Greg Brown

Greg Brown
Research Interests: Ethics, language, and action; Aristotle, Aquinas, Wittgenstein, and Anscombe; early analytic philosophy

Previous Education

BA, Mathematics, Swarthmore College, 2016

Interests

Aristotle, Aquinas, and Anscombe; Practical Reason and Practical Knowledge; Neo-Aristotelian Ethics and Action Theory; Language and Mind

Recent Courses

PHIL 21011 Metaontology

Ontology is, in Quine’s phrase, the study of “what there is.” Ontologists debate the existence and nature of numbers, properties, propositions, ordinary objects, possibilia, and so on. Metaontology asks about the status of this discourse and tries to characterize its goals and prospects. What does it mean to say that something exists? Are there criteria of ‘ontological commitment’? How do the things ontologists debate relate to what ordinary people say? After an historical introduction, the first part of the course will survey a few first-order ontological debates. The remainder of the course will consider varieties of realism and of anti-realism in metaontology. We will read authors such as Rudolf Carnap, W. V. O. Quine, Peter van Inwagen, Ted Sider, Hilary Putnam, and Amie Thomasson. (A)

2024-2025 Winter

PHIL 21004 Aristotelian Ethics

In this course, we will engage with one of the fundamental texts of practical philosophy, Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. In addition to reading the text closely, we will critically discuss secondary literature, as well as contemporary attempts to revive and enlist Aristotle, with the aim of familiarizing ourselves with the work’s themes, understanding major fault lines in its interpretation, and appreciating its enduring significance. Topics to be considered include happiness and the good life, virtue, and practical reasoning. (A)

2024-2025 Autumn
Category
Ethics

PHIL 29200-01/29300-01 Junior/Senior Tutorial

Topic: Practical Reasoning

This course explores the nature of practical reason by examining practical reasoning, its activity. We will examine some accounts that philosophers have given of deliberation and of the so-called practical syllogism or inference; we will consider the relationship between the two and ask what they tell us about practical rationality. In the second half of the course, we will consider the perennial question of whether practical rationality requires acting well, that is, ethically or morally.

Meets with Jr/Sr section. Open only to intensive-track and philosophy majors. No more than two tutorials may be used to meet program requirements.

2021-2022 Autumn