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Department of Philosophy | |
| Fall 2006 Course Descriptions | ||
| Course
Timetable |
PHIL 001-301 INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY An introduction to such topics as our knowledge of the material world,
the relation of mind and body, the existence of God, and the nature of morality.
Readings from both historical and contemporary sources.
An introductory survey of some central philosophical
issues, including: Is there a God? What is the
relationship between the mind and the body? Are free will and determinism incompatible? Are there
objective moral standards? Readings will be taken from both contemporary and historical sources.
RECITATIONS: An introduction to such topics as our knowledge of the material world, the relation of mind and body, the existence of God, and the nature of morality. Readings from both historical and contemporary sources.
RECITATIONS:
How should we go about morally evaluating our actions? We will read,
discuss, and critique historical and contemporary answers to this
question. Some moral philosophers focus on evaluating our actions in
terms of their consequences,
while others believe the intentions motivating our actions
are of crucial moral importance. Still others recommend that we attend to
the meaning of our actions-what we say by acting as we do. We will also
look at historical and contemporary theories that focus on evaluating
ourselves rather than our actions. Readings in this class will concern
both practical problems (such as cosmetic surgery, abortion, affirmative
action, and war) and theoretical issues.
PHIL 002-301 ETHICS Four sorts of questions belong to the study of ethics in the analytic
tradition. Practical ethics discusses specific moral problems, often those
we find most contested (e.g. abortion). Moral theory tries to develop
systematic answers to moral problems, looking for general principles that
explain moral judgments and rules (e.g. consequentialism, contractarianism).
Meta-ethics investigates questions about the nature of moral theories
and their subject matter (e.g. are they subjective or objective, relative
or non-relative?). Finally, there are questions about why any of this
does, or should matter to us (e.g. why be moral?). We will investigate
all four of these types of questions during the course, but a disproportionate
part of the course will be focused on discussing two moral problems:
abortion and terrorism. The central aim of the required readings and discussion
is to develop each question s deeply and sharply enough for us to really
feel its troublesome character. We will focus on how to read complex philosophical
prose in order to outline and evaluate the arguments embedded within it.
This will provide the basis for writing argumentative prose.
RECITATIONS: PHIL 003-402 Friday - 11:00-12:00 PHIL 003-403 Friday - 11:00-12:00 PHIL 003-404 Friday - 1:00-2:00 PHIL 003-405 Friday - 12:00-1:00 A survey of classical Greek approaches to questions about knowledge, the nature of the world, the soul, ethics and politics. Will focus on Presocratics, Plato and Aristotle.
303 - Tuesday, Thursday -- 12:00-1:30
This course provides an introduction to the philosophy and intellectual history of space-time and
cosmological models from ancient to modern times
with special emphasis on paradigm shifts, leading to
Einstein's theories of special and general relativity
and cosmology. Other topics include Big Bang,
black holes stellar structure, the metaphysics of
substance, particles, fields, and superstrings,
unification and grand unification of modern physical
theories. No philosophy of physics background is
presupposed. Cognitive Science is founded on the realization that many problems in
the analysis of human and artificial intelligence require an interdisciplinary
approach. The course is intended to introduce undergraduates from many
areas to the problems and characteristic concepts of Cognitive Science,
drawing on formal and empirical approaches from the parent disciplines
of computer science, linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy and psychology.
The topics covered include Perception, Action, Learning, Language, Knowledge
Representation and Inference, and the relations and interactions between
such modules. The course shows how the different views from the parent
disciplines interact, and identifies some common themes among the theories
that have been proposed. The course pays particular attention to the distinctive
role of computation in such theories, and provides an introduction to
some of the main directions of current research in the field. RECITATIONS: PHIL 080-201 Friday -- 11:00-12:00 PHIL 080-203 Friday -- 11:00-12:00 Staff PHIL 080-204 Friday -- 10-00-11:00 Aesthetics is concerned with the philosophical questions that arise when
we reflect on the nature of art and our experience of it. What makes something
a work of art? What is the relationship between artists and their artworks?
Can we give reasons for our judgments about artworks, or are our claims
about art mere expressions of our preferences? What role does art play
in our lives? These are some of the questions that we will consider in
this course.
PHIL 242-301 FREEDOM OF THE WILL 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 244-001 PHILOSOPHY OF MIND RECITATIONS:
This course has two components. The first component is an historical overview of some key figures in Western philosophy of education (including Plato, Locke, Rousseau, Wollstonecraft, Dewey, and du Bois). We will focus on aspects of these theorists' ideas that will inform the second component of the course which is an examination of some of the most pressing problems in contemporary philosophy of education. These problems include: how much control over a child's education ought to be allocated to parents and how much to the state; what role, if any, ought religion to play in education; how race and gender impact individuals' educational experiences (and how much issues should be addressed in the classroom); what sort of (if any) civic education ought to be taught in schools (especially in wartime such as in the post 9-11 USA); and how schools should be funded. While the bulk of our readings will be philosophical texts, we will supplement these works with readings from other fields, such as psychology and sociology, in order to provide empirical context to the theoretical problems facing education today.
