Andrew Komasinski - Class Information - Philosophy of Human Nature

This was the last class I taught at Fordham before moving to Japan. In this version of the class, we considered not only Western but also Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian concepts of human nature (or non-nature). As with the Fall 2011 version, students were required to prepare questions about the material in advance which largely drove the lecture content.

As a required class, Philosophy of Human Nature looks at the question what it is to be human. To improve student participation, I required students to bring prepared questions and to be responsible for sending one question in advance of the class. For this class, in addition to Descartes, Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas, we looked briefly at behavioralism, Sartre, and Kierkegaard as different theories of human nature.

This was my second time teaching Philosophy of Human Nature. In addition to the required texts from Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, and Augustine, we also looked at sections of the Daodejing and the Analects.

This was my first time teaching Philosophy of Human Nature for Fordham University. At Fordham, Philosophy of Human Nature is a required class for first year students and must cover Plato, Descartes, Aristotle, Augustine or Aquinas. In addition, instructors are strongly encouraged to cover critical thinking and their own specializations.