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Kies de Nederlandse taal
Course module: UCHUMPHI25
UCHUMPHI25
Who are we? Philosophical Views on Humans and Gods
Course info
Course codeUCHUMPHI25
EC7.5
Course goals
After completing this course students are able to:
  • recall the history of human-centered theoretical philosophy (i.e. not including ethics) in a general outline from Antiquity to the 20th century, across several traditions,
  • identify the central tenets of thought of key philosophers,
  • explain the central issues of this subject of ‘philosophical anthropology’, as they are raised in the texts set for the course,
  • present a philosopher’s arguments and comment on them in writing,
  • participate in critical discussions of philosophical questions
Content
What is the core of ‘who we are’? Is there anything that we are essentially and/or continuously? Is this something that we are as individuals or collectively? Are we bodies? Or minds/souls? Consciousness? Or the stories we tell about ourselves? What, if anything, is distinctive of human beings? What, if anything, distinguishes them from other living beings: from animals (i.e. living and dying beings) on the one hand, and/or from any kind of divine (unborn and undying) beings, on the other hand? What could be meant by the traditional view that the human is the rational animal? In what sense, apart from a political sense, can humans be said to be free, or to be capable of becoming free? How could freedom of the person in this sense relate to the question of a free will, as opposed to (providential or natural) necessity and determinism?

This course offers a survey of philosophical reflection on what it is to be human and what sets human beings apart from other animals, but also from gods or God, i.e. from any realm of the divine. The course is part of both the philosophy track and the religious studies track. The present course, in contrast to the prescriptions and evaluations encountered in ethics, is devoted to primarily descriptive conceptions of human being and human nature, a foundation of presuppositions that ethics rests on. So what we do here is theoretical philosophy, but focusing on the human condition. Seminal views on the status of human beings will be represented in primary texts by Western and Non-Western philosophers, among them Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, Plotinus, Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Hume, Kant, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, William James, and Sartre, and the philosophies of Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism (on personal identity), Taoism (on freedom) and the Kyoto School (religion). Even beyond the philosophy track and the religious studies track, this human-centered course should appeal to Social Science majors as a complement to courses such as  UCSSCPOL11, LAW11, LAW12, and ANT11. 
 
Format
The class meets twice a week for two hours. In order to facilitate access and discussion of the texts, study questions are supplied to be used in preparing for students’ contribution to class discussions. Towards the end of the term, students submit one paper of around 3000 words on an issue raised by one or more of the philosophers studied. There is a midterm exam and the course concludes with a written exam.
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Kies de Nederlandse taal