PHIL 100: INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
Lect 11:00- 11:50 TR/Disc 10:00-10:50 or 11:00-11:50 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 choice of the will? What is the nature of morality? Readings will be from classic and contemporary sources.
Required Text: J. Burr & M. Goldinger, Philosophy and Contemporary Issues, 9th ed.
PHIL 100: INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
Lect 10:00-10:50 MW/Disc 9:00-9:50, 10:00-10:50 F/ Whipple
In this course the discipline of philosophy will be introduced through some of its original historical sources. We will begin by studying three of Plato’s famous dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, and the Republic. We will then study one the most fascinating and influential works of the modern period, Rene Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy. We will conclude the course by thinking about an important question in contemporary ethics: what are our moral obligations to animals? Throughout the course we will be considering questions such as the following: what is philosophy? What is the difference between knowledge and belief? What is the difference between appearance and reality? What is justice? Would I be happier being unjust rather than just if I could get away with it? What is the best form of government? Can I be certain that an external world exists? Does God exist? What is the relation between my mind and my body?
Required Text: Five Dialogues, Plato, trans. G. Grube and J. Cooper, Hackett, 2002.
Republic, Plato, trans. C. D. C. Reeve, Hackett, 2004. Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes, ed. J. Cottingham, Cambridge, 1996.
PHIL 100: INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
Lect 11:00-11:50 MW/Disc 11:00-11:50 or 12:00-12:50 F/ Klein
This course will provide an introduction to central themes and methods in western philosophy. We will consider a number of topics, including the existence of god, knowledge of other minds, and the possibility of free will. Readings will come from a variety of historical and contemporary sources.
Required Text: TBA
PHIL 100: INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
Lect 5:30-7 M/Disc 7-8 M/ Schmor
(Catalog Description:) A survey of traditional problems concerning the existence and nature of God, freedom, justification, morality, etc. Readings from historical or contemporary philosophers. Individual and Society course.
Required Text: TBA
PHIL 102: INTRODUCTORY LOGIC
Lect 10:00-10:50 MW/Disc 9:00- 9:50 or 10:00-10:50 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.
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 clarity of expression, and precision in their arguments and reasoning.
Required Text: Language, Proof and Logic, Barwise & Etchemendy.
PHIL 102: INTRODUCTORY LOGIC
Lect 12:00-12:50 MW/Disc 12:00-12:50 or 1:00- 1:50 F/ Jarrett
This course begins with a careful study of the principles governing valid deductive reasoning in sentential (“truth-functional”) logic. Here 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 (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 formal 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 (Fifth Edition), by Virginia Klenk . Prentice Hall.
ISBN: 0-13-205152-4
PHIL 102: INTRODUCTORY LOGIC
Lect 5:30-7:00 T/ Disc 7:00-8:00 T/ Zarnitsyn
(Catalog Description:) Sentential logic: representation of English using truth-functional connectives, decision methods, natural deduction techniques. Introduction to predicate logic: representation of English using quantifiers. Decision methods for monadic predicate logic.
Required Text: TBA
PHIL 103: INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS
Lect 11:00-11:50 MW/Disc 12:00-12:50 or 1:00-1:50 F/ Schechtman
Ethical dilemmas are a frequent occurrence in ordinary life. Almost every day we are called upon to make decisions about our own lives or about public policy which raise questions about what is good or right to do. Philosophical reflection and argument is a terrifically powerful tool for considering such questions, helping us to get past initial impressions and clarify the issues. This course provides an introduction to philosophical ethics. We will read philosophical texts that offer abstract moral theories, and also look at how philosophers address specific moral questions that arise in connection with such issues as genetic enhancement and cloning; abortion; war, terrorism and torture; poverty and world hunger; and the environment. Through critical evaluation of these texts we will learn how philosophers approach ethical questions, and consider the strengths and limitations of philosophical argument as a means to moral decision making.
Required Text: TBA
PHIL 103: INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS
Lect 9:00-9:50 MW/ Disc 9:00-9:50 or 10:00-10:50 F/ Fleischacker
What is goodness? Why bother being a good person? How do we become good? We will look at some ancient and modern philosophical answers to these questions, and try to work out some answers of our own. Readings from Plato, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, and John Stuart Mill.
