Jump to: Fall 2018 Graduate Courses
101-1: Introduction to Philosophy
9:55 MWF
Instructor
This course provides an overview of some central questions of philosophy, and explains how philosophers go about investigating them. We will cover questions concerning the relation between mind and body, the nature of knowledge, the existence of the universe, moral obligation and value (what makes an action right vs. wrong?), and belief vs. nonbelief in God. We will also learn logical reasoning skills, which we will apply when discussing these questions. Assignments include short papers and two exams. Class attendance is mandatory.
101-2: Introduction to Philosophy
11:00 MWF
Southgate
This course is an introduction to philosophical thinking and the Western philosophical tradition from antiquity to modernity. Through reading classical and contemporary texts, we will be examining central topics in this tradition: proofs for the existence of God, the nature of morality, the meaning of life, and the nature of art and beauty. By exploring these topics and works, students will develop a conception of what philosophy is, become familiar with its history, and acquire the skills needed to identify, evaluate, and construct arguments. In so doing, they will be laying the foundations for a fruitful engagement with philosophy and for critical thinking generally.
101-4: Introduction to Philosophy
1:00-2:15 TR
Instructor
This course provides an overview of some central questions of philosophy, and explains how philosophers go about investigating them. We will cover questions concerning the relation between mind and body, the nature of knowledge, the existence of the universe, moral obligation and value (what makes an action right vs. wrong?), and belief vs. nonbelief in God. We will also learn logical reasoning skills, which we will apply when discussing these questions. Assignments include short papers and two exams. Class attendance is mandatory.
101-6: Introduction to Philosophy
9:30-10:45 TR
Bengson
This course is an introduction to central problems of philosophy and basic methods of philosophical inquiry. Topics include: the ultimate nature of reality; the possibility of knowledge; the threat of illusion, bias, and bullshit; the foundation of morality; the identity of persons; the badness (or not) of death; the existence (or nonexistence) of God; and the scope of good and evil. Students will learn and practice a variety of skills, including tools for analysis and argumentation. They will also acquire a body of knowledge, concerning philosophical questions, as well as possible answers to them.
101-8: Introduction to Philosophy
12:05 MWF
Messina
The purpose of this course is to give you a better sense of what philosophy is, how it relates to other disciplines, and what it is good for. We will proceed by considering possible answers to a number of key philosophical questions: e.g. Do we have free will? What is knowledge and what sorts of things can we know? What is the fundamental nature of reality? Does God exist? Is truth relative or objective? Is life absurd and meaningless? What, if anything, determines that an action (for instance, intentionally killing an innocent person) is morally wrong? As will soon become clear, much of philosophy consists in formulating and evaluating arguments. Assuming you do the work, you can expect to emerge from this class with improved analytical skills and with an understanding of some fundamental philosophical issues.
141-1: The Meaning of Life
11:00-12:15 TR
Schechtman
This course is an introduction to philosophy through one of the best-known philosophical questions: what is the meaning of life? We will discuss the question itself (for example, what would it even mean for a life to have a meaning?) and various classical and contemporary attempts to answer it. Assignments may include short papers and exams. No prior background in philosophy is required.
141-4: The Meaning of Life (FIG Honors)
9:30-10:45 TR
Shafer-Landau
Does your life have any meaning? If so, why? In this course, we will explore these and related questions, such as: is God required to give meaning to life? What is the relationship between living a happy life, a virtuous life, and a meaningful life? Does death undermine life’s meaning, or is our mortality essential for life to have any meaning at all? Is a meaningful life within everyone’s reach, or are some people doomed to live a meaningless life? Does engaging in meaningful activities always enhance our well-being, or are we sometimes faced with a choice between being better off and living a more meaningful life?
210-2: Reason in Communication
11:00 MWF
Instructor
Argument in familiar contexts; emphasis upon developing critical skills in comprehending, evaluating, and engaging in contemporary forms of reasoning, with special attention to the uses of argument in mass communication media. Prerequisites: Sophomore Status.
