printer friendly pagePHIL 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.
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.
PHIL 312: Aristotle's Psychology
De Anima and parts of
Parva Naturalia.
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.
PHIL 316: Ethics before ethics: moral conduct in archaic philosophy
Depicting Socrates as the founder of ethics is certainly legitimate in some sense, but it also tends to minimize or even obfuscate the importance of the references to human conduct in Presocratic thought.nnn The aim of the seminar is to draw a map of the available material in this respect, and to assess the role that ethical and social thought and concepts plays in some of the most prominent archaic thinkers. Anaximander, Xenophanes, Parmenides, Empedocles and Democritus receive special attention.
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.
PHIL 318: Aristotle and the Object of Mathematical Reasoning (CLASSGEN 338)
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.
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 12 units total)
PHIL 319: Topics in Greek Philosophy: Plato and Aristotle on Knowledge and Action
Aristotle's views about substance and the nature and possibility of metaphysics. Focus is on
Categories and
Metaphysics Book Zeta.
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).
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.
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