http://www.punzel.org/wp Information, Comments and Posts Relating to Coursework Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:01:48 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 We focus on important works by three thinkers important to contemporary self-understanding: Nietzsche, Heidegger and Sartre (the latter two are among the founders of philosophical movements, Phenomenology and Existentialism respectively). Original and radical, they rejected standard approaches and often raised unusual questions about the meaning of existence, the nature of ... http://www.punzel.org/wp/index.php?p=20 We settle for this characterization: ethical theory is the examination of the whole practice of ethics with an eye to determining whether its procedures, concepts and presuppositions are coherent, suitable for their purposes (whatever they are!) and consistent with what we (think we) know about reality. The study of ... http://www.punzel.org/wp/index.php?p=19 Self is as world is and as our world changes, our conceptions of who or what we are, of our boundaries and spheres of control, of our value as individual human beings and of our ability to act on the collectives we belong to, also change. The computers as such ... http://www.punzel.org/wp/index.php?p=18 We approach the study of ethics from three directions: consideration of some of its main theoretical problems, a study of some theories that are supposed to address these problems and an examination of some ethical issues as people encounter them. We want to see how much and maybe also how ... http://www.punzel.org/wp/index.php?p=17 The dilemma is this: denial of the truth of ethical judgments seems to lead to a relativism almost no one is willing to tolerate outside of the seminar room as the recent calls to 'moral clarity' after the events of 9/11 testify. But assertion of the truth of ethical judgments ... http://www.punzel.org/wp/index.php?p=16 The course examines some basic issues of religion through the arguments and methods of philosophy. The 'Problem of Evil' provides a provocative starting-point for theological explorations into concepts of human freedom, the existence of God (as understood in traditional monotheism), knowledge of God, the plurality of religious beliefs and the ... http://www.punzel.org/wp/index.php?p=15 The Philosophy of Mind is a rather large tree from which hangs many a ripe fruit for thought. In this course we savor philosophical approaches to our knowledge of the "mind": our knowledge of others' minds, animal and computer 'minds', and the relation (identity?) between "mind" and "matter". We browse ... http://www.punzel.org/wp/index.php?p=12