Philosophy

Courses

PHIL 567a, Mathematical Logic I  Sun-Joo Shin

An introduction to the metatheory of first-order logic, up to and including the completeness theorem for the first-order calculus. An introduction to the basic concepts of set theory is included.
MW 11:35am-12:50pm

PHIL 570b, Epistemology  Keith DeRose

Introduction to current topics in the theory of knowledge. The analysis of knowledge, justified belief, rationality, certainty, and evidence.
TTh 1pm-2:15pm

PHIL 603a / JDST 860a / RLST 880a, Spinoza and the God of the Bible  Nancy Levene

This course considers Spinoza’s metaphysics and social and political thought in light of a family of problems named religion: the concept of God; the relations among politics, divine law, and their institutions; the value of Judaism and Christianity; and the interpretation of the Bible. We read from Spinoza’s principal works as well as from the Bible and a few other thinkers, medieval and modern, in conceptual proximity to Spinoza.
W 3:30pm-5:20pm

PHIL 604b, Leibniz  Michael Della Rocca

A close examination of Leibniz’s vast, intricate, and still poorly understood philosophical system. Topics to be explored include substance, necessity, freedom, psychology, teleology, and the problem of evil. Attention to relevant philosophical and theological antecedents, including Spinoza, Descartes, Suarez, Aquinas, and Aristotle. Attention also to Leibniz’s relevance to contemporary philosophy.
M 1:30pm-3:20pm

PHIL 626b, Cognitive Science of Morality  Joshua Knobe

Introduction to the emerging field of moral cognition. Focus on questions about the philosophical significance of psychological findings. Topics include the role of emotion in moral judgment; the significance of character traits in virtue ethics and personality psychology; the reliability of intuitions and the psychological processes that underlie them.
W 3:30pm-5:20pm

PHIL 627b, Computability and Logic  Sun-Joo Shin

A technical exposition of Gödel’s first and second incompleteness theorems and of some of their main consequences in proof theory and model theory, such as Löb’s theorem, Tarski’s undefinability of truth, provability logic, and nonstandard models of arithmetic.
M 3:30pm-5:20pm

PHIL 637b, Philosophy of Mathematics  Sun-Joo Shin

Metaphysical and epistemological issues raised by mathematics. Questions concerning the notion of a set; whether one can quantify over absolutely everything; whether there are really infinite sets of different sizes; the significance of Gödel’s incompleteness theorems; arguments designed to show that certain mathematical terms are referentially indeterminate.
T 1:30pm-3:20pm

PHIL 638a, Philosophy of Logic  Sun-Joo Shin

Exploration of valid reasoning, mainly in the context of propositional and predicate logic. Topics include the well-known debate on the justification of modus ponens; Tarski’s analysis of logic consequence; and the relatively recent and provocative claim (made by Etchemendy) that Tarski’s analysis of logical consequence fails in capturing ordinary and intuitive concept of logical consequence.
M 3:30pm-5:20pm

PHIL 641b, Reductionism  Staff

An exploration of some reductive approaches in contemporary metaphysics and philosophy of science and some challenges to the reductive project. Is there a deep sense in which all the complexity of reality reduces to some more limited class of fundamental features?
HTBA

PHIL 643a, Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics  Elizabeth Miller

An examination of a wide range of philosophical issues as informed by quantum mechanics. Evaluation of different, and controversial, interpretations of quantum mechanics and their distinct ontologies. Subtopics include the measurement problem, nonlocality and holism, wave function realism, and the relationship between physics and metaphysics.
W 3:30pm-5:20pm

PHIL 650a, The Problem of Evil  Keith DeRose

The evils of our world can seem to present strong reasons for disbelieving in the existence of God. This course examines the main forms that this problem for theism takes, and some of the proposed ways of solving, or at least mitigating, the problem.
T 1:30pm-3:20pm

PHIL 655a, Normative Ethics  Shelly Kagan

A systematic examination of normative ethics, the part of moral philosophy that attempts to articulate and defend the basic principles of morality. The bulk of the course surveys and explores some of the main normative factors relevant in determining the moral status of a given act or policy (features that help make a given act right or wrong). Brief consideration of some of the main views about the foundations of normative ethics (the ultimate basis or ground for the various moral principles).
M 1:30pm-3:20pm

PHIL 664b, Justice, Taxes, and Global Financial Integrity  Thomas Pogge

This seminar studies the formulation, interpretation, and enforcement of national and international tax rules from the perspective of national and global economic justice.
M 3:30pm-5:20pm

PHIL 665a, Recent Work in Ethical Theory  Stephen Darwall

A study of recently published works on ethics and its foundations. Issues include the grounds of normativity and rightness, and the role of the virtues.
T 7pm-8:50pm

