PHIL 1:
Introduction to Philosophy
Is there one truth or many? Does science tell us everything there is to know? Can our minds be purely physical? Do we have free will? Is faith rational? Should we always be rational? What is the meaning of life? Are there moral truths? What are truth, reality, rationality, and knowledge? How can such questions be answered? Intensive introduction to theories and techniques in philosophy from various contemporary traditions.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 2:
Introduction to Moral Philosophy (ETHICSOC 20)
What is the basis of moral judgment? What makes right actions right and wrong actions wrong? What makes a state of affairs good or worth promoting? What is it to have a good or virtuous character? Answers to classic questions in ethics through the works of traditional and contemporary authors. Fulfills the Philosophy ethical reasoning requirement.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PHIL 7N:
What is Truth
This question can be answered precisely in some important cases. We begin with the language of propositional logic where truth is defined by simple tables. This is already sufficient for description of many important problems and leads to a famous ($1 000 000) problem P=NP. We use Sudoku puzzles for illustration. Close connection between propositional truth and proof is established by the resolution method forming a basis of most automated theorem provers. The language of predicate logic covers much more and illustrates the notion of completeness. Register machines provide connection with computations and lead to a fundamental classification of problems of truth with respect to decidability. The language of arithmetic exhibits a new phenomenon of incompleteness that changed significant part of philosophy in 20-th century.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 8N:
Free Will and Responsibility
In what sense are we, or might we be free agents? Is our freedom compatible with our being fully a part of the same natural, causal order that includes other physical and biological systems? What assumptions about freedom do we make when we hold people accountable morally and/or legally? When we hold people accountable, and so responsible, can we also see them as part of the natural, causal order? Or is there a deep incompatibility between these two ways of understanding ourselves? What assumptions about our freedom do we make when we deliberate about what to do? Are these assumptions in conflict with seeing ourselves as part of the natural, causal order?nWe will explore these and related questions primarily by way of careful study of recent and contemporary philosophical research on these matters.
Last offered: Winter 2011
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PHIL 11N:
Skepticism
Preference to freshmen. Historical and contemporary philosophical perspectives on the limits of human knowledge of a mind-independent world and causal laws of nature. The nature and possibility of a priori knowledge.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 15N:
Freedom, Community, and Morality
Preference to freshmen. Does the freedom of the individual conflict with the demands of human community and morality? Or, as some philosophers have maintained, does the freedom of the individual find its highest expression in a moral community of other human beings? Readings include Camus, Mill, Rousseau, and Kant.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PHIL 20S:
Introduction to Moral Philosophy
What makes right actions right and wrong actions wrong? Must right actions promote some further good? What is the role of consequences in the evaluation of actions as right or good? Focus is on traditional attempts to account for what determines which actions are right, what is worth promoting, and what kind of person one ought to be. Readings from primarily historical figures such as Aristotle, Hume, Kant, Mill, and others.
Last offered: Summer 2010
| Units: 3
PHIL 22:
Ethics in Theory and Practice (ETHICSOC 10)
Weekly talks by Stanford faculty on important questions of ethics that arise in private and public life. These questions arise in all disciplines and are central to many of the main problems confronting humanity today. Such questions include: what is our obligation to future generations? are there any human rights? what is the appropriate role of religion in politics? is capital punishment ever justified? what are the ethical obligations of a researcher? should the university teach moral values? what principles of justice should govern the distribution of K-12 education?nnClass meets Fridays from noon to 1:05. Format is an informal talk of about 35- 40 minutes, followed by discussion.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 1
| Repeatable
for credit
PHIL 23G:
Pessimism, Philosophy, and Human Nature
In different ways, Thucydides, Hobbes, Rousseau, Kant, and Schopenhauer all emphasize a just so, descriptive account of humankind that, on the surface at least, reveals a profound pessimism with respect to their views about human nature. But for these thinkers pessimism represents a sort of intellectual honesty about human nature, and these insights invariably underscore a profound optimism, in spite of their pessimism, with respect to what they view as the more pressing question concerning what humankind can make itself to be. Our guiding question will be to explore whether and how each of these thinkers reconciles their philosophical optimism with their psychological pessimism about human nature.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 2
PHIL 23H:
Perfectionism: The Idea of the Perfect in Nature, Ethics, and Politics
Perfection is the full realization of what is best or most excellent. In this tutorial course we will explore philosophical thought on perfection in three different contexts: natural teleology, individual ethical life, and utopian and anti-utopian social thought. Throughout the course, we will ask the following questions: What is a perfect being? Why is perfection per se good or desirable? Do evaluative comparisons presuppose some absolute standard of perfection? Does it make sense to aim at perfection in ethical and political life? What are the virtues of imperfection? What are the hazards of pursuing perfection in the political realm? Is perfectionism compatible with pluralism about values? Is perfectionism compatible with government based on popular will? The primary emphasis is on close reading and discussion of classic texts in ethical theory, including selections from Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Rousseau, Kant, and Tocqueville, accompanied by contemporary selections.
Terms: Win
| Units: 2
PHIL 23J:
On the Notion of Respect: Politics, Deliberation and Disagreements
The notion of respect plays a crucial role in a variety of human contexts. We respect many different things and we respect them in many different ways: from parents and elders, to public institutions and the law, and other people's dignity, feelings and rights. Many, in fact, claim that all people deserve respect¿some way or another. Public conversations lately have been plagued with calls to respect the environment, life in all of its forms, citizens¿ sexual orientation, etc. Additionally, it is also urged that public debates should take place under conditions of mutual respect: that above and beyond our differences and our interests, we should respect each other as persons. nnIn particular, philosophers working in moral and political theory focus on what respect for persons might mean¿including oneself and possibly other entities. Such a notion is frequently issued inter alia in discussions about justice and legitimacy, equality and exploitation, multiculturalism and pluralism, toleration and recognition. The main concern here centers on the ways in which citizens should respect one another in plural democracies. Explore whether or not the assumption that in order to properly respect each other as free and equal citizens we are obligated to satisfy certain requirements of justification (viz., public reason) by seeking appropriate political justifications and sometimes exercising restraint in appealing to individual points of views (viz., comprehensive doctrines) in political discourse.
Terms: Win
| Units: 2
PHIL 23K:
Race and Gender
Are race and gender interesting biological categories, or are they in some way socially constructed? How are race and gender similar and different? Are legal restrictions on racist or sexist speech morally acceptable? What about racial profiling? This tutorial will explore theoretical questions about race and gender drawn from metaphysics and the philosophy of science, as well as the pressing moral and political questions these topics raise. Readings will consist of recent articles by prominent philosophers, including Elizabeth Anderson, Sally Haslanger, Tommie Shelby, Rae Langton, and Laurence Thomas.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 2
PHIL 30S:
Justifying justice at home and abroad
It is difficult to read the news today without getting enmeshed in discussions about justice both at home and abroad. Whether it be the authorized Awlaki killing, humanitarian intervention in Somalia, Wall Street regulations or health care reform that grabs your attention, there is no doubt that we are living in tumultuous times. What do you think when you read about the austerity measures in Greece and in Ireland ¿ or about the high unemployment in Spain and in Italy ¿ or about the relaxation of environmental regulations in the USA ¿ or about the abolition of capital punishment? To figure out how to frame answers to these questions, we shall look at some of the main topics in social and political philosophy: rights, property, justice, criminal punishment, humanitarian intervention and just war theory.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 3
PHIL 43S:
Happiness: Positive Psychology and Philosophy
The connection between research in positive psychology to determine what happiness is and the conditions under which human beings are happy with issues in moral philosophy regarding whether we should aim at happiness or think of it as a good. The assumptions about happiness made by positive psychologists. The philosophical insight into the question of how people should live that is gained by looking at the empirical results provide by psychologists.
Last offered: Summer 2010
| Units: 3
PHIL 45S:
Is it always good to 'be yourself'? ' Issues in Ethics and Moral Psychology
It may seem obvious that it is good to 'be yourself, ' to be 'who you really are, ' or to do what you 'really' want to do ' but is it? Some believe that we are our true, or real, selves when we act on our values, what we love, or what we care most about. But if that is true, then is it still good to be yourself when what you value and care most about involves a commitment to acts of terrorism, torturing others, or a life of pain and boredom?nnnWe will look at contemporary philosophical attempts to make sense of the idea of 'being yourself, 'and what the nature of the value of this authenticity is."nnnAuthors include Bratman, Frankfurt, Korsgaard, Millgram and Williams.
Last offered: Summer 2011
| Units: 3
PHIL 50:
Introductory Logic
Propositional and predicate logic; emphasis is on translating English sentences into logical symbols and constructing derivations of valid arguments.
Terms: Aut, Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Math, WAY-FR
PHIL 50S:
Introductory Logic
Propositional and predicate logic. Themes include: translations of English sentences into logical symbols; semantics of and proof rules for propositional and predicate logic. Emphasis is on evaluating arguments with the syntax and semantics of contemporary logic. Special attention to the properties of the languages studied.
Last offered: Summer 2010
| Units: 3
PHIL 60:
Introduction to Philosophy of Science (HPS 60)
20th-century views on the nature of scientific knowledge. Logical positivism and Popper; the problem of induction; Kuhn, Feyerbend, and radical philosophies of science; subsequent attempts to rebuild moderate empiricist and realist positions.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 61S:
A Meaningful Life in a Physical World
Questions about the meaning of life have occupied a central place in philosophical thought throughout its history. However, the scientific view of human beings as essentially complex, evolutionarily-designed biological systems in a purely material world (one governed by fundamental physical laws) seemingly puts pressure on the idea that humans can live a life of genuine meaningfulness. The guiding questions of this course will be: Is there the prospect of our living truly meaningful lives even if we are just complex biological systems? If so, what kind(s) of meaning can we hope to achieve? If not, how should we live our lives? In exploring these questions, we will read works by philosophers (and psychologists) approaching these questions from many different traditions and perspectives. Possible authors will include Plato, Hobbes, Rousseau, Nietzsche, Sartre, Camus, Sigmund Freud, Viktor Frankl, Bertrand Russell, John Searle, Owen Flanagan, Daniel Dennett, and Ruth Millikan.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 3
PHIL 63S:
Introduction to Bioethics
If I am at least partly at fault for my own illness, should I lose priority for treatment? Is there a moral difference between killing and letting die? Focus is on understanding recent issues in applied ethics that arise from the biological and medical sciences. Readings are centralized around human life. Topics may include pre-birth, cloning, killing and letting die, and organ markets.
Last offered: Summer 2011
| Units: 3
PHIL 64S:
Introduction to Environmental Ethics
There is perhaps no more relevant field of applied philosophy than environmental ethics. The importance and urgency of an issue like climate change is but one example of the subject matter of this rich and burgeoning field. Introduction to basic concepts in environmental ethics, the theories that employ and inform them, and how they are applied to the fundamental problems that it is concerned with. Potential topics and questions include: animal rights (do animals have rights, and if so, what grounds them?), climate change (what is the best way for us to respond to climate change, and why?), the value of the natural world (does the natural world have value in-itself, or only as an instrument to human ends?), our relationship to future generations (what do we owe future generations, if anything, and why? ¿ Can we have obligations to people who do not, and may not, exist?).
Terms: Sum
| Units: 3
PHIL 65S:
Technology and the Good Life
Can we engineer our way to happiness? Should we try to? An introduction to select issues in engineering ethics, the course examines various threats to human welfare, environmental catastrophe, social injustice, the limitations of "human nature" that could be amenable to engineering solutions. We consider whether it is ethically permissible to address these threats via engineering (referring to various conceptions of the good life for human beings: hedonism, liberalism, virtue ethics) and what the costs of such solutions are.
| Units: 3
PHIL 72:
Contemporary Moral Problems (ETHICSOC 185M)
As individuals and as members of societies, we make choices that can be assessed from the moral point of view. What choices should we make, and how should we make them? Is it ok to buy iThings when others lack basic nutrition? Does a preference for the taste of meat justify killing animals? When is deceptive seduction seriously wrong and when is it just sketchy? Topics include exploitation, poverty, sexual and reproductive autonomy, commercialization, homelessness, citizenship, education, stereotypes, affirmative action, and social responsibility.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-ER
PHIL 76:
Introduction to Global Justice (ETHICSOC 136R, INTNLREL 136R, POLISCI 136R, POLISCI 336)
Recent work in political theory on global justice. Topics include global poverty, human rights, fair trade, immigration, climate change. Do developed countries have a duty to aid developing countries? Do rich countries have the right to close their borders to economic immigrants? When is humanitarian intervention justified? Readings include Charles Beitz, Thomas Pogge, John Rawls.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-ER
PHIL 77S:
Philosophy of Religion (RELIGST 62S)
Key philosophical questions concerning the nature of the divine and the religious through a close reading of some classic philosophical texts, while aiming to develop critical thinking about these issues. Topics include: the existence and nature of God, the problem of evil, the justification of religious belief, the nature of and relationship between faith and reason, and the function(s) of religion. Key texts will include Plato, St. Anselm, Hume, and Nietzsche.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
PHIL 80:
Mind, Matter, and Meaning
Central topics in philosophy emphasizing development of analytical writing skills. What are human beings? Are human beings free? How do human minds and bodies interact? What does it all mean? Prerequisite: introductory philosophy course.
