PHIL 100: INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
Lect 11:00 MW/Disc 10:00 or 11:00 F/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 texts: Philosophy and Contemporary Issues, J. Burr and M. Goldinger.
PHIL 100: INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
Lect 9:30-10:20 TR/Disc 10:00 F/Roth
This course introduces students to the concerns and methods of philosophy through examination and discussion of ancient, modern, and contemporary texts. A broad range of issues in metaphysics, epistemology, the philosophy of mind, and ethics will be explored.
Required text: to be announced.
PHIL 100: INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
Lect 12:00 MW/Disc 11:00 or 12:00 F/Downing
We will read three great, influential works of philosophy (by Plato, Descartes, and Hume), which together treat many of the enduring problems of western philosophy. Issues addressed will include the following: Should we be moral? What kind of system is morality? What is the best way to live? What is a mind and how is it related to the human brain/body? What is the fundamental nature of reality and how can we gain knowledge of it? Does God exist? What is the basis of our beliefs about the natural world? Are we free and morally responsible agents? Required texts: to be announced.
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 10:00 MW/Disc 10:00 or 11:00 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 to 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 12:00 MW/Disc 11:00 or 12:00/Jarrett
In this course we will begin with a careful study of 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 (e.g., 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.
Text: Understanding Symbolic Logic , Virginia Klenk.
PHIL 102: INTRODUCTORY LOGIC
Lect 5:30-7:00 T/Disc 7:00-8:00 T/ to be announced.
and
5:30-7:00 R/Disc 7:00-8:00 R/ 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 MW/Disc 9:00 or 10:00/Edelberg
and
Lect 11:00 MW/Disc 11:00 or 12:00 F/Edelberg
The course will consist of three sections: (1) Moral Theory. What is the nature of the fundamental distinctions drawn by morality – between the just and the unjust, right and wrong, good and evil, the virtuous and the vicious? How objective and absolute are they? How are they to be defined and explained? (2) Moral Issues in Private Life. What do we owe to ourselves? What do we owe to our parents, to friends? To non-human animals? What, if anything, is the “meaning”of life? Why do the right thing? (3) Moral Issues in the Public Sphere. Should cloning of humans be permitted? To what extent should nature be protected? Should same-sex marriage be permitted?
Required Texts: Christina Sommers and Fred Sommers, eds., Vice and Virtue in Everyday Life, 6th edition (supplemented by a few items on electronic reserve).
PHIL 103: INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS
Lect 5:30 -7:00 PM W/Disc 7:00-8:00 PM W/to be announced.
(Catalog description) Surveys attempts to answer central questions of ethics: What acts are right? What things are good? How do we know this?
PHIL 103: INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS
Lect 12:00 MW/Disc 11:00 or 12:00 F/Hilbert
Some things people do are right, some are wrong. Other actions are uplifting, and yet other reprehensible. 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 situations involving life and death. Course requirements: three 1-2 page opinion papers, two 4-6 page papers, midterm, final, section participation.
Required text: Life and Death: A Reader in Moral Problems, L. P. Pojman.
PHIL 201: THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
Lect 11:00-11:45 TR/Disc 11:45-12:15 TR/Huggett
In this course we will investigate knowledge: what is it? is it attainable? what are means by which it can be obtained? More specifically, we will deal with the following questions. Does mathematical or logical proof offer a road to knowledge? Does the ever present possibility of making a mistake - everyone makes errors of reason, and its always possible that we are hallucinating - mean that we can never claim to know? How should we revise our beliefs in the light of new evidence if we want to reliably learn the truth? What can experience of the past teach us about the future? What do computers teach us about reason and knowledge? The course will be essay based, but we will employ elementary formal ideas - from algebra and introductory logic - to address these questions.
Required text: Thinking Things Through: An Introduction to Philosophical Issues and Achievements, Clark Glymour.
