Courses at SJNY

General Introductory Courses that I regularly teach:
PHI 123 The Art of Thinking
PHI 124 Invitation to Philosophy
PHI 154 Sources of Great Western Ideas
PHI160 Introduction to Ethics

Match these images to the courses below!

Focused Courses:
PHI231 Philosophy of Childhood: this course invites participants to think about a philosophy of childhood and the place for philosophy in education

PHI 254 Mediaeval Philosophy: an exploration of the some the great ideas during the 4th through 13th centuries
Spanning the 2nd through 13th centuries, philosophy in the middle ages in Europe explored the ways in which one can reason about one’s faith.  For the Mediaevals, faith could only be supported by reason and reason, in turn,  can help support faith.

For a rich source of primary source documents from the Middle Ages, philosophical but also historical and literary, visit this site sponsored by Fordham University, New York City: the Medieval Sourcebook

PHI260 Inquiry into Cross Cultural Guides for Living: examining some short texts that instruct us on how to live a happy life.
PHI 260 invites participants to read and discuss a collection of historic to contemporary texts on how to live an ethical life.  We read the Tao Te Ching, Dhammapada, Epictetus’s Enchiridion, Al Ghazali’s The Alchemy of Happiness and others.  While each cultural offers a unique perspective on the happy life, we often discover threads of similarity.  The goal of the course is to mine these canonic texts for ideas that can pertain to life in the 21st century.  For some related websites, visit:
About the Original Taoism
al-Ghazali’s main page
Buddhist Reading Room – Home Page
Stoicism
Of course there are many other sites out there.  This just invites you to begin to explore the richness of philosophical thought from non-Western traditions.

PHI 235 Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art: what is beauty and how does art function within human experience?

PHI245 Philosophy and Women: women in philosophy and the societal issues that affect men and women. We will be offering this class in the Spring 2015 with a special blog project. We explore a variety of issues that pertain to women (and men) and take a specifically philosophical perspective on them.  For some website connections:
Abridged Table of Contents from the Stamford Encyclopedia
Feminist History of Philosophy
The Society for Women in Philosophy
These websites are places to start your search for information.

New courses:
PHI 335    The Aesthetics and Ethics in Myth
PHI 360    Philosophy and Moral Education
PHI 365    Philosophy in the Pre-College Classroom

See the SJNY college website for the full offering.