Course
Descriptions Spring 1999
CAS PH 100
PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY
Professor Roochnik
An introduction to philosophy. In this course
we will employ works of literature as well as
classical works of philosophy in order to exhibit
the human context of philosophy.
CAS PH 110
GREAT PHILOSOPHERS
Professor Ferrarin
Introduction to some basic questions of human
existence, with particular reference to the relationship
between man and nature, between the individual
and the political domain; the soul and the passions;
the definition of virtue and of ethics; morality
and freedom.
CAS PH 150 A1
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS
Professor Fahy
A systematic and historical inquiry into differing
accounts of the good life, alternating lectures
with discussions of selected texts.
CAS PH 150 B1
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS
Professor Wong
A systematic and historical inquiry into differing
accounts of the good life, alternating lectures
with discussions of selected texts.
CAS PH 150 C1
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS
Professor Garrett
A systematic inquiry into alternative ways of
discerning between good and evil, alternating
lectures with discussions of selected texts from
contemporary ethics.
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 & ARGUMENTATION
Professor Janssen
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 & 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.
Textbook: Hintikka and Bachman, What if...? Toward
Excellence in Reasoning and Weston, A Rulebook
for Arguments.
CAS PH 160 C1
REASONING & ARGUMENTATION
Professor Ostrow
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.
Textbook: Hintikka and Bachman, What if...? Toward
Excellence in Reasoning.
Prerequisite: one philosophy course
or sophomore standing
CAS PH 246
EXISTENTIALISM
Professor Rouner
Introductions to the Indian philosophical tradition,
study of the classical Six Systems, and an overview
of the rise of neo-Hindu philosophy from Ram
Mohun Roy to Gandhi.
CAS PH 253
SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY
Professor Cahoone
A philosophical examination of nineteenth and
twentieth century theories of 'modernity,' that
is, of the distinctive character of modern societies.
Readings will include Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud,
Max Weber, Hanna Arendt, Jean-Francois Lyotard,
and Peter Berger.
CAS PH 258
PHILOSOPHY AND LITERATURE
Professor Speight
Philosophy and the Theater 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 á 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 259
PHILOSOPHY AND THE ARTS
Professor Dahlstrom
Introduction to aesthetics, considering such
questions as: What is a work of art? How does
one know when it is good or bad? What is the
purpose of art? Emphasis on examining major works
of art.
CAS PH 260
KNOWLEDGE AND REALITY
Professor Janssen
This course, taught by one of the editors of
the Einstein Papers Project, will offer an in-depth
yet non-mathematical look at the surprising picture
of the physical world emerging from relativity
theory and quantum theory. The focus will be
on the contributions of Albert Einstein to this
modern view of nature. The goal is not just to
get a clear image of the unexpected features
of physical reality uncovered by Einstein and
others, but also to understand the reasoning
behind their claims.
To give just two examples of the sort of question
that will be guiding us: How does one get from
the notion that the velocity of light is independent
of the velocity of its source to the claim that
an astronaut returning from a mission in space
will be younger, albeit only a tiny bit, than
his or her twin who stayed at home, an unexpected
effect Einstein immediately accepted as a consequence
of his special theory of relativity? How does
one get from the splitting of a beam of electrons
sent through some magnetic field to the claim
that electrons do not have definite properties
until one performs a measurement on them, one
of the basic tenets of standard quantum mechanics,
a theory Einstein never accepted?
CAS PH 271
HISTORY OF SCIENCE
Professor Cao
Considering the centrality of science in our
world today, students in all fields--including
the sciences and engineering as well as the social
sciences and the humanities--should appreciate
both the role of science in society and its nature
as an intellectual system. One way to acquire
this perspective is through studying the history
of science. In this course we will examine key
events in the history of science and the historiographical
problems as to how the evolution of the history
of science is to be explained. Various views
on the nature of scientific progress offered
by Sarton, Merton, Koyré, Popper, Kuhn,
as well as the social constructivist, the feminist,
and the post-modernist, will be briefly examined.
