PHIL 100: INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
Lect 11:00 MW/Disc 11:00 or 12:00 F/ Meinwald
Theme: What is philosophy?
We will take our starting-point from examinations of the pursuit of
wisdom from the start of the Western tradition in classical Greece.
In Aristophanes we will find a hostile view, suggesting ways in which
questioning and new thinking can be a threat to decent life. In Plato
we still see the positive view, showing how even removal of false conceits
of knowledge, and more still deep understanding of reality hold out
promise of better order and success in our lives and in our cities.
Required texts: Aristophanes’ Clouds, (translated by Jeffrey
Henderson); The Republic and Other Works, Plato (translated by
Jowett).
PHIL 100: INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
Lect 12:00 MW/Disc 12:00 F/ Sinkler
What is there? Where did what there is come from? Did the world which
consists of what there is have a beginning? Do the lives of human beings
who are part of the world have meaning? Can we have knowledge about
these matters or any others? These are some of the questions we will
consider during the semester, along with special puzzles and their possible
solution. Readings will be from classic and contemporary sources, some
of which will be included in a course-packet. Required texts: Categories
and De Interpretations, Aristotle (translated by J. L. Ackrill);
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Hume (edited by Richard
Popkin); The Meaning of Life, edited by E. D. Klemke; Meditations
on First Philosophy, Descartes (translated by Donald A. Cress).
PHIL 100: INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
Lect 5:30-7:00 M/Disc 7:00-8:00 M/ to be announced.
Catalog description: A survey of traditional problems concerning the
existence and nature of God, freedom, justification, morality, etc.
Readings from historical or contemporary philosophers. Required texts:
to be announced
PHIL 102: INTRODUCTORY LOGIC
Lect 11:00 MW/Disc 10:00 or 11:00 F/Huggett
What is logic and what does it have to offer? In one sense, logic is
a study of the structure of language -- it is based on the idea that
the infinity of possible sentences can all be composed according to
a few simple rules, so that different sentences composed according to
the same rules have the same ‘form’. In another sense, logic
is a study of arguments -- the idea of ‘formal’ logic is that
when one knows the logical form of an argument, one can precisely determine
whether it is valid or not. In yet another sense, logic is a study of
thought and reason - for it is natural to think of our thought processes
as like arguments from existing beliefs to new ones. Hence logic is
also important in computer science -- since computers are ‘artificial
reasoning machines’. To understand these ideas we will study and
master the apparatus of formal logic: the languages of propositional
and predicate logics, and the methods of proving validity. With this
in hand we can start to see the power and importance of modern logic
in a variety of fields: and, perhaps of most immediate practical benefit
in other courses, students will develop precision in their arguments
and reasoning. Required texts: Language, Proof and Logic, Jon
Barwise and John Etchemendy.
PHIL 102: INTRODUCTORY LOGIC
Lect 11:00 TR/Disc 11:00 or 12:00 F/Hylton
An introduction to the concepts and techniques of modern logic. Required
Text: Understanding Symbolic Logic, Virginia Klenk.
PHIL 102: INTRODUCTORY LOGIC
Lect 12:00 MW/Disc 11:00 or 12:00 F/Sutherland
Logic is practical, important and interesting. It brings clarity to
one’s thinking and it helps one understand and evaluate the reasons
people give to do or believe something. Logic helps with just about
every intellectual endeavor, whether it be writing a paper for English
class, evaluating the arguments of political candidates, or persuading
someone that it’s only fair that they pay for pizza. Besides being
useful, it is philosophically important. Formal logic can be viewed
as the structure of thought and reasoning. It is also like a language
because it can be articulated in a few simple rules that can generate
an infinite number of sentences that validly follow from each other.
The connections between language, logic and thought are rich in philosophical
interest. Logic concerns the form of any reasoning at all. The simple
example of a valid argument is: “All humans are mortal. Socrates
is a human. Therefore, Socrates is mortal.” Any argument that has
the same form will be valid. Valid logical forms can be much more complicated
than this and can be strung together into extended logical proofs. Formal
logic is the study of identifying, understanding and applying these
forms. In this course we will learn to use a computer-based formal logical
system. We will learn how to express sentences in this system, and then
how to carry out valid proofs from a set of sentences taken as premises
to a sentence taken as a conclusion. We will also uncover when a given
proof is invalid and how to show that it is invalid. The ultimate aim
is to enable you identify and analyze the logical form of arguments
and to become better thinkers. Required Text: Language, Proof and
Logic, Barwise and Etchemendy.
