What is knowledge? How ought we to live? Does God exist? Do we have free will? What
is the nature of consciousness? You’ve likely spent at least some time thinking about
such questions; if so, then you’ve already thought about some of the subject matter
that philosophers have pondered for millennia. Philosophy is the most fundamental
academic discipline, in the sense that it is concerned with answering the most fundamental
questions concerning the nature of reality and human existence. Philosophy One is
designed to help you think about these questions in a rigorous and systematic manner,
by introducing you to some of the most influential thinkers and ideas in the Western
philosophical tradition. updated 11/1/23.
This course provides an introduction to philosophy focused on the metaphysical, ethical,
and value questions, What (who) are we? What should we do? and What makes life meaningful?
Answers from various figures in Western thought will be explored, compared, and evaluated,
providing a basis for further study of these in upper level courses.
Topics may vary each time course is offered.
How to detect, analyze, and critically evaluate reasoning in ordinary language and
its technical counterparts found in business, economics, etc. The course is designed
to enhance skills for handling arguments in a variety of texts. Understanding the
arguments and theories encountered in one's situations is stressed, along with how
one can improve one's own expression of arguments and theories, especially in writing.
Topics include techniques of reconstruction and evaluation in a process of self-editing,
detection of fallacies, and distinguishing correct from incorrect reasoning.
What is the purpose of your education? How does it relate to creating a flourishing
life, one filled with deep satisfaction, well-being, resilience, and accomplishment?
What can we learn from the humanities and sciences about the varieties of human flourishing
and its key ingredients, and how can you develop your own personal vision of that
life? What skills and knowledge would you need to realize that vision?
This course aims to assist you in finding your own answers to these questions so as
to lay the foundation for flourishing during your undergraduate years, while also
preparing you for a life of flourishing in personal, civic, and professional contexts.
We will explore perspectives from both the humanities and sciences in ways that are
directly relevant to university life, and we will engage in practices, such as mindfulness
and meditation, which will help you develop the intellectual and emotional resilience,
compassion, gratitude, and others that research shows are key indicators of human
flourishing.
Students will examine and critically evaluate important philosophical ideas as they
are expressed in film. Students will watch films and read accompanying philosophical
texts that deal with perennial philosophical questions.
In this course, students will be introduced to the philosophical investigation of
the socially and politically fraught ways people can use language. Topics will include
bad words, e.g. swears, slurs, dog whistles, and dehumanizing terms, as well as bad
discourse, e.g. subordinating expression, epistemic injustice, epistemic isolation,
and gaslighting. Topics will also include some of the ways that language can be used
to counteract such bad uses, through e.g. linguistic reclamation and counter-expression.
Through the exploration of these topics, students will gain familiarity with several
central topics in the philosophy of language, social epistemology, feminist philosophy,
and the philosophy of race. Previous familiarity with these areas will not be presupposed.
Updated 11/1/23.
An examination of contemporary moral issues. Typical topics include abortion, euthanasia,
discrimination, preferential hiring, the enforcement of community standards, the morality
of war, punishment, the rights of distant peoples and future generations, and environmental
ethics.
In this class we will explore some of the classic metaphysical and moral problems
that surround the topic of death. Some of the questions the class may discuss include:
What is death? Do we have a soul? Is death a harm? Is life a benefit? Is euthanasia
morally permissible? Is abortion morally permissible? Is it morally permissible to
kill animals so that we may eat them? May we sacrifice the lives of some in order
to save the lives of others?
An examination of some of the ethical issues that arise in the field of medicine.
Topics typically include the moral status of abortion, euthanasia, stem cell research,
informed consent, cloning, and the just distribution of scarce medical resources.
This course surveys several contemporary approaches for understanding our moral obligation
to the environment, including intuitionism, utilitarianism, deontology and feminism.
By applying these approaches to concrete environmental issues, the course illustrates
how efforts to preserve the environment raise special difficulties for traditional
moral categories, such as intrinsic and instrumental value. The course also explores
the peculiarly aesthetic dimension of environmental ethics, including claims about
the value of natural beauty and unspoiled wilderness.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor.
