| PHIL 100:
INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
Lect 11:00 MW/Disc 10:00 or 11:00 F/Downing
and
Lect 1:00 MW/Disc 12:00 or 1:00 F/Downing
A survey of a number of traditional philosophical issues, stressing both their depth and their interconnection. Questions addressed
may include the following: What makes an action morally right or wrong? Do we
have free will? Under what conditions are we morally responsible for our actions?
What is a mind and how is it related to the human brain/body? What is the fundamental
nature of reality and how do we gain knowledge of it? Does God exist? Readings
from historical and contemporary sources. Required texts: to be announced. PHIL 100:
INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
Lect 12:00 MW/Disc 11:00 or 12:00 F/Instructor:
Sinkler
This course will provide a general introduction to some of the
central problems in philosophy: What do we know and how do we know it?
Does a supremely perfect being exist?
Do we have free will? What is the
nature of morality? Readings will be from
classic and contemporary sources. Required
text: Philosophy and Contemporary Issues, J. Burr and M. Goldinger, eds. PHIL 100:
INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
Lect 11:00 TR/Disc 10:00 or 11:00 or 12:00
F/ Lee
This course will provide an introduction to some of the central
issues and problems of philosophy through the study of ancient Greek and Roman
philosophy. We will read selected texts from ancient authors in translation. Topics
to be covered include: (i) fate responsibility and freedom, (ii) reason and emotion,
(iii) knowledge, belief and skepticism, (iv) metaphysical questions concerning
cause explanation and existence, (v) ethics, and (vi) society and state. Required
texts: Voices of Ancient Philosophy: An Introductory Reader, Julia Annas. PHIL 102: INTRODUCTORY LOGIC
Lect 11:00 MW/Disc 10:00 or 11:00 or 12:00/Jarrett
In this course
we will begin with a careful study the principles governing valid deductive reasoning
in sentential (“truth-functional”) logic.
In other words, we will investigate the logical relationships that hold
among sentences constructed in English using such words as “not,” “and,”
or, “if ..., then ...,” and “if and only if.”
Among the important logical relationships of this sort is that of logical
implication: we will see what it means for a collection of sentences (i.e., the
“premises” of an argument) to logically imply another sentence (the
“conclusion” of that argument), thereby rendering the argument valid. Our examination of sentential logic will include
the development of a system of proof for this language. We will then move on to
take a preliminary look at the language of first-order predicate logic (“quantification
theory”). This is the logically richer
language that results from the augmentation of
sentential logic by incorporating into our logical formalism the
means to express structure of two additional sorts: (i) that associated with quantity
(as is accomplished, e.g., with such English locutions as “at least one,”
“every,” “some,” “all,” “at most three,”
“none,” etc.); and (ii) that associated with predicates and relations
(as is done, e.g., in ascribing particular properties to things or in asserting
that one thing is larger than another). If
time permits, we will take a brief glimpse at one or two more advanced topics. Logic requires the development of a range of skills. Some of these skills are similar to those employed
in learning a foreign language. Logic
employs a distinctive formal language with a characteristic vocabulary and rules
of syntax and semantics. Much of logic
involves learning how to “translate” back and forth between natural
language (English, in this case) and this abstract formal language that (for purposes
of logic) is considerably more perspicuous. Other necessary skills are very much akin to
those employed in mathematics. This is
so, in particular, when it comes to mastering the techniques for evaluating the
logical “links” that hold among a given set of sentences in the formal
language. Required text: Understanding
Symbolic Logic, Virginia Klenk. PHIL 102: INTRODUCTORY LOGIC
Lect 5:30-7:00 T/Disc 7:00-8:00 T/ Hart
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 for monadic predicate logic.
Required texts: Formal Logic: Its Scope and Limits, Richard Jeffrey.
PHIL 103: INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS
Lect 12:00 MW/Disc11:00 or 12:00 or 1:00/Hilbert
(Note: Anthony
Laden is incorrectly listed in the timetable as the instructor of this course) Some things people do are right, some are wrong.
Other actions are uplifting, and yet others disgusting.