PHIL 103: INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS
Lect 5:30-7:00 T/ Disc 7:00-8:00 T/ Blom
There are a variety of ways to approach ethics. We might think that ethics is about being a good person and, hence, focus on what kind of character we should foster in ourselves. Or we might think that ethics requires us, above all, to act in ways that bring about the most amount of good in the world. Or, again, we might think that however we act, ethics gives us a requirement to respect the rights of others. Depending whether we take one of these approaches to ethics or any other, we will think differently about the choices we have to make. In this course, we will think over some current ethical problems--beginning with the treatment of animals--as a way of discovering what these different approaches to ethics bring to bear.
Required Text: TBA
PHIL 104: INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL/POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
Lect 11:00-11:50 MW/Disc 9:00- 9:50 or 10:00- 10:50 F/Svolba
A survey of several central topics in social and political philosophy, including, but not limited to, the nature of justice, the grounds of political obligation, and the nature and value of human rights. Readings will be drawn from both classical and contemporary sources. Bi-weekly quizzes, three exams.
Required Text: TBA
PHIL 105: SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY
Lect 12:00-12:50 MW/ Disc 12:00-12:50 or 1:00-1:50 F/Huggett
When physicists discover something about the world they often present it as a 'law of nature'. The analogy suggests that like people, nature is governed by fundamental rules, but what does that really mean? Human laws often have an ethical dimension, but 'right and wrong' can't mean anything for, say atoms or planets – so what kind of principles can be discerned in the laws? And we know what happens when we break the law (and get caught), but why does nature have to follow the laws of physics? To address these questions we will study a book on the topic by one of the most important and famous philosophers of the Twentieth Century (and any other), Richard Feynman; we will supplement this book with further readings. We will learn some simple but important examples of physical law , which we will use to try to understand what laws of physics are. The topics that Feynman will lead us through include: the theory of gravity, the role of mathematics in physics, conservation of energy, symmetry, the difference between past and future, the nature of quantum mechanics, and the discovery of new laws.
While we will introduce a few mathematical notions, only simple ideas from algebra and geometry (and pre-college physics) will be presupposed. There will be short problem sets and written assignments.
Required Text: The Character of Physical Law, Feynman.
PHIL 110: PHILOSOPHY OF LOVE AND SEX
Lect 9:30- 10:20 TR/ Disc 9:00-9:50 or 10:00-10:50 F/Eaton
This course introduces historical and contemporary philosophical texts from the western tradition that deal with love and sex. Topics to be discussed include: friendship, familial love, love of god, pornography, prostitution, sadomasochism, homosexuality, masturbation, sexual perversion, and adultery.
Required Text: TBA
PHIL 201: THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
Lect 12:30- 12:44 TR/ Disc 12:45- 1:15 TR/Jarrett
(Catalog Description:) Basic issues concerning knowledge of the external world, other minds, scientific laws, and necessary truths. Prerequisite(s): One course in philosophy.
Required Text: TBA
PHIL 202: PHILOSOPHY OF PSYCHOLOGY
Lect- Disc 1:00- 1:50 MWF/ Klein
This course will cover classic and contemporary perspectives on the mind-body problem. We will use these to evaluate various theories and methods of scientific psychology, and their implications for understanding our ordinary, commonsense conceptions of the mental.
Required Text: TBA
PHIL 203: METAPHYSICS
Lect 9:30-10:15 TR/Disc 10:16-10:45 TR/ Svolba
Are you the same person today that you were one year ago? What does it mean to say that the bowling ball caused the pins to fall? A mind is a terrible thing to waste, but what, exactly, is a mind? These are questions belonging to metaphysics. We’ll read and discuss what metaphysicians have said about personal identity, the nature of mind, and the nature of causation. Three exams, one paper.