Terms: Aut, Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 81:
Philosophy and Literature (CLASSGEN 81, COMPLIT 181, ENGLISH 81, FRENGEN 181, GERGEN 181, ITALGEN 181, SLAVGEN 181)
Required gateway course for Philosophical and Literary Thought; crosslisted in departments sponsoring the Philosophy and Literature track: majors should register in their home department; non-majors may register in any sponsoring department. Introduction to major problems at the intersection of philosophy and literature. Issues may include authorship, selfhood, truth and fiction, the importance of literary form to philosophical works, and the ethical significance of literary works. Texts include philosophical analyses of literature, works of imaginative literature, and works of both philosophical and literary significance. Authors may include Plato, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Borges, Beckett, Barthes, Foucault, Nussbaum, Walton, Nehamas, Pavel, and Pippin.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 90E:
Introduction to Business Ethics
Business strives to make a profit. Ethics counsels that people should avoid acting in ways that are greedy, deceptive, or unjust. But some greedy, deceptive, or unjust business practices are quite profitable. This dilemma is the foundation of the discipline known as business ethics. The course investigates four relationships relevant to concerns about greed, deception, injustice, and profit--between businesses and society, businesses and their shareholders, businesses and their employees, and businesses and their customers--with the aim of clarifying the foundational dilemma.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-ER
PHIL 90F:
Consciousness and Reference
Many philosophers see conscious experience as playing an important role in our thought and talk about things. But just what role does it play in reference and cognition? Does it provide us with a capacity to think and talk about things directly? Or does it simply provide us with descriptive conceptions through which we can think and talk about things in some less direct manner? And what about our thought and talk about conscious experience itself? Is it different in kind from our thought and talk about other sorts of objects? Does consciousness actually play an important role in thought and talk? We will begin by reading seminal works by Frege and Russell on the role of conscious experience in reference and cognition. Then we will turn to contemporary work by Kaplan, Evans, Perry, Taylor, Campbell, Recanati, Jeshion, and Chalmers on the subject. Lastly, we will consider how these various views bear on recent debates about the so-called `phenomenal concepts¿ we use to think and talk about consciousness itself.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
PHIL 90G:
Native American Philosophy
Examine traditional philosophical questions like "How do we know?" "What exists?" "What is a person?" and "What is the good life?" from the perspectives of classical and contemporary Native American thinkers. We will look at Native American beliefs about respect for persons and places; reactions to colonial doctrines of conversion, treaties, and removal; and the importance of the themes of circularity and performance in classical and contemporary Native philosophical thought.nnAlso of importance will be to contrast some Native American approaches to philosophical questions against Western attempts to answer these same questions. How are the approaches the same? How are they different? What assumptions about the natures of reality or humanity account for the similarities or differences?
| Units: 4
PHIL 9N:
Philosophical Classics of the 20th Century
Last century's best and most influential philosophical writings. Topics include ethics (what is the nature of right and wrong?), language (how do meaning, reference, and truth arise in the natural world?), science (can science claim objectively accurate descriptions of reality?), existence (are there things that don't exist?), and the mind (could robots ever be conscious?). Authors include Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Rudolf Carnap, Willard Quine, Thomas Kuhn, John Rawls, and Saul Kripke. The lay of the land in contemporary philosophy.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 100:
Greek Philosophy
Greek philosophical thought, covering Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and the Hellenistic schools (the Epicureans, the Stoics, and the Skeptics). Topics: the nature of the soul, virtue and happiness, knowledge, and reality. (Bobonich)
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 101:
Introduction to Medieval Philosophy (PHIL 201)
Classics of Western philosophy by Augustine, Boethius, Anselm, Abelard, Aquinas, and Ockham. Explore the puzzles facing someone seeking to lead a good life and to understand herself and her world. A theory of will and human motivation, a theory of ethics based on the agent's intention, and a theory of divine omniscience and omnipotence consistent with divine goodness and human freedom. Works include On Free Choice, The Consolation of Philosophy, Ethics, Summa theologiae, and the Connection of the Virtues.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PHIL 102:
Modern Philosophy, Descartes to Kant
Major figures in early modern philosophy in epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind. Writings by Descartes, Locke, Leibniz, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 104:
Philosophy of Religion
Key issues in the philosophy of religion. Topics include the relationship between faith and reason, the concept of God, proofs of God's existence, the meaning of religious language, arguments for and against divine command theory in ethics and the role of religious belief in a liberal society.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 107:
Plato's Metaphysics and Epistemology (PHIL 207)
Examine Plato's views on the nature of reality and knowledge by reading the relevant parts of dialogues such as the Parmenides, the Phaedo, the Philebus, and the Republic.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 8 units total)
PHIL 108:
Topics in Aristotle: Aristotle's Ethics and Contemporary Moral Theory (PHIL 208)
Examine the fundamentals of Aristotle's psychological views and read the De Anima (On the Soul) and some of his other psychological works.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 109:
Topics in Ancient Philosophy: Plato and Aristotle on Art and Rhetoric (PHIL 209)
Plato's and Aristotle's views on the nature of art and rhetoric and their connections with the emotions, reason and the good life. Readings include Plato's Gorgias, Ion and parts of the Republic and the Laws and Aristotle's Poetics and Rhetoric.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 12 units total)
PHIL 109A:
Special Topics in Ancient Philosophy: Aristotle's Metaphysics (PHIL 209A)
An examination of Aristotle's views about substance, ontological priority, categories and the hylomorphic (matter/form) analysis of physical objects. This course will introduce students to the basic concepts of Aristotle's metaphysics through a close reading of *Categories* 1-5 and *Metaphysics* Zeta. The notion of a basic subject of predication (a bearer of properties that is not itself predicable of anything further) is used to characterize the primary substances. Such items are ontologically basic, and all other items in the ontology depend upon them for being what they are. No knowledge of Greek is required.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 12 units total)
PHIL 10N:
Traveling Through Time
Is time travel possible? Yes. We do it every day, at the rate of one minute per minute. Relativity theory even suggests a sense in which we could travel to the distant future. But could we travel to the past? If so, why aren't there any time travelers around? If not, is that because of some law of physics or because the very idea of time travel is incoherent? Suppose I were to go back in time and try to save JFK. Would I be bound to fail? What would stop me? Couldn't I just try again? If I eventually succeeded, would I thereby create a new branch in time? Or can we make sense of the idea of changing the past? What would happen if I tried to prevent my parents from having kids? What went on in the last season of Lost? We'll try to answer questions like these by looking at classic and contemporary work in the physics and philosophy of time, as well as pertinent case studies in fiction and film. Special guest speakers from the future are hereby invited.
| Units: 3
PHIL 115:
Problems in Medieval Philosophy: Islamic Aristotelianism and Western Scholasticism (PHIL 215)
The western world adopted Aristotle's metaphysics and natural philosophy as the foundation of its educational system and scholarly life between 1210 and 1255. Christian Europe was thereby following the example set by Islam in Spain and the Near East. Today some people believe that this development was independent, and others think that the scholastics copied even their methods from Arabic philosophers. Historical evaluation of those claims.
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
| Repeatable
for credit
PHIL 117:
Descartes (PHIL 217)
(Formerly 121/221.) Descartes's philosophical writings on rules for the direction of the mind, method, innate ideas and ideas of the senses, mind, God, eternal truths, and the material world.
Last offered: Autumn 2010
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 125:
Kant's First Critique (PHIL 225)
(Graduate students register for 225.) The founding work of Kant's critical philosophy emphasizing his contributions to metaphysics and epistemology. His attempts to limit metaphysics to the objects of experience. Prerequisite: course dealing with systematic issues in metaphysics or epistemology, or with the history of modern philosophy.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 126B:
Kant's Ethical Theory (PHIL 226B)
(Graduate students register for 226B.) Kant's moral philosophy based primarily on the Groundwork of Metaphysics of Morals, Critique of Practical Reason, and The Metaphysics of Morals.
| Units: 2-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 127A:
Kant's Value Theory (PHIL 227A)
(Graduate students register for 227A.) The role of autonomy, principled rational self-governance, in Kant's account of the norms to which human beings are answerable as moral agents, citizens, empirical inquirers, and religious believers. Relations between moral values (goodness, rightness) and aesthetic values (beauty, sublimity).
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PHIL 135:
Existentialism (PHIL 235)
(Formerly 132/232.) Focus is on the existentialist preoccupation with human freedom. What constitutes authentic individuality? What is one's relation to the divine? How can one live a meaningful life? What is the significance of death? A rethinking of the traditional problem of freedom and determinism in readings from Rousseau, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche, and the extension of these ideas by Sartre, Beauvoir, and Camus, including their social and political consequences in light of 20th-century fascism and feminism.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-ER
PHIL 137:
Wittgenstein (PHIL 237)
(Graduate students register for 237.) The main themes and claims in Wittgenstein's later work concentrating on his views about meaning, mind, knowledge, the nature of philosophical perplexity, and the nature of philosophical progress in his Philosophical Investigations. Emphasis is on the relationship between the novel arguments of the Investigations and its ways of writing up the results of philosophical questioning.
Last offered: Spring 2011
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 150:
Basic Concepts in Mathematical Logic (PHIL 250)
(Formerly 159.) The concepts and techniques used in mathematical logic, primarily through the study of the language of first order logic. Topics: formalization, proof, propositional logic, quantifiers, sets, mathematical induction, and enumerability.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Math, WAY-FR
PHIL 150E:
Logic in Action: A New Introduction to Logic
A new introduction to logic, covering propositional, modal, and first-order logic. Highlights connections with philosophy, mathematics, computer science, linguistics, and neighboring fields. Based on the open source logic course 'Logic in Action,' available online at http://www.logicinaction.org/.nnFulfills the undergraduate philosophy logic requirement.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Math, WAY-FR
PHIL 150X:
Basic Concepts in Mathematical Logic
Equivalent to the second half of 150. Students attend the first meeting of 150 and rejoin the class on October 30. Prerequisite: CS 103A or X, or PHIL 50.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 2
PHIL 151:
First-Order Logic (PHIL 251)
(Formerly 160A.) The syntax and semantics of sentential and first-order logic. Concepts of model theory. Gödel's completeness theorem and its consequences: the Löwenheim-Skolem theorem and the compactness theorem. Prerequisite: 150 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Math, WAY-FR
PHIL 152:
Computability and Logic (PHIL 252)
Approaches to effective computation: recursive functions, register machines, and programming styles. Proof of their equivalence, discussion of Church's thesis. Elementary recursion theory. These techniques used to prove Gödel's incompleteness theorem for arithmetic, whose technical and philosophical repercussions are surveyed. Prerequisite: 151.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Math
PHIL 153:
Feminist Theories and Methods Across the Disciplines (FEMST 103, FEMST 203, PHIL 253)
The interdisciplinary foundations of feminist thought. The nature of disciplines and of interdisciplinary work. Challenges of feminism for scholarship and research.
Terms: Win
| Units: 2-5
| UG Reqs: GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
PHIL 154:
Modal Logic (PHIL 254)
(Graduate students register for 254.) Syntax and semantics of modal logic, and technical results like completeness and correspondence theory. Applications to philosophy and computer science. Prerequisite: 150 or preferably 151.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Math, WAY-FR
PHIL 162:
Philosophy of Mathematics (MATH 162, PHIL 262)
(Graduate students register for PHIL 262.) 20th-century approaches to the foundations and philosophy of mathematics. The background in mathematics, set theory, and logic. Schools and programs of logicism, predicativism, platonism, formalism, and constructivism. Readings from leading thinkers. Prerequisite: PHIL151 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Math
PHIL 164:
Central Topics in the Philosophy of Science: Theory and Evidence (PHIL 264)
(Graduate students register for 264.) The relation of theory to evidence and prediction, problems of induction, empirical under-determination of theory by evidence, and theory choice. Hypothetico-deductive, Bayesian, pragmatic, and inference to the best explanation models of explanation. The semantic approach to theories.
Last offered: Spring 2011
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
| Repeatable
for credit
PHIL 165:
Philosophy of Physics (PHIL 265)
(Graduate students register for 265.) Central topic alternates annually between space-time theories and philosophical issues in quantum mechanics. Topics last year: absolute and relational theories of space, time, and motion. Newton¿s critique of Descartes and debate with Leibniz. The principle of relativity and space-time formulations of Aristotelian, Galilean, and relativity physics. Mach¿s principle and the theory of general relativity. Einstein¿s struggles with the principle of general covariance. Space-time substantivalism, and the meaning of background independence. May be repeated for credit if content is different.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
| Repeatable
for credit
PHIL 166:
Probability: Ten Great Ideas About Chance (PHIL 266, STATS 167, STATS 267)
Foundational approaches to thinking about chance in matters such as gambling, the law, and everyday affairs. Topics include: chance and decisions; the mathematics of chance; frequencies, symmetry, and chance; Bayes great idea; chance and psychology; misuses of chance; and harnessing chance. Emphasis is on the philosophical underpinnings and problems. Prerequisite: exposure to probability or a first course in statistics at the level of STATS 60 or 116.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Math, WAY-AQR, WAY-FR
PHIL 167A:
Philosophy of Biology (PHIL 267A)
(Graduate students register for 267A.) Evolutionary theory and in particular, on characterizing natural selection and how it operates. We examine debates about fitness, whether selection is a cause or force, the levels at which selection operates, and whether cultural evolution is a Darwinian process.
| Units: 2-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 167B:
Philosophy, Biology, and Behavior (PHIL 267B)
(Graduate students register for 267B.) Continuation of 167A/267A. Further philosophical study of key theoretical ideas in biology, focusing on problems involving explanation of behavior. Topics: evolutionary versus proximate causal explanations of behavior; genetic and other determinisms; and classification and measurement of behavior. Prerequisites: 167A; or one PHIL course and either one BIO course or Human Biology core; or equivalent with consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 167C:
Associative Theories of Mind and Brain (PHIL 267C)
After a historical survey of associative theories from Hume to William James, current versions will be analyzed including the important early ideas of Karl Lashley. Emphasis will be on the computational power of associative networks and their realization in the brain.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 170:
Ethical Theory (ETHICSOC 170, PHIL 270)
Major strands in contemporary ethical theory. Readings include Bentham, Mill, Kant, and contemporary authors.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PHIL 170B:
Metaphor (PHIL 270B)
Think and talk about two things at once: two different subject matters are mingled to rich and unpredictable effect. Close critical study of the main modern accounts of metaphors nature and interest, drawing on the work of writers, linguists, philosophers, and literary critics. Attention to how understanding, appreciation, and pleasure connect with one another in the experience of metaphor. Consideration of the possibility that metaphor or something very like it can occur in nonverbal media: gesture, dance, painting, music.
Last offered: Spring 2011
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 170E:
Sexual Ethics (ETHICSOC 175, PHIL 270E)
What is sex? What are the implications of different conceptions of sex for sexual ethics? Are there any distinctively sexual ethical principles or virtues or are principles and virtues that govern the sexual domain specific instances of principles and virtues that govern human activity more generally? Readings will range from historical to contemporary sources.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 171:
Justice (ETHICSOC 171, IPS 208, PHIL 271, POLISCI 3P, POLISCI 136S, POLISCI 336S, PUBLPOL 103C, PUBLPOL 307)
Focus is on the ideal of a just society, and the place of liberty and equality in it, in light of contemporary theories of justice and political controversies. Topics include protecting religious liberty, financing schools and elections, regulating markets, assuring access to health care, and providing affirmative action and group rights. Issues of global justice including human rights and global inequality.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-ER
PHIL 172:
History of Modern Ethics (PHIL 272)
Major strands in the history of modern, pre-Kantian moral philosophy. Emphasis is on the dialogue between empiricists and rationalists on the subject of the relationship between the natural and the normative. Authors include Frances Hutcheson, David Hume, Adam Smith, Samuel Clarke, and Richard Price.
Last offered: Spring 2010
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PHIL 172B:
Recent Ethical Theory (PHIL 272B)
Study the works of several prominent contemporary moral philosophers. Possible authors include: Scanlon, Darwall, Nagel, Williams, Blackburn, Gibbard, Korsgaard. Prerequisite: students should have taken an introduction to moral philosophy (Phil. 20, Phil. 170 or equivalent).
