Courses

Coming Attractions

Fall 2019

Lectures: T/Th 1:30-2:20pm in ARMS 1010, Recitation sections Wed
The syllabus for this course will look similar to previous versions that I have recently taught

• Private Selves, Public Personae: The Philosophy of Identities and the Sciences of the Mind HONR 399

New Course! Email me for more information
T/Th 10:30-11:45 in HCRN 1143
Long Course Description:

What makes you distinctively and uniquely you? How can you be a part of the same person as the 7-year-old version of yourself, given how much you’ve changed physically and mentally? How are the inner, subjective parts of yourself related to the many different faces you present to the outer world and the various social groups you move through? What are the special features of human minds that enable us to maintain such multifaceted identities and to juggle these different aspects of ourselves? What is it about the structure of our social lives that requires us to do the juggling? Has it always been like this? Given that we can do it, and these days we pretty much have to do it, what’s the best way to do it? How should our inner and outer aspects be related and juggled? How might ideals like authenticity and sincerity help us to better guide the coordination of the private and public sides of ourselves? What was Emerson suggesting when he famously claimed that a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds? ‘Consistency’ is obviously an important virtue, but the ‘foolish’ part seems key, too.

What is a self, and where does it come from? How much of your identity is given, and how much is chosen, constructed, and achieved? What form does the given part take? How much of the construction part is done in collaboration with friends, family, and other people? What are the construction materials? Where do they come from, and what exactly do you use them to do? How does our contemporary culture contribute to the pool of materials and shape the space of options you have to choose from? How did we get to our current moment in history, with its individualistic selves and buffet of identities? How did the modern ideals of liberty, unfettered choice, personal freedom, and individual responsibility coalesce into their current form and ascend to their place of cultural prominence? What are today’s most striking manifestations of the deep-seated and distinctively American values of rugged individualism and self-reliance? How have technological advances like social media transformed the challenges that stand in the way of being genuine, and of fully and successfully following Nietzsche’s famous exhortation to Become Who You Are?

This course will develop some conceptual resources for addressing with these questions. We won’t be bothered by disciplinary boundaries, but will instead help ourselves to whatever ideas are most useful and best suited to our concerns. We’ll draw on work by philosophers, cognitive scientists, anthropologists, social and literary historians, cultural evolutionists, and contemporary essayists to help us grapple with these issues. They will all be necessary because questions don’t get much bigger than these. They are enormously challenging, intellectually puzzling, and deeply personal all at once.

Currently Playing

I am not teaching during the FA18/SP19 academic year, since I will be working on a project at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.

Back Issues

Spring 2018

• Philosophy of Mind PHIL 435

• Introduction to Philosophy PHIL 110

Fall 2017

• Normativity and the Psychology of Social Norms PHIL 535

Spring 2017

• Introduction to Philosophy PHIL 110

• Dissertation Workshop Seminar PHIL 680

Fall 2016

• Moral Psychology and Climate Change PHIL 490

• Introduction to Philosophy PHIL 110