211-1: Elementary Logic
12:05 MWF
Vranas
A hotel manager put up a sign reading: “No one is permitted on these premises unless accompanied by a registered guest”. Apparently the manager failed to realize that from the statement on the sign it follows that no unaccompanied registered guest is permitted on the premises! In general, the question of which statements follow from other statements is quite tricky. This course addresses this tricky question by (1) introducing a symbolic language into which one can translate a great many ordinary English sentences and almost all mathematical sentences, and by (2) using an automated proof procedure to show that certain sentences follow from other sentences.
211-2: Elementary Logic
11:00-12:15 TR
Titelbaum
Suppose I say, “If no one moved the cheese since last night, it’s in the fridge. If I didn’t move the cheese, then no one did. I didn’t move the cheese. So it’s still in the fridge.” This argument concerning the whereabouts of the cheese contains some premises followed by a conclusion. The argument is structured so that if the premises are true, the conclusion must be true as well.
In this course we will represent arguments in symbols to reveal their structure, then study argumentative structures that guarantee a true conclusion from true premises. We will also learn how to prove that an argument with a particular structure is valid. The techniques we will learn are necessary for every area of contemporary philosophy, and are relevant to areas of economics, mathematics, computer science, rhetoric, and the law.
211-3: Elementary Logic
1:00-2:15 TR
Mackay
This course is an introduction to formal logic, the study of valid reasoning. We will study methods for proving that an argument is either valid or invalid. Validity, as we will understand it, depends on the form of arguments rather than on their content; we will therefore work with a formal, symbolic language in which the form of sentences is made explicit. We will study both truth–functional and quantificational logic and use a deductive proof procedure for each.
220: Philosophy and the Sciences
1:00-2:15 TR
Sober
This is a first course in philosophy of science, aimed at undergraduates who are interested in science. There are no prerequisites. The course is divided into four sections. The first concerns the ABCs of deductive logic and probability reasoning. The second addresses the question “what is science?” as it pertains to the on-going conflict between evolutionary biology and creationism/intelligent design. The third addresses some central questions in philosophy of science – the justification of induction, the nature of explanation, the question of whether scientific evidence ever supports claims about unobservable entities, and the difference between normal scientific change and scientific revolutions. The fourth topic concerns the role of ethical and political values in scientific practice.
241-1: Introductory Ethics (fulfills category B requirement for the major)
1:00-2:15 TR
Instructor
Nature of moral problems and of ethical theory, varieties of moral skepticism, practical ethics and the evaluation of social institutions. Prerequisites: Sophomore Status.
241-2: Introductory Ethics (fulfills category B requirement for the major)
11:00 MWF
Instructor
Nature of moral problems and of ethical theory, varieties of moral skepticism, practical ethics and the evaluation of social institutions. Prerequisites: Sophomore Status.
304-1: Topic in Philosophy-Humanities
Happiness and the Good Life
2:30-3:45 TR
Schechtman
We all want to be happy, but we disagree about what happiness is. Is it just a feeling, like the one you get when you spend a care-free day on the beach? Or is it a way of being, like the way you are when you’re morally virtuous? (Consider: is it possible to be happy even if you don’t feel happy? To feel happy even if you aren’t happy?) Similarly, we all want to lead the best lives we can, but we disagree about what it is for a life to be best. Is life best when it involves a lot of pleasurable things (like food, movies, art, sex, care-free days on the beach, etc.)? Or is life best when it involves loving relationships with family and friends, or perhaps the acquisition of knowledge, or instead a bounty of satisfying work? Can an evil person have a good life, or does living well require being good? And how does religion figure into a life well-lived? We’ll examine all these questions and others, through reading of classical and contemporary philosophical texts. Assessment will be based on attendance, regular participation (including in-class debates), and essays.
304-2: Topic in Philosophy-Humanities
Love, Sex, Friendship, and Partiality
11:00-12:15 TR
Brighouse
Love, sex, and friendship are at the center of what makes most people’s lives meaningful for them. We shall consider how to define love, what kinds of love are good, and whether love can sometimes be bad. We will examine how to define sex, the distinction between normal from abnormal sex, sexual identity, sexual exploitation and objectification, sexual consent, and the relationship between sex and the meaning of life. We shall ask whether sex is only good when accompanied by love, and whether it is always good when accompanied by love; and also what kinds of sexual relationship are morally permissible, and what kinds are not. We shall look at what a good friendship is, and what obligations friends have, both toward one another and toward those not in the friendship. We shall also consider the love that parents and children do and should have for one another, and the duties that hold in that relationship. Most of the readings will be philosophical, but we shall also read some history, sociology, and fiction.
