Philosophy

Survey of some of the central problems, key figures, and great works in both traditional and contemporary philosophy.  Topics and texts will vary with instructor and semester.

Advanced introduction to classical sentential and predicate logic. No previous acquaintance with logic is required; nonetheless a willingness to master technicalities and to work at a certain level of abstraction is desirable. Note: Due to significant overlap, students may receive credit for only one of the following three courses: PHIL V3411, V3415, G4415.

A logical treatment of necessity, possibility, and other intentional operators.

The purpose of the course is to familiarize students with topics at the centre of discussion in contemporary political philosophy, regarding the scope of justice, and the demands that it lays on individuals.  The readings for each topic present opposed points of views, and it is hoped that the seminar will be a site of signicant debate.

It is commonly believed that one cannot be blamed for actions that one is compelled to perform. Addiction is often taken to be an archetypical; case of a condition that can compel actions. But what is addiction? Is there a principled division between paradigmatic addictive behaviors such as heroin use and, e.g., excessive cell phone use? The answers to questions like these turn out to be highly controversial. Drawing on psychiatric as well as philosophical literatures, we will seek an analysis of the concept of addiction that can illuminate its moral significance. We will conclude by discussing arguments for skepticism about responsibility judgments more broadly. According to such arguments, none of us are responsible for anything, not because responsible action is incompatible with determinism, but because there is no principled explanation for why addicts would fail to be responsible which not overgeneralize to non-addicts.

The seminar for Aesthics and Politics will comprise an intensive reading of writings by Wittgenstein, Dewey, Sarte, and Danto on the topics of politics, art, imagination, and games.

This course is a critical examination of the major texts in aesthetics including Dewey, Collingwood, Croce, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Adorno, Benjamin, Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, Wollheim, Goodman, Cavell, and Danto. Aesthetics: Modern Survey I is not a pre-requiste, but preference is given to those students who have taken it.

Exposition and analysis of the positions of the major philosophers from the pre-Socratics through Augustine.  This course has unrestricted enrollment.

Advanced introduction to classical sentential and predicate logic. No previous acquaintance with logic is required; nonetheless a willingness to master technicalities and to work at a certain level of abstraction is desirable. This course has unrestricted enrollment.

Systematic treatment of some major topics in metaphysics (e.g. modality, causation, identity through time, particulars and universals). Readings from contemporary authors.

How specific historical, social, and psychological roots of Western-style marriage illuminate contemporary debates about marriage morals and marriage laws in the United States. Relations between couples and groups; the psychology of love in marriage; marriage, vows, and the logic of promises to love; monogamy, democracy, and the medieval church; monogamy vs. polygyny; pop evolutionary science and marriage; cousin marriage (consanguineous marriage); law and same-sex marriage; sexual morality in marriage; and related subjects. The course has a double goal: To understand both how to think about complex moral problems and how to think about marriage.

Introduction to Plato's philosophy through analysis of characteristic dialogues.

Introduction to Aristotle's philosophy through analysis of selected texts.

Study of one or more of the major philosophers from the Renaissance through the 18th century. Sample topics: substance and matter; bodies, minds, and spirits; identity and individuation; ideas of God; causation; liberty and necessity; skepticism; philosophy and science; ethical and political issues. Sample philosophers: Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Conway, Locke, Berkely, Hume, Kant.

This course will survey the most fundamental issues about the nature of language and the nature of the human mind.  readings will consist of selections from Descartes, Locke, Frege, Wittgenstein, Chomsky, Quine, Davidson, Kripke, McDowell, Burge and some more recent writings.

Reading and discussion of selected texts by central figures in phenomenology, existentialism, hermeneutics, critical theory, and recent Continental philosophy. Authors may include Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Gadamer, Horkheimer, Adorno, Foucault, Bourdieu.

This course is mainly an introduction to three influential approaches to normative ethics: utilitarianism, deontological views, and virtue ethics. We also consider the ethics of care, and selected topics in meta-ethics.

Examination of classic philosophical theories about the rule of law, relations between law and morality, legal reasoning, and their implications for selected contemporty legal problems.

Philosophical examination of moral issues in medical theory and practice. Analysis of the ethics of the doctor-patient relationship, e.g., informed consent, truth-telling, paternalism; topics in bioethics, e.g., abortion, euthanasia, experimentation on humans; justice and access to health care; human genetics.

This is an introductory course in the Philosophy of Art. We will consider questions including (but not limited to) the following: What is art? Should we try to define art? Should photographs count as art? What does it mean to have an aesthetic experience? Can one person's judgement regarding works of art be better than another's? Why do we enjoy watching horror films or tragedies?\n \n\n

Darwin offered a view of life and its history that radically altered the ways in which we think about many things. Two hundred years after his birth, andone hundred and fifty years after the publication of the *Origin of Species*, we are still coming to terms with the implications of his ideas. This course will examine Darwin's achievements in historical context, paying attention to the exact character of his proposals, the evidence he amassed for them, the debates he inspired, and the social and philosophical messages that have been drawn from him.

Examines major themes of Hegel's philosophy, with emphasis on social and political thought. Topics include Hegel's critique of Kant, the possibility of metaphysics, the master-slave dialectic, and the role of freedom in a rational society. Readings from Fichte help explain how Hegel's project develops out of Kant's transcendental idealism.  Some knowledge of Kant's moral theory and his Critique of Pure Reason is presupposed. Prerequisite: at least one of PHIL 2201, 2301, or 3251.