PHIL 1330 VIRTUAL WORLDS AND PHILOSOPHY [3]
Prof. Cameron – RPC4D Tuesday & Thursday 8:00-8:50+ disc sec
In this class we will explore the intersection of philosophy with issues concerning virtual reality (VR), computer simulation, artificial intelligence (AI), etc. We will investigate how traditional philosophical problems can be seen in a new light through the lens of VR and AI, as well as showing how VR and AI can raise new and distinctive philosophical issues. The goal is to show how reflection on modern technologies can help us with ancient philosophical questions as well as showing how philosophy can help us in the development of these new technologies and society’s response to them. We will explore questions such as: Can we know that we are not simulated characters in a simulated world?; What does it mean to say that something is a simulation?; Can a simulated world have moral value?; Can a simulated character be conscious?; How ought we to organize society in response to issues raised by VR and AI, such as deepfakes, AI created content, etc.
PHIL 1410 FORMS OF REASONING [3]
Prof. Harrell – YBR5PQ Tuesday & Thursday 8:00-8:50+ disc sec
This course covers the basics of logic and argumentation. Any time someone wants to rationally convince you of something, they must give you an argument. And every argument has a logical structure. Some of these structures are strong, while others are weak. In this class, you’ll learn not only how to recognize the difference but further how to prove it. No background in any formal discipline is required, and the course does not cover symbolic logic in detail (for this take PHIL 2420). The course provides the general skills necessary to precisely identify, reconstruct, and evaluate arguments, with emphasis on applying these skills to everyday life.
PHIL 1730 INTRODUCTION TO MORAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY [3]
Prof. MacKenzie – DFS8ZY Monday & Wednesday 2:00-2:50+ disc sec
In this course we apply the tools of philosophy to problems of human life, flourishing, and community. We will see how philosophy helps us ask the biggest questions about existence but also illuminates mundane aspects of everyday life. We will look at issues that humanity has encountered for millennia as well as issues faced only in our modern moment—from what it means to act well to how social media is affecting us. Our focus is on contemporary philosophy rather than a historical overview.
PHIL 1740 ISSUES OF LIFE AND DEATH [3]
Prof. Bernstein - AQE2PX Monday & Wednesday 2:00-2:50+ disc sec
This course is an exploration, from the point of view of philosophical theory, of a number of ethical problems at the beginning and end of life. Questions to be addressed will include: What is the significance of death and the value of life? Under what conditions, if any, are abortion and euthanasia morally permissible? At what point ought we to discontinue medical treatment of the terminally ill, and who should be empowered to make this decision? Are we under any moral obligation to prevent the death of those threatened by hunger and easily treatable disease?
PHIL 2060 PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEMS IN LAW [3]
Prof. Adams – NA9FW Tuesday & Thursday 8:00-8:50+ disc sec
Do we have a duty to obey the law? The law thinks so, and breaking the law is often severely punished. But as citizens we often also think law is bad, mistaken, unjust, and that we should disobey the law or even overthrow the government. More specific questions also arise when we accept the rule of law. What sorts of actions should be criminalized and what sorts of punishments are justified? Why do our mental states matter to the law? What is an attempt, and how can we regulate failures? What processes should we use when making legal judgments? What is the relation between law and morality? Law and politics? In this course, we will look at these and similar philosophical problems for life under law.
PHIL 2120 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY: MODERN [3]
Prof. Secada – JES2F Monday & Wednesday 9:00-9:50+ disc sec
This course is a survey of the history of philosophy in the Renaissance and the early modern period. We will pay close attention to some of the metaphysical and epistemological issues arising in the central writings of Suárez, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume and Kant, though some other figures including some XIXth-Century philosophers, such as Hegel, will also be discussed in the lectures. Throughout the term, we will read closely the first five of Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy and Leibniz's "First Truths". Students will be required to write a term paper, to submit an earlier draft of it, and to take several quizzes during the term.
PHIL 2500-100 AFRICAN-AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY [3]
Prof. Harris – DCN7XU Tuesday & Thursday 9:30-10:45
African American Philosophy explores the intellectual traditions through which Black thinkers have examined freedom, oppression, identity, knowledge, morality, and social justice. The course considers philosophical work emerging from the experiences of slavery, segregation, racial violence, resistance, and movements for civil and human rights. Students engage classic and contemporary texts that address race, personhood, democracy, gender, culture, and liberation. Particular attention is given to the relationship between lived experience and philosophical inquiry.
PHIL 2500-200 JUSTICE AND HEALTHCARE [3]
Prof. Bernstein – AQE2PX Monday & Wednesday 11:00-11:50+ disc sec
This course explores foundational questions at the intersection of economics, bioethics, and political philosophy. Such questions include (but are not limited to): Should healthcare be treated like any other market commodity, or does it have a special moral status that justifies different treatment? What do competing theories of justice—such as liberal egalitarianism or libertarianism—imply about the government’s responsibilities in organizing and financing healthcare? What is the just way to allocate scarce medical resources—such as livers or ventilators? When is it permissible for the state to restrict individual liberty in order to protect public health?