PHIL 331-301 EPISTMOLOGY Foundations of knowledge, belief, perception, memory, and truth. Justification, evidence, certainty, incorrigibility, acceptance, and coherence. Knowledge of one' own and other people' state of mind. Inference about seeing and knowing. Empirical and mathematical knowledge. PHIL 342-301 METAPHYSICS
PHIL 377-301 PHILOSOPHY & THE CONSTITUTION CROSS LISTED WITH: PPE 377-301 The aim of this course is to investigate the philosophical background of our constitutional democracy. What is the appropriate role and limits of majority legislative rule? How are we to understand First Amendment protections of freedom of religion, speech, and assembly? What is the conception of equality that underlies the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause? Is there a right of privacy implicit in the Constitution? Do rights of property deserve the same degree of protection as other constitutional rights? To investigate these and constitutional issues, we will read from both Supreme Court opinions and relevant philosophical texts. PHILOSOPHY & PPE MAJORS ONLY DISTRIBUTION I: SOCIETY
PHIL 417-301 GAME THEORY The course will introduce students to non-cooperative game theory and experimental games. The first part of the course will focus on the basic elements of non-cooperative game theory. The second part will cover the experimental literature on social dilemmas, trust and ultimatum games. the format will consist of lectures, student presentations, and discussions. PHIL 460-301 CONTINENTAL RATIONALISM Descartes, Malebranche, Spinoza, Leibniz--rationalists of the seventeenth century--thought that there was an intelligible, and often harmonious, structure to the universe. Consequently, they attempted to construct comprehensive metaphysical systems that would account for this structure. In this course, we shall study the systems of Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz (with a brief excursion into Malebranche's theory of causation) in order to trace the developing story of seventeenth-century philosophy through these three thinkers' systematic metaphysics and natural philosophy. This includes the human place in these systems, especially human's capacity to gain knowledge of the supposedly rational and intelligible structure of the world. DISTRIBUTION II: HISTORY & TRADITION
PHIL 464-301 BRITISH PHILOSOPHY II This course will study British moral philosophy in the eighteenth century. Hobbes and Mandeville provided the targets for work by Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, Butler, Hume, Kames, and Adam Smith, and they will be the main focus of the course. Topics will include issues in both normative ethics (the debate between selfishness and benevolence) and meta-ethics (the nature of the moral sense and its relation to reason). If time permits, we may also take a detour to read some Rousseau. Students intending to take Philosophy 466, Kant's Moral and Political Philosophy, are strongly urged to consider taking this course as preparation. A term paper will be required. DISTRIBUTION I: SOCIETY
PHIL 475-403 BEHAVIORAL ETHICS Wednesday -- 2:00-5:00 Cristina Bicchieri, cb36@sas.upenn.edu CROSS LISTED WITH: PPE 475-403 Philosophy 475 is a research seminar directed at advanced undergraduate and graduate students in psychology, philosophy, social and cognitive science. Our focus will be on identifying and discussing issues of philosophical significance raised by recent work in psychology, evolutionary game theory, experimental economics and behavioral decision making. Return to topGRADUATE COURSES PHIL 506-401 FORMAL LOGIC II This course will treat the fundamental results and techniques of mathematical
logic. Connections between logic and algebra, analysis, combinatorics,
computer science, and the foundations of mathematics will be emphasized. PHIL 510-301 LATE PLATO Plato's metaphysics and the dialogue Parmenides. An examination of the doctrine of Forms with close study of the dialogue in which systematic objections to this doctrine are presented and left unanswered. Topics will include how far Plato's metaphysics is altered in the late dialogues and what role is played by the deductions in Part Two of the Parmenides. DISTRIBUTION II: HISTORY & TRADITION
PHIL 526-301 PHILOSOPHY OF PSYCHOLOGY Perception: Organization and Unity Tuesday -- 3:00-6:00 Gary Hatfield, hatfield (at) linc.cis Is a melody just a series of notes that must be put together cognitively, or is it immediately perceived as having a unified structure? Is the field of vision (or are the things in the field of vision) perceived as so many independent pixels, or is organization and structural unity a primitive visual fact? How do concepts and meanings interact with (or get expressed through) organization and structure? We will examine the organization and unity of perception (primarily visual, but also auditory) as discussed by the Gestalt psychologists and Wittgenstein. Readings from Ehrenfels, Koehler, Koffka, and Wittgenstein, together with some secondary literature. UNDERGRADUATES NEED PERMISSION
PHIL 567-301 DEVELOPMENT OF GERMAN IDEALISM The course will start with a brief review of some features of Kant's philosophy, will focus on Fichte and Schelling, and will end with a discussion of the reaction to Idealism by Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. PHIL 578-301 TOPICS IN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY: JUSTICE AND THE SOCIAL CONTRACT An examination of John Rawls's contractarian theory of justice and of works by some of its main critics. A Theory of Justice, will serve as the main text for the course, but in addition we will read Martha Nussbaum's recent book, Frontiers of Justice, and other critical assessments of Rawls's account of political and economic justice. DISTRIBUTION I: SOCIETY UNDERGRADUATES NEED PERMISSION
