This semester is loaded with work, but most of it is super-fun. Here’s a rundown of my classes for the fall, including reading-lists.
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays
Metaphysics with Michael Watkins
- Metaphysics: A guide and Anthology, Time Crane and Katalin Farkas.
- Physical Realization, Sydney Shoemaker (forthcoming). Dr. Watkins, with all his metaphysician hook-ups, has gotten permission from Shoemaker for us to use his upcoming book, in its most recent draft, for the course. For anyone unfamiliar with Shoemaker, he’s possibly the best living metaphysician on the planet.
I’m pumped about this class. Epistemology with Watkins was fun in the spring, and I think I’m going to enjoy metaphysics even more. Though I must admit that the prospect of working through Shoemaker’s book is somewhat daunting…
History of Ancient Philosophy with Roderick Long
- Reading in Ancient Greek Philosophy (3rd ed.), Cohen, Curd, and Reeve.
- Thaetetus, Plato.
- Sophist, Plato.
- Hellenistic Philosophy: Introductory Readings (2nd ed.), Inwood and Gerson.
- On Moral Ends, Cicero.
- Handbook, Epictetus.
- Against the Academicians and the Teacher, Augustine.
- On Free Choice of the Will, Augustine.
This is definitely going to be interesting. Long is smart, but more than that, he is ridiculously well-read. He’s the department’s unofficial expert on any topic that doesn’t have an actual expert. He’s especially well-read in the ancient Greeks, and he’s extremely good at conveying their ideas in engaging ways.
Social Stratification with Melissa Fry.
- World Poverty: Global Inequality and the Modern World System, Harold Kerbo.
- The American Class Structure in an Age of Growing Inequality, Dennis Gilbert.
- One Nation Underprivileged: Why American Poverty Affects Us All, Mark Robert Rank.
- The Hidden Cost of Being African American, Thomas Shapiro.
This is shaping up to be another interesting course. We’ve already started in on Kerbo’s book, and it’s very engaging. I must admit that I didn’t expect it to take the tack that it does: Kerbo’s primary purpose is the examination of why some nations seem to be undergoing significant economic growth as they align with a globalized economy (Thailand, Vietnam, China), and others simply have rising levels of poverty (much of Africa).
Metaphilosophy with Kelly Jolley.
- Philosophical Writings, Descartes.
- Descartes: The Project of Pure Enquiry, Williams.
- Empericism and the Philosophy of Mind, Sellars.
- Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, Rorty.
I love taking classes with Jolley. He’s smart, engaging, and just plain cool. It’s pretty clear that this look at metaphilosophy (the philosophy of philosophy… what other field studies itself? Man we’re cool.) is built around Descartes’ understanding of the field. Which is quite appropriate since, to a great extent, most philosophers are still pretty Cartesian. This is going to be fun, but grueling in terms of work. Totally worth it though.
Deviance with Mark Konty.
- Boundaries, essay collection.
First a note on the book: Apparently there is a company called Pearson Custom Publishing. They publish custom readers for social science courses. It looks like their basic business plan is to purchase reprinting rights to a couple of hundred major essays in various social science fields, and then allow anyone to build their own book out of that selection. Thus, as long as you are teaching from the primary essays in the field, you can get a book printed that has precisely what you want your students to read. This is dang fascinating (not to mention lucrative, since the books are over $60).
We’ve only met once, but Konty seems to be a smart guy. He’s relatively young, but seems on top of things. I haven’t spent much time with the sociology department yet, so I can’t say much more than that… We’ll see how it goes (but it can’t be all bad, we’re reading Durkheim).
Oh, yeah! We never did get our informal Philosophy of Film thing done this summer, so it looks like that’s moving to the fall. All I’ve got to say on that subject for now is that any time you get to read Cavvel is a good time. That guy is smart.
Thomas
Interesting.
Let me know, as you go through the semester, how much of the conversation in your classes deals with India. Like, at all. Because I’ve been watchin poli-sci and IR classes for years now, and the degree to which they ignore the worlds largest democracy, oldest centre of philosophy, and fastest growing free economy is shocking to the point of racism.
So I’d like to know if your profs and the books you’re reading to a better job or not.
I don’t know about Thomas, but my “history of social thought” classes have completely ignored anything that didn’t happen between the Missisippi and Greece. Can you recommend a couple of good books on Indian philosophy and/or history?
