PHIL520 PHILOSOPHY OF THE BODY
| Course Code: | 2410520 |
| METU Credit (Theoretical-Laboratory hours/week): | 3 (3.00 - 0.00) |
| ECTS Credit: | 8.0 |
| Department: | Philosophy |
| Language of Instruction: | English |
| Level of Study: | Graduate |
| Course Coordinator: | Prof.Dr. ŞEREF HALİL TURAN |
| Offered Semester: | Fall and Spring Semesters. |
Course Objectives
Students are expected to acquire an understanding of the various ways in which the body has been conceptualized in the history of western philosophy. Students are also expected to be able to reflect philosophically on issues surrounding embodiment by employing different philosophical methods, including but not limited to phenomenology, genealogy, and deconstruction.
Course Content
This course provides a survey into the western philosophical treatments of the body in different historical periods. Beginning with Ancient Greek philosophy, we trace how the body is understood in relation to thought, psuche, desire, and knowledge, the subjugation of the body and its separation from the soul in Medieval thought, the mechanistic and vitalistic accounts of the body in 17th century, the phenomenology and genealogy of the body as gendered and racialized, and the status of the body in the age of posthumanism.