Advanced Themes in Legal Theory, Philosophy, Argumentation: Law, Truth, and the Destiny of Freedom

This course in advanced topics in law, philosophy, and rhetoric proceeds as a philosophical seminar, inquiring, this term, into the modern pursuit of freedom as it illuminates the course taken by our thinking on truth and right.

With the aid of suggestions taken from the thought of Martin Heidegger on these and related matters, we will come to engage with the corpus of modern political thought on the aim and nature of freedom, to the end of pondering its source, sense, and implications for the understanding of truth and of right.

Please note: All students interested in taking this class — whether pre-enrolled, wait-listed, or neither — are to attend the first class meeting, at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, January 21st.

In planning their schedules, students should be aware that wide-ranging collective discussions, often lasting an hour or more, generally occur after the Thursday class meetings. While attendance is 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. You are therefore strongly encouraged to plan your schedule so as to be able to attend these sessions. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the course. Prior coursework in philosophy is not required; an openness to its challenges is.