Results for PHIL

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.nnStudents must enroll in lecture AND one of the 4 discussion sections listed.

Propositional and predicate logic; emphasis is on translating English sentences into logical symbols and constructing derivations of valid arguments.

When acting on one's own, it is often easy to know what the morally right action is. But many moral problems arise from the fact that many individuals act together leading to dilemmas, in which what is individually rational is collectively irrational. For example, the collective result of our consumption decisions is to warm the planet. But individual decisions seem to have no effect on climate change. Such collective action situations give rise to moral questions: Are individuals required to take their contributions to wider systemic effects into account? Does it make a difference whether or not others are doing their share, for example with regard to fighting global poverty? In many cases, the best solution for collective action problems are institutions. But when these are deficient or non-existing, what should individuals do? Do they have a duty to assist in building institutions, and what would this duty imply in practical terms? Interdisciplinary perspective, reading authors from philosophy, politics, economics and sociology such as Elinor Ostrom, Peter Singer or Liam Murphy, relating to current questions such as global poverty and climate change. No background assumed; no mathematical work required.

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.

Central topics in philosophy emphasizing development of analytical writing skills. Are human beings free? How do human minds and bodies interact? Prerequisite: introductory philosophy course.

In this course, we investigate a number of ethical questions that arise in relation to children. Is it morally appropriate to create children, knowing that, over the course of their lives, those children will inevitably be subjected to a range of serious harms? Is it permissible for parents to favor their own children, even if their children are already advantaged in comparison to many other children? Who should decide how children are educated, the government, the parents, or someone else?

PHIL 109C/209C now meets in Raubitschek Room, Green Library Room 351. Undergrads please sign up for 109C; grads sign up for 209C.

(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.

Mini-Course taught by Rega Wood in association with Santiago Melo Arias & Professors Alan Code & Calvin Normore. Code, Wood, & Melo Arias have spent the last 6 months intensively studying Richard Rufus of Cornwall's commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics Zeta, Eta, & Theta. This June we will present Rufus' views on ontology, unity, & universals. There will be 6 two hour sessions on June, 4,5, & 6 (Thurs - Saturday), 10-12 noon , 2-4 pm. Readings will be taken chiefly from Melo Arias' new translations of Rufus' circa 1238 commentary; other readings, from Aristotle and Averroes. We will consider the difference between the treatment of definition, essence and being in logic and in metaphysics, the sense in which accidents have definitions, the unity of genus and differentia in the ndefinitions of substances, the unity of form and proximate matter in hylomorphic compounds, and the unity of the parts of the rational soul. In this context we will discuss the formal distinction pioneered by Rufus as a description of differences in formal predication consistent with real sameness.Richard Rufus was the nfirst Western professor to lecture on Aristotle's metaphysics in Medieval Europe.

(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.

In this course, we will use paradoxes like these as foci for discussions of some of the deepest issues in philosophy and mathematics. No prior knowledge of logic, philosophy or mathematics will be assumed and there will be minimal use of symbolism.nStudents will be expected to complete problem sheets, and to write a very short final paper. The seminars will be discussion-based.

This course will look at Kant's theory of right or law (Recht) and its implications for morality and politics. The topics we will discuss are: the difference between right and ethics in Kant¿s metaphysics of morals; the relation of law to property and morality; the moral obligations of politicians as holders of rightful authority; and the standards of right as they apply to international relations and war.

Approaches to effective computation: recursive functions, register machines, and Turing machines. 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.

(Graduate students register for 254.) Syntax and semantics of modal logic, and technical topics like completeness and correspondence theory, including both classical and recent developments. Applications to topics in philosophy, computer science, and other fields. Prerequisite: 150 or preferably 151.

Explore naturalizing the social contract. Classroom presentations and term papers.nTexts: Binmore - Natural Justicen Skyrms - Evolution of the Social Contract.

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).