PHIL 204: INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Lect 11:00 MWF/Disc 11:00 F/Harker
Advertisements frequently inform us how it has been scientifically proven that their product achieves better results than leading rivals. Why is it thought important that the results were "scientifically proven"? The answer is surely that we hold science in high esteem. We regard science as objective and rational, not subject to superstition or personal biases. But how accurate is this picture? Is science really so different from other methods of investigation? How much faith should we place in our scientific theories? In this course we will consider these and related questions. To further our inquiry we'll also look at a number of case-studies, both from contemporary science and the history of science. By the end of the course we should have a
more informed opinion of both the achievements and shortcomings of scientific inquiry.
Required texts: The Golem: What Everyone Should Know About Science, Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch; Theory and Reality: an introduction to the
philosophy of science, Peter Godfrey-Smith.
PHIL 210: SYMBOLIC LOGIC
Lect-D 12:30-1:45 TR/HYLTON
The focus of this course will be first-order quantification theory. We will begin by reviewing truth-functional logic, treating it in a somewhat more abstract and rigorous way than in Philosophy 102. We will then introduce quantifiers and their use to symbolize English sentences. We will set up a natural deduction system for first-order logic and consider meta-theoretical that arise about such a system—in particular, its soundness and completeness.
Note: The course is designed as a continuation of Philosophy 102, and should be accessible to students who have mastered the material of that course. In other words, it will presuppose a good understanding of the basic elements of truth-functional logic, and some acquaintance with quantification theory. As usual, aptitude and a willingness to work hard can to some extent make up for a lack of background; some students may even be able to take this course as a first course in logic, but for most that would be unwise. Students who have not taken Philosophy 102 at UIC should see me as soon as possible.
Required text: Deductive Logic, Warren Goldfarb.
Prerequisites: Phil 102. Recommended background: grade of B or better in Phil 102.
PHIL 221: ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY II: ARISTOTLE AND HIS SUCCESSORS
Lect-Disc 9:30-10:45 TR/Skultety
This course will offer an in-depth introduction to Aristotle’s moral and political philosophy. We will concentrate on the Nicomachean Ethics and the Politics, focusing on arguments and assessing Aristotle’s general methodological approach to ethical and political issues. Some familiarity with Plato’s political philosophy is recommended, but not required. Required texts: Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle (translated by Terence Irwin; Hackett, 2nd Ed.); Politics, Aristotle (translated by C.D.C. Reeve; Hackett). 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.
Required text: Politics, Aristotle (translator, C.D.C. Reeve); Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle (translator, Terence Irwin).
PHIL 224 History of Modern Philosophy II: Kant and His Predecessors
Lect-Disc 9:30-10:45 TR/Sedgwick
Our focus will be the transition, in the theory of knowledge, from the empiricist programs of Locke and (especially) Hume, to the transcendental philosophy of Kant. It is recommended that PHIL 223 and PHIL 224 be taken as a sequence in successive terms. Prerequisite(s): One course in philosophy or consent of the instructor.
Required Texts: Essay Concerning Human Understanding, John Locke, ed. K. Winkler; An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, 2nd Ed, David Hume, ed. Eric Steinberg; Title: Basic Writings of Immanuel Kant, ed.. Allen Wood.
PHIL 227: CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY I: PHENOMENOLOGY AND EXISTENTIALISM
Lect-D: 12:30-1:45 TR/Schechtman
Existentialism is, in many ways, one of the most accessible of philosophical movements. It is concerned with issues that are of immediate relevance to our lives--personal responsibility, anxiety, meaninglessness, freedom and rebellion. At the same time, however, Existentialist texts can be difficult and opaque. In this class we will look at some of the central texts of major Existentialist philosophers--including both philosophical essays and works of fiction. Our goal will be to understand Existentialism both as a school of philosophical thought and as an approach to living one's life. Authors read will include Camus, Sartre, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and deBeauvoir.
Required text: Existentialism, Robert C. Solomon,
PHIL 230: TOPICS IN ETHICS AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
Lect 9:00 MW/Disc 9:00 F/Fleischacker
We will examine the three main currents in contemporary ethical thought - utilitarianism, Kantianism, and "virtue ethics" - along with some of the major objections to them. Readings will be slow and careful, and students will write regular short papers. Prerequisite: Philosophy 103.
