Course
Descriptions Fall 2005
CAS PH 100
INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
Professor Bokulich
Introduction to such fundamental questions as: Is
truth relative? Are values relative? Is
knowledge necessary to lead a good life? What
is knowledge, and how is it attained?
CAS PH 110
GREAT PHILOSOPHERS
Professor Tauber
What is philosophy? We will approach this question
by examining the works of representative philosophers
from Socrates to the 20th century. By studying
various autobiographical accounts and formal
essays, students will have the opportunity to
witness philosophy “in action,” i.e.,
the nature of philosophical discourse and how
philosophers engage one another.
CAS PH 150 A1
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS
Professor Speight
An introduction to philosophical ethics, by way
of an exploration of three important normative
philosophical approaches (utilitarianism, deontology
and virtue ethics) and frequent discussion of
contemporary ethical issues, including cloning,
stem cell research, the moral status of animals,
and war and terrorism.
CAS PH 150 B1
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS
Professor Keller
We use moral language all the time; we say that
an act is wrong, that a person is virtuous, that
we have the right to certain sorts of treatment,
and so on. Such language, however, can be puzzling.
It is difficult to say exactly what we are referring
to when we speak of such things as the rightness
and wrongness of acts, and it can be just as
difficult to say which acts really are right
and which really are wrong. This course will
begin with an investigation into the nature of
moral judgments. We will ask, for example, whether
morality is just a matter of opinion or emotion,
whether there is a single true morality, and
whether morality depends upon the existence of
God. In the second part of the course, we will
look at various views about what it takes for
an act to be right or wrong. Is acting morally
fundamentally a matter of promoting happiness,
respecting rights, exercising the virtues, or
what? Finally, we will examine some practical
moral issues, perhaps including the morality
of abortion, our obligations to people in distant
parts of the world, and our obligation to tell
the truth. The course will be organized around
thematic concerns, rather than the works of particular
great philosophers, but the reading will include
a mixture of contemporary and historical texts.
CAS PH 150 C1
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS
Professor Griswold
This course is an introduction to major questions
and themes in moral thought, such as: is moral
value "relative"? is it "absolute"? What
is a moral or normative reason? What is "virtue"? If
God exists, how do we explain evil? If
God does not exist, what foundation is there
for good? What is the relationship between
egoism and altruism?
CAS PH 160 A1
REASONING AND ARGUMENTATION
Professor Hopp
A systematic study of the principles of both
deductive and informal reasoning, with an emphasis
on reasoning and argumentation in ordinary discourse,
and on their strategies. The aim of the course
is to train the student in the skills of argument
analysis, argument construction, and argument
evaluation.
CAS PH 160 B1
REASONING AND ARGUMENTATION
Professor Floyd
A systematic study of the principles of both
deductive and informal reasoning, with an emphasis
on reasoning and argumentation in ordinary discourse,
and on their strategies. The aim of the
course is to train the student in the skills
of argument analysis, argument construction,
and argument evaluation.
CAS PH 160 C1
REASONING AND ARGUMENTATION
Professor Webb
A systematic study of the principles of both
deductive and informal reasoning, with an emphasis
on reasoning and argumentation in ordinary discourse,
and on their strategies. The aim of the course
is to train the student in the skills of argument
analysis, argument construction, and argument
evaluation.
Intermediate Level I
*Prerequisite: one philosophy course
or sophomore standing*
CAS PH 242
PHILOSOPHY OF HUMAN NATURE
Professor Kestenbaum
In Moby Dick, Ahab says:
"All visible objects, man, are but pasteboard masks. But in each event--in
the living act, the undoubted deed-there, some unknown but still reasoning
thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning
mask. If man will strike, strike through the mask!"
Is human nature a "visible" object,
a mask concealing "some unknown but still
reasoning thing?" Can human nature be known
like any other "visible" object? If
there is something necessarily invisible about
human nature, how is it to be known or thought?
