printer friendly pagePHIL 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.
Last offered: Autumn 2012
PHIL 284: Theory of Knowledge (PHIL 184)
What is knowledge? How are beliefs justified? Contemporary theories evaluated against central problems: the regress argument, Gettier problem, and skeptical paradox.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
Instructors:
Lawlor, K. (PI)
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
Instructors:
Taylor, K. (PI)
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
Instructors:
Bratman, M. (PI)
;
Bratman, M. (TA)
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
PHIL 293C: Film & Philosophy (COMPLIT 154A, FRENCH 154, ITALIAN 154, PHIL 193C)
Issues of freedom, morality, faith, knowledge, personal identity, and the value of truth explored through film; philosophical investigation of the filmic medium itself. Screenings to include Twelve Monkeys (Gilliam), Ordet (Dreyer), The Dark Knight (Nolan), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Allen), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Kaufman). Taught in English.
Last offered: Spring 2013
PHIL 300: Proseminar
Topically focused seminar. Required of all first year Philosophy PhD students
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
Instructors:
Burgess, A. (PI)
PHIL 301: Dissertation Development Proseminar
An optional seminar for third year philosophy PhD students, designed to extend and consolidate work done in the dissertation development seminar the previous summer.
Terms: Win, Spr
| Units: 2-4
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 8 units total)
Instructors:
Hills, D. (PI)
PHIL 308: Aristotle's Politics
The seminar will be a critical examination of Aristotle¿s political philosophy and we shall focus on his Politics as our primary text. We¿ll supplement this with some other texts by Aristotle that are relevant and explore the most important connections between Aristotle¿s political philosophy and his ethics.
Terms: Aut, Spr
| Units: 4
| Repeatable
4 times
(up to 16 units total)
Instructors:
Bobonich, C. (PI)
PHIL 308B: Aristotle on his Predecessors
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.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 2-4
Instructors:
Code, A. (PI)
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