DVSC 622 30300:Introduction to Constructive Studies
Spring Term, 2008
Swift Hall 106
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:30-11:50
Instructor: Dan Arnold
Office phone: 702-8276
E-mail: d-arnold@uchicago.edu
Office hours: Swift 401A, Fridays, 9:15-11:30 (or by arrangement);
contact my secretary (Susie McGee, 702-7049) for an appointment
Teaching assistants: Pierre-Julien Harter (pjharter@uchicago.edu)
and Carlos Manrique (manrique@uchicago.edu)
Conception of the Course
By way of exemplifying work that goes on among faculty in the Constructive Studies Committee of the Divinity School, this course will survey the works of philosophers both modern and contemporary, all of whom can be understood to speak to the present situation.
Required readings:
The following titles are available at the Seminary Coop Bookstore, and on reserve at Regenstein Library:
David Hume, Dialogues and Natural History of Religion
Immanuel Kant, Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics...
Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason
Immanuel Kant, Religion and Rational Theology
John Dewey, A Common Faith
Charles Hartshorne, The Divine Relativity
Schubert Ogden, Is There Only One True Religion or Are There Many?
Winnifred Sullivan, The Impossibility of Religious Freedom
A few additional short readings are available for download from electronic reserve.
Course requirements:
In addition to regular attendance and spirited participation in (or at least, alert attention to) discussion, two written exercises will be assigned. The first will be a 5-7-page paper, due at the beginning of the sixth week; the second will be an 8-12-page paper, due no later than June 13. (For helpful guidance on the kind of exercise I will have in mind, consider philosopher James Pryor's "Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper.")
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Schedule of Class Topics, Readings
WEEK 1 (Tue., 4/1; Thur., 4/3):
Course introduction: Philosophy of Religion and the Constructive Studies committee of the Divinity School. Reading (for Thur.): Jonathan Z. Smith, "Religion, Religions, Religious" (e-reserve); Merold Westphal, "The Emergence of Modern Philosophy of Religion"; John Clayton, "Claims, contexts and contestability" (e-reserve).
WEEK 2 (Tue., 4/8; Thur., 4/10):
Tue., 9/3: The interruption of philosophy's "dogmatic slumber": The skeptical challenge of David Hume. Reading: David Hume, Natural History of Religion (Tue.); Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (Thur.).
WEEK 3: (Tue., 4/15; Thur., 4/17):
Be careful how you use the word "Kantian": An introduction to Kant's "critical" philosophy. Reading: Immanuel Kant, Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics....
WEEK 4: (Tue., 4/22; Thur., 4/24):
Towards a Kantian resituating of religious questions: Kant on "practical reason". Reading: Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason.
WEEK 5: (Tue., 4/29; Thur., 5/1):
Kant's struggles with religious questions. Reading: Immanuel Kant, Religion within the boundaries of mere reason (in Religion and Rational Theology, pp.39-215 ).
WEEK 6 (Tue., 5/6; Thur., 5/8):
On the status of "ideals": The pragmatism of John Dewey. Reading: John Dewey, A Common Faith, pp.39-215 ).
WEEK 7 (Tue., 11/7; Thur., 11/9):
Metaphysics, in the strict sense. Reading: Charles Hartshorne, The Divine Relativity; Hartshorne, "What Did Anselm Discover?" (e-reserve; for Thur.).
WEEK 8: (Tue., 5/20; Thur., 5/22):
Pluralism as a philosophical and a theological problem. Reading: Schubert Ogden, Is There Only One True Religion or Are There Many?
WEEK 9: (Tue., 5/27; Thur., 5/29):
Don't think philosophy of religion matters...? Towards the philosophical consideration of jurisprudential problems. Reading:Winnifred Sullivan, The Impossibility of Religious Freedom; Stanley Fish, "Mission Impossible" (e-reserve)
WEEK 10: (Tue., 6/3; Thur., 6/5):
Wrapping things up: Thinking about, e.g., Indian philosophy and Anselm through a Jeffersonian lens. Reading: John Clayton, "Thomas Jefferson and the study of religion," "The otherness of Anselm" (both on e-reserve).
Final papers due by June 13!