Course!Descriptions! · CAS$PH155$A1$ Politics$and$Philosophy$ Professor!James!Schmidt!...

Updated: 10/31/13 3:19 PM

Course Descriptions

Spring 2014

Undergraduate Courses

CAS PH 100 A1 Introduction to Philosophy Professor John Grey

Monday, Wednesday, Friday 1:00PM-‐2:00PM

In this course, our goal will to learn how to do philosophy through examination of some of the central problems of the philosophical tradition, what are sometimes referred to as the “Big Questions” of human existence. We will be particularly interested in the methods of argumentation that people have used in attempting to grapple with these questions. While we will not consider all of the “Big Questions,” we will look at those falling under the following five topics:

Truth and Paradox: What is it rational to believe? What counts as good evidence?

Justice and Injustice: What makes an action morally right? What would a just society look like?

Freedom and Slavery: Do we have free will? What would such freedom, or its absence, involve?

Past and Future: What connects us to our past and future selves? What changes can be survived?

Life and Death: Should we fear death? Should we desire immortality?

CAS PH 100 B1 Introduction to Philosophy Professor Peter Bokulich Tuesday, Thursday 11:00AM-‐12:30PM

A general introduction to Western Philosophy that will address questions such as the following: What is the relationship between our ideas and the material world? Might the world be a computer-‐generated illusion (like in The Matrix)? Can we prove or disprove the existence of God? What is the foundation of morality? Do facts about right and wrong depend on our particular culture? Do they depend on God? How is the mind related to the brain? Could a computer think? What is consciousness? Do we have free will?

CAS PH 150 A1 Introduction to Ethics Professor John Grey

Monday, Wednesday, Friday 10:00AM-‐11:00AM

American society today is defined by a combination of democracy, capitalism, and technology that is historically unique. The moral problems that we face as members of this society are, in many ways, also unique. Given the historical inequalities in our society, should certain jobs give preference to hiring women and people of color? Should we be able to keep certain information about ourselves private, even though the internet seems to have shattered the walls of privacy? Should convicted felons retain the right to vote, or should they be disenfranchised from the political process? Such questions can only be answered by moral reasoning and inquiry into our fundamental ethical commitments — the business of this course.

CAS PH 150 B1 Introduction to Ethics Professor Paul Katsafanas

Tuesday, Thursday 2:00PM-‐3:30PM

We judge that some lives are better than others, that some actions are right and others wrong, that some pursuits are valuable and others disvaluable. But what is the basis for these claims? What makes a life good, an action right, a pursuit valuable? In this course we’ll examine some of the most interesting attempts to answer these questions. Readings will be drawn from Aristotle, Hobbes, Hume, Kant, Bentham, Mill, Schopenhauer, Marx, and Nietzsche. As we read these thinkers, we’ll address the following questions: do human beings seek happiness? Is happiness equivalent to pleasure? Is happiness achievable? Are we moved exclusively by self-‐interest, or do we have altruistic motives? What is freedom, and do we aspire toward it? Is there a connection between freedom and morality? Might certain economic and social arrangements undermine human flourishing? Might traditional morality itself be dangerous?

CAS PH150 C1 Introduction to Ethics Professor Irina Meketa

Tuesday, Thursday 9:30AM-‐11:00AM

The aim of this course is to provide an introduction to philosophical thinking through a case-‐based study of ethically challenging subjects. We begin with a brief introduction to fundamental ethical principles and a review of dominant theories, such as consequentialist and rights-‐based theories, as well as a brief examination of political philosophy. Using this foundation, we will move on to examine questions that fall into two very broad categories: “Private Bodies, Pubic Choices” and “Justice Beyond Comfort Zones.” We will examine questions such as the following: Is drug-‐use immoral even in cases where it doesn’t cause harm to anybody else? What, if anything, is wrong with human cloning? Is physician-‐assisted suicide morally wrong, and should it be legal? Do prisoners lose some of their moral rights when they enter prison, and, if so, which rights and why? How should we treat nonhuman animals? What obligations do members of a global community owe to distant others? Readings include selections from Lewis Vaughn’s (2013) Contemporary Moral Arguments: Readings in Ethical Issues, Second Edition and Simon Blackburn’s (2009) A Very Short Introduction to Ethics.

