Courses

• CAS PH 247: Introduction to Chinese Philosophy
  An introduction to the Chinese philosophical tradition, including a study of classical Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Mohism, Legalism, and modern developments. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS.
• CAS PH 248: Existentialism
  Explores existentialism in contemporary philosophy. Topics include the grounds for belief and value; depth, superficiality, and the intense life; commitment and open-mindedness; boredom, anxiety, and adventure; and existentialism as a philosophy of the possible. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS.
• CAS PH 251: Medical Ethics
  Explores moral philosophical issues that arise in connection with medicine and emerging biotechnologies. Examines topics such as the right to healthcare, research ethics, euthanasia, abortion, concepts of death and disease, and assisted reproductive technologies. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS.
• CAS PH 253: Social Philosophy
  A survey of philosophical and sociological analyses of modern Western society, including Rousseau, Marx, Weber, and a number of contemporary writers. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS.
• CAS PH 254: Political Philosophy
  Examines modern European political philosophy: Hobbes, Kant, Marx, and Carl Schmitt. Focuses on "liberalism" and its criticism, in the context of the intellectual landscape of the time as well as some more recent interpretations. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS.
• CAS PH 256: Philosophy of Gender and Sexuality
  Analyzes notions of gender and sexuality. Readings: Plato, Rousseau, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Sartre, Levinas, Scruton, Bloom. Questions include: Are gender and sexuality natural? Are they social constructions? How are they related to love and desire? Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS.
• CAS PH 258: Philosophy and Literature
  Examines literature and philosophy through the sorts of demands they place upon reason, experience, and language. Writers include William James, Henry James, Wallace Stevens, and T.S. Eliot. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS.
• CAS PH 259: Philosophy of the Arts
  What makes something beautiful? How do different arts (music, dance, painting, sculpture, architecture, film, drama) relate to our aesthetic experience of the world? Explores several philosophical theories of art through specific examples of artwork. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS.
• 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. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS.
• CAS PH 265: Minds and Machines
  Examines efforts of artificial intelligence to model the human mind and explain human thought. Explores the historical and mathematical origins of such efforts, and the psychological and philosophical assumptions on which they depend. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS.
• CAS PH 266: Mind, Brain, and Self
  Philosophical introduction to cognitive science. Considers the historical and intellectual background from which cognitive science has emerged, as well as philosophical issues concerning the mind, brain, and self that arise from contemporary scientific research. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS.
• CAS PH 270: Philosophy of Science
  Uses scientific examples from the study of physics, biology, and mind. Focuses on the aims of science, the nature of scientific understanding, the structure and interpretation of scientific theories, and the development of science. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS.
• 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. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS.
• 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 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.

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