Philosophy
Connecticut Hall, 432.1665
M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Chair
Michael Della Rocca
Director of Graduate Studies
Karsten Harries (107 Connecticut Hall, 432.1682, karsten.harries@yale.edu)
Keith DeRose (Acting [F]) (keith.derose@yale.edu)
Professors
Marilyn McCord Adams, Robert Adams, Seyla Benhabib, Susanne
Bobzien, Jules Coleman, Michael Della Rocca, Keith DeRose,
John Hare, Karsten Harries, Robin Jeshion, Shelly Kagan, Amelie
Rorty (Visiting), Sun-Joo Shin
Associate Professor
Tad Brennan
Assistant Professors
Katalin Balog, Troy Cross, James Kreines, Michael Nelson,
Frisbee Sheffield (Visiting [F]), Michael Weber
Lecturer
Gregory Ganssle
Fields of Study
Fields include most of the major areas of philosophy.
Please write for departmental
statement.
Special Requirements for the Ph.D. Degree
In the first two years all students must complete a total of twelve term courses. Graduate courses are grouped: (1) metaphysics, theory of knowledge, philosophy of science; (2) ethics, aesthetics, philosophy of religion, political philosophy, and theory of value; (3) history of philosophy. No more than six and no fewer than two courses may be taken in each group. A course in logic must also be taken, although on the basis of previous work a student may petition to have this requirement waived. Two qualifying papers must be submitted, one in history, the other in another distribution area; normally the first of these papers will be submitted by mid-September, the second by December, of a student's third year. It is expected that these papers will be more substantial and professional than an ordinary term paper. Students must demonstrate competence in at least one of the following languages: French, German, Greek, or Latin, normally by the end of the second year. They must have teaching experience in at least two distribution areas. Approval of the dissertation prospectus is expected before the end of the sixth term. Upon completion of all predissertation requirements, including the prospectus, students are admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. Admission to candidacy must take place by the end of the third year of study. The norm for completion of the Ph.D. degree is five to six years.
Master's Degrees
M.Phil. See Graduate
School requirements.
M.A. (en route to the Ph.D.). An M.A. degree is awarded
to students after completion of six term courses with an average
grade of High Pass.
Program materials are available upon request to the Director of Graduate Studies,
Department of Philosophy, Yale University, PO Box 208306, New Haven CT 06520-8306.
See Philosophy Web page for information (www.yale.edu/philos).
Courses
PHIL 504au, Logical Theory I: Philosophical Logic. Sun-Joo
Shin. TTh 11.30–12.45
An introduction to the metatheory of first-order logic,
up to and including the completeness theorem for the first-order
calculus. An introduction to the basic concepts of set theory
is included.
PHIL 505bu, Logical Theory II. Sun-Joo Shin. TTh 11.30–12.45
A technical exposition of Gödel’s first and
second incompleteness theorems and of some of their main consequences
in proof theory and model theory, such as Löb’s
theorem, Tarski’s undefinability of truth, provability
logic, and nonstandard models of arithmetic.
PHIL 506au, Freedom in Nineteenth-Century German Political
Thought. Seyla Benhabib. TTh 11.30–12.20;
1 HTBA
An examination of the concept of freedom and its relation
to property, civil society, and intersubjectivity in the works
of Kant, Hegel, Fichte, and Marx. Also PLSC 615au.
PHIL 565au, Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. James
Kreines. TTh 2.30–3.45
An examination of the metaphysical and epistemological
doctrines of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason.
PHIL 610au, Plato’s Symposium. Frisbee
Sheffield. T 3.30–5.20
Plato’s Symposium is primarily about eros (desire).
It also explores the nature of the self, motivation, virtue,
innate knowledge, and a theory of education. The course, therefore,
covers some central ground in Platonic ethics, moral psychology,
and epistemology.
PHIL 611bu, Epictetus. Tad Brennan. M 1.30–3.20
A Stoic philosopher of the early Roman Empire, Epictetus
provides our most extensive source of evidence for ancient
Stoicism. We investigate his brand of Stoic philosophy, examining
both what is orthodox in his views and what is innovative.
PHIL 612au, The Philosophical Theology of John Duns Scotus.
Marilyn McCord Adams. T 3.30–5.20
This seminar examines the principal metaphysical, epistemological,
ethical, and theological theories of B. John Duns Scotus by
a careful study of some of his major works (De Primo Principio,
Sentence-Commentary selections, Quodlibet Questions).
An analytical and critical understanding of the text is emphasized.
