Philosophy

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  • GRS PH 652: Ethics of Health Care
    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 birth, life, and death, and what it is to be a person. Readings from both classical and contemporary writings in ethics, medicine, law, and public health policy.
  • GRS PH 656: Topics in Philosophy and Religion
    Topic for Fall 2019: Wisdom and Transformation. A study of the relationship between wisdom and moral transformation in several different philosophical and religions, from ancient Greece to the modern day, including an encounter with the classical traditions of India and China. This course is designed to run side by side with the Institute for Philosophy and Religion's fall lecture series.
  • GRS PH 657: Action, Interpretation, and Narrative
    What is the relationship between understanding behavior and understanding texts? What is the role of narrative in interpretation? Using philosophical reflections on narrative from Plato to MacIntyre, the course studies philosophy and tragedy as two perhaps antithetical traditions of interpretation.
  • GRS PH 660: Epistemology
    An examination of some of the central questions concerning the nature, scope, sources, and structure of knowledge.
  • GRS PH 661: Mathematical Logic
    The investigation of logical reasoning with mathematical methods. The syntax and semantics of sentential logic and quantificational logic. The unifying Godel Completeness Theorem, and models of theories. A look at the Godel Incompleteness Theorem and its ramifications. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings.
    • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
  • GRS PH 662: Foundations of Mathematics
    Axiomatic set theory as a foundation for, and field of, mathematics: Axiom of Choice, the Continuum Hypothesis, and consistency results.
  • GRS PH 663: Philosophy of Language
    The most representative problem areas in contemporary philosophy of language are discussed, criticized, and put into a new perspective. They include Frege's sense-reference theory, quantification and anaphora, theory of truth, the semantics of intentional and epistemic concepts, strategic aspects of language use, identification and individuation, metaphor, demonstratives and indexical, discourse and dialogue theory, and selected language disturbances (dyslexia, autism).
  • GRS PH 665: Philosophy of Cognitive Science
    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.
  • GRS PH 668: Philosophical Problems of Logic and Mathematics
    Selected traditional metaphysical and epistemological problems in the light of modern logic and various studies in the foundations of mathematics, including the nature of axiomatic method, completeness in logic and mathematics, and the nature of mathematical truth.
  • GRS PH 670: Philosophy of Physics
    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.
  • GRS PH 672: Philosophy of Biology
    Conceptual problems in biology; unity or pluralism of science; hierarchy theory; biological explanation; evolutionary theory, teleology and causality, statistical explanation; the species problem; mind and the brain; and language in animals and humans.
  • GRS PH 677: Philosophy of the Social Sciences
    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.
  • GRS PH 680: Topics in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy
    Topic for Fall 2017: Thinking Food & Drink. An examination sparked by Greek literature and philosophy.
  • GRS PH 685: Topics in Philosophy of Value
    Topic for Fall 2017: Shame.
  • GRS PH 686: Topics in Knowledge, Language, and Logic
    Topic for Fall 2017: Philosophy of Computing. What are the logical and philosophical origins and applications of the Turing Machine? What, philosophically, is computation? We discuss some of the logico-philosophical aspects of Turing's work and examine foundational issues surrounding its future extensions and applications.
  • GRS PH 687: Topics in the Philosophy of Science
    A discussion-based introduction to core issues in the philosophy of science, focusing on the topics of scientific realism, theory change, reductionism, explanation, models, and natural kinds.
  • GRS PH 688: Topics in Aesthetics
    Consideration of selected topics in aesthetics, with particular attention to the relationship between aesthetic experience and analytical accounts of the experience; topics include expression, perception, qualities, the good, the ideal, and the sublime.
  • GRS PH 699: Teaching College Philosophy I
    The goals, contents, and methods of instruction in philosophy. General teaching-learning issues. Required of all teaching fellows.
  • GRS PH 801: Ancient Philosophy 1
    An advanced study of works by either Plato or Aristotle.
  • GRS PH 810: Topics in Modern Philosophy
    Topics vary.

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