PHIL 389(F) Everything
The history of theoretical inquiry since the seventeenth century is plausibly viewed as a process whereby philosophy, for the Greeks the home of virtually all inquiry, is increasing deprived of subject matters by the developments of the various natural and social sciences. At an extreme, it can appear-and does appear, to many philosophers-that philosophy as inquiry is (or ideally would be) left with no proper subject matter except perhaps those sciences themselves. On a different view, however, this process can appear instead as one that clarifies a proper subject matter for philosophy; that subject matter is the all-encompassing domain within which are found all of the restricted domains constituting the subject matters of the natural and social sciences. Comprehensive philosophical treatments of this all-encompassing domain may reasonably be termed"theories of everything." This seminar examines central components of such a theory that is currently under development; this is the structural-systematic philosophy presented in part in Structure and Being (Lorenz Puntel, translated by and in collaboration with Alan White) and A Philosophical Theory of Everything (Alan White). Among the topics to be examined, as systematically interconnected, are language, knowledge, ontology, truth, philosophical methodology, mindedness, ethics, aesthetics, being as a whole, and being as such.
Format: seminar. Requirements: attendance, preparation, participation; regular short writing assignments and/or class presentations; a term paper (10- to 15-pages).
Prerequisite: Philosophy 102 or permission of instructor. Enrollment limit: 19 (expected: 10). Preference to current and prospective Philosophy majors.
Hour: WHITE