Course
Descriptions Spring 2006
CAS PH 100
INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
Professor Diamandopoulos
The aim of the course is threefold: to describe
what impelled thinkers of the highest intelligence
to invent philosophy; to interpret what the invention
of philosophy over its long history contributed
to man’s understanding of himself and the
world; and, last, to show why philosophy has
since its inception been the most serious guide
to truth, reason and knowledge.
For the purpose of clarity and intellectual
economy, the instructor will selectively reconstruct
some of the major periods of history and philosophy
and then will proceed to interpret and evaluate
the major figures of each period—their
philosophies. By combining the history
of philosophical ideas with the respective claims
of each philosophy to be true, the lecturer will
analyze what makes each select great philosopher,
great; and what establishes the surpassing greatness
of all philosophy.
The seminal philosophers to be studied are:
Plato, Aristotle, Lucretious, Descartes, Hume,
Nietzsche. The philosophical issues to
be examined are: knowledge, method, language,
reality, mind, virtue, death, the happy life,
politics/ethics, meaning, purpose, God, wisdom—and
some of the related topics.
It will be the conclusion of the course, the
lecturer hopes, that all significant human pursuits—education,
art, religion, literature, the life of action,
the practical life and the life of reflection
require philosophical understanding. Therefore,
philosophy is indispensable to the aspiring life.
Requirements: Extensive and difficult readings,
demanding lectures, intellectual seriousness
and self-confidence.
CAS PH 150 A1
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS
Professor Dahlstrom
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 Kuehn
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 Garrett
This class will focus on the problem of justice
and the moral questions involved in crime and
punishment or reward. We will discuss issues
such as the moral basis for punishment, theories
of justice, the legitimacy or illegitimacy of
different types of sanctions, the death penalty,
moral luck, historical reconciliation, the problem
of bias in relation to the law, and numerous
other questions. Readings will include literature,
classic works of philosophy, contemporary philosophy
articles, legal cases, and in some cases newspaper
and print articles. For students considering
this class for their divisional requirement,
it may be an appropriate course for communications
students insofar as we will discuss ethical issues
involved in journalistic representation of crime,
punishment and reward.
CAS PH 155
POLITICS AND PHILOSOPHY
Professor Rosen
An introduction to modern political philosophy,
with special emphasis on the most important differences
between ancient and modern political thought,
and in particular on the problem of enlightenment.
CAS PH 160 A1
REASONING AND ARGUMENTATION
Professor Hintikka
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 Devlin
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.
CAS PH 244
APPLIED ETHICS
Professor Keller
We will take a rigorous, critical approach to
a number of ethical questions that arise in everyday
life, including questions about life and death,
moral responsibility, special duties to family
and friends, our relationship to the environment,
and the moral status of animals.
CAS PH 247
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY
Professor Berthrong
"The Confucian Way" examines the intellectual history of the Confucian
tradition. The primary focus will be on the development of Confucianism in
China, Korea, and Japan. The course will emphasize the classical (the Zhou
and Han founders) and the Neo-Confucian (the Song, Yüan, Ming, Choson,
Tokugawa, and Qing masters) periods; we will also deal briefly with development
of contemporary New Confucianism. The course will also briefly review the permutations
of Confucian-Christian dialogue as an illustration of the interaction of religious
traditions and with New Confucianism's dialogue with global philosophy.
CAS PH 248
EXISTENTIALISM
Professor Hopp
‘Existentialism’ is a term that designates what is perhaps the
most self-consciously unsystematic and non-academic movement in recent intellectual
history. As such, existentialism defies any tidy characterization. Nevertheless,
the central philosophical and literary figures commonly regarded as existentialists
seem united in their skepticism concerning the power of traditional philosophical
or scientific analysis to render human thought and action intelligible, the
value they place on individual authenticity, and the importance they assign
to emotionally exceptional states of mind for the full disclosure of human
reality. In this course we will examine works by, among others, Kierkegaard,
Dostoevsky, Kafka, Jaspers, Camus, and Sartre. We will be especially
concerned with what these thinkers have to say about the condition of modern
humanity, the ability of science to explain human action, the authority of
moral norms, and the “absurdity” of human life, either with or
without God.