Last offered: Winter 2011
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PHIL 173A:
Aesthetics: Metaphor across the Arts
What if a metaphor is an instructively compact work of art, or if finding a metaphor apt is an instructively simple case of finding something aesthetically valuable? What does this reveal about the nature of art and language? Introduction to the philosophical study of art and aesthetic value, organized around metaphor. Contemporary accounts of metaphor as a verbal device. Arguments for the existence of nonverbal metaphor in nonliterary arts. The power and appeal of metaphors drawn from art, art criticism, theoretical inquiry, and everyday life.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 173B:
Metaethics (PHIL 273B)
(Graduate students register for 273B.) Can moral and ethical values be justified or is it just a matter of opinion? Is there a difference between facts and values? Are there any moral truths? Does it matter if there are not? Focus is not on which things or actions are valuable or morally right, but what is value or rightness itself. Contemporary metaethics. Prerequisites: 80, 181, and an ethics course.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 173B:
Metaethics (PHIL 273B)
Graduate students register for 273B.) Can moral and ethical values be justified or is it just a matter of opinion? Is there a difference between facts and values? Are there any moral truths? Does it matter if there are not? Focus is not on which things or actions are valuable or morally right, but what is value or rightness itself. Contemporary metaethics. Prerequisites: 80, 181, and an ethics course.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 174A:
Moral Limits of the Market (ETHICSOC 174A, PHIL 274A)
Morally controversial uses of markets and market reasoning in areas such as organ sales, procreation, education, and child labor. Would a market for organ donation make saving lives more efficient; if it did, would it thereby be justified? Should a nation be permitted to buy the right to pollute? Readings include Walzer, Arrow, Rawls, Sen, Frey, Titmuss, and empirical cases.
Last offered: Winter 2010
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PHIL 174L:
Betrayal and Loyalty, Treason and Trust (ETHICSOC 174L, ETHICSOC 274L, PHIL 274L)
The main topic of the seminar is Betrayal. : its meaning as well as its moral, legal and political implications. We shall discuss various notions of betrayal: Political (military) betrayal such as treason, Religious betrayal with Judas as its emblem, but also apostasy (converting one's religion) which is regarded both as a basic human right and also as an act of betrayal, social betrayal - betraying class solidarity as well as Ideological betrayal - betraying a cause. On top of political betrayal we shall deal with personal betrayal, especially in the form of infidelity and in the form of financial betrayal of the kind performed by Madoff. The contrasting notions to betrayal, especially loyalty and trust, will get special consideration so as to shed light or cast shadow, as the case may be, on the idea of betrayal. The seminar will focus not only on the normative aspect of betrayal - moral or legal, but also on the psychological motivations for betraying others. The seminar will revolve around glaring historical examples of betrayal but also use informed fictional novels, plays and movies from Shakespeare and Pinter, to John Le Carre'.
Terms: Win
| Units: 2
PHIL 175:
Philosophy of Law (PHIL 275)
Philosophical foundations of law and the legal system. The justifiability of patterns of assigning legal responsibility within criminal law. Prerequisite: PHIL 80 and one additional PHIL course.
Last offered: Winter 2011
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PHIL 175A:
Ethics and Politics of Public Service (CSRE 178, ETHICSOC 133, HUMBIO 178, PHIL 275A, POLISCI 133, PUBLPOL 103D, URBANST 122)
Ethical and political questions in public service work, including volunteering, service learning, humanitarian assistance, and public service professions such as medicine and teaching. Motives and outcomes in service work. Connections between service work and justice. Is mandatory service an oxymoron? History of public service in the U.S. Issues in crosscultural service work. Integration with the Haas Center for Public Service to connect service activities and public service aspirations with academic experiences at Stanford.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-EDP, WAY-ER
PHIL 176:
Political Philosophy: The Social Contract Tradition (PHIL 276)
(Graduate students register for 276.) Why and under what conditions do human beings need political institutions? What makes them legitimate or illegitimate? What is the nature, source, and extent of the obligation to obey the legitimate ones, and how should people alter or overthrow the others? Answers by political theorists of the early modern period: Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Kant.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PHIL 176A:
Classical Seminar: Origins of Political Thought (CLASSHIS 133, CLASSHIS 333, PHIL 276A, POLISCI 230A, POLISCI 330A)
Political philosophy in classical antiquity, focusing on canonical works of Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero. Historical background. Topics include: political obligation, citizenship, and leadership; origins and development of democracy; and law, civic strife, and constitutional change.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PHIL 178:
Ethics in Society Honors Seminar (ETHICSOC 190)
For students planning honors in Ethics in Society. Methods of research. Students present issues of public and personal morality; topics chosen with advice of instructor.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
PHIL 178M:
Justice and the Environment (ETHICSOC 178M, ETHICSOC 278M, PHIL 278M, POLISCI 134L)
Explores the normative questions that arise in environmental policy debates, including arguments over pollution permit markets, conservation regulations, and global warming mitigation efforts. What are the morally relevant ways in which the environment is different from other economic resources? How should the environment be valued? What are our obligations to conserve for future generations? How should the burdens of conservation be distributed? Engages with a variety of philosophical traditions including utilitarianism, deep ecology, liberalism, and communitarianism.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-ER
PHIL 180:
Metaphysics (PHIL 280)
Selection of core topics in metaphysics, including personal identity, naturalism, modality, and/or existence of God. Prerequisite: 80 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 180A:
Realism, Anti-Realism, Irrealism, Quasi-Realism (PHIL 280A)
Realism and its opponents as options across a variety of different domains: natural science, mathematics, ethics, and aesthetics. Clarify the various conceptions that fall under these terms and outline the reasons for and against adopting realism for the various domains. Highlight the general issues involved. Prerequisites: 80, 181
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 181:
Philosophy of Language (PHIL 281)
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.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 181B:
Philosophy of Language: Contemporary Debates (PHIL 281B)
This course builds on the material of 181/281, focusing on debates and developments in the pragmatics of conversation, the semantics/pragmatics distinction, the contextuality of meaning, the nature of truth and its connection to meaning, and the workings of particular linguistic constructions of special philosophical relevance. Students who have not taken 181/281 should seek the instructor's advice as to whether they have sufficient background.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 182:
Truth (PHIL 282)
Focus on the nature of truth; specifically, ongoing debates between so-called correspondence theorists and deflationists. The former generally think truth amounts to some kind of structural isomorphism between the world and our representations of it (like the relationship between a subway map and the subway route itself). Deflationists think the nature of truth is exhausted by something as trifling as the equivalence between affirming something and affirming that it's true: e.g., it's true that Modest Mouse is God's gift to indie rock if and only if Modest Mouse IS God's gift to indie rock. Related issues include the possibility of truth-value "gaps" (claims that are neither true nor false), degrees of truth, relativism and realism about arbitrary subject matters, the semantic paradoxes (like the Liar), the role of truth in the theory of meaning, and the value of true belief. Most readings were written after 1980. Previous courses in philosophy of language and/or metaphysics very strongly encouraged. Phil 80 a must.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PHIL 184:
Theory of Knowledge (PHIL 284)
Focus on nature of epistemic justification, good reasoning, and transmission of warrant¿both intrapersonal (inference) and interpersonal (testimony). Prerequisite: 80 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 184B:
Philosophy of the Body
Despite the fact that to be human is to be embodied, the body is rarely given the attention it deserves in analytic philosophy. We will bring the body into sharper focus thinking about cognition, agency, and personhood. What role does embodiment play in shaping cognitive capacities? What kind of somatic awareness is required for agency? How essential is the body to our conception of ourselves, both as individuals and as humans? Readings from history of philosophy, contemporary philosophy of mind and cognitive science, with special attention paid to embodiment theories of cognition.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 184C:
Epistemology of Testimony (PHIL 284C)
Many of our beliefs come from others, and not from direct experience. Is testimony a source of fundamental reasons¿reasons that do not have to be supported or validated by other sources like perception or inference? What sort of responsibility does one have to one¿s hearers, when one gives testimony?
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 185:
Memory
Structure, content, functional role, and epistemic authority of human memories. Sources include philosophical and psychological literature from different schools and historical periods.
Last offered: Autumn 2010
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 185B:
Philosophy of Perception (PHIL 285B)
The nature of perceptual experience and the role it plays in securing empirical knowledge. Focus will be on what is sometimes called "the problem of perception": the question of how perception could provide us with direct awareness of the surrounding environment given the possibility of illusions or hallucinations. Topics, include the relationship between perception and belief, the nature of perceptual phenomenology, whether or not perceptual experiences are representational states, and the philosophical relevance of empirical research on perception.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 186:
Philosophy of Mind (PHIL 286)
(Graduate students register for 286.) Debates concerning the nature of mental states, their relation to physical states of the human body, how they acquire their content, how people come to know about them in themselves and others, and the roles they play in the explanation of human conduct.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 187:
Philosophy of Action (PHIL 287)
(Graduate students register for 287.) Contemporary research in the philosophy of action. Topics include: What is it to be an agent? Is there a philosophically defensible contrast between being an agent and being a locus of causal forces to which one is subject? What is it to act purposively? What is intention? What is the relation between intention and belief? What is it to act intentionally? What is it to act for a reason? What is the relation between explaining why someone acted by citing the reasons for which she acted and causal explanation of her action? What is the relation between theoretical and practical rationality? What is the nature of our knowledge of our own intentional activity? What is it to act autonomously? What is shared cooperative activity? Prerequisite: 80..
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 188:
Personal Identity (PHIL 288)
Do you persist through time the way that a skyscraper persists through space, by having different parts at different locations? Or are you ¿wholly present¿ at every moment of your life, in something more like the way that an elevator is present in each place as it travels up to the top floor? What criteria determine whether you now are the very same person as some unique person located at some time in the past? Is the continuity of your memories or other mental states sufficient for your survival? Can you survive the loss or destruction of your body? Do you really exist for more than just the present moment? How do different answers to these questions bear on your moral, personal, and professional obligations? What kinds of considerations could possibly help us to answer these questions? This course explores these and related issues. Readings include a mix of introductory survey, historical, and contemporary material.
Last offered: Winter 2011
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 190:
Introduction to Cognitive and Information Sciences (LINGUIST 144, PSYCH 132, SYMSYS 100)
The history, foundations, and accomplishments of the cognitive sciences, including presentations by leading Stanford researchers in artificial intelligence, linguistics, philosophy, and psychology. Overview of the issues addressed in the Symbolic Systems major.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-FR
PHIL 193W:
Nietzsche, Doestoevsky, and Sartre
Literary works in which philosophical ideas and issues are put forward, such as prose poems, novels, and plays. Ideas and issues and the dramatic or narrative structures through which they are presented. Texts include: Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra; Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov; and Sartre, Nausea and No Exit.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 194E:
Beauty and Other Forms of Value
The nature and importance of beauty and of our capacity to discern it and respond to it, as discussed by philosophers and artists from various traditions and historical periods. Attempts to think out the relations between beauty and ethical values (such as goodness) on the one hand and cognitive values (such as truth) on the other. Fulfills capstone seminar requirement for the Philosophy and Literature tracks.
Last offered: Winter 2011
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 194L:
Montaigne
Preference to Philosophy seniors. Philosophical and literary aspects of Montaigne's Essays including the nature of the self and self-fashioning, skepticism, fideism, and the nature of Montaigne's philosophical project. Montaigne's development of the essay as a literary genre.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 194P:
Naming and Necessity
Saul Kripke's lectures on reference, modal metaphysics, and the mind/body problem.
Last offered: Spring 2010
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 194S:
Skepticism
Modern arguments for skepticism are hard to combat, but also curiously inert in ordinary life. We will look at a variety of contemporary attempts to come to terms with skepticism about the external world, each of which seeks to exploit the curious inertness of skeptical hypotheses.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
PHIL 194T:
Practical Reason
Contemporary research on practical reason, practical rationality, and reasons for action. Enrollment limited to 12. Priority given to undergraduate Philosophy majors.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
PHIL 196:
Tutorial, Senior Year
(Staff)
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 5
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 15 units total)
Instructors: ;
Anderson, R. (PI);
Barker-Plummer, D. (PI);
Bobonich, C. (PI);
Bratman, M. (PI);
Burgess, A. (PI);
Cohen, J. (PI);
Crimmins, M. (PI);
De Pierris, G. (PI);
Etchemendy, J. (PI);
Feferman, S. (PI);
Follesdal, D. (PI);
Friedman, M. (PI);
Hills, D. (PI);
Hussain, N. (PI);
Lawlor, K. (PI);
Longino, H. (PI);
Mints, G. (PI);
Perry, J. (PI);
Ryckman, T. (PI);
Satz, D. (PI);
Schapiro, T. (PI);
Skyrms, B. (PI);
Suppes, P. (PI);
Taylor, K. (PI);
Wasow, T. (PI);
Wood, A. (PI);
Wood, R. (PI);
van Benthem, J. (PI)
PHIL 197:
Individual Work, Undergraduate
May be repeated for credit.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-15
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Anderson, R. (PI);
Barker-Plummer, D. (PI);
Bobonich, C. (PI);
Bratman, M. (PI);
Burgess, A. (PI);
Cohen, J. (PI);
Crimmins, M. (PI);
De Pierris, G. (PI);
Etchemendy, J. (PI);
Feferman, S. (PI);
Ferreira, F. (PI);
Follesdal, D. (PI);
Friedman, M. (PI);
Hills, D. (PI);
Hussain, N. (PI);
Lawlor, K. (PI);
Lockhart, J. (PI);
Longino, H. (PI);
Mints, G. (PI);
Pacuit, E. (PI);
Perry, J. (PI);
Ryckman, T. (PI);
Satz, D. (PI);
Schapiro, T. (PI);
Skyrms, B. (PI);
Suppes, P. (PI);
Taylor, K. (PI);
Wasow, T. (PI);
Wood, A. (PI);
Wood, R. (PI);
van Benthem, J. (PI)
PHIL 198:
The Dualist
Weekly meeting of the editorial board of The Dualist, a national journal of undergraduate work in philosophy. Open to all undergraduates. May be taken 1-3 quarters. (AU) (Potochnik, Yap)
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 1
| Repeatable
for credit
PHIL 199:
Seminar for Prospective Honors Students
Open to juniors intending to do honors in philosophy. Methods of research in philosophy. Topics and strategies for completing honors project. May be repeated for credit.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 2
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 6 units total)
PHIL 201:
Introduction to Medieval Philosophy (PHIL 101)
Classics of Western philosophy by Augustine, Boethius, Anselm, Abelard, Aquinas, and Ockham. Explore the puzzles facing someone seeking to lead a good life and to understand herself and her world. A theory of will and human motivation, a theory of ethics based on the agent's intention, and a theory of divine omniscience and omnipotence consistent with divine goodness and human freedom. Works include On Free Choice, The Consolation of Philosophy, Ethics, Summa theologiae, and the Connection of the Virtues.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
PHIL 207:
Plato's Metaphysics and Epistemology (PHIL 107)
Examine Plato's views on the nature of reality and knowledge by reading the relevant parts of dialogues such as the Parmenides, the Phaedo, the Philebus, and the Republic.
