Philosophy - Winter 1998

Plato: Euthyphro

Apology

Crito

(in The Trial and Death of Socrates, trans. Grube, Hackett)

Dworkin, "Civil Disobedience" (in Supplement)

Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy (trans. Cress, Hackett)

Austin, Sense and Sensibilia, Chapter VII (in Supplement)

Nagel, "Brain Bisection and the Unity of Consciousness" (in Supplement)

Hume: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (Hackett)

Goodman, "The New Riddle of Induction" (in Supplement)

Kant: Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals (trans. Ellington, Hackett)

O'Neill, "Kantian Approaches to Some Famine Problems" (in Supplement)

Williams, "The Idea of Equality" (in Supplement)

Sartre, "Existentialism is a Humanism"

(in Existentialism and Human Emotions, trans. Frechtman, Citadel)

Wittgenstein: The Blue Book (Harper and Row)

• The reading for this course will consist of seminal works by major philosophers, along with contemporary articles on related issues. Students will be expected to participate in discussion sections and to write four brief papers (2-3 typed pages each) in connection with different major works, and a longer final paper (6-10 typed pages) relating Sartre or Wittgenstein to some of the earlier themes.
• The course books will be available at The Literary Guillotine.
• The Supplement will be available at the Campus Copy Center

John Rawls. A Theory of Justice.

Robert Nozick. Anarchy, State and Utopia.

Michael J. Sandel. Liberalism and the Limits of Justice.

Topics will include, among other things, (1) the nature of the legitimate state and political authority, (2) the role of contract and consent, (3) the nature of concepts of law, rights and property, and (4) a theory of human nature and its place within the development of a political theory.

• A take-home midterm (around the fifth week). Essay questions.
• A take-home final exam OR a term paper (around ten pages).
• Term paper topics must be cleared with me. I will provide some sample topics. I will be very strict about not giving incompletes.

The course is intended to be a careful study of John Rawls's A Theory of Justice, especially Part One, Part Two: chapters IV and V, and Part Three: chapter VII.

Nozick and Sandel will be treated as important secondary-source critics. In Nozick, Parts One and Two will be emphasized, and especially the chapters more or less directly relevant to the portions of Rawls's work which we shall be studying. Thus Nozick, Part One, chs. 1, 2 and 3 and some of ch. 5. And Part Two, ch. 7 and some of 8. We will try to cover as much of Sandel's book as time permits in the remaining weeks. Readings will be assigned as we go. Roughly, I hope to cover Rawls, Part One in the first four weeks or so. Then Nozick (the next three weeks or so), accompanied by selections from Rawls Part Two: chapters IV and V. Then Sandel, with selections from Rawls Part Three (especially chapter 7).

All of the required readings are in the texts listed, or in the Supplement (*), or in Calhoun and Solomon, editors, What is an Emotion? (Oxford University Press, 1984).

Questions to bear in mind as you do the reading are suggested in connection with each topic. They are not meant to restrict the range of issues discussed.

The written work for the course will consist of brief (two or three page) responses to the reading for a given week. You may focus on one of the suggested questions, or on any other question of interest to you, attempting critical analysis of the issues involved and showing how the readings (or even a brief passage in one of the readings) is problematical or helpful in relation to those issues. A total of seven such brief papers will be expected, and participants will at various points be asked to make oral presentations based on them. These papers will be extremely important, for they will play a dominant role in setting the direction of class discussion. The papers are due at the start of each class. Since there will be a total of nine class sessions after the initial one, you may select two paperless sessions (though everyone is expected to do the required reading for all sessions and to be prepared to participate in all class discussions).

consent of the instructor.

I. INTRODUCTION: THOUGHT AND PASSION

• Do you find helpful approaches to any of the "ten problems" in the selections from Spinoza or from Hume?
• How might Spinozists (cognitivists) or Humeans (feeling theorists) respond to the criticisms of their approach offered in the readings?
• Do you see advantages or problems additional to those spelled out in the readings to either of the two main approaches to understanding emotions? Give explicit examples.

Required Reading:

--'Ten Problems in the Analysis of Emotion' (pp. 23-40 of What is an Emotion?)

--Spinoza (selection in What is an Emotion?)

--Hume (selection in What is an Emotion?)

--Solomon, 'Emotions and Choice' (in What is an Emotion?)

--Calhoun, 'Cognitive Emotions?' (in What is an Emotion?)

