Introduction à la philosophie

Notre expérience d’enseignement à l’université nous a permis de développer un cours de philosophie en anglais sur 16 semaines (un semestre).

Week	Topic	Historical period	Study philosophers	Think critically
Week 1	Subject: « Who am I? »	Ancient Philosophy	Plato,  The Republic, “The Ring of Gyges”. Plato, The Philebus	Is there a human nature?
Week 2			Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics (I) Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics (II) Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics (III)	Shoud we always tell the truth?
Week 3			Epictetus, “Fragment” Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus	Is there a limit to respect for cultures?
Week 4			Sextus Empiricus, “The Tenth Mode” Lucian of Sammosata, On the Syrian Goddess	Can humans become inhumans?
Week 5	Culture: « Who are we? »	Medieval Philosophy	Plotinus Enneads (I) Plotinus Enneads (II) Plotinus Enneads (III)	Should a free person refuse any kind of censorphip?
Week 6			Maimonides, Mishneh Torah (I) Maimonides, Mishneh Torah (II) Maimonides, Mishneh Torah (III)	Can religion dictate morality?
Week 7			Augustin, Confessions Ailred of Rievaulx, On Spiritual Friendships Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae	Are faith and reason mutually exclusive?
Week 8			Al Farabi, The Perfect State  Avicenna, Shefa Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah: An introduction to History	Is tolerance good or evil?
Week 9	Reason and Real: « What can we know? »	Modern Philosophy	Machiavel, The Prince Hobbes, Leviathan Hume, An Enquiry into the Principles of Morals	Is the State an enemy of the individual?
Week 10			Spinoza, Theological-political Treatise (I) Spinoza, Theological-political Treatise (II) Spinoza, Theological-political Treatise (III)	Can science be developped without taking morality into consideration?
Week 11			Kant, “What is Enlightenment?” (I) Kant, “What is Enlightenment?” (II) Kant, “What is Enlightenment?” (III)	Can reason serve evil?
Week 12			Smith, The Wealth of Nations Tocqueville, Democracy in America Nietzsche, Human All Too Human	Is social justice an utopia?
Week 13	Politics: « How to live together? »	Contemporary Philosophy	Marx, Capital Freud, Psychopathology of Everyday Life Husserl, Cartesian Mediations	Can the unconscious be an excuse?
Week 14			Sartre, Existentialism is a Humanism Goodman, Language of Art: An Approach to the Theory of Symbol Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks	Is everyone an artist?
Week 15			Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logicus Philosophicus Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations Baudrillard, The Gulf War did not take Place	Can we go against technological progress?
Week 16: Can you think critically about a hot topic?			“Hippocratic Oath » « Abortion » « Euthanasia » « Surrogate Mothers » « Animal rights » « Ethics and Business » « War and Morality » « Freedom and Expression »	2nd Amendment to the US Constitution, is this a tolerance for violence?