An introduction to the scope and limits of modern logic. The nature of logical systems
and the various areas of logic are discussed. Alternative proof-procedures in propositional
logic and predicate logic are presented.
A systematic treatment of basic issues in moral theory, critically examining such
issues as the possibility of providing rational foundations for moral belief, and
the nature of moral judgments and moral reasoning, focusing on the work of major historical
and contemporary figures.
An introduction to the classical systems and central issues in political philosophy.
The approach is largely historical, and selected major thinkers of most recent four
centuries form the focus of the course.
This course offers students an opportunity to reflect on such topics as the search
for meaning, being, freedom, the self, embodiment, authenticity, love, and ethics
as they are dealt with in texts by major writers in the 19th and 20th century movement
known as existentialism.
An examination of the basic issues in Legal Theory. Topics typically include the nature
of legal reasoning, the relationship between law and morality, and classical theories
of law.
A systematic examination of the central issues in epistemology (e.g., the nature and
structure of knowledge, and external-world skepticism), focusing on a series of papers
by leading philosophers in epistemology.
A systematic examination of the central issues in the philosophy of science (e.g.,
theory confirmation in science, and scientific explanation), focusing on a series
of papers by leading philosophers in the philosophy of science (for instance, Carl
Hempel and Thomas Kuhn).
While we praise, blame, and punish people for their actions, we don't hold everyone
responsible for everything they do. Moral responsibility looks to be intimately tied
to a person's free will. We will discuss a range of views on what's required for agents
to be free, and therefore morally responsible for their actions.
This course explores various conceptions of mind, consciousness, and self with particular
attention to the interdependence of mind, body, and environment. Topics to be considered
include attention and awareness, mindfulness, embodiment, interdependence, equity/inequity,
planetary health, flourishing, and global sustainability.
Mind Body Ecology embraces the principles and practices of what I term “experiential
philosophy.” In addition to the intellectual content of the course, students engage
in a variety of experiential exercises grounded in evidence-based mindfulness practice
that aid in enhancing awareness of self, embodiment, and interdependence. We explore
various evidence-based meditation techniques and nature-centered mindful movement
exercises. *Honors section is offered. Updated 11/1/23.
The aim of this course is to focus on philosophical principles that are implicitly
assumed in standard" Cognitive Science."
Permission of instructor. 1-3 hours
Advanced topics in logic. Course content to vary by semester and will include areas
such as formal languages, mathematical logic, deontic logic, modal systems, and philosophy
of language.
Many different branches of philosophy invoke the notion of a “natural kind”, i.e.,
the idea that some of the ways we classify and group objects together are more natural
than others. Philosophers regularly assume that some classifications and groupings
reflect the nature of reality itself rather than the interests, ideas, priorities,
or purposes of particular human beings. In this course, we will investigate the plausibility
of this idea, exploring how different philosophers have analyzed and defended the
notion of a natural kind, as well as some of the most serious problems and objections
that have been posed by different sorts of natural kind skeptics. Along the way we
will also consider how the notion of a natural kind shows up in different branches
of philosophy, e.g., in the philosophy of science, the philosophy of language, and
in social and political philosophy. Updated 11/1/23.
A survey of the major figures in Western thought between the sixth century BCE and
fifth century CE. Among those included are the Presocratics, Plato, Aristotle, and
the Hellenistic philosophers. This course also applies to the minor in Classical Studies
minor. Prerequisites: Any 30000 level PHIL course.
A survey of the major figures in Western thought from 1500 to 1800. Among those included
are Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume and Kant. Prerequisites: Any
30000-level PHIL course.
A philosophical study of one or more philosophers or philosophical movements of the
ancient, medieval, or modern periods. Course content will vary by semester. Course
may be repeated for credit. Prerequisites: Any 30000-level PHIL course and permission
of the instructor.
An historical study of one or more philosophical movements in the 20th Century to
the present. Topics vary and may include analytic philosophy, or Buddhist modernism.
May be repeated once for a total of 6 hours credit as course topic changes. Prerequisite:
Any 30000-level PHIL course and permission of the instructor.