II. LOVE

• Why do we love anyone?
• How are the objects of our love chosen?
• What are the desires characteristic of different types of love?
• What is the relation of sex and love according to Plato/Freud?
• What distinguishes 'normal' love from neurotic, perverse, and transference love?

Required Reading:

--Plato, The Symposium

--Freud, Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality

--Freud, 'Observations on Transference-Love' (l9l5), Standard Edition, Volume XII, pp. l59-17l*

Related Materials:

• Alan Soble, ed., Eros, Agape, and Philia
• R.C. Solomon and K.M. Higgins, eds., The Philosophy of (Erotic) Love
• Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier
• Stendhal, Love
• Anders Nygren, Eros and Agape
• Roland Barthes, A Lover's Discourse
• Irving Singer, The Nature of Love
• Roger Scruton, Sexual Desire
• Jessica Benjamin, The Bonds of Love
• Thomas Nagel, 'Sexual Perversion' (in his Moral Questions)
• Jerome Neu, 'Freud and Perversion' (in The Cambridge Companion to Freud)

III. JEALOUSY

• What is the relation, if any, of jealousy to different types of love?
• What are the sources of jealousy?
• Is jealousy eliminable? Is envy? Under what conditions?

Required Reading:

--Freud, 'Some Neurotic Mechanisms in Jealousy, Paranoia and Homosexuality' (l922), Standard Edition, XVIII, pp. 223-232*

--Neu, 'Jealous Thoughts' (in Amelie Rorty, editor, Explaining Emotions)*

--Tov-Ruach, 'Jealousy, Attention, and Loss' (in Explaining Emotions)*

Related Materials:

• Gordon Clanton and Lynn G. Smith, eds., Jealousy
• Aaron Ben-Ze'ev, 'Envy and Jealousy,' Canadian Journal of Philosophy, XX (1990), pp. 487-516
• Ronald de Sousa, 'Interlude' (in his The Rationality of Emotion)
• Leslie Farber, 'On Jealousy' (in his Lying, Despair, Jealousy, Envy, Sex, Suicide,Drugs and the Good Life)
• Daniel M. Farrell, 'Jealousy,' The Philosophical Review, LXXXIX (l980), pp. 527-559
• Nancy Friday, Jealousy
• Peter van Sommers, Jealousy
• Peter N. Stearns, Jealousy: The Evolution of an Emotion in American History

IV. BOREDOM

• Is all boredom from within?
• What is the relation of boredom to the nature of desire? To satisfaction? To repetition? To meaningfulness?
• When boredom? When depression?

Required Reading:

--Berryman, 'Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so.' (in his 77 Dream Songs)*

--Bellow, 'On Boredom' (New York Review of Books, August 7, l975)*

--Greenson, 'On Boredom,' American Psychoanalytic Association Journal, I (l953)*

--Williams, 'The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality' (in his Problems of the Self)*

Related Materials:

• Kierkegaard, 'The Rotation Method,' in his Either/Or (Vol. I)
• Otto Fenichel, 'On The Psychology of Boredom,' in his Collected Papers (First Series)
• Reinhard Kuhn, The Demon of Noontide: Ennui in Western Literature
• Patricia Meyer Spacks, Boredom: The Literary History of a State of Mind

V. ANGER

• What makes anger and fear 'basic' emotions?
• How may they be recognized and understood across cultures?
• What is 'empathy'? What are its conditions?
• How is anger connected to 'angry behavior'?
• What makes a painting a sad painting or an angry one? How can art be expressive?
• What is the relation/difference between anger and resentment? Are they ever justified?
• Even if justified, should they be suppressed?

Required Reading:

--Bohannan, 'Miching Mallecho' (in John Middleton, ed., Magic, Witchcraft, and Curing)*

--Solomon, 'Emotions and Anthropology,' Inquiry (l978)*

--MacIntyre, 'Emotion, Behavior and Belief' (in his Against the Self-Images of the Age)*

--Hampshire, 'Feeling and Expression' (in his Freedom of Mind and Other Essays)*

--Murphy, 'Forgiveness and Resentment,' Midwest Studies in Philosophy (1982)*

--Spelman, 'Anger and Insubordination' (in Garry & Pearsall, eds., Women, Knowledge, and Reality)*

Related Materials:

