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Teaching Ideas & Resources
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These resources are intended for use with the new anthology: PHILOSOPHY AND THE CITY: CLASSIC TO CONTEMPORARY WRITINGS, ed. Sharon M. Meagher
State University of New York Press, January 2008
ISBN13: 978-0-7914-7308-5 pbk. 24.95
To request an exam copy or purchase the text, go to THE SUNY PRESS WEBSITE.
Exam copies are available by clicking on the tab on the left. Exam copies are available for $6 to cover shipping and handling. Complimentary desk copies are available to instructors who adopt the text for course use.
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In The Good City and the Good Life, Daniel Kemmis writes that if humanities and culture are not just words or academic constructs, then “their meaning had to be sought in and brought to bear on the real life of the real city” (59).
I teach a course on philosophy and the city. The purpose and focus of the course is to do just that what Kemmis calls for: to seek an understanding of philosophy in and through an examination of the city and to show how and why philosophy matters to the city. I’ve found that by organizing the course around questions of sustainability, there is an opportunity to connect with a generation of students for whom lthe anguage of “the good life” has little meaning.
I have just completed editing an anthology entitled: Philosophy and the City: Classic to Contemporary Writings that collects a wide range of Western philosophical ideas, meditations, and concerns about the city (forthcoming SUNY Press, January 2008). The book also features a section entitled "Philosophy Matters, City Matters" that contains case studies that illustrate philosophy's impact on cities and urban issues as well as urban cases that would benefit from philosophical analysis.
In editing the anthology and in teaching a course based on those works, I have developed a philosophical narrative of the history of Western philosophy and its relation to the city that invites us to rethink the concept of public philosophy, or what it would mean to ground philosophy in the city today. Undergraduate instructors considering adoption of Philosophy and the City may find the monograph helpful in providing a further blueprint for their course. It could also work well in tandem with the anthology for a graduate course in philosophy or political theory. The monograph is under contract with SUNY Press and will be called "Philosophical Streetwalking: Grounding Philosophy and the City." It should be out in spring 2010. And hopefully others with general interests in philosophy, the city, and the concept and practice of public philosophy will find it useful, too. I
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If you are interested in possibly adopting PHILOSOPHY AND THE CITY, contact the publisher directly to obtain a copy of the anthology (see the information above). If you are interested in reviewing or previewing the manuscript of the new monograph Philosophical Streetwalking, please e-mail me and I will get back to you. Thank you for your interest!
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