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Graduate Courses Fall 2008
G83.1000
Proseminar
David Velleman & Crispin Wright
Wednesday 3:00-6:00
G83.1003
Logic for Philosophy
Ted Sider
Thursday 4:30-6:30
The goal of this course is "logic literacy". Contemporary philosophy is steeped in logic: to read journal articles and take part in discussions, one needs to know a certain amount of logic. We will study i) the basic techniques of logic, including syntax, semantics, proof theory, metalogic, and a bit of philosophy of logic; and ii) a number of extensions of standard logic that are important in philosophy (for example, intuitionist logic, modal logic, counterfactuals). The course will be more broad than deep: we will examine many different systems, but will not spend a lot of time proving difficult metalogical results about these systems (except for completeness in propositional modal logic.) This course satisfies the NYU graduate logic requirement.
G83.1005
Advanced Introduction to Bioethics
William Ruddick
Wednesday 5:30-7:30
The course explores a range of concepts and principles for framing and addressing moral questions in both medical and environmental practices. Topics include: Concepts of Health, Disease, and Nature; Reverence and Respect for Life; Sentience, Pain, and Empathy, Rights to Life and Health care; Autonomy, Paternalism, and Trust; Human and Animal Research; Conflicts of Interest; Political and ethical principles of medical care, research, and environmental protection; Levels of population and consumption; Biodiversity and extinction.
G83.1100
Advanced Introduction to Metaphysics
Peter Unger
Tuesday 12:00-2:00
Being an Introduction to Metaphysics, this course presupposes no previous familiarity with the subject, although many students will be familiar with some discussions of some of the topics to be covered, which include the relationship between the mental and the physical, the nature and (at least alleged) occurrence of real choice (or “free will”), the conditions for a person to survive, from earlier times to later times, and questions regarding the nature of time, including ways in which time may be similar to, and yet also perhaps very different from space.
It will be ensured that this course is indeed an Introduction to this huge area of philosophy by that fact that the students will do all the reading required of the undergraduates taking Professor Unger’s undergraduate course in Metaphysics, which he will also be offering during this same Fall Semester.
It will be ensured that this course will include Advanced material by the fact that, in addition to reading everything that the undergraduates do, the students in this graduate course will read a lot more as well, which additional material will go beyond what’s brought up in the undergraduates’ assigned reading. Some of this additional reading will concern, primarily, further discussion of the topics already mentioned, and the rest will concern, primarily, other metaphysical topics.
Students enrolled in the course will complete two writing assignments. The first will be to write a very short paper, 5-9 pages, due shortly after the middle of the semester, on a topic already discussed in the course. The second will be determined by the outcome of the first assignment. In some cases, the student will be encouraged to expand and develop his or her short paper, turning it into a paper in the range of 15-20 pages. In other cases, the students will write a second very short paper, also of 5-9 pages, on a completely different metaphysical topic discussed in the course. In both sorts of cases, students’ second papers will be due one week after the last class session of the course.
G83.2296
Philosophy of Language: Semantics and Pragmatics
Stephen Schiffer & Stephen Neale
Tuesday 4:30-6:30
This is a joint Graduate Center/NYU seminar. We will examine the nature of the distinction between semantic and pragmatic facts, in so far as such facts must be explained by an adequate theory of meaning. Principal aims include (a) drawing a theoretically significant line between the propositions speakers express on given occasions (using sentences) and propositions they merely imply (by expressing whatever it is they express with those sentences), and (b) establishing the extent to which the propositions speakers express are underspecified by traditional compositional semantics, (even when augmented with theories of deixis and anaphora). Case studies will include attitude reports (‘John thinks Mary loves him’); speech reports (‘John said Mary loves him’); condition reports (‘it’s raining’, ‘it’s noon’, ‘it’s dark’); definite descriptions (‘the mayor’), demonstrative descriptions (‘that man’, ‘this man’); vague predicates (‘red’, ‘bald’). Readings will be from works by Bach, Carston, Fine, Neale, Perry, Récanati, Salmon, Schiffer, Searle, Sperber and Wilson, Soames, and others. Some familiarity with Paul Grice’s work on meaning and implicature will be assumed. (The seminar will meet alternately at the Graduate Center and NYU. The first meeting will be on Tuesday, Sept 2 at NYU.)
