PHILOSOPHY

150.118 (H,Q)

INTRODUCTION TO FORMAL LOGIC (3) Limit 20 per section Achinstein   The fundamentals of symbolic logic, including truth functions, quantification theory, and identity; probability and decision theory.

Lec.

Sec. 01

02

03

04

WF 12-12:50

M 12-12:50

T 1:30-2:20

T 12-12:50

M 1:30-2:20

150.205 (H)

INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY (3)  Williams, Michael  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. Gilman course in the Humanities

Sec. 03 canceled 01/29/08

Lec.

Sec. 01

02

03

04

MW 1:30-2:20

M 3-3:50

T 12-12:50

W 10-10:50

F 1:30-2:20

150.220 (H)

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

MW 10-10:50

M 11-11:50

W 11-11:50

W 11-11:50

F 10-10:50

F 12-12:50

W 12-12:50

150.240 (H)

INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY (3) Moyar Limit 20 per section This course will examine classical and contemporary writings in political philosophy, focusing primarily on the nature of justice and on the justification of democracy.

Lec.

Sec.01

02

MW 11-11:50

F 11-11:50

F 12-12:50 11-11:50

150.423 (H )

THE NOMINALISM/REALISM DEBATE, PART I: PLATO AND ARISTOTLE (3) Förster  Limit 15 The nominalism / realism debate is about whether general terms refer to something (“universals”) that really exists (like Platonic “ideas”) or whether they are merely linguistic devices for the classification of individual things.  The course examines the origins of this debate in Plato’s Theory of Ideas and Aristotle’s criticism of it.

Sec. 01

TTh 9-10:15

150.436 (H)

PHILOSOPHY OF PSYCHOLOGY (3) Williams, Meredith   Limit 15  This course will be an examination of three conceptions of scientific psychology in the 207th Century: the introspectionist psychology of William James; behaviorist psychology of B.F. Skinner (with readings from Pavlov, Thorndike and Watson); and cognitivism (readings from J. Fodor and D.Dennett). 

Sec. 01

TTh 9-10:15

150.442 (H)

WITTGENSTEIN (3) Williams, Meredith   Limit 15  Prereq: Course on the Philosophical Investigations   This course will be an examination of Wittgenstein’s late writings, especially On Certainty and some of his writings on the philosophy of psychology. 

Sec. 01

TTh 3-4:15

150.476 (H)

PHILOSOPHY AND COGNITIVE SCIENCE (3) Gross  Limit 45 15  This year’s topic is recent work in the cognitive science of religion as an example of research that blends the study of evolution, cognition, and culture.  Questions include: Is the culturally universal belief in supernatural agents a natural by-product of human cognitive architecture?  In what ways, if any, are processes of cultural transmission similar to evolutionary processes?  Does the naturalistic study of religion undermine religious belief?

Sec. 01

TTh 12-1:15

150.478 (H)
(W)

EPISTEMOLOGY OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF  (3) McGill  Limit 15    Is it rational to believe that God exists?  What can we know about God?  We will analyze both traditional arguments for God’s existence and contemporary arguments about the rationality of theistic belief.
Dean’s Teaching Fellowship Course

Sec.01

TTh 1:30-2:45

150.479 (H)

PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION FROM KANT TO NIETZSCHE (3) Leland   Limit 15  Is belief in god rationally justified?  What is the relation between faith and reason?  Is religion “the opium of the people,” as Marx claimed?  What did Nietzsche mean when he wrote, “God is dead”?  This course examines influential ideas about religion and religious belief from Kant, Schleiermacher, Hegel, Feuerbach, Marx, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche.
Dean’s Teaching Fellowship Course

Sec. 01

MW 4:30-5:45pm

200.206 (S)

FOUNDATIONS OF MIND (4) Feigenson/Halberda  Limit 20 per section
Cross-listed with Behavioral Biology, Cognitive Science, and Psychological & Brain Sciences

Lec.

Sec. 01

02

03

MWF 1:30-2:20

T 10:30-11:20

T 1:30-2:20

T 4:30-5:20

300.368 (H)

DO MIRACLES (STILL) HAPPEN? (3) de Vries   Cross listed with the Humanities Center, German and Romance Languages, Anthropology, and Political Science

Sec. 01

Th 1:30-4

150.512

DIRECTED STUDY

150.552

HONORS PROJECT Staff

150.606

SEMINAR ON SKEPTICISM, ANCIENT AND MODERN Williams, Michael/Bett   Course will focus on ancient skepticism as a way of life, and on the role of epistemological argument in skepticism so conceived.  The seminar will end with a brief look at early modern reactions to ancient skepticism. 

Sec. 01

W 4-5:50pm

150.630

SEMINAR IN METAPHYSICS:  KANT’S OPUS POSTUMUM FörsterLimit 10   Prereq:  Familiarity with Kant’s theoretical and practical philosophy  This research seminar examines the reasons that led Kant to revise his transcendental philosophy late in life.  Special attention to problems in the Metaphysics of Nature and the Metaphysics of Morals. 

Sec. 01

Th 2-3:50

150.644

SEMINAR IN CONTEMPORARY ETHICS:  MORAL PERSONHOOD MORALITY AND THE EMOTIONS Jenkins   Limit 20 This seminar focuses on recent work at the intersection between theories of personhood and ethics.  Influence runs both ways.  Some hold that what it means to be a person has substantive implications for what morality requires, others that what morality requires had substantive implications for what it means to be a person.  Readings may include Strawson, Taylor, Williams, Frankfurt, Wolf, Parfit, Korsgaard and Velleman.

Sec. 01

M 2-3:50

150.654

METHODOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF SCIENCE  Achinstein  Course will consider Philosophical issues arising in connection with various episodes in science.  Topics to be determined.

Sec. 01

W 2-3:50

150.658

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

Sec. 01

Th T 2-3:50

300.624

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

Sec. 01

T 1-3:50

213.640

THE CONCEPT OF PHILOSOPHICAL AESTHETICS Menke   Limit 15   Meets 2/11-3/7
Cross-listed German and Romance Languages and the Humanities Center

Sec. 01

W 4:30-6:30pm,
F 12-1:50

215.686

ALL ABOUT ZIZEK Egginton   Limit 15    
Cross-listed with the Humanities Center and Philosophy

Sec. 01

Th 12-1:50

214.748

VICO AND THE OLD SCIENCE Stephens   Limit 15    
Cross-listed with German and Romance Languages, the English, and the Humanities Center

Sec. 01

W 12-1:50

150.810

INDEPENDENT STUDY

150.812

DIRECTED STUDY

Sec. 01

M 3-5:50pm

150.810

INDEPENDENT STUDY Staff

150.812

DIRECTED STUDY Staff