CAS PH155 A1 Politics and Philosophy Professor James Schmidt


This course is an introduction to several major themes and questions in political philosophy, such as: What is justice? Is the free market necessarily part of a free society, or can economic and political liberties be divorced? What, if anything, legitimizes the exercise of governmental power? Are anarchism and utopianism defensible? What are the foundations of property rights, liberty, and equality? Can and should politics be conducted philosophically? While special attention will be given to the modern European Enlightenment (and so to Adam Smith, Rousseau, and David Hume, for example), we will also examine works by a number of contemporary authors along with passages from the classics (Plato and Aristotle in particular). Throughout, we will cultivate the fundamental philosophical skills of analysis and argumentation as we delve into issues of great contemporary relevance. Undergraduate Prerequisites: None. This course carries Humanities divisional credit in CAS.

CAS PH159 A1 Philosophy and Film Professor Aaron Garrett Tuesday, Thursday 2:00PM-‐3:30PM; Optional film viewing Thursday 6:00PM-‐9:00PM

An introduction to philosophical issues connected with film as a medium. Topics include whether the experience of watching a film is in your head, on the screen, or elsewhere, emotion and narrative, genre, the distinction between fiction and non-‐fiction, whether films can be philosophy, and whether or not the immorality of some art diminishes our valuing it as art. The course will involve weekly viewing of films (all available on Netflix or Amazon), as well as a stress on the relevance of film production — shooting films, editing, sound, etc. — to thinking through these and other philosophical issues. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS.

CAS PH160 A1 Reason and Argumentation Professor Tian Cao

Monday, Wednesday, Friday 11:00AM-‐12:00PM

The course is designed to introduce students to the principles of reasoning and argumentation, and to formal models for eliciting underlying patterns and structures of reasoning and argumentation, which can be used to develop skills in actual reasoning and argumentation in different fields of inquiry and in different walks of life. These skills, including argument analysis, argument pattern recognition, argument construction, argument evaluation and the writing of argumentative essays, are crucial for success in everyday life and in all academic disciplines. Particular attention will be paid to how to avoid mistakes (“fallacies”) and how to make good arguments, that is how to reason more reflectively and effectively, with careful analysis of examples taken from everyday life and from various academic disciplines.

CAS PH160 B1 Reason and Argumentation Professor Judson Webb


A systematic study of both deductive and informal reasoning, with an emphasis on reasoning and argumentation in ordinary discourse and their strategies.

CAS PH246 A1 Indian Philosophy Professor Lele Tuesday, Thursday 6:00PM-‐7:30PM

This course will introduce the various traditions of the Indian subcontinent, both Buddhist and “Hindu”, that address central philosophical questions like what reality is, what and how we can know, and how we should live. We will read several primary Indian philosophical texts in English translation. We will read these texts closely, paying attention to both their argument and their historical contexts. We will examine the development of several central themes in Indian thought, such as the self, illusion, God and (non)violence. As well as classical texts, we will spend some time examining major modern Indian thinkers. Students will have the opportunity to develop an original project of their own choosing.

CAS PH248 A1 Existentialism Professor Walter Hopp


The central philosophical and literary figures commonly regarded as existentialists are a diverse bunch, but are united in their skepticism concerning the power of traditional philosophical or scientific analysis to render human thought and action intelligible, the value they place on individual authenticity, and the importance they assign to emotionally exceptional states of mind for the full disclosure of human (and even non-‐human) reality. In this course we will examine works by Kierkegaard, Dostoevski, Nietzsche, Kafka, Camus, and Sartre. We will be especially concerned with what these thinkers have to say about the condition of modern humanity, the ability of science to explain human action, the authority of moral laws, the importance of individual “authenticity,” and the “absurdity” of human life, either with or without God.

