Carlo Filice has been a member of the Geneseo faculty since 1985. His areas of expertise include ethics and comparative religious ideas. His recent book, The Purpose of Life: An Eastern Philosophical Vision, tackles some perennial questions and ventures some unusual answers.
Office Hours
Spring 2020 - M/T/W 2:45 - 3:45, and by appointment.
Curriculum Vitae
Education
B.A., Western Illinois University
M.A., Ph.D., University of Illinois; 1986
Publications
The Purpose of Life: An Eastern Philosophical Vision (University Press of America, 2011) Buy it on Amazon
Recent Articles: Libertarian Autonomy and Intrinsic Motives, Social Theory and Practice, Vol 36, No 4, 2010. Review of Understanding World Religions: A Road Map for Justice and Peace." In The Journal for Peace and Justice Studies, Vol 17, No 2, 2008. The Moral Case for Reincarnation, Religious Studies, Vol 42, March 2006. On the Autonomy of the Divine, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Vol. 55, No. 2, 2004. On The Obligation To Keep Informed About Distant Atrocities, newly revised and updated, included in Applied Ethics: A Multicultural Approach, Third Edition, by May and Collins (Prentice Hall, 2002).
Interests
Theories of Freedom
Ethics/Justice Theories
Philosophy of Religion
Purpose of Life Accounts
Classes
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PHIL 130: Ethics
An introductory course aimed at the improvement of moral reasoning. Analysis and assessment of contemporary examples are stressed.
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PHIL 201: Environmental Ethics
An inquiry concerning which entities, if any, have rights, whether non-human entities can have rights, and how one could justify claims about non-human rights. The outcome of the inquiry depends on an adequate account of good-in-itself. The course includes a survey of the environmental problems facing this planet. Offered when demand is sufficient
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PHIL 215: Eastern Philosophy
An introduction to some of the central texts and viewpoints of the Eastern philosophical tradition. The views explored will be Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian. The approach will be primarily philosophical, not historical. The goal will be to understand and critically evaluate the main metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical ideas lying at the center of each tradition. The issues explored will include the status and nature of the self, the possibility of some ultimate indefinable immanent reality, the metaphysical status of space-time-matter-causality, the relation between opposites such as good and evil, and the nature of the good life.