PHIL 102: INTRODUCTORY LOGIC
Lect 5:30-7:00 T/Disc 7:00-8:00 T/ to be announced.
Catalog description: Sentential logic: representation of English using
truth-functional connectives, truth table methods, natural deduction
techniques. Introduction to predicate logic: representation of English
using quantifiers. Decision methods of monadic predicate logic. Required
texts: to be announced.
PHIL 103: INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS
Lect 10:00 TR/Disc 10:00 or 11:00/Laden
Almost everyone agrees that it is wrong to act in a racist or sexist
manner. People disagree about the limits of what counts as a racist
or sexist action, however. In this course, we will read a variety of
authors who argue that many more of our actions than is usually thought
are racist or sexist. In particular, we will look at arguments that
claim that race and gender are socially created systems of inequality,
and that all actions that help to perpetuate these systems should count
as racist and/or sexist. In so doing, students will encounter various
ideas and concepts that play a role in moral philosophy beyond questions
of race and gender. They will also learn to appreciate and understand
complicated arguments in support of unfamiliar positions and think critically
about their place in the world: the hallmarks of philosophy. Required
texts: All readings are from contemporary sources and will be collected
in a course packet on sale at the bookstore.
PHIL 104: INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL/POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
Lect 12:00 MW/Disc 11:00 or 12:00 F/Fleischacker
Imagine yourself trying to come up with a mode of government for a new
country, one that you hope would be stable, efficient, and that would
make for a fairer and more decent society than any other the world has
yet seen. What theory of human nature, and of the goals of human life,
would you adopt? How would you define "justice"? What rights
would you proclaim? James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and the other founders
of the United States found themselves in very much this position, of
inventing a new mode of government for a new country. We live, that
is, in a country whose government was explicitly formed by political
philosophy, by people who were consciously thinking about what government
is for, what rights individuals should retain against government, what
"justice" means, and the like. Of course, while they may have
thought deeply and well about some questions, they dealt very badly
with others-how to end slavery, above all. But what they did represents
extremely well why political philosophy is important, and how it can
affect concrete political decisions. This introduction to political
philosophy will therefore focus on the questions central to the founding
of the United States, working outwards from sections of the Constitution
to the philosophical writings that inspired those sections, and to the
philosophical issues they raise. We will spend time, in particular,
on property rights, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion. Required
texts will include works by Plato, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, James
Madison and Thomas Jefferson. Required texts: titles to be announced.
PHIL 105: SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY
Lect 1:00 MW/Disc 12:00 or 1:00 F/Huggett
In this course we will investigate the notion of change in physics.
The nature of change is one of the oldest philosophical questions: for
something to change it must at once remain the same thing and become
different, but how something be the same and different? We will look
at how physics has come to look at change: Aristotle's view of change
in terms of simple capacities, Descartes' view of change as simple geometric
arrangement, and Newton's modern view of change as a combination of
the two. Then we will investigate a series of issues: Zeno's paradoxes
suggest change is impossible. Change involves motion in space but what
is space? Could it be finite? Why does it have three dimensions? What
shape does it have? Is it something distinct from the material objects
that are in it? Then, left and right hands are the same shape, and yet
not the same: how is this possible? What is time? How does it pass?
Is time travel possible? Next, if two things could swap all their properties,
would they also change their identities? Finally we'll look at change
in some modern physics, in a non-technical way: how do things change
in relativity? And how do things change in the quantum realm?Required
text: a Xeroxed draft of textbook by the instructor will be used.
PHIL 115: DEATH
Lect 10:00 MW/Disc 10:00 or 11:00 F/Grossman
We will examine several philosophical issues pertaining to death and
dying, with particular emphasis on the question of survival of the person
after death. Some of the questions we shall discuss are: Is there evidence
for survival? How do our beliefs about survival affect our attitude
towards death and dying? How do our attitudes about death affect how
we live our lives? Required texts: The Death of Ivan Ilyich,
Tolstoy; Death and Personal Survival, Almeder; Final Gifts,
Callanan and Kelley; Tuesdays with Morrie, Album; Lessons
From the Light, Ring.
PHIL 120: INTRODUCTION TO ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY
Lect 10:00 MW/Disc 9:00 or 10:00 F/ Lee
Introduction to some of the the central issues and problems of philosophy
through the study of ancient Greek and Roman philosophical texts in
translation. Questions we will consider include: (i) is everything fated
and determined, and if so, how can we be responsible for our actions?
