Spring 2027
JANUARY 19 – APRIL 30
PHI 105 | Introduction to Philosophy: Philosophy Through Its History
40174 · Section 0001 · Tue/Thu 11:00 AM–12:15 PM · Talbot Lecture Hall, Portland
40887 · Section 0002 · Online · Combined section
Instructor: Kenneth L. Knight, kenneth.knightjr@maine.edu, Core requirement met: Cultural Interpretation
An introduction to philosophy through its history and development, i.e., through an examination of central texts in the history of philosophy, up to and including contemporary works. Specific readings may vary from semester to semester but will always include some canonical works by classic Western philosophers (e.g., Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, and Kant). Prerequisite: a college writing course.
PHI 211 | Media Ethic
41207 · Section 0001 · Online
Instructor: William P. Seeley, William.seeley@maine.edu Core requirement met: Ethical Inquiry
It has been argued that democracy stands and falls on the backs of an informed and rational citizenry. John Milton & John Stuart Mill suggested that the media plays a critical role in this context through what they called the marketplace of ideas. They thought the truth should always emerge from the competition of ideas in a free and transparent public discourse. Contemporary perspectives are less sanguine about the idea of free and transparent unbiased information in mass media communication. Nonetheless the underlying sentiment stands. We regularly seek out objective sources of information in mass media to shape our understanding of the world and aid in our everyday judgements and decisions. We will discuss a range of ethical issues surrounding mass media practice including questions about privacy, confidentiality, truth telling, conflicts of interest, and social responsibility in journalism, the impact of digital media on contemporary journalism, empathy and bias in the formation of beliefs, and the role of social media in the marketplace of ideas. Along the way we will explore the foundations of philosophical ethics and examine the nature of good critical reasoning practices.
PHI 220 | Art and Visual Culture
40888 · Section 0001 · Online
Instructor, William Seeley. william.seeley@maine.edu, Core requirement met: Culture, Power, & Equity/ Diversity/Ethical Inquiry/ International
Our commonsense understanding of art tells us that artworks are in some way special. But it is notoriously difficult to identify just what it is that makes artworks unique. In fact, it is sometimes difficult to understand why particular artworks are considered art at all. Philosophy of art and aesthetics are branches of philosophy concerned with discussions of just these types of issues. We will explore these two ways of thinking about art. Along the way we will discuss the myriad ways art and related media shape, express, and so reflect the values of the cultures that produce them. One thing that is unique about art is that it must be experienced to be understood. As a consequence, we will spend the semester focused on concrete examples of artworks across a range of media from a range of different cultures that illustrate the puzzles we will explore.
PHI 221 | Philosophy of Film
41918 · Section 0001 · Mon/Wed 11:00 AM–12:15 PM · Payson Smith 206, Portland
Instructor: Jason D. Read, Jason.read@maine.edu, Core requirement met: Ethical Inquiry, International
How can philosophy help us understand film and how can film illustrate philosophy? In this course we will look at different films to examine and interrogate different ideas in the history of philosophy. We will look at the way Hitchcock’s films illustrate the mysteries of intersubjectivity and desire; what Bladerunner can tell us about who we are as human beings; how Fight Club can be used to examine alienation; what Get Out can tell us about racism; and finally, what feminism can tell us about contemporary horror such as It Follows and Midsommar.
PHI 230 | Philosophy of Religion
41919 · Section 0001 · Tue/Thu 1:45–3:00 PM · Payson Smith 303, Portland
Instructor: Yishai Abraham Cohen, Yishai.cohen@maine.edu
Analysis of the nature of religious experience, knowledge, and
language. Special attention given to problems, classical and
contemporary, exhibited in religious experience and relevant to
areas of common concern in the sciences, humanities, and philosophy.
PHI 245 | Africa, Social Justice, and Exile
41541 · Section 0001 · Online
Instructor: Kenneth L. Knight, kenneth.knightjr@maine.edu, Core curriculum: Culture, Power, & Equity/ Diversity Ethical Inquiry International
Any critical encounter with our current moment must acknowledge the role that the processes of colonization and decolonization have played in the production of the present. The histories of colonization and decolonization continue to shape the world, and their complex and often antagonistic legacies continue to frame our ways of narrating the past and imagining the future. One such legacy, the African Diaspora, continues to play a central role in the formation of the contemporary cultural landscape. Histories of migration, both voluntary and involuntary, render the experience of space and time problematic. In response, artists and theorists have grappled with questions about the relationship between space and identity, loss and memory, knowledge and power, exile and return. Our task this semester is to examine some of the ways in which philosophy has been mobilized to respond to these and related issues.
PHI 275 | The Nature of Compassion
40889 · Section 0001 · Online
Instructor: Sandra O. Dutkowsky, sandra.dutkowsky@maine.edu, Core curriculum : Ethical Inquiry
Whether and how we respond to the suffering of others defines, in many ways, who we are as persons and communities. This course is an investigation into compassion and its social role. Drawing upon a wide variety of sources it will address philosophical defenders of the need to cultivate compassion. Students will have a chance to think through some important philosophical issues, such as the role of emotions in moral deliberation, the extent to which compassion can be both aided and obstructed by the use of language, and whether there are appropriate limits to compassion.