• Jean L. Briggs, Never in Anger
• Briggs, 'Living Dangerously' (in Leacock & Lee, eds., Politics and History in Band Societies)
• Catherine A. Lutz, Unnatural Emotions
• Michael S. Moore, 'The Moral Worth of Retribution' (in Schoeman, ed., Responsibility, Character, and the Emotions)
• Rodney Needham, 'Inner States as Universals' (in his Circumstantial Deliveries)
• Carol Z. & Peter N. Stearns, Anger: The Struggle for Emotional Control in America's History
• Carol Tavris, Anger: The Misunderstood Emotion

VI. FEAR

• Is fear of fictitious objects 'real' fear?
• What is the relation of fear and desire?
• How are unconscious emotions possible? How can they be identified?
• How might one distinguish the cause and object of fear?
• Must ambivalence always involve unconscious feelings?

Required Reading:

--Walton, 'Fearing Fictions,' Journal of Philosophy LXXV (l978)*

--Phillips, 'Psychoanalysis and the Future of Fear,' Raritan XV (1995)*

--Neu, 'Getting Behind the Demons.' Humanities in Society IV (1981)*

Related Materials:

• Barbalet, 'Climates of Fear and Socio-Political Change,' JTSB XXV (1995)
• Bijoy H. Boruah, Fiction and Emotion
• Robert Gordon, 'Fear,' The Philosophical Review, LXXXIX (1980), pp. 560-578
• Stanley Rachman, ed., The Meanings of Fear
• Sluckin, ed., Fear in Animals and Men
• Kenny and Thalberg selections in What is an Emotion?

VII. PRIDE

Are there limits to the appropriate objects of pride and shame?

What is the place of conditions of 'nearness to self,' 'control,' and 'desert' in this area?

Is there a line between natural and moral qualities?

What is the value of feelings such as pride and shame?

What gives emotion direction? Is shame the 'opposite' of pride? Is humility?

Are certain beliefs about freedom and responsibility essential if certain emotional attitudes (towards ourselves or others) are to make sense?

Required Reading:

--Foot, 'Moral Beliefs' (in her Virtues and Vices)*

--Taylor, 'Pride and Humility' (in her Pride, Shame, and Guilt)*

--Isenberg, 'Natural Pride and Natural Shame' (in Explaining Emotions)*

--Fairlie, 'Pride or Superbia' (in his The Seven Deadly Sins Today)*

--Walsh, 'Pride, Shame and Responsibility,' The Philosophical Quarterly, XX (l970)*

--Strawson, 'Freedom and Resentment' (in his Freedom and Resentment and Other Essays)*

Related Materials:

• Annette Baier, 'Master Passions' (in Explaining Emotions)
• Joel Feinberg, 'Problematic Responsibility in Law and Morals,' 'Justice and Personal Desert,' and 'Collective Responsibility,' in his Doing and Deserving
• Freud, 'On Narcissism' (l9l4), Standard Edition, XIV

VIII. REGRET AND REMORSE

Most of the questions about pride and shame carry over. We might add:

• What is the relation of one's present state of regret to beliefs about past and future action?
• Can one sincerely regret something, yet do it again? Repeatedly?
• What are the effects of reflexive knowledge on one's psychological state?
• Can you properly be blamed for something, even by yourself, if you "could not help it" or it was
• "out of your control"?

Required Reading:

--Hampshire, 'Sincerity and Single-Mindedness' (in his Freedom of Mind)*

--Williams, 'Moral Luck,' Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Suppl. Vol. L (l976)*

--Nagel, 'Moral Luck,' PASS (l976)*

--Morris, 'Nonmoral Guilt' (in Schoeman, ed., Responsibility, Character, and the Emotions)*

Related Materials:

• Lawrence A. Blum, 'Will, Emotion, and the Self' (in his Friendship, Altruism, and Morality)
• Janet Landman, Regret: The Persistence of the Possible
• Martha C. Nussbaum, 'Luck and the Tragic Emotions' (in her The Fragility of Goodness)
• Amelie Rorty, 'Agent Regret' (in Explaining Emotions)
• Sabini and Silver, 'Emotions, Responsibility, and Character' (in Schoeman, ed., Responsibility,Character, and the Emotions)

IX. GUILT AND SHAME

• What is the origin of feelings of guilt? Of shame? Do they serve a useful purpose?
• What are the differences and similarities of guilt and shame?
• What are their relations to past wrongdoing? To future behavior? To wishes? To actual deeds?
• When does guilt become neurotic (or unjustified or irrational)?
• Could a society exist without either guilt or shame? How would we recognize such a society?
• What are the appropriate responses to such feelings? To their absence?

