courses
Summer 2013Fall 2013Spring 2013Fall 2012 archives

	Rhetoric 1A/1B
	Undergraduate Courses
	010  Intro to Practical Reasoning 010  Intro to Practical Reasoning F13 010  Modern Reason Session A 010  Modern Reason 020  Rhetoric of Interpretation Session D 020  Rhetoric of Interpretation 020  Rhetorical Interpretation (Sp 13) 024  Ansel Adams's Fiat Lux and the Visual Rhetoric of Berkeley in the 1960s 024  Arguing with Judge Judy 024  Bad Books and How to Spot Them 024  Decoding the Mysteries of Literature 10  Intro to Practical Reasoning Session A 10  Introduction to Practical Reasoning 103A  Are We Not Men?  Classical Rhetoric for Real   103A  Classical Rhetorical Theory 103A  History of Rhet Theory I 103A  History of Rhetorical Theory I F13 103A  History of Rhetorical Theory I 103A  Introduction to Rhetorical Theory Session A 103B  History of Rhetorical Theory II Session D 103B  History of Rhetorical Theory II 103B  History of Rhetorical Theory II 103B  History of Rhetorical Theory Session D 104  Before and After the Digital 104  The Unconscious in Modern Culture 105T  Religious and Moral Alternatives in Greco-Roman Antiquity 105T  Rhetoric of Religious Discourse 106  Rhetoric of Historical Discourse F13 106  Rhetoric of Historical Discourse 106  Rhetoric of Historical Discourse 107  Rhetoric of Scientific Discourse 108  Rhetoric of Philosophical Discourse 109  Aesthetics and Rhetoric 110  Advanced Argumentation 112  Rhetoric of Narrative Genres in Non-Literate Societies (Sp 13) 114  Rhetoric of Digital Media 118  Theory & Practice of Reading & Interpretation F13 118  Theory and Practice of Reading and Interpretation 121  Rhetoric of Fiction (Sp 13) 121  Rhetoric of Fiction Session A 121  The Rhetoric of Selfhood in the Graphic Novel Session A 122  Rhetoric of Drama 124  Rhetoric of Poetry 124  Rhetoric of Poetry 125  Poetry and Poetics 127  Novel, Society & Politics (Sp 13) 128T  Rhetoric and Politics of Interviews 129  Rhetoric of Autobiography F13 129  Rhetoric of Autobiography 129AC  Rhetoric of Autobiography 130  Adaptations of Female Gothic Horror 130  Novel Into Film 130  Novel into Film 131T  Genre in Film and Literature 131T  Screening Sex 131T  The Western/Film Noir Hybrid 132T  ‘Documentary’ Visions 132T  Auteur in Film 132T  The Films of Powell & Pressburger 133T  Theories of Film 135T  American National Identity in Film 135T  Performance in Film 135T  Selected Topics in Film 135T  Selected Topics in Film 138  Rhetoric of Television Criticism 150  Rhet of Contemporary Politics F13 151  Rhetoric of Contact and Conquest 152AC  Before the Civil War 152AC  Race & Order in the New Republic F13 152AC  Race & Order in the New Republic 152AC  Race and Order in the New Republic 153  American Political Rhetoric 156  Dangerous Fictions 156  Political Fiction in the 18th Century 157A  Modern Political Theory 157A  Rhetoric of Modern Political Theory 157B  Rhetoric of Contemporary Political Theory 159A  Great Theorists in Political and Legal Theory 159B  Great Themes in the Rhetoric of Contemporary Political and Legal Theory 160  Intro to Rhetoric of Legal Discourse Session D 160  Intro to the Rhetoric of Legal Discourse Session D 160  Intro to the Rhetoric of Legal Discourse 160  Intro to the Rhetoric of Legal Discourse 165  Rhetoric of Legal Philosophy F13 165  Rhetoric of Legal Philosophy 166  Practices of Rhetoric, Law and Politics 167  Advanced Themes in Legal Theory, Philosophy, Argumentation 168  Advanced Themes in Contemporary Law & Legal Discourse 170  Rhetoric of Social Science 171  The Problem of Mass Culture & the Rhetoric of Social Theory 172  Rhetoric of Social Theory 182  Rhetorics of Sexual Exchange and Sexual Difference 20  The Rhetoric of Interpretation
	Graduate Courses

Undergraduate Courses

Rhetoric 108: The Question of Truth

Scheduled
Fall 2011  Instructor(s)  Ramona Naddaff
Fall 2012  Instructor(s)  Nancy Weston

Inquiry into the rhetoric of philosophical discourse, by way of an exploration of the history of philosophical engagement with the question of truth.

What is truth? How do we speak of it? What is in question, in the question of truth?

These seem odd questions to us now, when we speak of truth as such — if we do at all —with irony or scare quotes, when speech instead takes recourse to issues of power or instances of shifting truths, as truth’s intelligibility and very possibility are said to be in doubt. Yet for over two millennia philosophy was centrally occupied with the question of the nature and ground of truth. How has philosophy come to take the course that it has? Where has that course brought us, such that we now find the question of truth obscure, even dispensable? How might both the question of truth and our contemporary estrangement from it be illuminated by tracing that course and finding our place along it?

Course readings will be drawn from significant classic and contemporary works in Western thought on truth’s nature, ground, and possibility, including those of Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Wittgenstein, Foucault, Nietzsche, and Heidegger. With their aid we shall enter into a sustained inquiry into the history of truth and its pursuit in philosophy, to the end of contemplating the course and ground of our understanding of thinking, of truth, of language, of history, and of who we are and have become that we think on truth as we do. Affording students the opportunity of immersion in the history and practice of Western philosophy in its enduring concern with the question of truth, this seminar offers a course in (not simply "on") the rhetoric of philosophical discourse.

Prior exposure to philosophy is not required; an openness to its challenges is.

Please note: All students interested in taking this class — whether pre-enrolled, wait-listed, or neither — are to attend the first class meeting.

In planning their schedules, students should be aware that wide-ranging collective discussions, often lasting an hour or more, generally occur after the class meetings. Though they are voluntary, in past classes, students have found these informal but intense discussions to be of substantial help in coming to terms with difficult material encountered in the course. Students are, accordingly, strongly encouraged to plan their schedules so as to be able to attend.

Required Reading