PHIL

Topic: The Principle of Sufficient Reason: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (instructor: A. Pitel)

The Principle of Sufficient Reason (PSR) is the principle according to which nothing is without a ground or reason why it is, or alternately that every truth or fact is explicable. While the PSR was of central importance to figures in the history of philosophy (most notably Spinoza and Leibniz), it has fallen into philosophical disrepute, as it is alleged that the PSR has (at least) the following unhappy consequences: necessitarianism, modal plenitude, the existence of a self-caused being, and monism. Still, appeals to explicability are pervasive in contemporary philosophy. For example, the view that consciousness is grounded in physical or functional features of the world, or that modality can be understood in terms of existence or linguistic convention, are motivated by the idea that otherwise such phenomena would be inexplicable. However, philosophers today are often happy to make use of appeals to explicability without either accepting the PSR (and its associated baggage) or providing a principled account of what facts must be explicable and what can be inexplicable or merely brute. In this course we will read historical and contemporary work on the PSR, and hopefully say something about whether contemporary philosophy can have its cake and eat it too. We will begin with readings from Spinoza and Leibniz, and then continue into more systematic discussion concerning the relation between the PSR and necessitarianism, monism, and recent literature on grounding and metaphysical explanation. Finally, we will close with a brief discussion of Kant, focusing on the relation between Kant's restriction of legitimate uses of the PSR to objects in space and time and his famous claim that the objects we can know are mere appearances and not things in themselves. In addition to the historical figures mentioned above, we will read work by Robert Adams, Shamik Dasgupta, Michael Della Rocca, Samuel Levey, Martin Lin, Beatrice Longuenesse, Gideon Rosen, Jonathan Schaffer, Anat Schechtman, and Peter Van Inwagen.

Topic: Knowledge in Plato's dialogues (instructor: J. Mendelsohn)

In this course, we will examine the discussions of knowledge (epistēmē in Greek) in Plato's dialogues. The course will center around a close reading of the Theaetetus, Plato's most sustained dialogue on the topic of knowledge, but we will also draw readings from the Meno, Charmides, Sophist, Republic, Phaedo and Protagoras. While knowledge will be our focus, we will find that Plato explores the topic of knowledge by examining a number of related cognitive states and processes, including insight, perception, understanding, inquiry, teaching and learning, justification and expertise. Following Plato, we will consider each of these concepts in turn by reflecting on their treatment in the dialogues. Some of the questions we will ask are: Does Plato defend a theory of knowledge as justified true belief? How is perception related to knowledge in Plato's Theaetetus? Why does Plato think there is a special problem about knowing negative statements? Why does Socrates in the Charmides identify self-knowledge with the virtue of temperance? How does Plato view the relationship between knowledge and understanding? What consequences does this view have for the nature of teaching and learning, and is this view of pedagogy attractive? If we have time, we will go on to look at the reception of some of these themes in Aristotle and the Stoics. We will also draw readings from contemporary epistemology where relevant.

Topic: The Principle of Sufficient Reason: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (instructor: A. Pitel)
The Principle of Sufficient Reason (PSR) is the principle according to which nothing is without a ground or reason why it is, or alternately that every truth or fact is explicable. While the PSR was of central importance to figures in the history of philosophy (most notably Spinoza and Leibniz), it has fallen into philosophical disrepute, as it is alleged that the PSR has (at least) the following unhappy consequences: necessitarianism, modal plenitude, the existence of a self-caused being, and monism. Still, appeals to explicability are pervasive in contemporary philosophy. For example, the view that consciousness is grounded in physical or functional features of the world, or that modality can be understood in terms of existence or linguistic convention, are motivated by the idea that otherwise such phenomena would be inexplicable. However, philosophers today are often happy to make use of appeals to explicability without either accepting the PSR (and its associated baggage) or providing a principled account of what facts must be explicable and what can be inexplicable or merely brute. In this course we will read historical and contemporary work on the PSR, and hopefully say something about whether contemporary philosophy can have its cake and eat it too. We will begin with readings from Spinoza and Leibniz, and then continue into more systematic discussion concerning the relation between the PSR and necessitarianism, monism, and recent literature on grounding and metaphysical explanation. Finally, we will close with a brief discussion of Kant, focusing on the relation between Kant's restriction of legitimate uses of the PSR to objects in space and time and his famous claim that the objects we can know are mere appearances and not things in themselves. In addition to the historical figures mentioned above, we will read work by Robert Adams, Shamik Dasgupta, Michael Della Rocca, Samuel Levey, Martin Lin, Beatrice Longuenesse, Gideon Rosen, Jonathan Schaffer, Anat Schechtman, and Peter Van Inwagen.

