Classes and Seminars
Learn about the cross-registration process if you are a graduate student at BU, BC, or Tufts.
Fall 2026 Courses Open to Graduate Students
Boston University ( 9/2 to 12/18 )
- PH 627: Heidegger and Existential Philosophy (Dahlstrom)
- Undergraduate/Graduate Course
- Meets Fri 11:15AM – 2:00PM
- 640 Commonwealth Ave COM 217
- Course Description
- A study of the main topics of Heidegger’s philosophy against the background of his interpretation of Husserl’s phenomenology, Kant’s transcendental philosophy, and ancient Greek philosophy, with an emphasis on the concepts of being, time, and truth.
- PH 816: Hegel (Sedgwick)
- Graduate Course
- Meets Th 3:30PM – 6:15PM
- 685-725 Comm Ave CAS 310
- Course Description
- A close reading of the Phenomenology of Spirit, with a particular emphasis on its role as the justification of Hegel’s standpoint in the Logic, the development of the overall argument, and the famous sections on sense-certainty, the master-slave dialectic, unhappy consciousness, the terror of the French revolution, the critique of Kant’s moral philosophy, and the transition to religion. Students are asked to present short presentations on selections from the secondary literature.
- PH 880: Topics in Philosophy I (Katsafanas)
- Graduate Course
- Meets Tu 3:30PM – 6:15PM
- 745 Commonwealth Ave STH 317
- Course Description
- Recent work in moral psychology and ethics.
Boston College ( 8/31 to 12/21 )
- PHIL 4408-01: Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Philosophy
- Undergraduate/Graduate Course
- Meets Tu/Th 12:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.
- Stokes Hall 111S
- Course Description
- In this course, we will explore the sources, forms, and implications of the concept of alienation, as this emerged in the nineteenth century and developed over twentieth century philosophy. We will start, in the first part of the course, with an overview of the challenges brought about by Kant’s philosophy with particular regard to the relation between nature and freedom. Particular attention will be given to the role of education and the re-evaluation of the finitude of human spirit in Fichte, Schiller, and Hegel. We will examine how the concept of alienation is related to the principle of moral autonomy, and how the ideal of self-determination advocated by philosophers of German Idealism shaped pedagogical programs of social and political reform. In the second part of the course, we will explore the relation between alienation and reification in social and political philosophy, starting with Marx and continuing with Arendt and the Frankfurt School. This theoretical journey will offer the basis to investigate alienation in relation to self-estrangement, environmental racism, and gender discrimination in selected classics of the twentieth century. We will also consider ways of resisting alienation by applying methodological frameworks inspired by Lugones’ concept of world-traveling.
- PHIL 5015-01: Kant’s First Critique
- Undergraduate/Graduate Course
- Mo/Wed 4:30 p.m. – 5:45 p.m.
- Stokes Hall 401N
- Course Description
- The course will consist of a close study of the Transcendental Aesthetic and the Transcendental Analytic of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. This is a graduate/undergraduate level course.
- PHIL 5075-01: Kant’s Religion Within the Boundary of Mere Reason
- Undergraduate/Graduate Course
- Mo 4:30 p.m. – 6:50 p.m.
- Stokes Hall 117S
- Course Description
- This course aims to read Immanuel Kant’s work Religion within the boundary of mere reason in its entirety, along with some other texts related to this work. In these writings, Kant addresses several topics of great importance to his practical philosophy: the idea of radical evil, the significance of Christ as a model of moral character, the hermeneutics of sacred writings, particularly the Bible, the relationship between church and state, religion and politics. The course will be held in seminar format, with text presentations given at the beginning of every meeting, followed by an extensive discussion on assigned readings.
- PHIL5320-01: Crisis and Renewal in Early 20th-Century Europe
- Undergraduate/Graduate Course
- Tu/Th 4:30 p.m. – 5:45 p.m.
