Brooklyn Institute for Social Research
Upcoming Classes in NYC
The Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, established in 2011, offers liberal arts education and research opportunities to local communities while supporting young scholars. With a mission to engage various intellectual traditions, the institute aims to provide accessible education and foster active, engaged citizens.
11 results
Introduction to Psychoanalysis
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 15 W 16th St, New York, NY
This course will survey a selection of these theoretical and clinical polemics via a reading of primary and secondary sources from classical Freudian theory, ego psychology, Kleinian, Lacanian, object relations, and contemporary relational approaches. Far from a canon of consistent ideas, the history of psychoanalytic theory is marked by conflict, splits and vicious debates that have important clinical and historical implications. Readings will...
Camus and The Stranger
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 417 Lafayette St, New York, NY
Camus and The Stranger: From Existentialism to Post-Colonialism When Albert Camus visited New York seventy years ago, he was greeted as one of Europe’s foremost writers and existentialist philosophers. Widely embraced by the city’s literary and cultural establishment, Camus’s newly-translated book, The Stranger, was read as a vehicle for exploring key existentialist themes. The novel, which tells the story of a Frenchman living in Algeria...
Disaster Capitalism
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 247 West 37th St, New York, NY
Turn on the evening news and you will see a parade of disasters: from banking crises to pandemics, from floods to superbugs, from the instantaneous loss of life following an earthquake to the slowly accumulating effects of global climate change. Why is it that we seem to live in a uniquely calamitous age? This course proposes that the proliferation of risk management technologies is remaking our relationship to the future, turning the mere threat...
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Empire, Nation-State, Caliphate: The Modern Middle East
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 247 West 37th St, New York, NY
The transition from empire to nation-state was among the most consequential developments to shape the Middle East over the last hundred years. Beginning with the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire at the close of WWI, the post-war international order invalidated heterogeneous forms of political organization in favor of the nation-state. It was a shift that rendered customary patterns of political and social life in the Middle East newly untenable,...
Al-Andalus: Tolerance, Culture, and Violence in Spain
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 15 W 16th St, New York, NY
Al-Andalus: Tolerance, Culture, and Violence in Medieval Spain Between 711 and 1492, Islamic governments ruled over varying swaths of the Iberian Peninsula. Muslim Spain, or al-Andalus, still holds a powerful grip on the modern imagination as a time and place of religious tolerance—a “golden age” in which Muslims, Jews, and Christians peacefully coexisted and culturally thrived. In this course we will explore this common perception of al-Andalus...
Playing to Win: an Introduction to Game Theory
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 247 West 37th St, New York, NY
From zero-sum games and the “prisoner’s dilemma” to rational actors and the Nash equilibrium, game theory has grown from a bold conjecture into a deeply influential mode of analysis in political science, economics, psychology, business, mathematics, and even military strategy. Based on a theory of simple card games developed by John Von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern, game theory seeks to use these game situations to model human, computer, and...
Introduction to Political Economy
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 275 Madison Ave, New York, NY
This course is intended as a critical introduction to political economy. Students will evaluate these questions by reading selected writings from major figures in the field. We begin with extracts from Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, introducing such complex notions as the labor theory of value, the benefits of free trade, productivity, and the division of labor. Although Smith grounded his claims in self-interest and market...
Thinking Machines: An Introduction to AI
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 30 Irving Pl, New York, NY
Thinking Machines: An Introduction to Artificial Intelligence Can a computer be intelligent? That is, can the abilities of the human mind be reproduced by computer hardware and software? Dating to the origins of computing, the question of artificial intelligence is among the central problems of the modern age, its ramifications impacting not only computer science and adjacent fields of cognitive science and philosophy of mind, but also long-standing...
Debt and Money: an Introduction
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 275 Madison Ave, New York, NY
This class is the study of a seemingly new financial and monetary age—one in which lending and borrowing, performed on an immense scale, play a central and driving role in national and international economic and political affairs. We’ll attempt to understand the workings of debt in its multiple dimensions–as a substitute for rising wages; as capital and a means of production; as a requirement for government spending; as a means of social and...
Foundations of Modern Philosophy
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 247 West 37th St, New York, NY
Long before the development of modern academic and scientific disciplines, the early modern scientific revolution was exemplified by “natural philosophers”—polymaths like Rene Descartes, Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon, and Thomas Hobbes who saw no clear distinction between philosophical, scientific, social, and other forms of inquiry. The scientific revolution, born partly from the insights they provided, was also a philosophical revolution,...
What is Analytic Philosophy?
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 247 West 37th St, New York, NY
In the early 20th century, a new generation of thinkers came to believe that European philosophy had reached a dead end. Reacting to what they held was the obfuscatory language and non-sensical direction of post-Kantian philosophy, Cambridge philosophers Bertrand Russell and G.E. Moore set out to revolutionize philosophy through a fundamental rethinking of its methods and purposes. Their work, and its outgrowths in the philosophies of mathematics,...
