Graduate Program
Graduate Courses 2009-2010
567b, u, Mathematical Logic I. Sun-Joo Shin
T, Th, 1:30 - 2:20: 1 HTBA
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. Prerequisite: Philosophy 115) or permission of instructor.
600a, u, Aristotle on Voluntary Action, Choice & Responsibility. Susanne Bobzien, Verity Harte
W, 4:00- 5:50
The class will read and discuss the Greek text of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, focusing on book III, chapters 1-5, in which Aristotle sets out his theory of the voluntary, practical deliberation, choice (or intention) and responsibility, a central text of Aristotle’s moral psychology and philosophy of action.
601b, u, Ancient Relativism. Matt Evans
W, 3:30 - 5:20
Examination of some attempts by ancient Greek philosophers to formulate, defend, and attack the view that certain truths or facts are by their very nature relative to something, someone, or sometime. Texts will be drawn from Heraclitus, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, and Sextus, among others.
602a, u, Descartes. Michael Della Rocca
M, 1:30 - 3:20
A close examination of Descartes’s view on skepticism, perception, philosophy of mind, causation, and the nature of the physical world. Consideration of writings from throughout his career as well as influential secondary literature.
603a,u, Jewish Philosophy in the 20th Century. Michael Morgan
T, 9:25 - 11:15
Examination of the major figures in the tradition of Jewish philosophy in the twentieth century. Consideration of their engagement with the Western philosophical tradition, especially in Europe (Hermann Cohen, Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig) and in postwar America (Emil Fackenheim, Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Joseph Soloveitchik). The impact of the Six Day War and the Nazi Holocaust on American Jewish thinkers (Richard Rubenstein, Irving Greenberg, Eliezer Berkovits).
604b, u, History and Critique of Semiotics. David Larsen
W, 3:30 - 5:20
Meaning is derived from raw phenomena, relayed through interpersonal communication, and variously engaged in the work of art. And yet it is said to have one vehicle: the sign. This seminar is on the conveyance of meaning in all its aspects, combining an introduction to contemporary semiotic theory with a historical survey of semiotic thought, and experimenting with their uses in contemporary humanistic inquiry.
606b, u, Kant's Transcendental Idealism. Thomas Pogge
T, 9:25 - 11:15
This seminar will engage in a close reading of the central parts of Kant’s most famous work, the Critique of Pure Reason. We will read only the second edition of this text in the new translation by Guyer and Wood.
607a, Adorno's Aesthetic Theory. Rainer Nagele
Th, 1:30 - 3:20
Close reading of Adorno's "Ästhetische Theorie". Reading knowledge in German required.
625b, u, Topics in Philosophy of Mind. Katalin Balog
T, 9:25 - 11:15
Discussion of the explanatory gap, inverted spectrum and conceivability arguments; different kinds of consciousness; the relationship between consciousness and attention; and physicalist and dualist accounts of consciousness.
626a, u, The Cognitive Science of Morality. Joshua Knobe
T, 7 - 9 PM
Recent years have seen the emergence of a new field of 'moral cognition’ that has philosophers and psychologists working together to solve a common set of problems. The course will provide an introduction to this new field, with a focus on questions about the philosophical significance of psychological findings. Topics will include: the role of emotion in moral judgment, the significance of character traits in virtue ethics and personality psychology, the reliability of intuitions and the psychological processes that underlie them.
627b, u, Vagueness and the Sorites Paradox. Susanne Bobzien
Th, 1:30 - 3:20
A study of some of the main approaches to the Sorites paradox. Examination of what semantics (if any) can be given for vague expresssions and the role that pragmatic considerations ought to play in an account of vagueness.
628a, u, Metaphysics. Raul Saucedo
W, 1:30 - 3:20
The seminar will focus on a few related issues concerning parts and wholes, space and time, modality, and ontological dependence. Readings will be drawn from contemporary sources, including Lewis, Fine, Van Inwagen, Sider, Schaffer, and Uzquiano.
629b, u, Direction of Time. Jill North
T, 3:30 - 5:20
Attempts to explain the temporal asymmetries we experience in everyday life—that coffee cools and ice melts, not the reverse; that we have memories of the past and not the future; that we can causally affect the future but not the past—given that the physical laws are symmetric in time. Questions include whether it is possible to have a unified explanation for the different asymmetries and whether time itself has a direction.
