Philosophy (PHI)
Introduction to selected problems of enduring philosophical importance, including such topics as the nature of morality, knowledge, human freedom, and the existence of God. Content varies with different sections.
GEP Humanities
Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer
An introduction to philosophy through the study of puzzles and paradoxes such as those of logic, language, infinity, rationality, knowledge, and time travel. Not both 笔贬滨听205 and 笔贬滨听210 may be used towards satisfaction on PHI major or PHI minor requirements.
GEP Humanities, GEP Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Typically offered in Fall and Spring
Explores uses of the legal system and justifications of legal interference with individual liberty, including such topics as criminal law and punishment, the death penalty, Good Samaritan laws, the insanity defense, civil disobedience, prison abolition, the right to privacy, and hate speech.
GEP Humanities, GEP Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Typically offered in Fall only
An analysis and evaluation of major issues in business ethics. Topics include the social responsibility of business; social justice and free enterprise; the rights and duties of employers, employees, manufacturers, and consumers; duties to the environment, the world's poor, future generations, and the victims of past injustices; the moral status of the corporation; and the ethics of advertising.
GEP Humanities
Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer
Philosophical analysis and theory applied to a broad range of contemporary moral issues, including euthanasia, suicide, capital punishment, abortion, war, famine relief, and environmental concerns.
GEP Humanities
Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer
Application of theories of moral right to issues such as free speech and "information pollution"; privacy and security; and algorithmic fairness, inequality and transparency.
GEP Interdisciplinary Perspectives, GEP Humanities
Typically offered in Fall and Spring
Deductive arguments attempt to guarantee their conclusions. Inductive arguments attempt to make their conclusions more probable. Using a small number of simple, powerful logical techniques, this course teaches you how to find, analyze and evaluate deductive and inductive arguments, and thus how to avoid the most common errors in reasoning.
GEP Mathematical Sciences
Typically offered in Fall and Spring
Selected studies in philosophy that do not appear regularly in the curriculum. Topics will be announced for each semester in which the course is offered.
Western philosophy of the ancient world, with special emphasis on Plato and Aristotle.
GEP Humanities
Typically offered in Fall and Spring
Western philosophy of the 17th and 18th centuries, including such philosophers as Descartes, Hobbes, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant.
GEP Humanities
Typically offered in Fall and Spring
Western philosophy of the 19th century, including such philosophers as Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Marx, and Nietzsche.
GEP Humanities
Typically offered in Fall only
The existence and nature of God, including such topics as traditional proofs of God, skeptical challenges to religious belief, miracles, the problem of evil, faith and reason, and religious experience.
GEP Humanities
Typically offered in Fall only
Topics and themes in the history of social and political philosophy. Philosophers to be studied may include: Aristotle, Aquinas, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant, Wollstonecraft, Marx, Mill, and Douglass.
GEP Humanities
Typically offered in Spring only
This course is offered alternate years
Philosophical study of important political ideas and values such as liberty, equality, justice, rights, and democracy. May include readings from classical and contemporary sources.
Prerequisite: One PHI course
GEP Humanities
Typically offered in Spring only
Philosophy of Existentialism, including such thinkers as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Doestoevsky, Sartre, Heidegger, and Camus.
GEP Humanities
Typically offered in Fall only
Exploration of fundamental issues in the philosophical study of law, such as what constitutes a law or legal system; competing theories of law, such as legal positivism and natural law theory; philosophical issues illustrated by specific legal cases.
GEP Humanities, GEP Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Typically offered in Spring only
Black thought on central issues in political philosophy such as justice, equality and state authority. Readings will be selected from the works of several Black thinkers, including figures such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Kwame Nkrumah, Charles Mills and Angela Davis.
GEP Humanities
Typically offered in Fall only
Fundamental philosophical questions raised by the concept of race, such as whether race is a legitimate category for identifying human beings, and whether the category of race reinforces racism.
GEP Humanities
Typically offered in Spring only
Interdisciplinary examination and appraisal of emerging ethical and social issues resulting from recent advances in the biological and medical sciences. Abortion, euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, compromised infants, aids, reproductive technologies, and health care. Focus on factual details and value questions, fact-value questions, fact-value interplay, and questions of impact assessment and policy formulation.
GEP Humanities, GEP Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer
Problems of metaphysics, including such topics as: possibility and necessity, paradoxes of time travel, nature of space and time, free will and determinism, causation, mind-body problem and identity-over-time.
Prerequisite: One PHI course
GEP Humanities
Typically offered in Spring only
Introduction to traditional and modern accounts of the relations between language and reality, the nature of truth, problems of intentionality and propositional attitudes.