CAS PH256 A1 Philosophy of Sex and Gender Professor Susanne Sreedhar


This course explores philosophical questions that arise about gender and sexuality. What is sexism? What is oppression? What is the correct response to sexism and oppression? How many sexes are there? How many genders? What is sexual orientation? What is sexual perversion? What are sexual ethics, including questions about the value and status of monogamy, polyamory, promiscuity, and adultery? Should same-‐sex marriage be legalized, and if so, on what grounds? Should the state be involved in the institution of marriage in the first place? What are the moral status of practices such as sex work and pornography? Readings include selections from Alan Soble’s (ed) Philosophy of Sex, Marilyn Frye’s The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory, and Sandra Bartky’s Femininity and Domination. Assignments include answering study questions for each class and four essay exams.

CAS PH259 A1 Philosophy and The Arts Professor Daniel Dahlstrom


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 PH266 A1 Mind, Brain, and Self Professor Walter Hopp Tuesday, Thursday 2:00PM-‐3:30PM

This course is devoted to considering some of the philosophical problems that arise when we consider the nature of the human mind. How are mind and body, or mind and brain, related to one another? Is there something special about consciousness that cannot be explained in physical terms? What are some of the available methodologies for studying consciousness? In this class, we will carefully examine what some of philosophy’s best and brightest historical and contemporary figures have to say about these issues.

CAS PH270 A1 Philosophy of Science Professor Tian Cao


This introductory course is designed for those with little exposure to science. Main features of the scientific enterprise will be illustrated by examples in the study of physics, biology and psychology: the aims of scientific activities (understanding, prediction and control); the nature of scientific understanding (causal explanation with general applicability); scientific procedures (by which scientific theories are formulated, tested, accepted or rejected); the structure and interpretation of scientific theories (evidential support, models and hypotheses, laws and predictions; the cognitive significance of these components); the development of science (accumulation and/or revolution). Some concepts central to the natural and social sciences, (such as space, time, forces, atom and quantum; life and evolution, structure and function; facts, value and agents) will be examined carefully. Controversies among competing schools in the philosophy of science (logical positivism, falsificationism, historicism, social constructivism and feminism) over the objectivity and rationality of the scientific enterprise will also be discussed.

CAS PH272 A1 Science, Technology, and Values Professor Alisa Bokulich

Monday, Wednesday, Friday 11:00AM-‐12:00PM

The goal of this course is to come to a deeper and more reflective understanding of the nature of science and technology, their ethical implications, and their impact on society. As citizens, business people, and policy makers we cannot afford to be ignorant of the developments in science and technology. As scientists, engineers, or healthcare professionals—or even simply as consumers—we cannot afford to be ignorant of the ethical, social and political implications of our practices. In this course we shall examine some of the important ways in which science, technology, society, and values are interconnected. The course will include case studies of particular technologies such as nuclear technology, prescription drugs, GM crops, nanotechnology, smartphones, and surveillance technologies.

CAS PH300 A1 History of Ancient Philosophy Professor Eve Rabinoff Monday, Wednesday, Friday 2:00PM-‐3:00PM

Classical Greek philosophy, with a concentration on the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle. Undergraduate Prerequisites: One philosophy course or sophomore standing.

CAS PH300 B1 History of Ancient Philosophy Professor C. Allen Speight


When and how does philosophy begin? What makes it different from science, religion or art? What can we learn from ancient thinkers about the nature of inquiry and the good life? This course starts (arguably) at the very beginning, with a look at pre-‐Socratic thinkers like Thales, Parmenides and Heraclitus, and then examines the development of philosophy from Socrates and Plato to Aristotle and the Hellenistic schools of Stoicism, Skepticism and Epicureanism. Undergraduate Prerequisites: One philosophy course or sophomore standing.

CAS PH310 A1 History of Modern Philosophy Professor Charles Griswold


This course offers an examination of seventeenth-‐ and eighteenth-‐century philosophy, with emphasis on the nature and extent of knowledge (including our knowledge of the existence of the external world), the nature of personal identity, the problem of free will, and the theological problem of evil. The complicated and surprising dialectic between empiricist, rationalist, and idealist views will be a topic throughout, as will the relation between science, religion, and philosophy. Readings from Descartes, Locke, Leibniz, Berkeley, and Hume, among others.