Kant: Metaphysics and Morality
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 30 Irving Pl, New York, NY
Kant’s “Critical philosophy,” which begins with the appearance of the Critique of Pure Reason in 1781, is an attempt to understand the total scope and limits of human reason, science, and morality. Moreover, he argues that the purpose of philosophy is to answer the fundamental questions that emerge from such an attempt: “What can we know? What should we do? What can we hope for?” In other words: Can we really know what reality...
alternative economies
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 275 Madison Ave, New York, NY
Discover Forensic Architecture, a cutting-edge research method blending architecture, forensics, geography, and journalism to investigate violence's impact on environments. Examine cases from war zones to climate change sites, and learn how spatial analysis aids in uncovering crimes against humanity. Explore the intersection of politics, aesthetics, and theory through Weizman's work and other key readings.
What is Money?
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 275 Madison Ave, New York, NY
Money seems like a straightforward aspect of our daily lives. But underlying its everyday functionality in facilitating transactions, measuring the market value of goods and services, and serving as a store of wealth over time is a stubborn question about what money actually is. As the economist Perry Mehrling observes, “Money is always difficult, and it is more difficult than ever today.” We often conceive of money as a “neutral” medium...
Lived Experience: An Introduction to Phenomenology
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 75 Broad St, New York, NY
What is phenomenology? Drawing on lived, first-person experience, phenomenology is the attempt to analyze and understand the very structures of human experience and consciousness. What are the elements of perception, and why do different people, different subjects, perceive things differently? What’s universal about consciousness? In what ways do individual identity, circumstance, history, language, and memory condition lived experience—and thus...
Crisis and Capitalism
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 275 Madison Ave, New York, NY
Do capitalist societies have an inherent tendency toward economic, social, and political crises? Political economists have, over the course of the past 250 years, offered different frameworks to understand the existence of crises within capitalism: from Adam Smith’s “general glut” (when production exceeds demand) to Marx’s belief that the contradictions inherent in capitalism will lead to its eventual demise and the Keynesian attempt...
Heidegger: Truth, Technology, and Poetry
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ Wyoming Building, 5 East 3rd St, New York, NY
Uncover the essence of humanity in modernity as we explore the meaning of being, the impact of scientific and technological revolutions, and the diminishing power of art and poetry to reveal truth. Join us as we delve into Heidegger's later works and grapple with the questions that arise in an era dominated by scientific truth.
On the Heights of Despair: an Introduction to E.M. Cioran
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 200 East 38th Street, New York, NY
Delve into the mind of philosopher Emil Cioran, as he explores themes of despair, doubt, and skepticism in a world without God. Join this thought-provoking course and discover Cioran's aphoristic style and its connection to his unconventional philosophy. Explore his life, influences, and the meaning of existence in this engaging exploration of a philosopher of unremitting despair.
Everything Flows: an Introduction to Heraclitus
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 315 E 91st St, New York, NY
Embark on an intellectual journey into the depths of Heraclitus's radical philosophy of constant flux. Explore his influence on figures from Plato to Nietzsche and delve into modern interpretations, including Hegel's dialectic and Whitehead's process philosophy. Unravel the enigmatic fragments of Heraclitus's thought to uncover timeless insights into the nature of existence.
The Best of All Possible Worlds: an Introduction to Leibniz
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 315 E 91st St, New York, NY
Delve into Leibniz's profound influence on modern philosophy, exploring his metaphysical implications of infinity and his systematic approach to mind, truth, and possibility. Engage with key texts and trace his response to rationalist predecessors and empiricist critiques, revealing the depths of his unified theory of sciences, freedom, and divine benevolence.
Reviews of Brooklyn Institute for Social Research
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James Joyce: Ulysses
It was not easy, but I didn't expect it to be. I got some very useful insight into the book, which will help in my second reading. I will be looking for more classes taught by Professor Porte. -
Proust in Time: The Prisoner
pretentious, and unwelcoming professor -
God or Nature: Spinoza’s Ethics
This was a great class. I'm excited to continue to take BISR classes every month for the rest of my life! LOL I'm serious. -
The Singularity: AI & the Post-Human Future
Required more structure. Seemed more of a reading review club, than an instructional class. -
Jorge Luis Borges: Mysticism, Fiction, and Politics
Teacher was knowledgeable, good readings, active participants. -
Signal and Noise: An Introduction to Statistics
Excellent class. Excellent instructor. Raphaële breathed life into stats. Very fun class! -
Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina (In-Person)
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The Subway: Urbanism, Infrastructure, and Social Life
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Vergil’s Aeneid: Myth, Empire, and Ruin
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Mining: Industry, Ecology, and Capitalism
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Hannah Arendt: The Human Condition
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Henry James: The Portrait of a Lady
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Don DeLillo: Underworld
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Freedom, Politics, and the Individual
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The Mahabharata: From Exile to Apocalypse
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Feminist Science Fiction
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The Good, the Bad, and the Evil
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An Introduction to Schopenhauer
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Kant’s Critical Aesthetics
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Hannah Arendt: The Human Condition
