Introduction to the nature of philosophical activity through a careful study of selected great works such as Plato's Apology, Descartes' Meditations, Lao Tze's Tao Te Ching, Pascal's Pensées, and Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra. 4 cr.

A comparative introduction to the life and thought of six preeminent philosophers from classical times in both the Western and Eastern traditions. 4 cr.

Who ought we to be, what ought we to do, what ought we to strive for? Examination of our obligations to ourselves, to other humans, and to the natural world in light of ethical theory and contemporary problems. Readings from a wide range of texts in philosophical ethics. 4 cr.

A systematic study of the principles of both deductive and informal reasoning, calculated to enhance students' actual reasoning skills, with an emphasis on reasoning and argumentation in ordinary discourse. 4 cr.

Consideration of the nature and problems of self-understanding and self-realization. Psychological and philosophical perspectives on pattern, growth, and maturity in personality. Particular attention to philosophical issues associated with the place of emotion in the healthy personality; rationality, freedom, and responsibilty. 4 cr.

An introduction to the Chinese philosophical tradition, including a study of classical Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Mohism, Legalism, and modern developments. 4 cr.

Examination of a number of value problems arising within the context of medicine and health care. Particular ethical problems of euthanasia, abortion, human experimentation, reproduction, and allocation of scarce resources; critiques of contemporary medicine as an institution. 4 cr.

Types of political theory, their key concepts and underlying assumptions; paradoxes in the modern idea of freedom; the concept of property; scientific progress and the understanding of the politics. 4 cr.

Introduction to aesthetics, considering such questions as: What is a work of art? How does one know whether it is good or bad? 4 cr.

An examination of the efforts of artificial intelligence to model the human mind and explain human thought by means of suitably programmed computers. Attention is given to the historical and mathematical origins of such efforts, as well as the main psychological and philosophical assumptions on which they depend. 4 cr.

Main features of the scientific enterprise are illustrated by examples in the study of physics, biology, and mind: the aims of scientific activities, the nature of scientific understanding and procedures, the structure and interpretation of scientific theories, and the development of science. 4 cr.

Examination of basic concepts of the social sciences, such as causal and functional explanations, prediction, rationality, reduction, and objectivity. Consideration of philosophical problems of the particular social sciences, such as psychology, economics, archaeology, and history. 4 cr.

Classical Greek philosophy, with a concentration on the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle. 4 cr.

An examination of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century philosophy from Descartes to Kant, with emphasis on the nature and extent of knowledge. Readings include Descartes, Locke, Spinoza, Berkley, Hume, and Kant. 4 cr.

A critical and comparative examination of the ideas of representative moral philosophers from Plato to Nietzsche. 4 cr.

A careful study of the philosophy of Aristotle conducted primarily through a close reading of several of his major works. 4 cr.

A critical study of major texts of British Empiricists, with emphasis on Locke and Hume. 4 cr.

A close reading of Hegel's 1806 Phenomenology. 4 cr.

Focus on the work of Q. V. Quine. 4 cr.

Close reading of several essential works in the history of ethical theory, including some of the following: Plato, Aristotle, Spinoza, Kant, and Mill. 4 cr.

Study of the seminal notion of "natural law" and its developments from Grotius and Pufendorf through Hegel. Discussion of the connection between natural law and natural rights, as well as views about duty and virtue. Centrality of these concepts to legal as well as moral and political philosophy. 4 cr.

Examination of the individual's responsibilities under law, specifically of the idea that there is a general moral obligation to obey the law, including unjust law, and the contrasting idea of civil disobedience – the possibility of morally justified resistance to law. 4 cr.

The syntax and semantics of quantificational logic through to the Godel Completeness and Incompleteness Theorems. Computability, the Halting Problem, and recursive functions. 4 cr.

Critical survey of the main issues in the philosophy of language and the foundations of linguistics, including the ideas of logical form and the universality of languages as well as the basic ideas of generative grammar, possible-worlds semantics, Wittgenstein, and speech-act theories. 4 cr.

Can humans be thought of in analogy with machines? The course examines questions of natural and artificial intelligence in light of traditional theory and of recent research in computer science and artificial intelligence. 4 cr.

Philosophical problems concerning the interpretation of physical discoveries. Elementary particles, the anomalies of quantum mechanics, some modern problems of space and time, and the problem of wholes and parts. 4 cr.

Topics in the philosophy of the social sciences such as the interpretation of human action and the objectivity of social inquiry. Social consideration of alternative theoretic viewpoints such as naturalism and interpretivism. 4 cr.

Topic for Spring 2007: Conceptual History. Critical examination of the history of a number of central philosophical concepts, including being and its varieties, existence, identity, logic, world, creation, form, function, law of nature, chance, induction, intuition and the so-called principle of plenitude. 4 cr.