In this course we will look at some of the theories that have been developed
by philosophers to explain and systematize these kinds of evaluations. We will attempt to apply these ideas to various
ordinary situations and discuss their possible relevance to some current ethical
controversies, in particular, human cloning. Course requirements: two 4-6 page papers, midterm,
final, section participation. Required
text: to be announced. PHIL
104: INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL/POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
Lect 10:00 MW/Disc 9:00 or 10:00 or 11:00 F/Sanbonmatsu
This course
takes up some of the more enduring questions in ancient, modern, and contemporary
political thought. What is the meaning of freedom? Of justice? Is there a "best"
form of government (and what would it be)? Should the needs of the community come
before those of the individual, or the other way around? What is power, who has
it, and how does it affect our lives? Can society overcome racism and other forms
of injustice? What would a utopian society look like? Is inequality natural? Is capitalism
or socialism the fairer system? Students will learn what some of the leading political
and social thinkers have had to say on these and other questions, and will be
invited to participate in free-wheeling arguments in class about society and politics.
Course readings will be structured around four broad themes: The State, Political
Power, Justice and Inequality, and Feminism and Gender. Required texts will include
works by Plato, Sophocles, Hobbes, Machiavelli, More, Rousseau, Wollstonecraft,
Marx, and Foucault. Required text: to be announced.
PHIL
104: INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL/POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
Lect 9:30-10:20 TR/Disc 9:00 or 10:00 F/Mills
This
course will provide an introduction to some important social and political issues
and theories in the Western tradition. Required
text: to be announced. PHIL 122: PHILOSOPHY OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Lect 12:00 MW/Disc 12:00 F/Chastain
We each know a lot about our
own states of consciousness just by having them, and we know about the rest of
the world on the basis of those states of consciousness. To value others as persons presupposes that they are conscious and
capable of having feelings. Consciousness
is thus central to moral philosophy as well as to the theory of knowledge.
We will examine a wide range of different states of consciousness (normal
and abnormal, common and rare, naturally occurring and artificially induced, familiar
and exotic), utilizing both contemporary scientific knowledge and a variety of
subjective descriptions, and see what philosophical conclusions we can draw from
them. Required Texts: The Mind's I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul, Douglas R. Hofstadter
and Daniel C. Dennett. PHIL 210: SYMBOLIC
LOGIC
Lect 12:00 MW/Disc 12:00 F/Loeffler
After having reviewed the
core features of sentential logic (the topic of Phil 102), we will develop a version
of the so-called first order predicate calculus plus identity. This system of logic is designed to represent
the logical features pertaining to English sentences due to their subject-predicate
structure and, correspondingly, the logical features of the words “something”
and “everything”. If time allows
it, we may dip into some more advanced topics in logic, such as the theory of
descriptions, set theory, or metatheory. Required texts: Logic: Techniques of Formal Reasoning, Donald
Kalish, Richard Montague, and Gary Mar. Prerequisite:
Phil 102; a grade of B or better in Phil 102 is recommended. PHIL 211: INDUCTIVE LOGIC AND
DECISION MAKING
Lect 1:00 MW/Disc 1:00 F/Jarrett
The
focus of this course will be on the principles that govern reasoning in contexts
of uncertainty; i.e., we will examine “rational
inference” in situations where the connection between premises and
conclusion falls short of deductive certainty.
Our study will lead us into an investigation of the nature of probability
and the various interpretations of the probability calculus.
We will also examine some features of the general relation between hypotheses
and evidence; this will afford us the opportunity to discuss some important aspects
of scientific methodology. Required text:
Choice and Chance, Brian Skyrms. Prerequisites:
Phil 102 or 210. PHIL
220: ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY I: PLATO AND HIS PREDECESSORS
Lect 12:00 MW/Disc 12:00 F/Grossman
Plato is often regarded as the father of Western Philosophy. The breadth,
depth, and beauty of the Platonic dialogues, together with their lasting influence,
render them as important and relevant for study today as they were when they were
first written over two thousand years ago. In
this course we will read selected Platonic dialogues, including Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phadrus, Phaedo,
Gorgias, and his masterpiece, The Republic.
