Course Description: In this class, students will consider whether games—broadly construed—are a form of art, like music, painting or dance, and if so, what features of games are aesthetically valuable. Students will also develop answers to these related questions: What is beauty (and what is art), and why do we value it? When and in what ways are games aesthetically valuable? What other kinds of value can games have? And, are games a distinctive art form, and if so, what makes them different from other art forms? Students will be required to play games and to design a game. This course aims to enrich students’ lives by helping them savor and create aesthetic value, particularly in games. Readings include work by C. Thi Nguyen, Jun’ichirō Tanizaki, Bernard Suits, and Mary Flanagan.

In this course, we will read several of Hegel’s political works to track the development of Hegel’s philosophy of the state, citizen, and revolution, and assess how Hegel’s philosophy has been historically used (and severely misused) to inspire such incompatible ideologies as Marxism, fascism, liberalism, and republicanism. Texts will include selections from the Philosophy of Right, the Phenomenology, Philosophy of History, and the essay on Natural Law, among others.