Introduction to Philosophy (U.S. Naval Academy)
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Philosophy deals with foundational questions. Some of these questions impact the lives of most of us tangentially, if at all. Other questions, such as "what makes life worth living," fundamentally impact our lives even if we never pause to consider them. These questions become particularly salient once we realize that this world full of piss and shit, death and suffering is nonetheless rich and lush, sexy and beautiful. In this course, we consider some of these foundational and fundamentally important questions: questions about life and death, happiness and suffering. The objective of the course is to introduce students to the human experience of questioning in order to better understand the meaning of our existence as human beings.
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Philosophy of Science (U.S. Naval Academy)
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What is science? What is the scientific method? What is scientific belief? What are the limits of science? Should science enjoy a privileged status in society? Is science the best we have? The objective of this course is to consider these and other related questions in the philosophy of science, and in doing so to increase capacity for critical, reflective, and independent thought.
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Stoic Philosophy and Leadership (U.S. Naval Academy)
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“Some things are in our control and others are not. Things in our control include our opinions, pursuits, desires, and aversions... Things not in our control include our health, property, reputation, office... The things in our control are by nature free, unrestrained, unhindered, and our own; but those not in our control are weak, slavish, restrained, and belong to others. Remember, then, that if you suppose that what is enslaved is free, and that what belongs to others is your own, then you will be hindered. You will lament, you will be disturbed, and you will curse both gods and men. But if you suppose that only to be your own which is your own, and leave that which belongs to others as it is, then no one will ever compel you or restrain you. You will be free.” These are the opening lines to the Handbook of Epictetus. And we can see in those lines the promise of Stoicism. That promise lies in total freedom from our captivity, our captivity to our professors and our families, our captivity to the expectations of others, our captivity to the Myth of the Modern World. But that promise comes with a price, for the Stoics made no false promises about the difficult path required to attain such freedom. In this class, we attempt to better understand this ancient school of philosophy.
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Eastern and Western Philosophy: Reason, Suffering, and the Self (Georgetown University)
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Some claims that have played a central role in the development of certain eastern philosophies (such as Buddhism and Daoism) are regarded as heterodoxy in the West. For example, whereas Descartes famously argued that the most fundamental belief about which he was directly and non-inferentially certain was that he existed, the belief in anatman (or, no-self) lies at the heart of traditional Buddhist philosophy. From no-self and idealism (rather than materialism) to arguments about the cause of suffering and the limits of reason, topics that have typically been found on the fringes of western philosophy have played a prominent role in several eastern philosophies. This course is designed to critically examine these claims: the cause of suffering, no self, non-being, and the denial of non-contradiction. These are claims that are in many ways central to questions about who we are and how we out to live, claims that many of us in the west have never thought to question.
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The Pursuit of Happiness (Georgetown University)
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“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed ... with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” These are, I am sure, very familiar words to us all. But today, many have a very different interpretation about what the term ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ than Thomas Jefferson might have intended when he wrote the Declaration of Independence. What might happiness actually be? How might we improve our pursuit of it?
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