304-3: Topic in Philosophy-Humanities
9:55 MWF
Schon
How to live well has been at the forefront of all philosophical traditions around the globe since their inception. In all of these traditions, the question of living well involves having wisdom and living by that wisdom. As any philosopher will tell you, no one person or culture has, or has had, any monopoly on wisdom or living well. This class will explore wisdom traditions from around the world with an eye toward learning how those traditions can apply to our lives as we live them now. We will begin the course looking at some of the ideas that form the backbone of the Western philosophical tradition, but we will quickly move on to other traditions, including those of East Asia, India, Africa, and the Americas. All of these traditions have a long history and so we will not be able to study any of them in the depth that they deserve. The hope is that by looking at them side-by-side we can not only compare their relative similarities and differences but that we can learn from them what they seek to teach us, how to live well by living wisely.
304-4: Topic in Philosophy-Humanities
11:00 MWF
Mund
As of 2018, there are 2.3 million people incarcerated in the United States, and, in the past decade, 336 people have been executed by the state. These measures are prominent instances of criminal punishment: harmful government action aimed at those who have violated the law. Are these acts of punishment morally justified? Is criminal punishment in any form morally justified? If criminal punishment is sometimes morally justified, what conditions (e.g., a lack of racial bias, proportionality between the crime and the punishment, an aim at rehabilitation) must the punishment meet?
This is a class in applied ethics in which we will use philosophical tools to examine the ethical justifications that have been given in defense of criminal punishment, and then deploy that framework to evaluate how punishment is actually practiced in the United States. Topics in the theoretical half of the course include: Is it a morally good thing for those who have committed morally terrible crimes to suffer for what they have done? Is it morally permissible to “punish” innocent people if this will prevent future crime? If free will does not exist, can punishment ever be morally justified? Topics in the applied half of the course include: Is punishment in the United States proportional to the crimes committed? What percentage of those incarcerated in the United States have harmed others (rather than merely having harmed themselves)? How might racial bias be detected and eliminated from the practice of punishment?
The goal of the course is to help students develop an informed position regarding the moral tenability of criminal punishment in the United States and regarding the merit of proposed reform measures.
341-1: Contemporary Moral Issues
1:00-2:15 TR
Shafer-Landau
This course, which presupposes no prior philosophical background, seeks to provide students with the tools needed to carefully analyze a variety of timely ethical issues. The emphasis throughout will be on respectfully and sensitively appreciating the complexity and the argumentative structure of the various positions on these issues, allowing students to decide for themselves where they stand on these important matters.
341-2: Contemporary Moral Issues
11:00-12:15 TR
Hausman
This course will give us the opportunity to think deeply about four controversial and difficult moral issues: 1) surrogate motherhood, 2) abortion, 3) inequalities of income, wealth, and health, and 4) health care. In addition, to provide some perspective and depth in our consideration of the particular issues, we shall spend some time with ethical theory. The last weeks of the course will put the skills developed in to the course to work in brief treatments of several other issues, to be chosen by the members of the class.
Course requirements will include homework (5%), quizzes (25%), Introductory Paper (10%), Term Paper (40%), Final examination (20%). There will also be an opportunity to rewrite your term paper, should you choose to do so, and there will be extra credit for section attendance and participation.
341: Contemporary Moral Issues (fulfills Comm B requirement)
Lec. 91 9:55 MTWR
Lec. 92 11:00 MTWR
Lec. 93 12:05 MTWR
Lec. 95 12:05 MTWR
A philosophical study of some of the major moral issue in contemporary society, such as those concerning abortion, euthanasia, punishment, property, politics, sex, nuclear disarmament, and world hunger. Prerequisites: Sophomore Status or consent of instructor. (Fulfills Comm B requirement).