PHIL 2510 ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS [3]
Prof. Harrell – YBR5PQ Tuesday & Thursday 12:30-1:45
How should humans relate to the natural world? What responsibilities do we have to ecosystems, animals, and future generations? This course explores these questions through the study of environmental ethics. We will examine contemporary environmental challenges—such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental injustice—and consider competing proposals for addressing them. Because many environmental decisions rely on scientific knowledge, the course also explores how we study complex ecological systems and the reliability of that knowledge. By combining ethical reflection with insights from the philosophy of science, students will develop tools for thinking critically about how societies should respond to environmental crises.
PHIL 2640 RATIONAL CHOICE AND HAPPINESS [3]
Prof. Barnes – EJB5R Tuesday & Thursday 8:00-8:50+ disc sec
In this class, we will examine philosophical puzzles about our ability to make rational choices that affect or determine our own happiness. How can we rationally decide to undergo a significant experience - such as having a child or moving to a new country - when have no way of knowing what that experience will be like? How can we rationally choose to make decisions about our future (such as what career path to follow or where to live), since who we will become in the future is in part determined by those choices? These kinds of questions will be the focus of the class
PHIL 2652 ANIMAL MINDS AND ANIMAL ETHICS [3]
Prof. Ott – WO5N Monday & Wednesday 2:00-2:50+ disc sec
Other species seem to represent objects in their environments, think about the thoughts of their conspecifics, and perhaps even use language. Some seem to have long-term memory, emotion, and self-awareness. Do they in fact do all of these things, and if so, how, and in what sense? We will engage philosophically with the best scientific evidence available to answer these and similar questions before considering their ethical implications: is it morally permissible to eat animals? What about keeping them in zoos, or keeping them as pets? What responsibilities, in short, do we have to the sentient creatures with whom we share our world?
PHIL 2660 PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION [3]
Prerequisites: Instructor Permission - First and Second Years only.
Prof. Merricks – TDB8N Monday & Wednesday 10:00-10:50+ disc sec
This course will examine a number of different topics that have been of perennial interest to philosophers of religion and philosophical theologians. These topics include arguments for and against God's existence, the problem of evil, the relationship between human freedom and divine foreknowledge, and how to think about personal immortality and the nature of the human person.
PHIL 3120 ARISTOTLE [3]
Prof. Frey – UPY3EE Tuesday & Thursday 11:00-12:15
An introduction to the philosophy of Aristotle through close reading of keys texts in translations with the aim of achieving a philosophical understanding of his views and their lasting influence. Readings will focus on his metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind and theory of natural science, though expect material from his ethics and social philosophy as well.
PHIL 3160 18th CENTURY PHILOSOPHY [3]
Prof. Secada – JES2F Monday & Wednesday 2:00-3:15
The over-arching theme of the course is reason, the great preoccupation of 18th century philosophers. What is reason? How powerful is it? For instance, can reason guide our beliefs? Can reason show us how to achieve happiness? Does reason ground our worth as human beings? And who has reason? All human beings? Human beings and other animals? Or just some human beings?
More specific questions include: Am I essentially a rational being, or something else as well? Is there an immaterial mind, or is the mind just the body? What happens after we die? What does human freedom consist in? What does happiness consist in? Can we be happy without being free, or without being rational, or without being virtuous?
How should we structure our society to ensure happiness, freedom, and/or virtue? How should we educate our children to create happy, free, rational, and/or virtuous adults? And again, whose happiness, etc.,are we talking about?
In this course, we’ll look at a wide range of philosophers. Some names will probably be familiar to most of you: for instance, John Locke & David Hume. Some are less familiar: for instance, Ottobah Cugoano & Mary Shepherd. This will help us see that there is a wider range of people doing philosophy in early modern Europe.
PHIL 3180 NIETZSCHE [3]
Prof. Danks – EWW3BH Tuesday & Thursday 9:30-10:45
During his life in the late 19th-century, Friedrich Nietzsche was a relatively obscure German philosopher. Since his death, however, he has become deeply influential and well-known, and was a source of inspiration for many important 20th-century thinkers. Despite this popularity, Nietzsche’s philosophy remains relatively mysterious, and often misunderstood. Much of his writing consisted of aphorisms, rather than more traditional prose and arguments, and many of his positions seem to contradict one another. This course will cover a broad range of Nietzsche’s writings, focusing on such central concepts as the will to power, eternal recurrence, and the oft-misunderstood übermensch (“overman”). Throughout, we will focus on developing a consistent interpretation of an enigmatic philosopher whose views have been mischaracterized and misappropriated throughout the past century.
