PHIL 389
The Structural-Systematic Philosophy Spring 2014
Division II
This is not the current course catalog

The structural-systematic philosophy (SSP) is a theory that, if completed, would qualify as a philosophical theory of everything. Central aspects of this theory are presented in Structure and Being (SB; by Lorenz Puntel, translated by and in collaboration with Alan White, 2008), Being and God (BG; by Lorenz Puntel, translated by and in collaboration with Alan White, 2011), and Toward a Philosophical Theory of Everything (TAPTOE; by Alan White, 2014). We begin by reading and discussing TAPTOE. Thereafter, topics for further investigation will be determined in significant part by student interests. Some might want to examine specific sections of SB and/or BG, others might want to develop objections to the SSP from other philosophical perspectives, considering what (if anything) is said about those other perspectives in SB, BG, and/or TAPTOE. One unique opportunity is provided by the fact that the Metaphysical Society of America (MSA) will meet at Williams in April 2014. Several of the essays presented at that meeting will be devoted to question(s) of being. We will be able to read those essays in advance, comparing them with each other and with the theory of being sketched in TAPTOE. Interested students would then have the option of attending the MSA sessions devoted to those essays.