Philosophy of Economics (PHIL 426A)

The purpose of this course is to enable students to think about economic questions, concepts and theories in a big-picture way. We’ll examine some major schools and debates and approach them from a historical perspective. Readings include works from philosophers of science (Popper, Kuhn, Lakatos, Putnam) and economic thinkers (Smith, Ricardo, Marx, Marshall, Veblen, Keynes, Hayek, and Friedman). Of particular interest will be the intersection of philosophy and economics, concepts of explanation, relations between economy and politics, and methodological controversies (Say’s law, the ‘paradox of thrift’, and ‘micro-foundations’). Only prerequisite: one other class in philosophy. Spring 2026.

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Topics in Philosophy (Phil 101)

In this course we will consider the topics of consciousness, conscience, and what it means to be a human being as they have been discussed throughout the history of philosophy. We will read texts and excerpts from Plato, Descartes, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Luxemburg, Dubois, and MLK. Students will develop a firm grasp of what philosophy is by engaging with some classic works and schools as well as critical perspectives. The only prerequisite for this course is an interest in reading and discussing some big and new ideas together. Spring 2026.

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Business Ethics (PHIL 232)

Does capitalism have a distinct ethos? How should we understand the characteristic activity of business? Are there right and wrong ways of doing business? How should investors and entrepreneurs behave? These are just a few of the questions which we will pose and reflect upon together this semester. In this course, we will examine business practice and the typical kinds of beliefs one finds in a modern economy from the standpoint of philosophical ethics as well as some influential perspectives from economics and sociology. Our purpose will be threefold. First, we will get acquainted with the classical ethical theories and the technique of philosophical argumentation; second, we will engage with their specific application to the world of business; and third, we will become familiar with some classic accounts of capitalism. Consequently, students will walk away from this course with a firm grasp of the major schools of ethical thought (virtue ethics, utilitarianism, deontology) and an appreciation of the ethical difficulties of engaging in business in a complex world, as well as some of the most influential and important statements about the workings, “goods”, and arguable “evils” of modern economic life. Readings will be drawn from contemporary ethical theory, the history of philosophy (Aristotle, Bentham, Mill, Kant) and social science (Marx, Weber, Friedman, Schumpeter).
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Introduction to Philosophy (PHIL 101)

What is philosophy? Philosophers ranging from Bertrand Russell to Martin Heidegger have agreed that this is a philosophical question which can only be answered philosophically. “The only way to find out what philosophy is,” as Russell once put it, “is to do philosophy.” In this course, students will develop a firm grasp on what philosophy is by engaging with some classic works from the discipline as well as alternative perspectives on it. We will focus specifically upon the topics of consciousness, conscience, and what it means to be a human being. We will read texts and excerpts from Plato, Descartes, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Luxemburg, Dubois, and MLK. The only prerequisite for this course is an interest in discovering some big and new ideas together. Autumn 2025.

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Philosophie: Marx, Nietzsche, Freud (GRMN 21403/31403)

It would be hard to overestimate the influence which Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud have exercised over intellectual modernity. Perhaps no other three figures have cast such a long shadow. For better or worse, they’ve left significant traces which persist in concepts like class struggle or ideology, nihilism or value-judgments, and subconscious complexes or repression, as well as infamously critical views of religion. Paul Ricœur once grouped them under the label of “masters of suspicion”, referring to a method of interpretation which searches for deeper, hidden meanings and regards the rest as mere illusions. But why should they be grouped together as such a trio or unholy alliance, as they so often are? What, if anything, do they really have in common? Why are their ideas so controversial and contested? And why might they continue to have such lasting power?

In this course, students will gain an insight into the works of these three giants of intellectual modernity by focusing on accessible excerpts from their most influential texts: Das Kapital, Zur Genealogie der Moral, and Vorlesungen. We will consider their characteristic approaches to explaining and critiquing our social world in terms of political economy, history, and the human psyche. We’ll be on the lookout to correct some common caricatures of their views, to which the various 20th-century uses and abuses gave rise. And we’ll be especially attentive to ways in which they might remain of interest and import for contemporary purposes.

Course readings and discussion will be in German. Spring 2025.

