Introducing the FUS Faculty: Christopher Dawson

Adjunct Professor, Philosophy

Ph.D. Cambridge University, UK
M.A. Hons. Cambridge University, UK
RSA Certificate, English Language Teaching to Adults, Newnham Language Centre, Cambridge, UK

Office: Kaletsch Campus, Office 7
Phone: +41 91 985 22 91
Email: cdawson@fus.edu

Christopher Dawson's teaching and research specializations include undergraduate instruction at Cambridge University in the areas of Plato, Hegel, Heidegger, metaphysics, epistemology, political philosophy, hermeneutics and particularly the ontology of Hans-Georg Gadamer. A published author on Gadamer and Heidegger, Dr. Dawson also has considerable private sector marketing and management experience in the European publishing industry, particularly with Macmillan and Mondadori of Italy, where he developed English language courses, grammars and dictionaries for Italian schools and universities.

2024-2025 Courses

PHL 100W	Introduction to Philosophy	FALL 2024
This course considers central problems of Western philosophy with particular emphasis on epistemology and metaphysics, through analysis of writing by influential ancient, modern and contemporary philosophers in historical context. After a brief survey of ancient and medieval systems of thought, such as Platonism and scholasticism, attention is focused on modern systems of thought, such as rationalism, empiricism, idealism, pragmatism, existentialism and logical positivism. Time is divided between developing a understanding of the history of ideas on the one hand and considering the central philosophical questions as they apply here and now on the other. Students will study a wide range of philosophical writings, and will begin to develop their ability to produce rigorous analysis, systematic critique and careful thinking in their own writing. (This writing-intensive course counts towards the Academic Writing requirements.)
WTG 150	Academic Writing: Crossing Borders	FALL 2024
Designed as a discussion/workshop seminar, this writing course develops students’ awareness of scholarly discourse and their participation in it: what makes academic discourse different from other kinds of writing, how different disciplines approach analysis and evidence, and what counts as effective communication within scholarly communities. Through the study of borders -- what they are, how they shape culture, politics and society, and why they change -- the course helps students develop academic communication strategies that are applicable across the curriculum at Franklin. The main focus of the course is to help students develop strategies for joining the academic conversation, covering skills such as close reading and responding to texts; generating, supporting and sharing ideas in both oral and written form; and scholarly researching. Drawing from a wide selection of texts and media about cross-border and cross cultural practices, which has recently garnered much attention among scholars and speaks to the Franklin mission, students will explore various academic responses to the phenomenon of border crossing, concluding with a research-based final project and defense. Succesful completion of WTG 150 requires a minimum final grade of C. (This writing-intensive course counts towards the Academic Writing core requirement.)
PHL 200W	Mind and Meaning	SPRING 2025
What is the relationship between our words and our possibilities of knowing the world, and to what extent might the languages we inherit shape what we can think? In this course, students will focus on a small number of central contemporary debates in the literature related to this topic, including the philosophy of knowledge (epistemology) and the philosophy of language. Starting from an overview of the most influential positions from the twentieth century, including Karl Popper, W.V.O.Quine, Saul Kripke and Daniel Dennett, students will review the literature in recent books and academic journals so as to compare and contrast the positions presented. As a class, students will classify the range of available positions in the contemporary debate with labels and representative writers, and subsequently build their own positions on the nature of the mind, language, identity and knowledge. (This writing-intensive course counts towards the Academic Writing requirements.)
WTG 150	Academic Writing: Crossing Borders	SPRING 2025
Designed as a discussion/workshop seminar, this writing course develops students’ awareness of scholarly discourse and their participation in it: what makes academic discourse different from other kinds of writing, how different disciplines approach analysis and evidence, and what counts as effective communication within scholarly communities. Through the study of borders -- what they are, how they shape culture, politics and society, and why they change -- the course helps students develop academic communication strategies that are applicable across the curriculum at Franklin. The main focus of the course is to help students develop strategies for joining the academic conversation, covering skills such as close reading and responding to texts; generating, supporting and sharing ideas in both oral and written form; and scholarly researching. Drawing from a wide selection of texts and media about cross-border and cross cultural practices, which has recently garnered much attention among scholars and speaks to the Franklin mission, students will explore various academic responses to the phenomenon of border crossing, concluding with a research-based final project and defense. Succesful completion of WTG 150 requires a minimum final grade of C. (This writing-intensive course counts towards the Academic Writing core requirement.)

Publications:

Praise of Theory: Speeches and Essays by Hans-Georg Gadamer, translated with an introduction and notes by Chris Dawson, New Haven and London, Yale UniversityPress, 1998.

“Heidegger and the Meaning of Being.” Inside Out (Magazine of Leeds University philosophy faculty). 1995.

“Habitual Prejudice: a reply to Kestenbaum.” The Journal of Speculative Philosophy. 1995.

“Two Worlds: making sense of Gadamer’s thesis of the ontological primacy of language.” Inside Out. 1993.