CAS PH310 B1 History of Modern Philosophy Professor Manfred Kuehn Tuesday, Thursday 12:30PM-‐2:00PM

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. Undergraduate Prerequisites: One philosophy course or sophomore standing.

CAS PH360 A1 Symbolic Logic Professor Juliet Floyd

Tuesday, Thursday 11:00AM-‐12:30PM

An introductory survey of the concepts and principles of symbolic logic: valid and invalid arguments, logical relations of statements and their basis in structural features of statements, analysis of the logical structure of complex statements of ordinary discourse, and the use of a symbolic language to display logical structure and to facilitate methods for assessing the logical structure of arguments. We will cover the analysis of reasoning with truth-‐functions (‘and”, “or”, “not”, “if…then”) and with quantifiers (“all”, “some”), attending to formal languages and axiomatic systems for logical deduction. Throughout, we aim to clearly and systematically display both the theory underlying the norms of valid reasoning and their applications to particular problems of argumentation. The course is an introduction to first-‐order quantificational logic, a key tool underlying work in foundations of mathematics, philosophy of language and mind, philosophy of science and parts of syntax and semantics. It is largely mathematical and formal in character, but lectures will situate these structures within the context of questions raised in contemporary philosophy of language and mind.

CAS PH409 A1 Maimonides Professor Michael Zank Tuesday, Thursday 2:00PM-‐3:30PM

A study of major aspects of the thought of Maimonides. Primary focus on the Guide of the Perplexed, with attention to its modern reception in works by Baruch Spinoza, Hermann Cohen, Leo Strauss, and others. Also offered as CAS RN420. Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS PH300

CAS PH412 A1 Philosophy of the Enlightenment Professor James Schmidt

Wednesday 3:00PM-‐6:00PM

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. Also offered as CAS PO 592 and CAS HI 514.

CAS PH424 A1 Wittgenstein Professor Juliet Floyd

Thursday 2:00PM-‐5:00PM

An intensive study of Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, with contemporary philosophical problems in mind and some attention to Wittgenstein’s overall development. Themes covered include the nature of concept-‐possession, the scope and character of logic, Wittgenstein's criticisms of mentalism and various forms of psychologism, questions about what it is to follow a rule, to understand a language, and to express a thought. We shall examine selected passages from drafts of the Investigations in texts such as Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics and Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology, focusing especially on the interplay between Wittgenstein’s conception of philosophy and the themes of skepticism, the nature of logic, and the grammar of psychological concepts; there will be some discussion of his views on ethics and on truth as well. One of our main points of focus will be the topic of aspect perception and what role it plays in Wittgenstein’s thought. Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS PH310 and two other philosophy courses, or consent of instructor.

CAS PH436 A1 Gender, Race, and Science Professor Alisa Bokulich

Monday 2:00PM-‐5:00PM

Are race and gender genuine scientific categories or social constructs? When it comes to math and science, are men smarter than women, are Asians smarter that Whites? Should doctors use racial profiling in treating their patients? How have some of the great philosophers and scientists throughout history, such as Hume, Kant, and Darwin, shaped our views about race and gender? The goal of this course is to come to a deeper and more critically reflective understanding of both the history of the concepts of race and gender and the various roles that these concepts continue to play in contemporary science. Undergraduate Prerequisites: Sophomore standing.

CAS PH440 A1 Metaphysics Professor Peter Bokulich Tuesday, Thursday 2:00PM-‐3:30PM

Freedom! This course will offer an overview of key issues in contemporary metaphysics, with a particular emphasis on the problem of free will and how causal and modal facts (that is, facts about what is possible and what is necessary) are related to physical facts. We will address the question of what is required for freedom and whether physical determinism (or indeterminism) undermines human freedom. We will also confront the questions of how the possibility (or impossibility) of a state of affairs is fixed by the facts of the actual world and of whether possible but non-‐actual worlds should be considered real.