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 8 units total)
PHIL 208:
Topics in Aristotle: Aristotle's Ethics and Contemporary Moral Theory (PHIL 108)
Examine the fundamentals of Aristotle's psychological views and read the De Anima (On the Soul) and some of his other psychological works.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
PHIL 209:
Topics in Ancient Philosophy: Plato and Aristotle on Art and Rhetoric (PHIL 109)
Plato's and Aristotle's views on the nature of art and rhetoric and their connections with the emotions, reason and the good life. Readings include Plato's Gorgias, Ion and parts of the Republic and the Laws and Aristotle's Poetics and Rhetoric.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 12 units total)
PHIL 209A:
Special Topics in Ancient Philosophy: Aristotle's Metaphysics (PHIL 109A)
An examination of Aristotle's views about substance, ontological priority, categories and the hylomorphic (matter/form) analysis of physical objects. This course will introduce students to the basic concepts of Aristotle's metaphysics through a close reading of *Categories* 1-5 and *Metaphysics* Zeta. The notion of a basic subject of predication (a bearer of properties that is not itself predicable of anything further) is used to characterize the primary substances. Such items are ontologically basic, and all other items in the ontology depend upon them for being what they are. No knowledge of Greek is required.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 12 units total)
PHIL 215:
Problems in Medieval Philosophy: Islamic Aristotelianism and Western Scholasticism (PHIL 115)
The western world adopted Aristotle's metaphysics and natural philosophy as the foundation of its educational system and scholarly life between 1210 and 1255. Christian Europe was thereby following the example set by Islam in Spain and the Near East. Today some people believe that this development was independent, and others think that the scholastics copied even their methods from Arabic philosophers. Historical evaluation of those claims.
| Units: 3-5
| Repeatable
for credit
PHIL 217:
Descartes (PHIL 117)
(Formerly 121/221.) Descartes's philosophical writings on rules for the direction of the mind, method, innate ideas and ideas of the senses, mind, God, eternal truths, and the material world.
Last offered: Autumn 2010
| Units: 4
PHIL 224:
Kant's Philosophy of Physical Science
Kant's Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science (1786), published between the first (1781) and second (1787) editions of the Critique of Pure Reason, in the scientific and philosophical context provided by Newtonian natural philosophy and the Leibnizean tradition. The place of this work in the development of Kant's thought. Prerequisite: acquaintance with either Kant's theoretical philosophy or the contemporaneous scientific context, principally Newton, Leibniz, and Euler.
Terms: Win
| Units: 2-4
PHIL 225:
Kant's First Critique (PHIL 125)
(Graduate students register for 225.) The founding work of Kant's critical philosophy emphasizing his contributions to metaphysics and epistemology. His attempts to limit metaphysics to the objects of experience. Prerequisite: course dealing with systematic issues in metaphysics or epistemology, or with the history of modern philosophy.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
PHIL 226B:
Kant's Ethical Theory (PHIL 126B)
(Graduate students register for 226B.) Kant's moral philosophy based primarily on the Groundwork of Metaphysics of Morals, Critique of Practical Reason, and The Metaphysics of Morals.
| Units: 2-4
PHIL 227A:
Kant's Value Theory (PHIL 127A)
(Graduate students register for 227A.) The role of autonomy, principled rational self-governance, in Kant's account of the norms to which human beings are answerable as moral agents, citizens, empirical inquirers, and religious believers. Relations between moral values (goodness, rightness) and aesthetic values (beauty, sublimity).
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
PHIL 235:
Existentialism (PHIL 135)
(Formerly 132/232.) Focus is on the existentialist preoccupation with human freedom. What constitutes authentic individuality? What is one's relation to the divine? How can one live a meaningful life? What is the significance of death? A rethinking of the traditional problem of freedom and determinism in readings from Rousseau, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche, and the extension of these ideas by Sartre, Beauvoir, and Camus, including their social and political consequences in light of 20th-century fascism and feminism.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
PHIL 237:
Wittgenstein (PHIL 137)
(Graduate students register for 237.) The main themes and claims in Wittgenstein's later work concentrating on his views about meaning, mind, knowledge, the nature of philosophical perplexity, and the nature of philosophical progress in his Philosophical Investigations. Emphasis is on the relationship between the novel arguments of the Investigations and its ways of writing up the results of philosophical questioning.
Last offered: Spring 2011
| Units: 4
PHIL 23C:
Counterfactuals
Reasoning about counterfactual conditionals plays an important role in contemporary philosophy. Not only have counterfactual analyses been proposed for central philosophical notions, including causation, laws of nature, free will, and knowledge, but also counterfactuals have become objects of interest in their own right, both in the philosophy of language and in logic. This tutorial will introduce the standard approaches to the semantics of counterfactuals, focusing on the work of David Lewis and Robert Stalnaker. Prerequisite: one logic course (e.g., 50, 150, or 151) or consent of instructor.
| Units: 2
PHIL 23E:
Embodied Cognition
Where does the mind stop and the world begin? A standard assumption is that thinking is somehow local to the central nervous system; that is, cognition just amounts to brain activity. A wave of recent work in philosophy and cognitive science has questioned this assumption, insisting that the mind cannot be understood outside the context of a living body interacting dynamically with an environment. To put it more dramatically, the mind extends out into the world. We shall read some of the main proponents of this move toward embodied and embedded cognition, and try to assess the extent to which it seriously calls into question more traditional views about how mind, brain, body, and world fit together.
| Units: 2
PHIL 23F:
Forgive and Punish
Are we ever justified in forgiving those who wrong us? Do we have more reason to seek revenge and/or punishment than we do to forgive? Does it matter if wrongdoers apologize and repent for their offenses? Are there some acts and/or persons that shouldn¿t be forgiven? This tutorial will take up these questions by examining (mostly recent) philosophical writings about: forgiveness, retribution, the ¿reactive attitudes¿ (such as resentment and hatred), and, more generally, how humans should (and shouldn¿t) respond to wrongdoing.
| Units: 2
PHIL 23L:
Love and Friendship
People as different as Jesus Christ and Justin Timberlake think that love is crucial to living the good life. But what is love? What part should it play in our lives? Is it just one value among many? This course will consider questions about the nature of love, the role it plays in moral philosophy, and its effect on individual autonomy. Readings will be from both contemporary and historical sources.
| Units: 2
PHIL 23N:
Neuroscience and the Self
The Self: Fiction or reality? Bundle of perceptions? Pragmatic role-concept? Fleeting moment of consciousness? Social invention? Narrative construct? Various philosophical conceptions of the self will be explored with a particular focus on the notion of the `narrative self.¿ Literature from neuroscience, psychology and philosophy will be considered.
| Units: 2
PHIL 23T:
Intellectual trust in oneself and others
Most people have many false beliefs. Yet, one routinely relies on one's own beliefs and on the views of others. Does that mean that one takes oneself to be exceptionally good at forming true beliefs, and exceptionally good at detecting false beliefs in others? When is it justified to place intellectual trust in oneself and in others?
| Units: 2
PHIL 240:
Individual Work for Graduate Students
May be repeated for credit.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-15
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Anderson, R. (PI);
Barker-Plummer, D. (PI);
Bobonich, C. (PI);
Bratman, M. (PI);
Burgess, A. (PI);
Cohen, J. (PI);
Crimmins, M. (PI);
De Pierris, G. (PI);
Duarte, S. (PI);
Etchemendy, J. (PI);
Follesdal, D. (PI);
Friedman, M. (PI);
Hills, D. (PI);
Hussain, N. (PI);
Lawlor, K. (PI);
Lockhart, J. (PI);
Longino, H. (PI);
Mints, G. (PI);
Pacuit, E. (PI);
Perry, J. (PI);
Ryckman, T. (PI);
Satz, D. (PI);
Schapiro, T. (PI);
Skyrms, B. (PI);
Suppes, P. (PI);
Taylor, K. (PI);
Velasco, J. (PI);
Wasow, T. (PI);
Wood, A. (PI);
Wood, R. (PI);
van Benthem, J. (PI)
PHIL 241:
Dissertation Development Seminar
Required of second-year Philosophy Ph.D. students; restricted to Stanford Philosophy Ph.D. students. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 1-4
PHIL 250:
Basic Concepts in Mathematical Logic (PHIL 150)
(Formerly 159.) The concepts and techniques used in mathematical logic, primarily through the study of the language of first order logic. Topics: formalization, proof, propositional logic, quantifiers, sets, mathematical induction, and enumerability.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
PHIL 251:
First-Order Logic (PHIL 151)
(Formerly 160A.) The syntax and semantics of sentential and first-order logic. Concepts of model theory. Gödel's completeness theorem and its consequences: the Löwenheim-Skolem theorem and the compactness theorem. Prerequisite: 150 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
PHIL 252:
Computability and Logic (PHIL 152)
Approaches to effective computation: recursive functions, register machines, and programming styles. Proof of their equivalence, discussion of Church's thesis. Elementary recursion theory. These techniques used to prove Gödel's incompleteness theorem for arithmetic, whose technical and philosophical repercussions are surveyed. Prerequisite: 151.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
PHIL 253:
Feminist Theories and Methods Across the Disciplines (FEMST 103, FEMST 203, PHIL 153)
The interdisciplinary foundations of feminist thought. The nature of disciplines and of interdisciplinary work. Challenges of feminism for scholarship and research.
Terms: Win
| Units: 2-5
PHIL 254:
Modal Logic (PHIL 154)
(Graduate students register for 254.) Syntax and semantics of modal logic, and technical results like completeness and correspondence theory. Applications to philosophy and computer science. Prerequisite: 150 or preferably 151.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
PHIL 25SI:
The Animal-Human Relationship: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
The ethical, scientific, and spiritual problems that arise from the interaction between humans and other animals. Can animals have empathy? What does it mean for an animal to feel pain? How did humans come to dominate other animals? What moral obligations do humans have towards animals? Where do animals fit in religious thought? Is animal research ethical, and is it effective? What role does meat consumption play in modern society? How can the environmental impacts of livestock production be mitigated? Guest lecturers from philosophy, literature, biology, neurology, religious studies, psychology, anthropology, and environmental science.
| Units: 1
PHIL 262:
Philosophy of Mathematics (MATH 162, PHIL 162)
(Graduate students register for PHIL 262.) 20th-century approaches to the foundations and philosophy of mathematics. The background in mathematics, set theory, and logic. Schools and programs of logicism, predicativism, platonism, formalism, and constructivism. Readings from leading thinkers. Prerequisite: PHIL151 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
PHIL 264:
Central Topics in the Philosophy of Science: Theory and Evidence (PHIL 164)
(Graduate students register for 264.) The relation of theory to evidence and prediction, problems of induction, empirical under-determination of theory by evidence, and theory choice. Hypothetico-deductive, Bayesian, pragmatic, and inference to the best explanation models of explanation. The semantic approach to theories.
Last offered: Spring 2011
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
for credit
PHIL 265:
Philosophy of Physics (PHIL 165)
(Graduate students register for 265.) Central topic alternates annually between space-time theories and philosophical issues in quantum mechanics. Topics last year: absolute and relational theories of space, time, and motion. Newton¿s critique of Descartes and debate with Leibniz. The principle of relativity and space-time formulations of Aristotelian, Galilean, and relativity physics. Mach¿s principle and the theory of general relativity. Einstein¿s struggles with the principle of general covariance. Space-time substantivalism, and the meaning of background independence. May be repeated for credit if content is different.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
for credit
PHIL 266:
Probability: Ten Great Ideas About Chance (PHIL 166, STATS 167, STATS 267)
Foundational approaches to thinking about chance in matters such as gambling, the law, and everyday affairs. Topics include: chance and decisions; the mathematics of chance; frequencies, symmetry, and chance; Bayes great idea; chance and psychology; misuses of chance; and harnessing chance. Emphasis is on the philosophical underpinnings and problems. Prerequisite: exposure to probability or a first course in statistics at the level of STATS 60 or 116.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
PHIL 267A:
Philosophy of Biology (PHIL 167A)
(Graduate students register for 267A.) Evolutionary theory and in particular, on characterizing natural selection and how it operates. We examine debates about fitness, whether selection is a cause or force, the levels at which selection operates, and whether cultural evolution is a Darwinian process.
| Units: 2-4
PHIL 267B:
Philosophy, Biology, and Behavior (PHIL 167B)
(Graduate students register for 267B.) Continuation of 167A/267A. Further philosophical study of key theoretical ideas in biology, focusing on problems involving explanation of behavior. Topics: evolutionary versus proximate causal explanations of behavior; genetic and other determinisms; and classification and measurement of behavior. Prerequisites: 167A; or one PHIL course and either one BIO course or Human Biology core; or equivalent with consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
PHIL 267C:
Associative Theories of Mind and Brain (PHIL 167C)
After a historical survey of associative theories from Hume to William James, current versions will be analyzed including the important early ideas of Karl Lashley. Emphasis will be on the computational power of associative networks and their realization in the brain.
| Units: 4
PHIL 270:
Ethical Theory (ETHICSOC 170, PHIL 170)
Major strands in contemporary ethical theory. Readings include Bentham, Mill, Kant, and contemporary authors.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
PHIL 270B:
Metaphor (PHIL 170B)
Think and talk about two things at once: two different subject matters are mingled to rich and unpredictable effect. Close critical study of the main modern accounts of metaphors nature and interest, drawing on the work of writers, linguists, philosophers, and literary critics. Attention to how understanding, appreciation, and pleasure connect with one another in the experience of metaphor. Consideration of the possibility that metaphor or something very like it can occur in nonverbal media: gesture, dance, painting, music.
Last offered: Spring 2011
| Units: 4
PHIL 270E:
Sexual Ethics (ETHICSOC 175, PHIL 170E)
What is sex? What are the implications of different conceptions of sex for sexual ethics? Are there any distinctively sexual ethical principles or virtues or are principles and virtues that govern the sexual domain specific instances of principles and virtues that govern human activity more generally? Readings will range from historical to contemporary sources.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
PHIL 271:
Justice (ETHICSOC 171, IPS 208, PHIL 171, POLISCI 3P, POLISCI 136S, POLISCI 336S, PUBLPOL 103C, PUBLPOL 307)
Focus is on the ideal of a just society, and the place of liberty and equality in it, in light of contemporary theories of justice and political controversies. Topics include protecting religious liberty, financing schools and elections, regulating markets, assuring access to health care, and providing affirmative action and group rights. Issues of global justice including human rights and global inequality.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
PHIL 272:
History of Modern Ethics (PHIL 172)
Major strands in the history of modern, pre-Kantian moral philosophy. Emphasis is on the dialogue between empiricists and rationalists on the subject of the relationship between the natural and the normative. Authors include Frances Hutcheson, David Hume, Adam Smith, Samuel Clarke, and Richard Price.