Required texts: to be announced. PHIL
221: ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY II: ARISTOTLE AND HIS SUCCESSORS
Lect 2:00-2:45 TR/Disc 2:45-3:15 TR/Lee
In this course, we will
examine and explore the moral and political philosophy of Aristotle and of the
Hellenistic philosophers (the Epicureans, Skeptics and Stoics). Required texts: Nicomachean Ethics,
Aristotle (translated by Terence Irwin); Politics, Aristotle (translated
by C. D. C. Reeve); The Hellenistic Philosophers, A. A. Long and D. N.
Sedley, eds. Prerequisite: One course
in philosophy or consent of the instructor. PHIL
224: HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY II: KANT AND HIS
PREDECESSORS
Lect 9:30-10:15 TR/Disc 10:15-10:45 TR/Fleischacker
This course
is designed to cover, with Philosophy 223, what is known as the early modern period
of philosophy, covering roughly from 1637 to 1787. We will focus this semester
on the philosophy of Leibniz, Hume and Kant. These philosophers concerned themselves
with a wide range of issues; we will focus on issues in metaphysics and epistemology,
such as the notion of objectivity, the nature of mind, God and freedom, and the
nature and limitations of human knowledge. We will do so with a particular eye
to how the various philosophers response to the increasing tension between science
and religion played a part in their views. Required
texts: Discourse on Metaphysics/Correspondence with Arnauld/Monadology
G. W. Leibniz,; Treatise of Human Nature and Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding,
David Hume; Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant.
Prerequisite: one course in philosophy or consent of the instructor. It
is recommended that Phil 223 and 224 be taken as a sequence in successive terms. PHIL
227: CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY I: EXISTENTIALISM AND
PHENOMENOLOGY
Lect 5:00-7:00
W/Disc 7:00-8:00 W/Sanbonmatsu
When Nietzsche famously announced "the
death of God" in the 19th century he meant that, confronted with
the rise of a secular, scientific culture in the West, human beings would no longer
be able to count on traditional religious and social beliefs to make sense of
their world. The human being became, as it were, a giant question mark. For if
God is dead (or, at least, gone on an extended vacation), what is the meaning
of our existence? How do we know what truth is? What morality is? Whether our
existence has any meaning? This course will consider these and other questions
and themes in the existentialist tradition, including the nature of embodiment,
absurdity, the political implications of existentialist thought, Husserl's phenomenological
reduction, and Jean-Paul Sartre's disturbing idea that hell is really just other
people. Our focus will be on phenomenology, which concerns the study of how our
experiences as beings-in-the-world give rise to meaning and action. Readings will
include selections from Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Camus,
Merleau-Ponty, DeBeauvoir, and some contemporary existential feminists. Because
existentialist thought has had a strong impact on literature and film, we will
also read some existentialist fiction and watch one or two films, possibly "Groundhog
Day," "Dreamlife of Angels," or "Shoah." Students will
be required to keep up with the reading, some of which will be challenging. Required
text: to be announced. Prerequisite: Junior standing or consent of
the instructor. PHIL
230: TOPICS IN ETHICS AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
Lect 12:30-1:15 TR/Disc 1:15-1:45 TR/Laden
This semester we will
focus on what is known as the social contract tradition of political philosophy. What connects the members of this tradition
with one another is the thought that what supports political legitimacy is the
consent of the governed, and that we can, in various ways, understand what people
would consent to by asking what sort of “social contract” they would
agree to as the guiding principles of their society. The course will focus on the arguments of the four most important
social contract theorists: Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and
John Rawls. We will also look at some
radical critiques of the tradition. Although
our main focus will be the question of political legitimacy, we will also have
occasion to think about the nature of freedom, justice, rationality and deliberation.