Required Texts: Utilitarianism: For and Against, J. J. C. Smart and Bernard Williams, Sources of Normativity, Christine Korsgaard; After Virtue, Alasdair MacIntyre; Virtue Ethics, Daniel Statman.
PHIL 401: THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
Lect-D 1:00 MWF/Sutherland
(Catalog description) Survey and analysis of key topics in epistemology, such as skepticism, the nature of propositional knowledge, justification, perception, memory, induction, other minds, naturalistic epistemology.
PHIL 404: PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Lect-D 11:00-12:15 TR/Jarrett
This will be a survey course examining a broad range of standard topics. Among the topics to be addressed are the nature of scientific theories, scientific laws, explanation, realism, objectivity, confirmation theory, and issues concerning scientific reasoning and religious faith. We will give consideration to the role of the logical empiricist movement as a historical backdrop to more recent developments. We will also examine one or two topics in the foundations of physics in order to explore some connections between the special sciences and more general issues in the philosophy of science. Readings will be drawn from an anthology (see the required text title below) and supplemented by a selection of articles to be made available in photocopied form.
Prerequisite: PHIL 102 or one 200- or 400-level logic course or PHIL 226 or consent of the instructor.
Required text: Readings in the Philosophy of Science, edited by Theodore Schick, Jr.
Course requirements: Students will be given several short writing assignments throughout the semester based on course readings and lectures. A longer (10-15 page) term paper will be due at the end of the semester. Grades will be based on the following scheme: class participation 30%; short writing assignments 40%; term paper 30%.
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 210 or consent of the instructor.
PHIL 424: Kant
Lect-D 11:00 MWF/Fleischacker
This course will be devoted to an intense examination of Kant's CRITIQUE OF JUDGMENT. One of the most important books in the history of aesthetics, Kant's so-called "third critique" also contains reflections on how the other elements of Kant's critical system (his epistemology and his moral philosophy) are supposed to hold together, and a long exploration of the extent to which we can see the world as containing God's purposes. One question we will ask will be how, if at all, aesthetics and the philosophy of religion belong together. For the most part, however, the class will be an exercise in the discipline of close reading. We will see what can be gained by spending a whole semester working through a major philosophical text.
Required texts: Critique of the Power of Judgment, Kant (edited by Paul Guyer; Kant’s Theory of Taste, Henry Allison; Kant and the Claims of Taste, Paul Guyer.
PHIL 429: SPECIAL STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY
Lect-D 10:00 MWF/Hilbert
Topic: Theory of Vision from Aristotle to Helmholtz
Vision is our main perceptual source of information regarding objects at a distance. The course will look at philosophical and psychological theories of how the visual system performs this important job from a historical perspective. Four main periods/authors will be looked at in detail: ancient theories of vision, particularly Aristotle; medieval theories of vision, particularly in the Islamic world; Berkeley's theory of vision; Helmholtz's theory of vision. Course requirements: term paper (15-20 pages), take-home quizzes, class participation.
Required text: to be announced.
PHIL 503: MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY
Disc: 1:00-3:30 M/Sinkler
The seminar is intended as a general introduction to philosophy as it was practiced during the Middle Ages. We will cover topics in language and logic, ethics and philosophy of religion, epistemology and natural philosophy. And, in order to appreciate the range of styles and attitudes, we will investigate the work of at least the following: Augustine, Boethius, Abelsed, Aquinas, Scotus, Ockham, Buridan, and Grosseteste.
The amount of reading will be more than manageable, with most of it to be distributed in the form of a seminar packet after the second week of the semester.
Required texts: Boethius: Consolation of Philosophy, translated by Joel C. Relihan; A History of Philosophy, Frederick Copleston.