CAS PH 250
ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS
Professor Brinkmann
This course will focus on two aspects of environmental
theory, the scientific facts and theories about
the development of our environment (e.g., the
development of energy and food consumption, pollution,
population growth, species loss, global warming,
cost-benefit analysis) and the philosophical
foundations for an environmental ethics. Here
we will be discussing questions concerning the
relationship between man and nature, the sustainability
of economic growth, the major positions in environmental
ethics from biocentrism to deep ecology to the
stewardship of the environment. We will conclude
with questions concerning the nature of the good
life and the compatibility of life-styles with
the preservation of a healthy environment. Our
major text (but not the only one) will be David
Schmidtz and Elizabeth Willcott (eds.), Environmental
Ethics. What Really Matters, What Really Works,
Oxford University Press 2002.
CAS PH 253
SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY
Professor Cao
A philosophical examination of classical and
contemporary theories of modern society. Readings
will include the work of Hobbes, Rousseau, Mill,
Weber, as well as later thinkers.
CAS PH 271
HISTORY OF SCIENCE
Professor Clark
This course will look at some select aspects
of the emergence and development of science as
an intellectual system of thought. A major
area of our attention will be directed towards
philosophical implications and problems raised
by its advent of science. Some questions
to be raised regard the role and problems of
inductive method, matters of scientific explanation,
questions on observation and theory neutrality,
and the progress of science.
To precede, we will chart the beginnings of
the scientific enterprise in ancient Greece and
move on to consider more recent developments
from Ptolemy to Copernicus and Galileo. We
will then move ahead to consider contributions
of Newton, Darwin and Einstein. Some major
philosophical figures we will consider are Democritus,
Hippocrates,
Aristotle, Hume, Kant, Hemple, Popper, and Quine.
CAS PH 300 A1/HP
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 A1/HP
HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY
Professor Brinkmann
The history of modern philosophy begins with
a revolution in thought, viz. the shift
from a contemplative attitude towards nature
and the world so typical of ancient philosophy
to a practical, utility oriented view of theoretical knowledge.
At the same time, man's purpose on earth is no
longer understood as determined by human
nature as with Plato or Aristotle or by divine
providence in accordance with Christian
faith. Rather, man is declared to be "the maker
and molder" of himself and "a creature
of indeterminate nature" (Pico della
Mirandola, ca. 1480). One of the most influential
protagonists of this new way of thinking
was Francis Bacon, an English philosopher and
politician of the 17th century. Our point
of departure will be a discussion of Bacon's ideas.
However, the implications of Bacon's critical
re-assessment of the traditional ways of thinking
will lead us to an investigation into the presuppositions connected
with the idea that man is capable of understanding
the fundamental structure of nature and
reality in general. How much of reality is really within
reach of human cognition? Must all knowledge
be based on sense-experience? If so, is
metaphysics at all possible? Various questions
as to how far human knowledge may extend
need to be raised. We shall pursue this line
of inquiry traditionally called epistemological
form Descartes through Kant. A discussion of
the bold metaphysical interpretations of reality
to be found in the writings of Spinoza
and Leibniz as well as the more cautious and
skeptical estimations of the scope and
reliability of human knowledge advocated by Locke,
Berkeley, and Hume will be included.
CAS PH 310 B1
HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY
Professor Webb
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 form 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
Professor Roochnik
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.
CAS PH 360
LOGIC
Professor Floyd
Study of methods characteristic of modern deductive
logic including truth tables, Boolean normal
forms, models, and indirect and conditional proofs
within the theory of truthfunctions and quantifiers.
Textbook: Warren Goldfarb, Deductive Logic.
CAS PH 405
ARISTOTLE I
Professor Roochnik
A careful study of Aristotle's Metaphysics.
CAS PH 413/613
KANT
Professor Kuehn
Prereq: CAS PH 310 and three other philosophy
courses. A single text constitutes the basis
for this course -- Kant’s Critique of Pure
Reason. Some of the great scholars of the past
have devoted a lifetime to analyzing, explicating,
and evaluating this work. We, alas, have only
one semester. In this, the first of three Critiques,
Kant introduced the idea of a critical self-examination
of reason, and in the execution of this program
he developed a unique new type of philosophy,
called transcendental philosophy, which forever
revolutionized philosophical thought. We shall
examine the text carefully from beginning to
end. Because Kant’s thinking is enormously
complex, intricate, and subtle, we shall make
ample use of secondary sources and complement
textual analysis by discussing helpful comments
by some of today’s finest Kant scholars.
CAS PH 418
MARX & MARXISM
Professor Cao
Prerequisite: PH 300 and two other PH courses.
