PHIL 499 - Philosophy Capstone Seminar- Spring, 2018
Metropolitan State University

Syllabus

 

Tentative schedule of assignments

Date

Topic

 Reading Assignments

Writing assignments due

Jan. 8

Introductory Session

None

 

Jan. 15

Martin Luther King Birthday - No class

Use the free time to get started on reading Mill's essay

None

Jan. 22

A classic exposition of the liberal philosophy of freedom

John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (original text, as handed out in class)
Bennett version of On Liberty

 Response paper

Jan. 29

 The distinction between negative and positive liberty (or freedom)

Isaiah Berlin, "Two Concepts of Liberty"

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, from The Social Contract

T.H Green, "Liberal Legislation and Freedom of Contract"

Response paper

Feb. 5

 Two very different conceptions of 'positive' freedom

Hannah Arendt, "Freedom and Politics" (JSTOR, login with star ID)

Amartya Sen, "Individual Freedom as Social Commitment" (JSTOR, login with star ID)

Response paper

Feb 12

 Freedom in Existential phenomenology I

Selections from Sartre, Being and Nothingness

  1. From the chapter on Freedom, Section 1: Freedom, the First Condition of Action : 
    1. pp. 433-441 (overview of the basic idea)
    2. pp. 453-457 (the example of the two tired hikers; how decisions express fundamental life-projects)
    3. pp. 464-467 (the possibility of making a new choice of project – “the instant”)
  2. From the Chapter on Freedom, Section 2: Freedom and Facticity: pp. 481-489
  3. From the Chapter on Freedom, Section 3: Freedom and Responsibility: pp. 553-556
  4. From the Chapter on “Bad Faith”, Section 2: Patterns of Bad Faith: pp. 55-61 (I think it will make more sense if you read this last, even though it comes much earlier in the book)
  5. Key to Special Terminology

“Sartre's Moral Psychology” by David Jopling  (I’m including this for some reasonably clear explanation.) 

Response paper

Feb. 19

 Freedom in Existential Phenomenology II

Merleau-Ponty, "Freedom" from The Phenomenology of Perception (1945);
Footnotes for this chapter.

M-P's critique of Sartre: "Sartre and Ultrabolshevism" (in part) from Adventures of the Dialectic (1955)

Extra, optional reading:

Merleau-Ponty, "The War Has Taken Place" -- This essay appeared in the inaugural issue of Les Temps Moderne, the journal founded by Sartre, Merleau-Ponty and Simone De Bouvoir in 1945.

Response paper

Feb. 26

 From Existentialism to Feminism

Simone de Beauvoir, excerpts from The Second Sex;

Marilyn Frye, "In and Out of Harm's Way"

Response paper;

March 5

 No Class - Spring Break  

 

March 12

 Psychological Oppression and the situation of the colonized

Aime Cesaire, Discourse on Colonialism

Albert Memmi, "Situations of the Colonized"

Franz Fanon, "The Lived Experience of the Black Man" (Chapter 5 of Black Skin, White Masks) -- This pdf is a bit blurry in my browser window, but it looks fine if you download the file and read it in a pdf reader like Adobe Acrobat.

Sandra Bartky, "On Psychological Oppression"

 

Response paper; Capstone Paper proposal due

March 19

 Capitalism, Socialism and Freedom: 1. The case for a strong connection between capitalism, private property and freedom

F. A. Hayek: Chapters 1 and 9 from The Constitution of Liberty.

Milton Friedman, Chapters 1 and 2 from Capitalism and Freedom

Response paper

March 26

 Capitalism, Socialism and Freedom: 2. The case against a strong connection between capitalism, private property and freedom

Richard Norman, "Does Equality Destroy Liberty?"

G. A. Cohen, "Capitalism, Freedom and the Proletariat" and "Freedom and Money"

 

Response paper

April 2

 Capitalism, Socialism and Freedom: 3. Three versions of socialism and their claims to be free societies

Philippe van Parijs, "A basic Income for All"

Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel, "Participatory Planning"

Ralph Milliband, "The Mixed Economy, Socialist Style"

Response paper

April 9

   No reading, work on your paper

Response paper; Capstone paper draft due

April 16

 Student presentations  

 
April 23 Student presentations    

April 30

 Student presentations, Wrap-up  

Capstone Paper due May 1.