Fall 2022 Course List
PHIL 1000 | INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
Professor(s): Prof. Gertler
Credits: 3
Prof. Gertler – BG8Y Monday & Wednesday 11:00-11:50+ disc sec
This course will introduce you to methods and topics central to analytic philosophy. Emphasis will be placed on learning to assess arguments critically. We will examine arguments for a range of philosophical positions on questions such as the following: (1) Does it matter what you believe? If so, why? (2) What can we know, and how do we acquire knowledge? (3) What does free will consist in? And do we have free will, of the sort that would make us genuinely responsible for our actions? (4) What standard determines the right thing to do – that is, whether an action is ethically good? (5) What sort of political arrangements does justice require?
PHIL 1410 | FORMS OF REASONING
Professor(s): TBD
Credits: 3
TBD -001 Tuesday & Thursday 9:30-10:45
TBD -002 Tuesday & Thursday 11:00-12:15
TBD -003 Tuesday & Thursday 12:30-1:45
A philosophy course with a practical aim: to develop the student's ability to recognize and evaluate arguments. The course will not cover symbolic logic in any detail (for this take PHIL 2420), but will concentrate on actual arguments given in ordinary language. Some time will be spent studying those fallacies, or errors in reasoning, which occur most frequently in discussion and argument. The goal of this course is to give the student a working knowledge of logic which has an application to daily life.
PHIL 1730 | INTRODUCTION TO MORAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
Professor(s): Prof. Lomasky
Credits: 3
Monday & Wednesday 2:00-2:50+ disc sec
What is it to live a really excellent life, & how is this task complicated (or assisted) by the need to live among others who may have very different views from your own? Is the answer to this question simply a matter of taste, or can we learn about better & worse ways to live? We will look to various philosophers to help us think through these matters, including Plato, Immanuel Kant, Adam Smith, David Hume, & John Stuart Mill. Additionally we will read the play Antigone by Sophocles, novel Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky, & excerpts from the Bible. Students will be required to write two or three short essays, take unannounced short quizzes, & sit a final exam.
PHIL 1750 | THE MEANING OF LIFE
Professor(s): Prof. Ott
Credits: 3
Tuesday & Thursday 2:00-2:50+ disc sec
Should you want to live forever? Could a life lived in a computer simulation have meaning? What does it take for a life like ours to count as meaningful in the first place? We’ll explore these and related questions through contemporary and classic texts by such authors as Sartre, Nagel, Nietzsche, and Epicurus. Along the way, we’ll sharpen the most transferrable of skills: the ability to reason.
PHIL 2060 | PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEMS IN LAW
Professor(s): Prof. Adams
Credits: 3
Monday & Wednesday 9:00-9:50+ 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 2110 | HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY: ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL
Professor(s): Prof. Secada
Credits: 3
This course satisfies History area requirements.
Monday & Wednesday 9:00-9:50+ disc sec
This course is an introduction to the history of philosophy from its beginnings in the Greek colonies of Asia Minor to the Renaissance and the end of the Middle Ages. The lectures do not aim to offer a comprehensive summary; you will find that in any of several histories of philosophy, one of which is required reading for the course. In the lectures we will instead discuss a few selected major philosophers and we will concentrate on some of their doctrines and arguments. We will, however, look at cultural developments which took place during this period and we will study philosophical works in their more general social and historical setting. The course seeks to provide historical as much as philosophical knowledge and understanding. Requirements include several short quizzes and a term paper.
PHIL 2420 | INTRODUCTION TO SYMBOLIC LOGIC
Professor(s): Prof. Cameron
Credits: 3
This course satisfies Logic area requirements.
Tuesday & Thursday 8:00-8:50+ disc sec
A basic introduction to the concepts and techniques of modern formal logic. The aim of this course is to give the student a working knowledge of both sentential and quantifier logic. Students will learn how to translate claims and arguments from English into a formal system, and to test arguments for validity.
