Freshman Discovery Seminars offered for Spring 2009

War & Morality
Professor David Glidden
Department of Philosophy
HASS 092-16G
Call #: 19590
Wednesdays 12:10-2:00pm, HMNSS 1605B

This seminar will explore several different kinds of conflict as they have played out in recent history: guerrilla warfare, terrorism, civil war, world war. As we consider specific examples, we shall explore particular moral issues posed by each variety of conflict. Our seminar will meet nine times during the quarter, for two and one-half hours. At each session we shall screen a film about a specific moral issue raised by a particular kind of conflict. We shall then discuss that film, both in class and on-line. There will also be assigned readings, relevant to the topics under discussion. In order to receive credit for the course, each enrolled student must attend at least five of the seminars and read an assigned text. Each enrolled student must also participate in the on-line discussion.

Tentative Screening Schedule:

The Fog of War (2003) 107 minutes,
Grave of the Fireflies (1988) 88 minutes,
The Conformist (1970, Italy) 111 minutes ,
The Third Man (1949, USA) 104 minutes,
The Battle of Algiers (1966) 121 minutes,
The Quiet American (2002) 101 minutes,
Paradise Now (2005, Palestine) 91 minutes ,
Witnesses (2004, Croatia) 88 minutes.

Assigned Readings

About Philosophy…

While this seminar is primarily a film and discussion course, the topics it addresses are philosophical in nature, concerning the morality of war. Consequently participants are earnestly invited to think about the films and readings in that light. In our discussions, let us bear in mind that during the last hundred years more millions have died for their philosophical commitments than in the hitherto history of humanity.