PHI 200 P: PHILOSOPHICAL ASPECTS OF INFINITY                         CHUDNOFF                 TUE & THUR · 11:00 AM—12:15 PM

The history of thought about infinity shows that there is a fine line between paradox and insight. In this course we will take on some of the puzzles that infinity poses for us and explore the concepts and theories that mathematicians and philosophers have developed in trying to resolve these puzzles. We will also consider philosophical arguments for views about the limits of meaning and the capacities of the human mind that are grounded in reflection on infinity.

PHI 210 D: SYMBOLIC LOGIC                                                                             LEWIS                             MON, WED & FRI · 11:15 PM —12:05 PM

Logic is the study of reasoning. This course is an introduction to the theory of deductive reasoning, including propositional logic (the logic of “and”, “or”, “not” and “if … then”) and predicate logic (the logic of “all”, “some” and “none”). You will learn how to clarify an argument by translating it into a symbolic language, and how to evaluate an argument for validity. These skills are applicable to any discipline, and crucial to the further study of philosophy.

PHI 215 J: LOGIC & LAW                                                                       

 BURGIS                            MON & WED · 5:00 PM — 6:15 PM

This course is an introduction to formal logic and its application to legal reasoning, and to the sort of logical skills that aspiring lawyers need to develop. This class assumes no background in formal logic and should serve as a foundation for further work in logic.  As such, the logic we’ll be learning will is classical. At the same time, however, we’ll be taking a (brief, informal) look at the possible limitations of classical logic as a platform for reasoning about practical matters like the law, and the possible value of some alternative systems of logic for those purposes.  We will also apply some of the logical machinery that we develop in the analysis of certain legal concepts, e.g. the concept of a legal disputation and the concept of a contract.

PHI 271 P: ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY                                                                 RABINSKY                     TUES & THURS · 11:00 AM — 12:15 PM

This course is an introduction to some of the main questions and themes in classical Greek philosophy, focusing on the works of the Pre-Socratics, Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoic philosophers. Topics covered include: Socrates' method of dialectic, his concepts of moral virtue and the good life; Plato's theory of knowledge, metaphysics, and moral and political philosophy; Aristotle's scientific method, philosophy of nature, metaphysics, ethics, political philosophy, and theory of art. Attention will be focused on the quality of the arguments presented by the philosophers, and student’s critical thinking skills will be developed through Socratic discussions and a variety of classroom projects including presentations, case studies, and writing projects relating to the main concepts and theories of the ancient Greek philosophers.

PHI 330 R: ETHICS                                                                                    

MCGINN                        TUE & THUR · 2:00 PM —3:15 PM

This course will cover the standard ethical theories: relativism, divine command theory, utilitarianism, Kantian ethics, theories of justice, and virtue ethics.

PHI 331 C: SOCIAL & POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY                     

RABINSKY                   MON, WED & FRI · 10:00 AM —11:00 AM

This course is an introduction to Social & Political Philosophy.  We will consider a variety of philosophical questions relating to the nature and purpose of government, human rights and political obligations, theories of justice, and the relation between the Individual and the State.  The methods and tools of analytical philosophy will be used to examine contemporary and perennial issues in social and political philosophy.  Our readings will be drawn from a selection of works by philosophers from both the Ancient and Medieval eras (including Aristotle, Plato, Aquinas) to the modern era (including  Machiavelli, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Hume, Kant, Rousseau, Jefferson, Hegel, Marx, Mill, Nietzsche, and Alexis de Tocqueville, as well as John Dewey, Bertrand Russell,  Friedrich Hayek), to more recent works by Carl Cohen, Charles Frankel, John Rawls, Milton Friedman, Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, Robert Nozick, and Tibor Machan.  Using the basic insights and principles of various theories of political philosophy, we will consider a number of contemporary philosophical issues, dilemmas, and case studies relating to the application of political theory to current socio-political issues, ranging from the global economy to freedom of expression and the media, privacy and civil liberties, and the law.  The course will develop students’ critical reasoning skills through classroom discussion, select reading assignments, writing projects, and activities focusing on argument analysis of the main ideas, concepts, and issues of the course.

