The purpose of this course is to grapple with several central issues and problems in contemporary philosophy of mind and knowledge by using some Kantian ideas as starting points. The course material is based on the current MS of my book, Cognition, Content, and the A Priori (CCAP), which is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.

The course will run from the morning of Wed 24 September to the morning of Fri 26 September and have four parts (= two 2 hour sessions on Wed, one 2 hour session on Thursday morning, and one 2 hour session on Friday morning), and the general format will be that on each topic I will present the basic line of argument under that topic, and then we'll proceed to comments and questions from participants in the course and a general critical discussion.

On the afternoon of Thurs 25 Sept, I will also do a free-standing research seminar presentation to which all interested people are invited.

Program:

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24

10:00-12:00
1. Intentionality & Knowledge Revisited.
Readings: CCAP, section 1.0, & the rest of the chapter optional.

14:00-16:00
2. A Kantian Theory of Non-Conceptual Content.
Readings: CCAP, section 2.0, & the rest of the chapter optional.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25

10:00-12:00
3. Radically Naive Realism in the Philosophy of Perception.
Readings: CCAP, section 3.0, & the rest of the chapter optional.

14:00-16:00
Research Seminar Presentation: "Kant, The Benacerraf Dilemmas, and the Problem of A Priori Knowledge"

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26

10:00-12:00
4. The Return of the Analytic-Synthetic Distinction and the Morality of Logic.
Readings: CCAP, sections 4.0 and 5.0, & the rest of the chapters optional.

Sähköpostitse Tommi Vehkavaaralle (tommi.vehkavaara@uta.fi)

A new seminar for PhD-students and advanced students from any discipline, interested in social theory broadly conceived. During fall 2014 we will be reading Michel Foucault's lectures on the birth of biopolitics (La naissance de la biopolitique). The text will be available via moodle for registered participants.

Registration for the seminar on theoretical social research: Foucault, fall 2014

The first meeting is 24.9 (Pinni B3109), after that we meet 1.10. (chapters 1 & 2) (Pinni B3109) and then every second week (Pinni B3117), reading two chapters of the text for each meeting. Should be fun.

A new seminar for PhD-students and advanced students from any discipline, interested in social theory broadly conceived. During fall 2014 we will be reading Michel Foucault's lectures on the birth of biopolitics (La naissance de la biopolitique). The text will be available via moodle for registered participants.

Registration for the seminar on theoretical social research: Foucault, fall 2014

The first meeting is 24.9 (Pinni B3109), after that we meet 1.10. (chapters 1 & 2) (Pinni B3109) and then every second week (Pinni B3117), reading two chapters of the text for each meeting. Should be fun.

A reading seminar for students of philosophy and social sciences. The aim of the course is to gain understanding about the social, political and ethical aspects of anthropogenic (human-induced) climate change. 

We will examine how social researchers and philosophers have used their methodological and conceptual tools in understanding climate change, and how, in turn, climate change forces them to reassess those tools. We will also look at how climate change is intertwined with other social problems and issues injustice and inequality.

We will read selections from John Urry's Society and Climate Change (2011) and additional articles by social scientists and philosophers. 

More specific points view and themes will be decided according to the interests of course participants. For example: justice, ethics (environmental and social), power, class, gender, intersectionality, (post)coloniality, capitalism, technology, moral and political agency, and so on.

Readings and discussions will be in English.

Send email to lauri.lahikainen@staff.uta.fi by 11th of January. Write a short application with the following information: 1) your major subject 2) the stage of your studies 3) which themes and points of view interest you the most 4) why you want to participate in this course.

David Hume (1711–76) is one of a small number of philosophers who explicitly discuss beliefs acquired via testimony. His account can be found in the discussion of miracles in his first Enquiry.He is taken to have a reductionist account in which we are justified in accepting testimonial reports if there is good empirical evidence that the speaker is reliable. In the contemporary debate concerning the epistemology of testimony this Humean position is contrasted with non-reductionist accounts where the default position is one of trust. Hume’s Enquiry discussion will be examined, along with its relation to his thoughts about testimony in other works such as the Treatise of Human Nature and The History of England. In various places Hume claims that beliefs can be acquired from others via sympathy. This, for Hume, is a technical term describing the mechanistic way that mental states such as emotions and beliefs propagate between people. We shall investigate the role that sympathy could play with respect to the epistemology of testimony and also its wider role in Hume’s views on morality, aesthetics, religion and politics. The course consists of three lectures, each comprising 60 minutes of presentation and 30 minutes of discussion.

2-3 ETCS with additional literature

2 ECTS, Lectures:

The centrality of work for social philosophy: Adam Smith, Hegel and Marx.

14.1
lecture 1. Adam Smith on the Division of Labour
Main reading
Adam Smith, extract from The Wealth of Nations, Volume 1, Book 1, chs 1-2. [It said chs. 1-8 earlier, which is fine as well]
Supplementary reading
Gerald Doppelt, ‘Technology and the Humanization of Work’, in Moral Rights at Work…pp 10-17.

