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Undergraduate Courses Fall 2009
Intensive Introductory CourseV83.0010-001
Central Problems in Philosophy MW 9:30–10:45 Jonathan Simon An introduction to the deepest and most fundamental problems of philosophy, and to the methods philosophers use to think about them. Is the soul the same as the body? Can computers have minds? Do we have free will? Can we know anything for certain? Do wrongdoers deserve to suffer? What makes you the same person now that you were when you were an infant? What does it mean to die, and is dying a misfortune? And why is there something rather than nothing? Group I: History of PhilosophyHistory of Ancient Philosophy
V83.0020-001 TR 11–12:15 Matt Evans Western philosophy owes its birth to Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. In their care many of the foundational questions in ethics, epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind were raised for the first time and developed in striking and sophisticated ways. We will try to determine which questions they asked, what their answers were, and whether we should accept their answers as correct even now. You must sign up for one of the following recitation times:
V83.0021-001
History of Modern Philosophy TR 4:55–6:10 David Barnett In this course, we will read excerpts from the key metaphysical and epistemological texts of the greatest thinkers of what is often called philosophy’s Golden Age: Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. V83.0030
Kant MW 9:30–10:45 Beatrice Longuenesse No philosopher has been more influential than Immanuel Kant in shaping the questions of philosophy from the eighteenth century to present times. His influence is felt in all areas of contemporary philosophy, especially epistemology, moral philosophy and philosophy of mind. In this course we will do a close reading of Kant’s most important work, the Critique of Pure Reason, as well as of selections from some of his related writings. Topics discussed in those texts include: the relations between mind and world; knowledge and justification; the nature of space and time; causation; self-consciousness and self-knowledge; freedom and causal determinism. You must sign up for one of the following recitation times:
Group II: Ethics, Value, and SocietyV83.0040-001
Ethics TR 9:30–10:45 David Velleman This course covers three great works of moral philosophy: Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, and Mill's Utlitarianism. It concludes with a contemporary work that applies moral philosophy to 20th-century history: Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem. Course requirements are: attendance at lectures and a recitation, four short papers, and two essay exams. You must sign up for one of the following recitation times:
V83.0042
Applied Ethics MW 11–12:15 Japa Pallikkathayil This course will explore contemporary debates regarding contentious ethical issues. The course has two aims: (1) to identify the moral theories and concepts shaping these debates, and (2) to use these debates to refine and evaluate these theories and concepts. Topics may be drawn from areas like environmental ethics, business ethics, and medical ethics. You must sign up for one of the following recitation times:
V83.0050
Medical Ethics TR 12:30–1:45 Greg Bognar This course examines moral issues in medical practice and research. Topics include: consent, deception, autonomy and paternalism; abortion, euthanasia, and end-of-life decision making; ethical issues in stem-cell and human subject research; reproductive autonomy, cloning, and genetic enhancement; the allocation of health care resources and access to care; procurement and trade in organs. V83.0053
Ethics and the Environment TR 2–3:15 Benjamin Sachs Environmental philosophy is a large subject that involves questions in metaphysics, philosophy of science, and history of philosophy, as well as in such normative areas as ethics, aesthetics, and political philosophy. This class is primarily devoted to these normative areas. Beginning with some basic concepts in value theory, the goal is not to arrive at definite solutions to specific environmental problems, but rather (i) to improve your ability to think critically, read closely, and to argue well about environmental issues; (ii) to introduce you to some major controversies in environmental philosophy; and (iii) to aid you in arriving at your own rational and clear-minded views about the matters under discussion. V83.0102
Topics in Ethics and Political Philosophy TR 2–3:15 David Velleman We will study various moral issues that involve "future persons"—either persons who don't yet exist or future life-stages of persons who already do exist. Examples of such issues are: the ethics of procreation; our moral obligations to future generations; the bindingness of medical "advance directives" on one's future selves; social policies that affect the number of people who will be born; whether it matters that the human race survives. (The course may not cover all of the issues on this list, and it may include issues not listed.) Although these issues are in "applied" ethics, we will need to read some theoretical material on personal identity and normative theory. Group III: Metaphysics, Epistemology, Mind, Language, and LogicV83.0070-001