Students may read the works in translation or in Latin. Students
are expected to make seminar presentations and write a long
final paper on some aspect of Scotus’s philosophy of
theology. Also RLST 901a.
PHIL 613bu, Hegel. James Kreines. W 1.30–3.20
An in-depth study of Hegel’s philosophy, with special
emphasis on his metaphysics and its relation to his philosophy
of human agency, freedom, and social life.
PHIL 614bu, Frege. Susanne Bobzien, Robin
Jeshion. F 1.30–3.20
The purpose of the seminar is to read, understand, and
evaluate Gottlob Frege’s most important articles, including
“On Sense and Reference,” “Function and
Concept,” “Thought,” and “Negation.”
We focus on Frege’s contributions and relevance to modern
philosophical logic, as opposed to his contributions to the
philosophy of mathematics.
PHIL 630au, Philosophy of Logic. Sun-Joo
Shin. M 3.30–5.20
An examination of some basic philosophical issues in
logic. Topics include justifications of deductive and inductive
reasoning, connectives, quantifiers, paradoxes, modal logic,
many-valued logic, and diagrammatic logic.
PHIL 641au, Metaphysical Idealism. Robert
Adams. W 3.30–5.20
Examination of the view that the existence of physical
objects is dependent on, or relative to, a perceiving mind.
Alternative versions of the view, and arguments for and against
it. Readings from early modern philosophers such as Leibniz,
Berkeley, and Kant, as well as more recent philosophers. Intended
for students with a strong background in metaphysics and the
history of modern philosophy.
PHIL 642au, Consciousness—Philosophical Issues. Katalin
Balog. M 1.30–3.20
The problem of consciousness is considered by most philosophers
of mind the “hard problem,” i.e., the difficult
part of the mind-body problem. Arguments against physicalism,
i.e., the view that everything is, or is composed of, physical
stuff, often take consciousness as their starting point. Discussion
of these arguments as well as physicalist proposals for a
theory of consciousness.
PHIL 643au, Vagueness and the Sorites Paradox. Susanne
Bobzien. F 1.30–3.20
We study some of the main approaches to the Sorites paradox
and examine what semantics (if any) can be given for vague
expressions as well as what role pragmatic considerations
ought to play in an account of vagueness.
PHIL 644au, Ontology and Epistemology of the First Person. Robin
Jeshion. T 1.30–3.20
This seminar explores a cluster of topics concerning
the possible special status of “the first person.”
Questions to be considered include: Do we have a special variety
of knowledge of our own minds, and if so, what is its scope?
Do we refer and think about ourselves in a way that is fundamentally
different from the way we do so about others? Should our thought
about ourselves as agents impinge on metaphysical questions
about personal identity?
PHIL 645bu, Analyticity. Sun-Joo Shin. M 3.30–5.20
This seminar explores different views of the concept
of analyticity and apriority since Kant. After understanding
Carnap’s project for the analytic/synthetic distinction,
we focus on the Carnap-Quine debate on the issue.
PHIL 646bu, Disposition and Laws of Nature. Troy
Cross. Th 1.30–3.20
An examination of what might be called the scientific
modalities, a tightly knit family of notions including counterfactuals,
causation, laws of nature, dispositions, and chance. The central
issue is whether all of these notions admit of reduction to
the non-modal, and if not, whether one notion is the most
basic and ought to be taken as a primitive. Special attention
is paid to implications for the epistemology of modality.
PHIL 655au, Normative Ethics. Shelly Kagan. T 1.30–3.20
A systematic examination of normative ethics, the part
of moral philosophy that attempts to articulate and defend
the basic principles of morality. The bulk of the course surveys
and explores some of the main normative factors relevant in
determining the moral status of a given act or policy (features
that help make a given act right or wrong). Brief consideration
of some of the main views about the foundations of normative
ethics (the ultimate basis or ground for the various moral
principles).
PHIL 656bu, Theory of the Good. Shelly Kagan. T 1.30–3.20
What makes one outcome intrinsically better than another?
Presumably, one relevant factor concerns how well off the
relevant people are, but arguably it is also relevant whether
the well-being is distributed equally, or perhaps whether
the greatest well-being is going to those who most deserve
it. And some have suggested that virtue is itself of intrinsic
significance, so that a world with more virtue is better,
in and of itself. We consider these four factors—well-being,
equality, desert, and virtue—in turn, as part of constructing
a plausible overall theory of the good.
PHIL 657bu, Ethical Theory and the Virtues. Robert
Adams. W 3.30–5.20
Questions about what it is to be a virtuous or morally
good person, and what must be true about a personal quality
if it is to be a moral virtue or vice, are examined in relation
to empirical as well as conceptual issues; and their place
in the enterprise of ethical theory is discussed. Readings
chiefly from contemporary authors.