Can we--should we--"strike through the mask?" The
course will examine selected ideas or concepts
which might help make human nature more visible
while at the same time respecting its tendency
to withdraw from inspection, i.e., to remain
invisible. These concepts include: attention,
reason, extremes.
Selected readings include Soren Kierkegaard’s The
Sickness Unto Death, Karl Jaspers’ Philosophy
of Existence, Iris Murdoch’s The
Sovereignty of Good, Richard Selzer’s Letters
to a Young Doctor, Plato’s Five
Dialogues, and Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays
with Morrie.
CAS PH 245
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION
Professor Lobel
Intersections between philosophy and religious
thought. Readings from Plato, Aristotle, Bible,
Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Augustine, Maimonides,
Ghazzali. Cross listed with RN 245: "Introduction
to Religious Thought."
CAS PH 251
MEDICAL ETHICS
Professor Clark
Modern medicine confronts some of the same moral
questions that faced Hippocrates: how to
treat the sick and dying with dignity, how to
structure the relationship between patient and
doctor, how to define the proper scope of medicine. But
modern circumstances have refracted these questions
and added new ones. In this class, we'll
focus on the philosophical and ethical issues
related to death and dying, informed consent
in research and treatment, healthcare policy
and reform, abortion, cloning, and stem cell
research.
CAS PH 258
PHILOSOPHY AND LITERATURE
Professor Speight
Exploration of the "ancient quarrel" between
philosophy & poetry as it concerns the modes
of tragedy and comedy. The course will
consider a number of famous philosophical theories
of or complaints about drama, as well as the
comic and tragic works which inspired those reflections. Philosophical
texts to be considered include Aristotle's Poetics,
Hegel's Aesthetics, Nietzsche's Birth
of Tragedy, Max Scheler's "On the Phenomenon
of the Tragic," Rousseau's "Lettre
a d'Alembert"; dramatic works will include
Sophocles' Antigone and Philoctetes,
Euripides' Bacchae, Diderot's Rameau's
Nephew, Aristophanes' Clouds, and
Moliere's Misanthrope.
CAS PH 270
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Professor Cao
Additional Prerequisite: One year of college
science.
Texts: Martin Goldstein and Inge F. Goldstein, How
We Know (HWK); Victor F. Weisskopf, Knowledge
and Wonder (KW).
This introductory course is designed for those
with little exposure to science. Main features
of the scientific enterprise will be illustrated
by examples in the study of physics, biology
and psychology: the aims of scientific activities
(understanding, prediction and control); the
nature of scientific understanding (causal explanation
with general applicability); scientific procedures
(by which scientific theories are formulated,
tested, accepted or rejected); the structure
and interpretation of scientific theories (evidential
support, models and hypotheses, laws and predictions;
the cognitive significance of these components);
the development of science (accumulation and/or
revolution). Some concepts central to the natural
and social sciences, (such as space, time, forces,
atom and quantum; life and evolution, structure
and function; facts, value and agents) will be
examined carefully. Controversies among competing
schools in the philosophy of science (logical
positivism, falsificationism, historicism, social
constructivism and feminism) over the objectivity
and rationality of the scientific enterprise
will also be discussed.
CAS PH 277
PHILOSOPHY AND METHOD IN HUMAN SCIENCE
Professor Devlin
Analysis of basic concepts relevant to the social
sciences: causal and functional explanation,
prediction, bracketing, statistical methods,
reductionism, objectivity and values. Role
of methodology and the relation of science to
materialism, determinism, and atheism. Consideration
of philosophical problems of the special sciences:
psychology, economics, history, social science.
CAS PH 278
PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY
Professor Michalski
A close reading of Nietzsche's "On the Advantage
and Disadvantage of History for Life" and
related texts.
Intermediate Level II
*Prerequisite: one philosophy course
or sophomore standing*
CAS PH 300 A1
HISTORY OF ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY
Professor Brinkmann
The course will explore Greek philosophy and
will concentrate on its development from Thales
through Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Platonic
dialogues and major chunks of the Aristotelian
corpus will be read with some care. The
focus will be philosophical rather than historical,
and the emphasis will be on the analysis and
interpretation of texts. One in-class written
exam, a midterm, and a final paper.