PHI 291 | Death and Dying
40351 · Section 0001 · Online
Instructor: Sandra O. Dutkowsky , sandra.dutkowsky@maine.edu, Core requirement met: Ethical Inquiry
Whether and how we respond to the suffering of others defines, in many ways, who we are as persons and communities. This course is an investigation into the emotion and compassion and its social role. Drawing upon a wide variety of sources Buddhist scriptures, classical and contemporary philosophical thought, it will address philosophical defenders of the need to cultivate compassion (Rousseau, Schopenhauer, and Adam Smith) as well as thinkers suspicious of this notion (Nietzsche, e.g.). Students will have a chance to think through some important philosophical issues, such as the role of emotions in moral deliberation, the extent to which compassion can be both aided and obstructed by the use of language, and whether there are appropriate limits to compassion.
PHI 299 | Topics in Philosophy: Money, Debt, and Society
41694 · Section 0001 · Mon/Wed 1:45–3:00 PM · Science Building 165,Portland
Instructor: Jason D. Read, Jason.read@maine.edu, Core Curriculum: Ethical Inquiry,
Social Responsibility, and Citizenship
A course on the philosophy of money might seem to be an oxymoron. Money is in some
sense the practical real matter of day-to-day life, what we need in order to survive, while philosophy is often understood to be an “ivory tower” pursuit, detached from day to day realities. Such a perspective overlooks the extent to which money, as well as related concepts such as debt, are as much ethical and political as they are economic. Our concepts of value, in the economic sense of the term, reflect, perpetuate, and even undermine our values in the ethical and political sense of term. This can be seen in our everyday use of such terms as value and debt, concepts and ideas that are at once economic and moral, expressing both in a way that it is often confused. This course is an attempt to cut through the confusion, understanding the history of our economic categories, and how these categories are shaped by and shape our economic and political institutions including everyday life down to its most quotidian aspects.
PHI 370 | Analytic Philosophy
41920 · Section 0001 · Tue/Thu 3:15–4:30 PM · Payson Smith 305, Portland
Yishai Abraham Cohen, Yishai.cohen@maine.edu, Core requirement met: Cultural Interpretation
An historical approach to twentieth-century linguistic philosophy. This course will begin with logical atomism, continue through the era of logical positivism, and end with ordinary language analysis. Extensive reading of primary sources and major commentators.
PHI 400 | Philosophy Topics Seminar: History of the Present
41179 · Section 0001 (seminar) · Online · Combined section
Instructor: Jason D. Read, Jason.read@maine.edu, Capstone
Hegel famously wrote that the “owl of minerva flies at dusk,” that philosophy could only make sense of the past, could only understand an age after the sun had already set on it. However, that has not stopped philosophers from trying to make sense of the moment that they are living in. This course will look at philosophical attempts to make sense of the economic, political, and technological transformations of the twenty-first century. We will begin by looking at the way that past philosophers have tried to make sense of their present, examining the ways in which the philosophies of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries help us understand the twenty-first century. Readings will include Immanuel Kant, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Theodor Adorno, Bernard Stiegler, Byung-Chul Han, Jodi Dean, and Franco Berardi.
LIBERAL STUDIES | SPRING 2027
LSH 240 | Introducing the Humanities
41916 · Section 0001 · Online ·
Instructor: Kenneth L. Knight, kenneth.knightjr@maine.edu
An introduction to philosophy through its history and development, i.e., through an examination o
central texts in the history of philosophy, up to and including contemporary works. Specific readings may
vary from semester to semester but will always include some canonical works by classic Western philosophers (e.g., Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, and Kant). Prerequisite: a college writing course.
LSH 240 | Introducing the Humanities: Eastern Religion- (Topic: East Asian Religions)
41917 · Section 0002 · Online ·
Instructor: Bennett D. Comerford, bennett.comerford@maine.edu
This course introduces major religious traditions of Asia. We will explore the historical origins, development, beliefs, and practices of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Shinto, with more limited attention to Islam in Indonesia and Christianity in the Philippines. Particular emphasis will be placed on how these traditions emerged in relation to longstanding indigenous practices, and how they have coexisted, interacted, competed, and at times come into conflict. By the end of the course, students will be familiar with key intellectual traditions and ritual practices, their broader historical and cultural contexts, and the ways they intersect with contemporary issues of power, gender, race, nationalism, and other forms of political and moral identity.
LSH 440 | Capstone in the Humanities: History of the Present
40696 · Section 0001 · Online · Combined section
Instructor: Jason D. Read, jason.read@maine.edu, capstone
Hegel famously wrote that the “owl of minerva flies at dusk,” that philosophy could only make sense of the past, could only understand an age after the sun had already set on it. However, that has not stopped philosophers from trying to make sense of the moment that they are living in. This course will look at philosophical attempts to make sense of the economic, political, and technological transformations of the twenty-first century. We will begin by looking at the way that past philosophers have tried to make sense of their present, examining the ways in which the philosophies of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries help us understand the twenty-first century. Readings will include Immanuel Kant, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Theodor Adorno, Bernard Stiegler, Byung-Chul Han, Jodi Dean, and Franco Berardi.
QUESTIONS? email: usm.philosophy@maine.edu