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Reading Marx’s Capital: A Critique of Political Economy (PHIL 26425/36425; GRMN 26425, GRMN 36425; PLSC 26425/1)

Karl Marx’s account of “those societies in which the capitalist mode of production prevails” remains one of the most influential yet contentious theories ever committed to paper. Often invoked in times of turmoil, his name has come to mean different things to different people. Yet it is not always clear in fact just what his theory is, doubtless in part because his writings are quite challenging to read. In this course, students will engage fundamentally with Marx’s writings to gain a clear idea of his theory for themselves. We will do so by reading volume 1 of Marx’s Capital as well as selections from volumes 2 and 3 and Theories of Surplus Value. We will approach Marx own his own terms, considering context and comparison with other highlights from the history of political economy only where they are relevant. Topics which we will address include Marx’s view of “alienation”, “commodity fetishism”, and “class struggle”, but also labor, employment, money, capital, profit, and crisis.

We will be reading Paul Reiter’s new translation of Capital: Critique of Political Economy, Volume 1 (Princeton 2024), which students must bring to every class. The course will be held in English and there are no prerequisites. But students should read Marx’s short essay, “Wage Labor and Capital”, to prepare in advance of our first meeting. Social/Political Philosophy. (A) 2024-2025 Autumn.

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Introduction to Political Philosophy (CSP 2024)

The meaning of “democracy” has become a contentious topic in recent years. News reports and debates abound with concerns about various forms of left- or right-wing “populism”, “illiberal democracy”, resurgent “authoritarianism”, but also “anti-democratic liberalism”. What is really at issue in these discussions? Hasn’t the very idea of democracy always been a site of controversy and contestation? In this course students will be introduced to some major questions and authors from the history of political philosophy as they relate to contemporary concerns by considering the different ways in which the concept of “democracy” has been understood. Specifically, we will consider different views on democracy—for instance, liberal, majoritarian, and conservative perspectives—as well as various defenses and criticisms of its various forms. Our purpose will be to reconstruct the arguments which we will consider in order to develop a rigorous concept of democracy but also an appreciation of what it requires, includes, and excludes. Some themes which we will address in this course are equality, rights, sovereignty, and representation.

Readings will consist of selections drawn from a broad range of historical periods and political perspectives, ranging from antiquity to the 21st century (e.g., Aristotle, Machiavelli, Locke, Mills, Burke, de Maistre, de Tocqueville, Nietzsche, Marx, Lenin, Luxemburg, Veblen, Mills). The only pre-requisite for this course is readiness to read and discuss some big ideas together. Summer 2024.

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Fascism (GRMN 25823/35823, HIST 22508/32508, PHIL 25823/35823)

Developments in recent years have clearly shown a resurgent interest in “fascism”. While it designates a phenomenon which might concern everyone, it is also a term used more often in the manner of an insult than a precisely defined concept. One might even say it is what W.B. Gallie once called an essentially contested concept—not because many claim it for themselves today, but on the contrary, because virtually everyone denounces it in their own specific way.

In this course, students will consider what “fascism” means by engaging with several influential explanations of it. We will read and discuss more contemporary philosophical views (Stanley, Eco), historical perspectives and documents (Paxton), but also classic perspectives from political theory (Arendt), philosophy (Burnham), and critical theory (Horkheimer, Adorno, Pollock), as well as political economy (Neumann, Sohn-Rethel, Gerschenkron, Fraenkel, Kalecki).

With an eye to its historical and contemporary applications, our purpose throughout will be to reconstruct the arguments which we will consider in order to develop a rigorous concept of “fascism”. The only prerequisite for this course is an open-minded approach to reading and discussion.

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Political Realism (PHIL 21413)

In this course, we will discuss works that belong to the tradition of so-called political realism. Many great works of political philosophy begin by asking questions such as: what is justice? What is just action? Or how should society ideally be arranged so that it is just? Political realists proceed very differently. As Raymond Geuss puts it, they are “concerned in the first instance… with the way the social, economic, political, etc. institutions actually operate in some society at some given time, and what really does move human beings to act in given circumstances.” Some themes which we will address in this course include the roles of power, instrumental reasoning, and ethical commitments in politics. And some questions which we will ask along the way concern the motivation, coherence, tenability, and desirability of a realist approach. Readings will include selections from a broad range of historical periods and political perspectives, including Thucydides, Machiavelli, Hobbes, von Clausewitz, Weber, Schmitt, Lenin, and Geuss. (A)

Some experience with philosophy would be helpful. Social/Political Philosophy. 2022-2023 Spring.