CAS PH 300 B1
HISTORY OF ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY
Professor Diamandopoulos
The history of ancient philosophy is the history
of the invention of philosophy and of its extraordinary
accomplishments and ambitions. This unprecedented
development, the lecturer will argue, was the
unique creation of the Greek world--a reflection
of its outlook, culture, language, politics and
values; and of the geniuses that pressed the
quest.
To outline and interpret the development of
ancient philosophy, the course will reconstruct
the speculations of Ionian and Southern Italian
thinkers; the philosophical breakthroughs of
classical Athens (Sophists, Socrates, Plato,
Aristotle); and the re-direction of philosophy
during the Hellenistic/Roman-era (Stoics, Sceptics,
Epicureans and Cynics).
Through a close reading and interpretation of
selected texts, the lecturer will argue for the
continuity of Greek philosophical thought; but
also for its surpassing autonomy and coherence.
From the Presocratics through Plato, Aristotle
and the Hellenistic philosophers, philosophical
inquiry evolved but also remained steadfastly
focused on topics that proved perennial - the
possibility of knowledge, the nature of Being,
the scope of reason, the search for method, the
idea of the good, etc. This fact will suggest
that the history of Greek philosophy is paradigmatic
of all authentic philosophy: It will explain
why all later philosophy had to re-investigate
the Hellenic philosophical issues.
The class will be conducted in lecture form.
CAS PH 310
HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY
Professor Kuehn
Examination of theories of major seventeenth
and eighteenth century philosophers, from Descartes
to Kant. Along with their confidence in
reason, the Continental Rationalists share a
conception of philosophy as a universal discipline
whose propositions are derivable from first principles
regarded as necessary. The British Empiricists,
on the other hand, beginning with Locke's "historical,
plain method," claim to rely primarily on
experience as the basis of their theories of
knowledge. There are lessons in all of
this that Kant takes to heart.
CAS PH 350
HISTORY OF ETHICS
Instructor TBA
Is morality invented or discovered? What does
it mean to live a good life, and does it mean
the same thing for every human being? What is
the relation of virtue to happiness? This course
will explore the answers that philosophers such
as Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Mill, and Nietzsche
offer to these and other fundamental human questions.
400/600 Level
Undergraduate Students should register
for 400-level courses
Graduate Students should register
for 600-level courses
Ancient Philosophy
*Prerequisites: PH 300 and 2 other
PH courses*
CAS PH 403
PLATO I
Professor Rosen
A close reading of the Symposium. Permission
Required.
CAS PH 406
ARISTOTLE II
Professor Diamandopoulos
A careful study of Aristotle's practical philosophy
conducted primarily through a close reading of
his Politics. Aristotle's overall
conception of a practical philosophy as it is
developed in Book I of Nicomachean Ethics and
the transition from the ethical to the political
point of view as described in the last chapter
of Nicomachean Ethics will be considered. A
seminar format will be used.
Modern and Contemporary Philosophy
*Prerequisites: PH 310 and 2 other
PH Courses*
CAS PH 411/611
BRITISH EMPIRICISM
Professor Garrett
Close reading of Locke's Essay Concerning Human
Understanding, Berkeley's Dialogues, and Hume's
Treatise of Human Nature.
**Please read the "Epistle to the Reader," I.
1-2 of Locke's essay for the first class.**
CAS PH 415
19TH-CENTURY PHILOSOPHY
Professor Brinkmann
19th-century philosophy is characterized by the
collapse of the great systems of the philosophy
of German idealism, especially the Hegelian system
of the absolute self-knowledge of spirit, and
a growing skeptical attitude about the Enlightenment
ideals. This is the century of the relativization
of reason in the name of forces that are thought
to be beyond reason's control. After a brief
look at the Hegelian system, we will follow the
development of the critique of reason from Schopenhauer
to Kierkegaard to Marx and Nietzsche. The course
will consist of a close reading of selections
from the works of these authors. One mid-term
and one final paper.
