Philosophy/Chinese-Japanese 350:
Comparative Methodology
Fall 2006

Mr. Van Norden

Office Hours: TBA.

Email: My username is "brvannorden" at host "vassar.edu". 

Office: Rockefeller Hall 207
Office Phone (and voice mail): 437-5538
WWW: http://faculty.vassar.edu/brvannor

Course Description:

This course explores some of the methodological issues raised by the prospect of one culture understanding and making judgments about another.  The effort to understand another culture raises fundamental issues about the nature of rationality, ethics and truth.  Consequently, this course is structured around the three major approaches to these issues in the contemporary world:  Modernism, Postmodernism and Hermeneutics. Very roughly, these three approaches argue over whether rationality, truth and ethics are universal (Modernism), incommensurable (Postmodernism) or historical and dialogical (Hermeneutics).  Requirements include regular class participation that shows familiarity with the readings and many brief essays.

Last revised August 5, 2006.

Required Texts:

Recommended Texts:

Note: All texts are available through the Vassar College Book Store.

Written Assignments and Grades

Briefly, your grade will be based on the following:

There are no midterms, no final exam, and no term paper in this course.

The topics for the reaction papers for the following week will be posted to the web, with links from this page.

Regular attendance and class participation are required in this course. (If you are too shy to speak up in class, I count talking to me during office hours toward class participation.) Absences can only be excused by the Dean of Studies Office (x5255).

Reading Assignments and Class Topics:

The readings should be completed before the class meeting under which they are listed, and then re-read after the class in which they are discussed. Unless otherwise noted, readings are either from the books ordered for this course or are on reserve for this course.
 

1

Topic: Introducing Relativism

Modernism

2

Topic: Modernist Epistemology

 

Required Readings:

 

  • Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy, all.

 

Highly Recommended:

 

  • Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy.
  • Richard Bernstein, Beyond Objectivism and Relativism, Part I, pp. 1-34.

 

Topic for reaction paper due today is here.

3

Topic:  Modernist Ethics

 

Required Readings:

 

  • Jean-Paul Sartre, "The Humanism of Existentialism" (on reserve).
  • John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, selections (on reserve).

 

Highly Recommended:

 

  • Richard Bernstein, Beyond Objectivism and Relativism, Part I, pp. 34-49.
  • Immanuel Kant, "What Is Enlightenment?" (on reserve).

 

Topic for reaction paper due today is here.

Postmodernism

4

Topic: Science and Incommensurability.

Required Reading: 

Highly Recommended: 

  • Richard J. Bernstein, Beyond Objectivism and Relativism, Part II, pp. 51-108.
  • W.V.O. Quine, "Two Dogmas of Empiricism" (on reserve),

Optional reading:  Here is an outline of all of Kuhn's Structure. 

Assignment: Topic for reaction paper due today is here .

5

Topic:  Truth.

Reading: 

  • Richard Rorty, "Science as Solidarity," from Rorty, Objectivity, Relativism and Truth, pp. 35-45.
  • Paul Horwich, "Truth," in Robert Audi, ed., The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, 2nd ed. (New York:  Cambridge University Press, 1999).  (On reserve in the library.)
  • Richard Rorty, "Solidarity or Objectivity?" from Rorty, Objectivism, Relativism, and Truth, pp. 21-34.

Recommended:

  • Richard Rorty, "The Priority of Democracy to Philosophy," from Rorty, Objectivity, Relativism and Truth, pp. 175-96.  (This is Rorty's response to Rawls.)

Assignment: The reaction paper for today is here.

6

Topic: Postmodernism and Rorty's Pragmatism.

Readings:

  • Jean-Francois Lyotard, "The Postmodern Condition," from From Modernism to Postmodernism. (On reserve in the library.) 
  • Richard Rorty, "Postmodernist Bourgeois Liberalism," from Rorty, Objectivism, Relativism, and Truth, pp. 197-202.
  • Jean-Francois Lyotard, "Universal History and Cultural Differences," pp. 314-323.  (On reserve in the library.)
  • Richard Rorty, "Cosmopolitanism without Emancipation:  A Response to Jean-Francois Lyotard," from Rorty, Objectivism, Relativism and Truth, pp. 211-22.

Assignment: The reaction paper for today is here.

N.B.: October Break is next week (in 2006).

Social Science

7

Topic:  Anthropology, Human Nature and Ethics.