CAS PH446 A1 Philosophy of Religion Professor Manfred Kuehn


An examination of principal issues and topics in the philosophy of religion in the following two stages: first, a historical overview of the philosophy of religion as a discipline or subdiscipline of philosophy and theology; second, attention to the problems and challenges facing this discipline in the context of the comparative study of religions. Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS PH300 and CAS PH310

CAS PH452 A1 Ethics of Health Care Professor Irina Meketa Tuesday, Thursday 12:30PM-‐2:00PM

This course centers on two themes: (I) The Concept of Health, and (II) The Science and Ethics of Medical Research. In the first part, we will be asking: What is health, and how do diseases, illnesses, and impairments fit into a conception of human health? We will focus specifically on (a) differences in, and the medical community’s responses to, sexual morphology; and (b) conceptions of and treatments for mental health. In the second part, we will examine the complex relationships among the science, politics, and economics of medical innovation (technologies, services) that come about through research. We will focus specifically on (a) research conducted on vulnerable populations, (b) the usefulness of animal models of disease, and (c) the moral permissibility of biotechnological patenting.

CAS PH454 A1 Community, Liberty, and Morality Professor Charles Griswold Wednesday 5:00PM-‐8:00PM

Does a free community require shared values? Does political liberty require a shared conception of virtue? Furthermore, must political liberty be sustained by a communal religious outlook—and if so, which one? Alternatively, if multiple religious views are permitted in a free society, how is a regime of mutual toleration to be established and how is religious liberty to be defined? Is the cause of civic virtue and liberty better served by a sort of free market of religions rather than a state-‐enforced civic religion? And finally, how can rival religious and secular claims about the foundations of political authority be negotiated in a free community? This seminar will focus on these and related questions concerning the role that religion should play in a free and thriving community. Readings will be drawn from, among others, Plato, Augustine, Locke, Rousseau, Adam Smith, and contemporary thinkers. This seminar is open only to undergraduate students and is discussion-‐based. Enrollment will be limited to about fifteen in order to permit extensive conversation about the timely and complex topics described above. Students will have opportunities to present their research to the class.

CAS PH456 A1 Topics in Philosophy and Religion Professor Michael Zank


Topic for Spring 2014: Heidegger and Cassirer at Davos, 1929. Remembered as one of the seminal moments in 20th-‐century history, this great debate on the legacy of Kant pitted against one another science-‐oriented neo-‐Kantianism and a new, radical departure within the western tradition represented by Martin Heidegger. This course will review the basic texts, some of them newly published, and the philosophical problems at stake.

CAS PH458 A1 Crime and Punishment: Philosophical Perspectives Professor Susanne Sreedhar Tuesday 5:00PM-‐8:00PM

This course will explore philosophical questions about the criminal justice system, both in its ideal form and as it exists today. We will examine historical and contemporary writings on punishment, focusing on concepts of punishment, justifications for punishment, preventative detention, the death penalty, and alternatives to punishment. We will also ask how deep historical and contemporary injustices, including institutionalized racism, affect how we should theorize about institutions of punishment, their possible reform, or perhaps even their abolition. The readings for this class will include selections from Gertrude Ezorsky’s Philosophical Perspectives on Punishment and Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Assignments will include short weekly papers, student presentations, and a longer final paper. The prerequisites for this course include PH350 (History of Ethics) or the equivalent; a working knowledge of Kant’s moral theory and Utilitarianism will be presupposed. If you are unsure whether you have the necessary background knowledge, please contact Professor Sreedhar at [email protected].

CAS PH459 A1 Political and Legal Philosophy Professor Hugh Baxter

Tuesday 2:00PM-‐4:30PM

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. Also offered as CAS PO 499. Undergraduate Prerequisites: Consent of instructor.

CAS PH465 A1 Philosophy of Cognitive Science Professor Tian Cao


The course begins with a review of the computational understanding of intelligence and various challenges to it raised by psychologists, roboticists, neuroscientists and mathematicians, based on an in-‐depth philosophical analysis of some key concepts in cognitive science: information (representation) and its processing (computation), a dynamical understanding of the emergence of (localized or distributed) intelligence. Then the course moves to a substantial discussion of the idea of the embodied, embedded and evolved cognition, and will end with an exploration of the bearings of cognitive science to the mind-‐body problem

CAS PH468 A1 Philosophical Problems of Logic and Mathematics Professor Judson Webb


Selected traditional metaphysical and epistemological problems in the light of modern logic and various studies in the foundations of mathematics, including the nature of the axiomatic method, completeness in logic and mathematics, and the nature of mathematical truth. Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS PH310 and CAS PH360 and one other philosophy course; or consent of instructor.

