Results for PHIL

What should I do with my life? What kind of person should I be? How should we treat others? What makes actions right or wrong? What is good and what is bad? What should we value? How should we organize society? Is there any reason to be moral? Is morality relative or subjective? How, if at all, can such questions be answered? Intensive introduction to theories and techniques in contemporary moral philosophy.

In everyday life, we ask each other to be reasonable, and we fault unreasonable behavior in ourselves and others. Moreover, the Anglo-American legal system makes extensive use of the "reasonable person standard" in everything from negligence to administrative law. What is it to be a reasonable person? What do we mean by "reasonable"? This course will look at applications of the concept and at attempts by philosophers and legal theorists to understand what reasonableness is. First preference to Sophomores; second preference to Freshman. No prior Philosophy courses needed.

Sophomore Seminar. First preference to Sophomores; second preference to Freshman. What makes a video game world feel like a real place? What is our relationship to the real world? Can we learn anything from video games about our relationship to the real world, and can we learn anything from philosophy that can help us create compelling video game worlds? In this course we will examine elements of video game design and development in the context of related philosophical topics including the nature of worlds, the nature of the mind, and the nature of action. For example, while some games are open-world, some consist of a set of sandboxes, and could the distinction between what philosophers call 'possible worlds' and 'situations' help us understand the difference? (Or vice versa?) Video game worlds are often sprinkled with 'pick-ups' -- do philosophical accounts of how agents perceive the real world help to explain why this is such an intuitive game mechanic? In this course we will play and tinker with video games while also reading philosophical texts, and see if each domain can stimulate our thinking about the other. There are no prerequisites for this course, but all students should come prepared to read challenging literature, to play some games, and to make some games!

This course introduces students to tools for the philosophical analysis of science. We will cover issues in observation, experiment, and reasoning, questions about the aims of science, scientific change, and the relations between science and values.

Intensive study of central topics in metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of language and mind in preparation for advanced courses in philosophy. Emphasis on development of analytical writing skills. This iteration of Philosophy 80 will focus on three important philosophical issues: personal identity; the metaphysics of mind; and the nature of belief and related attitudes. Readings will be drawn both from philosophy and from cognitive science more broadly. Prerequisite: at least one other philosophy course, not including SYMSYS 1 / PHIL 99.

Can novels make us better people? Can movies challenge our assumptions? Can poems help us become who we are? We'll think about these and other questions with the help of writers like Toni Morrison, Marcel Proust, Jordan Peele, Charlie Kaufman, Rachel Cusk, William Shakespeare, and Samuel Beckett, plus thinkers like Nehamas, Nietzsche, Nussbaum, Plato, and Sartre. We'll also ask whether a disenchanted world can be re-enchanted; when, if ever, the truth stops being the most important thing; why we sometimes choose to read sad stories; whether we ever love someone for who they are; who could possibly want to live their same life over and over again; what it takes to make ourselves fully moral; whether it's ever good to be conflicted; how we can pull ourselves together; and how we can take ourselves apart. (This is the required gateway course for the Philosophy and Literature major tracks. Majors should register in their home department.)

(Formerly SYMSYS 100). An overview of the interdisciplinary study of cognition, information, communication, and language, with an emphasis on foundational issues: What are minds? What is computation? What are rationality and intelligence? Can we predict human behavior? Can computers be truly intelligent? How do people and technology interact, and how might they do so in the future? Lectures focus on how the methods of philosophy, mathematics, empirical research, and computational modeling are used to study minds and machines. Students must take this course before being approved to declare Symbolic Systems as a major. All students interested in studying Symbolic Systems are urged to take this course early in their student careers. The course material and presentation will be at an introductory level, without prerequisites. If you have any questions about the course, please email symsys1staff@gmail.com.

We shall cover the major developments in Greek philosophical thought, focusing on Plato, Aristotle, and the Hellenistic schools (the Epicureans, the Stoics, and the Skeptics). Topics include epistemology, metaphysics, psychology, ethics and political theory. No prereqs, not repeatable.

(Graduate students register for 237.) An exploration of Wittgenstein's changing views about meaning, mind, knowledge, and the nature of philosophical perplexity and philosophical insight, focusing on the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and Philosophical Investigations.

An introduction to the concepts and techniques used in mathematical logic, focusing on propositional, modal, and predicate logic. Highlights connections with philosophy, mathematics, computer science, linguistics, and neighboring fields.

This year's topic is Non-Classical Logic. May be repeated for credit.