In this introductory course, Marxism will be
treated mainly as a conceptual framework for
understanding history and society (including
economy, politics and culture), and also as a
critique of capitalism and a program of transforming
the capitalist society for human emancipation,
with an analysis of both its philosophical and
ethical presuppositions and its conceptions of
a post-capitalist society. The evolution of its
theoretical bases, through its three stages (classical
Marxism of Marx and Engels; the Soviet orthodoxy
and its critics; and contemporary Marxisms) will
be critically examined, and its practical (political,
economic and cultural) impacts on the historical
course since its inception briefly outlined.
Texts:
* The Marx-Engels Reader (ME) (ed. Robert C.
Tucker)
* The Lenin Anthology (L) (ed. Robert C. Tucker)
* Western Marxism--A critical Reader (WM) (ed.
NLR)
* The Retreat of Intellectuals (Socialist Register
1990) (RI) (eds. Ralph Miliband and Leo Panitch)
* Marxism in the Postmodern Age (MP) (eds. Antonio
Callari, Stephen Cullenberg and carol Biewener)
CAS PH 430/630
AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY
Professor Kestenbaum
In The Metaphysical Club, Louis Menand says the
pragmatists believed “that ideas are not ‘out
there’ waiting to be discovered, but are
tools—like forks and knives and microchips—that
people devise to cope with the world in which
they find themselves.” Is this all that
philosophical pragmatism has to offer, i.e.,
ideas (and ideals) as tools, living as coping?
Are not thinking and living capable of a loftier
aspiration and perhaps a greater perfection that
those envisioned by pragmatism? Stanley Cavell
thinks so:
To repress Emerson’s difference is to deny that America is as transcendentalist
as it is pragmatist, that it is in struggle with itself, at a level not articulated
by what we understand as the political. But what Dewey calls for, other disciplines
can do as well, maybe better, than philosophy.
Similar to many critics of pragmatism, Cavell
believes it foreshortens human experience. Problematic
situations and the tools to solve them are pragmatism’s
main concern. What Cavell refers to as “spiritual
disorder” is at stake for philosophers
such as Emerson and Wittgenstein.
The course will examine the grounds for including
William James and John Dewey in what Cavell calls “a
tradition of perfectionist writing that extends
in the West from Plato to Nietzche, Ibsen, Kierkegaard,
Wilde, Shaw, Heidegger, and Wittgenstein.” What,
ultimately, does pragmatism call for?
Texts:
* John Dewey, Experience and Nature, Human
Nature and Conduct
* John J. McDermott, ed., The Writings
of William James
* Victor Kestenbaum, The Grace and the Severity
of the Ideal: John Dewey and the Transcendent
* Morris Dickstein, ed., The Revival of Pragmatism:
New Essays on Social Thought, Law, and Culture
CAS PH 441/641
PHILOSOPHICAL IDEALISM
Professor Speight
Prereq: PH310
Introduction to the post-Kantian development
of German idealism through analysis and critical
discussion of texts by Fichte, Schelling and
Hegel. Particular focus on the idealists'
conceptions of freedom, with readings to include,
among other works, Fichte's Science of Knowledge,
Vocation of Man and Foundations of Natural Right;
Schelling's System of Transcendental Idealism
and Philosophical Inquiries into the Nature of
Human Freedom; and Hegel's essays on the Difference
between Fichte's and Schelling's Systems of Philosophy
and Scientific Ways of Treating Natural Law.
CAS PH 451
CONTEMPORARY ETHICAL THEORY
Professor Keller
Consequentialism is the view that an act's rightness
or wrongness solely is a matter of its consequences.
We will trace the development of consequentialist
thought from the early British utilitarians to
the various versions of consequentialism defended
today, and will examine several contemporary
philosophical debates in which consequentialist
principles are at stake.
CAS PH 452/652
EHICS OF HEALTHCARE
Professor Clark
The focus of this course will be on the ethics
of trust relations in the medical profession. Contemporary
medicine is facing a major challenge referred
to as the commodification movement. This
movement seeks to view medical goods and services
as commodities of the market.
Clearly, the dominant norm of the market is
expressed in the phrase, caveat emptor: "Let
the buyer beware." In contrast to
this market picture, many view the medical profession
as a public trust. In these terms, when
we enter the medical context as patients, rather
than consumers, we tend to trust medical professionals
to take our health care concerns first and foremost,
and not to be viewing our medical needs as market
commodities.