Logic MW 12:30–1:45 Seunhyung Song This is an introductory course in deductive logic. Our task will be to examine arguments, and try to say under what conditions the conclusion of a given argument follows from, or is a consequence of, its premises. Although logic is a technical subject matter, this course is valuable preparation for any area of study in which deductive arguments play a central role, one notable case being law. V83.0070-002
Logic TR 11–12:15 Can Baskent This is an introductory course in deductive logic. Our task will be to examine arguments, and try to say under what conditions the conclusion of a given argument follows from, or is a consequence of, its premises. Although logic is a technical subject matter, this course is valuable preparation for any area of study in which deductive arguments play a central role, one notable case being law. V83.0070-003
Logic MW 2–3:15 Bogdan Rabanca This is an introductory course in deductive logic. Our task will be to examine arguments, and try to say under what conditions the conclusion of a given argument follows from, or is a consequence of, its premises. Although logic is a technical subject matter, this course is valuable preparation for any area of study in which deductive arguments play a central role, one notable case being law. This course is an inquiry into the nature of inquiry. We often seek answers to questions—e.g., Who was responsible for the Sept 11 attacks? Will the Knicks win tonight? 837+655=?—and take ourselves to know the answers, or have rational opinions, or to have good evidence for our views. Rather than answer these questions, we will step back and ask, What is the nature of evidence? and, What it is to know something or to be rational? In answering these questions, we will examine versions of, and responses to Skepticism: that there is very little we can know or have reason to believe. You must sign up for one of the following recitation times:
V83.0078
Metaphysics TR 3:30–4:45 Peter Unger What is the ultimate nature of the universe, the nature of all concrete reality? Is it physical, or mental, or both, or neither? And, what is our nature: are we physical, or mental, or both, or neither? We'll be concerned to use our inquiry into these questions to help us with traditionally central philosophical problems, including the problem of free will, the problem of personal identity, and the mind-body problem. While much of the course will treat these topics, some will treat some other topics. V83.0080
Philosophy of Mind TR 12:30–1:45 Farid Masrour We will explore various themes in contemporary philosophy of mind. The main topics include, the mind-body problem, consciousness, intentionality, mental causation, and perception. You must sign up for one of the following recitation times:
V83.0090
Philosophy of Science MW 11–12:15 Laura Franklin-Hall What is science? How does it work? When it works, what kind of knowledge does it provide? Is there a scientific method? What is a scientific theory? How do experiments provide evidence for theories? What is the nature of scientific explanation? How does the social organization of science contribute, if at all, to its success? You must sign up for one of the following recitation times:
V83.0093
Philosophical Applications of Cognitive Science MW 9:30–10:45 Michael Strevens The relevance of recent discoveries about the mind to philosophical questions about metaphysics, logic, and ethics. Questions include: What is causation? Is there a right way to "carve up" the world into categories? Why do we see the world as consisting of objects in places? Are the rules of logic objective or just the way we happen to think? Is there such a thing as objective right and wrong? Readings are from both philosophy and cognitive science—that latter mostly in cognitive and developmental psychology, with linguistics, anthropology, and neuroscience making up the balance. V83.0103
Topics in Metaphysics and Epistemology: Properties TR 9:30–10:45 Alexis Burgess Every branch of human inquiry arguably aims at uncovering some feature of reality at illuminating the way some part of the world is (either in itself, or as a matter of our engagement with it). But what exactly are "ways of being" supposed to be? What are the properties of properties? If he's a hipster and she's a hipster, is there literally something they have in common? In what sense of 'have' and in what sense of 'thing'? This course will explore the so-called metaphysics of properties, and closely related topics in contemporary philosophy, such as constitution, abstraction, and causation. Because of my own, peculiar research interests, we'll also spend a while trying to substantiate the deflationary slogan that properties are just the shadows cast by predicates. V83.0201-001
Honors Seminar Tuesday 3:30–5:30 Sharon Street Tentative list of courses for Spring 2010
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