Justice, as we use the term in this class, is a question about social cooperation. People can produce much more cooperatively than the sum of what they could produce as individuals, and these gains from cooperation are what makes civilization possible. But on what terms should we cooperate? How should we divide, as the philosopher John Rawls puts it, "the benefits and burdens of social cooperation"? Working primarily within the Anglo-American philosophical tradition, we'll discuss different answers to this big question as a way to bring together some of the most prominent debates in modern political philosophy. We'll study theories including utilitarianism, libertarianism, classical liberalism, and egalitarian liberalism, and we'll take on complex current issues like reparations for racial injustice, the gender pay gap, and responses to climate change. This class is meant to be an accessible entry point to political philosophy. No experience with political science or philosophy is required or assumed, and we will spend time on the strategy of philosophy as well: understanding how our authors make their arguments to better respond to them and make our own.

Grad students enroll in 276M. What is social change, and how does it work? What, if anything, is our responsibility to contribute to change? Are each of us, as individuals, responsible for contributing to the changes we would like to see (e.g., regarding climate change, inequality, oppression, etc.)? How can that be, if the problems are so huge and our individual contributions so tiny? Are groups (e.g., states, corporations, social classes, racial groups, etc.), as such, responsible for change? How can that be, if responsibility only attaches to agents? Can groups themselves be agents? That seems to require that groups themselves have beliefs and desires. How is that possible? Must groups be agents in order to be responsible for their (collective) behavior, or is group responsibility fundamentally different from individual, personal responsibility? If groups can be responsible (e.g., for climate change), what implications follow for the individuals that comprise the group? How, if at all, is responsibility for what a group does distributed to group members? Can individuals have a duty to create a group, where creating a group is what is required to bring about social change? In this class we will discuss these and related questions.

The philosophy of social science is both descriptive and prescriptive. It describes the philosophical assumptions that form the basis of the practice of social inquiry and criticizes them for securing their ability to explain and predict social phenomena. This course provides an extended overview of the central debates in the philosophy of social sciences. First, we will discuss whether there is an epistemological import difference between natural and social sciences. Second, we will discuss what is the method (or methods) in social sciences, what type of knowledge social inquiry produces, and discuss the ontology of social kinds. Finally, we will discuss whether research in the social sciences can be objective and value-free.

Intensive introduction to core topics in contemporary metaphysics. What is the fundamental structure of reality? Is it objective? What's the difference between concrete and abstract entities? How can there be truths about what is possible or necessary, if only the actual exists? What is it for an event to be determined by its causes? Is the world purely physical? Does science answer all of these questions? If not, is there some other way to answer them? Prerequisites: PHIL 80, PHIL 150, and one course in contemporary theoretical philosophy (PHIL 181 to PHIL 189).

The study of conceptual questions about language as a focus of contemporary philosophy for its inherent interest and because philosophers see questions about language as behind perennial questions in other areas of philosophy including epistemology, philosophy of science, metaphysics, and ethics. Key concepts and debates about the notions of meaning, truth, reference, and language use, with relations to psycholinguistics and formal semantics. Readings from philosophers such as Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, Grice, and Kripke. Prerequisites: 80 and background in logic.

This course will explore foundational issues about individual agency, explanation of action, reasons and causes, agency in the natural world, practical rationality, interpretation, teleological explanation, intention and intentional action, agency and time, intention and belief, knowledge of one's own actions, identification and hierarchy, and shared agency. Prerequisite: graduate student standing in philosophy or, for others, prior course work in philosophy that includes Philosophy 80.

Capstone seminar for Philosophy majors. What should we aim to do in doing philosophy, and how should we aim to do it? The idea that philosophy involves some sort of analysis has a long pedigree, with a continuing grip on us. In the first half of the term, we will explore different ideas about analysis, and criticisms of the so-called Linguistic and Conceptual Turns in 20th century Anglo-American philosophy. In the second half of the term, we will explore reformed conceptions of analytic philosophy, with special emphasis on Timothy Williamson?s view.

(Staff)

May be repeated for credit.

The Dualist is the undergraduate organization for students interested in philosophy. It is the Department of Philosophy's undergraduate philosophy association. It brings together people who are passionate about exploring deep philosophical and life questions. We focus on building a philosophical community through book-club style conversations and various other events through the quarter. The undergraduate leaders of the Dualist will also be a primary source for peer advice on philosophy classes at Stanford and the Philosophy department's undergraduate degree program. Prerequisite: one prior course in the philosophy department.

(Graduate students register for 237.) An exploration of Wittgenstein's changing views about meaning, mind, knowledge, and the nature of philosophical perplexity and philosophical insight, focusing on the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and Philosophical Investigations.

For Ph.D. students in their first or second year who are or are about to be teaching assistants for the department. May be repeated for credit.

May be repeated for credit.

An introduction to the concepts and techniques used in mathematical logic, focusing on propositional, modal, and predicate logic. Highlights connections with philosophy, mathematics, computer science, linguistics, and neighboring fields.

This year's topic is Non-Classical Logic. May be repeated for credit.