This course will investigate a cluster of varied but related philosophical issues concerning the arts¿painting, music, literature, poetry, photography, theater, film, etc.¿issues most of which are, at the same time, problems in philosophy of mind or language, value theory, or epistemology. We will address questions like the following: What, if anything, is distinctive about art and aesthetic experience?, What is aesthetic value, and how do aesthetic values relate to and interact with values of other kinds?, What is fiction and why are people interested in it?, In what ways are works of art expressive of feelings or emotions? What similarities and differences are there in the expressive qualities of music, literature, painting, poetry? How might we learn from works of art of one or another kind, and how might they work to change people's perspectives or attitudes?, In what ways do works of art serve as vehicles of communication? Is there a fundamental difference between the value of works of art, and that of beautiful natural objects? (These various issues are related, as we shall see; we'll be exploring several of them simultaneously.) Along the way, we will bump into more specific questions such as: Why and in what ways is photography more (or less) 'realistic' than painting and drawing, or more or less revealing of reality? Does (instrumental) music have cognitive content? Is music representational in anything like the ways literature and figurative painting are?, Do all literary works have narrators? Is there ever (or always?) anything like narrators in paintings, films, music?

It seems undeniable that things in the world have certain features, or properties: some apples are red, my cat is soft, the Golden Gate Bridge is 2,737 meters long, and so on. This course will focus on metaphysical issues in properties. The topics include ontic issues in properties (universals vs. tropes, realism vs. nominalism), particulars (tropes and bundle theory), and the nature of properties (quantities and causal essentialism). nPrerequisites: Philosophy 80 and Philosophy 50 or equivalent (or consent of instructor).

What is knowledge? How are beliefs justified? Contemporary theories evaluated against central problems: the regress argument, Gettier problem, and skeptical paradox. Prerequisite Phil 80 or consent of the instructor.

What should you do when you learn that equally informed and equally competent reasoners disagree with you? Should you give up your beliefs, or should you stick to your views? In this course, we'll look at the recent debate in epistemology about disagreement. We will investigate the effects of disagreement on the justification of our beliefs, and explore the implications for the justification of our religious, moral, and philosophical views.

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.

(Staff)

May be repeated for credit.

This service learning Student Initiated Course places participants at local organizations to do a quarter-long mentored project, supplemented with training and group reflection sessions. Through these meaningful, hands-on experiences, we hope to engage the Stanford student body in the issue of homelessness, specifically as faced by service providers.

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)

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.

PHIL 109C/209C now meets in Raubitschek Room, Green Library Room 351. Undergrads please sign up for 109C; grads sign up for 209C.

(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.

Mini-Course taught by Rega Wood in association with Santiago Melo Arias & Professors Alan Code & Calvin Normore. Code, Wood, & Melo Arias have spent the last 6 months intensively studying Richard Rufus of Cornwall's commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics Zeta, Eta, & Theta. This June we will present Rufus' views on ontology, unity, & universals. There will be 6 two hour sessions on June, 4,5, & 6 (Thurs - Saturday), 10-12 noon , 2-4 pm. Readings will be taken chiefly from Melo Arias' new translations of Rufus' circa 1238 commentary; other readings, from Aristotle and Averroes. We will consider the difference between the treatment of definition, essence and being in logic and in metaphysics, the sense in which accidents have definitions, the unity of genus and differentia in the ndefinitions of substances, the unity of form and proximate matter in hylomorphic compounds, and the unity of the parts of the rational soul. In this context we will discuss the formal distinction pioneered by Rufus as a description of differences in formal predication consistent with real sameness.Richard Rufus was the nfirst Western professor to lecture on Aristotle's metaphysics in Medieval Europe.

(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.

This course will look at Kant's theory of right or law (Recht) and its implications for morality and politics. The topics we will discuss are: the difference between right and ethics in Kant¿s metaphysics of morals; the relation of law to property and morality; the moral obligations of politicians as holders of rightful authority; and the standards of right as they apply to international relations and war.

In this tutorial, we will examine a cluster of questions concerning the relationship between cognitive states, such as beliefs and desires, and perception. We will examine the question of whether, and to what extent, concepts, beliefs, and desires can influence the content of perception. If these cognitive states can influence the content of perceptual states, how worried should we be about the ability of perception to justify belief, both in everyday life and in scientific inquiry?