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What Is Capitalism? (GRMN 23123)

The German sociologist Max Weber once described capitalism as “the most fateful force in our modern life.” And roughly a century later, historians such as Jürgen Kocka concur. But what is this veritable specter haunting modernity? The purpose of this course is to enable students to formulate a well-rounded answer to that complicated question. The class will study different theoretical and aesthetic perspectives taken from the period spanning roughly from the late 19th century to the end of so-called state-socialism. We will examine historical objects such as the speeches of Bismarck and Adenauer as well as contemporary news media; literary works by Franz Kafka and Heike Geissler; films by Fritz Lang and Rainer Werner Fassbinder; and theoretical writings by political economists such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig Erhard, Joseph Schumpeter, and John Maynard Keynes. This course will be held in German. No background in economics is necessary to participate. 2022-2023 Winter.

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Philosophie: Modernity and its Discontents (GRMN 21403/31403)

The condition of scarcity and the significance of human needs constitute a perennial theme in the history of Western social and political philosophy. Yet various thinkers have understood them in vastly different ways. Sigmund Freud, for example, takes scarcity and need to be a natural condition, which compels individuals to sacrifice their instincts and wishes for the sake of survival. To be human is to be frustrated and unsatisfied, and this fact gives rise to destructive tendencies in society. G.W.F. Hegel, by contrast, argues that human needs are inherently social and that scarcity is not a natural condition in modernity. Poverty is the systematic by-product of developed economies, which produce more wealth than they can profitably consume. He also argues, moreover, that this fact causes social conflict and economic imperialism. Karl Marx pursues Hegel’s paradoxical thought to the end and arguably explains it. Modern economies produce wealth in order to produce “surplus value” and accumulate “capital”. And the way in which they do so gives rise to scarcity, poverty, and the phenomena Hegel names.

In this course, students will examine influential philosophers’ reflections on political economy: not only the production of wealth, scarcity, and poverty, but also over-production, under-consumption, and the far-reaching social consequences of these phenomena. First, students will examine important statements by Freud, Hegel, and Marx. Then students will consider the elaboration and application of their thoughts, by Georg Lukács, Rosa Luxemburg, Clara Zetkin, and Alfred Sohn-Rethel, to topics such as class-consciousness, colonialism, the appearance of fascism, and the emancipation of women.

The pedagogical aim of this course is threefold. Students will develop the advanced language skills that are necessary for understanding and engaging with modern philosophy in academic German. Students will develop their abilities to identify key philosophical concepts, to reconstruct and assess theoretical arguments, and to present them in writing and discussion. And students will become acquainted with some of the most important aspects of the critical tradition of German philosophy, as well as the scholarly discussion of that tradition in contemporary literature. 2021 Spring.

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Kurzprosa aus dem 20. Jahrhundert: Prosaic Modernity (GRMN 21403/31403)

Modernity is undeniably marked by its ‘prosaic’ orientation towards life—a feature captured in the now-commonplace notions by which intellectuals have tried to make sense of it (historical progress, grand narratives, secularism, nihilism, etc.). Perhaps unlike previous eras in human history, the ethos and outlook of modernity is profoundly practical, mundane, and instrumental: the orientation of one who is determined to solve problems. Yet it is also clear that every increase in our capacities to meet human needs and rectify historical problems is accompanied by increased tendencies of conflict and destruction (class, inequality, nationalism, imperialism, etc.). It is therefore a question whether our technological means facilitate or outstrip our capacity for that other modern preoccupation: control. This is clearly legible in the events and currents leading up to modernity’s most symptomatic expression: a ‘great’ or ‘world’ war.

In this course we will address the prosaic tenor of modernity by engaging
with exemplary instances of the prosaic function of language—in contrast to its poetic function. The aim of the course is to sharpen student’s critical and analytical skills, while developing German language skills, by reading and discussing German prose in literature, diaries, speeches, manifestos, expositions, pamphlets etc. Questions we will ask of texts include: what is the thesis of a given text? What is it trying to accomplish? How does it do so or fail to do so? 2018 Spring.