CAS PH482 A1 Topics in Modern and Contemporary Philosophy Professor Daniel Dahlstrom Wednesday 1:00PM-‐4:00PM

This course treats three topics from modern and contemporary philosophy – disposition, habit, and consciousness – with a view to determining their possible interconnectedness. How are we to understand dispositions (for example, the fragility of glass or the irascibility of certain individuals) and what is their meaningful scope (are “existence” and “being disposed in some way or other” synonyms? metonyms?)? What is the relation of dispositions to habits (e.g., to vices and virtues, on some accounts)? What difference do dispositions, habits, and – not least – a suitable understanding of them make to our conception of ourselves, to our consciousness and self-‐consciousness? The course will begin with recent approaches to the puzzles surrounding dispositions (from Mellor and Lewis to Cross, Manley, and Wasserman), turn to work on habits (from Merleau-‐Ponty and Dreyfus to Bourdieu and Pollard), and conclude with discussion of the possible bearings of these discussions of dispositions and habits on conceptions of consciousness and self-‐consciousness (from Kant and Husserl to Chalmers and Block). Students will be invited and encouraged to develop a research theme on any of these three topics, based upon one or more modern and contemporary approaches. The course will include clear differences in workload and expectations for undergraduates and graduates.

Graduate Courses

GRS PH609 A1 Maimonides Professor Michael Zank


A study of major aspects of the thought of Maimonides. Primary focus on the Guide of the Perplexed, with attention to its modern reception in works by Baruch Spinoza, Hermann Cohen, Leo Strauss, and others. Also offered as CAS RN420.

GRS PH612 A1 Philosophy of the Enlightenment Professor James Schmidt Wednesday 3:00PM-‐6:00PM

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. Also offered as CAS PO 592 and CAS HI 514.

GRS PH624 A1 Wittgenstein Professor Juliet Floyd Thursday 2:00PM-‐5:00PM

An intensive study of Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, with contemporary philosophical problems in mind and some attention to Wittgenstein’s overall development. Themes covered include the nature of concept-‐possession, the scope and character of logic, Wittgenstein's criticisms of mentalism and various forms of psychologism, questions about what it is to follow a rule, to understand a language, and to express a thought. We shall examine selected passages from drafts of the Investigations in texts such as Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics and Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology, focusing especially on the interplay between Wittgenstein’s conception of philosophy and the themes of skepticism, the nature of logic, and the grammar of psychological concepts; there will be some discussion of his views on ethics and on truth as well. One of our main points of focus will be the topic of aspect perception and what role it plays in Wittgenstein’s thought.

GRS PH633 A1 Symbolic Logic Professor Juliet Floyd

Thursday 11:00AM-‐12:30PM

An introductory survey of the concepts and principles of symbolic logic: valid and invalid arguments, logical relations of statements and their basis in structural features of statements, analysis of the logical structure of complex statements of ordinary discourse, and the use of a symbolic language to display logical structure and to facilitate methods for assessing the logical structure of arguments. We will cover the analysis of reasoning with truth-‐functions (‘and”, “or”, “not”, “if…then”) and with quantifiers (“all”, “some”), attending to formal languages and axiomatic systems for logical deduction. Throughout, we aim to clearly and systematically display both the theory underlying the norms of valid reasoning and their applications to particular problems of argumentation. The course is an introduction to first-‐order quantificational logic, a key tool underlying work in foundations of mathematics, philosophy of language and mind, philosophy of science and parts of syntax and semantics. It is largely mathematical and formal in character, but lectures will situate these structures within the context of questions raised in contemporary philosophy of language and mind.

