1000

The course is an introduction of elemental symbolic logic study. It is targeted at students from all careers and does not require any prior particular knowledge. The starting point is the study of the logic structure of propositions and arguments in Spanish. Once appropriate understanding of basic concepts is achieved, formal elements are introduced. Propositional logic is presented in an accessible, but also strict manner. The most important notions are given a formal definition and an informal explanation, and are illustrated with multiple examples and various exercises. At the end of the course, predicate logic is introduced, which is the basis for the Logics 2 course.

The course is aimed at students with no formal education in philosophy. The objective is to introduce them to the main philosophical problems by reading fundamental texts.

The course will be focused on one of the most important results or hypotheses of Plato´s philosophy: the theory of ideas. First, a dialog will be studied "temprano" Menón, where such theory is not yet exposed, but which offers a series of elements that allow justifying its formulation and a theoretical device (the doctrine of reminiscence) which will later be integrated therein. Then, it will continue with one of the most read and commented texts of the philosopher: the Fedon. In this dialog, the theory of the ideas is actually exposed, in its most general and problematic version. The course will be concluded with a dialog where these problematic aspects precisely constitute the driving thread: the Parmenides.

The course is a general introduction to some of the problems raised by Aristhoteles with regards to the relation between ethics and politics. To this end, students will analyze, discuss, and read, alternatively and selectively, two aristotelic readings: Nichomachean Politics and Ethics.

The course intends to introduce students to Descartes´ Doctrine, as it represents the philosophical birth certificate of Modernity. This Doctrine provides for almost all the greatest philosophical problems, in germinal stage, that were object of discussion ever since. Descartes´ Doctrine is one of the most remarkable efforts to protect the fundamental theses from the medieval outlook: God´s existence and immortality of the soul. Descartes thus became the last medieval thinker and the first modern philosopher.

Neoplatonic philosophy, as its name indicates, emerges as a synthesis of diverse traditions which can be traced back to the ancient reflections regarding Plato’s thought. But, being more than that, Neoplatonic philosophy exemplifies its own intellectual environment and constitutes itself not just by appealing to Platonic speculation, but also by discussing with several other philosophical traditions from late Antiquity (in particular with the Peripatetic School and Stoicism), with Gnosticism and with early Christian thought. In fact, its concern with the concept of the soul, with the problem of salvation, and its attempts to derive the sensible world from a higher, more perfect, reality cannot be fully comprehended without taking into account these spiritual traditions. Thus, the Neoplatonic movement inclines itself towards an interesting symbiosis between philosophy and Mysticism, between Pagan tradition and Christian revolution, and between Eastern and Western traditions. Synthetically put: it is, perhaps, the most complete intellectual expression of a decisive stage in the transition of humanity.

This course pretends to be an introduction to the first thinkers and poets of Greece, during the period known as the Archaic Age. Its departure point will be the intellectual transformation which took place during this period, and from which arise some of the fundamental pillars of Western thought. Although this change is normally associated with the group of thinkers known as the Presocratics, the revolution which took place in these centuries is also the work of the poets and minstrels of the Archaic Age. The reason for widening the list of names responsible for this transformation has its ground in the fact that such a change did not limit itself to widening human knowledge but also to transforming man itself. Or, in other words, the revolution did not only consist of widening the object of investigation, but also of transforming the investigating subject. It is, then, an innovation in a very broad ambit, and it is plausible to assume that it was carried out not just by philosophers, but also by all those who helped transform what it meant to be human and its environment, including, of course, poets.

The course is based on some sections of the third and fourth books of the Vasishta Yoga, one of the classic texts of the advait tradition, which is impossible to access through the text exegesis philosophical manner. The text itself suggests means of access that are not merely rational, but which are supported on intuition and on experience itself. Its peculiar style filled with metaphors, resemblances, narratives and the constant revisiting of the same issues from different perspectives will undoubtedly provide us with a new way of seeing and conceiving the world. Likewise, the course seeks to clarify notions such as Brahman, Maya, Ahamkara, Moksha, Atman, Jiva, karma, samsara, vasanas, atmavidya, prana, chakras.