PHIL 2500-003 | CONTEMPORARY PERUVIAN CULTURE (cross listed with SPAN 4520)
Professor(s): Prof. Secada
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: Fluency in Spanish required, Instructor Permission Required
Monday & Wednesday 2:00 -3:15
This course is a survey of contemporary Peruvian culture, focusing on literary, philosophical and political themes through the discussion of a selection of short essays published in Peruvian newspapers, magazines, blogs, and literary and academic journals after 2010. Some contemporary Peruvian authors, whose work is related to the readings, will visit the course throughout term. The course will start with introductory lectures on recent Peruvian history but after that will be structured as a seminar, around class presentations and discussions of the readings. Apart from such work, a term paper will be required. Lectures, discussions and all readings are in Spanish.
PHIL 2500-100 | PHILOSOPHY OF HEALTH AND HEALTHCARE
Professor(s): Prof. Barnes
Credits: 3
Tuesday & Thursday 8:00-8:50+ disc sec
In this class, we’ll first discuss the question ‘what is health?’ How do we define what it means to be healthy? Is there a difference between physical and mental health? Is there a difference between health and overall well-being? Is health a biological concept or is it something normative? Then we’ll look at specific puzzles that arise in health care related to how we understand health and disease. For example, how do we measure health outcomes? How do we deal with the inherent subjectivity of some aspects of health, such as pain? What is the relationship between what we consider ‘healthy’ and what our culture values or stigmatizes?
PHIL 2500-200 | MINDS AND MACHINES
Professor(s): Prof. Irving
Credits: 3
Tuesdays & Thursdays 2:00-2:50+ disc sec
This course surveys foundational issues in the philosophy of cognitive science and mind. Part 1 asks the fundamental question, what is a mind? Are minds brains? Computers? Organisms? Do minds extend into the body and environment? We'll approach these questions by considering what it would take to make a machine with a mind (that is, to make genuine artificial intelligence). Part 2 turns to the problem of personal identity over time. Once you were a kid, now you are an adult, and one day you'll grow old. What (if anything) makes you the same person throughout these stages of your life?
PHIL 2660 | PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
Professor(s): Prof. Merricks
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: Prerequisites: Instructor Permission - First and Second Years only.
Tuesday & Thursday 10:00-10:50
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 3010 | DARWIN AND PHILOSOPHY
Professor(s): Prof. Eaker
Credits: 3
Tuesday & Thursday 2:00-3:15
This course explores the history and the philosophical implications of Darwin’s revolutionary idea—that the unguided process of natural selection could explain the magnificent variety and adaptedness of living things and their descent from a common ancestor. We will look at Darwin’s historical, scientific and cultural context, and the evidence and arguments by which Darwin supported his theory. Philosophical topics will include: How are scientific theories supported by evidence? What makes evolutionary theory an accepted scientific theory? What are its moral implications? What does it tell us about human nature, how we should treat one another, and how we should relate to the environment upon which we depend?
PHIL 3110 | PLATO
Professor(s): Prof. McCready-Flora
Credits: 3
This course satisfies the History requirement for those who have or will take PHIL 2120 – Modern
Tuesday & Thursday 9:30-10:45
This course introduces students to the dialogues of Plato, with an emphasis on those of particular argumentative and philosophical interest. Expect treatments of the divine and our relation to it; love; the nature and possibility of human knowledge; what makes anything one; why the world exists at all, and in particular why it takes the form it does; humanity’s place in the cosmic order; and the nature of the soul. Our aim will be to engage Plato as a fellow philosopher through close reading and subtle reasoning. This means understanding his assumptions, scrutinizing his argumentation and proposing alternatives to his conclusions. No knowledge of Greek required, but some prior coursework in Philosophy very much encouraged.
PHIL 3150 | 17th CENTURY PHILOSOPHERS
Professor(s): Prof. LoLordo
Credits: 3
This course satisfies History area requirements.
This course satisfies the Second Writing Requirement.
Tuesday & Thursday 11:00-12:45
This course examines the various philosophical systems of the 17th century. This year, we’ll read Hobbes, Descartes, Cavendish, and Spinoza.