15.1
lecture 2 Hegel on work, need and ethical life
 Main reading
G.W.F. Hegel, extracts from Philosophy of Right, #189-207; 230-261
Supplementary reading
Axel Honneth, “Work and Recognition: A Redefinition,” in H.-C. Schmidt am Busch and C. Zurn eds, The Philosophy of Recognition: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, pp. 223-240.

16.1
lecture 3. Marx on alienated labour
Main reading
Karl Marx, extract from ‘Excerpts from James Mill’s Elements of Political Economy’, in Marx, Early Writings, London, Penguin, 1974, pp. 274-278.
Karl Marx, extracts from Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, pp. 322-334, 358-374 (on alienation).
Supplementary reading
Sean Sayers, ‘The Concept of Labor: Marx and his Critics’, Science & Society, 71, 4, 2007, 431-454. (Or Emmanuel's recent paper on the topic)

3 ECTS

additional participation in the workshop "Worries about work" 21.1, and a study diary of the day's presentations.

For 5 ECTS,

further essay based on further readings:

Topic 4

Work and Praxis in Ricoeur’s Philosophical Anthropology
Main reading
Paul Ricoeur, ‘Work and the Word’, in Ricoeur, History and Truth, Evanston, Northwestern University Press, 1955, 197-219.
Supplementary reading
Paul Ricoeur, ‘Action, Story and History: On Re-reading The Human Condition’, Salmagundi, 60, Spring-Summer 1983, 60-72.

Topic 5

Arendt on Labour, Work and Action
Main reading
Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1958.
Supplementary reading
Jeff Malpas, ‘The Dualities of Work’, Philosophy Today, 49:3, 2005, 256-263.

Topic 6

Habermas on Labour and Interaction
Main reading
Jürgen Habermas, ‘Labour and Interaction: Remarks on Hegel’s Jena Philosophy of Mind’, in Habermas, Theory and Practice, London, Heinemann, ch4, pp 142-169.
Supplementary reading
Jürgen Habermas, ‘The New Obscurity: The Crisis of the Welfare State and the Exhaustion of Utopian Energies’, in Habermas, The New Conservatism, Cambridge, Polity, 1989, pp. 48-69.

For registrated participants, the readings available from Moodle.

A new seminar for PhD-students and advanced students from any discipline, interested in social theory broadly conceived. During spring 2015 we will be reading David Graeber's Debt: the first 5000 years. The text will be available via moodle for registered participants.

Place: Atalpa 143

Time: Wed 15-18 Dates: 11.2, 11.3, 18.3, 1.4, 15.4

11.2. Jani Pulkki 1-42 Florian Houpier 43-88

11.3. Paula Rauhala 89-127 Olli Herranen 127-165

18.3. XXX 166-192 Angel Iglesias Ortiz 193-221 Michael Osei 222- 250

1.4. Dermot Lyons 251-306 Mihku Hytönen 307-333

15.4. Jaakko Belt  334-360 Dong Seob Lee 361-393

In addition to the presentations,write half a page summary of all chapters, a selective abstract of the chapter. That will help you to prepare for the discussion. After the class, send the 6p document to arto.laitinen@uta.fi 

A reading seminar for students of philosophy and social sciences. The aim of the course is to gain understanding about the social, political and ethical aspects of anthropogenic (human-induced) climate change. 

We will examine how social researchers and philosophers have used their methodological and conceptual tools in understanding climate change, and how, in turn, climate change forces them to reassess those tools. We will also look at how climate change is intertwined with other social problems and issues injustice and inequality.

We will read selections from John Urry's Society and Climate Change (2011) and additional articles by social scientists and philosophers. 

More specific points view and themes will be decided according to the interests of course participants. For example: justice, ethics (environmental and social), power, class, gender, intersectionality, (post)coloniality, capitalism, technology, moral and political agency, and so on.

Readings and discussions will be in English.

Send email to lauri.lahikainen@staff.uta.fi by 11th of January. Write a short application with the following information: 1) your major subject 2) the stage of your studies 3) which themes and points of view interest you the most 4) why you want to participate in this course.

A new seminar for PhD-students and advanced students from any discipline, interested in social theory broadly conceived. During spring 2015 we will be reading David Graeber's Debt: the first 5000 years. The text will be available via moodle for registered participants.

Place: Atalpa 143

Time: Wed 15-18 Dates: 11.2, 11.3, 18.3, 1.4, 15.4

11.2. Jani Pulkki 1-42 Florian Houpier 43-88

11.3. Paula Rauhala 89-127 Olli Herranen 127-165

18.3. XXX 166-192 Angel Iglesias Ortiz 193-221 Michael Osei 222- 250

1.4. Dermot Lyons 251-306 Mihku Hytönen 307-333

15.4. Jaakko Belt  334-360 Dong Seob Lee 361-393

In addition to the presentations,write half a page summary of all chapters, a selective abstract of the chapter. That will help you to prepare for the discussion. After the class, send the 6p document to arto.laitinen@uta.fi