(ii) What are the emotions? How do our emotions affect our deliberations
and contribute to our actions? (iii) What is knowledge? (iv) What is
the best life? How should we live? (v) What is justice? This course
will prepare the student for further work in philosophy, as well as
for the more specialized course sequence in ancient Greek philosophy
(Phil 220-221). Required texts: Voices of Ancient Philosophy: An
Introductory Reader, Julia Annas
PHIL 141: PHILOSOPHY AND REVELATION: JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVES
Lect 10:00 MW/Disc 10:00 or 11:00 F/Fleischacker
Many philosophers - in past centuries, at least - have argued that there
is a God, but the God they have defended with their arguments is an
unchangeable, immaterial Being that could not possibly intervene in
history, speak to human beings, or take human form. What relation can
this God of reason bear to the God described in Jewish, Christian and
Muslim scriptures? This question has vexed Jewish and Christian thinkers
for much of the past 200 years, and remains a live one in all three
Abrahamic religions to this day. We will look in this class at a sampling
of the most ingenious theories that have been proposed for how either
Scripture should be re-interpreted, or the "God of philosophers"
revised, to bring religious and philosophical understandings of God
together. Readings from Moses Mendelssohn, Immanuel Kant, GWF Hegel,
Søøren Kierkegaard, Hermann Cohen, and Mordechai Kaplan.
Required texts: to be announced.
PHIL 201: THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
Lect 9:30-10:15 TR/Disc 10:15-10:45 TR/Roth
Two sets of concerns drive much theorizing in contemporary epistemology.
First, philosophers want to explain what knowledge is. Knowledge is
not merely a matter of believing; my beliefs need to be justified. Is
this enough? And how are we to understand justification? Second, epistemology
is concerned with the possibility of knowledge. Are there compelling
skeptical arguments that show that we cannot attain knowledge? These
sets of concerns are related. We might formulate an account of knowledge
in such a way as to avoid skepticism. And skeptical arguments might
turn out to presuppose mistaken views about what is necessary for knowledge.
We will explore various conceptions of knowledge and justification,
and articulate and address skeptical arguments - in particular, the
skeptical claim that we do not or cannot know that there is an external
world or reality that generally corresponds to what is represented in
our beliefs. Required texts: to be announced.
PHIL 203: METAPHYSICS
Lect 1:00-1:50MW/Disc 1:00 F/to be announced.
Philosophical issues concerning free will, causation, action, mind and
body, identity over time. God, universals and particulars. Emphasis
varies from term to term. Required texts: to be announced. Prerequisites:
one course in philosophy or consent of the instructor.
PHIL 210: SYMBOLIC LOGIC
Lect-D 11:00-12:15 TR/Jarrett
This course provides a review of truth-functional logic (the main focus
of Philosophy 102, which is a prerequisite for this course) and a thorough
treatment of the principles of first-order predicate logic (“quantification
theory”). Our study will include a system of natural deduction
for predicate logic. We will examine a handful of more advanced topics
as time permits. Requirements for the course include a few problem sets,
quizzes, a midterm exam, and a final exam. Grades will be computed by
assigning to these three components the following approximate weights:
problem sets, quizzes, and class participation, 35%; midterm exam, 25%;
and final exam, 40%. Required texts: Understanding Symbolic Logic,
Virginia Klenk. Prerequisites: Phil 102. Recommended background: grade
of B or better in Phil 102.
PHIL 220: ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY I: PLATO AND HIS PREDECESSORS
Lect 12:00 MW/Disc 12:00 F/Meinwald
Designed to acquaint the student with Plato’s contribution to philosophy
through a study of his early and middle dialogues. Discussion concerning
the relations between being successful, being (morally) good, and having
knowledge in light of the claim that the world accessible to the senses
is not the real world. Required text: The Republic and Other Works,
Plato (Jowett, translator). Prerequisites: one course in philosophy
or consent of the instructor. It is recommended that Phil 220 and 221
be taken as a sequence in successive terms.
PHIL 223: HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY I: DESCARTES AND HIS SUCCESSORS
Lect 10:00 MW/Disc 10:00 F/Sinkler
The course will serve as an introduction to some of the major figures
and major issues of the Early Modern period in philosophy. Required
texts: Descartes Meditations on First Philosophy, Descarates (translated
by David A. Cress); Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Locke (Kenneth
Winkler, editor); Leviathan, Hobbes (edited by Edwin Curley); Three
Dialogues, Berkeley (R. M. Adams editor). Prerequisites: one course
in philosophy or consent of the instructor.