430: History of Ancient Philosophy
11:00 TR
Fletcher
In this course, we will examine how ancient Greek philosophers approached fundamental questions about knowledge and reality. What is the nature and origin of the world? Did it come to be by chance, intelligence or some other cause? How do the senses and reason contribute to our understanding of the world? Is it possible to be certain about anything at all? What is the connection between language and reality? We will focus on Plato and Aristotle, but we will also study some of their philosophical predecessors, such as Parmenides and Heraclitus, as well as the post-Aristotelian philosopher Epicurus.
432: History of Modern Philosophy
9:55 MWF
Messina
In this course, we will read and discuss selections from the works of some influential 17th and 18th century philosophers: Galileo, Descartes, Princess Elisabeth, Malebranche, Spinoza, Leibniz, Lady Masham, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. Though these thinkers are a diverse bunch, one thing that unites them is their preoccupation with a set of philosophical issues connected with the scientific revolution ushered in by scientists like Galileo and Newton. The scientific revolution, which was closely associated with the so-called mechanical philosophy, raised troubling questions about free will, the mind-body relationship, God’s place in nature, the sources and limits of knowledge, and the ultimate nature of reality. The modern philosophers we will study in this class thought deeply about these questions, and though their answers often diverge widely from one another (and sometimes from common sense), they helped to shape philosophy as it is practiced today.
503: Theory of Knowledge (includes an honors section)
1:00-2:15 TR
Bengson
We will survey epistemology—the theory of knowledge—by focusing on state of the art work on knowledge, certainty, understanding, and epistemic justice. What does it take to know something? Can I be certain of anything? What is understanding, and why is it valuable? What sort of power does one accrue from knowledge, and how do power relations affect us in our capacities as knowers? We’ll explore these questions by reading three recent, and widely influential, books by eminent epistemologists: Linda Zagzebski’s On Epistemology, covering skepticism, testimony, and the nature and value of understanding and wisdom; Robert Pasnau’s After Certainty, which juxtaposes competing conceptions of the highest cognitive perfection, or ideal, for beings such as ourselves; and Miranda Fricker’s Epistemic Justice: Ethics and the Power of Knowing, on how various social and political relations engender cognitive prejudices and blindspots. Previous experience reading and writing philosophical papers is required.
504: Special Tops-Theory of Knowledge
Bayesian Epistemology
2:30-3:45 TR
Titelbaum
Traditional epistemology considers all-or-nothing beliefs: you either believe that it’s going to rain today or you don’t. Bayesian epistemology supposes that individuals assign degrees of belief to propositions: you might be less confident that it will rain, or more confident without being entirely certain. These degrees of belief can be represented by numbers (I’m 70% confident it will rain today), and then subjected to mathematical constraints (if I’m 70% confident that it will rain today, I should be 30% confident that it won’t). We will consider what degrees of belief are, how they relate to actions, what rational constraints on degrees of belief Bayesians propose, and why we should believe those constraints are rationally required. We will then apply Bayesian epistemology to better understand inductive reasoning, confirmation of hypotheses by evidence, and various puzzles and paradoxes. (Assignments include regular problem sets with both mathematical and philosophical questions, and a final paper. Prerequisites are Philosophy 211 or equivalent and a solid ability to work with high school-level algebra.)
516: Language and Meaning
1:00-2:15 TR
Gibson
Philosophy of Language was the dominant philosophical movement in 20th Century Philosophy. It is widely thought that what is distinctive about human beings is their representational capacity, their thought and language. Thoughts are private and are not physically accessible. By contrast, language is a publicly and physically accessible subject through which to understand the distinctive nature of human representation. Accounts of the semantic properties of language focus on such questions as these: What makes one thing a representation of another? How are thoughts and sentences different from other representations in nature, such as paw prints or stratified deposits’? How do words make reference to objects and properties? Do words have both a meaning and a reference? Is the meaning of a sentence dependent upon the context of its use? Aside from the particular things referred to by the various parts of the sentence, how is the sentence as a whole ‘unified’ in such a way as to say some single thing? In the course, we will study work of Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, Strawson, Austin, Grice, Donnellan, Kripke, as well as more recent work.
