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Department of Philosophy | |
| Fall 2004 Course Descriptions | ||
| Course
Timetable |
PHIL 001-301 INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY An introduction to such topics as our knowledge of the
An introductory survey of some central philosophical
An introduction to such topics as our knowledge of the
RECITATIONS: An investigation of some of the central questions about
RECITATIONS: PHIL 003-402 Friday - 10:00-11:00 Kathleen Moran PHIL 003-403 Friday - 11:00-12:00 Anna Cremaldi PHIL 003-404 Friday - 1:00-2:00 Anna Cremaldi PHIL 003-405 Friday - 12:00-1:00 Kathleen Moran A survey of classical Greek approaches to questions
This course examines the role of social contract
A writing course that uses the content of philosophy as
Four sorts of questions belong to the study of ethics in the
A writing course that uses the content of philosophy as
A writing course that uses the content of philosophy as
This course provides an introduction to the philosophy
RECITATIONS: PHIL 034-201 Friday -- 12:00-1:00 Mark Navin PHIL 034-202 Friday -- 1:00-2:00 Mark Navin This course will address such questions as: Can one prove or disprove the existence of God? What is the relation between faith and reason? Are science and religion at odds with another? We will look both at historically significant discussions of our topics (for example, by Plato, Anselm, Aquinas, Pascal, Hume, and Kierkegaard) and more recent writings (for example, by Adams, Boyer, Plantinga, and Van Inwagen).
RECITATIONS: PHIL 050-402 TBA STAFF The fundaments of Hindu and Buddhist philosophy, the
RECITATIONS: PHIL 067-201 Friday -- 12:00-1:00 Brian Chance European philosophers from Descartes and Leibniz to Hegel claimed virtually unlimited scope and power for human reason, culminating with what Hegel called absolute idealism. Nineteenth-century philosophers largely recoiled from these ambitious claims, sometimes falling into correspondingly unlimited skepticism and nihilism, as in the cases of Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche, sometimes into rationalism and fideism, as in the case of Soren Kierkegaard, and sometimes into materialism, as in the case of Marx. Others, especially in Britain and the U.S., had more measured responses, such as the revived empiricism of John Stuart Mill and the pragmatism of Charles Sanders Pierce and William James. And at the end of the century, idealism was at least briefly revived by such philosophers as F. H. Bradley in Oxford and Josiah Royce at Harvard. The course will begin with a brief exposition of Hegel's ambitions, and then study the responses of Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Marx, Nietzsche, Mill, Pierce, and James, with a brief look at Royce and Bradley if time permits. Written work will include several papers and a final examination.
RECITATIONS: PHIL 211-402 Friday 10:00-11:00 Jason Skirry PHIL 211-403 Friday 12:00-1:00 Jason Skirry A survey of the ethical theories debated by philosophers in Classical
Greece and Rome. Plato, Aristotle, Stoic, Epicureans and Pyrrhonist Sceptics
offer competing answers to the fundamental question raised by Socrates:
How are we to live? That is, what is the best life for a human being?
These philosophers generally agree that virtue is an important part of
the best human life, but disagree about whether it is the greatest good
(Epicurus, for example claims that pleasure is the highest good), or whether
there are any other goods (for example, health, wealth, family). Much
attention is paid in their theories to accounts of the virtues of character,
and to the place of wisdom in the best sort of human life.
PHIL 226-401 PHILOSOPHY OF BIOLOGY This course consists of a detailed examination of evolutionary theory and its philosophical foundations. The course begins with a consideration of Darwin's formulation of evolutionary theory and the main influences on Darwin. We will then consider two contemporary presentations of the theory--Richard Dawkins' and Richard Lewontin's. The remainder of the course will deal with a number of foundational issues and may include discussions of adaptation, what constitutes a species, whether there is evolutionary progress, and the concept of fitness. We will also discuss the units of selection, the alleged reduction of classical genetics to molecular genetics, and the possibility of grounding ethics in evolutionary theory.