My four book starting off sylabus would be:
India: A History, by John Keay — the best one vollume history of India. It can be a bit dense in places if you have no background with the material, but if you’re patient it’ll resolve in time. Also a little light on South Indian history. Its strength is that it gives a very ballanced, intelligent look at the modern scholarship on a lot of tricky issues in Indian history — such as whether the Aryan Invasion ever happened or not.
Hinduism: A Cultural Perspective, by David R. Kinsley — Looks at Hinduism as a cultural phenomina that has been shaped by and shaping of history. Includes portraits of the lives of gurus and saints past and present, and gives a very solid introduction to the material in a rational way. Also avoids the trap that many, many books of Hinduism fall into of trying to totalize the religion (“all hindus believe that brahman is atman” and other such crap) or of just being a big list of gods and their attributes. In general, anything by Kinsley is good stuff, and “The Sword and the Flute” is the second best read about Hinduism — it attacks the subject by looking at the two extremes of Kali and Krsna, and showing how those two points help influence the religion as a whole.
Age of Kali, by William Dalrymple — A collection of essays and news articles written by Dalrymple, this gives a good snapshot of modern India and the problems facing her as a developing nation. Includes an account of the first western reporters face to face interaction with the Freedom Birds — the hardcore communist female only elite strike force of the Tamil Tigers.
After those three, once you’ve got the grounding, I’d go to:
The Wonder that Was India, by A. L. Basham. This was first written in the 50′s by an Oxford professor, and so the stink of imperialism is still on parts of the history chapters — but Keay and Kinsley will have given you the background to take that critically. Despite those problems this book gives one of the best run downs in English of Hindu literature, art, philsophy, daily life in the ancient age, and a good section on dharma and what it means in context. Invaluable in many ways, but not to be your first brush with the material.
In addition to those I’d have a look at White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India by William Dalrymple. This book talks closely about the way the British took over India, and makes some very strong statements about the concept of East vs West and Cultural Colonialism that defy conventional thought on the matter. It also tells a tragic and beautiful story of love, loss, and betrayal and is one of the best from a brilliant writer.
So, that’s four to must read and two additionals. After you’ve plowed through that I can give more recomendations — including some really good fiction (don’t forget that Salman Rushdie is Indian) — but those are the places to start. Good IR texts on the subject are rare, and I don’t currently have any that I can fully recomend, and most books on Indian philosophy and sciences require some grounding in the history before you can really get the most out of them. The whole field is very political, especially in the wake of the BJP (Hindu ultra-nationalist party) stuffing universities full of “India first” professors.
Well, I’d be pretty surprised if my History of Ancient Philosophy covers it, or really anything not in the Greek tradition. This is a pretty traditional department, and most philosophy done in the west (and maybe worldwide, but I don’t know) comes out of the Greek tradition, so it sort of makes sense here.
For my social stratification class, again, I’d be surprised if we cover it. It’s looking like the class is primarily shaping up to be a study of stratification in the US. While it’s possible that we’ll take a look at India, I sort of doubt it. The book on global poverty is primarily focused on SEA because that’s where Kerbo’s done almost all his research (esp. Thailand).
Of course I don’t expect either one to look at China either, so it’s not like India is all alone in having its contributions neglected…
Thomas
China does get short shrift, but not nearly as short as India. Many IR classes focus on China while having a big gaping hole around the Indian Ocean.
As for philosophy, there is significant evidence that ancient Indian (and Persian) philosophy both influenced (heavily) and was influenced (heavily) by Greek philosophy. What we think of as “Greek” actually mostly came post Persian contact, and was heavily indebted to ideals that were taken from other people and then given Greek twists. The fact that it is even possible to say that “the source of most philosophy in the west comes out of the Greek tradition” without aknowledging that the Greek tradition came out of someplace other than just autocthonous Greece shows a large part of the problem.
And, for the record, huge amounts of world philosophy came out of traditions that had little to do with Greek. Or that were co-equals with the Greek in ancient times, and have been burried only in the past 200 years by the imperialism of the west. It was India that gave us atomic theory, the zero, phenominalism, and so forth.
Hello,
This reminds me of when Bart is getting Krusty’s autograph or something like that:
Bart is working for Krusty. Bart gave Krusty a danish. Krusty needs a reminder of who Bart is and the boy begins repeating stories about how much Bart has done for him (I saved you from jail; I coordinated the Krusty comeback special; I reunited you with your father; etc). Finally Krusty says, “Yeah, but what have you done for me lately†to which Bart replies “I gave you that danish.â€
Best,
Will