150.118 (H,Q)

INTRODUCTION TO FORMAL LOGIC (3) Achinstein Limit 25 20 per section The fundamentals of symbolic logic, including truth functions, quantification theory, and identity; probability and decision theory. No prereqs.
Section 04 added 11/29/06

Lec.
Sec. 01
02
03
04

ThF 12
M 1
T 2
T 12
M 1

150.205 (H)

INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY (3) Greenberg Limit 35 per section An introduction to early modern philosophy, examining Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy, Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Hume's Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, and selections from Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. We will consider such topics as the relation between philosophy and science, the nature and scope of human knowledge, the nature of the human mind, and the nature of human freedom.

Lec.
Sec. 01
02
03
04

MT 12
W 12
W 12
W 10
W 10

150.220 (H)
(W)

INTRODUCTION TO MORAL PHILOSOPHY (3) Jenkins Limit 20 per section You have questions: What is the good life and how do I live it? Philosophers have answers. The attractions, presuppositions, justifications and limitations of those answers will be the focus of this historically oriented introduction to moral philosophy featuring close reading of primary texts.

Lec.
Sec. 01
02
03
04
05
06

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

150.235 (H)

PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION (3) Gross Limit 80 40 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).

Sec. 01

MTW 1

150.260 (H)
(W)

PHILOSOPHY & FEMINISM: TRADITIONAL PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEMS (3) Tumulty Limit 20  What is the relationship between the mind and the body?  Can you be a good person and be happy?  How do you know if your beliefs are true, or held for good reasons?   We will use themes and techniques from several feminist philosophers to probe these traditional questions.  We will critically examine a variety of philosophical approaches that draw on feminist commitments, and even ask question whether there is a such a thing as feminist philosophy at all. 
Cross-listed with the Program for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality

Sec. 01

MTW 10

150.301 (H)
 (W)

UNDERGRADUATE SEMINAR FOR PHILOSOPY MAJORS: FREE WILL AND RESPONSIBILITY (3) Greenberg Limit 15Must be declared undergraduate Philosophy majors
Are we really in control of our actions? Is what I do really up to me to decide? The course examines different views about what is involved in answering “yes” to these questions, and about the possible implications of answering “no.”

Sec. 01

W 1-4

150.302 (H)
             

TOPICS IN BIOETHICS: BIOETHICS AND THE HUMAN GENOME (3) Lewis   Limit 15  Prereq: 150.219  Limited to undergraduates only   This course is designed to introduce students to the myriad of opportunities and challenges that have arisen as a result of advances in human genetics and to explore the ethical issues in each area.  Issues to be addressed include newborn screening, prenatal testing and the specter of “designer babies,” behavioral genetics, DNA forensics, biobanks and the development of DNA databases, employment discrimination, genetic testing in children (presymptomatic versus diagnostic testing),  and intellectual property (who owns my genes?).  Upon the completion of the course, it is hoped that students will have a better understanding of both the promise and the perils associated with new genetic technology.  Student evaluation will be based upon class participation, written examination, and a short paper.
Cross-listed with Public Health Studies

Sec. 01

T 2-5

150.401 (H)
 (W)

GREEK PHILOSOPHY:  PLATO AND HIS PREDECESSORS (3) BettLimit 45 35  A study of pre-Socratic philosophers, especially those to whom Plato reacted; also an examination of major dialogues of Plato with emphasis upon his principal theses and characteristic methods.
Cross-listed with Classics

Sec. 01

MTW 1

150.421 (H,Q)

MATHEMATICAL LOGIC (3) Rynasiewicz  Limit 20 An examination of some of the principal theoretical results about logic, including computability and Church’s thesis; the Löwenheim-Skolem theorem; and Gödel’s incompleteness theorems.  The philosophical significance of these results will also be discussed.

Sec. 01

MTW 10

150.441 (H,Q)

PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE PART II:  FROM QUINE TO PRESENT (3) Williams, Michael   Limit 20  This course survey’s 20th century analytic philosophy of language and focuses on the themes of meaning, understanding, truth, and reference.  This course is self-contained and follows PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE, Part 1: FROM FREGE TO QUINE 150.440

Sec. 01

ThF 9-10:30

150.442 (H)

WITTGENSTEIN (3)Williams, Meredith  Limit 35 A study of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s two great works, Tractatus Logico Philosophicus and Philosophical Investigations.

Sec. 01

ThF 2:30-4

150.444 (H)

ADVANCED PHILOSOPHY OF MIND:  REPRESENTATIONALIST THEORY OF MIND (3)Williams, Meredith    Limit 15 Investigations.  This course will focus on how the human mind can represent the world.  In asking this question, we will critically examine several theories of representation (e.g., Fodor’s Mentalese hypothesis; Millikan’s biosemantices, Dennett’s intentional stance conception).  All face “the problem of content,”namely how to account for the representational power of thought.  If no account is successful, what are the implication of this?  Does render a science of thought impossible?

Sec. 01

ThF 10:30-12

150.474 (H)
(W)

JUSTICE AND HEALTH (3) Bok  Limit 20  Prereq: Intro. to BioEthics 150.219 and Intro. to Moral Philosophy 150.220 or Perm. Req’d  Course will consider the bearing of theories of justice on health care.  Topics will include national health insurance, rationing and cost containment, and what justice requires of researchers in developing countries.   