523: Philosophy Problems-Biology Sciences
11:00-12:15 TR
Sober
In this course, we’ll examine several philosophical questions concerning the theory of evolution, probably including most of the following: What do common ancestry and natural selection mean and how can hypotheses about each be tested? How should the concepts of fitness and adaptation be understood? What does it mean to say that mutations arise “by chance?” Are there laws concerning natural selection? How can natural selection cause altruistic behaviors to evolve if altruists are, by definition, less fit than selfish individuals? Can natural selection help explain the origin of language, and of social norms? Does the theory of evolution undercut the idea that there are ethical truths? Does the theory undercut its own plausibility since it shows that our cognitive equipment evolved because it promotes survival and reproduction, not because it promotes the quest for truth?
524: Philosophy and Economics
1:00-2:15 TR
Hausman
Over the last few decades economics has undergone a methodological transformation. 40 years ago, the top journals were full of mathematic investigations with little laboratory experimentation, survey research, or field experiments. In contrast, here is a list of the first four articles in the most recent (February, 2018) issue of the American Economic Review: “The Effects of Pretrial Detention on Conviction, Future Crime, and Employment: Evidence from Randomly Assigned Judges;” “Implications of US Tax Policy for House Prices, Rents, and Homeownership,” The Welfare Cost of Perceived Policy Uncertainty: Evidence from Social Security;” and “The Economic Consequences of Hospital Admissions.” This transformation of the discipline calls for rethinking economic methodology and for explanation. This semester in Philosophy/Economics 524 we will examine the development and transformation of economic methodology in the light of philosophy of science. Unlike some of the previous offerings of this course, this semester will say little about ethics and welfare economics.
The course falls into six divisions: (1) An introduction to philosophy of science, (2) The early development of economic methodology, (3) The post World-War II methodological consensus, (4) Experimentation in Economics, (5) The Great Recession and its methodological implications and (6) New images of the discipline. In addition to articles and blogs, readings will include Samir Okasha, Philosophy of Science, A Very Short Introduction (2016), Dan Hausman, The Inexact and Separate Science of Economics (1992), and Dani Rodrik, Economics Rules: The Rights and Wrongs of the Dismal Science (2015).
The course will be taught in a discussion format, with students expected to come to class having done the readings and having completed frequent brief homework assignments. In addition to homework and short quizzes on the readings, there will be two papers and a final examination.
549: Great Moral Philosophers (includes an honors section)
Pleasure and Morality
9:30-10:45 TR
Fletcher
What does pleasure have to do with performing morally right actions, being a good person or living a good human life? Are there different kinds of pleasure, and if so, are some morally more valuable than others? Given the centrality of pleasure in our lives — and its ability to motivate us — every moral philosopher has something to say about how pleasure relates to morality. For some, pleasure is what makes an action morally right, whereas for others, the desire for pleasure undermines our ability to do the right thing. We will read some of the most influential moral philosophers, including Plato, Hume, Kant and Mill. One central question of the course is how, if at all, disagreements about the value of pleasure are related to disagreements about what pleasure is.
551: Philosophy of Mind
11:00-12:15 TR
Steinberg
Is your mind a physical thing? Could it be that your mind is an immaterial soul? Could we make a machine that had a mind (i.e., could think, be conscious, etc.)? Various philosophical theories of the nature of the mind will be examined in considering these questions.
555: Political Philosophy (includes an honors section)
9:30-10:45 TR
Brighouse
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to a range of contemporary thinking about topics in political philosophy. We shall focus on contemporary theories of justice, and, in the first part of the course, shall read John Rawls’s restatement of his influential theory of justice as fairness. Then we shall look at a series of alternative views including libertarianism, communitarianism, a liberal group rights approach and look at a form of conservatism. We’ll then look at a series of more policy-oriented issues mainly concerning equality of opportunity, including how higher education should be funded, the role of markets in education, and the distribution of the costs of rearing children. The class is run through a combination of lecture and discussion, and you will be expected to write three papers, participate in online discussions, and in the second half of the semester groups will make in class presentations.
