In this seminar we engage in an in-depth examination of a focused philosophical topic—in a manner akin to that of a graduate seminar. Readings are challenging, but there is no presumption of prior expertise in the course topic.
Open only to third-year students who have been admitted to the intensive track program.
Although Sigmund Freud was often dismissive of the views of philosophers, both his theoretical and clinical works bear on, or directly engage with, questions that are central to the philosophy of mind—questions having to do with the nature of, and relations between, consciousness, perception, memory, speech, and various ways in which a mind may be either unified or disunified. The aim of this course is to introduce students to (some of) Freud’s writings from an, as it were, philosophical vantage point. In pursuing this aim, we’ll be greatly aided by Jonathan Lear’s richly rewarding (and simply titled) Freud. (I plan for us to spend some significant portion of the course moving back and forth between Lear’s book and writings by Freud that Lear aims to elucidate therein.) In addition, we’ll be drawing on works by a variety of other psychoanalysts and philosophers of psychology, among them: Christopher Bollas, Donald Davidson, Adam Phillips, Paul Wachtel, and Richard Wollheim. (B) (II)
An examination of ancient Greek philosophical texts that are foundational for Western philosophy, especially the work of Plato and Aristotle. Topics will include: the nature and possibility of knowledge and its role in human life; the nature of the soul; virtue; happiness and the human good.
Completion of the general education requirement in humanities.
This course will be an introduction to the philosophy of mathematics. In the first part of the course we take a close look at traditional issues in the philosophy of mathematics such as the realism / anti-realism dispute and the epistemology of mathematics. In the second part of the course we look at a selection of more contemporary topics, focusing on threats to traditional ways of thinking of mathematics posed by Godel's Theorems, Lakatos' conception of mathematics, and the use of computers (including AI) in mathematics. (B)(II)
In this course we will explore some of the central questions in epistemology and metaphysics. In epistemology, these questions will include: What is knowledge? What facts or states justify a belief? How can the threat of skepticism be adequately answered? How do we know what we (seem to) know about mathematics and morality? In metaphysics, these questions will include: What is time? What is the best account of personal identity across time? Do we have free will? We will also discuss how the construction of a theory of knowledge ought to relate to the construction of a metaphysical theory-roughly speaking, what comes first, epistemology or metaphysics? (B)
This course introduces students to contemporary debates among political philosophers about the value of equality. We begin with arguments for and against distributive equality, the view that justice demands that everyone possess equal amounts of some good or bundle of goods. We then examine arguments for and against relational egalitarianism, the view that our relationships to one another ought ideally to be free of hierarchy. (A) (I)
Decisions about medical treatment and medical policy often have profound and complex moral implications. This course will examine such issues as paternalism, autonomy, informed consent, assisted suicide, abortion, organ markets, genetic testing, and the definition of death. The primary teacher is a philosopher, but there will be guest lectures by physicians and medical lawyers. The goal is to have state of the art, interdisciplinary conversations. (A)
Third or fourth year standing. This course does not meet requirements for the Biological Sciences major.
What does it take to be a good person? How should we think about good and bad in human life? One prominent strand of thought on these questions is focused on strengths of character, drawing from work by Aristotle. Rather than working directly from Aristotle's writings about ethics and politics, we will think about the aspects of his metaphysics that bear on thought about human nature and good human conduct. We will consider his views on substances, causality, and life as a framework for our thinking. Having thought about humans in general, we will focus our attention on what makes a human being an exemplary one of its kind—virtue—and what makes for a sound human community. In this work, we will pay special attention to contemporary philosophical work that is openly indebted to Aristotle.
An introduction to the concepts and principles of symbolic logic. We learn the syntax and semantics of truth-functional and first-order quantificational logic, and apply the resultant conceptual framework to the analysis of valid and invalid arguments, the structure of formal languages, and logical relations among sentences of ordinary discourse. Occasionally we will venture into topics in philosophy of language and philosophical logic, but our primary focus is on acquiring a facility with symbolic logic as such.
Students may count either PHIL 20100 or PHIL 20012, but not both, toward the credits required for graduation.
This course provides a first introduction to formal logic. In this course, we will introduce proof systems for both propositional and first-order predicate logic and prove their soundness and completeness. (B) (II).
While no specific mathematical knowledge will be presupposed, some familiarity with the methods of mathematical reasoning and some prior practice writing prose that is precise enough to support mathematical proof will be useful.
Students may count either PHIL 20012 or PHIL 20100, but not both, toward the credits required for graduation.