GRS PH636 A1 Gender, Race, and Science Professor Alisa Bokulich Monday 2:00PM-‐5:00PM

Are race and gender genuine scientific categories or social constructs? When it comes to math and science, are men smarter than women, are Asians smarter that Whites? Should doctors use racial profiling in treating their patients? How have some of the great philosophers and scientists throughout history, such as Hume, Kant, and Darwin, shaped our views about race and gender? The goal of this course is to come to a deeper and more critically reflective understanding of both the history of the concepts of race and gender and the various roles that these concepts continue to play in contemporary science.

GRS PH640 A1 Metaphysics Professor Peter Bokulich


Freedom! This course will offer an overview of key issues in contemporary metaphysics, with a particular emphasis on the problem of free will and how causal and modal facts (that is, facts about what is possible and what is necessary) are related to physical facts. We will address the question of what is required for freedom and whether physical determinism (or indeterminism) undermines human freedom. We will also confront the questions of how the possibility (or impossibility) of a state of affairs is fixed by the facts of the actual world and of whether possible but non-‐actual worlds should be considered real.

GRS PH646 A1 Philosophy of Religion Professor Manfred Kuehn Tuesday, Thursday 3:30PM-‐5:00PM

An examination of principal issues and topics in the philosophy of religion in the following two stages: first, a historical overview of the philosophy of religion as a discipline or subdiscipline of philosophy and theology; second, attention to the problems and challenges facing this discipline in the context of the comparative study of religions. Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS PH300 and CAS PH310

GRS PH652 A1 Ethics of Health Care Professor Irina Meketa Tuesday, Thursday 12:30PM-‐2:00PM

This course centers on two themes: (I) The Concept of Health, and (II) The Science and Ethics of Medical Research. In the first part, we will be asking: What is health, and how do diseases, illnesses, and impairments fit into a conception of human health? We will focus specifically on (a) differences in, and the medical community’s responses to, sexual morphology; and (b) conceptions of and treatments for mental health. In the second part, we will examine the complex relationships among the science, politics, and economics of medical innovation (technologies, services) that come about through research. We will focus specifically on (a) research conducted on vulnerable populations, (b) the usefulness of animal models of disease, and (c) the moral permissibility of biotechnological patenting.

GRS PH656 A1 Topics in Philosophy and Religion Professor Michael Zank Thursday 3:30PM-‐6:30PM

Topic for Spring 2014: Heidegger and Cassirer at Davos, 1929. Remembered as one of the seminal moments in 20th-‐century history, this great debate on the legacy of Kant pitted against one another science-‐oriented neo-‐Kantianism and a new, radical departure within the western tradition represented by Martin Heidegger. This course will review the basic texts, some of them newly published, and the philosophical problems at stake.

GRS PH659 A1 Political and Legal Philosophy Professor Hugh Baxter


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. Also offered as CAS PO 499. Undergraduate Prerequisites: Consent of instructor.

GRS PH665 A1 Philosophy of Cognitive Science Professor Tian Cao


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. Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS PH310 and CAS PH360 and one other philosophy course; or consent of instructor.

GRS PH668 A1 Philosophical Problems of Logic and Mathematics Professor Judson Webb


Selected traditional metaphysical and epistemological problems in the light of modern logic and various studies in the foundations of mathematics, including the nature of the axiomatic method, completeness in logic and mathematics, and the nature of mathematical truth. Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS PH310 and CAS PH360 and one other philosophy course; or consent of instructor.

GRS PH682 A1 Topics in Modern and Contemporary Philosophy Professor Daniel Dahlstrom


This course treats three topics from modern and contemporary philosophy – disposition, habit, and consciousness – with a view to determining their possible interconnectedness. How are we to understand dispositions (for example, the fragility of glass or the irascibility of certain individuals) and what is their meaningful scope (are “existence” and “being disposed in some way or other” synonyms? metonyms?)? What is the relation of dispositions to habits (e.g., to vices and virtues, on some accounts)? What difference do dispositions, habits, and – not least – a suitable understanding of them make to our conception of ourselves, to our consciousness and self-‐consciousness? The course will begin with recent approaches to the puzzles surrounding dispositions (from Mellor and Lewis to Cross, Manley, and Wasserman), turn to work on habits (from Merleau-‐Ponty and Dreyfus to Bourdieu and Pollard), and conclude with discussion of the possible bearings of these discussions of dispositions and habits on conceptions of consciousness and self-‐consciousness (from Kant and Husserl to Chalmers and Block). Students will be invited and encouraged to develop a research theme on any of these three topics, based upon one or more modern and contemporary approaches. The course will include clear differences in workload and expectations for undergraduates and graduates.

