Content
Intended for students with a specific interest in advanced research and an eye towards post-graduate studies in philosophy, this course is designed to meet the needs of students who wish to develop greater depth in their philosophical studies.

The course consists of rotating content based on the expertise of philosophy teachers at University College. It is organized thematically, and requires students to follow three seminars of five weeks each treating main categories of philosophical investigation, such as metaphysics, ontology, epistemology, aesthetics, ethics, philosophy of mind, language, religion and science.

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"Philosophy East and West: Themes" is a course which selects a cluster of related themes and follows their treatment in Eastern (especially Indian, Chinese and Japanese) and Western traditions. This year the leading theme is

What is real? In what sense are we —or can we become— real?

According to some philosophers, only what is permanent is real, according to others only what is independent is real. Some argue that reality is rather movement and change, with no boundaries and no structure; others argue that reality is an ever-changing network where the reality of the knots is a function of their interdependence with the other knots.

If the real is permanent, then in what sense are we humans real? Is being real then a question of becoming one with unchanging objects? Is our model the intellect when it understands and becomes one with the unchanging forms that structure reality? Or rather a devotee who recognizes God in his own unchanging self? These are topics discussed i.a. by Aristotle, Plotinus, Shankara and Ramanuja.

Perhaps only we —our minds— are real; our experience is the measure we need to describe reality. Experience has become the starting point for defending an events metaphysics, which regards time, especially the present moment, more fundamental than space where separated objects are located and cognized. These are topics discussed i.a. by Dogen, Berkeley, W. James, Nishida K.

If the real is not a place with boundaries and structure, then perhaps we might become more real when we leave words, concepts, preferred perspectives, and dogmatic truths behind, become attuned to reality by suspending top-down judgments and see reality for what it is, uncontaminated by our conceptual schemes? Can we attune ourselves to a changing reality by a never exhausted ability to change perspectives on it? Chuang-Tzu and Marcus Aurelius are authors one might read on theses issues.

Virtually no philosopher is willing to adopt a view of reality that involves regarding ourselves as not real. We will look at models in which the human, after having disappeared for various reasons as an individual substance, may become the paradoxical observer who becomes one with the observed without losing him/herself. We will look at Parmenides, Dogen, Longchempa and Spinoza, and possibly neuro-scientific studies on this topic. (e.g.  Siegel & Lutz, Dunne and Davidson)

Aims
After completing this course students are able to:

• compare philosophical assumptions about reality and the place of human beings in it, coming from different traditions
• recognize how similar assumptions can lead to very different theories 
• recognize how what is regarded as contradictory and flawed in one system can be highly appreciated in another system
• understand some (perhaps counter-intuitive) views on reality in some depth
• analyze different primary texts and relate them to the leading theme of the course  with the help of secondary texts about them
• articulate their own philosophical views on the topic

Format
The class meetings will alternate (interactive) lectures about theme and sub-themes by the teacher; close reading of primary texts presented by the students; discussions of relevant secondary literature and of conclusions about the theme of the course.