Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Manuel Barrantes
Manuel Barrantes' area of specialization is the philosophy of science.
Philosophy
Philosophy is a practice at Hamilton, where your professors will encourage you to be engaged and to apply your training beyond the classroom. For instance, philosophy majors have developed and taught philosophy mini-classes to their peers and to local high school students. You’ll think creatively about what philosophy is and how it may (or may not) demand practical action.
About the Major
Most of the courses require students to give presentations or participate in discussions or debates, and in some courses, they take oral exams. The small, introductory classes require students to read primary sources rather than predigested material in textbooks. To encourage students to learn to read philosophical texts early, concentrators are required to take three courses in the history of philosophy — from the ancient through the contemporary.
For me, college was a time of true intellectual awakening. My philosophy classes anchored this sentiment, as they constantly challenged my ability to comprehend, analyze, and articulate.
Cara Chard ’03 — philosophy major
The department hires up-and-coming new scholars as postdoctoral fellows, allowing students to benefit from the latest philosophical research and trends in the country’s best graduate schools. Visiting scholars, speakers and conferences bring some of the most prominent names in philosophy to campus and into philosophy classes.
Careers After Hamilton
- Writer, Simon & Schuster
- Psychiatrist, SW Connecticut Mental Health
- Director & Counsel, Credit Suisse Securities
- U.S. Ambassador, Federal Republic of Germany
- Professor of Psychiatry, Case Western Reserve University
- Senior Scientist, GE Global Research
- Director, U.S. Department of Transportation
- Vice President, Goldman Sachs
- Principal Law Clerk, New York State Supreme Court
- Lieutenant, U.S. Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Meet Our Faculty
Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Truax Postdoctoral Fellow
Ashley Bohrer
Ashley Bohrer works on making philosophy transcend disciplinary and institutional boundaries.
Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Justin Clark
Justin Clark researches ancient theories of virtue and various problems in moral psychology.
Associate Professor and Chair of Philosophy
Katheryn Doran
Katheryn Doran's interests include American philosophy, contemporary Anglo-American philosophy, and environmental ethics.
the Christian A. Johnson Excellence in Teaching Professor of Philosophy and Africana Studies, Chair Africana Studies
A. Todd Franklin
Todd Franklin focuses on transformations of consciousness.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Reza Hadisi
Reza Hadisi studies Kant, especially the intersection of his theoretical and practical philosophy.
the John Stewart Kennedy Professor of Philosophy
Marianne Janack
Marianne Janack wrote What We Mean By Experience, published by Stanford University Press.
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Russell Marcus
Russell Marcus teaches logic and modern philosophy, as well as philosophy of language and philosophy of mathematics, his main area of research.
Professor of Philosophy Emeritus and Senior Lecturer in Philosophy
Richard Werner
Richard Werner’s research interests center on issues relating to applied philosophy.
A Sampling of Courses
Existentialism 115S
An introduction to various theories and expressions of 19th- and 20th-century existential thought. Readings include works by Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre, Camus, de Beauvoir, and Fanon. We will also analyze existentialist literature and movies. Writing-intensive. Oral Presentations. Proseminar.
View All CoursesThe Black Self: Identity and Consciousness 242S
A philosophical exploration of a variety of historical and contemporary works that illuminate and influence the phenomenological experience of being black. Writing-intensive.
View All CoursesThe Concept of Authority 307S
The course begins with a brief exposition of authority in the context of the concepts of language games, performative concepts, and conceptual puzzlement (Wittgenstein, Cavell, and Austin); it next examines political authority in Hannah Arendt, Max Weber, and Michel Foucault. The next unit explores the construction of authoritative bodies of knowledge, especially biology and economics. It concludes considering adjacent concepts of obligation and consent, focusing on ideas associated with student free-speech, anti-war, and racial justice activism.
View All CoursesPhilosophy of Science 310F
Focus on the philosophical analysis of scientific knowledge, scientific method and the practice of science. Readings include classic texts in the philosophy of science as well as contemporary discussions of science as a social product and critiques of the notion of scientific objectivity. Writing-intensive.
View All CoursesKnowledge, Truth, and Mathematics 405S
A survey of the philosophical questions that arise from considering historical and contemporary approaches to explaining our knowledge of mathematics. Do we have a priori knowledge of necessary truths? Is our knowledge of mathematics empirical? Perhaps we do not really have mathematical knowledge. Oral Presentations.
View All CoursesEvolution and Morality 452S
It makes sense to see morality as adaptive, yet from an evolutionary perspective it’s puzzling that we follow and enforce moral standards even when it is costly for us to do so. This course will critically examine different sorts of evolutionary accounts of morality (e.g. group selection, cultural evolution), with methodological issues in mind.
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