Stanley Bates
Professor Emeritus of Philosophy
Email: bates@middlebury.edu
Phone: work802.443.5283
Office Hours: by appointment
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Stanley Bates (Professor Emeritus of Philosophy) was educated at Dartmouth College, Oxford University (where he was a Marshall Scholar) and received his Ph.D. from Harvard University where he worked most closely with John Rawls and Stanley Cavell. He taught at Harvard, the University of Chicago, and at Middlebury College from 1971 to his retirement in 2008. He usually teaches a course each year, and has advised senior theses, post retirement. He has published over 60 articles and reviews in ethics, aesthetics and political philosophy, and has special interests in Kant, Nietzsche and Wittgenstein. Some recent work includes:: “Cavell and Ethics,” in Stanley Cavell (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003); “Walter Cerf as Philosopher in Walter Cerf: A Personal Odyssey, 2007; “Character” in The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Literature, 2009; and “Critical Notice of Moral Literacy in Philosophical Books in 2008.
Courses
Courses offered in the past four years.
▲ indicates offered in the current term
▹ indicates offered in the upcoming term[s]
PHIL 0210 - Contemporary Ethical Theory
Contemporary Ethical Theory
In this course, we will explore some of the major texts on moral and political philosophy of the past 40 years. We will begin with John Rawls's A Theory of Justice, which attempts to develop a substantive theory of justice, and continue to Robert Nozick's libertarian critique of Rawls in Anarchy, State, and Utopia. Finally, we will study a series of works that consider whether substantive moral and political theory is still possible: Bernard Williams's Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy, Alasdair MacIntyre's After Virtue, and Richard Rorty's Contingency, Irony and Solidarity. (Previous PHIL course or PSCI 0101 recommended, but not required.) 3 hrs. lect.
Fall 2009, Fall 2012
PHIL 0223 - Intro Contemporary Philosophy
Introduction to Contemporary Philosophy
This course will investigate two of the main lines of historical development which dominated European philosophy for a great deal of the the twentieth century. We shall begin with the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl, and follow its development into the early existential phenomenology of Martin Heidegger (and others) and the existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre. We shall then turn to the analytic tradition discussing the Logical Analysis of Bertrand Russell and the early Wittgenstein, Logical Positivism, the ordinary language philosophy of Gilbert Ryle and H.L. Austin, and the later philosophy of Wittgenstein. The course will conclude with a brief consideration of more recent developments. 3 hrs. lect
Spring 2009
PHIL 0285 - Idea of the Ethical
The Idea of the Ethical
What is the basis for morality? The great turning point of the history of modern European philosophy, particularly ethical philosophy, came at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century with Kant's new account of the possibility of moral philosophy and Hegel's critique of that account. In this course, we shall investigate Kant's moral philosophy and Hegel's response to it, and then we will consider the ways in which a series of major thinkers attempted to rethink the idea of the ethical in the light of this dispute. We will consider Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Marx, Emerson, and Nietzsche and conclude with an account of 20th century developments. (Some prior work in philosophy would be useful background) 3 hrs. lect.
Fall 2010, Spring 2012
PHIL 0423 - Wittgenstein's Philosophy ▲
Wittgensein's Philosophy
In this course, we shall trace the development of the views of one of the 20th century’s most important philosophers, Ludwig Wittgenstein. We shall begin with the roots of Wittgenstein’s early philosophy in the logical analysis of Frege and Russell. This early philosophy culminated in the publication of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, a strange and fascinating work. Wittgenstein’s later philosophy as presented in his Philosophical Investigations will be the main focus of this course; it is a work which has had a decisive influence on much of contemporary philosophy of language and philosophy of mind in the analytical tradition and has significant affinities to the continental tradition (e.g., Heidegger). We shall consider some contemporary interpreters of Wittgenstein, including Stanley Cavell (Designed for senior majors; open to others by waiver.) 3 hrs. sem.
Fall 2013
PHIL 0500 - Resrch In Philosophy ▲ ▹
Research in Philosophy
Supervised independent research in philosophy. (Approval requiredl.
Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Winter 2010, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Winter 2011, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Winter 2012, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Winter 2013, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014
PHIL 0700 - Senior Thesis ▲ ▹
Senior Thesis
(Approval Required)
Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Winter 2010, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Winter 2011, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Winter 2012, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Winter 2013, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014