- Stokes Hall 228N
- Course Description
- The term crisis appears often in the philosophical discourse of the past century. In this class, we will explore its meaning with European thinkers who have been influential in that conversation. In so doing, we will question various aspects of a crisis in culture, including the scientific, political, and religious. We will also discuss possible responses and remedies to the issue. Readings include texts by Edmund Husserl, Peter Wust, Bernard Lonergan, Sigmund Freud, Simone Weil, and Hannah Arendt.
- PHIL 7175-01: Hegel’s Encyclopedia, Vol. 1: Science of Logic, § 1-83
- Graduate Course
- Tu 1:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
- Stokes Hall 228N
- Course Description
- A close reading and analysis of the three prefaces and the Introduction to the Encyclopedia as a whole, and the “Preliminary Concept of the Logic”. This is probably the best introduction to both the systematic architecture of Hegel’s systematic project and an important contribution to the clarification of Hegel’s dialectic method. Its thorough appropriation prepares for the study of the Encyclopedia as a whole. Reading competence in German is not required but will be quite useful.
- PHIL 7762-01: Soren Kierkegaard
- Graduate Course
- Tu/Th 3:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
- Gasson Hall 210
- Course Description
- This course will deal primarily with the early pseudonymous writings of Soren Kierkegaard. The following topics will be emphasized: (1) the function of irony and indirect communication in the pseudonymous works, (2) Kierkegaard’s conception of freedom and subjectivity, and (3) the nature of the relationship which Kierkegaard posits between reason, autonomy, and faith.
Harvard University ( 9/2 to 12/19 )
- PHIL 188L: Philosophy and Literature (Matherne)
- W 12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Spring 2026 Courses Open To Graduate Students
Boston University ( 1/20 to 5/17)
PH677: Philosophy of the Social Sciences (Speight)
Undergraduate/Graduate course
Meets Fri 11:15 am – 2 PM
745 Commonwealth Ave STH 525
Course Description
Topics in the philosophy of the social sciences such as the interpretation of human action and the objectivity of social inquiry. Social consideration of alternative theoretic viewpoints such as naturalism and interpretivism.
LG 621: Reading German for Graduate Students(Instructor TBA)
Graduate course
Meets Mon 2:30 – 5:15 PM
Location: TBA
Course Description
Designed to prepare graduate students for the German reading exam. Develops a knowledge of the fundamentals of German grammar. Practice in translating passages. No previous knowledge of German required. Students will not receive graduate credit for this course and there is no tuition charge.
Boston College (1/12 to 5/12)
PHIL622001: Phenomenology of Perception (Magri)
Undergraduate course, open to graduate students
Meets Tue and Thu 10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
Stokes Hall 107S
Course Description
The course is designed as a monographic introduction to Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception. We will begin by situating Merleau-Ponty’s project in relation to Husserl’s phenomenology and will read Merleau-Ponty’s own book for the remainder of the semester. The analysis of Merleau-Ponty’s work will be supplemented by sources and texts on contemporary philosophy of perception. Satisfies the following distribution requirement(s) for Philosophy: Knowledge & Reality. Prerequisite(s): Any 5000-level class on Phenomenology AND a class on Kant.
PHIL644601: Paul Ricoeur: A Philosopher reads the Bible (Basile)
Undergraduate course, open to graduate students
Meets Wed 4:30 PM – 6:50 PM
Stokes Hall 201S
Course Description
The French philosopher Paul Ricoeur is considered, along with Hans Georg Gadamer, the founder of contemporary hermeneutic philosophy. Ricoeur also applied this philosophical method to the study of the Bible. The results of his research have profoundly influenced biblical exegesis and theology. But his contribution also confirmed that the Bible is a book that provokes philosophical reflection. This seminar will feature readings from the following works: The Symbolism of Evil (1967/1960), Essays on biblical interpretation (1980), From Text to Action: Essays in Hermeneutics II (1991/1986), Thinking Biblically (with Andre’ LaCocque, 1998).