Defenders of commodification believe that this
attitude of trust is both unrealistic and detrimental
to advancing the field of health care. The
trust model, critics say, is not only a lofty
and unrealistic ideal, but if we continue chasing
this unattainable dream we impede our chances
at making the "real world" progress
that the medical profession so desparately needs
today.
This course thus will be animated by this tension
over trust relations in medicine as we consider
the ethics and economics of trust across three
principal domains of the profession: Physician
and patient relations, biomedical research, and
public health.
CAS PH 459/659
POLITICAL AND LEGAL PHILOSOPHY
Professor Baxter
HABERMAS, LAW, AND DEMOCRACY
Spring semester: Thursday, 10:40-12:40
Jürgen Habermas is perhaps the world's
most prominent living social theorist and philosopher.
His recent work has turned to law and its relation
to political democracy. This course, cross-listed
with the School of Law, examines critically Habermas's
theory of law and democracy.
Students must attend and be fully prepared for
each week's meeting. With advance notice, 2-4
students will be selected each week for first-line
responsibility in discussing the readings. But
any student may be called on in class without
advance notice. Attendance, preparation, and
participation will be a significant factor in
grading.
Each student will be required to produce substantial
writing -- both analytical and critical. The
general expectation is at least 25 pages of written
work. Particular requirements for the various
members of the course -- undergraduates, philosophy
graduate students, other graduate students, and
law students -- will be determined later.
CAS PH 460/660
EPISTEMOLOGY
Professor Hopp
In this course we will examine some of the main
controversies within and about the
theory of knowledge by examining the works of
some of the preeminent historical and contemporary
authors within the field of epistemology.
The main questions within the theory
of knowledge include the following: (1)
What is the nature of knowledge? What
elements must be in place, and what conditions
must be satisfied, in order for an act of knowing
to take place? Of what parts and pieces
is an individual instance of knowledge composed,
and how are they related? (2) What is the scope of
knowledge? What kinds of objects can be known,
and under what conditions? Is knowing a
typical occurrence, or something that only takes
place in special circumstances? (3) What are
the sources of knowledge? Is sense
perception a source of knowledge? Is it
the only source of knowledge? How about
memory and testimony? Rational intuition? (4)
What is the structure of knowledge? Must
a structure of knowledge rest on a foundation,
or is mutual coherence among our beliefs sufficient?
We will also concern ourselves with some questions about the
discipline of epistemology. What kind of
discipline is epistemology? Is it a descriptive discipline
like metaphysics or a normative discipline
like ethics? Is it an empirical discipline? What
is the relation between epistemology and metaphysics,
the philosophy of mind, and psychology? What
role does “conceptual analysis” play
in answering questions (1) – (4) above?
CAS PH 462/662
FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATICS
Professor Kanamori
The course begins, if necessary, with a review
of first-order logic and formal systems. It then
focuses on axiomatic set theory as the basic
framework for mathematics, and as a distinctive
field of mathematics. With emphasis on the historical
context, the theory is developed from its beginnings
in the work of Cantor and Zermelo through to
modern preoccupations. Proceeding through the
basic axioms, the algebra of classes, and the
set vs. class distinction, mathematical concepts
of number from integers to reals are discussed.
Then Cantor's transfinite numbers and Continuum
Hypothesis are considered, and Zermelo's Axiom
of Choice and its role in mathematics surveyed.
Finally, recent results and current problems
are broached.
Grading: Exercises, 50%; midterm, 16.7%; and
final exam 33.3%.
Text:
* Karel Hrbacek and Thomas Jech, Introduction
to Set Theory, Third Edition (New York:
Marcel Dekker 1999).
CAS PH 470/670
PHILOSOPHY OF PHYSICS
Professor Bokulich
This course is an introduction to philosophical
issues raised by modern physics. Topics
we shall address include the following: Is time
travel possible? Is space a thing or
a set of relations between things? Is
the world deterministic? Does quantum theory
require conscious minds? Is there instantaneous
action-at-a-distance? Do all possible occurrences
get played out in separate parallel universes? What
is the relationship between information, descriptions,
and physics? No specific background in
physics or philosophy is required; the class
will provide a rudimentary understanding of special
relativity and quantum mechanics adequate for
addressing these and other conceptual problems
facing physicists and philosophers.