Required Reading:

--Psalm 51*

--Nietzsche, '"Guilt," "Bad Conscience," and the Like' (in Morris, ed., Guilt and Shame)*

--Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents (selection in Guilt and Shame)*

--Rawls, "The Sense of Justice" (in Guilt and Shame)*

--Mead, 'Some Anthropological Considerations Concerning Guilt' (in Roger W. Smith, ed., Guilt: Man and Society)*

--Piers and Singer, Shame and Guilt (selection in Guilt and Shame)*

--Erikson, Childhood and Society (selection in Guilt and Shame)*

--Lynd, 'The Nature of Shame' (in Guilt and Shame)*

Related Materials:

• John Demos, 'Shame and Guilt in Early New England' (in Stearns, ed., Emotion and Social Change, 1988)
• John Deigh, 'Shame and Self-Esteem: A Critique' (in Deigh, ed., Ethics and Personality 1992)
• Herbert Morris, On Guilt and Innocence
• Gabriele Taylor, Pride, Shame, and Guilt
• Bernard Williams, Shame and Necessity

X. GRIEF

• Can grief and depression be distinguished?
• Does failure to experience grief at the death of someone close show lack of love?
• Is grief a disease?
• Does grief, does mourning, serve useful purposes? Which purposes and how?
• What is the role of social convention in relation to grief, mourning, and depression?

Required Reading:

--Freud, 'Mourning and Melancholia' (l9l7), Standard Edition, XIV, pp. 239-258*

--Deutsch, 'Absence of Grief,' Psychoanalytic Quarterly, VI (1937)*

--Lindemann, 'Symptomatology and Management of Acute Grief' (in his Beyond Grief)*

--Engel, 'Is Grief a Disease?,' Psychosomatic Medicine, XXIII (1961)*

--Averill, 'Grief: Its Nature and Significance,' Psychological Bulletin, LXX (1968)*

--Keyes, 'The Interpretive Basis of Depression' (in Kleinman & Good, eds., Culture and Depression)*

--Lofland, 'The Social Shaping of Emotion: The Case of Grief,' Symbolic Interaction, VIII (1985)*

Related Materials:

• Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death
• Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy
• Albert Camus, The Stranger
• Stanley W. Jackson, Melancholia & Depression: From Hippocratic Times to Modern Times
• Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Living with Death and Dying and On Death and Dying
• Martin Seligman, Helplessness: On Depression, Development, and Death

XI. GENERAL THEORY

• What is the role of physiological changes and specific feelings in the emotions?
• What is the relation of emotion to expression of emotion and action?
• Can one understand an emotion one has never experienced?
• What distinguishes one emotion from another?
• What are the characteristics of causes and objects of emotions?
• Is all consciousness emotional, or are emotions episodic states?
• To what extent are emotions passive, to what extent active? (Chosen or purposive or rational?)
• Is there an "ethics of emotion"?
• What factors are relevant to changing emotions? How?
• Can the emotions be educated? At what cost?
• What are the most promising approaches for learning more about the emotions?

Required Reading:

--Darwin, The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals (selection in What is an Emotion?)

--James, 'What is an Emotion?' (in What is an Emotion?)

--Cannon, 'The James-Lange Theory of Emotion: A Critical Examination' (in What is an Emotion?)

--Schachter and Singer, 'Cognitive, Social, and Physiological Determinants of Emotional State' (in What is an Emotion?)

--Sartre, The Emotions: A Sketch of a Theory (selection in What is an Emotion?)

--de Sousa, 'When Is It Wrong to Laugh?' (in his The Rationality of Emotion)*

--Neu, "A Tear Is an Intellectual Thing," Representations, 19 (1987)*

Related Materials:

• H.M. Gardiner, R.C. Metcalf, and J.G. Beebe-Center, Feeling and Emotion: A History of Theories
• Anthony Kenny, Action, Emotion and Will
• Joseph Fell, Emotion in the Thought of Sartre

See articles and bibliography in:

A. Rorty, ed., Explaining Emotions

C. Calhoun and R.C. Solomon, eds., What is an Emotion?

Revised 7/12/04.