Last offered: Spring 2010
| Units: 4
PHIL 272B:
Recent Ethical Theory (PHIL 172B)
Study the works of several prominent contemporary moral philosophers. Possible authors include: Scanlon, Darwall, Nagel, Williams, Blackburn, Gibbard, Korsgaard. Prerequisite: students should have taken an introduction to moral philosophy (Phil. 20, Phil. 170 or equivalent).
Last offered: Winter 2011
| Units: 4
PHIL 273B:
Metaethics (PHIL 173B)
Graduate students register for 273B.) Can moral and ethical values be justified or is it just a matter of opinion? Is there a difference between facts and values? Are there any moral truths? Does it matter if there are not? Focus is not on which things or actions are valuable or morally right, but what is value or rightness itself. Contemporary metaethics. Prerequisites: 80, 181, and an ethics course.
| Units: 4
PHIL 273B:
Metaethics (PHIL 173B)
(Graduate students register for 273B.) Can moral and ethical values be justified or is it just a matter of opinion? Is there a difference between facts and values? Are there any moral truths? Does it matter if there are not? Focus is not on which things or actions are valuable or morally right, but what is value or rightness itself. Contemporary metaethics. Prerequisites: 80, 181, and an ethics course.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
PHIL 274A:
Moral Limits of the Market (ETHICSOC 174A, PHIL 174A)
Morally controversial uses of markets and market reasoning in areas such as organ sales, procreation, education, and child labor. Would a market for organ donation make saving lives more efficient; if it did, would it thereby be justified? Should a nation be permitted to buy the right to pollute? Readings include Walzer, Arrow, Rawls, Sen, Frey, Titmuss, and empirical cases.
Last offered: Winter 2010
| Units: 4
PHIL 274L:
Betrayal and Loyalty, Treason and Trust (ETHICSOC 174L, ETHICSOC 274L, PHIL 174L)
The main topic of the seminar is Betrayal. : its meaning as well as its moral, legal and political implications. We shall discuss various notions of betrayal: Political (military) betrayal such as treason, Religious betrayal with Judas as its emblem, but also apostasy (converting one's religion) which is regarded both as a basic human right and also as an act of betrayal, social betrayal - betraying class solidarity as well as Ideological betrayal - betraying a cause. On top of political betrayal we shall deal with personal betrayal, especially in the form of infidelity and in the form of financial betrayal of the kind performed by Madoff. The contrasting notions to betrayal, especially loyalty and trust, will get special consideration so as to shed light or cast shadow, as the case may be, on the idea of betrayal. The seminar will focus not only on the normative aspect of betrayal - moral or legal, but also on the psychological motivations for betraying others. The seminar will revolve around glaring historical examples of betrayal but also use informed fictional novels, plays and movies from Shakespeare and Pinter, to John Le Carre'.
Terms: Win
| Units: 2
PHIL 275:
Philosophy of Law (PHIL 175)
Philosophical foundations of law and the legal system. The justifiability of patterns of assigning legal responsibility within criminal law. Prerequisite: PHIL 80 and one additional PHIL course.
Last offered: Winter 2011
| Units: 4
PHIL 275A:
Ethics and Politics of Public Service (CSRE 178, ETHICSOC 133, HUMBIO 178, PHIL 175A, POLISCI 133, PUBLPOL 103D, URBANST 122)
Ethical and political questions in public service work, including volunteering, service learning, humanitarian assistance, and public service professions such as medicine and teaching. Motives and outcomes in service work. Connections between service work and justice. Is mandatory service an oxymoron? History of public service in the U.S. Issues in crosscultural service work. Integration with the Haas Center for Public Service to connect service activities and public service aspirations with academic experiences at Stanford.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
PHIL 276:
Political Philosophy: The Social Contract Tradition (PHIL 176)
(Graduate students register for 276.) Why and under what conditions do human beings need political institutions? What makes them legitimate or illegitimate? What is the nature, source, and extent of the obligation to obey the legitimate ones, and how should people alter or overthrow the others? Answers by political theorists of the early modern period: Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Kant.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
PHIL 276A:
Classical Seminar: Origins of Political Thought (CLASSHIS 133, CLASSHIS 333, PHIL 176A, POLISCI 230A, POLISCI 330A)
Political philosophy in classical antiquity, focusing on canonical works of Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero. Historical background. Topics include: political obligation, citizenship, and leadership; origins and development of democracy; and law, civic strife, and constitutional change.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
PHIL 278M:
Justice and the Environment (ETHICSOC 178M, ETHICSOC 278M, PHIL 178M, POLISCI 134L)
Explores the normative questions that arise in environmental policy debates, including arguments over pollution permit markets, conservation regulations, and global warming mitigation efforts. What are the morally relevant ways in which the environment is different from other economic resources? How should the environment be valued? What are our obligations to conserve for future generations? How should the burdens of conservation be distributed? Engages with a variety of philosophical traditions including utilitarianism, deep ecology, liberalism, and communitarianism.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
PHIL 280:
Metaphysics (PHIL 180)
Selection of core topics in metaphysics, including personal identity, naturalism, modality, and/or existence of God. Prerequisite: 80 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
PHIL 280A:
Realism, Anti-Realism, Irrealism, Quasi-Realism (PHIL 180A)
Realism and its opponents as options across a variety of different domains: natural science, mathematics, ethics, and aesthetics. Clarify the various conceptions that fall under these terms and outline the reasons for and against adopting realism for the various domains. Highlight the general issues involved. Prerequisites: 80, 181
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
PHIL 281:
Philosophy of Language (PHIL 181)
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.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
PHIL 281B:
Philosophy of Language: Contemporary Debates (PHIL 181B)
This course builds on the material of 181/281, focusing on debates and developments in the pragmatics of conversation, the semantics/pragmatics distinction, the contextuality of meaning, the nature of truth and its connection to meaning, and the workings of particular linguistic constructions of special philosophical relevance. Students who have not taken 181/281 should seek the instructor's advice as to whether they have sufficient background.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
PHIL 282:
Truth (PHIL 182)
Focus on the nature of truth; specifically, ongoing debates between so-called correspondence theorists and deflationists. The former generally think truth amounts to some kind of structural isomorphism between the world and our representations of it (like the relationship between a subway map and the subway route itself). Deflationists think the nature of truth is exhausted by something as trifling as the equivalence between affirming something and affirming that it's true: e.g., it's true that Modest Mouse is God's gift to indie rock if and only if Modest Mouse IS God's gift to indie rock. Related issues include the possibility of truth-value "gaps" (claims that are neither true nor false), degrees of truth, relativism and realism about arbitrary subject matters, the semantic paradoxes (like the Liar), the role of truth in the theory of meaning, and the value of true belief. Most readings were written after 1980. Previous courses in philosophy of language and/or metaphysics very strongly encouraged. Phil 80 a must.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
PHIL 284:
Theory of Knowledge (PHIL 184)
Focus on nature of epistemic justification, good reasoning, and transmission of warrant¿both intrapersonal (inference) and interpersonal (testimony). Prerequisite: 80 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
PHIL 284C:
Epistemology of Testimony (PHIL 184C)
Many of our beliefs come from others, and not from direct experience. Is testimony a source of fundamental reasons¿reasons that do not have to be supported or validated by other sources like perception or inference? What sort of responsibility does one have to one¿s hearers, when one gives testimony?
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
PHIL 285B:
Philosophy of Perception (PHIL 185B)
The nature of perceptual experience and the role it plays in securing empirical knowledge. Focus will be on what is sometimes called "the problem of perception": the question of how perception could provide us with direct awareness of the surrounding environment given the possibility of illusions or hallucinations. Topics, include the relationship between perception and belief, the nature of perceptual phenomenology, whether or not perceptual experiences are representational states, and the philosophical relevance of empirical research on perception.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
PHIL 286:
Philosophy of Mind (PHIL 186)
(Graduate students register for 286.) Debates concerning the nature of mental states, their relation to physical states of the human body, how they acquire their content, how people come to know about them in themselves and others, and the roles they play in the explanation of human conduct.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
PHIL 287:
Philosophy of Action (PHIL 187)
(Graduate students register for 287.) Contemporary research in the philosophy of action. Topics include: What is it to be an agent? Is there a philosophically defensible contrast between being an agent and being a locus of causal forces to which one is subject? What is it to act purposively? What is intention? What is the relation between intention and belief? What is it to act intentionally? What is it to act for a reason? What is the relation between explaining why someone acted by citing the reasons for which she acted and causal explanation of her action? What is the relation between theoretical and practical rationality? What is the nature of our knowledge of our own intentional activity? What is it to act autonomously? What is shared cooperative activity? Prerequisite: 80..
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
PHIL 288:
Personal Identity (PHIL 188)
Do you persist through time the way that a skyscraper persists through space, by having different parts at different locations? Or are you ¿wholly present¿ at every moment of your life, in something more like the way that an elevator is present in each place as it travels up to the top floor? What criteria determine whether you now are the very same person as some unique person located at some time in the past? Is the continuity of your memories or other mental states sufficient for your survival? Can you survive the loss or destruction of your body? Do you really exist for more than just the present moment? How do different answers to these questions bear on your moral, personal, and professional obligations? What kinds of considerations could possibly help us to answer these questions? This course explores these and related issues. Readings include a mix of introductory survey, historical, and contemporary material.
Last offered: Winter 2011
| Units: 4
PHIL 300:
Proseminar
Topically focused seminar. Required of all first year Philosophy PhD students
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
PHIL 301:
Dissertation Development Proseminar
Topically focused seminar. Optional of all second and third year Philosophy PhD students
Terms: Win, Spr
| Units: 2-4
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 8 units total)
PHIL 317:
Topics in Plato: Middle and Late Ethics & Politics
Examine the fundamentals of Plato's political philosophy by reading the Politics as well relevant parts of some of his other ethical and political works.
Terms: Win
| Units: 2-4
PHIL 318:
Aristotle Seminar
The concept of definition plays a central role in Aristotle's treatment of both philosophical and scientific inquiry, as well as explanation. A definition is an account of what something is, and some definitions are used to guide causal inquiry whereas others function as explanatory starting points. In this course we will examine texts from his logic, natural science and metaphysics in order to see what the different kinds of definition are, how they obtained, and how they are capture the nature or essence of a definable object. Particular attention will be given to the role of matter in the definition of the form of a natural substance, state, process or activity. For instance, what role does a specification of physiological processes play in the definitions of emotions such as anger? No knowledge of Greek is required. May be repeat for credit
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 12 units total)
PHIL 322:
Hume
Hume's theoretical philosophy emphasizing skepticism and naturalism, the theory of ideas and belief, space and time, causation and necessity, induction and laws of nature, miracles, a priori reasoning, the external world, and the identity of the self.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 2-4
PHIL 323:
Kant's Criticism of Metaphysics
Motivations and strategies of Kant's criticisms of traditional metaphysics in the Critique of Pure Reason. Leibnizian and Wolffian versions of the concept containment theory of truth and the Wolffian ideal of a conceptual system of metaphysical knowledge. Kant's analytic/synthetic distinction, focusing on its place in the rejection of metaphysics and in arguments about the ideas of reason in the transcendental dialectic. Prerequisite: course on the first Critique, or consent of instructor.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
PHIL 348:
Evolution of Signals
Explores evolutionary (and learning) dynamics applied to nnsimple models of signaling, emergence of information and inference. Classroom presentations and term papers.nnText: Skyrms - SIGNALS: EVOLUTION,LEARNING and INFORMATIONnnand selected articles.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 2-4
PHIL 350A:
Model Theory
Back-and-forth arguments with applications to completeness, quantifier-elimination and omega-categoricity. Elementary extensions and the monster model. Preservation theorems. Interpolation and definability theorems. Imaginaries. Prerequisite: Phil151A or consent of the instructor.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
PHIL 351A:
Recursion Theory
Theory of recursive functions and recursively enumerable sets. Register machines, Turing machines, and alternative approaches. Gödel's incompleteness theorems. Recursively unsolvable problems in mathematics and logic. Introduction to higher recursion theory. The theory of combinators and the lambda calculus. Prerequisites: 151, 152, and 161, or equivalents.
Last offered: Winter 2006
| Units: 3
PHIL 353A:
Proof Theory (MATH 293A)
Gentzen's natural deduction and sequential calculi for first-order propositional and predicate logics. Normalization and cut-elimination procedures. Relationships with computational lambda calculi and automated deduction. Prerequisites: 151, 152, and 161, or equivalents.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
PHIL 353B:
Proof Theory B
Consistency ordinal as a measure of the strength of a mathematical theory. The open problem of describing the ordinal of mathematical analysis (second order arithmetic). Present state of the problem and approaches to a solution. Prerequisites: Phil 151,152 or equivalents
Terms: Win
| Units: 2-3
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 6 units total)
PHIL 354:
Topics in Logic
Epsilon-calculus. Syntacs and semantics of first-order epsilon-calculus. Hilbert's epsilon substitution method. Recent progress and open problems. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: 151,152 or equivalents
| Units: 1-3
| Repeatable
for credit
PHIL 359:
Advanced Modal Logic
Mathematical analysis of modal systems, including bisimulation and expressive power, correspondence theory, algebraic duality, completeness and incompleteness, and extended modal logics, up to guarded fragments of first-order logic, fixed-point logics, and second-order logic. Prerequisite: 151, 154/254, or equivalent background.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 2-4
PHIL 372R:
Political Realism (POLISCI 435R)
This seminar will explore various articulations of political realism in their historical contexts. Realism is generally taken to be a pragmatic approach to a political world marked by the competition for material interests and the struggle for power. Yet beyond a shared critique of idealism and an insistence on the priority and autonomy of the political, realists tend to have very different normative visions and political projects. We will consider the works of several political realists from the history of political and international relations thought, including: Thucydides, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Carr, Niebuhr, and Morgenthau.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
PHIL 377:
Rational and Social Agency (POLISCI 333)
Contemporary discussions of practical reason, individual rational agency, planning agency, diachronic agency, intention, belief, intentional action, shared agency, identification and self-governance. Tentative list of authors whose work will be studied includes: Michael Bratman, Margaret Gilbert, Richard Holton, Christine Korsgaard, Alfred Mele, Kieran Setiya, Scott Shapiro, Michael Smith, David Velleman, Jay Wallace, and Gary Watson.
Terms: Win
| Units: 2-4
PHIL 379:
Graduate Seminar in Metaethics
Theories about the meaning of ethical terms and the content of ethical judgements. Do these theories fit with best accounts of human agency and practical deliberation? Readings from recent literature. Prerequisites: 173B/273B, 181, 187/287 or equivalent.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 2-4
| Repeatable
for credit
PHIL 383B:
What's an Inference?