630a, u, Definition and Essence. George Bealer
Th, 1:30 - 3:20
An examine the nature of definition and essence, their relation to one another and to modality, whether one of these notions is definitionally prior to the others, and whether any of them must be taken as an ultimate primitive.
631a,u, Personal Identity and the Self. Katalin Balog
T, 1:30 – 3:20
The central theme of this course is the concept of a person. We will explore, among other things, if our conception of what it is to be a human being is historically conditioned and culture-relative and if our conception of ourselves is related to our knowledge and understanding of other people. A related issue to be discussed is the problem of personal identity over time, i.e., what makes a person the same individual over time. Implications for ethics, psychology and the significance of mortality will be considered as well.
632b, u, Stoic Logic. Susanne Bobzien
Th, 7 - 8:50 PM
The class will study and discuss the important contributions Stoic philosophers made to various areas of logic, such as speech act theory, theory of meaning, propositional logic, deductive systems, relevance and modal logics, truth theories and semantic paradoxes.
633b, u, Computability and Logic. Sun-Joo Shin
T, 3:30 - 5:20
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 Lob’s theorem, Tarski’s undefinability of truth, provability logic, and nonstandard models of arithmetic. Prerequisite: Phil. 267a or permission of instructor.
634a, u, Recent Approaches to Skepticism. Jonathan Vogel
T, 3:30 - 5:20
We will discuss and assess contemporary approaches to the problem of skepticism about the external world, focusing especially on neo-Moorean, a priori entitlement, and inference to the best explanation accounts.
635b, u, The Self: East and West. Katalin Balog
M, 1:30- 3:20
In this course we will explore Eastern and Western philosophical approaches to the nature of the self and personal identity. Particular attention will be paid to the view that commonsense concepts of the self are defective and the role attributed to this in our psychology.
636a, u, Propositions, Truth and Paradox. Bruno Whittle
T, 1:30 - 3:20
We will look at semantic paradoxes, and ask whether, in light of these, one can give adequate accounts of propositions and of truth. Topics will include varieties of possible worlds, consistent accounts of structured propositions (propositions with a sentence-like structure), and languages that contain their own truth predicates.
637b, u, Topics in the Philosophy of Mathematics. Bruno Whittle
M, 1:30 - 3:20
We will focus on a variety of related topics in the philosophy of mathematics. We will start with issues clustered around the notion of a set. These will include the question of whether one can quantify over absolutely everything, and the question of whether there are really infinite sets of different sizes. Next we will look at the significance of Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems. (Knowledge of the theorems will not be presupposed.) Finally we will consider arguments designed to show that certain mathematical terms are referentially indeterminate.
650a, u, Humanities 338, Biology, Evolution, and Culture. Jonathan Gilmore
F, 1:30 - 3:20
A broad investigation into purported evolutionary and biological explanations for such cultural phenomena as language, morals, politics, and art.
651b,u, Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art. Jonathan Gilmore
F, 1:30 - 3:20
Advanced seminar in the philosophy of art. Topics include concepts of art; aesthetic judgment; art and morality; depiction and cognition; fictions and emotions; imagination; originality and forgery; intention and interpretation; artistic style; expression.
653a, u, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau. Matthew Smith
Th, 1:30 - 3:20
A central tradition in political theory is the social contract tradition, which theorizes how the consent of the governed justifies or legitimates political authority. This course explores the works of three of the earliest and most significant early modern proponents of this view: Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. We will do close readings of Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan and De Cive, Locke's The Two Treatises of Government and Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Discourse on the Origins of Inequality and The Social Contract..
655b, u, Normative Ethics. Shelly Kagan
W, 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).
656a,u, PLSC , John Rawls on Social Justice. Thomas Pogge
T, 3:30 - 5:20
John Rawls is widely hailed as the most important political philosopher of the 20th century. Focusing mainly on his A Theory of Justice, this seminar will critically assess his account of social justice.
700a, PLSC 605, Rethinking Sovereignty: Cosmopolitanism, Rights, and Popular Constitutionalism. Seyla Benhaib
W, 1:30 - 3:20
Recently the “crisis” of sovereignty, the “end” of sovereignty, have been discussed in law, political science and philosophy. Post-nationalist, cosmopolitan as well as neo-liberal critics of sovereignty abound. This course will discuss alternative models of sovereignty, ranging from democratic iterations to popular constitutionalism, and it will consider the implications of these models for the definition and enforcement of rights. Readings will include: Hobbes, Bodin, Austin, Schmitt, Kelsen, Habermas, Waldron, Pogge, and Aleinikoff.