Both secularization and pluralism in modern day society have led to death being an ever less discussed phenomenon. In past times, the discourse about death was an almost exclusive domain of religion, but with the loss of value in society of what was once traditionally religious, and the paramount status of other discourses (medical discourse, scientific approach, Esotericism, and the pseudo-scientific discourse of Self-improvement) death has come to be one of the great taboos of our time. This course pretends to retake the subject from an interdisciplinary perspective. Although the more prominent approaches will be those of philosophy and psychology (this course is offered by both departments), historical, anthropological and sociological approaches will also be discussed. Some of the general problems the course tries to address are: the historically recognized attitudes towards death in the West, the philosophical debate regarding the relationship between death, morality and happiness, actual individual attitudes, as well as beliefs and social prejudices towards death (subject of Social psychology), and the suffering which necessarily implies one’s own death or that of loved ones (Clinical psychology).

This course studies some of the most representative approaches in the history of Western thought to the question about Evil. It begins with the reading of Saint Augustine, who is one of the first thinkers to distance himself from the Greek explanation of Evil as ignorance about what is Good, and who, in turn, thinks of Evil as a constitutive phenomenon of the human subject with herself, characterized by the fragility of reason and will. Afterwards, Eighteenth Century David Hume’s and Immanuel Kant’s reflections about Evil will be considered, who think of this question no longer from the postulates of Christian faith, but from what they pretend to be a strictly rational analysis of the religious phenomenon. From there, they address the question about Evil in relationship with the structure and the limits of reason in its knowledge of the world (Hume), and the knowledge of the self (Kant). Finally, more contemporary reflections of thinkers like Nietzsche, Dostoyevsky and Badiou will be examined, who address the question about Evil as a constitutive phenomenon of the formation of the socio-political space, and the individual’s situation with respect to it.

Each ethical theory is based upon a particular conception of human nature, and every one of them is justified by using very different arguments and strategies. The main purpose of this course is to examine different approaches to morality, and to allow the student to use his analytical ability to understand the fundamental theses of each theory, in order to discover its practical implications. The course will be given by the Philosophy Department’s professors.

Totalitarianism is, according to Hannah Arendt, the central event of modern times. Her effort to comprehend this phenomenon, in its specific novelty, leads her to examine and question, to a great extent, some of the traditional political categories, and their assumptions, in order to propose a different way of understanding the sphere of politics. This effort has had its influence in some of the most suggestive and baffling figures of contemporary political thought who, following Arendt, also think that totalitarianism, as our age’s horizon, demands a renewed reflection regarding politics. Thus, the purpose of this course will be to examine the Arendtian notion of totalitarianism and its attempt to critically rethink certain assumptions and traditional conceptions of politics, while making these reflections dialogue with some coeval perspectives which have also drank from these fountains. With this objective in mind, some chapters of Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism and The Human Condition will be read, as well as some texts from Jean-Luc Nancy, Giorgio Agamben, Miguel Abensour and Roberto Esposito.

The course is intended to make a historic review the philosophical art proposals that have increasingly influenced the discussions about this topic. The course begins with the most classical ideas of Plato and Aristhoteles, who keep being a point of reference in modern thinking. The first objective is to address what it is known in philosophical history as "aesthetics". Then, the course approaches the central problem of aesthetics in the 18th century, and the problem of taste through authors as Winckelmann, Hume and Kant, and continues with proposals that open new relation possibilities between arts and philosophy: Schiller, Hegel and Nietzsche. The final section ends with some approaches to contemporary aesthetics, based on the challenges of non-figurative arts, among them, the theory of Worringer, the ideas of Kandinsky and Klee, and the proposals of Gadamer about the experience of arts.