We seek to understand the nature of the conceptual
developments in modern science, to appreciate
the character of the interactions between modern
science and society, and to appreciate the philosophical,
religious, and other cultural issues involving
science.
CAS PH 278
PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY
Professor Tauber
The question of how historians fulfill a moral
agenda in writing history will serve as the theme
of this course. Consideration of biblical narratives,
early Greek historians, Augustine, Vico, Hegel,
and Nietzsche will focus contemporary historiographic
issues concerning objectivity, historicism, and
perspectivism.
CAS PH 310 A1
HISTORY OF ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY
Professor Devlin
The course will explore Greek philosophy and
will concentrate on its chief representatives:
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.
Requirements: One paper, midterm, final.
CAS PH 310 A1
HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY
Professor Joseph
Examination of theories of major seventeenth
and eighteenth century philosophers, from Descartes
to Kant. Our focus will be accounts of the ultimate
nature of existence and knowledge.
Requirements: Two papers and final examination.
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 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.
Requirements: Two papers and final examination.
CAS PH 350
HISTORY OF ETHICS
Professor Haakonssen
The course provides a history of modern Western
ethics through detailed study of representative
thinkers, including Thomas Hobbes, David Hume,
Immanuel Kant, and John Stuart Mill. We consider
such questions as whether morality is invented
or discovered? What is the good life? What is
the relationship between moral virtue and happiness?
What is duty? What is supererogation? What is
the relationship between morality and religion?
CAS PH 360
LOGIC
Professor Hintikka
Study of the basics of modern logic, including
propositional logic, quantifiers, identity and
functions, completeness and incompleteness. A
special emphasis is placed on strategies of deductive
reasoning.
Undergraduates: Register for 400
level courses
Graduates: Register for 600 level
courses
CAS PH 403
PLATO I
Professor Roochnik
Prerequisite: PH 300 and two other
PH courses
"The Trial and Death of Socrates." A close reading of the Apology,
Crito, and Phaedo.
CAS PH 408
HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY
Professor Garrett
This class will be an introduction to the central
themes of Christian philosophy of middle and
late Medieval philosophy. After a broad introduction
we will concentrate on three thinkers: St. Thomas
Aquinas, William of Ockham, and John Duns Scotus.
These three thinkers will help us to address
some of the central concerns and tensions of
medieval philosophy: the analogy and univocity
of being, the realism of universals, God's foreknowledge
of future contingents, the relation between science
and theology, and others. The class will conclude
with a discussion of the implicit and explicit
impact of Scholastic philosophy on Early Modern
rationalism (Descartes, Spinoza, Malebranche,
and Leibniz) and empiricism (Hobbes, and Hume).
CAS PH 415
NINETEENTH CENTURY PHILOSOPHY
Professor Zank
Prerequisite: PH 310, and two other
PH courses
Requirements: Basic knowledge of at least one
of the following areas: modern European history,
Jewish thought, history of religion.
The course focuses on Continental philosophy
in the late 18th-, 19th-, and early 20th-century
looking at major shifts in metaphysics and epistemology
as reflected in political and religious problems
from the perspective of Jewish thinkers. Primary
readings cover Moses Mendelssohn, Hermann Cohen,
and Franz Rosenzweig, reading them as critical
respondents to Enlightenment, critical and absolute
idealism, and the crises of materialism and nihilism.
Among the major Continental thinkers considered
are Kant, Hegel, Marx, and Kierkegaard.
CAS PH 420/620
CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY
Professor Cahoone
A critical examination of that late twentieth
century intellectual movement called "postmodernism" as
it has developed in philosophy. We will trace
its evolution through the work of Martin Heidegger
and others; focus our attention on the key postmodernist
figures of Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault,
Jean-Francois Lyotard, and Richard Rorty; and
explore two differing critiques of postmodernism,
in the work of Jürgen Habermas and Alasdair
MacIntyre.
CAS PH 424/624
WITTGENSTEIN
Professor Dreben
A detailed examination of Wittgenstein's Philosophical
Investigations.