GRS PH802 A1 Ancient Philosophy 2 Professor David Roochnik Tuesday, Thursday 2:00PM-‐3:30PM

A close reading of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics.

GRS PH858 A1 Aesthetics Professor Aaron Garrett


This seminar will focus on the contemporary philosophy of film. Topics covered will include the difference between images and shots, the ontology of film, the respective contributions of visual elements and sound to our experience of film, immoralism in film, and narrative closure. We will investigate whether film is presentational or representational, whether there is a clear way of distinguishing between fiction and non-‐fiction film, whether or not all films have implicit narrators, whether films can be philosophy, what distinguishes genre (and why do we respond differently to different genres such as horror), and what our emotional responses to film tell us about it an art form. Authors discussed will include Gilles Deleuze, Noël Carroll, Jesse Prinz, Berys Gaut, Jennifer Robinson, George Wilson, Cynthia Freeland, Gregory Currie, and Anne Eaton. It will be our working assumption in the seminar that just as philosophers of science have benefited philosophically from exploring the details of particular sciences and of scientific practice, philosophers of art benefit philosophically from having some knowledge of the practices of artistic production and creation in particular art forms. Consequently we will spend time trying to understand how films are shot, the uses of film sound, the basics of editing, styles of acting, and the history of film, etc., in order to gain a relevant working knowledge of how films are created. We will also spend a fair amount of class time discussing film clips (and view films outside of class) in order to talk through philosophical issues concretely. There will be guest presentations over the course of the semester and members of the seminar will be expected to make ongoing presentations as well.

GRS PH883 A1 Topics in Philosophy (Nietzsche) Professor Paul Katsafanas


One intriguing feature of late nineteenth century moral philosophy is that it grapples with questions that today have receded from view. Rather than focusing on whether lying is wrong, promises should be kept, and so on, thinkers like Nietzsche and Schopenhauer devote their energies to questions about the flourishing and foundering of culture, about optimism and pessimism, about the affirmation and negation of life. These concerns are difficult to locate within traditional ethics. Today, ethics is typically construed as focused on overt actions, the choices of individual agents, and the principles employed within deliberation. If this is the right conception of ethics, then larger questions such as whether attitudes of optimism or pessimism are justified seem at best hazy and diffuse questions about the peculiarities of the agent’s subjective preferences. These questions seem to be asking merely whether agents can attach positive or negative evaluations to the world, impartially considered; and that looks like a matter for pop psychology rather than philosophy. But might the inability to pose these questions in illuminating ways be a failing of traditional ways of picturing ethics? In this course we’ll examine the way in which Nietzsche rethinks the nature of ethics, in a way that both makes traditional concerns about individual agents and their actions less pressing, and opens us to the possibility of a different and arguably deeper set of ethical concerns. Topics to be addressed include: the idea that cultures can flourish or be degenerate; sickness and health; pessimism and optimism; affirmation of the life; nihilism and the possibility of meaning. Though the bulk of the course will be devoted to Nietzsche, we’ll spend a bit of time on some thinkers who influenced or were influenced by Nietzsche: Schopenhauer, Weber, and perhaps Scheler.

GRS PH994 A1 Philosophy Proseminar 2 Professor Susanne Sreedhar

Monday 6:00PM-‐9:00PM

A continuation of GRS PH 993. A workshop seminar offering advanced graduate students the opportunity to present and discuss work-‐in-‐progress (dissertation chapters, papers for job applications, journal submissions). A serious commitment to regular and continuing attendance is expected. Graduate Prerequisite: GRS PH993 or consent of instructor.

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