| Course: | LPS/Phil 200 |
| Name: | Skepticism, Naturalism, & Therapy I |
| Description: | Our goal in this course is to investigate radical skepticism
about the external world, primarily to compare and contrast various
naturalist and therapeutic reactions to it. We’ll largely
side-step attempts to refute the skeptic and focus instead on
naturalistic and therapeutic ways of reacting without refuting (though
the boundary between these isn’t always sharp). The hope is
that this exercise will help differentiate various strains of
naturalism and clarify their interrelations with a range of therapeutic
approaches. One central question will be the source of skeptical argumentation: does it spring directly from ordinary common sense (or science) or are other presuppositions involved? Of therapeutic views, we’ll be asking: is the therapist’s posture based on (perhaps hidden) theories? And finally: are naturalistic and therapeutic philosophies compatible? Click here to view a draft syllabus. |