Month: November 2017

Reason and its Limits
COL 292 / PHIL 291
MW 2:50-4:10

This course offers a close study of Immanuel Kant’s magnum opus, the Critique of Pure Reason, supplemented by related writings by Kant and some secondary literature. Kant observes that the history of philosophy is rife with disagreements, even though philosophers purport to traffic in necessary truths disclosed by reason alone. This scandalous fractiousness calls into question reason’s ability to offer substantive insights into necessary truths. Kant’s “critique” aims to vindicate reason by distinguishing, in a principled manner, the sorts of things we can know with certainty from those that lie beyond the limits of human understanding. His central thesis, “transcendental idealism,” holds that “reason has insight only into what it produces after its own plan” (Bxiii). In other words, we can indeed be certain of key structural features of reality such as its spatiotemporality and causal interconnectedness–but only because those features are, in some crucial sense, mind-dependent. This class will explore in detail the arguments for these claims as well as prominent interpretations of their philosophical upshot.

Modern Aesthetic Theory
COL 269/PHIL 269
MW  10:50AM-12:10PM

As a philosophical discipline, aesthetic theory initially coalesced around a cluster of related issues concerning the nature of beauty and the norms governing its production, appreciation, and authoritative assessment. Beginning in the nineteenth century, however, both art and aesthetics undergo a conspicuous yet enigmatic shift, signaled by (among other things) Hegel’s declaration that “art, in its highest vocation, is and remains for us a thing of the past.” Rather suddenly, classical accounts of beauty, genius, aesthetic experience, and critical taste are beset by anxieties about the autonomy and significance of aesthetic praxis in human life and, subsequently, by a series of challenges to the tenebility of traditional aesthetic categories–author, text, tradition, meaning and interpretation, disinterested pleasure, originality, etc. Our aim in this course is to track these conceptual shifts and to interrogate the rationale behind them. (This course complements, but does not presuppose COL 266: History and Limits of Aesthetic Theory.)

Hey! Hablas español hasta que te toca decir una palabra that you don’t know how to say in Spanish?  Do you wonder why some words in Spanish have accents and some don’t?  This is the class for you!

SPAN 203: Spanish for Heritage Speaker
Spring 2018; T-Th 1:30 – 2:45 pm

A course taught at Trinity College and offered to Wesleyan students by telepresence, with plenty of academic and technical support at the home campus, both during and outside of class.

This course is designed for heritage speakers–students who understand and speak Spanish, who grew up in a Spanish-speaking environment, but whose education was primarily in English, in the US. This course, offers many benefits, such as:

• Study Spanish in an academic setting in the same way that native English-speakers study English
• Polish both oral and written language skills in Spanish
• Learn more about your language and your cultural heritage
• Meet students with similar interests and experiences
• Gain awareness and understanding of the Hispanic/Latin@ cultures: i.e., identity and communities inside and outside the US, language variation, geography, history, customs and traditions, current events, music, arts and food
• Prepare for study abroad
• Increase internship and career opportunities
• Can count towards the HISP major

Interested? Please contact Profesora Pérez-Gironés: aperezgirone@wesleyan.edu  (127 Downey House; office hours: Monday 1:30-2:30, Wednesday 3-4, and by appointment.)