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For Ethics in Society honors students. Methods of research. Students present issues of public and personal morality; topics chosen with advice of instructor.

How should human beings interact with the natural world? Do we have moral obligations toward non-human animals and other parts of nature? And what do we owe to other human beings, including future generations, with respect to the environment? In this course, we will tackle ethical questions that confront us in our dealings with the natural world, looking at subjects such as: animal rights; conservation; economic approaches to the environment; access to and control over natural resources; environmental justice and pollution; climate change; technology and the environment; and environmental activism. We will frame our inquiry with leading ethical theories and divide our approach to these topics by ecosystem, dedicating time to each unique environment and its specific nuances: aquatic, desert/tundra, forest/grassland, and the increasingly recognized environment of Space.

Are fish conscious? Are fetuses? Could we build a conscious computer? Much of the philosophical work on consciousness has focused on whether consciousness is wholly physical, but that question is orthogonal to the more specific questions about consciousness that most of us really care about. To answer those questions, we need a theory of how consciousness works in our world. Philosophers and scientists have put forward a spectrum of different candidates, from very abstract, philosophical theories through theories more informed by cognitive psychology down to neural and even quantum theories. In this seminar, students will learn about the major theories of consciousness as well as conceptual issues that arise on different approaches. Particularly important will be the question of how we might gain empirical evidence for a theory of consciousness.

(Graduate students register for 286.) This is an advanced introduction to core topics in the philosophy of mind. Prerequisite: PHIL 80

Capstone Seminar for majors.

(Staff)

An introduction both to Aristotle's own metaphysics and to his treatment of his predecessors on causality, included the early Ionian cosmologists, atomism, Pythagoreans, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Anaxagoras and Plato. Prerequisite: one course in ancient Greek philosophy.