PHIL 658au, Emotions and the Politics of the Mind. Amelie
Rorty. W 3.30–5.20
A history of conceptions of the emotions, their relation
to perception, imagination, reasoning, the will, and personal
identity. The rhetoric of the language of the emotions. Aristotle,
the Stoics, Descartes, Spinoza, Hume, Rousseau, Freud.
PHIL 659au, Rights. Michael Nelson. W 1.30–3.20
Rights place limits on what can be done to promote overall
well-being. And it seems that there are such limits. Even
if it would make everyone much better off for someone to be
killed, it seems that morality may well not permit that person
to be put to death. If there are such limits on the pursuit
of the overall well-being, then what is the relationship between
morality and overall well-being, and what are the sources
of these limits? These are some of the questions we explore
in this course.
PHIL 660bu, Civic Republicanism. Michael Weber.
M 1.30–3.20
An examination of the republican criticism of, and alternative
to, liberalism, understood broadly to include any political
ideal that emphasizes individual freedom and individual rights,
thus including both liberals and conservatives (Democrats,
Republicans, and Libertarians). Attention to the contemporary
debate, with a focus on the liberalism of John Rawls (A
Theory of Justice and Political Liberalism) and
the republicanism of Michael Sandel (Democracy’s
Discontent).
PHIL 662bu, The Hidden Structure of Political Theories. Amelie
Rorty. W 3.30 – 5.20
The psychological and epistemological assumptions of
classical political theories: what do they assume about the
uniformity and plasticity of human nature, about standard
motives and modes of knowledge? What do they imply about civic
education? Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau,
Mill, Marx, Rawls. Also PLSC 649bu.
PHIL 700a, Metaphysics of Christology. Marilyn
McCord Adams. M 3.30–5.20
The Council of Chalcedon declares that in Christ there
are two (unconfused) natures and one person. This seminar
examines attempts to give this formula a metaphysical interpretation.
Readings come from medieval Latin authors (Anselm, Aquinas,
Scotus, Ockham), from late nineteenth century kenotic theologians,
and from contemporary philosophy of religion (e.g., Thomas
Morris, Richard Swinburne). Students are expected to read,
take part in discussion, and write a twenty-five-page term
paper. (Significant preparation in philosophy or theology
is required.) Also RLST 911a.
PHIL 702b, Aliens, Citizens, and Residents: Political
Philosophy and Political Membership. Seyla Benhabib,
C. Emcke. Th 10.30–12.20
Conditions of membership have not been subjected to rigorous
philosophical examination in liberal-democratic theory. How
can boundaries and borders be justified? In a world of deterritorialized
politics, what is the moral justification, if any, for retaining
nation-state borders? By focusing on Rawls, Walzer, Habermas,
Arendt, and contemporary theories of citizenship (Beiner,
Carens, Nussbaum, Bauboeck), this course deals with the ethics
and politics of membership. Also PLSC 580b.
PHIL 703a, Necessity and Naming. Michael
Della Rocca. Th 1.30–3.20
An examination of the surprising and powerful ways in
which rationalist principles—the rejection of arbitrariness
and the demand for explanation—can structure a metaphysical
system. Topics to be covered may include identity, persistence,
the nature of time, necessitarianism (the thesis that all
truths are necessary truths), essentialism. Some attention
also to the connections between rationalist themes in metaphysics
and certain prevalent strands in recent philosophy of language.
Readings by Kripke, Lewis, and other contemporary authors.
PHIL 704b, Epistemology. Keith DeRose. T 1.30–3.20
A study of some prominent issues in current epistemology.
Topics may include skepticism, internalist vs. externalist
accounts of knowledge and of justification, the structure
of knowledge and justification (foundationalism vs. coherentism),
contextualism in epistemology, and the “relevant alternatives”
account of knowledge.
PHIL 705b, Schopenhauer’s World as Will and Representation. Karsten
Harries. T 10.30–12.20
A careful reading, with special emphasis on the reception
of Schopenhauer’s ideas.
PHIL 706b, Demonstratives in Thought, Language, and
Perception. Michael Nelson. W 1.30–3.20
A demonstrative seems to have its reference determined
less by conceptual satisfaction and more by causal connection.
Demonstratives seem to play a crucial role in how our thoughts
and perceptions hook up with the world. We look at theories
of demonstratives and examine the roles they play in thought,
language, and perception.
PHIL 750, Tutorial.
By arrangement with faculty.
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