Sec. 01

M 2-5

300.334 344 (H)

MODERN JEWISH THOUGHT AND PHILOSOPHY (3) Shuster   Limit 25   This course will serve to introduce students to the diversity of Modern Jewish philosophy and thinking, from theology to philosophy, Hasidism to Zionism, politics to history.
Cross-listed with Jewish Studies and  History

Sec. 01

T 3-5:30

300.350 (H)

MORAL PERFECTIONISM (3) de Vries/ Lefebvre   Limit 20   Taking Stanley Cavell's Cities of Words as our guide, this course explores themes and principles of moral perfectionism in philosophy, literature, and film. Attendance at weekly film screenings is mandatory. Cross listed with Anthropology, Humanities, and German & Romance Languages and Literatures

 Sec. 01

Scr.

T 2-4:30

T 8-10:30pm

300.357 (H)

WHAT COUNTS AS HUMAN? (3)
Marrati   Limit 20   This course analyzes different concepts of the human and others. Readings include: Plato, Descartes, Kant, Levinas, Arendt, and Butler.   Cross listed with the Humanities Center, Anthropology, Political Science, German and Romance Languages, and Literatures

 Sec. 01

F 1-3:30

150.512

DIRECTED STUDY Staff

150.552

HONORS PROJECT Staff

150.622

SEMINAR IN HEGEL’S PHENOMENOLOGY OF SPIRIT PART II FörsterLimit 12 Open ONLY to students who attended 150.621     Part II of a year-long course on Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. 

Sec. 01

Th 2-4

150.632

INTRODUCTION TO FORMAL LOGIC Achinstein Limit 25 per section See 150.118 for course description. Course added 11/29/06

Lec.
Sec. 01
02
03
04

ThF 12
M 1
T 2
T 12
M 1

150.625

SEMINAR IN PHILOSOPHY OF GERMAN IDEALISM:  FICHTE’S EARLY WISSENSCHAFTSLEHRE FörsterLimit 10 Prereq: 150.417 An in-depth study of Fichte’s 1794 Science of Knowledge together with his "Outline of the Distinctive Character of the Wissenschaftslehre with respect to the Theoretical Faculty."

Sec. 01

W 2-4

150.644

SEMINAR IN CONTEMPORARY ETHICS:  MORALITY AND THE EMOTIONS Jenkins Limit 20 No topic has generated more philosophical work over the past ten or fifteen years than the emotions, most of it straightforwardly directed at determining what sort of thing they are. This seminar will consider the implications of some select portion of that work for ethics.

Sec. 01

T 2-4

150.652

SEMINAR IN PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Achinstein  Limit 20  Realism v. antirealism: scientific and metaphysical.  How should these doctrines be formulated?  Are they empirical or a priori?  Can either be established?  The seminar will not presuppose previous work in philosophy of science

Sec. 01

F 2-4

150.653

SEMINAR IN PHILOSOPHY OF PHYSICS  Rynasiewicz  Limit 20  Everyone agrees that in, relativity theory, the simultaneity of distant events is frame relative.  However, in 1905 Einstein had made a more radical claim that, even given a frame of reference, there is no fact of the matter as to exactly which events are simultaneous with one another, and thus simultaneity is conventional.  Various existence and uniqueness results, beginning with Malament have been interpreted to indicate that Einstein's bolder thesis is simply wrong.  This seminar examines the history of the conventionality thesis and the challenges to it over the past century.  The problem has been definitely solved in only the last year.  Open to physics undergraduates as well as graduate students.

Sec. 01

T 2-4

150.657

PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE:  FREGE TumultyLimit 20  This seminar will be devoted to reading those of Frege’s works that shed  most light on his theory of sense, and to reading some of the many contemporary philosophers who have views on what that theory was (or even denied he had one).  So we will be reading a great deal of Frege, and some of: Davidson, Dummett, Evans, McDowell, Noonan, Perry, and Weiner.

Sec. 01

M 2-4

150.658

TOPICS IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE Gross Limit 20 An examination of significant recent work in the philosophy of language.

Sec. 01

M 4-6pm

040.712

READING GREEK PHILOSOPHY Bett   Limit 10   Prereq: 2 years of Greek or Perm. Req’d   A seminar devoted to close reading and analysis of fragments of the pre-Socratics in the original
Greek.  Cross-listed with Classics

Sec. 01

T 2-4

213.638

EPISTEMOLOGY IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE Rheinberger  Limit 15   Meets 3/26-4/23 (plus additional session)
In this seminar, we will discuss the French and German traditions of introducing historical thinking into philosophy of science. Readings will include Gaston Bachelard, Georges Canguilhem, Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida (his reading of Husserl) on the French part, and Ernst Cassirer, Edmund Husserl (his late Crisis work) and Martin Heidegger on the German part.  Reading and discussion in English
Cross listed with the Humanities Center, and History of Science and Technology

Sec. 01

M 3-6pm

300.619

TRAUMA THEORY NOW   Leys  Limit 20   A discussions of current debates about trauma, testimony, and representation after Auschwitz.  Texts by Freud, Derrida, Felman, Caruth, Spiegelman, Agamben, and others.
Cross listed with History, History of Science and Technology, Anthropology, and English

Sec. 01

T 1-4

300.671

STANLEY CAVELL’S “THE CLAIM OF REASON”  de Vries/Marrati      Limit 15   This seminar will explore Cavell’s magnum opus and discuss his contribution to the understanding of philosophical skepticism, literature, film, ethics, politics, and religion.
Cross listed with Anthropology, Political Science, English, German and Romance Languages and Literatures

Sec. 01

Th 1-4

150.810

INDEPENDENT STUDY Staff

150.812

DIRECTED STUDY Staff