May be repeated for credit.

Approaches to effective computation: recursive functions, register machines, and Turing machines. 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.

(Graduate students register for 254.) Syntax and semantics of modal logic, and technical topics like completeness and correspondence theory, including both classical and recent developments. Applications to topics in philosophy, computer science, and other fields. Prerequisite: 150 or preferably 151.

Explore naturalizing the social contract. Classroom presentations and term papers.nTexts: Binmore - Natural Justicen Skyrms - Evolution of the Social Contract.

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).

This course will investigate a cluster of varied but related philosophical issues concerning the arts¿painting, music, literature, poetry, photography, theater, film, etc.¿issues most of which are, at the same time, problems in philosophy of mind or language, value theory, or epistemology. We will address questions like the following: What, if anything, is distinctive about art and aesthetic experience?, What is aesthetic value, and how do aesthetic values relate to and interact with values of other kinds?, What is fiction and why are people interested in it?, In what ways are works of art expressive of feelings or emotions? What similarities and differences are there in the expressive qualities of music, literature, painting, poetry? How might we learn from works of art of one or another kind, and how might they work to change people's perspectives or attitudes?, In what ways do works of art serve as vehicles of communication? Is there a fundamental difference between the value of works of art, and that of beautiful natural objects? (These various issues are related, as we shall see; we'll be exploring several of them simultaneously.) Along the way, we will bump into more specific questions such as: Why and in what ways is photography more (or less) 'realistic' than painting and drawing, or more or less revealing of reality? Does (instrumental) music have cognitive content? Is music representational in anything like the ways literature and figurative painting are?, Do all literary works have narrators? Is there ever (or always?) anything like narrators in paintings, films, music?

This course is intended to illuminate ideas about justice, freedom, equality, democracy, peace, and social conflict, and to raise persisting questions about such topics as the role of violence in politics through looking at the ideas of America writers such as Edward Bellamy, W.E.B. DuBois, Eugene Debs, Jane Addams, Emma Goldman, John Dewey and Reinhold Niebuhr.

It seems undeniable that things in the world have certain features, or properties: some apples are red, my cat is soft, the Golden Gate Bridge is 2,737 meters long, and so on. This course will focus on metaphysical issues in properties. The topics include ontic issues in properties (universals vs. tropes, realism vs. nominalism), particulars (tropes and bundle theory), and the nature of properties (quantities and causal essentialism). nPrerequisites: Philosophy 80 and Philosophy 50 or equivalent (or consent of instructor).

What is knowledge? How are beliefs justified? Contemporary theories evaluated against central problems: the regress argument, Gettier problem, and skeptical paradox. Prerequisite Phil 80 or consent of the instructor.

A required seminar for third year philosophy PhD students, designed to extend and consolidate work done in the dissertation development seminar the previous summer.

We read Plato's Symposium and Phaedrus; topics: love, beauty, language (oral and written). Graduate seminar, but open to seniors.

Explores evolutionary (and learning) dynamics applied to nsimple models of signaling, emergence of information and inference. Classroom presentations and term papers.nText: Skyrms - SIGNALS: EVOLUTION,LEARNING and INFORMATIONnand selected articles.

Logical analysis of information, interaction and games, with topics connecting philosophy, computer science, game theory, and other fields. The focus is on current research at these interfaces. Prerequisite: 151, 154/254, or equivalent background.

Grad seminar on ethical topic. May be repeat for credit

Tragic form and political theory have in common a profound interest in the conflictual foundation of human society. This course will explore how the two intellectual approaches define the actors of conflict, its causes, and its possible [or impossible] resolution.

Course may be repeat for credit.

Topics in Normativity. May be repeated for credit.

Advanced topics in epistemology. Pre-requisite Phil 284. May be repeated for credit.

Contemporary work. May be repeated a total of three times for credit. Math 391 students attend the logic colloquium in 380-381T.

may be repeated for credit.

(Staff)

Presentation of dissertation work in progress by seminar participants. May be repeated for credit.

(Staff)

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.