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1 - 10 of 287 results for: PHIL

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: Win | 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: Aut | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER

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?nnWe will explore these and related questions primarily by way of careful study of recent and contemporary philosophical research on these matters.
Terms: Win | Units: 4 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
Instructors: Bratman, M. (PI)

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.
Instructors: Burgess, A. (PI)

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: Aut | 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.
Last offered: Autumn 2009 | 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

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?nnnClass 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
Instructors: Reich, R. (PI)

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.
Instructors: Holliday, W. (PI)

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.
Terms: Win | Units: 2
Instructors: Icard, T. (PI)
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