PHIL 403: METAPHYSICS
Lect-D: 12:30-1:45 TR/Roth
This course will concern the philosophy of action, and in particular,
the nature and justification of the special knowledge we as agents have
of our own intentions and actions. Since there are connections between
this agential self-knowledge and self-ascriptions of other attitudes
such as belief, we will also be looking at some of the literature on
self-knowledge in general. Required texts: to be announced. Prerequisite:
Phil 203 or Phil 226 or Phil 426 or consent of the instructor.
PHIL 403: METAPHYSICS
Lect-D 2:00-2:50 MWF/Sutherland
This course will be an introduction to the philosophy of mathematics.
It will consider the nature of mathematical objects, such as numbers,
and how we know mathematical truths. The course begins with Benacerraf’s
Dilemma, which poses a dilemma between the nature of mathematical objects,
such as numbers, and how we know mathematical truths about them. The
course will then explore three of the main responses to these issues,
Logicism, Formalism and Intuitionism. We will devote particular attention
to two Logicists, Gottlob Frege and Bertrand Russell. Prerequisites:
Phil 203 or 226 or 426 or consent of the instructor. It is very strongly
recommended that you have taken and done well in Phil 102 and strongly
recommend that you have taken Phil 210. Required Texts: Philosophies
of Mathematics, Alexander George and Daniel J. Velleman; Thinking
about Mathematics: The Philosophy of Mathematics, Stewart Shapiro;
The Foundations of Arithmetic, Gottlob Frege.
PHIL 416: METALOGIC I
Lect-D 9:30-10:45 TR/Hart
We will review the syntax and semantics of quantification theory with
and without identity. The main focus of the course will be a proof of
the completeness of these theories, and related results like the Löwenheim-Skolem
theorem. Required text: Introduction to Mathematical Logic, Elliott
Mendelson. Prerequisite: Phil 210 or consent of the instructor.
PHIL 420: PLATO
Lect-D 1:00 MWF/Lee
This course will introduce students to some advanced topics in Plato's
ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology. (A) Plato's ethics. We will begin
with a look at the sources for the historical Socrates, and then will
sketch the development of ideas concerning Plato's conception of the
good and of the good life starting from the early dialogues, through
the Republic, and on to the Laws. One of the themes we will pursue is
Plato's idea that only philosophers can attain virtue, and therefore
happiness. What were his reasons for this, and what kind of a good life
did he think is attainable by non-philosophers? (B) Plato's metaphysics.
We will begin with the central passages in the Phaedo, the Republic,
and the Symposium laying out the 'classic' theory of Forms, and then
will investigate Plato's later thoughts about what the Forms are like
in the Parmenides, the Philebus, and the Timaeus. The two main questions
we will pursue are (i) what are the Forms?, and (ii) did Plato's ideas
about matter and material body change and develop? (C) Plato's epistemology.
We will investigate the 'subject-related' conception of knowledge in
the Meno, the 'object-related' conception of knowledge in the Republic,
and the three definitions of knowledge in the Theaetetus. Prerequisite:
Phil 220 'Plato and his predecessors' (strongly recommended by the instructor)
or 221 or 3 courses in philosophy or consent of the instructor. (Please
note: the prerequisites listed will be insisted upon by the instructor;
if you are new to philosophy, this course is not for you.) Required
texts: Plato Complete Works, John Cooper; Phil 420 coursepack.
PHIL 423: STUDIES IN EARLY MODERN PHILOSOPHY
Lect-D 12:00-12:50 MWF/Grossman
Spinoza is a unique figure in the history of western philosophy. He
is not only a very astute metaphysician and epistemologist, but also
a master therapist and spiritual teacher. Spinoza’s explicitly
stated goal in writing his masterpiece, The Ethics, is to “lead
us, by the hand, as it were, to the knowledge of the human mind and
its highest blessedness.” Although the path which Spinoza carves
out for us is admittedly a difficult one, nevertheless, it is a path
which can be followed. There is great intellectual beauty in his system
of thought, but the “payoff” comes when the student realizes
that his system of thought, aside from being interesting and elegant,
can also function as a guide for living. Required texts: A Spinoza
Reader, Edwin Curley (editor). Prerequisite: Phil 223 or Phil 224
or 3 courses in philosophy or consent of the instructor.
PHIL 432: TOPICS IN ETHICS
Lect-D 12:30-1:45 TR/Laden
The course will be devoted to the study of two of the greatest and most
important texts in the history of moral philosophy: Aristotle’s
Nicomachean Ethics, and Immanuel Kant’s Groundwork for the Metaphysics
of Morals. In addition to understanding the basic arguments of each
text, we will pay particular attention to their accounts of practical
reason, and the relationship of reason to morality. Required texts:
Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, Kant (Mary Gregor ed.,
Intro by Christine Korsgaard); Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle
(T. Irwin, translator). Prerequisite: one 200-level course in philosophy
or consent of the instructor. Recommended background: credit in a course
in moral, social, or political philosophy.
