Academics

Faculty & Staff

photo of Nelson Lande

Nelson Lande, PhD

  • Senior Lecturer of Philosophy
  • Telephone: 617-287-6537
  • Office Location: Wheatley Hall,05,00044

Areas of Expertise

Medieval Islamic and Jewish philosophy, history of moral philosophy, history of political philosophy, metaphysics (Spinoza & Leibniz), Kant’s moral philosophy

Degrees

PhD, Brandeis University, 1977

Professional Publications & Contributions

  • "Moral Knowledge, Character, and a Dilemma: The Easy Way In, The Hard Way Out", Philosophy in Context, Vol. 16, 1986, pp. 55-64.
  • "Posthumous Rehabilitation and the Dust-Bin of History", Public Affairs Quarterly Vol. 4, No. 3, July 1990, pp. 267-286.
  • "Does Pluralism Lead to Nihilism? or: Isn't it Time to Sacrifice an Ox?" in Defending Diversity, eds. Lawrence Foster and Patricia Herzog, (Amherst: University ofMassachusetts Press, 1994).
  • "Maimonides on Property: its Distribution and Accumulation", in Joseph A. Schumpeter, ed. Lawrence Moss, (London: Routledge, 1996).
  • “Trotsky’s Brilliant Flame and Broken Reed”, Social Philosophy Today, vol. 20, Summer 2004.

Additional Information

AWARDS

The Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Teaching (2004)
The Philosophy Department’s Robert Swartz Creative Teaching Award (2004)

COURSES TAUGHT

Logic
Metatheory (a more advanced Logic course: approximately once every other year as a group independent study)
Ancient Philosophy
Medieval Philosophy
Modern Philosophy
Contemporary Philosophy
Metaphysics
Hume
Kant’s Moral Philosophy
History of Ethics
Social and Political Thinkers
Capitalism and Socialism
Moral Issues in Medicine
Philosophy of Law
Introduction to Philosophy
Reasoning and Argument
Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed (twice as an independent study)
Spinoza’s Ethics (once as an independent study)
Medieval Jewish Philosophy (in the Honors Program)

Special Topics Courses:

Philosophy of War, Terrorism, & Torture
Contemporary Religious Fundamentalism and the European Enlightenment
Toleration and Intolerance
Medieval Islamic and Jewish Philosophy
Medieval Islamic Philosophy

 

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