PHIL

A study of the Transcendental Dialectic of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. (IV)

A study of conceptions of the relation of the human intellect to reality in medieval and early modern Europe. Figures studied include Aquinas, Duns Scotus, Descartes, Elisabeth of the Palatinate, Conway, Locke, Leibniz, Hume, and Kant.

Between 1600 and 1800, the transatlantic slave trade perpetrated by Europeans reached its height; Ottoman and Barbary Coast slavery along the coast of the Mediterranean were well-known all across Europe. During these two centuries, activists, philosophers and politicians engaged in lively debates about slavery. These debates contain both the origins of our modern conception of equality as well as the modern conception of “race.” Our reading of these debates will be guided by several persisting questions: how did the practice of slavery influence our conception of equality? How did debates about the slave trade influence the emergence of modern notions of “race”? Are there things that should be known without argument? And what is the appropriate response to thinking that has “gone off the rails”? Through these questions, we will also engage a meta-philosophical problem about the purpose of doing philosophy. If the failure of many early modern philosophers to unequivocally condemn slavery were a failure of their philosophy, how can philosophy avoid similar mistakes today? By contrast, if the early modern philosophers’ failure to condemn slavery were “merely” a failure of cultural prejudices or false empirical beliefs, does philosophy still have anything relevant to say against injustice? (A)

A study of the moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant as presented in his Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, Critique of Practical Reason, Metaphysics of Morals, and Religion Within the Boundaries of Mere Reason. (A) (IV)

Epistemology is the study of belief, and addresses questions like “what are we justified in believing?” and “when does a belief count as knowledge?”  This course will provide an overview of Bayesian epistemology, which treats belief as coming in degrees, and addresses questions like “when does rationality require us to be more confident of one proposition than another?", “how should we measure the amount of confirmation that a piece of evidence provides for a theory?”, and “which actions should we choose, based on our judgments about how probable various consequences are?” (B) (II)

This course explores the Western philosophical tradition of reasoned reflection on religious belief. Our questions will include: what are the most important arguments for, and against, belief in God? How does religious belief relate to the deliverances of the sciences, in particular to evolutionary theory? How can we reconcile religious belief with the existence of evil? What is the relationship between religion and morality? In attempting to answer these questions we will read work by Plato, Augustine, Anselm, Nietszche, and Freud, as well as some recent texts. (B)

This is a workshop for 3rd year philosophy graduate students, in which students prepare and workshop materials for their Topical Exam.

This is a workshop for 3rd year philosophy graduate students, in which students prepare and workshop materials for their Topical Exam.

The concept of beauty (kallos) figures prominently in Ancient Greek philosophy, a place where metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and poetics come together and through which philosophers think about the possibility of harmoniousness in our being-in-relation to others. In this seminar we will begin by reading some important passages from Plato’s dialogues (e.g., from Republic, Phaedrus, Symposium) before turning to two subsequent philosophers who were influenced by him, Aristotle and Plotinus. We will consider ideas about the relation of beauty to goodness and order, to appearance and intelligibility, and to the spectator’s reactions of wonder, pleasure, admiration, and sense of kinship. Inevitably we will spend a fair amount of time discussing their theories of poetry, but will also talk about the role of beauty in ethics and natural philosophy. (I)