PHIL 3330 | PHILOSOPHY OF MIND
Professor(s): Prof. Gertler
Credits: 3
Instructor Consent Required
This Course satisfies the Second Writing Requirement
Monday & Wednesday 2:00-3:15
This course addresses philosophical issues about the mind, including the following: Does the phenomenon of consciousness pose a problem for a larger naturalistic theory of the world? How should we study consciousness? What does it mean to say that the mind is “physical”? And is it physical? How is your mind related to your body? How is it related to the “external” world? Are our minds housed within our skins, or do they extend to include external factors as well? Is the self a unitary, persisting entity? Is it merely a fiction? Most of the readings will be from contemporary sources.
PHIL 3520 | JUSTICE, LAW, AND MORALITY
Professor(s): Prof. Brewer
Credits: 3
Tuesday & Thursday 11:00-12:15
In this course, we will look at contemporary liberal conceptions of justice and at criticisms of liberalism leveled by communitarians, libertarians, Marxists, utilitarians and feminists. One central aim of the class will be to determine what sense, if any, can be made of the liberal ideal of neutrality. In order to give substance to the sometimes abstract disputes between liberals and their critics, we will examine Supreme Court rulings on a variety of issues, including freedom of speech, campaign finance regulation, school prayer, pornography, abortion, and marriage and divorce law.
PHIL 3640 | POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
Professor(s): Prof. Adams
Credits: 3
Monday & Wednesday 2:00-3:15
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 3720 | CONTEMPORARY ETHICS
Professor(s): Prof. Stangl
Credits: 3
Tuesday & Thursday 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 3730 | ANCIENT ETHICS
Professor(s): Prof. McCready-Flora
Credits: 3
Tuesday & Thursday 12:30-1:45
This course introduces students, through close reading of primary source translations, to major figures and themes of ethical theory in Ancient Greece and Rome. Authors to include: Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Cicero, Marcus Aurelius, Porphyry and Sextus Empiricus. Topics to Include: moral and intellectual virtue; happiness; the social preconditions of human goodness; the nature and possibility of the good life; whether the good life requires moral virtue or its opposite; the nature and possibility of ethical knowledge; how humans should live together; how humans should treat other animals. At no point will our readings overlap with any concurrent Plato and Aristotle course: students may profitably enroll in both.
PHIL 3810 | SEX, SEXUALITY, AND GENDER
Professor(s): Prof. Barnes
Credits: 3
Tuesday & Thursday 12:30-1:45
In this class, we'll be talking about philosophical issues at the intersection of sexuality, sexual experience, and gender experience. What is sexual consent? What is the relationship between sexual consent and sexual morality? What is sexual orientation, and what is its relationship to sex and gender? Is there such a thing as biological sex? Is there a difference between sex and gender?
PHIL 4010 | SEMINAR FOR MAJORS – PARADOX AND INFINITY
Professor(s): Prof. Cameron
Credits: 3
Tuesday & Thursday 11:00-12:15
In this course we will explore some of the mind-bending issues that arise in the boundary of philosophy, mathematics, and logic.
Marvel at infinities that are larger than other infinities! Be Amazed as we take apart a ball and put the pieces back together to make two balls just as big as the original! Tremble as we encounter sets that have no foundation! Join brave adventurers in the quest to give a complete axiomatization of mathematics! Quake with fear as we encounter sentences that are true just in case they are false! Know terror as we prove anything we like from no premises at all! All this and more, in Paradox & Infinity! Will your mind survive?
We will see how exploring these paradoxical issues can help us refine our understanding of the nature of math and logic, and we will explore related metaphysical issues concerning infinite regress, circularity, the nature of truth, and more.
PHIL 5560 | POLITICS IN THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES
Professor(s): Prof. Lomasky
Credits: 3
Monday 6:00-8:30
Political theory is indebted to ancient Greek thinkers. It also rests on antecedents in the Hebrew Scriptures (aka Old Testament). Concepts such as rule of law, checks and balances, covenant and contract, national identity are informed and tested by the history of ancient Israel. We will read widely in scripture, especially Exodus, Deuteronomy, Judges, and Samuel and contemporary philosophers such as Michael Waltzer and Joshua Berman. Students will prepare occasional discussion commentaries and a course paper. Some background in political philosophy is assumed.