PHL 215 - Philosophy of Dreams

Course unit(s): 1
Meets GAR (students beginning prior to Fall 2024): Meets general academic requirement HU.
This course examines the history and contemporary application of dreams in Western philosophy from aesthetic, ethical, & epistemological perspectives. We study Plato’s dream of a second, perfect world as a two-fold metaphysical reality; Aristotle’s scientific treatises on dreams; and St. Augustine’s moral concern about our actions in dreams. We then read Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s poem on dreaming as an auto-didactic striving for truth, and analyze modern philosophical literature on dreams, including excerpts from Descartes, Freud, & Fanon. We conclude with dream research in phenomenology and philosophy of mind, and investigate the relationship among selfhood, reality, and dreams.