2024-2025

SCTH 30300 Plato’s Law An introductory reading of Plato's Laws with attention to such themes as the following: war and peace; courage and moderation; rule of law; music, poetry, drinking, and education; sex, marriage, and gender; property and class structure; crime and punishment; religion and theology; and philosophy. Open to undergrads with consent of instructor. PQ:  Familiarity with Plato’s Republic. xSCTH 20300, xPLSC 48300, xFNDL 23400. N. Tarcov (MW, 1:30pm – 2:50pm, Foster 505) 

SCTH 35009 Platonic Aesthetics. The anachronism of the course title constitutes our program: to what extent can Plato's thinking about artworks, images, poets in the polis, beauty, the visual world, the senses, subjectivity and criticism be viewed coherently as an aesthetic theory? Does his style and dramatic mode of writing interact significantly with these views? How have they been received, and to what extent are they right? xARTH 35009, xCLAS 38020, xFNDL 29005, A. Pop (TBA, TBA) 

35714 An Introduction to Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. An introductory course to Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. I shall propose that the talk of sense, non-sense, and senseless in the book is subordinated to its account of what can be said and what can be shown and cannot be said. I shall argue therefore that the dispute between resolute and traditionalist readers of the Tractatus was an obstacle for an adequate understanding of the book. I. Kimhi (TBA, TBA) 

35715 On Aristotle. xSCTH 25715, xPHIL 35715/35176, D. Charles (TBA, TBA) 

SCTH 38007 What is Hegelianism. The seminar will explore the fundamental issues in Hegel’s philosophy by means of attention the texts where he most clearly states his ambitions: his early essay, The Difference Between Fichte’s and Schelling’s Systems of Philosophy; The Introduction to his Phenomenology of Spirit; The long Introduction to his Encyclopedia Logic; The Preface and Introduction to his Philosophy of Right, and the Introduction to his Lectures on Fine Art. Course is open graduate students. Lecture plus discussion. xPHIL 382007, R. Pippin (Th 2:00p – 4:20p)  

SCTH TBA Philosophical Literary Criticism. What is the relationship between literature and philosophy? This class attempts to answer this question by reading two philosophically rich literary texts (Shakespeare's King Lear and Jane Austen's Persuasion) in relation to a variety of thinkers--from Aristotle to Robert Pippin---who have developed their own, often conflicting accounts of this relationship. T. Harrison (Time TBA)

SCTH 20686 McCarthy’s Blood Meridian; or The Evening Redness in the West. Cormac McCarthy’s 1985 masterpiece, *Blood Meridian; or, The Evening Redness in the West* has been described as ‘the ultimate Western’ and the greatest American novel of the twentieth century.  Yet it is also a book that is infamous for its baroque prose style as well as its nightmarish depictions of violence and bloodshed.  Our primary task in this course is to read *Blood Meridian* in its entirety.  We will explore the novel’s themes, including (but not limited to): war and the problem of evil; history and myth; violence and the sacred; violence and the carnivalesque; empire and conquest.  But our reading will not be limited to *Blood Meridian* alone.  We will read parts of some of McCarthy’s other works; some of the books that McCarthy read in preparation for writing the novel; and some of the scholarship on *Blood Meridian*. xSCTH 30686, xHIST TBA. J. Isaac (T 2:00 pm – 4:50 pm, Foster 505)  

35716. The Linguistic Turn in Philosophy (Language, Meaning, Being): How did philosophy came to be understood as a special concern with our language?  We shall deal with this question by studying some essential chapters in twenty century philosophy (Frege, Wittgenstein, Carnap, Quine.  Davidson.). xSCTH 25714, xPHIL 35714/25714. I. Kimhi (TBA, TBA) 

SCTH 37523 Reading Kierkegaard: This will be a discussion-centered seminar that facilitates close readings two texts: Philosophical Fragments and Concluding Unscientific Postscript.  Each of these texts is officially by the pseudonymous author Johannes Climacus.  But the author of that author is Soren Kierkegaard.  Topics to be considered will include: What is subjectivity?  What is objectivity?  What is irony?  What is humor?  What is the difference between the ethical and the religious?  What is it to become and be a human being?  We shall also consider Kierkegaard’s form of writing and manner of persuasion. In particular, why does he think he needs a pseudonymous author? This course is intended for undergraduate majors in Philosophy and Fundamentals and graduate students in Social Thought and Philosophy. Permission of instructor required. xSCTH 27523, xPHIL 37523/27523, xFNDL 27523. J. Lear (M 1:30pm – 4:20pm, Foster 505) 

SCTH 38005 Nietzsche’s Critique of Morality. A close reading of Nietzsche’s The Gay Science and On the Genealogy of Morals. Of special importance: the appeal to “psychology” in the critique of morality, and Nietzsche’s claims for his own “rank order of values” as an alternative to the moral virtues of selflessness, asceticism, humility, and pity. Open to undergraduate and graduate students. xSCTH 28005, xPHIL 34709/24709, XGRMN 34709/24709, R. Pippin (MW 3:00 pm – 4:20 pm) 