CAS PH 420/620
CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY
Professor Hintikka
This course does not only present briefly some
of the main figures of contemporary philosophy,
among them Frege, Husserl, Wittgenstein, and
Heidegger, and some of the important developments,
such as hermeneutics, logical empiricism, existentialism,
the new philosophy of science (Kuhn, etc.), the
new theory of reference (Marcus, Kripke, etc.),
neurophilosophy, and the realism controversy. It
also seeks to answer the question: What's
in them for us? Which ideas of these thinkers
are helpful in guiding philosophical thought
to the next century and which ones are not?
CAS PH 422/622
ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY
Professor Floyd
An investigation of discussions of scepticism
(primarily about knowledge claims concerning,
e.g., other minds and the external world) in
twentieth century philosophy, and how they are
affected by theories of meaning. We will begin
discussing claims that have been made about the
role of scepticism in early modern philosophy,
and then focus on efforts to refute scepticism
in the twentieth century -- efforts rooted in
various attempts to throw off the legacy of nineteenth
century idealism and historicism. We shall examine
G.E. Moore's essays "Proof of an external
world", "Certainty", and "A
Defense of Common Sense", Russell's Our
Knowledge of the External World, J.L. Austin's
Sense and Sensibility and "Other Minds",
Wittgenstein's On Certainty, and related
works by such contemporary philosophers as Quine,
Grice, Putnam, Cavell and Williams.
CAS PH 426/626
PHENOMENOLOGY
Professor Hopp
Phenomenology is above all else a method of acquiring
knowledge through an immediate acquaintance or “seeing” of “the
things themselves.” The main task
of the present course is to understand and assess
the merits of that method by closely considering
the development of phenomenology in the works
of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. We
begin with Husserl’s Logical Investigations,
paying particularly close attention to his account
of the general structure of the mental act and
his theory of knowledge. Next, we will
examine Husserl’s turn to transcendental
phenomenology and his method of “bracketing” everything
that cannot be strictly given to consciousness. We
will then look at Husserl’s notion of the
life-world (Lebenswelt) and his account
of how our consciousness of and involvement with
it is presupposed by the natural sciences. Finally,
we will turn to Heidegger’s Being and
Time, focusing especially on his conception
of phenomenology as fundamental ontology and
the manner in which he incorporates, alters,
and rejects various central Husserlian doctrines. Throughout
the course we will be mindful of the similarities
and differences between each of Husserl’s
and Heidegger’s central ideas, on the one
hand, and various historically prominent doctrines
concerning the nature of the mind, knowledge,
and reality on the other.
Speculative Philosophy
*Prerequisites: PH 300, PH 310,
and 1 other PH course*
CAS PH 440/640
METAPHYSICS
Professor Keller
Many popular science fiction stories are about
people who travel to distant times: think of
'The Time Machine,' 'Back to the Future,' and
'Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.' But
is time travel possible? This is not to
ask whether anyone has traveled in time or will
ever do so. The question is rather about whether
or not someone *could* travel in time. To
put it another way, we will not be asking about
how to build time machines, but about whether
or not time travel stories inevitably involve
deep inconsistencies or impossibilities. In
investigating this question, we will confront
various puzzles about time, God, change,
possibility, causation, personal identity, and
free will. The course will therefore serve
as an introduction to several of the central
problems in metaphysics.
CAS PH 443
PHILOSOPHY OF MIND
Professor Webb
Issues in contemporary philosophy and psychology
reflecting traditional concerns in both fields,
whether conceptual or methodological.
