Faculty of Arts & Sciences

The course introduces students to philosophical argumentation and writing by investigating the following questions: Does god exist? What makes for good evidence? How ought we to act? What is the relationship between mind and body? Is there free will? Is there life after death, and if not, is death bad for us? We'll pay particular attention to how answers to one question interact with answers to the others. No previous experience with philosophy required. There will be many exercises and activities to develop your philosophical skills.

A survey of 17th- and 18th-century philosophy with a focus on the major metaphysical and epistemological writings of Descartes, Locke, Hume, and Kant. Topics include the natures of mind and body, the existence of God, the existence of the external world, the nature and limits of human knowledge, and the changing relationship between science and philosophy.

An introduction to ethics, focusing on two major views of what it means to be moral and how morality matters. On one (utilitarianism), morality is roughly about doing what best serves the interests of everyone involved; on the other (associated with Immanuel Kant) it instead concerns relating to people on terms that respect their dignity and autonomy. We'll explore these views in the context of both practical issues like animal rights and global poverty, and more personal concerns about well-being, manipulation, and responsibility; and we'll also consider whether both views might seriously exaggerate the place of morality in our lives.

An introduction to philosophical questions in psychology and the cognitive sciences: the nature of consciousness, the relation between perception, cognition, and introspection, the pertinence of language for rational thought, and the role of memory for personal identity and the self. We also examine related questions, such as how we can study the content of minds in non-human animals and assess the possibility of minds in robots, as well as how certain brain dysfunctions affect the mind and the self.

Graded independent study under faculty supervision. Interested students need approval of head tutor for their topic and must propose a detailed syllabus before the beginning of term.

A survey of Plato's views, with special attention to the nature of philosophical wisdom and its place in the good life. Likely readings include Apology, Gorgias, Meno, and Protagoras, with additional selections from Phaedo, Philebus, Republic, and Theaetetus. While our primary task is to understand and evaluate the theories expressed in Plato's dialogues, a secondary task is to examine issues of interpretive methodology that arise given that Plato wrote dialogues which predominantly feature a historical figure (Socrates) and which may or may not express a consistent set of views.

An examination of three great traditions in medieval philosophy, neo-Platonism, Scholastic-Aristotelianism, and Nominalism, through the works of their most important proponents, Augustine, Aquinas, and Ockham. Specific topics will include skepticism, knowledge, human nature, divine nature, language, realism, and conceptualism.

The so-called British Empiricists (Locke, Berkeley, and Hume) take us on a journey from very sensible philosophical starting points to rather extravagant sounding philosophical conclusions. We will explore their influential arguments concerning such things as the self, the external world, mind and body, natural kinds, concepts, language, science, skepticism, and the role of philosophy itself.

A close reading of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, focusing on its treatments of the topics of meaning, reference, rule-following, cognition, perception, "the private mental realm" knowledge, scepticism, and the nature of philosophy. Attention to Wittgenstein's philosophical methodology, with its claim to dissolve philosophical problems rather than propose solutions to them.

An examination of the beginnings of analytic philosophy, with primary interest in the reformulation of traditional philosophical problems by these three authors and the analytic and logical methods they introduced to treat them.

An introduction to the semantics and metatheory of modal logic as well as some of its applications in philosophy and linguistics. Topics drawn from the following: Completeness, frames, and incompleteness for propositional modal logic; semantics for quantificational modal logics; provability interpretations of modal logic; intensional semantics for conditionals and other natural language expressions.

Survey of 20th century and contemporary views on the nature of scientific knowledge, and related metaphysical issues. Topics include: logical empiricism, Popper and "falsifiability", induction and confirmation, explanation, scientific realism, causation and laws of nature, and the sense (if any) in which "everything reduces to physics".

A crowning achievement of 20th century science, quantum mechanics has raised deeply perplexing questions for physicists and philosophers alike: Does quantum mechanics show that the conscious mind has the power to make the physical world "jump"? That reality itself is constantly "splitting" into alternative versions? That the universe as a whole is in some deep sense "holistic"? And so on. In this course, we will attempt to separate the wheat of genuine mystery from the chaff of philosophical confusion, and along the way use quantum mechanics as an excuse to explore several fascinating and fundamental philosophical questions about science. No prior knowledge of quantum mechanics required.