Texts by Wittgenstein:
1) Philosophical Investigations
2) Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics
3) On Certainty
CAS PH 426
PHENOMENOLOGY
Professor Ferrarin
The aim of this course is to provide an introduction
to phenomenology as a way of doing philosophy.
To this end the course concentrates on central
themes and methods of the phenomenologies of
Husserl and Heidegger. The course begins with
a review of Brentano's concept of intentionality
and its critical appropriation by Husserl.
We will analyze some of Husserl's Shorter Works,
especially Philosophy as Rigorous Science and
other brief general introductions to phenomenology,
with special emphasis on categorial intuition,
the natural attitude and phenomenological reductions,
and the general structures of pure consciousness.
Husserl's Crisis will be examined with special
focus on such themes as phenomenology and psychology
and the life-world.
We will follow Heidegger's description and employment
of phenomenology in History of the Concept of
Time. Special attention is paid to the way in
which the themes and method from Husserl's early
phenomenology are re-worked in Heidegger's existential
analysis of being-in-the-world. This course presupposes
the ability to do advanced work in philosophy.
CAS PH 427/627
HEIDEGGER AND EXISTENTIAL PHILOSOPHY
Professor Brinkmann
An analysis of the philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre
centering around his theory of consciousness
and the self, his theory of freedom, his ontology
of the 'in-itself' and the 'for-itself' and his
ethics. Readings will include:
The Transcendence of the Ego
Sketch of a Theory of the Emotions
Being and Nothingness
Existentialism and Humanism
CAS PH 447
ASIAN PHILOSOPHY
Professor Berthrong
(cross-listed with STH TT 815)
Prerequisites: PH 300, 310, and one
other PH course
This course, "The Confucian Tradition," 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 Chou
and Han founders) and the Neo-Confucian (the
Sung, Yüan, Ming and Ch'ing masters) periods;
we will also deal briefly with contemporary New
Confucianism. The course will also briefly review
the permutations of Confucian-Christian dialogue
as an illustration of the interaction of religious
traditions.
CAS PH 450/650
TYPES OF ETHICAL THEORY
Prerequisites: PH 350, and two other
PH courses
Professor Wong
This course focuses on three questions: 1) whether
morality should moderate its demands in the light
of the human tendency to attach great importance
to one's own projects and personal relationships;
2) whether morality is created through convention
and social practice or something to be discovered
in the world; and 3) whether valid moral requirements
remain constant or vary with culture.
Readings include contemporary Anglo-American
philosophy (e.g., Bernard Williams, Alasdair
MacIntyre, Susan Wolf, Owen Flanagan, John McDowell)
and Chinese Philosophy in translation (Mencius,
Mo Tzu, Hsun Tzu and Chuang Tzu). Comparing these
different philosophical traditions will sometimes
raise the question of how to understand and deal
with cultural differences in values and philosophical
approach. However, the different traditions sometimes
converge strikingly upon the same problems and
present solutions that invite comparison and
possible synthesis. For example, some contemporary
moral philosophers have criticized mainstream
moral theories for demanding an equal concern
for all that overrides ties of loyalty, friendship
and kinship to particular others. A very similar
debate took place in ancient China. Reflection
on the common problems addressed within very
different philosophical traditions suggests the
possibility that there are significant constraints
on what constitute an adequate morality for human
beings, even on the view that holds a great deal
of morality to be invented and to vary significantly
over culture.
CAS PH 452/652
ETHICS OF HEALTHCARE: Birth, Life and
Death
Professor Grodin
What is life? What is death? What distinguishes
being alive or having a life from living a life?
What is the nature of personhood? How can one
relate causality to intent, predictability or
fallibility? Medicine and health care offer a
unique opportunity to explore the nature of humanity
and the world and to ask fundamental questions
concerning the nature of life, death, and what
it is to be human. This course will analyze these
problems in the context of medical care at the
beginning and end of life. After an introduction
to the foundational questions and problems of
medical ethics and an exploration into the historical
views of birth, life, and death, the class will
explore the following topics: abortion, selective
fetal termination, the new reproductive and genetic
technologies, fetal-maternal conflicts, the human
genome projects, human death, brain death, personal
death, persistent vegetative coma, termination
of life support, euthanasia, and assisted suicide.