PHIL 581-401 18th CENTURY AESTHETICS Wednesday -- 12:00-3:00 Paul Guyer, pguyer@nous.phil.upenn.edu CROSS LISTED WITH: GRMN 580-401 A close study of major texts in aesthetics from Shaftesbury and Addison through Kant and Schiller. Other authors may include Hutcheson, Hume, Burke, Gerard, Kames, Alison, Baumgarten, Mendelssohn, Lessing, Diderot, and Rousseau. Issues can include the nature of aesthetic experience, the distinction between the beautiful and the sublime, the universality of taste, the ethical significance of the aesthetic, and the commonalities and differences among the arts. The course will be taught as a seminar, and students will be responsible for an oral presentation as well as a term paper. UNDERGRADUATES NEED PERMISSION
PHIL 600-301 PROSEMINAR This seminar is restricted to and required for first-year doctoral students. only. Weekly writing and discussion of some classical papers
and some current books and papers in recent metaphysics/epistemology (broadly construed). PHIL 700-301 DISSERTATION WORKSHOP PHIL 001-601 INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY An introduction to such topics as our knowledge of the material world, the relation of mind and body,
PHIL 004-601 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY Theories of knowledge, mind, and reality in early modern philosophy from Descartes through Kant or PHIL 009-601 WRITING SEMINAR IN PHILOSOPHY: MIND AND MATTER Thursday -- 6:00-9:00 Gary Purpura, gpurpura@sas.upenn.edu The purpose of this course is to develop students' writing skills while providing a broad introduction to some philosophical issues surrounding the mind. Drawing from contemporary sources, we will explore four topics: the relation between mind and body, consciousness, artificial intelligence, and animal minds. FULFILLS THE COLLEGE WRITING REQUIREMENT
PHIL 055-601 EXISTENTIALISM A critical examination of existentialist views of the
PHIL 225-601 PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE A study of the historical introduction to the philosophy of science from ancient Greek "First More than a century after Sigmund Freud transformed -- for better or worse -- our understanding of what it means to be human, Freudian psychoanalysis still exerts a profound influence in our culture. This seminar course is an exploration of the philosophical issues raised by Freudian psychoanalysis as a theory of mind and culture, and of its impact on our contemporary public and intellectual discourses. After a close reading of Freud's theoretical writings on the nature of the mind and culture, we will examine the scientific and epistemological status of Freud's theories and their continued use -- despite decades of criticism -- as a framework for the interpretation of contemporary culture and human behavior. Readings from Freud's "meta-psychological" writings, Paul Ricoeur's Freud and Philosophy, and other contemporary authors in philosophy, psychoanalysis, and other fields.
PHIL 550-640 THE SOCIAL-POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION Is the purpose of education to allow individuals to better themselves by pursuing personal tastes and interests (regardless of individual contingencies, such as ethnicity or gender), or should education be primarily aimed at creating good citizens or good members of a group? Is there a way of reconciling these two aims? Assuming that adult relations with children are inherently paternalistic, is it possible for children to be educated for future autonomy to pursue major life goals free from such paternalistic control; and if so, how? Do adult relations with children differ in the education of boys and of girls? How much, if any, control over education can be allocated to the state, even when this conflicts with the educational goals parents have for their children? Such questions are especially relevant in multicultural or pluralistic societies in which some groups within a liberal state are non-liberal (in terms of their treatment of females, for example). Should a liberal democratic state intervene in education to ensure the development of children's personal autonomy, or must toleration of non-liberal groups prevail even at the expense of children's autonomy? What influence, of any, should the socio-economic status of parents have upon the answers to such questions -- that is, should wealthy parents have the disproportionate power to ignore state aim in education and privately educate their children in whatever way they see fit? These are among the questions we shall ask and try to answer. We shall begin with a brief overview of the educational theories of some key historical figures before turning to current debates surrounding the role and purpose of education in multicultural, liberal-democratic societies. LOGIC, INFORMATION AND COMPUTATION LGIC 210-401 APPLIED MATHEMATICS OF INFORMATION AND COMPUTATION I This course is designed to introduce students to a range of mathematical
subjects useful in computer science. Topics will be chosen from probability
theory, linear algebra, combinatories, graph theory, recursion theory
and number theory. LGIC 310-401 LOGIC I This course will treat the fundamental results and techniques of mathematical logic. Connections between logic and algebra, analysis, combinatorics, computer science, and the foundations of mathematics will be emphasized.
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Mar 19, 2004 |
  
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