PHIL 500: WRITING IN PHILOSOPHY
Disc 2:30-5:00 F/Meinwald
We will practice writing philosophy. Prerequisite: graduate standing
in philosophy.
PHIL 505: SEMINAR IN MODERN PHILOSOPHY
Disc 1:30-4:00 M/Downing
We will examine Locke and Berkeley's central work in metaphysics and
epistemology. Themes will include their connection to the new science
of the period (their reaction to mechanism and Newtonianism), their
account of perception and perceptual knowledge, their ontology, etc.
We will read Locke's Essay and Berkeley's Principles,
Dialogues, De Motu, and probably the New Theory of
Vision. Required texts: to be announced. Prerequisites: graduate
standing in philosophy.
PHIL 509: HISTORY OF ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY
Lect-D 2:30-5:00 R/HYLTON
This class will deal with twentieth-century analytic philosophy; more
specifically, with the tradition of scientific philosophy as it exists
within that broader movement. Our work will be in part determined as
we go, by the needs and interests of the class. We shall, in any case,
read works by Frege, Bertrand Russell, by the Logical Empiricists (otherwise
known as Logical Positivists, especially Schlick and Carnap), and by
Quine. The class is intended to be introductory in nature, as graduate
seminars go, and it is possible that some students may be overqualified.
My hope is that no graduate student in the department is underqualified,
though some knowledge of quantification theory will be assumed. Students
who are in doubt about their qualifications should talk to me. Required
Texts: The Problems of Philosophy, An Introduction to Mathematical
Philosophy, and The Philosophy of Logical Atomism (ed. David
Pears), Bertrand Russell. Recommended texts: Mysticism and Logic,
Bertrand Russell; From a Logical Point of View, W. V. Quine.
Prerequisite: graduate standing in philosophy.
PHIL 528: SOCIAL/POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
Disc 12:30-3:00 T/Mills
Western Philosophy has not traditionally had much useful to say about
race, and often what it has had to say has been racist. But in the last
decade, there has been an explosion of work in philosophy and race.
In this course, we will survey some of this literature, looking at such
topics as: the metaphysics of race; the origins of racism; the ethics
and politics of white supremacy and its legacy; the racial views of
such leading figures of Locke, Kant, and Mill; the phenomenology of
a racialized existence. Required texts: to be announced. Prerequisite:
graduate standing in philosophy.
PHIL 532: Metaphysics (call number 21254)
Disc 12:00-2:30 R/Edelberg
Topic: Causation
We will see what we can learn about causation (and some closely related
topics such as laws of nature) from some of the writings of David Armstrong,
Nancy Cartwright, Fred Dretske, John Dupré, David Hume, Jaegwon
Kim, David Lewis, J. L. Mackie, Bertrand Russell, Wesley Salmon, Frederick
Suppes, Michael Tooley, and others. Required texts: to be announced.
Prerequisite: graduate standing.
PHIL 542: PHILOSOPHY OF SPECIAL SCIENCES (call number 21253)
Disc 3:00-5:30T/Jarrett
This seminar is devoted to
a study of the foundations of quantum mechanics. You might think of
it as “What Every Philosopher Should Know About Quantum Mechanics”.)
It is intended to be of interest (and accessible) to students in philosophy
as well as to those in physics.
As far as technical material is
concerned, the course will be largely self-contained. No extensive special
background in the subject will be presupposed, but students who are
distressed at the very thought of basic algebra, trigonometry, ordinary
(real, 3-dimensional) vector spaces, etc. probably do not belong in
this class. Relevant mathematical topics will be developed in class
at a modest level of rigor, but we will not, for example, be solving
differential equations or doing perturbation theory (as one would, say,
in a standard quantum mechanics course in the physics department).
We will focus on questions that
arise in the attempt to give an adequate elucidation of the logical
and conceptual structure of the theory, questions that appear most dramatically
in connection with such topics as Bell’s Theorem and the measurement
problem. These questions challenge our most fundamental ideas about
the structure of our world and our place in it; and the principal goal
of the course is to provide formulations of such questions in a manner
that affords the student a genuine understanding of what is at stake
in debates over the “interpretation” of quantum mechanics.
Grades for the course will be based
on class participation (including a few problem sets): 30%; two take
-home exams: (20% each); and a 10-15 page term paper (30%).
The text for the course is The
Structure and Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, by R.I.G. Hughes,
Harvard University Press. (ISBN 0-674-84391-6)