Fundamental issues in epistemology, philosophy of mind and language: issues relating to the notion (or rather, notions) of an inference. What's inferential justification? What's an inferential reasoning process? What are inference rules, and what distinguishes a good rule of inference from a bad rule? Subtopics to be discussed include: the problem of mental causation, the distinction between personal and sub-personal levels of explanation, preservation of content and warrant, the epistemic support relation, and time permitting the nature of perceptual justification.
Terms: Win
| Units: 2-4
PHIL 385D:
Topics in Philosophy of Language
Course may be repeat for credit.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 12 units total)
PHIL 385R:
Metaphysics of Reference
This seminar is an investigation of the nature of reference in both private thought and public talk. Just what is it for some bits of either our shared public language or our inner thoughts to refer to or stand for bits of the world? In virtue of what does the relation of reference obtain between some bit of the world and some bit of either outer language or inner thought? What about apparent reference to putatively non-existent objects, like Santa Claus or Sherlock Holmes? We appear to think and talk about objects that do not exist. But there are no such objects. So just how do we manage to think and talk about them? Or consider abstract objects, like numbers, that are thought by some to exist outside the spatial-temporal order. We appear to think and talk about such objects as well. But it is a mystery how, if at all, the reach of our thought could possibly extend beyond even the bounds of space and time. Though we will canvass a a number of different answers to this questions, proposed by a variety of philosophers, my main goal will be to develop and defend a view that I call two-factor referentialism. Readings will be drawn from a number of sources, including several chapters of my book in progress Referring to the World.
Terms: Win
| Units: 2-4
PHIL 389:
Advanced Topics in Epistemology
Skepticism and contextualism, epistemic closure, and problems generated by closure.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
PHIL 391:
Research Seminar in Logic and the Foundations of Mathematics (MATH 391)
Contemporary work. May be repeated a total of three times for credit.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 1-3
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 9 units total)
PHIL 41Q:
Truth
Preference to sophomores. Central issues animating current work in the philosophy of truth. What is truth? What is it about a statement or judgment that makes it true rather than false? Are there any propositions that are neither true nor false? Could truth be relative to individuals or communities? Do people have different notions of truth for different enterprises such as mathematics and ethics? Might truth be a matter of degree? Sources include the instructor's book manuscript and other contemporary writers.
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 42:
Philosophy through Theater: Choice and Chance
Dramatic literature as a window into philosophical work on freedom of the will and indeterminism. Students participate in the production of original one-act plays.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-15
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Anderson, R. (PI);
Barker-Plummer, D. (PI);
Bobonich, C. (PI);
Bratman, M. (PI);
Burgess, A. (PI);
Cohen, J. (PI);
Crimmins, M. (PI);
De Pierris, G. (PI);
Duarte, S. (PI);
Etchemendy, J. (PI);
Feferman, S. (PI);
Follesdal, D. (PI);
Friedman, M. (PI);
Hills, D. (PI);
Hussain, N. (PI);
Lawlor, K. (PI);
Longino, H. (PI);
Mints, G. (PI);
Pacuit, E. (PI);
Perry, J. (PI);
Ryckman, T. (PI);
Satz, D. (PI);
Schapiro, T. (PI);
Skyrms, B. (PI);
Suppes, P. (PI);
Taylor, K. (PI);
Wasow, T. (PI);
Wood, A. (PI);
Wood, R. (PI);
van Benthem, J. (PI)
PHIL 500:
Advanced Dissertation Seminar
Presentation of dissertation work in progress by seminar participants. May be repeated for credit.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 1
| Repeatable
for credit
PHIL 61:
Science, Religion, and the Birth of Modern Philosophy (HPS 61)
Galileo's defense of the Copernican world-system that initiated the scientific revolution of the 17th century, led to conflict between science and religion, and influenced the development of modern philosophy. Readings focus on Galileo and Descartes.
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 71H:
Philosophy and the Real World
Introduction to the humanities as an applied discipline; how literary and philosophical ideas illuminate and change how people live their lives as individuals and members of society. Focus is on short texts that illustrate how literary and philosophical ideas arise from social problems and attempt to confront those problems. Methods and approaches: how to read such texts; how to make arguments about them; how such texts shed light on contemporary situations.
| Units: 2
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 0
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Anderson, R. (PI);
Barker-Plummer, D. (PI);
Bobonich, C. (PI);
Bratman, M. (PI);
Burgess, A. (PI);
Cohen, J. (PI);
Crimmins, M. (PI);
De Pierris, G. (PI);
Etchemendy, J. (PI);
Feferman, S. (PI);
Friedman, M. (PI);
Hills, D. (PI);
Hussain, N. (PI);
Lawlor, K. (PI);
Longino, H. (PI);
Mints, G. (PI);
Mumma, J. (PI);
Perry, J. (PI);
Reich, R. (PI);
Ryckman, T. (PI);
Satz, D. (PI);
Schapiro, T. (PI);
Skyrms, B. (PI);
Suppes, P. (PI);
Taylor, K. (PI);
Wasow, T. (PI);
Wood, A. (PI);
Wood, R. (PI);
van Benthem, J. (PI)
PHIL 802:
TGR Dissertation
(Staff)
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 0
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Anderson, R. (PI);
Barker-Plummer, D. (PI);
Bobonich, C. (PI);
Bratman, M. (PI);
Burgess, A. (PI);
Cohen, J. (PI);
Crimmins, M. (PI);
De Pierris, G. (PI);
Etchemendy, J. (PI);
Feferman, S. (PI);
Follesdal, D. (PI);
Friedman, M. (PI);
Hills, D. (PI);
Hussain, N. (PI);
Lawlor, K. (PI);
Longino, H. (PI);
Mints, G. (PI);
Perry, J. (PI);
Ryckman, T. (PI);
Satz, D. (PI);
Schapiro, T. (PI);
Skyrms, B. (PI);
Suppes, P. (PI);
Taylor, K. (PI);
Wasow, T. (PI);
Wood, A. (PI);
Wood, R. (PI);
van Benthem, J. (PI)
PHIL 90A:
The Philosophy of John Perry
John Perry is among the most influential philosophers of the last several decades, making important contributions to the philosophy of language, metaphysics, and the philosophy of mind. Focus on Perry¿s work on indexicality, belief reports, reference, pragmatics, identity, personal identity, modality, and consciousness. Perry¿s work in these areas will be studied in conjunction with that of some key figures in the surrounding literatures, including Kaplan, Lewis, Stalnaker, Kripke, and Chalmers.
| Units: 4
PHIL 90B:
The Ethics of War (ETHICSOC 175M)
Issues both in contemporary just war theory and political philosophy. Relevant questions include: Can conscription ever be justified? If not, is there anything wrong with targeting poor people as part of efforts to recruit a 'volunteer' military? If, during war itself, combatants act in ways prohibited by the moral requirements governing war's conduct, then does it make any moral difference whether they were acting as ordered? And how do we identify these moral requirements in the first place? For example, what distinguishes a legitimate target from an illegitimate one? What determines whether military action is disproportionate? What, if anything, is morally distinctive about terrorism? Explores the complexities behind these questions and others, with a view to evaluating the potential answers to them.
| Units: 4
PHIL 90C:
Predicting the Future: Puzzles of Induction
Can we know that the future is likely to resemble the past? Do we have reason to believe that the Sun is even remotely likely to rise again tomorrow? Are we rationally justified in accepting the confident predictions of science and commonsense, based on well-observed regularities? Consider several paradoxes of induction (that is, extrapolation from observed to unobserved), including those raised by Hume, Hempel, and Goodman, the Doomsday and Sleeping Beauty paradoxes, as well as some attempts to solve or cope with them.
| Units: 4
PHIL 90D:
What do Philosophers do?
| Units: 4
PHIL 101A:
Medieval Religious Philosophy (RELIGST 167)
(Same as PHIL 101A.) Survey of medieval philosophy, focusing on God, world and words. A pervasive assumption about the structure of the world, that it reflected the categories of God's mind and emerged from an act of divine speech, gave impetus to the interest in the nature of language and its relation to the world. Scripture served as one kind of divine communication to human beings, and "The Book of the World" as another. The problem of universals, the question of how words relate to God, epistemology, theories of reference, semiotics, are some of the topics discussed. Readings from Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas, Scotus, and Ockham, etc.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 103:
19th-Century Philosophy
Focus is on ethics and the philosophy of history. Works include Mill's Utilitarianism, Hegel's The Philosophy of World History, Marx's Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, Kierkegaard's The Sickness Unto Death, and Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morals.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 106:
Ancient Skepticism (PHIL 206)
The ancient Pyrrhonian skeptics who think that for any claim there is no more reason to assert it than deny it and that a life without any beliefs is the best route to happiness. Some ancient opponents of the Pyrrhonian skeptics and some relations between ancient and modern skepticism.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 110:
Plato (PHIL 210)
Plato's Republic.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 111:
Aristotle and Contemporary Ethics (PHIL 211)
Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, focusing on virtue, happiness, pleasure, practical reasoning, and particularism. Sources include the Eudemian Ethics, contemporary philosophers who have taken many of these topics up again, and contemporary material such as that by Anscombe, Foot, Hursthouse, Korsgaard, and McDowell.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 113:
Hellenistic Philosophy (PHIL 213)
Epicureans, skeptics, and stoics on epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, and psychology.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 118:
British Empiricism, 1660s-1730s (PHIL 218)
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 118A:
Origins of Empiricism: Gassendi, Locke, and Berkeley (PHIL 218A)
Particular light is shed on both the strengths and weaknesses of empiricism by studying it as it first arose during the 17th century revolution in philosophy and the sciences initiated by Descartes. Three philosophers of that period helped to advance empiricism: Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655), John Locke (1632-1704), and George Berkeley (1685-1753). Focus on Locke¿s theory of ideas, mind, language, reality, and natural philosophy expounded in his An Essay concerning Human Understanding (Fourth Edition, 1689). Study Gassendi¿s early influence on, and Berkeley¿s later reaction to Locke.
| Units: 4
PHIL 119:
Rationalists (PHIL 219)
(Formerly 143/243.) Developments in 17th-century continental philosophy. Descartes's views on mind, necessity, and knowledge. Spinoza and Leibniz emphazing their own doctrines and their criticism of their predecessors. Prerequisite: 102.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 120A:
The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence (PHIL 220A)
Correspondence on metaphysics, theology, and science.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 122:
Hume (PHIL 222)
(Formerly 120/220; graduate students enroll in 222.) Hume's theoretical philosophy, in particular, skepticism and naturalism, the theory of ideas and belief, space and time, causation and necessity, induction and laws of nature, miracles, a priori reasoning, the external world, and the identity of the self.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 124:
Topics in Early Modern Philosophy
Philosophical views of the highly influential rationalist philosophers Benedict (or Baruch) Spinoza (1632-1677) and G. W. Leibniz (1646-1716). Topics to be treated include: the nature of God and the question of his providential care for human beings, the concept of substance and its extension, the ontological relation of finite beings to God, the mental and its relation to the corporeal, and the nature of human freedom.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 127B:
Kant's Anthropology and Philosophy of History (PHIL 227B)
Kant's conception of anthropology or human nature, based on his philosophy of history, which influenced and anticipated 18th- and 19th-century philosophers of history such as Herder, Fichte, Hegel, and Marx. Texts include Idea for a Universal History, Conjectural Beginning of Human History, and Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View. Topics include: Kant's pragmatic approach to the study of human nature; the difficulty of human self knowledge; the role of regulative and teleological principles in studying human history; and Kant's theory of race.
| Units: 4
PHIL 128:
Fichte's Ethics (PHIL 228)
(Graduate students register for 228.) The founder of the German Idealist movement who adopted but revised Kant's project of transcendental philosophy basing it on the principle of awareness of free self-activity. The awareness of other selves and of ethical relations to them as a necessary condition for self-awareness. His writings from 1793-98 emphasizing the place of intersubjectivity in his theory of experience.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 130:
Hegel (PHIL 230)
(Formerly 122/222; graduate students register for 230.) Introduction to Hegel's philosophy, emphasizing his moral and political philosophy, through study of his last major work (1821). May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: course in the history of modern philosophy.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 8 units total)
PHIL 134:
Phenomenology and Intersubjectivity (PHIL 234)
(Graduate students register for 234.) Readings from Husserl, Stein, Heidegger, Sartre, and Merleau-Ponty on subjects related to awareness of others. Topics include solipsism, collective experience, empathy, and objectification of the other.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 136:
History of Analytic Philosophy (PHIL 236)
(Formerly 147/247; graduate students register for 236.) Theories of knowledge in Frege, Carnap, and Quine. Emphasis is on conceptions of analyticity and treatment of logic and mathematics. Prerequisite: 50 and one course numbered 150-165 or 181-90.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 138:
Recent European Philosophy: Between Nature and History (PHIL 238)
A critical introduction to the novel understandings of time, language, and cultural power developed by 20th-century continental thinkers, with close attention to work by Heidegger, Saussure, Benjamin, and Foucault.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 143:
Quine (PHIL 243)
(Formerly 183/283; graduate students register for 243.) The philosophy of Quine: meaning and communication; analyticity, modality, reference, and ontology; theory and evidence; naturalism; mind and the mental.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 155:
General Interest Topics in Mathematical Logic
Introduction to formalization using language of logic and to problems of philosophical logic and computer science that can be handled this way. Propositional calculus, Sudoku puzzles, resolution rule, problem P=NP. Possible worlds, modal logic with emphasis on individuation problems. May be repeated for credit.
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
for credit
PHIL 157:
Topics in Philosophy of Logic (PHIL 257)
(Graduate students register for 257.) Disputed foundational issues in logic; the question of what the subject matter and boundaries of logic are, such as whether what is called second-order logic should be counted as logic. What is the proper notion of logical consequence? May be repeated for credit. Pre- or corequisite: 151, or consent of instructor.
| Units: 3
| Repeatable
for credit
PHIL 160A:
Newtonian Revolution (PHIL 260A)
(Graduate students register for 260A.) 17th-century efforts in science including by Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, and Huygens, that formed the background for and posed the problems addressed in Newton¿s Principia.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 160B:
Newtonian Revolution (PHIL 260B)
(Graduate students register for 260B.) Newton¿s Principia in its historical context, emphasizing how it produced a revolution in the conduct of empirical research and in standards of evidence in science.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 163:
Significant Figures in Philosophy of Science (PHIL 263)
(Graduate students register for 263.) Directed study of two or more thinkers, past or present, who have made a lasting impact on contemporary philosophy of science. Subjects last year were Henri Poincaré, Pierre Duhem, and Gaston Bachelard.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 163H:
The History of Scientific Methods, Pythagoras to Popper (HPS 154)
History of scientific methods and associated science from ancient Greece to the 20th century. Case studies include Pythagoras, Plato, and Euclid; Aristotle; medieval science; scientific Renaissance of the 1540s; methodological clashes involving the Church, Galileo, Bacon, and Descartes; Newton; Faraday; Darwin; rise of statistical methods; beginnings of modern physics; Popper. The mutual influences of method and practice. What does and does not qualify as science. Recommended: background in history, philosophy, or a technical field such as mathematics, science, or engineering.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 164A:
Central Topics in Philosophy of Science: Causation (PHIL 264A)
(Graduate Students register for 264A.) Establishing causes in science, engineering, and medicine versus establishing them in Anglo-American law, considered in the context of Hume and Mill on causation. May be repeated for credit.
