Courses: Fall 2013
Some additonal information about this semester's courses can be found at the Arts and Sciences course descriptions page.
Each student must demonstrate reading proficiency in at least one of the following languages: ancient Greek, Latin, French, or German. Proficiency is demonstrated by passing a departmental language exam or by completing course work in the language of choice.
2021/27713 Studies in Plato (Plato and the Sophists) Allen, James
Crosslisted with Classics 2312/27712 Wednesday 7:00-9:30
A selective investigation of the sophists and the 'fifth century enlightenment' of which they were the most visible expression through a reading Plato's Protagoras, Gorgias and Euthydemus among other works and testimonies by Plato and other ancient authors.
2170/27328 Kant Engstrom, Stephen Tuesday 4:30-7:00
This course aims at a general understanding of the Critique of Pure Reason. It will examine the work’s central epistemological and metaphysical doctrines, concentrating on the Transcendental Aesthetic and the Transcendental Analytic. Some attention will be given to the Critique’s historical context, to its contemporary significance, and to recent interpretations, but the primary focus will be on the text.
Prerequisite(s): Graduate status. Some prior familiarity with the Critique (and with Descartes, Leibniz, Locke, and Hume) will be helpful, but is not required.
2180/27308 Hegel Brandom, Robert Tuesday 1:00-4:00
We will read Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, together with the instructor's written commentary on it. This is a research seminar, but familiarity with Hegel is not a prerequisite. [Research Seminars. These are advanced graduate courses whose topic may reflect the on-going research of the instructor. Some background is presupposed. Such courses are typically completed with term papers.]
Prerequisite(s): none
2245/27310 Analytic Philosophy Ricketts, Thomas Wednesday 1:00-3:30
2300/28370 Ethics (core) Schafer, Karl Tuesday 10:00-12:30
This course will be a survey of core issues in philosophical ethics, focusing on the nature of reasons for action and related issues in meta-ethics and moral psychology.
Prerequisite(s): PLAN: Philosophy (PHD)
2330/22810 Political Philosophy Pallikkathayil, Japa and Kessler, Michael
Wednesday 4:00-6:30
This course will introduce students to Kant’s political philosophy. The course will then consider contemporary treatments of issues in political philosophy that are influenced by Kant’s account.
Prerequisite(s): none
2335/27307 Topics in Contemporary Philosophy Gupta, Anil
Thursday 2:00-4:30
The seminar will be devoted to understanding the contribution of experience to rationality and to contents of judgments. We shall examine some classical and some contemporary accounts of experience and judgment and of the relationship between the two. This is a research seminar.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing.
2421/28652 Topics in Philosophy of Language
James Shaw
Thursday 10:00-12:30
2600/10599 Philosophy of Science (core) Batterman, Robert
Crosslisted with HPS 2501/10834 Wednesday 9:30-12:00
This course will focus on central topics in philosophy of science, from the era of logical positivism onwards: including explanation, confirmation, theory change, the meaning of theoretical terms, and scientific realism.
Prerequisite(s): PLAN: Philosophy (PHD) or History and Philosophy of Science (PHD)
2626/27717 Topics in Philosophy of Physics Norton, John
Crosslisted with HPS 2626/27716 Thursday 9:30-12:00
G-28 CL
This seminar will discuss recent topics in philosophy of physics, drawing on suitable issues in quantum, relativistic and statistical physics, according to the interests of the participants.
Prerequisite(s): none
2689/27722 Explanations, Causes and Mechanism Machamer, Peter
Crosslisted with HPS 2689/27721 Thursday 2:00-4:30
G-28 CL
The seminar will examine some recent philosophical writings on these three topics. Specifically we will analyze the nature of explanations by mechanisms in a variety of domains and fields, including social science, cognitive science, and neuroscience. We shall also consider multi-level explanations, such as those that relate persons to sub-personal states and environments. Along the way we shall discuss the issues of reduction, emergence, the space of reasons, and the nature of information as used in some sciences. If there is interest and time we may spend a session or two on discovery of mechanisms.
Prerequisite(s): none