PHIL 3310 METAPHYSICS [3]
Instructor Permission
Prof. Merricks – TDM8N Monday & Wednesday 2:00-3:15
This survey course will examine a variety of issues central to contemporary analytic metaphysics. We shall consider, among other things, possibility and necessity, identity over time, and personal identity. This course is meant for third and fourth year philosophy majors only.
PHIL 3330 PHILOSOPHY OF MIND [3]
Prof. Boone – ASX7FH Tuesday & Thursday 2:00-3:15
In this course, we will examine central issues in philosophy of mind. Is the mind an immaterial thing or substance? Is the mind identical with the brain? Or does the mind stand in relation to the brain as a computer program stands to the hardware it is implemented on? What is the nature of conscious experience, and can it be explained scientifically? Can computers have minds? Can nonhuman animals have minds? We will examine the philosophical foundations and history of such questions, and we will discuss how contemporary work in cognitive science, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence bears on these questions.
PHIL 3400 INTRODUCTION TO NON-CLASSICAL LOGIC [3]
Instructor Permission
Prof. Cameron – RPC4D Tuesday & Thursday 11:00-12:15
An introduction to systems of non-classical logic, including both extensions and revisions to classical logic. We will look at logical systems that extend classical logic to deal with the phenomena of possibility & time. We will look at logics that revise classical logic to allow for sentences which are neither true nor false, or sentences which can be both. We will show how these departures from classical logic can shed light on various philosophical questions.
PHIL 3500-001 EXISTENTIALISM [3]
Prof. Harris – DCN7XU Tuesday & Thursday 12:30-1:45
This course covers existentialist concerns such as the human condition, the purpose of life, and authenticity.
PHIL 3500-002 PHILOSOPHY OF MEMORY [3]
Prof. Irving – ZCI7C Tuesday & Thursday 5:00-6:15
Memory is central to human life. For better or worse, memory keeps our childhoods with us, shaping who we are and how we view ourselves. Memory gives us access to innumerable facts: the names of past Presidents, the capital of Virginia, Plato’s vocation, etc. Without memory, we would be doomed to repeat our mistakes, unable to follow through on our promises and projects, and incapable of taking responsibility for our sins and successes. This course explores the nature of memory and its philosophical significance, and breaks down into three topics. Part 1: What is Memory contrasts experiential and causal theories of memory, testing them against both philosophical and empirical evidence. We will also ask whether memories extend into external objects such as smartphones and whether there is neuroscientific evidence for a distinction between memory and imagination. What we learn about memory in Part 1 will inform our discussions of the broader philosophical significance of memory throughout the course. Part 2: Memory and Knowledge asks whether we should dogmatically accept that our memories are true, especially in light of psychological research on the reconstructive nature of memory. Part 3: Memory and Personhood examines whether memory is required to remain the same person over time. We will discuss classic answers to this question, as well as complications that arise when we discuss outlandish thought experiments, clinical cases, and empirical evidence for reconstructive memories.
PHIL 3630 PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE [3]
Instructor Permission
Prof. Hoek – DXQ8VC Monday & Wednesday 5:00-6:15
Words have power. They can inform and deceive, delight and hurt. They can be rousing, illuminating, poignant or hilarious. Written words encode our laws and transmit knowledge and testimony across generations. Questions covered may include: How do the words we use get their meanings? By what mechanism do sequences of arbitrary sounds combine to express thoughts and feelings? How does language enable you to express a new thought you had, even if it has never been thought before?
Recommended background: some familiarity with symbolic logic, for instance through PHIL2420.
PHIL 3640 POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY [3]
Prof. Adams – NA9FW Tuesday & Thursday 11:00-12:15
How should we live together? This question is at the core of political philosophy and is the main focus of the course. This question has various components, including: Who counts as one of us? How should we make decisions? Who should be in charge? How should we use our power? How should we treat others? How can we flourish? And who gets a say in how to answer these questions? The course focuses on contemporary democratic answers and considers to what extent our ideals have been realized in our shared life.
PHIL 3660 PHILOSOPHY Of ECONOMICS [3]
Prof. Motchoulski – AAM5JM Tuesday & Thursday 12:30-1:45
Economics is the study of how the various goods and resources that members of a community need or want are produced and distributed. In order to study economics, you need to have some idea about what leads people to produce things, what leads them to want certain things, and why things are distributed in certain ways. These matters raise the fundamental questions that philosophy of economics deals with. This course focuses on studying various answers to them, along with questions such as: what is the relationship between economy and society? What is market value, and how does it relate to other kinds of value? And, what kinds of economic arrangements are required as a matter of justice?