Topic: Knowledge in Plato's dialogues (instructor: J. Mendelsohn)

In this course, we will examine the discussions of knowledge (epistēmē in Greek) in Plato's dialogues. The course will center around a close reading of the Theaetetus, Plato's most sustained dialogue on the topic of knowledge, but we will also draw readings from the Meno, Charmides, Sophist, Republic, Phaedo and Protagoras. While knowledge will be our focus, we will find that Plato explores the topic of knowledge by examining a number of related cognitive states and processes, including insight, perception, understanding, inquiry, teaching and learning, justification and expertise. Following Plato, we will consider each of these concepts in turn by reflecting on their treatment in the dialogues. Some of the questions we will ask are: Does Plato defend a theory of knowledge as justified true belief? How is perception related to knowledge in Plato's Theaetetus? Why does Plato think there is a special problem about knowing negative statements? Why does Socrates in the Charmides identify self-knowledge with the virtue of temperance? How does Plato view the relationship between knowledge and understanding? What consequences does this view have for the nature of teaching and learning, and is this view of pedagogy attractive? If we have time, we will go on to look at the reception of some of these themes in Aristotle and the Stoics. We will also draw readings from contemporary epistemology where relevant.

Students writing senior essays register once for PHIL 29901, in either the Autumn or Winter Quarter, and once for PHIL 29902, in either the Winter or Spring Quarter. (Students may not register for both PHIL 29901 and 29902 in the same quarter.) The senior seminar meets all three quarters, and students writing essays are required to attend throughout.

Elizabeth Anscombe has deeply influenced moral philosophy ever since the publication of her book Intention and the article "Modern Moral Philosophy". The rise of contemporary Virtue Ethics is only one indication of this influence; and the important themes addressed in those writings are only some among a great many topics raised and absorbingly discussed in Anscombe's work on ethics and matters moral. This class is intended to track and discuss the most central issues she brings to our attention in her uniquely original and searching way. It is to cover both questions in the area of "meta-ethics" and the discussion of basic moral standards, including such topics as: Teleological and psychological foundations; Kinds and sources of practical necessity; The importance of truth; Practical reasoning; Morally relevant action descriptions; Intention and consequence; "linguistically created" institutions; Knowledge and certainty in moral matters; Upbringing versus conscience; Sex and marriage; War and murder; Man's spiritual nature. (A) (I)

Despite intertwined histories and many shared practices, the contemporary humanities and sciences stand in relationships of contrast and opposition to one another. The perceived fissure between the "Two Cultures" has been deepened by the fact that the bulk of all history and philosophy of science has been devoted to the natural sciences. This seminar addresses the history and epistemology of what in the nineteenth century came to be called the "sciences" and the "humanities" since the Renaissance from an integrated perspective. The historical sources will focus on shared practices in, among others, philology, natural history, astronomy, and history. The philosophical source will develop an epistemology of the humanities: how humanists know what they know.

Human rights are claims of justice that hold merely in virtue of our shared humanity. In this course we will explore philosophical theories of this elementary and crucial form of justice. Among topics to be considered are the role that dignity and humanity play in grounding such rights, their relation to political and economic institutions, and the distinction between duties of justice and claims of charity or humanitarian aid. Finally we will consider the application of such theories to concrete, problematic and pressing problems, such as global poverty, torture and genocide. (A) (I)

The seminar investigates the role of interpersonal self-consciousness in ethics. We will begin with the reflection on the bipolar normative nexus of the rights and duties we have toward each other as persons and then inquire into its connection to the capacity to know other minds, the capacity for other forms of non-instrumental concern for others and the capacity for communicative interaction with others. What is the relation between the status of a person, a bearer of rights, the recognition of others as persons and the practice of addressing each other in speech? Readings will include texts by Stanley Cavell, Steven Darwall, Francis Kamm, Christine Korsgaard, Thomas Nagel, Christopher Peacocke and T.M. Scanlon. (I) (III)

The course is an introduction to the major varieties of philosophical feminism. After studying some key historical texts in the Western tradition (Wollstonecraft, Rousseau, J. S. Mill), we examine four types of contemporary philosophical feminism: Liberal Feminism (Susan Moller Okin, Martha Nussbaum), Radical Feminism (Catharine MacKinnon, Andrea Dworkin), Difference Feminism (Carol Gilligan, Annette Baier, Nel Noddings), and Postmodern "Queer" Gender Theory (Judith Butler, Michael Warner). After studying each of these approaches, we will focus on political and ethical problems of contemporary international feminism, asking how well each of the approaches addresses these problems. (I)

One can distinguish four ways in which science and aesthetics are related during the period since the Renaissance. First, science has been the subject of artistic representation, in painting and photography, in poetry and novels (e.g., in Byron's poetry, for example). Second, science has been used to explain aesthetic effects (e.g., Helmholtz's work on the way painters achieve visual effects or musicians achieve tonal effects). Third, aesthetic means have been used to convey scientific conceptions (e.g., through illustrations in scientific volumes or through aesthetically affective and effective writing). Finally, philosophers have stepped back to consider the relationship between scientific knowing and aesthetic comprehension (e.g., Kant, Bas van Fraassen); much of the discussion of this latter will focus on the relation between images and what they represent. In this lecture-discussion course we will consider all of these aspects of the science-aesthetic connection.