An exploration of the distinctive ways in which we know (1) our own minds, (2) our own bodies, (3) the minds of other persons. A central concern will be how each of these kinds of knowledge differs from our knowledge of mere objects. Readings from philosophical sources and from some relevant literature in contemporary psychology and cognitive science.

We will discuss a range of issues related to cognitive architecture. Topics will include some but probably not all of the following: the cognitive underpinnings of implicit bias, Bayesian theories of perceptual processing, the distinctions between perception and sensation, the distinctions between perception and cognition, the perception of agency, and the epistemology of perception.

We are going to explore, in the most general possible manner, two questions: What is there? And what is it (that is, whatever it is that there is) like? We're also going to explore the meta-question of whether and how genuine progress on these two questions can ever be made.

In a strikingly original and provocative body of work, the British philosopher Bernard Williams argued that traditional approaches to moral philosophy entailed a badly distorted picture of human life and action. This course will study Williams's critique of these approaches and explore what he thought should replace them. Readings will include, among others, Williams's books Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy and Shame and Necessity, and his essays on character, personal identity, reasons for action, luck, blame, death, and tragedy.

A close examination of three metaethical views that take a deflationary approach toward the moral domain: nihilism, relativism, and expressivism.

In this course we will consider how one ought to act. We will look at some general moral theories, including Kantianism, consequentialism, and contractualism. And we will consider the implications of these theories for particular issues, such as promising, deception, self-defense, and risk-imposition.

An examination of some texts of philosophical aesthetics from the 18th and 19th centuries, texts which either represent or anticipate the Romantic period. Themes include the role of emotion in art, the nature of expression and its relation to the will, problems of sincerity, and art or poetry as sources of knowledge. Readings will include some, but probably not all, of the following authors: Diderot, Schiller, Burke, Kant, Hume, Hegel, Lessing, Rousseau.

The so-called British Empiricists (Locke, Berkeley, and Hume) take us on a journey from very sensible philosophical starting points to rather extravagant sounding philosophical conclusions. In this course we will look in depth at specific interpretive and philosophical issues that arise in connection with the British Empiricist tradition. Familiarity with the central works of Locke, Berkeley and Hume - such as one might acquire in Phil 122 or a similar course - will be presupposed.

The topic will be the search for axioms that settle the statements left unsettled by ZFC. Topics include: The nature of justification in mathematics, axioms of infinity, definable determinacy, the continuum hypothesis, the HOD Conjecture, the search for a 'final' axiom and the candidate V = Ultimate-L.

A systematic examination of the nature and significance of the epistemic authority that our culture currently bequeaths upon science, with emphasis on issues in both the public and private spheres. How, in a democratic society, should scientific expertise be adjudicated, and deployed in decision-making in political and legal settings? To what extent are science and religion in conflict? What is it to adopt a "scientific worldview" - and what difference should this make, if any, to how an individual perceives and conducts her own life?

We will look at some theoretical and practical questions about equality and discrimination in both morality and the law. Likely theoretical topics include what makes equality valuable, theories of expressive harm, and the moral status of groups. Likely applications include racial profiling, sex-discrimination in hiring, regulation of pornography, religious endorsement by the state, and amnesties for undocumented migrants. We will read both some legal sources and various theorists, such as Deborah Hellman, Elizabeth Anderson, T.M. Scanlon, Rae Langton, Richard Banks, and Owen Fiss.

An intensive study of selected problems in contemporary philosophy.

Small seminars on specialized topics, arranged by members of the Department in consultation with suitably prepared graduate students. Seminars will be listed individually with numbers from 311 through 398.

A forum for the presentation and discussion of work in progress by students in metaphysics and epistemology. Open only to graduate students in the Philosophy Department or by invitation of the instructors.

A close reading of philosophical texts in their original Latin language with the aim of developing reading and translation skills.

A close reading of philosophical texts in classical Greek, with the aim of developing reading skills as well as making interpretive progress. In AY 14/15, the text will be Plato's Phaedo, and there will be visiting scholars leading some sessions and giving associated lectures.

A close reading of philosophical texts in classical Greek, with the aim of developing reading skills as well as making interpretive progress. There will be visiting scholars leading some sessions and giving associated lectures.