PHIL

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.

Course not for field credit. An introduction to the techniques of modern symbolic logic. The focus will be on the syntax and semantics of classical propositional and first-order quantificational logic. The course will introduce methods for determining whether a given argument is valid or invalid. We will discuss how statements and arguments of ordinary discourse can be represented within the formal language of propositional and quantificational logic. There will also be discussion of some important meta-theorems for these logical systems.

An introduction to the foundations and applications of dynamic approaches to natural language semantics. We will study the formal details and empirical motivations of various major dynamic semantic frameworks such as File Change Semantics, Discourse Representation Theory, Dynamic Predicate Logic, and Update Semantics, and see how they address a number of puzzling natural language phenomena such as donkey anaphora and presupposition projection. In parallel to the formal component, the empirical and theoretical advantages and drawbacks of dynamic semantics will come under scrutiny, and we will also pay close attention to the philosophical repercussions of a dynamic approach to discourse and reasoning. (B) (II)

This course is a reading of works by a variety of contemporary authors who deal with the question of whether, and how, fiction and philosophy are related to one another. (A) (I)

In this course we shall study some of the very different accounts of the world developed by the ancient Greek philosophers. In particular we shall consider the following: Aristotle’s ontology of form and matter, actuality and potentiality; Epicurean atomism; the Stoic strange combination of rationalism and thoroughgoing physicalism of all-pervading pneuma; Platonic theories of a transcendent realm.

This course explores a tradition of thought about justice extending from Plato through Kant. In addition to works by these authors, we will read selections from Aristotle, Aquinas and Rousseau. One of the distinguishing marks of this tradition is its emphasis on the relation between justice and the common good. Another mark, related to the first, is its tendency to conceive of justice as holding among the parts of a whole, and not—or not simply—among discrete individuals. (A) (I)

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 natural sciences aim at discovering and explaining truths about the world. This enterprise gives rise to various philosophical questions, among them are: What distinguishes science from other forms of enquiry? Is there anything unique about the scientific method—in both its conceptual and experimental elements—that enables the discovery of different aspects of reality? Is science a progressive enterprise advancing towards uncovering truths about the world, or does it consist of one theory arbitrarily replacing its predecessor, without ever coming closer to a final truth? Is there such a thing as scientific objectivity, or are scientists trapped in their preexisting theoretical assumptions? What are the criteria for a scientific explanation? What are scientific laws? In discussing these questions, we will engage with some of the most influential views in the philosophy of science, and critically examine their arguments in light of important case-studies from the history of science. (B) (II)

This lecture-discussion class will focus on a close reading of Darwin's two classic texts. An initial class or two will explore the state of biology prior to Darwin's Beagle Voyage, and then consider the development of his theories before 1859. Then we will turn to his two books. Among the topics of central concern will be: the logical, epistemological, and rhetorical status of Darwin's several theories, especially his evolutionary ethics; the religious foundations of his ideas and the religious reaction to them; and the social-political consequences of his accomplishment. (II) (V)

This course will introduce students to the basic ideas of psychoanalysis -- the unconscious, transference, fantasy, acting out, repetition -- in the context of the traditional philosophical questions of what it is to be a human being and what the good life is for humans. Extensive reading from Freud as well as selections from Plato, Aristotle, Sartre and others.