PHILOSOPHY

150.111 (H)
(W)

PHILOSOPHIC CLASSICS (3) Moyar   Limit 20 per section    An historical introduction to reading and doing philosophy by way of critically examining selected classic texts in the Western philosophical tradition. Philosophers to be examined include Plato, Descartes, Hume, Kant, and Nietzsche.

Secs. 04, 05, 06, and 08 cancelled 8/17/07

Lec.
Sec. 01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08

MT 11
W 11
W 11
W 12
W 12
W 11
W 11
W 1
W 1

150.201 (H)

INTRODUCTION TO GREEK PHILOSOPHY (3)Bett  Limit 20 per section A survey of the earlier phase of Greek philosophy. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle will be discussed, as well as two groups of thinkers who preceded them, usually known as the pre-Socratics and the Sophists.

Lec.
Sec. 01
02
03
04

MT 11
W 11
W 12
W 11
W 2

150.219 (H)

BIOETHICS (3)  Bok  Limit 20 per section  Introduction to a wide range of moral issues arising in the biomedical fields, e.g., physician-assisted suicide, human cloning, abortion, surrogacy, and human subjects research.
Cross-listed with Public Health Studies

Lec.
Sec. 01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10

ThF 12
M 12
T 1
M 12
T 1
M 1
W 12
M 12
W 12
T 1
M 12

150.235 (H)

PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION (3)   Gross
Limit 20 per section
Can one prove or disprove the existence of God? What is the relation between reason and faith? Are science and religion at odds with one another? We will consider historically significant discussions of these questions (for example, by Plato, Anselm, Aquinas, Pascal, Hume, and Kierkegaard) as well as important contemporary writings (for example, by Adams, Boyer, Plantinga, and Van Inwagen).

Lec.
Sec. 01
02
03
04

ThF 11
W 9
W 9
W 10
W 10

150.245 (H)

PHILOSOPHY OF MIND: SELF-KNOWLEDGE (3) Williams  Limit 15 per section    An introduction to the main metaphysical theories about the nature of the mind, thought, and consciousness.  Related issues are also discussed such as free-will, personal identity, solipsism, and artificial intelligence.

Lec.
Sec. 01
02
03
04

MT 9
W 9
W 10
W 9
W 10

150.403 (H)
(W)

HELLENISTIC PHILOSOPHY (3) Bett  Limit 35  A study of later Greek philosophy, stretching roughly from the death of Aristotle to the Roman imperial period.  Epicureans, Stoics, and Skeptics will be the main philosophical schools examined.

Sec. 01

MTW 1

150.408 (H)

SEMINAR IN SCHELLING’S ‘SYSTEM OF TRANSCENDENTAL IDEALISM’ (3) Förster  Limit 20   Prereq.: Knowledge of Kant’s Critique of Pure ReasonAn in-depth research seminar that will study and attempt to discern the underlying idea of Schelling’s ‘System of Transcendental Idealism.’  Regular attendance is mandatory.

Sec. 01

Th 2-4

150.411 (H)

STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF MODERN ETHICS: NIETZSCHE (3) Jenkins This course focuses on ethical themes in Nietzsche's texts from The Gay Science onward, as well as selected secondary literature. Topics include the death of God, Dionysian pessimism, the revaluation of values, the origin of conscience, eternal recurrence, the overman and genealogy as a philosophical method.

Sec. 01

M 2-5pm

150.413 (H)

TOPICS IN THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY: KANT AND FICHTE (3) Moyar  Limit 20  A close study of Kant’s “Doctrine of Right” in the “Metaphysics of Morals” and Fichte’s “Foundations of Natural Right.”  Central topics will be the relation of morality and right, the nature of freedom, and the possibility of grounding political theory in a systematic idealism.

Sec. 01

F 1-4

150.417 (H)

KANT’S ‘CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON’ (3) Förster   Limit 20   An in-depth study of Kant’s most important work, one of the great classics of modern philosophy.

Sec. 01

ThF 9-10:30

150.424 (H,Q)

FOUNDATIONS OF PROBABILITY AND INDUCTIVE LOGIC (3) Achinstein   A study of classical a priori, frequency, subjective, and logical theories of probability and inductive inference; the justification of induction; the concept of evidence. 