SCTH 30930 Risk and Rationality in an Uncertain World. Our world is uncertain, but we must act in the present and plan for the future: this challenge is at the root of many modern theories of rationality. When is it rational to take risks, how many, and what kind? This course examines the history of thinking about such problems in philosophy, mathematics, economics, and psychology as well as the practices of gambling, insurance, commodities futures, disposal of nuclear waste, and long-term planning (for example, in the context of climate change). This course will meet two times per week for 3 hours, during the 1st five weeks of the quarter, March 24 - April 23. Instructor’s consent required for all students. xSCTH 20930, xPHIL 37330, xHIST 42202, L. Daston (MW 9:30a - 12:20p F 305) 

SCTH 31222 Oedipus Tyrannus: thinking in and with Tragedy—Who/What/Where/When/Why. Oedipus: exemplary sovereign or outlier? savior of the city or its destroyer? Epistemophile or -phobe? Upholder or suspender of the law (including the laws of kinship)? Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannos has been good to think with since its first production in the fifth century BCE. Instructor’s consent required for undergraduates. xSCTH 21222, xCMLT 31222, xGREEK 34717/2714, xFNDL 21222, L. Slatkin (TTh 1:30pm – 4:20 pm, Foster 305)  

SCTH 35716 Man and the Language of God in Judaism: From the Bible to the medieval’s philosophical and mystical traditions. xSCTH 25716, xPHIL 35716/25716. I. Kimhi (TBA, TBA) 

SCTH 35999 Sophocles, Oedipus the King: A close literary and philological analysis of one of the most remarkable of all Greek tragedies. This play raises important and perplexing issues of knowledge, responsibility, guilt, freedom, ethics, politics, and suffering, to name only a few. While the poetic text, in its many dimensions, including staging, will offer more than adequate material for classroom analysis and discussion, attention will also be directed to comparing what can be known about other versions of the story and to exploring the reception of this play in later literature and other fields including Freudian psychoanalysis. Open to undergraduates with instructor consent.  PQ: Knowledge of Ancient Greek or consent of instructor. Most, G., (TBA, F 305) 

SCTH 36000 Dysfunctional Families and Political Discord at Thebes: Sophocles, Euripides, Seneca, Statius, Corneille, Racine: In ancient Greek and Roman myth Thebes was plagued by strife from its very foundation.  Armed men who were sown from dragon’s teeth sprang up from the earth and fought each other to the death. Their descendants perpetuated the curse of monstrous birth, parricide, and civil discord. Oedipus’ patricide and incest and his sons’ fratricide became  

central figurations for endemic social and political conflict in general. This course samples the literary tradition that makes Thebes a paradigmatic locus for exploring the intersection of dysfunction in the family and in the polis. We will read Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, Euripides’ Phoenician Women, Seneca’s Oedipus, Statius’ Thebaid, Corneille’s Oedipe, and Racine’s La Thébaïde. All readings may be done in translation. However, we hope that students will read at least one of the texts in the original language. Open to undergraduates with instructor consent. Most, G. (TBA, Foster 305) 

SCTH 37327 Friedich Nietzsche: The Gay Science: The Gay Science is the only work that Nietzsche wrote and published before and after the Zarathustra experiment of 1883–1885. It first appeared in 1882, ending with the last aphorism of Book IV and anticipating verbatim the opening of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. In 1887 Nietzsche republished The Gay Science and added a substantial new part: Book V looks back to “the greatest recent event” announced by The Gay Science of 1882, “that ‘God is dead’.”I shall concentrate my interpretation on books IV and V, the only books of The Gay Science for which Nietzsche provided titles: “Sanctus Januarius” and “We Fearless Ones.” And I shall pay special attention to the impact of the Zarathustra endeavor which separates and connects these dense and carefully written books. Open to  undergraduates with instructor consent.  Note: This course will meet two times per week for 3 hours, during the 1st five weeks of the quarter, March 24 - April 23, 2025.  Meier, Heinrich (MW 10:30a-1:20p, Foster 505) 

SCTH 40134 U. S. Intellectual History since 1865. This seminar examines historical works concerned with ideas and intellectual life in the United States since 1865.  Since many of these ideas were by no means uniquely American, or published in learned journals, the framing of the course is deliberately broad.  We will look at classic accounts of the main themes and protagonists in U.S.  

 intellectual history, but will spend much of our time reading works that challenge these accounts and extend the range of what counts as intellectual life and intellectual production in the North American context.  Among the topics we will explore are historical memory, law and legality, science and technology, the history of American philosophy, capitalism and political economy, the rise of the modern university, African American intellectual history, liberalism  

and democracy, globalism and internationalism. Open to gruaduate students with instructor’s consent. xHIST TBA, J. Issac. (TBA, TBA) 

SCTH 55512 Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis. This seminar will introduce some of the some of the central concepts of psychoanalysis: Mourning and Melancholia, Repetition and Remembering, Transference, Neurosis, the Unconscious, Identification, Psychodynamic, Eros, Envy, Gratitude, Splitting, Death.  The central theme will be how these concepts shed light on human flourishing and the characteristic ways we fail to flourish.  Readings from Freud, Loewald, Lacan, Melanie Klein, Betty Joseph, Hanna Segal and others. Open to undergraduates with instructor consent. xSCTH 22212, xPHIL 51418/21418, J. Lear & A. Margulies (M 1:30pm – 4:20pm, F505) 

SCTH 49900 Reading Course: Social Thought. Open only to Social Thought Graduate Students. Enter section from faculty list on web. ARR