Courses

• CAS PH 260: Knowledge and Reality
  Introduction to important issues in ancient, modern, and contemporary theories of knowledge; examination of related metaphysical questions, including first principles or foundations; necessity vs contingency; materialism, dualism, idealism; the positivist challenge to metaphysics.
• CAS PH 261: Puzzles and Paradoxes
  Some of our most basic beliefs, when scrutinized, lead to absurd conclusions. For example, using only beliefs that seem uncontroversial, we can conclude that motion is impossible, that everyone is bald, and that it is impossible to give a surprise exam. Carefully scrutinizing the reasoning that leads to these absurdities often yields substantial philosophical insight. This course examines a number of such puzzles and paradoxes in detail.
• CAS PH 265: Minds and Machines
  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.
• CAS PH 266: Mind, Brain, and Self
  Philosophical introduction to cognitive science. A consideration of the historical and intellectual background from which cognitive science has emerged, as well as the philosophical issues concerning the mind, brain, and self that arise from contemporary scientific research.
• CAS PH 270: Philosophy of Science
  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.
• CAS PH 272: Science, Technology, and Values
  Examination of some of the important ways in which science, technology, society, and human values are interconnected. Includes case studies of the social and ethical challenges posed by computer, military, and biological technology.
• CAS PH 277: Philosophy and Methods in the Human Sciences
  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.
• CAS PH 300: History of Ancient Philosophy
  Classical Greek philosophy, with a concentration on the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle.
• CAS PH 310: History of Modern Philosophy
  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.
• CAS PH 340: Metaphysics and Epistemology
  Epistemology is the study of the nature of knowledge. Key issues in epistemology include our knowledge of the external world, knowledge of our own mental states, and inductive knowledge. Metaphysics is the study of the nature of reality. Key issues in metaphysics include free will, personal identity, and the nature of existence. This course consists of a survey of issues in metaphysics, epistemology, and their intersection.
• CAS PH 350: History of Ethics
  A critical and comparative examination of the ideas of representative moral philosophers from Plato to Nietzsche.
• CAS PH 360: Symbolic Logic
  Study of methods characteristic of modern deductive logic including use of truth tables, Boolean normal forms, models, and indirect and conditional proofs within the theory of truth-functions and quantifiers.
• CAS PH 401: Senior Independent Work
  Individual tutorial instruction and directed research at distinction level.
• CAS PH 402: Senior Independent Work
  Individual tutorial instruction and directed research at distinction level.
• CAS PH 403: Plato I
  (Knowledge of Greek is helpful but not required. Familiarity with Greek philosophy is helpful.) A close reading of the Symposium.
• CAS PH 405: Aristotle I
  A careful study of the philosophy of Aristotle conducted primarily through a close reading of several of his major works.
• CAS PH 406: Aristotle II
  A close reading of Aristotle's writings on practical philosophy (i.e., the Nicomachean Ethics and the Politics) and of his philosophy of art in the Poetics, focusing on the nature of human happiness and the good life, the question of the best form of political government, and the function of art for life.
• CAS PH 410: Continental Rationalism
  A critical study of major texts of seventeenth-century philosophy.
• CAS PH 411: British Empiricism
  A critical study of major texts of British Empiricists, with emphasis on Locke and Hume.
• CAS PH 412: Philosophy of the Enlightenment
  A critical examination of that family of philosophical and political movements that called itself "the Enlightenment." Students analyze key texts by Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Smith, Rousseau, Voltaire, Diderot, Jefferson, Madison, Kant, and Hegel.

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