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The University of Texas at Austin School of Law

Social Philosophy, Advanced Topics

  • Semester: Spring 2008
  • Course ID: 379M
  • Credit Hours: 3
  • Unique: 28450

Course Information

Registration Information

  • Upperclass-only elective

Meeting Times

Day Time Location
MON 3:30 - 6:30 pm JON 4.208B

Evaluation Method

Type Date Time Location
Paper

Description

Nietzsche, Naturalism, and Moral Psychology The course has two interlocking aims: (1) to introduce students to Nietzsche's philosophical naturalism and its role in his moral philosophy; and (2) to critically evaluate some of the philosophical issues about moral psychology that Nietzsche raises — about moral motivation, the will, the nature of conscious and unconscious experience, the role of consciousness in agency, the nature and causal import of "character" — in light of recent work in both philosophy and empirical psychology. We shall spend the first few weeks on a careful study of On the Genealogy of Morality (read in conjunction with my Nietzsche on Morality), before turning, first, to critiques of my naturalist reading of Nietzsche (e.g., many of the essays in the recent Blackwell Companion to Nietzsche), and then, second, to a topical study of the issues in moral psychology just noted. Each session will be based on readings from elsewhere in Nietzsche's corpus, together with work by contemporary philosophers (e.g., Doris, Pereboom, G. Strawson, P. Strawson, Velleman) and empirical psychologists (e.g., Haggard, Haidt, Libet, Nisbett, Wegner, Wilson).

Instructors

Headshot of Leiter, Brian R Leiter, Brian R
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