PHIL 510: HISTORY OF ETHICS AND SOCIAL/POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
Disc: 11:30-2:00 T/Sedgwick
This is primarily a course on Kant’s practical philosophy (our main texts will be his Critique of Practical Philosophy and his Groundwork for a Metaphysics of Morals). We will begin the course, however, with an examination of the relation of Kant’s practical philosophy to his theoretical philosophy. We will seek answers to the following two questions in particular: What is the conception of freedom Kant claims is a necessary presupposition of morality? In what way does his theoretical philosophy provide the resources for defending that conception of freedom?
Required texts: Practical Philosophy, Immanuel Kant (translator: M. Gregor); Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant (translators: Paul Guyer and Allen Wood)
PHIL 534: PHILOSOPHY OF MIND
Disc 1:30-4:00 F/Roth
This course is concerned with the knowledge we as agents have of our own intentions and actions. Since there are connections between this agential self-knowledge and the self-ascription of other attitudes such as belief, we will also be looking at some of the literature on self-knowledge in general. Topics include first person authority, attempts at reconciling that authority with externalist views about the individuation of content, perceptual models of self-knowledge, Moore's paradox, rationality and first person authority, intentions and intentional action, practical vs. theoretical grounds for belief about what one will do, and acting for a reason. We will be reading pieces by Descartes, Davidson, Burge, Shoemaker, Peacocke, Moran, Anscombe, Hampshire, Grice, Velleman, Bratman, O'Brien, and others.
Prerequisites: graduate standing in philosophy.
PHIL 536: EPISTEMOLOGY
Lect-D 2:00-4:30 T/Grossman
Is Materialism a logical truth? If so, then it cannot be false. Or is Materialism rather an empirical theory about the world?........in which case it could be false. If the later, then what sort of empirical evidence would falsify Materialism? And, is evidence of the required kind already at hand?
To put the issue in quasi-historical perspective, there are a number of questions which at one time were the sole province of philosophy and theology, but which now are susceptible to scientific investigation. Questions pertaining to the nature of matter, of space and time, of causality and determinism, of atomism vs. wholism, and even of the origin and ultimate destiny of the physical universe, are questions about which empirical science has much to say, and everyone agrees that philosophical speculations about such matter ought to be informed by the findings of science. Might the long-standing debate between Materialism and Dualism, like the above kinds of problems, be decidable empirically. Or at least, should not this debate take account of the best empirical data, whatever that turns out to be.
In this seminar we will examine a large and varied body of empirical data that have caused a number of researchers to conclude that the evidence against Materialism is compelling, if not conclusive. The strongest data involve (i) very well-documented cases of individuals acquiring veridical and detailed information about events remote from where their body is known to be, and (ii) very well-documented cases of individuals reporting vivid conscious experience while their brain was known to be in a state not capable of generating conscious experience. We will examine such cases, and also examine how Materialists and Dualists have attempted to explain them (or explain them away, as the case may be).
My approach to this material will be epistemological, and I will assume very elementary acquaintance with some very basic philosophy of science concepts. If students are not already familiar with Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions, we will read it as part of the seminar.
Robert Almeder’s Death and Personal Survival will be a main text for the seminar, along with lots of articles, case studies, etc..........I have extra copies of Almeder’s book, if anyone wants to take a look at it.
PHIL 540: PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Disc 2:30-5:00 R/Huggett
This course will discuss laws of nature (in general, though our examples will mostly be from physics): what are they? (primitive necessities, regularities, relations between universals, perhaps nothing at all, ...); how are they related to issues in metaphysics? (possibility, dispositions, causation, ...); what - aside from truth - are desirable properties of laws? (especially, symmetry, determinism, locality, ...). Students will make presentations, and have a choice (with my approval) of a longer term paper or shorter series of assignments. There will be some technical components, but I will only assume first order logic, elementary set theory, and simple algebra; any proofs required of students will not form a substantial component of the work.
Required Texts:
Laws and Symmetry, Bas van Fraassen;
The Philosophy of Physics: Locality, Fields, Energy, and Mass, Marc Lange;
A Primer on Determinism, John Earman. |