Course Catalog

An introduction to one of the key orientations of modern philosophy: critical genealogy and its central problematic, the identity and formation of the subject. The aim of critical genealogy is to unearth the hidden and unsuspected mechanisms, whether institutional or familial, which lie behind the formation of individual and social identities.

Uses film to examine various philosophical ideas and critical concepts. Students look at a number of key Western texts and thinkers and discuss them in the context of a broad range of films. Uses these films as illustrations to investigate questions about knowledge, the self and personal identity, moral philosophy, social and political thought, and critical theory.

In this intensive hands-on workshop, faculty from AUP, Arizona State University, Carnegie Mellon University, Goldsmiths, Sciences Po, University of Tasmania, University Paris I Sorbonne introduce design and performance methodologies such as ideation, role-playing, scenario design, future-casting, user-testing which students apply to their own design problems. The objective is to create and present a design proposition, whether blueprint, model, or performance.

The course provides a perspective on major currents of recent political thought in the context of the economy. It considers the spectrum of thinking from libertarianism through classical and progressive liberalism, focusing on distinctions between economic and political liberty, social justice, and democratic citizenship. The course considers lastly contemporary concerns with international distributive justice.

The nature of reality changed in fundamental ways in the early part of the 20th century. Concepts of duration, length, sequential order, simultaneity, weight, energy, location, mass, substance and void became a matter of perspective or ‘reference frame’. Scientists had been trying to explain apparently ‘absurd’ results, such as Maxwell’s EM wave equations or the photovoltaic effect, within the framework of classical physics. Much like what Ptolemy did with Aristotle’s model of the dynamics of the heavens before Copernicus and Kepler got it right, or, at least, not so wrong. In this course, I will present the basic principles, and derive the implications, of the theory of Special Relativity, I will describe the concepts and equivalences underlying the theory of General Relativity and show you why we know them to be correct (or at least not very wrong), I will introduce quantum theory and the quantum model of the atom and explain why it is better than plum pudding (see J. J. Thomson’s 1904 “plum pudding” model for the atom). In this course, you will learn about time travel, e=mc², black holes and wormholes. Is it true that if you run straight towards a cement wall it is just possible that you will make it through to the other side unharmed? Yes.

Existentialism and Phenomenology are two of the most innovative and influential philosophical trends
in the 20th century. Existentialism puts individual freedom and responsibility at the center of any
approach to the world’s meaning. Phenomenology is the theoretical study of phenomena (that is, of
how consciousness works and gives us access to the essence of things).

In-depth study of Ancient Greek and Latin texts or authors of both literary and philosophical interest. Subjects may include, e.g., the comparison of a Greek and a Roman philosopher; close reading of the oeuvre, or part of an oeuvre, of one author; the literary and philosophical analysis of a collection of thematically and generically connected passages
“For the course description, please find this course in the respective semester on the public course browser: https://www.aup.edu/academics/course-catalog/by-term.”

The course discusses the pertinence or not of cosmopolitan thought to analysis of world politics. Born from a moral dis-course pitched against the power politics of empire (Greek stoicism), cosmopolitanism is today defined by a moral and legal culture of human rights and an ethical and political culture of global values and/or goods. Contemporary proponents and critics of cosmopolitanism are analyzed in this context.

This course develops a philosophical analysis of three major ruptures in the history of theater: first, the initial Greek encounter between philosophy and theater; second the emergence of realism from Diderot to Stanislavsky; and finally modernism, marked by the groundbreaking explorations of Meyerhold, Brecht and Artaud. Four plays will be studied in tandem with theatrical manifestoes and philosophical texts.

Psychology and philosophy have a long history in common. The course addresses philosophical dimensions and implications of psychology – concerning our understanding of cognition, action, emotion, imagination, mind, body, and brain. It also deals with central issues in philosophy that reflect and elaborate our understanding of human psychology and the way it is scientifically investigated: consciousness, thought and language, identity, and other forms of human subjectivity and its social, cultural, and historical fabric.