Required Text: TBA
PHIL 210: SYMBOLIC LOGIC
Lect-Disc 2:00- 2:50 MWF/ Morris
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. Our study will proceed to monadic and polyadic quantification theory, for which a deduction system will be introduced. We will also consider meta-theoretic questions 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 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
PHIL 221: ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY II: ARISTOTLE AND HIS SUCCESSORS
Lect-Disc 11:00- 12:15 TR/ Meinwald
The course will provide a general introduction to Aristotle. We will read selections from his works in order to identify his views on what there is, on scientific explanation, and in ethics. We will set Aristotle in the context in which he developed: his relation to the program of Plato and the Academy.
Required Text: TBA
PHIL 224: HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY II: KANT AND HIS PREDECESSORS
Lect-Disc 12:00- 12:50 MWF/ Whipple
This course will be a survey of four major figures from the modern period: John Locke, David Hume, G. W. Leibniz, and Immanuel Kant. We will begin with Locke’s masterpiece, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. We will then study selections from two of Hume’s great works, A Treatise of Human Nature, and An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. A brief examination of Leibniz’s famous correspondence with Samuel Clarke will follow, and the remainder of the semester will be devoted to a close reading of Kant’s Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics. Throughout the course, our aim will be not only to understand particular views of individual philosophers, but also the historical and conceptual relations between the various views we are studying. Topics will include skepticism, substance, mind-body relations, personal identity, causation, space and time, and the limits of reason. Four five page papers will be assigned over the course of the semester.
Required Texts: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, John Locke, ed. R. Woolhouse, Penguin Classics, 1997. A Treatise of Human Nature, David Hume, Eds. E. Norton and M. Norton, Oxford, 2000.
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, David Hume, ed. T. Beauchamp, Oxford, 1999.
Leibniz and Clarke: Correspondence, ed. R. Ariew, Hackett, 2000.
Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics, trans. J. Ellington, Hackett, 2001.
PHIL 229: SEMINAR
Lect-Disc 12:00- 12:50 MWF/ Grossman
Materialism is the dominant paradigm of the Academic Community. A materialist believes that every that exists is made up of matter; in particular, a materialist believes that our mind, our thoughts and feelings, our very consciousness, is produced by, and reducible to, brain activity. Recent research, however, has uncovered a wealth of data that directly challenges the materialistic paradigm, and many such researches have come to believe, based on their own research, that consciousness can exist apart from the brain. In his seminar, we will examine the data in detail. The central question for our seminar will be: can the materialist paradigm account for the data, or is the data sufficiently strong that it falsifies the materialist paradigm?
I intend to conduct this class as a research seminar: aside from the usual term paper, we will have oral reports, and lots of class discussion.
Required Text: Robert Almender, Death and Personal Survival, Jim B. Tucker, Life Before Life, Dean Radin, Entangled Minds, Kenneth Ring, Lessons From the Light, Gary Scwartz, The AfterLife Experiments.
Prerequisites: Either (i) you are a declared major in Philosophy or (ii) have obtained the consent of the instructor.
PHIL 403: METAPHYSICS
Lect-Disc: 9:30-10:45 TR/Hilbert
The focus of the class will be on metaphysical issues that arise out of empirical research in psychology and neuroscience. We will discuss a range of traditional metaphysical issues: free will, causation, metaphysics of mind, personal identity. We will be focused, however, on how these topics as they appear in the context of thinking about the mind with an emphasis on empirically informed approaches. Requirements: 5-6 two page discussion papers, two 8 page papers, class attendance and participation.
Required Text: TBA
PHIL 420: PLATO
Lect-Disc 2:00- 3:15 TR/ Meinwald
Topic for 2008: Plato's Metaphysics. The focus of the course will be Plato's Theory of Forms. We will revisit the treatment of metaphysics in the Republic, consider how the sketch as there presented is challenged in the first part of the Parmenides, and see how the second part of the Parmenides together with the late dialogues develops a viable and influential theory. We will examine, where appropriate, the work of other figures, tracing in particular how Plato's work draws on developments due to his philosophical predecessors Parmenides, Anaxagoras, and Philolaus, and on Plato's contemporaries working in mathematics.
Required Text: TBA
PHIL 423: STUDIES IN EARLY MODERN PHILOSOPHY
Lect-Disc 10:00-10:50 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 its elegance, can also function as a practical guide for living.
Prerequisites: Philosophy 223 and/or 224 is highly recommended.