PHIL 3720 CONTEMPORARY ETHICS [3]
Prof. Stangl – RLS5EF Monday & Wednesday 2:00-3:15
In this course, we will consider some of the liveliest topics of debate in contemporary ethical theory. Among the questions that may be considered are: Are there moral facts, and if so what sorts of facts are they, how do we come to know them, and how do we explain their authority? What would it mean to say that a life “has meaning” and what might entitle us to say such a thing? Can we make sense of prohibitions to perform certain kinds of actions even when doing so would reduce the overall incidence of that very kind of action? Do contemporary conceptions of our moral obligations leave us sufficient space to be true to our own ideals and loves? Are we responsible for bad outcomes that we knowingly choose not to prevent others from bringing about? Can we be held responsible for unchosen elements of our own character? Are there “morally tragic” cases in which we will do wrong no matter what we choose to do?
PHIL 3850 HETERODOXY [3]
Instructor Permission
Prof. Barnes – EJB5R Tuesday & Thursday 11:00-12:15
A heterodox belief is a belief that is in opposition to received wisdom or institutional authority. We live in an era of unprecedented distrust in experts and authorities. We also live in an era in which we sometimes have good reason to distrust experts and authorities: they can be biased, prejudiced, or simply mistaken. Can we tell the difference between good and bad forms of social distrust?
PHIL 4020 SEMINAR FOR MAJORS - MORAL RESPONSIBILITY AND MORAL LUCK [3]
Prof. MacKenzie – DFS8ZY Monday & Wednesday 5:00-6:15
We often think that we should only morally judge people for that which is under their control. But when we survey our own moral experiences, we discover that our judgments are often deeply influenced by matters of luck—we blame people for outcomes they couldn't have prevented, praise them for character traits they didn't choose, and hold them responsible in situations they never asked to be in. This class will familiarize students with key readings from the 'moral luck' literature. We'll ask questions like: in what sense, if any, can we be morally responsible for that which is not under our control? When are guilt, shame, and remorse justified moral reactions? And can we have morality without luck?
GRADUATE COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
Department Permission Required for all Philosophy Graduate Courses
PHIL 5530 DECARTES’ MEDITATIONS: [3]
Prof. Secada – WO5N Monday 3:30-6:00
This is a seminar on Descartes’ Meditations. By closely reading the text of the Meditations, this seminar will study the metaphysics and epistemology of Rene Descartes (1596-1650). Topics that will be covered include skepticism and the Cartesian circle; the cogito; the reflection on a piece of wax; ideas and their material falsity; the proofs of the existence of God; causation; the individuation, essence and existence of substances; the distinction and relation between a mind and a body. Descartes’ thought will be examined in its Late Scholastic historical context, particularly the philosophies of Francisco Suarez (1548-1617) and Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), but we will also place the Meditations in the context of earlier meditative treatises, uncovering its relation to such works as St. Francis of Sales’ Treatise on the Love of God (1616), St Bonaventure’s Road of the Mind to God, and St Therese of Avila’s Inner Castle, and using it to address issues regarding the nature of philosophy and philosophical understanding. Some consideration will also be given to Descartes’ influence on subsequent philosophers, such as Spinoza, Malebranche, Leibniz or Berkeley. Requirements will include a term paper, seminar presentations, and short written summaries and discussions.
PHIL 5570 CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS OF COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE [3]
Prof. Boone – ASX7FH Wednesday 1:00-3:30
This seminar analyzes the conceptual foundations of cognitive neuroscience. We will examine core methods, including investigation of neural signaling, lesion studies, functional neuroimaging, and model organism studies, focusing on the inferences underlying those methods. Then we will turn to a survey of philosophical debates on foundational issues including neural computation and representation, cognitive ontology revision, memory, attention, emotion, and neural theories of consciousness.
PHIL 5580 SPONTANEITY [3]
Prof. Irving – ZCI7C T Tuesday & Thursday 2:00-3:15
William James observed that “the natural tendency of attention when left to itself is to wander to ever new things.” This seminar asks what spontaneous mind-wandering can teach us about the mind, action, and psychology, taking us beyond still-influential dichotomies such as reason versus passion. Readings will include the final chapters of my book, The Wandering Mind, alongside recent work in cognitive science.
PHIL 7510 ARISTOTLE ON SOUL AND LIFE [3]
Prof. Frey – UPY3EE Tuesday 3:30-6:00
We will examine Aristotle’s account of soul and its role as the principle of living beings. It will involve a close reading of De Anima along with relevant sections of Aristotle’s metaphysical, physical, and biological works.
PHIL 9700 DISSERTATION SEMINAR [3]
Prof. Motchoulski – AAM5JM Thursday 3:30-6:00
This non-credit course is taught every spring. It combines discussions of the central aspects of professional life with multiple opportunities for students to present and receive peer feedback on their work-in-progress. It is mandatory for all third-year students in residence, and optional for others.