PHIL449401: Philosophy in a Broken World: Schopenhauer on Suffering, Death, and Holiness(Castro)
Undergraduate/Graduate course
Meets MWF 3:00 PM – 3:50 PM
Stokes Hall 301N
Course Description
Is this world set up to make us miserable? Is this the worst of all possible worlds? Does any good that we experience compensate for any evil suffered? Can any philosophical account of reality be worth our time if it does not address the unspeakable sufferings of mankind? These are some of the questions that this course will explore. This introduction to Schopenhauer’s pessimism aims to familiarize the students with Schopenhauer’s argument for philosophical pessimism, their scope, limitations and how they provide a philosophical answer to important existential questions regarding suffering, guilt, death, and holiness. Schopenhauerian pessimism, this course argues, is not a depressed description of reality, but a deep source of liberation, a medicine against apathy and boredom. We will read all the major sections of The World as Will and Representation, Parerga and Paralipomena andManuscript Remains dedicated to the different elements that form Schopenhauerian pessimism. As preparation to engage Schopenhauer’s texts, we will read chapters from Frederick Beiser’s Weltschmerz: Pessimism in German Philosophy, 1800-1900 to familiarize the student with some key elements from Schopenhauer’s epistemology and metaphysics. At the end of the course, the student will be able to present the major arguments for Schopenhauerian pessimism, apply it to different existential situations and discern what elements of it can be retained.
Tufts University (1/14 to 5/8)
PHIL 0092-02: Special Topics: Nietzsche(Azzouni)
Graduate course
Meets Tues 9:00 AM – 11:30 AM
Inquire for location.
Course Description
n/a
Fall 2025 Courses Open To Graduate Students
Boston University (9/2 to 12/10)
PH415/615: Nineteenth-Century Philosophy (Crowe)
Undergraduate/Graduate course
Meets Tue/Thu 2-3:15 PM
888 Commonwealth Ave IEC B07
Course Description
A survey of nineteenth-century European philosophy, focused on G.W.F. Hegel and the critical reception of his work by Søren Kierkegaard and Karl Marx.
PH418/618: Marx and Marxism (Cao) [CLASS CANCELLED]
Undergraduate/Graduate course
Meets Thu 6:30-9:15 PM
College of Arts and Sciences, room 314
Course Description
In this introductory course, Marxism will be treated mainly as a conceptual framework for understanding history and society (including economy, politics and culture), and also as a critique of capitalism and a program of transforming the capitalist society for human emancipation, with an analysis of both its philosophical and ethical presuppositions and its conceptions of a post-capitalist society. The evolution of its theoretical bases, through its three stages (classical Marxism of Marx and Engels; the Soviet orthodoxy and its critics; and contemporary Marxisms) will be critically examined, and its practical (political, economic and cultural) impacts on the historical course since its inception briefly outlined.
PH419/619: Nietzsche (Katsafanas) [CLASS CANCELLED]
Undergraduate/Graduate course
Meets Wed 6:30-9:15 PM
College of Arts and Sciences, room 316
Course Description
An intensive study of Nietzsche’s philosophical thought. Topics to be addressed may include Nietzsche’s claim that modern morality is dangerous; that the death of God brings with it the possibility of the “last man”; that modern culture exhibits or leads to nihilism; that we have lost “higher values”; that all organisms manifest a “will to power”; that the will to truth is an expression of the ascetic ideal; that we need a “revaluation of all values”; that we must affirm the eternal recurrence of our lives; and that we have a superficial understanding of the nature of happiness. Readings will include a combination of primary and secondary sources.