PHIL 242-301 FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY A discussion of various challenges to our self-understanding that arise
from thinking about persons and their actions as part of the order of
nature. Questions to be considered include: what it is to be a free agent
and what it means to have a free will, the degree to which our beliefs
about physical causality undermine our beliefs about agency, the nature
and importance of moral responsibility, and the relationship between freedom
and responsibility. Readings are drawn from both historical and contemporary
sources.
PHIL 244-301 PHILOSOPHY OF MIND This course will deal with several problems that lie at the interface
among philosophy, logic, linguistics, psychology, and computer science.
PHIL 331-301 TOPICS IN THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE The topic of this course is "Language and Knowledge". It examines
several issues at the intersection of epistemology and the philosophy
of language, including: (1) language-based responses to external world
skepticism (Descartes, Putnam, DeRose), (2) the nature of linguistic knowledge,
conscious and unconscious (Chomsky, Fodor, Searle), and (3) the epistemology
of testimony (Hume, Coady).
PHIL 372-301 TOPICS IN ETHICS - CANCELLED
PHIL 422-409 CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS OF QUANTUM MECHANICS RECITATION: PHIL 422-411 TBA Edward Epsen Quantum theory provides the fundamental underpinning of modern physical science, yet its philosophical implications are so shocking that Einstein could not accept them. These implications strike at the roots of classical notions of causality and determinism, and undermine classical physical conceptions of the nature of matter. By following the historical development of 20th century quantum science, the student should gain an appreciation of how a scientific theory grows and develops and of the strong interplay between scientific observation and philosophical interpretation. Although students will not be expected to carry out mathematical derivations, they should gain an understanding of basic quantum findings about and how they relate to current technology.
PHIL 432-301 GAME THEORY The course will deal exclusively with non-cooperative games. The first half will develop the basic theory; in the second half special topics will be discussed, such as experimental results and AI applications. The emphasis will mostly be on concepts and results rather than detailed technical proofs. No significant previous exposure to game theory will be assumed.
PHIL 465-401 KANT I This course is a study of Kant's theoretical philosophy, or what we now
call epistemology and metaphysics. After a brief look at some of Kant's
early works, the bulk of the course is given over to a close study of
the Critique of Pure Reason. Topics to be discussed include
Kant's views about space, time, substance, and causation; his theory of
the self, self-knowledge, and knowledge of the external world; his critique
of traditional metaphysical theories about the soul and God; and his theory
of the regulative role of human reason. Students taking this course as
German 551-401 will be expected to read a significant portion of the Critique
in German. [Return to top]
GRADUATE COURSES
PHIL 506-401 FORMAL LOGIC II This course will treat the fundamental results and techniques of mathematical
logic including the Completeness and Compactness Theorems for first-order
logic, the Loewenheim-Skolem Theorem, the Goedel Incompleteness Theorems,
and Church's Theorem. Connections between logic and algebra, analysis,
combinatorics, computer science, and the foundations of mathematics will
be emphasized. PHIL 511-301 ARISTOTLE METAPHYSICS A close study of Aristotle's Metaphysics. Topics include the definition
of First Philosophy, the notion of Being qua being, the notion of primary
substance (in contrast to primary substance in the Categories),
the relation of substance to essence, potency and act, the object of mathematics,
and the theory of the Unmoved Mover. Do all these topics belong to a single
discipline?
PHIL 525-401 TOPICS IN PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE This course is a graduate level survey of topics in philosophy of biology,
with a special emphasis on metaphysical and epistemological issues relevant
to other areas of philosophy. He course begins with an analysis of Darwin's
formulation of evolutionary theory, his main influences, and the scientific
methods he employed. We will go on to consider a number of topics debated
in the current literature including function, fitness, adaptation, the
unit of selection, reductionism, and the nature of species. We will conclude
by considering what modern evolutionary theory tells us about progress,
contingency, and human nature.
PHIL 526-301 PHILOSOPHY OF PSYCHOLOGY Topic: Descartes' mechanistic psychology and its implications. Descartes'
dualism is often invoked as a landmark position in psychology and the
philosophy of mind. this seminar will begin by considering his psychology
of mindless machines (in the fictional account in the fictional account
in the Treatise on Man, and in his accounts of the body's capacities independent
of mind in the Passions and elsewhere). We will use his account of mechanistic
psychology to raise questions abaout therelation between psychological
categories of explanation and mentalistic terms of description. We will
move on to consider selected twentieth-century perspectives on this relation.