Readings: 

  • Clifford Geertz, "The Impact of the Concept of Culture on the Concept of Man," pp. 33-54.  (On reserve.)
  • Donald E. Brown, Human Universals, Preface, Introduction, Chapter 1 (pp. vii-ix, 1-38), Chapter 3 (pp. 54-87), Chapters 6-7 (pp. 130-156). 

Assignment: The reaction paper for today is here.

8

Topic: Rationality

Readings:

  • E.E. Evans-Pritchard, Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande, reprint (New York:  Oxford University Press, 1976), especially pp. 127-145.  (On reserve in the library.)
  • Peter Winch, "Understanding a Primitive Society," pp. 78-111. (On reserve in the library.)
  • Charles Taylor, "Rationality," pp. 134-151. (On reserve in the library.)

Assignment: The topic for this week's reaction paper is here .

9

Topic:  Foucault

Readings: 

  • Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish, pp. 3-69.
  • Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality:  An Introduction, pp. 3-49.

Assignment:  The topic for the reaction paper for today is here.

The Hermeneutic Alternative

10

Topic:  Anglophone Hermeneutics

 

Readings:

  • Alasdair MacIntyre, "The Conversation between Confucians and Aristotelians on the Virtues" (on reserve).
  • Martha Nussbaum, "Non-Relative Virtues:  An Aristotelian Approach" (on reserve).

Recommended:

  • Charles Taylor, "What Is Human Agency?" from Taylor, Human Agency and Language.  Vol. 1 of Philosophical Papers, pp. 15-44.  (This is Taylor's response to Sartre.)
  • Charles Taylor, "Foucault on Freedom and Truth," from Taylor, Philosophy and the Human Sciences.  Vol 2 of Philosophical Papers, pp. 152-184.

Assignment:  Topic for reaction paper due today is here.

11

Topic:  Gadamer

Readings:

  • Hans-Georg Gadamer, "The Universality of the Hermeneutical Problem," from Philosophical Hermeneutics, pp. 3-17.  (On reserve.)
  • Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, 2nd ed., pp. 265-307.  (On reserve.)

Highly Recommended:

  • Richard J. Bernstein, Beyond Objectivism and Relativism, Part III, pp. 109-69.

Assignment:  Topic for reaction paper due today is here.

12

Topic:  Habermas

 

Readings: 

 

  • Jurgen Habermas, "The Unfinished Project of Modernity."  (On reserve.)
  • Jurgen Habermas, "Foucault on Enlightenment."  (On reserve.)
  • Jurgen Habermas, "Discourse Ethics:  Notes on a Project of Philosophical Justification," pp. 43-115.  (On reserve.)

 

Highly Recommended: 

 

  • Richard J. Bernstein, Beyond Objectivism and Relativism, Part IV, pp. 171-231.

 

Assignment:  The topic for this week's reaction paper is here.

Case Study:  Chinese Thought

13

Topic: Hermeneutics of Restoration and Chinese Philosophy.

Readings: 

  • Bryan W. Van Norden, "America's Encounter with Confucianism:  Three Trends."  (Follow the link at left.)
  • Lee H. Yearley, "Confucianism and Genre," unpublished manuscript. (On reserve in the library.)   [N.B.:  Yearley will be the Matthew Vassar Lecturer in the Spring.]

Highly Recommended:

  • Lee H. Yearley, "Conclusion" of Mencius and Aquinas:  Theories of Virtue and Conceptions of Courage.

Assignment: The topic for the reaction paper for this week is here.

Advice

It is impossible to understand philosophy (Eastern or Western) after one reading. Even professional philosophers must read a philosophical text at least twice in order to understand it. So make sure to read every assignment in this course at least twice!

I do not recommend reading additional outside sources on the topics covered in this course. (Many secondary books and translations are very unreliable.) Just read, re-read, and re-re-read the assignments. You are encouraged to discuss the readings, lectures and paper topics with other students and with the instructor. However, you must write up your papers by yourself. In addition, if you use any quotations, phrases or even ideas in your papers that you did not come up with on your own, you must acknowledge this fact in a citation. Failure to do so is plagiarism (a serious offense). It does not make any difference whether the source is a book, encyclopedia article, oral conversation, web site or anything else. Cite it!

My office hours are your time! Make use of them! In lecture, you are one of several dozen students. In my office hours, you usually get one on one attention. Take advantage of this opportunity!

Academic accommodations are available for students with documented disabilities. Please schedule an appointment with the instructor early in the semester to discuss any accommodation that may be needed for the course. All accommodations must be approved through the Office of Disability and Support Services (ext. 7584) as indicated in their accommodation letter.