G83.2296-002
Philosophy of Language: Vagueness
Kit Fine
Thursday 11:30-1:30
I shall attempt to develop a new theory of vagueness, one in which the concept of a borderline case gives way to an indeterminate connection among cases. I shall spend about a third of the seminar on background and the rest on developing the theory.
G83.2320
History of Philosophy, Selected Topics: Hobbes and Spinoza
Don Garrett
Thursday 1:30-3:30
Thomas Hobbes and Benedict de Spinoza—by far the two most infamous philosophers of the seventeenth century—both aimed to base a comprehensive approach to ethics, politics, and religion on the foundation of a naturalistic metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of mind. In this seminar, we will try to understand and compare these two projects in detail, with attention both to their seventeenth century context and their bearing on contemporary philosophical issues.
G83.3002
Topics in Philosophy of Mathematics
Hartry Field
Tuesday 2-4
Topics to some extent determined by student interests and background, but we will start out by discussing set theory as a foundation for mathematics, with some attention to the possibility of weaker foundations (e.g. imposing predicativity requirements on set-existence). This will include philosophical issues about set theory itself, and we’ll also discuss possible extensions of standard set theory. I’ve ordered Michael Potter’s book Set Theory and It’s Philosophy as an initial basis for discussion, and will add other readings as we go along. Before the first class, I'd like people to read the first 40 pages of the Potter book, i.e. through Section 3.3. (The more logically inclined might want to also take a look at Sections 3.4 through 3.6, but I'm going to do something in class that is similar in spirit but a lot simpler.)
I’ll try to keep the class fairly non-technical, but may schedule some optional extra sessions for those who want to pursue more technical issues.
(In addition to the Potter, I’ve ordered Peter Smith’s An Introduction to Godel’s Theorems, but we may not go there. And I’ve ordered as optional Truss’s Foundations of Mathematical Analysis, but most of this is substantially more technical than the class will be; I just wanted to make some of this material available to anyone who’s interested.)
G83.3005-001
Topics in the Theory of Value
Samuel Scheffler
Wednesday 12:45-2:45
This seminar will address a set of loosely connected issues in the theory of value. Topics to be considered will include the nature of valuing; the relations among value, culture, and tradition; the conservation of value; and the idea of toleration as a response to the diversity of what people value.
G83.3005-002
Topics in Ethics: Ethics, Meta-Ethics, and Practical Reason
Derek Parfit
Tuesday/Thursday 7:00-9:00
(Meets the first six weeks of the semester)
Various questions about ethics, meta-ethics, rationality, and reasons.
G83.3005-003
Topics in Ethics: Deception
Japa Pallikkathayil
Monday 11:00-1:00
This course will evaluate competing accounts of when and why the use of deception is impermissible. We will consider the application of these accounts both in everyday interpersonal interactions and in specialized contexts, like medical and business settings. Through this investigation, we will attempt to develop a more general account of the moral norms governing communication.
G83.3012
Philosophical and Empirical Issues about Consciousness
Ned Block & Hakwan Lau
(Joint Columbia/NYU course.)
Monday 6:00-8:00
A philosopher (Ned Block) and a neuroscientist (Hakwan Lau) discuss issues concerning the neuroscience of consciousness. Topics covered are the neural basis of visual awareness, the explanatory gap, signal detection theory, higher order thought, volition, accessibility, recurrent processing and attention, phenomenal concepts, blindsight, the extended mind and the information integration approach.
G83.3400
Thesis Preparation Seminar
Sharon Street
Wednesday 3:30-5:30
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