Class Schedule for Winter 2024

PHIL 342 satisfies the criteria for Arts & Letters under General Education. The study of Latin American philosophy by the very nature of its subject, concepts, issues and manner of inquiry promotes open inquiry from a variety of perspectives. Latin American philosophy concerns a history of diversity in the formation of its identities from its Indigenous-Afro-European beginnings. Moreover, the inquiry into the various modes of thought developed through this rich cross-pollination occurs as students do not only learn fundamental methods and concepts in philosophy, but specifically as they apply them through engaging in the analysis and interpretation of philosophical concepts in their distinct forms in Latin America.

PHIL 342 course will satisfy the Multicultural course criteria, Category IC (International Cultures). The course provides the basic background for understanding fundamental conceptual elements in Latin American thought, a tradition in its own right that has a long and complex history and in this sense, is an international offering bringing insight into conceptual and cultural elements outside the United States. At the same time, given this emphasis on the distinctness of Latin American philosophy, the course offers the chance to explore and understand concepts and issues that inform the relationship between Latin American thought and Western European and North American philosophers. As a history of thought in Latin America, the course also offers crucial insight into the Latino/Latina culture in the US in relation to Latin America. Finally, Latin American philosophy is marked by the question of its identity, a question inseparable from issues of race, colonialism and contemporary global discourses. Indeed, Latin American discourses of identity arise out of the encounter of Native, European and African traditions that give shape to transformative and new forms of culture and thought.