Prerequisite: One PHI course
GEP Humanities, GEP Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Typically offered in Fall only
Problems and controversies that overlap the boundary between philosophy and psychology: the mind/body problem, behaviorism vs. cognitivism, the prospects for artificial intelligence, and language and the questions of innate knowledge.
Prerequisite: One PHI course or one PSY course
GEP Humanities, GEP Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Typically offered in Fall only
Analysis of such central concepts as knowledge, belief, and truth, and the investigation of the principles by which claims to knowledge may be justified.
Prerequisite: One PHI course
GEP Humanities
Typically offered in Spring only
Nature of science highlighted by differences between science and pseudoscience, relationships between science and religion, and roles of purpose-directed (teleological) and causal explanation in physical, life and social sciences.
GEP Humanities, GEP Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Typically offered in Fall and Spring
Introduction to principal theoretical, empirical and normative issues at the intersection of neuroscience and philosophy, including such issues as: consciousness, the mind's I and the brain's I: free will, moral responsibility and neuroscience; the ethics of personal enhancement; brains, human nature and personal identity; neuroscientifically informed evaluation of well-being.
GEP Humanities, GEP Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Typically offered in Spring only
Examination of traditional questions of philosophical ethics: What are the principles of moral conduct? What sort of life is worthy of a human being? Includes both classic and contemporary literature.
GEP Humanities
Typically offered in Fall and Spring
Topics in the history of ethics. Philosophers to be studied may include Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Butler, Hume, Kant, Sidgwick and Nietzsche.
Prerequisite: One PHI course
GEP Humanities
Typically offered in Fall only
A text-based critical study of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason Focusing on such topics as perception, judgment, knowledge, space, time, substance, causation and reality. Students cannot receive credit for both 笔贬滨听401 and 笔贬滨听501.
GEP Humanities
Key themes in continental European philosophy after 1900. Work studied will include selections from writings of authors in at least two major traditions, e.g., phenomenology, hermeneutics, structuralism, and critical theory. Junior standing or above required. Students may not receive credit for both 笔贬滨听403 and 笔贬滨听503.
R: Junior standing or above
GEP Humanities
Typically offered in Fall only
The applications of the ideas of justice and right beyond and across the borders of individual nation states, attending to the facts of globalization and their consequences for political and economic justice and human rights. Topics: skepticism about global justice; transnational distributive justice, pollution, and poverty; national sovereignty, self-determination, and intervention; the ethics of war; international human rights; and global democracy. No one can receive credit for both 笔贬滨听420 and 笔贬滨听520.
GEP Humanities
Philosophical foundations and empirical fundamentals of cognitive science, an interdisciplinary approach to human cognition. Topics include: the computational model of mind, mental representation, cognitive architecture, the acquisition and use of language. Students cannot receive credit for both PHI/笔厂驰听425 and PHI/笔厂驰听525.
Prerequisite: One upper-level PHI, PSY, CSC or Linguistics course. Credit is not allowed for 笔贬滨听425 and PHI/笔厂驰听525.
GEP Humanities, GEP Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Typically offered in Spring only
Detailed examination of core issues in the philosophy of science: the confirmation of scientific theories, falsification, projectibility, the nature of scientific explanation, laws of nature, and causation. Students cannot receive credit for both 笔贬滨听440 and 笔贬滨听540.
GEP Humanities, GEP Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Typically offered in Fall only
This course covers philosophical issues in the evolutionary study of human cognition: the role of adaptationism; the values of psychological vs. behavioral approaches; the phenotypic gambit; the evolution of morality and altruism; the nature of culture and the possibility of cultural evolution; innateness, genetic determinism and development; and case studies of evolutionary explanation of human behavior or psychology. Students cannot receive credit for both 笔贬滨听447 and 笔贬滨听547.
Prerequisite: One 300 level or higher course in Philosophy, Biology, Psychology or Anthropology. Credit is not allowed for 笔贬滨听447 and 笔贬滨听547.
GEP Humanities, GEP Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Typically offered in Fall only
An introduction to some central themes and issues in ethical theory. Topics in normative and meta-ethics such as consequentialism, deontology, virtue ethics, constructivism, realism, relativism, subjectivism, and expressivism. Readings primarily from contemporary literature.
Typically offered in Spring only
A substantial paper in ethics, assigned by the instructor of the corequisite; enrollment subject to departmental approval; may be repeated for credit. Individualized/Independent Study and Research courses require a Course Agreement for Students Enrolled in Non-Standard Courses be completed by the student and faculty member prior to registration by the department.