PHI 340 J: THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE                                         

SIEGEL                          MON & WED · 5:00PM —6:15 PM

This course deals with basic issues in the theory of know­ledge (epistemology).  Readings will be mainly contemporary.  The class will be devoted to the study of the `standard' view of knowledge as justified true belief; difficulties with the standard view; examination of each of the three standard ‘conditions of knowledge’, i.e., truth, belief, and justification; and questions concerning evidence, skepticism, relativism, rationality, the ethics of belief, and the value of knowledge.

PHI 345 Q: METAPHYSICS                                                   

HILPINEN                   TUE & THUR · 12:30 PM —1:45 PM

The subject of metaphysics (ontology) is the study of the categories of things (entities) that may exist in some domain of discourse or be part of reality. This course is an introduction to metaphysics through the study of the nature of artifacts, works of art, words and texts, fictions, and other cultural entities.

PHI 351 O &O1: PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION                                            EVNINE                         TUE & THUR · 9:30 AM —10:45 AM

In this course, we will cover the most important ideas in the philosophy of religion. These will include metaphysical issues about the existence and nature of God; epistemological questions about faith and reason; and ethical questions about the relation between religion and morality, and about the existence of different religions. The emphasis will be on understanding competing views on these topics and formulating and discussing rigorous arguments for and against various positions.

PHI 353 T & T1: PHILOSOPHY OF FILM                                       

BUENO                           TUE & THURS · 5:00 PM—6:15 PM

Films raise a number of philosophical issues, ranging from specifying their nature to making sense of their allure. This course develops a framework to examine these issues. In the first part, we will analyze central components of the understanding of films. In particular, we will examine whether film is an art form, discuss what is cinema, analyze the moving image (the shot, cinematic sequencing and narration, as well as the production of affect and emotions), and examine how to evaluate films. In the second part, we will try to understand the power of films. In particular, we will discuss the interaction of vision and the screen, examine the metaphysics of the moving image, and explore the connections between dreams and film. Finally, we will provide an application of the resulting framework by examining the interactions between films and literary imagination.

PHI 391 F: PHILOSOPHY OF SPACE AND TIME                                       LEWIS                                 MON, WED & FRI · 1:25 PM —2:15 PM

Space and time are simultaneously very familiar and notoriously difficult to think about. In this course we will think about space and time in the context of both classical physics and relativity. Topics include the nature of space (Is space a substance over and above the things in it?), the nature of time (Could there be time without change?), the direction of time (Why does coffee spontaneously cool down, but never spontaneously heat up?), the nature of the present (Is only the present instant real, or is the future equally real?) and the possibility of time travel (Could you go back and kill your infant self?). We will approach the topics through classic and contemporary readings in philosophy and physics, and also through sci-fi stories and movies. Although we will cover some of the “big ideas” of contemporary physics, no prior knowledge of physics will be presupposed.

PHI 391 S: LAW & MORALITY                                                                              NICKEL                                 TUE & THUR · 3:30 PM —4:45 PM

This course explores ways in which law and morality can conflict as well as ways in which they support and intertwine with each other.  Topics include the nature of law, the role of morality in law, the duty to obey the law, oppressive law, civil disobedience, bills of rights, and criminal punishment.  Requirements include reading all assignments, participation, midterm and final exams, and an essay.

PHI 392 P: MEANING OF LIFE                                                           

ROWLANDS                       TUE & THURS · 11:00 AM —12:15 PM

What is the meaning of life? Indeed, what does this question even mean – what, if you like, is the meaning of ‘the meaning of life?’ Is the meaning of life happiness? Is it purpose? Is it simply the dogged determination to go on in the face of the palpable meaninglessness of life? What, in other words, is it all about? This course will examine attempts to grapple with these questions from both classical and contemporary thinkers.

PHI 530 GX: ETHICAL THEORY                                                       

COKELET                                MON · 2:30 PM —5:00 PM

This course is an advanced overview of normative ethical theory.  We will focus on three questions:  (1) What does morality demand of us? (2) Why should we act morally? (3) What is moral knowledge and can we attain it?  We will consider historical and contemporary authors and the reasons for and against their divergent answers to these questions.

