Justin E. H. Smith

PHIL 226: Mind and Action

DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY
CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY

Winter, 2010
M-W 13:15-14:30
SGW H- 439    

Professor Justin Smith
justismi@alcor.concordia.ca

OFFICE HOURS: MW 12-1
OFFICE LOCATION: PR-402 (2100 MACKAY STREET)

COURSE DESCRIPTION

What is the difference between my doing something, and something merely happening? Or, to cite a famous formulation of this problem, what is left over when, from the fact that I raise my hand, I subtract the fact that my hand goes up? What if there is no difference, and in fact everything we as humans 'do' is just as much a part of the deterministic natural order as, e.g., the orbit of the planets or the coming and going of the tides? If there is no difference, then does this mean that we are not free? If we are not free, then how can we possibly justify praising and blaming other people (and ourselves) for what we 'do'? Is it my soul or mind that causes my body to do things? Can bodily changes bring about changes in my soul or mind? How do these two interact, given that they appear to be different from one another in so many respects? In this class, we will investigate these and related questions, drawing upon a number of classic texts in philosophy from the past four hundred years or so.

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Roger Ariew and Eric Watkins, Modern Philosophy: An Anthology of Primary Sources (Hackett, 2009). ISBN-10: 0872209784; ISBN-13: 978-0872209787.

Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality, tr. Maudemarie Clark and Alan Swensen (Hackett, 1998).

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations (State University of New York Press, 1999) ISBN-10: 0791442020; ISBN-13: 978-0791442029

In addition, there will be a packet of required readings available at Copies Concordia, on de Maisonneuve between Mackay and Guy.

PHIL 339: Aesthetics

PREREQUISITE:    THREE CREDITS IN PHILOSOPHY, OR PERMISSION OF THE DEPARTMENT.

WINTER, 2010
MW 16:15-17:30
SGW H- 459

PROFESSOR JUSTIN SMITH
JUSTISMI@ALCOR.CONCORDIA.CA

OFFICE HOURS: MW 12-1
OFFICE LOCATION: PR-402 (2100 MACKAY STREET)

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

Classical aesthetics is the philosophical study of beauty. It seeks to answer questions such as: What is beauty? What is it that all beautiful things have in common? What are the standards of judgment by which the beauty of a work of art may be determined?  In recent history, philosophers have begun to treat the question of the nature and ontology of works of art as distinct from the problem of beauty, since it is no longer at all clear that in order for a work to be a good work of art, or to be a work of art at all, its creator must seek to make it an instantiation of the Beautiful. Indeed, today some artists consciously aim to create revolting and ugly works.  In this course, we will, in the first half, focus on the classical aesthetic question of the nature of beauty in art, and in the second half we will focus on one of the most important works in the history of philosophical aesthetics, namely, Immanuel Kant's Critique of the Power of Judgment. 

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Steve Cahn and Aaron Meskin (Eds.), Aesthetics: A Comprehensive Anthology (Blackwell Publishing, 2008).

Immanuel Kant, Critique of the Power of Judgment, Ed. Paul Guyer, Tr. Paul Guyer and Eric Matthews (Cambridge University Press, 2000).