CAS PH 481
TOPICS IN PHILOSOPHY OF LAW
Professor Garrett
This seminar will explore a broad range of issues
concerning both the philosophy of punishment
and the substantive criminal law. Topics
are likely to include the scope and legitimacy
of punishment; retributivist and utilitarian
justifications for punishment; what should be
criminalized; the insanity defense (with attention
to the free will/ determinism debate); whether
fortuity or “moral luck” justifies
punishing completed crimes more than attempts;
and justification (including self-defense) and
excuse (including duress). The seminar
is open both to law students and to undergraduate
and graduate philosophy students.
The basic text will be Foundations of Criminal
Law (Leo Katz, Michael S. Moore, and Stephen
J. Morse, eds.), but many articles of a more
philosophical nature will also be assigned.
CAS PH 483
TOPICS IN PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION
Professor Zank
Cross-listed with RN 329 Modern Jewish Thought
Reading philosophical sources from the late
17th to the early 20th century, we will
explore modern perspectives on reason, liberty,
and the authority of tradition. Major authors:
Spinoza, Lessing, Mendelssohn, Maimon, Kant,
Schleiermacher, Hegel, Marx, Kierkegaard,
Nietzsche, Cohen, Buber, and Rosenzweig.
Requirements: The course taps two major canons
of modern literature. On the one hand there are
the Christian, post-Christian, and non-Christian
(Spinoza!) philosophers usually included in the
canon of Continental thought, and on the other
hand there are Jewish and post-Jewish (Spinoza!)
thinkers usually included in courses on modern
Jewish thought. Students of philosophy may need
to go the extra mile in making themselves knowledgeable
in European social and political history, as
well as in background information on Judaism,
while religion students may need to learn how
to master philosophical reading and reasoning.
CAS PH 485
TOPICS IN PHILOSOPHY OF VALUE
Professor Griswold
This seminar will focus on the concepts of "sympathy" and "empathy," and
secondarily on associated notions such as "compassion," "care," and "pity." Our
object is to understand what these terms mean,
and their relevance to ethics. Readings
will be drawn from: Hume's Treatise and
second Inquiry; A. Smith's Theory
of Moral Sentiments; M. Scheler's The
Nature of Sympathy; Rousseau's Second
Discourse and Emile; Darwall's
Welfare and Rational Care; and various
contemporary discussions (on reserve in the library). The
student is permitted to count this course as
a senior seminar. Prerequisites: absent
permission from the instructor, every student
must have completed at least four courses in
philosophy
GRS PH 624
WITTGENSTEIN
Professor Floyd
An intensive study of Wittgenstein's Philosophical
Investigations. Themes covered include the
nature of concept-possession, the scope and character
of logic, Wittgenstein's criticisms of mentalism
and various forms of psychologism, questions
about what it is to follow a rule, to understand
a language, and to express a thought.
GRS PH 651
CONTEMPORARY ETHICAL THEORY
Professor Dahlstrom
Consequentialism is the view that an act's rightness
or wrongness solely is a matter of its consequences.
We will trace the development of consequentialist
thought from the early British utilitarians to
the various versions of consequentialism defended
today, and will examine several contemporary
philosophical debates in which consequentialist
principles are at stake.
GRS PH 858
AESTHETICS
Professor Speight
This course will focus on the status of art,
poetry and philosophy in German Romanticism and
Idealism. Seminar discussions and presentations
will be devoted to the writings of Novalis, Schleiermacher,
Schlegel, Hoelderlin, Schelling, and Hegel, as
well as to the growing body of contemporary secondary
literature on the philosophical and literary
importance of the Jena Romantics.
GRS PH 871
CONTEMP. ISSUES IN PHILO. SCIENCE
Professor Hintikka
A number of well known paradoxes and semi-paradoxes
(plus some new ones) are examined in most cases
definitively solved. They include paradoxes
of truth and meaning (e.g. the liar, the alleged
undefinability of truth and the indeterminacy
of radical translation), paradoxes of information
(e.g. the tautological character of logical inference),
set-theoretical paradoxes (both logical and semantical),
paradoxes of vagueness (e.g. the sorites paradox),
near-paradoxes of identity (e.g. the failures
of substitutivity of identity and existential
generalization and the mysterious “rigid
designation”), apparent paradoxes of questioning,
paradoxes of dependence (especially of mutual
dependence), paradoxes of time and fatalism (e.g.
Aristotle’s sea fight puzzle), as well
as quantum-theoretical paradoxes (e.g. the collapse
of the wave function and nonlocality).
GRS PH 880
TOPICS IN PHILOSOPHY I
Professor Rosen
A continuation of the Fall semester seminar on
Hegel's Science of Logic.
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