CAS PH 446/646
PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
Professor Olson
An examination of principal issues and topics
in the philosophy of religion. This course develops
in three stages: First, an historical overview
of the development of philosophy of religion
as a discipline or sub-discipline of philosophy,
theology and metaphysics with special attention
to the problems and challenges facing this discipline
in the context of the comparative philosophy
of religion. Second, readings and discussions
of source materials in the philosophy of religion,
viz., the traditional proofs for the existence
of God, the problem of evil, mysticism and religious
experience, faith and reason, revelation and
authority, science and religion, religious ethics,
etc. The third and final part of the course will
consist of a close reading and commentary on
Hegel's 1827 Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion,
the first serious attempt to do a comparative
philosophy of religion and perhaps the most influential
lectures on this topic in the history of philosophy.
Requirements: Several position papers on the
readings (2-3 pages each) by undergraduate students
and graduate students, and a research paper.
Texts: Steven Cahn, Ten Essential
Texts in the Philosophy of Religion (Oxford,
2005); G.W.F. Hegel, 1827 Lectures on the
Philosophy of Religion, California, 1988. On-Line
edition available at marxists.org. New
edition forthcoming from Oxford in 2006.
Philosophy of Value
*Prerequisites: PH 350 and 2 other
PH courses*
CAS 455/655
LEGAL PHILOSOPHY
Professor Lyons
What is law? How does law differ from orders
backed by threats? What is justice? This
course addresses the central concerns of jurisprudence
by focusing on works by leading theorists: H.L.A.
Hart on the nature of a legal system, Ronald
Dworkin on the interpretation of law, and John
Rawls on justice. There will be a mid-term
exam plus either a final take-home exam (for
455) or a term paper (for 655). PLEASE
NOTE: As this course is a cross-listing
of LAW JD 853, it follows the Law School's calendar
and time schedule. It meets Tuesdays
and Thursdays 2:10-3:35, September 6-December
8.
Philosophy of Knowledge, Language,
and Logic
*Prerequisites: PH 310, 360, and
1 other PH course*
CAS PH 461/661
COMPUTABILITY AND LOGIC
Professor Kanamori
The course begins with a treatment of first-order
logic as the basis for mathematical logic and
an underlying language for mathematics. The
syntax and semantics of quantifiers are analyzed,
leading to Gödel's Completeness Theorem. A
sketch is then given of Gödel's Incompleteness
Theorem. Cross-listed with MA 531.
Required Texts:
Herbert B. Enderton, A Mathematical Introduction
to Logic (New York: Academic Press, 1972).
CAS PH 463/663
PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE
Professor Hintikka
The most representative problem areas in contemporary
philosophy of language are discussed, criticized,
and put into a new perspective. They include
Frege's sense-reference theory, quantification
and anaphora, theory of truth, the semantics
of intensional and epistemic concepts, strategic
aspects of language use, identification and individuation,
metaphor, demonstratives and idexicals, discourse
and dialogue theory, and selected language disturbances
(dyslexia, autism).
Topics in Philosophy
CAS PH 482/682
TOPICS IN MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY
Professor Tauber
The realism/anti-realism debate in its contemporary
expressions has focused on the claims of naturalism
versus constructivism of various kinds. This
philosophical discourse has spilled over into
historical and sociological characterizations
of scientific investigation and its truth claims.
The course is divided between 1) a historical
review of this debate (Quine, early anti-positivist
critics, e.g. Kuhn, more recent constructivist
positions, e.g., the Strong Program, feminists),
and 2) an examination of efforts to adjudicate
the claims of realists and anti-realists with
the general intent of seeking a balanced (perhaps
even a synthetic) epistemology.