Throughout the course case studies will be used
as philosophical paradigms to assist in critiquing
and clarifying metaphysical and normative ethical
arguments.
Readings will be from both classical and contemporary
writings in ethics, medicine, law and public
health policy.
Requirements: class participation, presentations,
short papers and a longer final term paper.
CAS PH 465/665
PHILOSOPHY OF COGNITIVE SCIENCE
Prerequisite: PH 310, 360, and one
other PH course
Professor Cao
An introduction to philosophical issues in cognitive
science (computer science and neuroscience in
particular) with special attention to the issue
of emergence of cognitive activities from non-cognitive
processes: the condition and nature of the emergence
and its bearings to the mind-body problem. This
course is for advanced undergraduates and graduate
students; students from related departments (e.g.,
Cognitive & Neural Systems) are welcome.
CAS PH 468/668
PROBLEMS IN AND MATH
(cross-listed with MA 532)
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, 60%; midterm, 15%; and final
exam 25%.
Required Text: Yiannis Moschovakis Notes on Set
Theory (New York Springer-Verlag 1994).
CAS PH 472/672
PHILOSOPHY OF BIOLOGY
Professor Tauber
Darwinism is at the core of contemporary philosophy
of biology and we will consider this theory's
evolution from Darwin's writings, through the
synthesis with genetics, to modern dynamic theories.
Over-arching our particular consideration of
Darwinism is the structure of scientific theory
more generally and the nature of its development.
400 level: Limited to Senior Philosophy
Majors
600 level: Open to All Graduate
Students
CAS PH 482
TOPICS: MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY
Professor Olson
(Cross-listed with RN 510 Topics in
Religion and Literature)
Readings in Hegel and Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer,
Nietzsche, Charles Taylor and Paul Ricoeur, and
selected novels of the 20th Century.
The following courses are open to
Graduate Students ONLY
Note that courses listed above,
bearing a 600 level number, may be taken for
graduate credit.
GRS PH 812
TOPICS IN PHILOSOPHY OF KANT
Professor Allison
This will be a continuation of the seminar on
Kant's Critique of Judgment which began in the
Fall. It is open only to students who have taken
the first part or to students who receive special
permission from the instructor.
GRS PH 820
CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY
Professor Dahlstrom
This course investigates Heidegger's lectures
in 1925 ("Prolegomena to the History of
the Concept of Time") and 1925-26 ("Logic.
The Question of Truth"). In addition to
the significance of these lectures (the last
lectures given prior to the publication of Being
and Time) for understanding the development of
Heidegger's early thought, they are philosophically
important because they contain his initial argument
for a notion of truth, more basic than the notions
of truth invoked in some traditional logical
and epistemological contexts. Heidegger develops
his argument by means of (a) considerations of
the influence of Lotze's logic, (b) an extensive
assessment and criticism of Husserl's phenomenology,
(c) an unorthodox reading of Aristotle's writings
on truth, and (d) the first draft of a new interpretation
of Kant's transcendental project. The examination
and evaluation of Heidegger's argument is the
main objective of this course.
GRS PH 840
METAPHYSICS
Professor Rosen
An investigation into the origin of philosophy
in ordinary experience. Discussion of Husserl,
Heidegger, and Wittgenstein.
GRS PH 854
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
Professor Haakonssen
The focus of the course is John Locke's Tow Treatises
of Government. The work will be seen against
the background of Locke's moral philosophy and
theology and we will also be reading the early
work on natural law and a number of essays.
GRS PH 860
EPISTEMOLOGY
Professor Hintikka
A selection of important epistemological problems
will be examined, among them knowledge-seeking
by questioning, the interplay of empirical and
a prior knowledge, objects of knowledge in relation
to different individuation methods, the Cartesian
cogito, Wittgenstein's epistemology, and the
concept of intuition.
Requirements: A substantial term paper, to be
first submitted in draft, then rewritten in the
light of comments.
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