701b, PLSC 606 From Weber to Derrida. Seyla Benhabib
W, 1:30 - 3:20
Topics discussed include: modernity and rationalization; science and the problem of values; the concept of public sphere; decisionism and the friend/foe distinction; Heidegger's ontology and politics; Derrida on cosmopolitanism and Habermas and Derrida on terror and philosophy.
703a, Philosophy of Language. Keith DeRose
M, 3:30 - 5:20
Some recent developments in the philosophy of language. Topics may include conversational implicatures, warranted assertability, conditionals, modal language, knowledge attributions, and context-sensitivity.
704a, Hegel, Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics. Karsten Harries
M, 1:30 - 3:20
705b, Global Health. Thomas Pogge
M, 1:30 - 3:20
The globalization of a uniform monopoly patent regime through the TRIPS Agreement illustrates how strongly the design of global institutional arrangements affects the still vast mortality and morbidity among the poor. With expert visitors from the relevant disciplines, we will explore the problem and ideas toward improving access by the poor to essential medicines.
706a, First Year Seminar. George Bealer, Kenneth Winkler
W, 7 - 8:50 PM
Required and limited to first year students in the philosophy Ph.D. program. Topic varies from year to year. Preparation for graduate work. Reading, writing and presentation skills.
707b, Work in Progress. Keith DeRose, Matthew Smith
T, 1:30 - 3:20
In consultation with the instructors, each student will present a significant work in progress, e.g., a revised version of an advanced seminar paper or a dissertation chapter. Upon completion of the writing, the student will present the work in a mock colloquium format, including a formal question and answer period.
708a,/CPLT 541a, Poetics I: Theory of the Work of Literature. Benjamin Harshav
M, 1:30 - 3:20
The course presents a comprehensive theory of works of literature as the highest sign-complexes in human culture. From rhythm and sound patterns through metaphor and fictional world to genre and representation, a work of literature combines elements of structure with a network of necessary and possible or contradictory constructs. The seminar develops a conceptual network for the descriptive analysis of individual works of poetry and fiction. The theory focuses on questions of fictionality and art in language, yet goes beyond linguistics and philosophy of language, on the one hand, and narratology, on the other. It is grounded in close readings of poems and narrative texts by Kafka, Eliot, Dostoevsky, and others.
709a, RLST 914a, Kant's Philosophy of Religion. John Hare
Th, 3:30 - 5:20
The purpose of the course is to look at Kant's writings in the Philosophy of Religion. The principle readings will be from Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (especially the Ideal and the Canon), the Lectures on Ethics, The Critique of Practical Reason (especially the Dialectic), the Critique of Judgment (especially the Methodology), Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, and The Conflict of the Faculties.
710b, RLST 916b,REL 832, Kierkegaard's Philosophy of Religion. John Hare
M, 3:30 - 5:20
This seminar will explore a number of texts focusing on the relation between religious faith and the ethical life. We will read the following texts (in whole or in part): Either/Or, Fear and Trembling, Philosophical Fragments, Concluding Unscientific Postscript, Works of Love.
711a, ENGL 984, Metapragmatics and Textual Culture. Michael Warner
T, 1:30 - 3:20
This course is an introduction to theoretical issues of textual analysis, and the difference between structuralist and metapragmatic approaches to language and culture. We will review debates over performativity, the langue/parole distinction, indexicality and metaindexicality, and the nature of text. We will then see how these traditions for analyzing the social dimensions of language inflect various attempts to theorize modern forms of discourse and power--including the public sphere, concepts of genre and media, religion, and the practice of criticism itself.
712b, LING 672b, Topics in Semantics: Speech and Attitude Reports. Tamina Stephenson
W, 1:30 - 3:20
This seminar course will deal with the semantics of speech and attitude reports, to include such topics as modality, belief and knowledge reports, de se attitudes, attitudes with subjective content, factive presuppositions, and/or other areas of current interest. It is intended for graduate students in linguistics and philosophy with some background in semantics and/or philosophy of language.
713a, Action and Responsibility. Gabe Mendlow
T, 1:30 - 3:20
An investigation of such central issues in the philosophy of agency as intention and intentional action, weakness of will, practical reason, and moral responsibility. Readings by contemporary philosophers.
750a or b, Tutorial