PHIL 674a / PLSC 580a, Borders, Culture, and Citizenship  Seyla Benhabib

The contemporary refugee crisis in Europe and elsewhere; new patterns of migration, increasing demands for multicultural rights on the part of Muslim minorities in the West, and transnational effects of globalization faced by contemporary societies. This course examines these issues in a multidisciplinary perspective in the light of political theories of citizenship and migration, and laws concerning refugees and migrants in Europe and the United States.
MW 1:30pm-2:20pm

PHIL 677a / WGSS 677a, Feminist Philosophy: Theories of Sex, Gender, and Sexual Orientation  Robin Dembroff

This course surveys several feminist frameworks for thinking about sex, gender, and sexual orientation. We consider questions such as: Is there a tenable distinction between sex and gender? Between gender and sexual orientation? What does it mean to say that gender is a social construction, or that sexual orientation is innate? What is the place of politics in gender and sexual identities? How do these identities—and especially resistant or transgressive identities—impact the creation and revision of social categories?
T 3:30pm-5:20pm

PHIL 679b, Contemporary Deontology  Shelly Kagan

Most people are intuitively drawn to deontological moral theories rather than consequentialist ones (roughly, to theories that give priority to moral factors other than simply the potential goodness of results). In this course we read and evaluate three major contemporary works exploring this deontological perspective in a systematic way: Judith Thomson’s The Realm of Rights, T.M. Scanlon’s What We Owe to Each Other, and (parts of) F.M. Kamm’s Intricate Ethics. Our goal throughout is to investigate the complications involved in moving beyond the initial pull toward deontology to spelling out such a deontological theory in fuller detail (whether at the normative or at the foundational level).
T 1:30pm-3:20pm

PHIL 685b, Wittgenstein  Kenneth Winkler

Study and discussion of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Philosophical Investigations, and On Certainty, with some attention to their background in writings by Frege, Russell, and Moore. Consideration of Wittgenstein’s influence on more recent philosophers, among them Iris Murdoch, Elizabeth Anscombe, Saul Kripke, and Cora Diamond. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
Th 7pm-8:50pm

PHIL 686a, Kant’s Critique of Judgment  Thomas Khurana

In-depth study of Kant’s third and final critique, one of the major works of modern philosophy, containing both the foundation of modern aesthetics and a critical reformulation of natural teleology. Discussions address both parts and their enigmatic unity; highlight the relation of nature and freedom, mechanism and teleology, theoretical and practical cognition at the heart of the book; and include post-Kantian thought (German Idealism, twentieth-century continental philosophy) that only became possible through Kant’s third critique. Prerequisite: some familiarity with Kant’s critical project.
T 3:30pm-5:20pm

PHIL 687b, The Philosophy of the Ordinary and the Extraordinary  Paul Franks

An investigation of the significance of ordinary life for philosophy, and of the relevance of the extraordinary—the philosophical, the religious, the aesthetic—to the everyday. Attention is paid to the supposed refutation of skepticism by appeals to ordinary language; the politics of speech-acts and of claims to ordinariness or extraordinariness; the aesthetics of literature and film in relation to the everyday; modernist aspirations to transfigure the everyday; and postmodernist attempts to debunk the extraordinary. Authors studied include J.L. Austin, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Stanley Cavell, Michael Fried, and Toril Moi, among others. Films are also analyzed.
W 1:30pm-3:20pm

PHIL 688a, Meaning, Paradox, and Methodology  Michael Della Rocca

An exploration of the inadequacies of a vast swath of theories of meaning (or content or aboutness) in contemporary and recent philosophy. The initial focus is on the challenges raised by the Kripke-Wittgenstein paradox with regard to meaning. We discuss the metaphysical underpinnings of this paradox as they are to be found in Bradley’s paradox concerning relations, in Parmenides’s arguments for a strict monism, and in Lewis Carroll’s paradox concerning logical inference or modus ponens. We consider responses to Kripke-Wittgenstein, Bradley, Parmenides, and Carroll—all of which fail, of course. Throughout, there is attention to methodological presuppositions in metaphysics that prevent philosophers from appreciating the force of these paradoxes, and we take up the potentially pernicious political implications of these presuppositions. Prerequisite: two courses in philosophy.
M 1:30pm-3:20pm

PHIL 700a, Kant’s Philosophy of Religion  John Hare

This course looks at Kant’s writings in the philosophy of religion and moral theology from the Critique of Pure Reason to the Conflict of the Faculties.
Th 3:30pm-5:20pm

PHIL 705a, First-Year Seminar  Keith DeRose

Required of and limited to first-year students in the Philosophy Ph.D. program. Topic varies from year to year. Preparation for graduate work. Reading, writing, and presentation skills.
M 3:30pm-5:20pm

PHIL 706b, Work in Progress I  Laurie Paul

In consultation with the instructor, each student presents a significant work in progress, e.g., a revised version of an advanced seminar paper or a dissertation chapter. Upon completion of the writing, the student presents the work in a mock colloquium format, including a formal question-and-answer period.
T 7pm-8:50pm