565: Ethics of Modern Biotechnology (cross-listed with AGR, C&E SOC, and MED HIST)
2:30-3:45 TR
Streiffer
Study of ethical issues arising from the application of modern biotechnology (including genetic engineering, CRISPR/CAS9, cloning, and stem cells) to microorganisms, crops, animals, and humans. Readings cover applied ethics, moral theory, political philosophy, the science used in biotechnology, and current regulations governing its use.
701: Reading Seminars (combined with Graduate Seminars)
Instructor Consent
835: Advanced History of Philosophy
Spinoza
1:15-3:15
Nadler
The semester will be devoted to a close study of Spinoza’s Ethics. We will consider the work’s metaphysical, epistemological and moral themes.
902: Proseminar in Philosophy
1:15-3:15 F
Mackay
This seminar for incoming students is required. It provides a background/refresher in central texts in core analytic philosophy across diverse specialties, and a common entry experience into graduate school. There will be a close reading of texts and an emphasis on writing skills.
916: Seminar-Philos of Language (Can satisfy the history requirement)
Early Analytic
4:00-6:00 T
Gibson
For graduate students, this course can count as satisfying one of the seminars needed to satisfy the history requirement. The seminar will about the foundations of analytic philosophy. We will study Frege, Moore, Russell, Wittgenstein (both the Tractatus and parts of the Philosophical Investigations), and perhaps their influence on later philosophers (e.g., Austin, Anscombe, and ‘Oxford’ philosophy). I know that most of you have studied some Frege, Moore and Russell in the pro-seminar. But we can select readings that need not overlap greatly with work you have already studied. So, for example, with Moore we can look not only at his rejection of idealism, but also the influence of his method, which is perhaps best illustrated in his work on free will and ethics. At any rate, I am flexible about crafting a syllabus that represents the interests of participants in the seminar, while focusing carefully and, hopefully, deeply on the work of these great philosophers.
941: Seminar: Ethics
Moral Dilemmas
1:15-3:15 M
Vranas
An unresolvable moral dilemma is a situation in which an agent is morally obligated to perform a given action but is also morally obligated to refrain from performing the action. Are such dilemmas possible? This question has potentially profound implications, both for moral philosophy and for everyday life. As far as moral philosophy goes, some ethical theories (for example, some forms of utilitarianism) preclude the possibility of unresolvable moral dilemmas. It follows that, if such dilemmas are possible, these ethical theories are nonstarters. As far as everyday life goes, in an unresolvable moral dilemma the agent is morally checkmated, to use an analogy from chess: the agent must move but no move is acceptable. It follows that, if such dilemmas are possible, we may sometimes find ourselves in hopeless predicaments.
Philosophical opinion on the possibility of unresolvable moral dilemmas is divided. This seminar examines in detail the arguments in this debate. The seminar requirements consist of a term paper and weekly emails on the required readings (which never exceed 45 pages per week).
960: Metaphysics
Contemporary Big Pictures and Big Players
4:00-6:00 M
Sidelle
While it is not exactly like some of the system-builders of the past, recent metaphysics has seen more very smart people trying to take on what look like quite big questions about the basic structure of the world (at least, the physical world). In this class, we’ll delve a bit into some of that work. Some of the philosophers we will look at will be Ted Sider, Kit Fine, Eli Hirsch, Karen Bennett, Dan Korman and Jonathan Schaffer (David Chalmers?) (maybe that list will have to be cut back a bit, or maybe our readings will have to be less ambitious). The issues we will look at will mostly focus around the ontology of material objects – nihilism, universalism, essentialism, ‘the ordinary view’, deflationism, grounding, the ‘fundamental’ quantifier and the possibility of quantifier varience, ‘bottom up’ vs. other views. We will read at least some of Sider’s Writing the Book of the World; Korman’s Objects; Bennett’s Making Things Up and articles by Fine, Hirsch and Schaffer (Chalmers’ Constructing the World?). There is no guiding plan, except to introduce ourselves to these views and arguments and to play them off against each other to some extent – something of a high-level introduction to contemporary big players in metaphysics who are working on fundamental issues about the material world.