Boston College (8/25 to 12/8)
PHIL4211: Hegel, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche: Art, religion, and the Question of Meaning (Rumble)
Undergraduate course, open to graduate students
Meets Tue and Thu 3:30-4:15 PM
Gasson Hall, room 306
Course Description
The aim of this course is to explore G. W. F. Hegel’s, Soren Kierkegaard’s and Friedrich Nietzsche’s accounts of the human condition. All three philosophers grapple with human temporality and human limitations in singular ways. While Descartes and Kant bequeathed to them (and to us) a human subject divorced from itself and from knowledge of what is ultimately real, Hegel, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche offer this alienated subject a panoply of provocative perspectives and therapies. In addition, each thinker takes up timeless questions regarding the meaning of suffering, the nature of beauty, and the significance of human history, culture and religiosity. In the concluding weeks of the semester, we read Heideggers ‘The Question Concerning Technology’ as a way to both contextualize the work of Hegel, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche and to get a glimpse of his own remarkable reframing of human subjectivity. Above all, we look forward to working with philosophers who were determined, above all else, to keep it real.
PHIL4442: German Romanticism and Idealism (Rumble)
Undergraduate course, open to graduate students
Meets Tue and Thu 12-1:15 PM
Stokes Hall, room 111S
Course Description
Kant’s transcendental idealism has been charged with divorcing the subject of understanding from the subject of moral experience. We shall examine the basis of this claim as well as the attempts by Romantic writers and German Idealists to provide a fresh account of the integrity of human experience. We begin examining Kant’s attempt, in The Critique of Judgment, to bridge the moral and natural realms through aesthetics. We then trace the progressive emancipation of the imagination in the later development of German Idealism and Romanticism.
PHIL5245: Nietzsche (Storey)
Undergraduate/Graduate course
Meets Tue 1:30-4 PM
Higgins Hall, room 275
Course Description
This seminar examines the thought of the late 19th century philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche. Through a careful examination of the major themes and development of Nietzsches work, we will explore his original contributions to aesthetics, morality, religion, and psychology. Reading Nietzsche as a critic of both Christianity and modernity, we will assess his attempts to define and solve the problem of nihilism. Beyond his own work, we will survey the considerable impact Nietzsche had on the politics, art, and intellectual culture of the 20th century and the astonishing relevance of his ideas today.
PHIL5590: Kant’s Critique of Traditional Metaphysics in his Post-Critical Writings (Basile)
Undergraduate/Graduate course
Meets Mon 4:30-6:50 PM
Stokes Hall, room 117S
Course Description
With the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant intended to ground metaphysics on a new foundation. This new foundation aimed at limiting, in the first instance, the claims of rationalist dogmatism of Wolffian and Leibnizian mould to a speculative metaphysics. In addition to this pars destruens coinciding with the transcendental philosophy as a critique of knowledge, the foundational operation of the first Critique involved a pars costruens: the foundation of metaphysics as moral philosophy. The project of the Kantian critical philosophy did not fail to arouse controversy, especially from representatives of Lebnizian and Wolffian metaphysics in Germany. In particular, the philosopher Johann August Eberhard and the Prussian Academy of Sciences itself promoted an active campaign against the Kantian thought, in defense of the system of Leibniz and Wolff. Among the writings in which Kant retorts to his opponents, two are particularly important: On a discovery whereby any new critique of pure reason is to be made superfluous by an older one (1790) and What real progress has metaphysics made in Germany since the time of Leibniz and Wolff? (1793/1804). Both works are related by a deep systematic unity and constitute, in some ways, an attempt by Kant to make an assessment of his own critical philosophy and to highlight the most original points of his thinking.
German Philosophy Reading Groups in the Boston Area:
Boston University Kant/Hegel graduate reading group: Paused for the Spring 2026 semester. Continuing in summer 2026 and reading Self-Consciousness and Objectivity by Sebastian Rödl. For more information, please contact Caroline Wall (cbwall [at] bu [dot] edu).
If you would like to add a course or reading group on German philosophy taking place in the Greater Boston-Area, you can send an email to rgregor [at] bu [dot] edu.
Boston-Area Consortium for Kant and 19th Century German Philosophy 