Grad students enroll in 276M. What is social change, and how does it work? What, if anything, is our responsibility to contribute to change? Are each of us, as individuals, responsible for contributing to the changes we would like to see (e.g., regarding climate change, inequality, oppression, etc.)? How can that be, if the problems are so huge and our individual contributions so tiny? Are groups (e.g., states, corporations, social classes, racial groups, etc.), as such, responsible for change? How can that be, if responsibility only attaches to agents? Can groups themselves be agents? That seems to require that groups themselves have beliefs and desires. How is that possible? Must groups be agents in order to be responsible for their (collective) behavior, or is group responsibility fundamentally different from individual, personal responsibility? If groups can be responsible (e.g., for climate change), what implications follow for the individuals that comprise the group? How, if at all, is responsibility for what a group does distributed to group members? Can individuals have a duty to create a group, where creating a group is what is required to bring about social change? In this class we will discuss these and related questions.

The philosophy of social science is both descriptive and prescriptive. It describes the philosophical assumptions that form the basis of the practice of social inquiry and criticizes them for securing their ability to explain and predict social phenomena. This course provides an extended overview of the central debates in the philosophy of social sciences. First, we will discuss whether there is an epistemological import difference between natural and social sciences. Second, we will discuss what is the method (or methods) in social sciences, what type of knowledge social inquiry produces, and discuss the ontology of social kinds. Finally, we will discuss whether research in the social sciences can be objective and value-free.

Intensive introduction to core topics in contemporary metaphysics. What is the fundamental structure of reality? Is it objective? What's the difference between concrete and abstract entities? How can there be truths about what is possible or necessary, if only the actual exists? What is it for an event to be determined by its causes? Is the world purely physical? Does science answer all of these questions? If not, is there some other way to answer them? Prerequisites: PHIL 80, PHIL 150, and one course in contemporary theoretical philosophy (PHIL 181 to PHIL 189).

The study of conceptual questions about language as a focus of contemporary philosophy for its inherent interest and because philosophers see questions about language as behind perennial questions in other areas of philosophy including epistemology, philosophy of science, metaphysics, and ethics. Key concepts and debates about the notions of meaning, truth, reference, and language use, with relations to psycholinguistics and formal semantics. Readings from philosophers such as Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, Grice, and Kripke. Prerequisites: 80 and background in logic.

This course will explore foundational issues about individual agency, explanation of action, reasons and causes, agency in the natural world, practical rationality, interpretation, teleological explanation, intention and intentional action, agency and time, intention and belief, knowledge of one's own actions, identification and hierarchy, and shared agency. Prerequisite: graduate student standing in philosophy or, for others, prior course work in philosophy that includes Philosophy 80.

Students engage in internship work and integrate that work into their academic program. Following internship work, students complete a research report outlining work activity. Meets the requirements for curricular practical training for students on F-1 visas. Student is responsible for arranging own internship/employment and faculty sponsorship. Register under faculty sponsor's section number. Course may be repeated for credit.

Topically focused seminar. Required of all first year Philosophy PhD students. This seminar is limited to first-year Ph.D. students in Philosophy. We will focus on some major work over roughly the past 60 years on inter-related issues about practical reason, responsibility, agency, and sociality.

A required seminar for third year philosophy PhD students designed to help them transition to writing a dissertation.

Grad seminar. 2 unit option only for Philosophy PhD students beyond the second year.

This course serves as the Core Seminar for the PhD Minor in Philosophy, Literature, and the Arts. It introduces students to a wide range of topics at the intersection of philosophy with literary and arts criticism. The seminar is intended for graduate students. It is suitable for theoretically ambitious students of literature and the arts, philosophers with interests in value theory, aesthetics, and topics in language and mind, and other students with strong interest in the psychological importance of engagement with the arts. In this year's installment, we will focus on issues about the nature of fiction, about the experience of appreciation and what it does for us, about the ethical consequences of imaginative fictions, and about different conceptions of the importance of the arts in life more broadly. May be repeated for credit.

Graduate seminar. 2 unit option only for Philosophy PhDs beyond their second year.

Both within academic philosophy, but also in the broader culture, philosophy is often criticized as being a pointless enterprise given the successes of modern science. Some philosophers respond, explicitly or implicitly, to such criticisms by arguing that philosophy can be, or at least their philosophical methodology and theories are, closely allied to the scientific method or to scientific results. They often call themselves naturalists, physicalists, or materialists. Their opponents argue, for at least some domains, that attempts to do philosophy in this vein fail. Such opponents are sometimes labelled non-naturalists. We will attempt to make sense of the various methodological and substantive issues supposedly at stake in these debates and consider the arguments for and against various competing approaches to these matters. This a graduate seminar open only to Philosophy PhD students. The 2 unit option is only for Philosophy PhD students beyond the second year. Maybe repeated for credit.

Contemporary work. May be repeated a total of three times for credit.

(Staff)

(Staff)