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
for credit
PHIL 174:
Freedom and the Practical Standpoint (PHIL 274)
(Graduate students register for 274.) Confronted with the question of how to act, people think of themselves as freely determining their own conduct. Natural science poses a challenge to this by explaining all events, including human actions, in terms of causal processes. Are people justified in thinking of themselves as free? Major philosophical approaches to this question: incompatibilism, compatibilism, and the two-standpoint view.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 175M:
Two Ethical Theories and Being a Person (PHIL 275M)
The distinction between the ethics of being a person and the ethics of rules as opposed to the distinction between Kantian ethics and utilitarianism or consequentialism consequentialism. Comparison of these two types of ethics with respect to their relationship to agency and being a good person. Relations between Western ethics and those of other continents.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 176B:
The Economic Individual in the Behavioral Sciences (PHIL 276B)
(Graduate students register for 276B.)
| Units: 4
PHIL 179S:
Moral Psychology, Reasons for Action, and Moral Theory (PHIL 279S)
What sorts of considerations does an ethical agent take to be good reasons for action? Work in moral psychology to illuminate the theory of practical reasons, and the theory of practical reasons to test the prospects for systematic moral theory. Can any systematic moral theory be reconciled with the moral psychology of ordinary, morally respectable agents? Reading include Bernard Williams, Rosalind Hursthouse, Peter Railton, T.M. Scanlon, and Barbara Herman.
| Units: 4
PHIL 184F:
Feminist Theories of Knowledge (FEMST 166, PHIL 284F)
Feminist critique of traditional approaches in epistemology and alternative feminist approaches to such topics as reason and rationality, objectivity, experience, truth, the knowing subject, knowledge and values, knowledge and power.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender
PHIL 184P:
Probability and Epistemology
Confirmation theory and various ways of trying to understand the concept of evidence. Discuss a series of issues in epistemology including probabilism (the view that you should assign degrees of belief to various propositions), conditionalization, confirmational holism, reliabilism and justification, and disagreement.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 189:
Examples of Free Will (PHIL 289)
Examples drawn from three domains: choice, computation, and conflict of norms. Conceptually, a distinction is made between examples that are predictable and those that are not, but skepticism about making a sharp distinction between determinism and indeterminism is defended.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 193H:
The Art of the Movies: Story, Drama, and Image
A philosophical study of how movies coordinate and transform elements they borrow from older arts of literary narrative, live theater, and graphic illustration. Examples from the career of Alfred Hitchcock.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 194A:
Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind
Priority to majors. 20th-century analytic and early modern philosophy of mind and epistemology. Main text is Wilfrid Sellars's Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind; source materials and commentary. Enrollment limited to 12.
| Units: 4
PHIL 194B:
The Ethics of Belief
Priority to majors. Are beliefs subject to moral evaluation? Can it be right or wrong to believe or disbelieve something? Are people morally required to believe only that for which there is sufficient evidence; or can the good consequences of believing something justify the belief, irrespective of the evidence? Contemporary and historical sources. Enrollment limited to 12.
| Units: 4
PHIL 194C:
Time and Free Will
Classic and contemporary reading on free will, with special attention to the consequence argument for incompatibilism, and issues involving causation and time.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 194N:
Philosophical Issues in Cognitive Science
Philosophers generally do not perform systematic empirical observations or construct computational models. But philosophy remains important to cognitive science because it deals with fundamental issues that underlie the experimental and computational approach to mind. Abstract questions such as the nature of representation and computation. Relation of mind and body and methodological questions such as the nature of explanations found in cognitive science. Normative questions about how people should think as well as with descriptive ones about how they do. In addition to the theoretical goal of understanding human thinking, cognitive science can have the practical goal of improving it, which requires normative reflection on what we want thinking to be. Philosophy of mind does not have a distinct method, but should share with the best theoretical work in other fields a concern with empirical results.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 194R:
Epistemic Paradoxes
Paradoxes that arise from concepts of knowledge and rational belief, such as the skeptical paradox, the preface paradox, and Moore¿s paradox. Can one lose knowledge without forgetting anything? Can one change one's mind in a reasonable way without gaining new evidence?
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 195A:
Unity of Science
Primarily for seniors.
| Units: 4-5
PHIL 195B:
Donor Seminar: Practical Reasoning
Primarily for seniors. Relationships among action, deliberation, reasons, and rationality. On what basis do people decide what to do? What norms or rules structure reasoning? What constitutes rationality?
| Units: 4
PHIL 206:
Ancient Skepticism (PHIL 106)
The ancient Pyrrhonian skeptics who think that for any claim there is no more reason to assert it than deny it and that a life without any beliefs is the best route to happiness. Some ancient opponents of the Pyrrhonian skeptics and some relations between ancient and modern skepticism.
| Units: 4
PHIL 210:
Plato (PHIL 110)
Plato's Republic.
| Units: 4
PHIL 211:
Aristotle and Contemporary Ethics (PHIL 111)
Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, focusing on virtue, happiness, pleasure, practical reasoning, and particularism. Sources include the Eudemian Ethics, contemporary philosophers who have taken many of these topics up again, and contemporary material such as that by Anscombe, Foot, Hursthouse, Korsgaard, and McDowell.
| Units: 4
PHIL 213:
Hellenistic Philosophy (PHIL 113)
Epicureans, skeptics, and stoics on epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, and psychology.
| Units: 4
PHIL 218:
British Empiricism, 1660s-1730s (PHIL 118)
| Units: 4
PHIL 218A:
Origins of Empiricism: Gassendi, Locke, and Berkeley (PHIL 118A)
Particular light is shed on both the strengths and weaknesses of empiricism by studying it as it first arose during the 17th century revolution in philosophy and the sciences initiated by Descartes. Three philosophers of that period helped to advance empiricism: Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655), John Locke (1632-1704), and George Berkeley (1685-1753). Focus on Locke¿s theory of ideas, mind, language, reality, and natural philosophy expounded in his An Essay concerning Human Understanding (Fourth Edition, 1689). Study Gassendi¿s early influence on, and Berkeley¿s later reaction to Locke.
| Units: 4
PHIL 219:
Rationalists (PHIL 119)
(Formerly 143/243.) Developments in 17th-century continental philosophy. Descartes's views on mind, necessity, and knowledge. Spinoza and Leibniz emphazing their own doctrines and their criticism of their predecessors. Prerequisite: 102.
| Units: 4
PHIL 220A:
The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence (PHIL 120A)
Correspondence on metaphysics, theology, and science.
| Units: 4
PHIL 222:
Hume (PHIL 122)
(Formerly 120/220; graduate students enroll in 222.) Hume's theoretical philosophy, in particular, skepticism and naturalism, the theory of ideas and belief, space and time, causation and necessity, induction and laws of nature, miracles, a priori reasoning, the external world, and the identity of the self.
| Units: 4
PHIL 224A:
Mathematics in Kant's Philosophy
Recent work in Kant's philosophy of mathematics, examined with a view to the role of mathematics, both pure and applied, within Kant's philosophy more generally. Particular attention to the Schematism chapter of the Critique of Pure Reason. Prerequisite: prior acquaintance with Kant's theoretical philosophy and the Critique of Pure Reason.
| Units: 4
PHIL 227B:
Kant's Anthropology and Philosophy of History (PHIL 127B)
Kant's conception of anthropology or human nature, based on his philosophy of history, which influenced and anticipated 18th- and 19th-century philosophers of history such as Herder, Fichte, Hegel, and Marx. Texts include Idea for a Universal History, Conjectural Beginning of Human History, and Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View. Topics include: Kant's pragmatic approach to the study of human nature; the difficulty of human self knowledge; the role of regulative and teleological principles in studying human history; and Kant's theory of race.
| Units: 4
PHIL 228:
Fichte's Ethics (PHIL 128)
(Graduate students register for 228.) The founder of the German Idealist movement who adopted but revised Kant's project of transcendental philosophy basing it on the principle of awareness of free self-activity. The awareness of other selves and of ethical relations to them as a necessary condition for self-awareness. His writings from 1793-98 emphasizing the place of intersubjectivity in his theory of experience.
| Units: 4
PHIL 230:
Hegel (PHIL 130)
(Formerly 122/222; graduate students register for 230.) Introduction to Hegel's philosophy, emphasizing his moral and political philosophy, through study of his last major work (1821). May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: course in the history of modern philosophy.
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 8 units total)
PHIL 233:
Husserl
Husserl's phenomenology. Main themes in his philosophy and their interconnections, including consciousness, perception, intersubjectivity, lifeworld, ethics, mathematics and the sciences, and time and space. Works in English translation.
| Units: 4
PHIL 234:
Phenomenology and Intersubjectivity (PHIL 134)
(Graduate students register for 234.) Readings from Husserl, Stein, Heidegger, Sartre, and Merleau-Ponty on subjects related to awareness of others. Topics include solipsism, collective experience, empathy, and objectification of the other.
| Units: 4
PHIL 236:
History of Analytic Philosophy (PHIL 136)
(Formerly 147/247; graduate students register for 236.) Theories of knowledge in Frege, Carnap, and Quine. Emphasis is on conceptions of analyticity and treatment of logic and mathematics. Prerequisite: 50 and one course numbered 150-165 or 181-90.
| Units: 4
PHIL 238:
Recent European Philosophy: Between Nature and History (PHIL 138)
A critical introduction to the novel understandings of time, language, and cultural power developed by 20th-century continental thinkers, with close attention to work by Heidegger, Saussure, Benjamin, and Foucault.
| Units: 4
PHIL 239:
Teaching Methods in Philosophy
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.
| Units: 1-4
| Repeatable
for credit
PHIL 243:
Quine (PHIL 143)
(Formerly 183/283; graduate students register for 243.) The philosophy of Quine: meaning and communication; analyticity, modality, reference, and ontology; theory and evidence; naturalism; mind and the mental.
| Units: 4
PHIL 248:
Medieval Latin Paleography
The history of medieval scripts and medieval abbreviation. Dating and placing Latin European medieval manuscripts. Editing medieval texts in philosophy, psychology, physics, and theology. Class project: an early 13th century encyclopedia (with entries citing both Plato and Aristotle). Intellectually exciting, easy to read (textualis script).
| Units: 3-5
PHIL 249:
Evidence and Evolution (PHIL 349)
The logic behind the science. The concept of evidence and how it is used in science with regards to testing claims in evolutionary biology and using tools from probability theory, Bayesian, likelihoodist, and frequentist ideas. Questions about evidence that arise in connection with evolutionary theory. Creationism and intelligent design. Questions that arise in connection with testing hypotheses about adaptation and natural selection and hypotheses about phylogenetic relationships.
| Units: 3-5
PHIL 257:
Topics in Philosophy of Logic (PHIL 157)
(Graduate students register for 257.) Disputed foundational issues in logic; the question of what the subject matter and boundaries of logic are, such as whether what is called second-order logic should be counted as logic. What is the proper notion of logical consequence? May be repeated for credit. Pre- or corequisite: 151, or consent of instructor.
| Units: 3
| Repeatable
for credit
PHIL 260A:
Newtonian Revolution (PHIL 160A)
(Graduate students register for 260A.) 17th-century efforts in science including by Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, and Huygens, that formed the background for and posed the problems addressed in Newton¿s Principia.
| Units: 4
PHIL 260B:
Newtonian Revolution (PHIL 160B)
(Graduate students register for 260B.) Newton¿s Principia in its historical context, emphasizing how it produced a revolution in the conduct of empirical research and in standards of evidence in science.
| Units: 4
PHIL 263:
Significant Figures in Philosophy of Science (PHIL 163)
(Graduate students register for 263.) Directed study of two or more thinkers, past or present, who have made a lasting impact on contemporary philosophy of science. Subjects last year were Henri Poincaré, Pierre Duhem, and Gaston Bachelard.
| Units: 4
PHIL 264A:
Central Topics in Philosophy of Science: Causation (PHIL 164A)
(Graduate Students register for 264A.) Establishing causes in science, engineering, and medicine versus establishing them in Anglo-American law, considered in the context of Hume and Mill on causation. May be repeated for credit.
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
for credit
PHIL 265C:
Philosophy of Physics: Probability and Relativity
Conceptual puzzles in formulating probability concepts to be invariant in the sense of the Lorentz transformation of special relativity. Problems arise in both classical and quantum physics.
| Units: 4
PHIL 274:
Freedom and the Practical Standpoint (PHIL 174)
(Graduate students register for 274.) Confronted with the question of how to act, people think of themselves as freely determining their own conduct. Natural science poses a challenge to this by explaining all events, including human actions, in terms of causal processes. Are people justified in thinking of themselves as free? Major philosophical approaches to this question: incompatibilism, compatibilism, and the two-standpoint view.
| Units: 4
PHIL 275M:
Two Ethical Theories and Being a Person (PHIL 175M)
The distinction between the ethics of being a person and the ethics of rules as opposed to the distinction between Kantian ethics and utilitarianism or consequentialism consequentialism. Comparison of these two types of ethics with respect to their relationship to agency and being a good person. Relations between Western ethics and those of other continents.
| Units: 4
PHIL 276B:
The Economic Individual in the Behavioral Sciences (PHIL 176B)
(Graduate students register for 276B.)
| Units: 4
PHIL 279S:
Moral Psychology, Reasons for Action, and Moral Theory (PHIL 179S)
What sorts of considerations does an ethical agent take to be good reasons for action? Work in moral psychology to illuminate the theory of practical reasons, and the theory of practical reasons to test the prospects for systematic moral theory. Can any systematic moral theory be reconciled with the moral psychology of ordinary, morally respectable agents? Reading include Bernard Williams, Rosalind Hursthouse, Peter Railton, T.M. Scanlon, and Barbara Herman.
| Units: 4
PHIL 284F:
Feminist Theories of Knowledge (FEMST 166, PHIL 184F)
Feminist critique of traditional approaches in epistemology and alternative feminist approaches to such topics as reason and rationality, objectivity, experience, truth, the knowing subject, knowledge and values, knowledge and power.
| Units: 4
PHIL 289:
Examples of Free Will (PHIL 189)
Examples drawn from three domains: choice, computation, and conflict of norms. Conceptually, a distinction is made between examples that are predictable and those that are not, but skepticism about making a sharp distinction between determinism and indeterminism is defended.
| Units: 4
PHIL 312:
Aristotle's Psychology
De Anima and parts of Parva Naturalia.
| Units: 4
PHIL 314:
Practical Reasoning in Plato and Aristotle
It is often said that the greatest difference between Plato's ethics and those of Aristotle is that the latter thinks that practical and theoretical reason are distinct, but the former does not. We shall read some of both Plato and Aristotle and ask whether the above claim is true and then consider what the implications the differences between their views of practical reason have for the rest of their ethics.
| Units: 2-4
PHIL 319:
Aristotles Metaphysics
Aristotle's views about substance and the nature and possibility of metaphysics. Focus is on Categories and Metaphysics Book Zeta.
| Units: 3
PHIL 321:
Leibniz's Metaphysics
Leibniz's metaphysical views during his so-called "mature period" (early 1680s to 1716). Topics will include Leibniz's conception of substance, his alleged idealism, his doctrine of possible worlds and his doctrine of pre-established harmony. Reading of the Discourse on Metaphysics (1686) and the correspondence with Arnauld (1686-1690).
| Units: 2-4
PHIL 332:
Nietzsche
Preference to doctoral students. Nietzsche's later works emphasizing The Gay Science, Beyond Good and Evil, and On the Genealogy of Morals. The shape of Nietzsche's philosophical and literary projects, and his core doctrines such as eternal recurrence, will to power, and perspectivism. Problems such as the proper regulation of belief, and the roles of science, morality, art, and illusion in life.
| Units: 2-4
PHIL 334:
Habermas
Does Habermas have a distinctive account of normativity and normative judgements?
| Units: 3-5
PHIL 335:
Topics in Aesthetics
May be repeated for credit.