Readings from Descartes and selected later philosophers and psychologists.
PHIL 535-401 PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY This course will examine some conventional concerns philosophers have
discussed in respect to historial knowledge (or its possibility) -- the
scientific character of history, its objectivity, explanation in history,
evaluations in history, and the reality of the past. Discussions of these
standard issues will be enriched by examining actual historical writing,
and they will be augmented by exploration of other philosophical areas
in their connection to historical understanding -- for example, counterfactual
conditionals, transcendental arguments, and the philosophy of action.
Readings will come from philosophers primarily interested in the philosophy
of history such as R. G. Collingwood and Benedetto Croce; analytic philosophers
such as Hilary Putnam and Richard Rorty; and historians such as Edmund
Morgan and Bernard Bailyn. Students will also be required to examine a
manuscript of my own on historical knowledge. There will be a paper applying
philosophical insights to an actual historical problem.
PHIL 568-301 HEGEL The purpose of this course is to discuss some basic ontological assumptions
of Hegel's philosophy and to inquire to what extent these assumptions
guide his conception of a 'system'. The seminar will focus primarily (though
not exclusively) on Hegel's Logic in its different versions, especially
on sections 26-78 of the Encyclopedia (1830) and on the beginning sections
of the third part of his Science of Logic (1816). There will be some readings
from the Phenomenology. Reading knowledge of German would be helpful.
PHIL 576-301 SOCIAL NORMS The seminar will explore the similarities and differences between the
concepts of norm and convention. We will consider alternative views of
what they are, trying to find an operational, testable definition of social
norm. We will apply such defniition to experimental results on fairness,
trust, and cooperation. In the second part of the seminar, we will discuss
various theories about norm emergence and evolution, possibly designing
our own simulations of how particular norms might evolve. PHIL 600-301 PROSEMINAR
PHIL 700-301 DISSERTATION WORKSHOP
PHIL 001-601 INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY An introduction to such topics as our knowledge of the
PHIL 004-601 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY Theories of knowledge, mind, and reality in early
PHIL 055-601 EXISTENTIALISM A critical examination of existentialist views of the
PHIL 225-601 INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY A study of the historical introduction to the philosophy
The course aims to study, systematically and comprehensively, recent
writings on the interconnections between scientific practices and values,
the consequences of these interactions concerning the objectivity of scientific
knowledge, and their impact upon ethical deliberations. Issues pertaining
to current controversies about the use of transgenic crops will serve
as concrete illustrations that disply the current, practical significance
of the broader philosophical analyses. This course will examine the nature
of both science and values.
PHIL 489-640 PUBLIC DISCOURSE & THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIALOGUE Designed primarily for students in the Masters of Liberal Arts program's Public Culture track. This course will examine both theoretical and practical dimensions of public discourse, exploring various philosophies of dialogue that shape our expectations and assumptions, as well as contemporary theories of democracy that highlight the role of deliberation in forming and strengthening diverse communities. Practical implications for the use of discouse and dialogue strategies for integrating fragmented communities, preventing or resolving inter-group and ethno-political conflicts, making civic life more productive, and engaging in effective institutional outreach, public programming, decision-making, and governance also will be explored.
LOGIC, INFORMATION AND COMPUTATION LGIC 210-401 APPLIED MATHEMATICS OF INFORMATION AND COMPUTATION I This course is designed to intoduce students to a range of mathematical subjects useful in computer science. topics will be chosen from probability theory, linear algebra, comtinatories, graph theory, recursion theory and number theory.
LGIC 310-401 LOGIC I This course will treat the fundamental results and techniques of mathematical logic including the Completeness and Compactness Theorems for first-order logic, the Loewenheim-Skolem Theorem, the Goedel Incompleteness Theorems, and Church's Theorem. Connections between logic and algebra, analysis, combinatorics, computer science, and the foundations fo mathematics will be emphasized.
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Mar 19, 2004 |
  
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