Prerequisite: 笔贬滨听250 or LOG/MA 201 or LOG/惭础听335 and one other (non 笔贬滨听250) PHI course. Corequisite: One of (笔贬滨听298, 302, 309, 310, 313, 319, 325, 375, 376, 403, 420, 475, or 498)
Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer
A substantial paper in history of philosophy, assigned by the instructor of the co-requisite; enrollment subject to departmental approval; may be repeated for credit. Individualized/Independent Study and Research courses require a Course Agreement for Students Enrolled in Non-Standard Courses be completed by the student and faculty member prior to registration by the department.
Prerequisite: 笔贬滨听250, 尝翱骋听201 or 335 and one other (non-笔贬滨听250) PHI course; Co-requisite: One of 笔贬滨听298, 300, 301, 302, 310, 401, 403 or 498
Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer
A substantial paper in contemporary philosophy, assigned by the instructor of the corequisite; enrollment subject to departmental approval; may be repeated for credit. Individualized/Independent Study and Research courses require a Course Agreement for Students Enrolled in Non-Standard Courses be completed by the student and faculty member prior to registration by the department.
Prerequisite: (笔贬滨听250 or 尝翱骋听201 or 尝翱骋听335) and one other PHI course; Corequisite: One of 笔贬滨听298, 305, 310, 320, 330, 331, 332, 333, 340, 347, 403 425, 440, 447 or 498
Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer
A substantial paper in logic, representation and reasoning, assigned by the instructor of the corequisite. enrollment subject to departmental approval; may be repeated for credit. Individualized/Independent Study and Research courses require a Course Agreement for Students Enrolled in Non-Standard Courses be completed by the student and faculty member prior to registration by the department.
Prerequisite: 尝翱骋听201 or 335, and one other PHI course, not 笔贬滨听250, Corequisite: One of LOG/惭础听335, 尝翱骋听430/530, 435/535, 笔贬滨听298, 330, 331, 332, 333, 347, 340, 425/525, 440/540 or 447/547
Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer
Detailed investigation of selected topics in philosophy. Topics determined by faculty members in consultation with head of the department. Course may be used for individualized study.
Prerequisite: Six credits in PHI courses
Typically offered in Fall and Spring
Key themes in continental European philosophy after 1900. Work studied will include selections from writings of authors in at least two major traditions, e.g., phenomenology, hermeneutics, structuralism, and critical theory. Students cannot receive credit for both 笔贬滨听403 and 笔贬滨听503. Junior standing is required for 笔贬滨听403. Graduate standing is required for 笔贬滨听503.
R: Graduate Standing
Typically offered in Fall only
The applications of the ideas of justice and right beyond and across the borders of individual nation states, attending to the facts of globalization and their consequences for political and economic justice and human rights. Topics: skepticism about global justice; transnational distributive justice, pollution, and poverty; national sovereignty, self-determination, and intervention; the ethics of war; international human rights; and global democracy. No one can receive credit for both 笔贬滨听420 and 笔贬滨听520.
Philosophical foundations and empirical fundamentals of cognitive science, an interdisciplinary approach to human cognition. Topics include: the computational model of mind, mental representation, cognitive architecture, the acquisition and use of language. Students cannot receive credit for both PHI/笔厂驰听425 and PHI/笔厂驰听525.
Typically offered in Spring only
Detailed examination of core issues in the philosophy of science: the confirmation of scientific theories, falsification, projectibility, the nature of scientific explanation, laws of nature, and causation. Students cannot receive credit for both 笔贬滨听440 and 笔贬滨听540.
Typically offered in Fall only
This course covers philosophical issues in the evolutionary study of human cognition: the role of adaptationism; the values of psychological vs. behavioral approaches; the phenotypic gambit; the evolution of morality and altruism; the nature of culture and the possibility of cultural evolution; innateness, genetic determinism and development; and case studies of evolutionary explanation of human behavior or psychology. Students cannot receive credit for both 笔贬滨听447 and 笔贬滨听547.
Typically offered in Fall only
An introduction to some central themes and issues in ethical theory. Topics in normative and meta-ethics such as consequentialism, deontology, virtue ethics, constructivism, realism, relativism, subjectivism, and expressivism. Readings primarily from contemporary literature.
Typically offered in Spring only
Typically offered in Fall and Spring
Institutional rules guiding the responsible conduct of research (RCR) and their philosophical justification. Rudiments of moral reasoning and their application to RCR. Topics: plagiarism, falsification and fabrication of data, and ethics versus custom, law, science, and religion.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing
Typically offered in Fall and Spring