A close examination of advanced issues in value theory. Topics may include the views
of major historical figures such as Bentham, Hume, Kant, Locke, and Sidgwick, the
moral realism-antirealism, debate, topics in moral psychology, and moral epistemology.
An examination of advanced issues in philosophy of science, for example, issues concerning
theory confirmation and issues concerning explanation.
Philosophy of Law and Economics asks students to consider economics as a justification
for legal decision-making. Different perspectives regarding the nature of law are
juxtaposed against different perspectives regarding the nature of economics. Students
develop their own synthesis by examining landmark legal cases from various perspectives.
A rigorous examination of specific issues in legal theory and jurisprudence. Topics
may include the nature of law, legal adjudication, law and economics, theories of
punishment, and legal responsibility and obligation.
A philosophical analysis of some selected topics that are central to political philosophy.
Topics may include analyses of the nature of human rights, political authority, the
moral duty to obey the law, freedom, or justice.
Moral psychology is precisely what it sounds like - the intersection of the study
of morality (typically the domain of philosophy) and the study of our mental processes
(typically the domain of psychology). It is an area in which we ask fundamental questions
about the moral nature of human beings, and purse the answers to these questions via
a constant exchange between philosophical theory and empirical data.
Critical analysis of contemporary theories of human nature advanced by philosophers,
psychologists, biologists, cognitive scientists and others. The thinkers under consideration
will vary but examples would include E. O. Wilson, B. F. Skinner, Sigmund Freud, John
Searle and Daniel Dennett.
An examination of advanced issues in epistemology, for example, issues concerning
rational degrees of belief, issues concerning the intersection of epistemology, philosophy
of language, and philosophy of mind, and issues concerning epistemological methodology.
Historical Studies
A survey of the major figures in Western thought between the sixth century BCE and
fifth century CE. Among those included are the Presocratics, Plato, Aristotle, and
the Hellenistic philosophers. This course also applies to the minor in Classical Studies
minor.
In this course we will survey the Modern Era of Philosophy -- beginning with the early
modern philosophers, such as René Descartes and Thomas Hobbes in the 17th century,
and concluding with Immanuel Kant in the late 19th century. The emphasis will be on
these philosophers' contributions to metaphysics and epistemology, though attention
will also be given to their contributions to ethics and political philosophy -- as
well as to the general historical context in which they wrote. By studying the era
immediately that preceded it, students will come away from the course a richer and
more complete understanding of contemporary philosophy -- and of the possible answers
to the perennial questions of philosophy (e.g., "What is knowledge?", "What is the
nature of the mind?", "What is the nature of fundamental reality?", "Does God exist?",
"Do we have free will?", etc.) with which the great modern philosophers grappled.
Updated 11/1/23.
A philosophical study of one or more philosophers or philosophical movements of the
ancient, medieval, or modern periods. Course content will vary by semester. Course
may be repeated for credit.
Logical Studies
How to detect, analyze, and critically evaluate reasoning in ordinary language and
its technical counterparts found in business, economics, etc. The course is designed
to enhance skills for handling arguments in a variety of texts. Understanding the
arguments and theories encountered in one's situations is stressed, along with how
one can improve one's own expression of arguments and theories, especially in writing.
Topics include techniques of reconstruction and evaluation in a process of self-editing,
detection of fallacies, and distinguishing correct from incorrect reasoning.
An introduction to the scope and limits of modern logic. The nature of logical systems
and the various areas of logic are discussed. Alternative proof- procedures in propositional
logic and predicate logic are presented.
Advanced topics in logic. Spring 2024, the course will focus on various kinds of non-truth-functional propositional logic, for example, propositional modal logic (which concerns possibility and necessity) and propositional deontic logic (which concerns obligation and permission). Hence no predicate logic (which is covered in the second half of Symbolic Logic I). Truth-functional
propositional logic will be covered briefly at the beginning as a base, with a focus
on derivations (as opposed to truth-tables). Updated 11/1/23.
NOTE: The official prerequisite for the course is going to be changed soon from Symbolic Logic I to Critical Reasoning or Symbolic Logic I.
*Course content to vary by semester and will include areas such as formal languages,
mathematical logic, deontic logic, modal systems, and philosophy of language.