Quyen Pham (Department of Philosophy)
First-Year Seminar 66F | 4 Credits (Spring 2025) | CANVAS SITE
Tuesday, 3:00-5:00 PM
How are we related to the groups that we are part of? How do we keep our individuality while sharing a common identity? What opportunities and challenges arise as people come together to form something greater than themselves?
We will explore this special relation between the individual and the social, and its conceptual and practical implications for our life and society, through various philosophical perspectives on issues from metaphysics and epistemology to ethics and politics, while drawing insights from sociology, psychology, economics, and more.
Our investigation of the social will start small. What does it mean for two people to walk together, or to belong in a circle of friends? What does it take for a rock band or sports team to stay the same over time? How does a committee make a decision when members disagree? Can a company be responsible for something while none of its associates is?
We will then turn to larger groups and bigger issues. Can we better explain our behaviors and experiences by thinking not just about our personal qualities, but our positions as members of particular classes, genders, or races? What kind of harm or wrong is done when people are placed into one category or fail to be placed into another, or when the world is designed for some kinds of people but not others? And how do answers to these questions help us make sense of current societal structures and work to change them for the better?