CAS PH 484
TOPICS IN SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY
Professor White
Many of the most prominent “continental” philosophers
of the past two centuries, including Hegel, Schopenhauer,
and Heidegger, have attempted to develop defensible “big-picture” (comprehensive
or systematic) accounts of what there is (including,
broadly, both thinking and being, subject and
object, etc.). The “analytic” counterparts
of these thinkers have generally focused on particular
areas or problems rather than on the whole, but
have aimed (or claim to have aimed) to treat
those areas and problems with clarity and precision – features
often scarcely detectable in the “continental” accounts. This
course will study central parts of a book that
attempts to combine the comprehensive scope of
the continental thinkers mentioned above (as
well as of such earlier thinkers as Aristotle
and Aquinas) with the clarity and precision lauded
in the analytic tradition. The book, Structure
and Being. A Theoretical Framework for a Systematic
Philosophy, is co-authored by Lorenz Puntel
(Munich) and Alan White (the instructor for this
course). Among other things, the
book presents new and indeed revolutionary understandings
of thinking and being, and of their interrelation.
Graduate Courses in Philosophy
600- and 800-level courses are
open to Graduate Students ONLY
GRS PH 614
HUME
Professor Kuehn
This course will study Book I of Hume's Treatise
of Human Nature in its proper historical
context (or at least in some of such contexts). When
one of Hume's friends offered to read the Treatise before
publication (in order to give him advice), Hume
responded that he would welcome such a reading,
but that Ramsey should first prepare himself
by reading right through Malebranche’s Recherche,
Berkeley’s Principles, Descartes’s Meditations,
and some of the more metaphysical articles in
Bayle. We will follow his advice (to some extent)
by recapitulating (very) briefly Descartes’s Meditations and
Berkeley's Principles and looking more
closely at selected passages from Malebranche
and some of the more metaphysical articles of
Bayle before engaging in a thorough reading of
the first book of the Treatise.
During the last third of the course we will
consider Reid's Inquiry into the Human Mind as
a critique of the Treatise. We will
see that Reid was well aware of the British and
French background of Hume's philosophy.
GRS PH 619
NIETZSCHE
Professor Michalski
An examination of the work of the nineteenth-century
German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Our
aim will be to gain a perspective on the development
of his thought and the range of his concerns.
GRS PH 801
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY
Professor Roochnik
A thorough study of Plato's Theaetetus.
GRS PH 816
HEGEL
Professor Rosen
The first of two semesters devoted to understanding
Hegel's Science of Logic.
GRS PH 820
CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY
Professor White
This course will study selected sections of a
book that aspires to be philosophically revolutionary. The
book, Structure and Being. A Theoretical
Framework for a Systematic Philosophy, is
co-authored by Lorenz Puntel (Munich) and Alan
White (the instructor for this course). Among
the book’s theses the course is likely
to examine are the following: (1) comprehensive
scientific (truth-seeking) theorization requires
that there be, in addition to various particular
sciences (physics, biology, etc.), a universal
science whose most appropriate designation is “(systematic)
philosophy”; (2) all truths are relative
to the theoretical frameworks within which they
emerge, truths emerge within all theoretical
frameworks, but one framework can rationally
be determined to be superior to another with
respect to its adequacy as theoretical; (3) the
truths presented within systematic philosophy
are relative only to its framework, thus not,
in any significant sense, to human subjectivity
or to ordinary language(s); (4) semantics and
ontology are two sides of the same coin;
(5) ontologies involving objects (or substances
or things) that have properties and are interrelated
are untenable; (6) the world is the totality
of facts identical to true propositions expressible
by sentences of the form “It’s F-ing” (e.g., “It’s
raining”, “It’s redding”, “It’s
Platoing”); (7) no natural-scientific theory
can adequately thematize human beings; (8) human
beings are free; (9) among the facts in the world
are ethical values; (10) among the facts in the
world are aesthetic values; (11) being includes
an absolutely necessary dimension that provides
subject matter for philosophical theorization.
GRS PH 870
SEMINAR IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Professor Cao
Examination of some of the central conceptual
issues in the philosophy of science, including
an approach to scientific inquiry as a questioning
process and a study of such ideas as the logic
of discovery, including its relation to confirmation,
the hypothetico-deductive method, information
as the goal of scientific inference, the role
of theoretical concepts in science, induction,
experiment, explanation, definition and identification,
theory-ladenness of observation and the incommensurability
of theories.
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