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Courses
The following courses are designed for College students.
210. Introduction to Ethics (=GS Hum 292, HiPSS 210). The major portion
of this course consists of an examination of the most influential types
of ethical theory. After studying these theories, we turn to their practical
applications. C. Vogler. Spring. (I)
216. Recent Political Philosophy: From Rawls's A Theory of Justice to
the Present. The concern of the course is to understand the history
of English-language political philosophy from John Rawls's A Theory of
Justice (1971) to his Political Liberalism (1993), with an eye
toward the field's next conceptual turn. We begin by reading the most important
sections of A Theory of Justice and then move on to look at selections
from two important challenges to Rawls: the libertarian challenge from Robert
Nozick's Anarchy, State and Utopia and the communitarian challenge
from Michael Sandel's Liberalism and the Limits of Justice. We also
look at other important writers (e.g., Alasdair MacIntyre and Jurgen Habermas)
who criticize or defend Rawls. We end with Rawls's recent work, Political
Liberalism, in which he alters and narrows the scope of the account
laid out in A Theory of Justice and focuses on accommodating liberalism
to what he takes to be the current conditions of ideological pluralism.
The course focuses on the arguments for and the challenges to Rawls's two
principles of justice and on the overall structure of his defense of a liberal
political philosophy. D. Brudney. Summer.
217. Philosophical Feminism. Class is limited to twelve students
and is intended as the second part of the gender studies Common Core sequence.
Possible topics include feminist epistemology, reproductive health issues,
ethical and political perspectives on AIDS research and treatment protocols,
the concept of gender, and feminist perspectives on pornography. C. Vogler.
Winter. (I)
235. Philosophy of Mind (=HiPSS 204). In this course, we take up the
so-called mind-body problem. This is the problem of the ontological status
of the mind and its relation to body. We start with Descartes and then look
at historical figures, such as Hobbes, Berkeley, Malebranche, Spinoza, Leibniz,
and Huxley. Then we look into the twentieth-century contribution to the
topic. We examine various forms of materialism, including behaviorism, identity
theories, functionalism, and eliminativism. Authors read include Ryle, Hempel,
Skinner, Chomsky, Smart, Putnam, Kripke, Davidson, Dennett, and Fodor. M.
Aydede. Spring. (III)
247. Difference: Recent French Philosophies. This course offers an introduction
to recent French philosophy through the central notion of "difference."
We examine the most influential attempts to challenge the Western philosophical
preoccupation with unity, identity, and totality through the construction
of an affirmative philosophy of difference. After an introduction to the
problem via Kojève's influential reading of Hegel's conception of
difference as dialectic and negation, we proceed to our main task: the analysis
and discussion of the philosophies of difference presented by Levinas, Derrida,
Deleuze, and Lyotard. Though the primary focus is conceptual, students are
encouraged to explore the role of notions of difference in recent debates
about culture, class, race, and gender. C. Cox. Winter. (III)
250. History of Philosophy I: Ancient Philosophy (=ClCiv 250).
PQ: Common Core humanities sequence. This course offers a study of
some major texts and problems of the classical period. Readings are by the
pre-Socratics, Plato, and Aristotle. M. Forster, I. Mueller. Summer,
Autumn.
260. History of Philosophy II: Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy. PQ:
Common Core humanities sequence; Philos 250 helpful. This course surveys
the history of philosophy from the late medievals to Hume. D. Garber.
Winter.
270. History of Philosophy III: Kant and the Nineteenth Century. PQ:
Common Core humanities sequence. This course studies a number of important
moral and political philosophers of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Kant, Bentham, Hegel, Marx, Mill, Nietzsche, and others may be read. M.
Forster, Summer; D. Brudney, Spring.
292-1-2-3. Junior Tutorial I, II, III. PQ: Open only to juniors who
have been admitted to the intensive concentration program. Staff. Autumn,
Winter, Spring.
293-1-2-3. Senior Tutorial I-II-III. PQ: Open only to seniors
who have been admitted to the intensive concentration program. Staff. Autumn,
Winter, Spring.
295. Junior Seminar. Staff. Autumn.
297. The Senior Essay. PQ: Consent of director of undergraduate studies.
Students hoping to write a senior essay must register for this course
in the autumn quarter of the senior year and for Philos 298 in the spring
quarter of the senior year. Staff. Autumn.
298. The Senior Seminar. Students hoping to write a senior essay must
register for this course in the spring quarter of the senior year and for
Philos 297 in the autumn quarter of the senior year. T. Cohen. Spring.
299. Reading Course. PQ: Students are required to submit the College
Reading and Research Course Form. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.
The following courses are designed for College students and graduate students.
300. Elementary Logic (=CFS 335, HiPSS 207). This course is an introduction
to formal logic. Formal languages for sentential and predicate logic are
introduced, together with the semantics for these languages (i.e., formal
notions of "interpretation," "truth," "logical
consequence," etc.). The relation of these languages to ordinary English
is discussed (i.e., the logical structure of English), and techniques for
determining the validity of arguments are explained. Time permitting, the
course ends with an informal discussion of more advanced topics in logic--in
particular, the Church undecidability theorem and the Gödel incompleteness
theorem--and their relevance to issues in the philosophy of mathematics.
