistemology of moral judgments, critically examining anti-realism, neo-realism, the revival of non-cognitivism, projectivism, Kantian constructivism, contractualist cultural relativism, 190 The Boston College Catalog 2006-2007 ARTS AND SCIENCES

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