Sec. 01

ThF 10:30-12

150.449 (H)

PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE (3)  Gross  Limit 15  This course surveys central topics in the philosophy of language. Questions discussed include: What is the relation between meaning and truth? Between meaning and intention? Are there objective facts about meaning? In what does our knowledge of language consist? In what sense, if any, is language conventional? How might questions about language matter for the rest of philosophy? In the course of addressing these questions, we also examine various specific elements of language and language use of particular philosophic interest, such as proper names, 'context-sensitive' terms, and metaphor.

Sec. 01

ThF 2-3:30

150.451 (H)

ETHICAL THEORIES (3) Jenkins  Limit 35  This course features, first, close readings of the classic texts (by Aristotle, Kant, and Mill) behind philosophy’s dominant attempts to systematically order, explain and justify ethical life; and, second, an examination of contemporary attempts to ground theory in considerations of virtue and character.

Sec. 01

ThF 12-1:30

150.477 (H)
(W)

EXISTENTIALISM AND THE PROJECT OF CREATING ONESELF (3) Ievers    Limit 15 This course will be an examination of possibility and significance of self-definition in the context of existentialism via a consideration of works by Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre, and Camus.
Dean’s Teaching Fellowship Course

Sec. 01

ThF 10:30-12

360.133 (H)
(W)

GREAT BOOKS: WESTERN TRADITION OR THE HUMANITIES: A TRADITION OF CLASSICS (3)  Staff  Limit 20 per section
Cross-listed with German and Romance Languages and Interdepartmental

Sec. 01

02

03

04

ThF 10:30-12

ThF 10:30-12

ThF 10:30-12

ThF 10:30-12

300.337 (H)

THINKING FILMS (3)  Marrati  Limit 35 25 Cross-listed with Anthropology, German and Romance Languages, Political Science, and Film and Media Studies.

Sec. 01

T 4-6pm, W 7-9pm

150.511

DIRECTED STUDY

150.551

HONORS PROJECT

150.637

SEMINAR IN THE THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE Williams (Michael) Limit 35
This seminar will examine problems of knowledge and justification.

Sec. 01

W 2-4

150.639

SEMINAR IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND: PERCEPTION Williams (Meredith)  In this seminar, we will study some key issues that inform contemporary debate on perception.  These will include the debate over whether veridical perception and perceptual illusion share a common sensory content (or not); whether perceptual states have a conceptual content; and whether action is intimately a part of perceptual states.

Sec. 01

M 2-4

214.693

PLATONISM IN THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE Celenza    Limit 15 
Cross-listed with German and Romance Languages, History, the Humanities Center, and Classics

Sec. 01

Th 3-5pm

300.637

HISTORY AND EVENT  Marrati Cross-listed with Anthropology, German and Romance Languages, Political Science, History, and Humanities

Sec. 01

M 5-8pm

300.670

THE SECULAR LIVES OF GRACE de Vries Cross-listed with German and Romance Languages, Anthropology, Political Science, Humanities

Sec. 01

TBA

150.810

INDEPENDENT STUDY
Sec. 01 Staff
Sec. 02 Förster
Sec. 03 Gross
Sec. 04 Moyar
Sec. 05 Rynasiewicz
Sec. 06 Williams (Meredith)
Sec. 07 Bok
Sec. 08 Bett
Sec. 09 Williams (Michael)
Sec. 10 Achinstein Greenberg
Sec. 11 Achinstein Sec. 11 canceled 5/18/07

150.811

DIRECTED STUDY
Please see 150.810 for section numbers to use when registering.

150.820

METHODS AND STRATEGIES FOR ASPIRING PHILOSOPHERS  Achinstein Preparing philosophy graduate students for the impending job market by discussions of, and practicing for, constructing and submitting dossiers, hotel and campus interviews, and giving talks both in and outside of one's particular field.  Open to all philosophy graduate students, regardless of year and field.  No degree credits.  Offered sporadically.

Sec. 01

Th 2-4