PHI 581 JX: PRAGMATISM                                                                   HAACK                                        MON · 5:00 PM — 7:30 PM

The only school in philosophy founded in the United States, pragmatism had its beginnings in the early1870s, in discussions between Charles Sanders Peirce and William James at the Metaphysical Club in Cambridge, Mass. It is a rich philosophical tradition, and still influential – though often misunderstood. We will study writings of the classical pragmatists – Peirce, James, John Dewey, and George Herbert Mead -- on topics from logic, epistemology, and metaphysics, through ethics and aesthetics, to philosophy of education and social and political philosophy. We will also look at how this older tradition has informed the work of some more recent philosophers, and how it has gradually been transmuted into the presently fashionable radical neo-pragmatism proposed in the writings of Richard Rorty.

PHI 582 RY: HISTORY OF ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY                           THOMASSON/CHUDNOFF             THUR · 2:00 PM — 4:30 PM

In this course we will trace some of the major movements in twentieth-century analytic philosophy. We will begin by studying the roots of analytic philosophy in logicism and phenomenalism, follow its developments in logical positivism and ordinary language philosophy, examine Quine’s criticisms of positivism, meanings, and analyticity and his development of the new naturalistic approach, and end by studying the emergence of a new form of essentialism with Kripke and Putnam.

PHI 591 Q: FEMINIST ETHICS & THE GOOD LIFE                 

SLOTE                                                TUE & THUR · 12:30 PM—1:45 PM

Carol Gilligan and others have argued that men and women approach morality differently; but in fact the purported differences extend more broadly than has been realized. In fact, there are gender issues about human good or the good life, and also about non-moral virtues like prudence and the spirit of adventure. This course considers these issues in the broadest philosophical context: focusing on questions about patriarchy, feminist values, and the wrenching complexities of life very generally. 

PHI 610 GY: PHILOSOPHICAL APPLICATIONS OF MODAL LOGIC            HILPINEN                          WED · 2:30 PM — 5:00 PM

A study of selected topics and problems in philosophical logic by the methods of modal (intensional) logic and semantics, for example: the paradox of knowability; Moore’s problem of saying and disbelieving; perception, indexical beliefs, and immediate knowledge; the semantics of direct reference; aprioricity and necessity; and the logic of action and deontic logic.

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PHI 643 JY: PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE                                       BUENO                                     WED · 5:00 PM — 7:30 PM
This seminar will focus on the concept of scientific representation. In particular, we will: (a) examine different ways in which scientific theories represent aspects of the world; (b) compare and contrast scientific representation and scientific imaging; (c) investigate the connections between scientific representation and measurement; (d) examine the relations between scientific representation and computer simulation; and (e) discuss the role that different scientific instruments have in providing representations.

PHI 676 LY: IDEALISM                                                                            STANG                                         WED · 7:30 PM — 10:30 PM

Long considered one of the fundamental positions, Idealism has been conspicuously absent from recent analytic metaphysics. In this course, we will try to determine what the most defensible form of Idealism would look like, and how to mount a defense of it.  For the purposes of the course, Idealism will be taken to consist in the view that objects of ordinary experience (e.g. tables and chairs) exist (partly) in virtue of being experienced. We will begin by reading some recent work on response-dependence and the metaphysics of intentional objects.  Then we will consider some classical problems in metaphysics and epistemology for which an Idealist solution might be sought. Topics might include: the problem of a priori knowledge, modality and modal epistemology, the constitution and persistence of material objects, time, and the self. Time permitting, we may consider the relation between Idealism and Jonathan Schaffer’s recent defense of Monism. Consequently, the seminar will also function as an opinionated survey of several major issues in contemporary metaphysics and epistemology.  Although most of the Idealist arguments and positions we will consider have clear historical antecedents (mainly, Berkeley, Leibniz and Kant), our focus will be on articulating and defending Idealism, rather than historical reconstruction.

PHI 691 SX: METAPHILOSOPHY                                       MCGINN/ROWLANDS                   TUE · 4:00 PM — 6:30 PM

The seminar will cover various appoaches to metaphilosophy, focusing on the role of conceptual analysis, the nature of philosophical difficulty, science and philosophy, argument versus explanation, intuition, where analytic philosophy might be headed.