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
for credit
PHIL 340:
Time and Free Will
Free will and the consequence argument of Peter van Inwagen and others. Focus is on the principle that one cannot change the past and the problem of backtracking conditionals, and less on the problem raised by determinismon. Hypotheses less drastic than determinism support backtrackers; given the backtracker, would someone¿s not having done something require that he change the past? Issues related to time, change, the phenomenology of agency, and McTaggart's argument about the reality of time.
| Units: 3-5
PHIL 349:
Evidence and Evolution (PHIL 249)
The logic behind the science. The concept of evidence and how it is used in science with regards to testing claims in evolutionary biology and using tools from probability theory, Bayesian, likelihoodist, and frequentist ideas. Questions about evidence that arise in connection with evolutionary theory. Creationism and intelligent design. Questions that arise in connection with testing hypotheses about adaptation and natural selection and hypotheses about phylogenetic relationships.
| Units: 3-5
PHIL 350B:
Model Theory B (MATH 290B)
Decidable theories. Model-theoretic background. Arithmetic of addition, real closed and algebraically closed fields, weak second order arithmetic, theories of terms, theories of arrays, temporal logic. Combining decision procedures. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: 151,152 or equivalents.
| Units: 1-3
| Repeatable
for credit
PHIL 351B:
Proof Mining
Uses of proof theory in analysis and number theory. Proof mining: extraction of bounds from non-effective proofs. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: 151,152 or equivalents, and a calculus course.
| Units: 1-3
| Repeatable
for credit
PHIL 352A:
Set Theory (MATH 292A)
The basics of axiomatic set theory; the systems of Zermelo-Fraenkel and Bernays-Gödel. Topics: cardinal and ordinal numbers, the cumulative hierarchy and the role of the axiom of choice. Models of set theory, including the constructible sets and models constructed by the method of forcing. Consistency and independence results for the axiom of choice, the continuum hypothesis, and other unsettled mathematical and set-theoretical problems. Prerequisites: PHIL151 and MATH 161, or equivalents.
| Units: 3
PHIL 353C:
Functional Interpretations
Finite-type arithmetic. Gödel's functional interpretation and Kreisel's modified realizability. Systems based on classical logic. Spector's extension by bar-recursive functionals. Kohlenbach's monotone interpretation and the bounded functional interpretation. The elimination of weak Kônig's lemma. Uniform boundedness. A look at Tao's hard/soft analysis distinction.
| Units: 4
PHIL 355:
Logic and Social Choice
Topics in the intersection of social choice theory and formal logic. Voting paradoxes, impossibility theorems and strategic manipulation, logical modeling of voting procedures, preference versus judgment aggregation, role of language in social choice, and metatheory of social choice. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: 151 or consent of instructor.
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
for credit
PHIL 356:
Applications of Modal Logic
Applications of modal logic to knowledge and belief, and actions and norms. Models of belief revision to develop a dynamic doxastic logic. A workable modeling of events and actions to build a dynamic deontic logic on that foundation. (Staff)
| Units: 3
PHIL 358:
Rational Agency and Intelligent Interaction (CS 222)
For advanced undergraduates, and M.S. and beginning Ph.D. students. Logic-based methods for knowledge representation, information change, and games in artificial intelligence and philosophy. Topics: knowledge, certainty, and belief; time and action; belief dynamics; preference and social choice; games; and desire and intention. Prerequisite: propositional and first-order logic.
| Units: 3
PHIL 360:
Core Seminar in Philosophy of Science
Limited to first- and second-year Philosophy Ph.D. students.
| Units: 4
PHIL 365:
Seminar in Philosophy of Science: Time
| Units: 4
PHIL 366:
Evolution and Communication
Topics include information bottlenecks, signaling networks, information processing, invention of new signals, teamwork, evolution of complex signals, teamwork. Sources include signaling games invented by David Lewis and generalizations thereof, using evolutionary and learning dynamics.
| Units: 4
PHIL 370:
Core Seminar in Ethics
Limited to first- and second-year students in the Philosophy Ph.D. program.
| Units: 4
PHIL 371D:
Graduate Seminar on Equality
This seminar will focus on ideas of equality of opportunity, with readings from political theory, as well as American constitutional law, political science, economics, and sociology. The readings will address four main questions: What is equality of opportunity? Why is equality of opportunity an important requirement of justice? What are the principal sources of inequalities of opportunity? And how might those inequalities be remedied? Readings from: Hayek, Rawls, Dworkin, Okin, Roemer, Tawney, Bourdieu, Barry, Jencks, Mazumder, Alstott, McLanahan, and Heckman.
| Units: 5
PHIL 372:
Topics in Kantian Ethics
Selected topics in ethics, considering both Kant's texts and recent writings by Kant interpreters and moral philosophers in the Kantian tradition. Among the topics covered will be: Practical reason, personal relationships, duties to oneself, evil, right and politics, lying, constructivism in ethics.
| Units: 4
PHIL 372E:
Graduate Seminar on Moral Psychology
Recent philosophical works on desire, intention, the motivation of action, valuing, and reasons for action. Readings: Williams, Korsgaard, Smith, Blackburn, Velleman, Stampe, Frankfurt.
| Units: 3-5
PHIL 372P:
Korsgaard and her Critics
Derek Parfit has characterized Christine Korsgaard¿s view as one ¿whose complexity and scope make it unusually hard both to summarize and classify. Korsgaard combines Kantian, Humean, and existentialist ideas in unexpected, platitude-denying ways.¿ Korsgaard¿s theory is at once a theory of morality, agency and personal identity. Present her view both by reading her latest and most mature formulation of it (Self-Constitution), and by examining prominent critiques of it (Parfit, Hussain, Enoch, Fitzpatrick, etc.). These critiques focus on several fundamental issues worthy of discussion in their own right. What is the relation between moral judgment and moral motivation? Does moral thinking trade in practical or descriptive concepts? In what sense does morality admit of analysis or explanation? What does it mean for a moral theory to be addressed to the deliberative rather than the scientific or anthropological point of view? If moral norms were constitutive of agency, would that account for their normativity? By trying to understand how Korsgaard answers these questions, there is the opportunity to think them through for ourselves.
| Units: 2-4
PHIL 373:
Moral Psychology: The Concept of Inclination
The weight placed by Kantian and rationalist moral theories on the distinction between inclination and reason. The concept of inclination as that which inclines but does not determine how people act. How are inclinations related to the people who hold them? Are they expressions of values, or more like internal weather? What is their nature? What does it mean to act from inclination? Are actions on inclination unchosen or just badly chosen? Historical and contemporary sources.
| Units: 4
PHIL 374:
Caring and Practical Reasoning
What is it to care about something; how is caring related to desiring, emotions, and having policies; what is the relationship between caring and the will; why do people care about things; can attention to caring help explain the phenomenon of silencing reasons? Readings from contemporary literature, including Frankfurt, Watson, Bratman, Scanlon, Williams, Helm, and Kolodny. May be repeated for credit.
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
1 times
(up to 4 units total)
PHIL 374C:
Democracy and the Constitution
Connections between democratic theory and constitutional theory. Sources include literature from political philosophy, constitutional law, and jurisprudence, and arguments about freedom of expression, campaign finance, legislative apportionment, federalism, and separation of powers. Readings from Scalia, Breyer, Ely, Ackerman, Dahl, Rawls, Habermas, Dworkin, Riker, and Schumpeter, as well as constitutional cases.
| Units: 5
PHIL 376:
Agency and Personal Identity
How philosophical theories of agency interact with philosophical accounts of personal identity. Readings include David Velleman and Harry Frankfurt.
| Units: 4
PHIL 378:
Amartya Sen's capability theory (POLISCI 436R)
Amartya Sen's pioneering work attempts to open up economics to missing informational and evaluative dimensions. This seminar will explore Sen's "capability approach" and its implications for the study of economics, gender, and justice. It will look at different ways that the capability approach has been developed, in particular, by Martha Nussbaum, but also by other political philosophers.
| Units: 2-4
PHIL 380:
Core Seminar in Metaphysics and Epistemology
Limited to first- and second-year students in the Philosophy Ph.D. program.
| Units: 4
PHIL 381:
Core Seminar in Philosophy of Language
Limited to first- and second-year students in the Philosophy Ph.D. program.
| Units: 4
PHIL 382:
Seminar on Reference
Philosophical issues concerning the relationship between linguistic expressions and the objects to which they refer. Is it possible to get one unified theory of reference for different kinds of referring expressions such as proper names, pronouns, demonstratives, and other kinds of indexicals? Unsolved problems and desiderata for a theory of reference?
| Units: 4
PHIL 382A:
Pragmatics and Reference
Grice's theory of conversational implicatures, Relevance Theory and other contemporary pragmatic theories, focusing on issues involving singular reference, "pragmatic intrusion," and the semantics - pragmatics "interface." Throughout the seminar will be developing the approach Kepa Korta and Perry call "critical pragmatics."
| Units: 4
PHIL 383:
Philosophy of Mind Seminar
May be repeated for credit.
| Units: 2-4
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 12 units total)
PHIL 384:
Seminar in Metaphysics and Epistemology
May be repeated for credit.
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
for credit
PHIL 385:
Pragmatics and Reference
Problems about reference have played a large role in the philosophy of language since the days of Frege and Russell. An approach to reference from the point of view of pragmatics, that Kepa Korta and John Perry have developed in their book CRITICAL PRAGMATICS. Rely on ideas from John Perry's book REFERENCE AND REFLEXIVITY. Also look at other approaches to reference, and to pragmatics.
| Units: 2-4
| Repeatable
5 times
(up to 20 units total)
PHIL 385B:
Topics in Metaphysics and Epistemology: Vaguenes
Contemporary proposals for how and whether to explain and accommodate vagueness in reality and in representation.Theories of mental and linguistic representation that struggle to explain imprecise representation, and metaphysical theories of the ultimate structure of reality that are threatened with incoherence if worldly boundaries are vague. May be repeated for credit.
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
for credit
PHIL 385C:
Topics in Philosophy of Language: The Frege-Russell Problems
Explore various approaches to the difficulties for semantic theories raised by the behavior of propositional attitude sentences. How, if Superman and Clark are the same person, can Lois have different beliefs about them? "Classic" treatments of the issues including Frege, Russell, Quine, Davidson, and Kripke. Contemporary debates about the most promising approaches, including "naive Russellianism" and "unarticulated constituent" accounts.
| Units: 2-4
PHIL 385M:
The Metaphysics of Meaning
One central project in the philosophy of language is to explain the relationships between paradigmatically semantic phenomena like meaning, truth, and reference (as well as entailment, satisfaction, application, and others). Often the pursuit of this project generates orders of explanation in which some notions are privileged as more "fundamental" than others, in what is arguably a metaphysical sense of the expression. The dominant order of explanation in both philosophical and linguistic semantics seems to be Referentialism, according to which word/world relationships like reference and application are taken to be more fundamental than sentential truth or meaning. (Think: correspondence theory + model-theoretic semantics.) Alternatives to the orthodoxy include certain versions of conceptual-role semantics, Brandom's inferentialism, and Horwich's use theory of meaning. The aims of this seminar will be to acquaint ourselves with these and other going concerns in the theory of meaning, to organize logical space so that gaps might more easily be spotted, and to help the instructor develop his own, as yet nascent form of opposition to Referentialism. Of special interest will be the alleged normativity of meaning and the Field/Wright dispute over reference to abstracta. Besides the authors already mentioned, readings will be drawn from Katz, King, Kripke, and perhaps (time permitting) Millikan, Peacocke, and/or Taylor as well. But we should probably begin by rehashing Davidson v. Dummett.
| Units: 2-4
PHIL 386B:
Husserl and Adam Smith
Readings from Husserl and others in the phenomenological tradition, and recent work on intentionality and consciousness by philosophers and cognitive scientists.
| Units: 4
PHIL 386C:
Subjectivity
Continuation of 386B.
| Units: 4
PHIL 387:
Practical Rationality
Contemporary research on practical reason, practical rationality and reasons for action. May be repeated for credit
| Units: 2-4
PHIL 387C:
Consistency and Coherence
Some philosophers think that attitudes like belief and intention are subject to consistency and coherence requirements. Are there such general purpose cogency requirements on attitudes? If so, what is their nature and strength? What grounds these requirements; for instance, does the point or purpose of a belief or an intention ground consistency and coherence requirements on that attitude? How are such requirements on belief related to requirements on intention? How does the answer to such questions bear on understanding of the interrelations between theoretical and practical rationality?
| Units: 2-4
PHIL 387S:
Practical Reasons and Practical Reasoning
Attempts to develop alternatives to Humean, instrumentalist conceptions of practical reasoning, and alternatives to Humean, non-cognitivist views of practical reasons. Readings include Aurel Kolnai, Bernard Williams, David Wiggins, Joseph Raz, Michael Bratman, Elijah Millgram, and T.M. Scanlon.
| Units: 4
PHIL 388:
Normativity
May be repeated for credit.
| Units: 2-4
| Repeatable
for credit
PHIL 470:
Proseminar in Moral Psychology
Restricted to Philosophy doctoral students. May be repeated for credit.
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
for credit