D. Malament. Autumn.
** CANCELLED** 303. Scientific and Technological Change (=CFS 423, HiPSS
203). We study scientific and technological change at both macroscopic
(e.g., communitywide paradigm shifts) and microscopic (e.g., problem solving
of individual scientists) levels using views of such writers as Campbell,
Hall, Kuhn, Lauden, Lakatos, Simon, and Toulmin, as well as selected other
psychological and sociological writings. For case studies we look at the
development of theories of heredity in the period 1868-1926, focusing particularly
on the work of T. H. Morgan and on the development of the turbojet to analyze
the similarities and differences in the causes, character, and processes
of change in science and technology. W. Wimsatt. Spring. (II)**CANCELLED**
311. Moral Theory (=GS Hum 308). In this course we read, write, and
think about the three main contemporary approaches to moral theory: consequentialist
utilitarianism, Kantianism, and contractarianism. We begin by confronting
moral relativism to think about what kind of challenge it might pose to
moral theory. We use argument to defeat the versions of relativism which
would pose a major threat to making a theory about morals. Then we take
up specific approaches to moral theory, by way of historical and contemporary
examples of each of the three major approaches. Finally, we think about
the place of moral theory in ethics more generally. C. Vogler. Spring.
(I)
313. Aesthetics and Theory of Criticism (=GS Hum 305). This course is
an introduction to problems in the philosophy of art with both traditional
and contemporary texts. Topics include the definition of art, representation,
expression, metaphor, and taste. T. Cohen. Spring. (I)
314. A Theory of Justice. The course starts with a detailed reading
of A Theory of Justice. We then look at the criticisms made by Robert
Nozick, Michael Sandel, and Alasdair MacIntyre. Time permitting, we look
at some of Rawls's later work, including his recent exchange with Jürgen
Habermas. D. Brudney. Winter. (I)
317. Readings in the History of Aesthetics (=GS Hum 306). Selective
readings in the history of the philosophy of art, including some of these
authors: Aristotle, Hume, Kant, Santayana, Collingwood, Croce, and Dewey.
T. Cohen. Winter. (I)
321. Philosophical Issues of Mathematics and Physical Geometry (=CFS 334,
HiPSS 224). We consider questions about the source and the content of
"geometrical knowledge" and how understanding of these issues
has been transformed by the nineteenth- and twentieth-century development
of mathematics and physics. H. Stein. Spring. (II)
** CANCELLED** 329. Philosophy of the Social Sciences (=CFS 377, HiPSS 223).
This course covers philosophical issues in the social sciences. Topics
include the interaction of factual, methodological, valuational issues:
the IQ debate, cultural evolution and functionalism in the social sciences,
models of rationality and the relation between normative and descriptive
theories of behavior, social adaptations and levels of selection, cultural
and conceptual relativity, evolutionary epistemology, and heuristics and
the strategy of modeling complex systems. W. Wimsatt. Winter.
(II) **CANCELLED**
336-337. Plato: Republic. Must be taken in sequence. This
two-quarter sequence consists of a careful reading of the Republic.
Special attention is paid to the invention of a dynamic account of the human
psyche, and to the relation of psychology and politics. We study not only
the relation of a healthy psyche to healthy polis, but also the psychopolitical
account of degeneration and disease culminating in the psychopolitical catastrophe
of tyranny. We also study Plato's metaphysical outlook--the forms--as manifest
in the Republic, his theory of education, and his critique of tragic
poetry. J. Lear. Autumn, Winter. (I)
364/368. Metaphysics and Natural Philosophy in the Seventeenth Century I
(=CFS 380-381, HiPSS 260-261). Must be taken in sequence. This
two-quarter sequence examines issues concerning the nature of knowledge,
methods of attaining knowledge, and the fundamental character of the world,
in relation to the developing science of physics in the seventeenth century.
Writers studied include Galileo, Descartes, Huygens, Newton, Locke, and
Leibniz. H. Stein. Autumn, Winter. (III)
365. Continental Rationalism (=CFS 364, HiPSS 265). PQ: Prior knowledge
of one or more of the philosophers studied helpful but not required.
In this course we study the philosophical systems of Descartes, Spinoza,
and Leibniz. Recent critical approaches to these philosophers are emphasized,
as is the interconnection between philosophical and scientific questions.
D. Garber. Spring.
372. Carnap and Logical Empiricism (=CFS 341, HiPSS 241). A study of
the philosophy of logical empiricism, with emphasis on Carnap as its central
figure. H. Stein. Winter.
375. Kant's Critique of Pure Reason: "The Transcendental Aesthetic"
and "The Transcendental Deduction" (=Fndmtl 375). PQ: A
beginning philosophy course. This course is devoted to a close study
of the first half of the Critique. The main focus is on Kant's case
for the "ideality of space and time" (in his "Transcendental
Aesthetic") and his proof for the possibility of a priori knowledge
(in his "Transcendental Deduction" and "Principles of Pure
Reason" sections). R. Pippin. Autumn. (III)
385. Harun del Fuego's Esoterica. We shall read intensively several
chapters of this philosophical and mystical treatise, as well as the attempts
by thinkers such as Smid, Goldstein, Kushner and Bonney to explain this
fascinating yet confounding work. All textual readings will be in translation,
but knowledge of Arabic, Latin or Aramaic would be helpful. D. Easley.
Spring. (I)
** CANCELLED** 391. Philosophy of Law. The course examines the leading
theories in analytical and normative jurisprudence (Hart's positivism, Dworkin's
rights thesis, and critical legal studies). We then look at several vexed
issues at the intersection of law and morality, including abortion and affirmative
action. D. Brudney. Winter. (I) **CANCELLED**
393. Twentieth-Century Continental Philosophy and Theology. This course
looks at some of the most important and influential twentieth-century continental
philosophers and theologians. Special attention is paid to the relationship
between philosophy and theology and to the way in which philosophical and
theological problems and methods are linked in these works. Authors read
may include Heidegger, Barth, Rahner, Levinas, Derrida, Hadot, Cacciari,
and Forte. A. Davidson. Spring. (III)
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