PHIL

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)

This course provides an introduction to logic for students of philosophy. It is aimed at students who possess more mathematical training than can be expected of typical philosophy majors, but who wish to study logic not just as a branch of mathematics but as a method for philosophical analysis. (B) (II)

Immigration is quickly becoming one of the defining controversies of our age, and it is increasingly common for states to restrict the movement of people across borders. But should we say that nation states have the right to exclude non-members in the first place? If so, what is the basis of that right? If not, should we say that immigration controls of any kind are at odds with justice? And is there a compelling case for the exclusion of immigrants that depends on a commitment to preserving national culture or managing the demographics of a national population? As we'll see, these questions touch on fundamental issues in political philosophy: the nature of citizenship and its relationship to culture, the source of legitimate authority, the justifiability of state coercion, the content and justification of rights. Readings will be drawn from the contemporary philosophical literature on immigration. (A)

(B) (II)

This course meets in Autumn and Winter quarters.

This course meets in Autumn and Winter quarters.

A careful study of Aristotle’s De Anima in its entirety. (B)

Type theory is a new way of thinking about logic in which proofs are associated with computational verifications. It revolves around the Curry-Howard correspondence, which connects the idea of proof with the idea of computation. This class will introduce students both to the mathematical and philosophical issues involved in this way of looking at logic. In particular, the Curry-Howard correspondence will be examined in both simple and complex forms, culminating in versions of the Curry-Howard correspondence for classical logic that involve lambda calculi of catching and throwing exceptions, as well versions of the Curry-Howard correspondence for higher order logic that involve dependent type theory. This will all be used to give a novel account of the meaning of the logical connectives, as well as a different way of viewing the fundamental difference between intuitionistic and classical logic. The course will use notes from a forthcoming book, and students without knowledge of the lambda calculus are advised to contact the professor for some preparatory reading. The class is suitable for those who already have a working familiarity with the ideas of elementary logic. (B) (II)