PHIL 719a, Faith and the Will  John Pittard

An investigation of questions concerning the nature of religious faith, the relationship of faith to the will and to desire, and the merits of various prudential, moral, and existential arguments for and against religious faith. Questions to be treated include: Is faith in some sense “meritorious” (to use Aquinas’s language)? Do the commitments of faith essentially involve believing propositions? Can belief be voluntary? Can trust or hope be voluntary? Should we hold religious beliefs to the same epistemic standards that apply to more mundane beliefs? Or should we persist in faith even if these beliefs do not meet conventional rational standards? We explore these questions through writings by Aquinas, Pascal, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, James, Freud, Wittgenstein, and various contemporary philosophers.
W 1:30pm-3:20pm

PHIL 727b, The Practical and the Theoretical  Jason Stanley and Timothy Williamson

In this seminar, we look at some facets of the distinction between practical and theoretical knowledge. Is theoretical knowledge separate from action? Is practical knowledge rooted in habit, rather than theory? We draw on sources both ancient and contemporary in addressing these questions.
W 1:30pm-3:20pm

PHIL 728b, Kierkegaard’s Philosophy of Religion  John Hare

The course explores a number of texts by Kierkegaard, most of them pseudonymous, but also Works of Love, written under his own name. A focus is on what Kierkegaard intends us to think about the three stages of life: the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious. No background in philosophy required; some acquaintance with Kant and Hegel helpful.
Th 3:30pm-5:20pm

PHIL 731b, Theological Predication and Divine Attributes  John Pittard

An exploration of philosophical debates concerning the nature of theological language and the nature of God. Topics include theories of analogical predication, divine simplicity, God’s relation to time, divine impassibility, the nature of God’s love, divine freedom, the compatibility of foreknowledge and human freedom, and theories of providence.
W 1:30pm-3:20pm

PHIL 734a / GMAN 651a / PLSC 583a, Contemporary Critical Theory  Seyla Benhabib

An examination of the themes of statelessness, migration, and exile in the works of Arendt, Benjamin, Adorno, Shklar, and Berlin.
HTBA

PHIL 741a / CLSS 886a, What Is Aristotelian Hylomorphism?  David Charles

The aim of the seminar is to examine the extent to which Aristotle’s version of hylomorphism as applied to psychological phenomena (such as the emotions, desire, perception, and thought) was modified and criticized by later philosophers. We assess the hypothesis that Aristotle’s discussion of these issues was substantially modified by later philosophers and commentators in such a way as to set up (1) contemporary versions of hylomorphism and (2) the mind/body problem as formulated by Descartes.
W 3:30pm-5:20pm

PHIL 746b / CLSS 887b, Cicero and Ancient Ethics: The Dialogue On Moral Ends (De finibus bonorum et malorum)  Brad Inwood

Cicero’s most important and influential work on moral philosophy is the dialogue On Moral Ends (De finibus bonorum et malorum). Written within the general framework of eudaimonism, the dialogue expounds on and criticizes the ethical theory of three contemporary schools: Epicurean, Stoic, and Peripatetic. On Moral Ends presents important debates in ethics, gives us extensive evidence for Hellenistic philosophy in general, and had significant influence on moral theory in the early modern period. We read the entire dialogue, with more emphasis on the Stoic (books 3–4) and Peripatetic (book 5) debates than on the Epicurean (books 1–2). In class we work predominantly from the translation by Raphael Woolf, but Latin readers are expected to read key parts of the dialogue in Latin as well; there will be a separate meeting for discussion of issues that arise from the Latin text. Prerequisite: graduate enrollment in Philosophy or Classics, or permission of the instructor.
T 3:30pm-5:20pm

PHIL 748b / CLSS 865b, Plato’s Theaetetus  Verity Harte and David Charles

The class reads and discusses the Greek text of Plato’s Theaetetus, a central work of Plato’s philosophy and an important work in the history of philosophy. Focused on the nature of knowledge, the dialogue is notable for a series of arguments involving central notions of Plato’s philosophy: knowledge, definition, perception, false judgment. The class is a core course for the combined Ph.D. program in Classics and Philosophy. The course is open to all graduate students in Philosophy or Classics who have suitable preparation in Attic Greek and some prior knowledge of ancient philosophy. Others interested in taking or attending the class must have prior permission of the instructors. Undergraduates are not normally admitted.
W 3:30pm-5:20pm

PHIL 750a or b, Tutorial  Staff

By arrangement with faculty.
HTBA

PHIL 755a / GLBL 785a, Conservatism: Seminar  Samuel Moyn, Scott Shapiro, and Ross Douthat

This seminar examines conservatism’s origins as a body of theory; turns to the trajectory of American conservatism since World War II, focusing on both intellectual history and popular mobilization; and concludes with a survey of versions of conservatism prominent in contemporary legal scholarship.
T 2:10pm-4pm