Required text: to be announced. Prerequisite:
Phil 103 or 112 or 116 is recommended. PHIL
232: SEX ROLES: MORAL AND POLITICAL ISSUES
Lect 12:30-1:15 TR/Disc 1:15-1:45 TR/Bartky
Some topics to be
examined: biological arguments about sex differences; the role of culture in constructing
our ideas about masculinity and femininity; gender in the family and as work;
gender and violence; gays and lesbians: should they marry? Adopt children? What is the basis of homophobia? We shall examine these and any other issues
the class feels to be important. Required
text: The Gendered Society Reader, Michael Kimmel. PHIL 401: THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
Lect-D 1:00 MWF/Chastain
We will take a careful look at some of
the central issues in the theory of knowledge, such as perception, memory, knowledge
of necessary truth, self-knowledge and knowledge of other minds, induction, skepticism,
and the justification of belief. Required texts: A Guide Through the Theory
of Knowledge, Adam Morton; An Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology,
Jonathan Dancy; Knowledge: Readings in Contemporary Epistemology, Sven
Bernecker and Fred I. Dretske. Prerequisite: Phil 201 or consent of the instructor. PHIL
403: METAPHYSICS
Lect-D 11:00-12:15 TR/Edelberg
This semester our topics will be
causation and modality (necessity and possibility). Phil 102 or (better) 210 is strongly recommended. Required texts: Metaphysics: An Anthology; Jaegwon Kim and Ernest Sosa, eds.;
additional readings to be announced. Prerequisite:
Phil 203 or 226 or 426 or permission of the instructor. PHIL
417: METALOGIC II
Lect-D 9:30-10:45 TR/Hart
We will go through proofs, due basically
to Gödel, of the incompleteness and undecidability of first order elementary number
theory in detail. Time permitting we’ll
then go on to recursion theory, and Post’s Problem.
Required text: Introduction to Mathematical Logic, Elliott Mendelson.
Prerequisite: Phil 416 or consent of the instructor. PHIL
423: STUDIES IN EARLY MODERN PHILOSOPHY
Lect-D 10:00 MWF/Loeffler
We will study closely portions
of David Hume’s main work Treatise of Human Nature, one of the most
important and influential texts in modern Western philosophy. Our main focus will be, on the theoretical
side, on Hume’s theory of ideas and his account of causality and, on the
practical side, on his theories of the passions and of the will, and on his moral
philosophy. Although we will study Hume’s
text mainly immanently, a welcome side effect of this course will be some exposure
to, first, the roots of Hume’s philosophy in the British Empiricist Tradition
and, second, to Hume’s impact on Kant and on 20th century analytic
philosophy. Required texts: A Treatise
of Human Nature, David Hume (edited by P. H. Nidditch); Cambridge Companion
to Hume, David Norton, editor. Prerequisite: Phil 223 or 224 or 3 courses
in philosophy or consent of the instructor. PHIL
433: TOPICS IN SOCIAL/POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
Lect-D 12:30-1:45 TR/Mills
While there has long been an extensive
literature on race in such subjects as sociology and political science, philosophy
has not traditionally had much to say on the issue. Yet racial privilege and disadvantage
have obviously been central realities shaping people’s lives for hundreds
of years, and thus part of the “human condition” philosophy claims to
be mapping. Happily, in recent years, with the emergence of what has come to be
called “critical race theory,” a growing number of philosophers have
begun to look at race with the discipline’s distinctive lenses. In this course
we will survey some of this literature, examining such topics as: the metaphysics
of race; the origins, nature, and varieties of racism; the racial views of such
leading Enlightenment figures as Hobbes, Locke, Kant, Mill, Hegel; the morality
and politics of white supremacy and its legacy; and the phenomenology of a racialized
existence. Required
text: to be announced. Prerequisite: Credit
in a course in moral, social, or political philosophy is recommended. PHIL 501: TOPICS
IN ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY
Disc 11:00-1:30 T/Meinwald
While consent/assent is
a philosophical notion, literary, historical, and legal scholars tend to bracket
the philosophical tradition. We will see
how consent is developed as a technical notion in Stoic epistemology and ethics.