Required Text: TBA
PHIL 430: ETHICS
Lect-Disc 11:00-11:50 MWF/Fleischacker
Should right and wrong, and good and bad, be defined by what God wants? Those who say "yes" to this question hold what is called a "divine command" theory of ethics. Divine command moralities are very popular, but have generally been dismissed by philosophers. Recently, however, the position has received some sophisticated defenses, even while being continuing to be rejected by most philosophers. After surveying some early modern defenders and critics of this position, we will turn to the contemporary discussion of it, in such authors as Robert Adams.
Required Text: TBA
PHIL 503: MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY
Lect-Disc 12:30-3:00 T/Sinkler
(Catalog Description:) Intensive study of special topics in medieval philosophy.
PHIL 505: SEMINAR IN MODERN PHILOSOPHY
Lect-Disc 12:30-3:00 R/Sutherland
The seminar will cover some of the fundamental themes and arguments of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. We will focus on the analytic/synthetic and a priori/a posteriori distinction, Kant's views on space and time, the transcendental deduction, and the System of Principles as they are presented in the Transcendental Aesthetic and the Transcendental Analytic. We will consult various articles and Henry Allison’s Kant’s Transcendental Idealism.
Required Texts:
The required texts are:
The Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant. Translated by Guyer and Wood.
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999)
ISBN-13: 978-0521657297
Kant’s Transcendental Idealism, Henry Allison, revised and expanded edition.
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004)
ISBN-13: 978-0300102666
PHIL 520: TOPICS IN CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY
Lect-Disc 3:30- 6:00 T/ Hylton
The seminar will be about the treatment of modality in analytic philosophy. We shall approach this topic historically. We shall read some Kant by way of background and then read selections from Frege, Russell, C. I. Lewis, Schlick, Carnap, Marcus, Quine, Kripke, and David Lewis (others may be added to this list). There will be some emphasis on technical treatments (modal logic) as well as on questions of interpretation—and on the interaction between the two.
Readings will consist of articles and selections from books, assigned as we go.
Required Text: TBA
PHIL 530: ETHICS AND AESTHETICS
Lect-Disc 1:00- 3:30 M/ Eaton
Do ethical features of artworks affect the works’ aesthetic value? Can works be aesthetically diminished by ethical flaws, or aesthetically enhanced by ethical merits?
Conversely, can artworks be aesthetically enhanced by ethical blemishes, or aesthetically blemished by ethical merits? What is it for an artwork to be ethically flawed or excellent, anyway? Readings will be for the most part contemporary.
Required Text: TBA
PHIL 538: PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE
Lect-Disc 3:30-6:00 R/Edelberg
Topic: Direct Reference and Its Critics
Over the last thirty-five years, direct reference theories of proper names, demonstratives, indexicals, natural kind terms, and other expressions have gained widespread acceptance—not just among philosophers of language but among those working in other areas of philosophy. These theories claim that relative to a context of use, the expressions in question contribute nothing but their referent to the semantic content of sentences in which they occur. (The classic contrast here is with Frege’s theory of sense and reference.) This seminar will focus on direct reference theories and their competitors, and how both kinds of theories are defended, developed, and criticized. The final weeks will be devoted to the recent two-dimensionalist revival of Fregeanism, and its critics (1996-2007). We will read and discuss work by Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, Saul Kripke, Keith Donnellan, David Kaplan, Hilary Putnam, Nathan Salmon, Scott Soames, Mark Crimmins and John Perry, Mark Richard, Michael Devitt, Gareth Evans, Robert Stalnaker, Frank Jackson, David Chalmers, Alex Byrne and James Pryor. I will assume seminar participants are proficient in quantifier logic, but not that one has had previous coursework in philosophy of language.
Required Text: Saul Kripke, Naming and Necessity, 1972, 1980; Matthew Davidson, ed., On Sense and Direct Reference: Readings in the Philosophy of Language, 2007. These will be supplemented by readings on electronic reserve. Those taking the seminar for credit should read Frege’s “Sense and Reference” and Bertrand Russell’s “On Denoting” in preparation for the first class meeting; both are available in the Davidson reader. |