The course will continue with examination of some of the following issues
(to be chosen in accordance with the interests of participants) concerning consent
in ancient philosophy: Augustine and moral evaluation, assent in scepticism, rape,
medical consent. We may include literary sources if appropriate
to our topics. Required texts: to be announced. PHIL 504: THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO POLITY AND GOVERNANCE
CROSS-LISTED COURSE: SAME AS
POLS 504
Disc 6:00-8:30 pm/Balbus
This course encourages a careful reading
of three of the most important, widely discussed and debated works of philosophy
of the last quarter of the 20th century that raise questions about the epistemologies
that govern the study of politics: Richard Rorty's Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, Hans-Georg
Gadamer's Truth and Method, and Jurgen Habermas's
The Theory of Communicative Action: Volume I. The
the course also serves as an introduction to central issues in analytic philosophy,
hermeneutics, and critical theory. Richard Bernstein's overview, Beyond
Objectivism and Relativism, is also required, as is a take-home examination
and one oral presentation in class. PHIL
510: HISTORY OF ETHICS AND SOCIAL/POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
Disc 2:30-5:00 R/Fleischacker
This course will trace the development
of the notion of "distributive justice," from Aristotle's distinction
between "distributive" and "corrective" justice in the Nicomachean
Ethics, through the uses and extensions of Aristotle in Aquinas and early
modern thought (Grotius, Pufendorf, Hutcheson and Adam Smith), to what seems to
be a radically new understanding of that notion that arose around the time roughly
of Kant and the French Revolution. The course will consider the extent to which
Marx's and Mill's thought allow for distributive justice, and conclude with recent,
more or less Kantian uses of the notion, in Rawls, Martha Nussbaum, and Ronald
Dworkin. We will look throughout, to some extent, at popular and legal literature
on justice to the poor as well as at philosophical texts. The point of the course
is three-fold: to tease out the presuppositions of the modern notion of distributive
justice and distinguish that notion from its superficially similar predecessors,
to examine how ideas in political philosophy interact with ideas at large in their
broader cultural context, and to use the notion of distributive justice as a thematic
focus around which to survey a series of classical texts in the history of political
philosophy. PHIL
509: HISTORY OF ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY
Disc 2:30-5:00 T/Hylton
Note: To register for this seminar,
register for Hylton's 520. Effective
fall 2002, 509 will become the official course number for this seminar.
This class will deal with twentieth-century analytic philosophy; more specifically,
with the tradition of scientific philosophy as it exists within that broader movement.
We shall concentrate on work by Russell, the Logical Empiricists (otherwise known
as Logical Positivists, especially Schlick and Carnap), and 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. (Some knowledge of quantification
theory will be assumed. Students who are in doubt about their qualifications should
talk to me.) PHIL
520: TOPICS IN CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY
Disc 11:00-1:30 R/Schechtman
Topic: Parfit's Reasons and Persons
Derek Parfit’s groundbreaking book Reasons
and Persons contains a wealth of original and highly radical views on morality,
practical reasoning and personal identity–and on the connections between
these topics. The views put forth there have sparked a great
deal of discussion, and changed the face of important philosophical debates, most
especially the debate on diachronic personal identity. We will undertake an in-depth reading of this
text, together with secondary commentaries and criticisms. Doing so will provide insight not only into
Parfit’s own views, but into contemporary discussions in a variety of areas. Required texts: to be announced. PHIL
532: METAPHYSICS
Disc 1:00-3:30 M/Hilbert
Topic: Color realism and physiological
psychology
The seminar will cover two basic topics having to do with color.
The first will be the problem of the nature of color properties themselves. The
modern literature on the metaphysics of color, starting with Locke and Boyle,
will be surveyed. This literature is primarily philosophical, although empirical
considerations start to intrude into discussion over the past 10-15 years. The
second topic will start with a very brief overview of the essentials of color
science and then will involve a detailed look at some examples of attempts to
relate physiology and behavior that involve color vision. Philosophical responses
to some of the phenomena under discussion will also be considered.
Required texts: Readings on Color, Volume 1: The Philosophy of Color,
Byrne, A. and D. R. Hilbert. PHIL
590: RESEARCH SEMINAR
Disc 1:00-3:30 F/Edelberg
A workshop for philosophy graduate
students working on their topical, prospectus, or dissertation project.
Participants make at least one presentation, and join in the discussion
of other student's work. Graded S/U. Prerequisite: graduate standing. |