Class Schedules

What matters in life?  Is pleasure the only thing that matters?  If so, whose pleasure should I pursue-just my own, my family's, or everyone's? Does suffering matter, too? What about the suffering of non-human animals? Is it okay for me to make animals suffer in order for me to enjoy the pleasure of eating their flesh? Or how about the suffering of people who are really far away from me-say, on another continent? Is it okay for me to spend money on cool stuff for myself when instead I could donate it to help people who are suffering very badly far away?  If things in life other than pleasure matter too, what are they? People who oppose torture think that it's wrong to hurt one person really badly even in order to prevent a large number of people from being hurt.  Are they right?  Is it always wrong to treat someone as merely a means to an end? Is it in general wrong to do things to people without their consent?  Why?  When do people deserve to be praised or blamed for their actions? What kind of person should I be?  Should I try to be happy? Or should I try to be virtuous? Is virtue its own reward? Or are we all inevitably faced with a choice between being virtuous and being happy?  If we are faced with that choice, which one should we pick?  In Ethics, we will talk about these questions, and others.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

What matters in life?  Is pleasure the only thing that matters?  If so, whose pleasure should I pursue-just my own, my family's, or everyone's? Does suffering matter, too? What about the suffering of non-human animals? Is it okay for me to make animals suffer in order for me to enjoy the pleasure of eating their flesh? Or how about the suffering of people who are really far away from me-say, on another continent? Is it okay for me to spend money on cool stuff for myself when instead I could donate it to help people who are suffering very badly far away?  If things in life other than pleasure matter too, what are they? People who oppose torture think that it's wrong to hurt one person really badly even in order to prevent a large number of people from being hurt.  Are they right?  Is it always wrong to treat someone as merely a means to an end? Is it in general wrong to do things to people without their consent?  Why?  When do people deserve to be praised or blamed for their actions? What kind of person should I be?  Should I try to be happy? Or should I try to be virtuous? Is virtue its own reward? Or are we all inevitably faced with a choice between being virtuous and being happy?  If we are faced with that choice, which one should we pick?  In Ethics, we will talk about these questions, and others.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Modern Philosophy: Study of influential 17th and 18th century philosophers, such as Descartes, Locke, Spinoza, Hobbes, Cavendish, Cockburn, Berkeley, Hume, Kant, and Shepherd. The course considers issues regarding knowledge, freedom of the will, personal identity, space and time, the mind-body problem, ethics and the good life, and the relation between reason and faith. About one-half of the philosophers studied are neglected women philosophers and philosophers of color. This class is textless. All readings are posted to Moodle in .pdf format. Discussion-based class meetings. Evaluation by papers and take-home exams.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

For Marx, "private capital" is an oxymoron - a contradiction in terms, since by its very nature capital is social. And "philosophy" is really not a thing, at least not the way it's always been defined, since the world of ideas has no existence independent of the material conditions of human existence. In this course, we will try to recover the revolutionary force of these arguments with a focus on what they show us about the illusory or fantastic character of modern life. From the early critique of alienation to the late analysis of surplus value, Marx showed over and again how the so-called rational world is not as rational as it seems: specters, fetishes, deceptive appearances, "false consciousness" are just some of the features of life under capital that Marx exposes and that continue to haunt our world (just think of how we appeal to the "magic of the market," its "invisible hand" or to "creative destruction"). We will read selections from Marx's early writings on religion and alienation through the theory of ideology, of commodity fetishism, and of primitive accumulation to his late programmatic texts in tandem with texts by 20th-century thinkers who critiqued and further developed Marx's thought (Lukacs, Gramsci, Lefort, Derrida).

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This class addresses conceptual and ethical questions at the foundation of the study of sexism, racism, heterosexism, and transphobia. Many of us believe, for example, that race and gender are both socially constructed. But what exactly is social construction?  Would there be room for races and genders in a perfectly just society, or are races and genders intrinsically oppressive categories that should be eliminated?  Nowadays we are taught to distinguish gender from sex. But what is sex? Is sex socially constructed, like gender, or is it a strictly biological phenomenon?  Population geneticists have recently argued that, surprisingly, race is biological after all. Are their arguments convincing, or flawed?  How can thinking carefully about gender and sex problematize our ordinary understanding of sexual orientation? In our unjust society, when if ever does it make sense to respond to racial injustice with affirmative action? Is sex-selective abortion immoral? If you think it is, can you still be pro-choice? What should we think about affirmative action?  We will address these questions, and others, by drawing on recent work at the intersection of philosophy, social science, and biology. Authors to be studied include Elizabeth Anderson, Anthony Appiah, Sally Haslanger, Kate Manne, Debra Satz, Tommie Shelby, Quayshawn Spencer, and Laurence Thomas.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Emerging in the 1970s, the field of environmental ethics began by sparking a rich line of philosophical inquiry largely focused on the moral status of the natural world and the non-human entities within it. What reasons do we have to give moral consideration to the environment? And what do we mean when we say we have a moral duty toward the environment? Do we have moral duties to individuals within a species, or to species themselves, or to ecosystems, or to...? This course will invite you to reflect on key philosophical works that engage these and related questions. You will also have the opportunity to think about significant emerging topics in environmental ethics. Depending on the semester, these may include the debate over the ethics of wilderness preservation; the challenges of expanding environmental ethics to address issues of global climate change and resource sustainability; environmental rights; and environmental justice.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

What is “madness”? Can the concept of mental illness be a valid one? What assumptionsunderlie attempts to classify mental disorders? And can we be justified in compelling people tosubmit to psychiatric treatment? In this course we will examine conceptual questions raised bymental disorder and our attempts to understand and treat it. We will also address ethical issues like the social implications of clinical categories, the proper aims of clinical discourse and practice, and the prospects of alternative models (besides the medical model) forunderstanding mental “dysfunction.”

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

What is language and what is it for? What makes a series of sounds into a meaningful sentence? What makes a sentence true? Why is language always changing? This course will introduce students to ways in which twentieth century philosophers have attempted to provide answers to such questions. Since the philosophy of language has been so crucial to contemporary philosophy, this course also serves as an introduction to philosophical thought from the beginning of twentieth century to the present. Topics will range from more technical problems (theories of meaning, reference and truth; synonymy and analyticity; universals and natural kinds; private languages) to broader issues examining the relationship between language and culture (language games; radical interpretation; social change). Readings typically include writings by Ludwig Wittgenstein, W.V. Quine, John Searle, Donald Davidson, Richard Rorty, Michel Foucault, and bell hooks. Prerequisite(s): PHIL 201, or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Metaphysics - the investigation of the fundamental categories of being - is as old as philosophy itself. This class is devoted to the most important and intriguing metaphysical theories and problems of contemporary philosophy. Specific topics will vary from year to year depending on student and faculty interest but will likely include: time and space, freedom and determinism, infinity, identity, causality, death, the origin and demise of the universe, abstract and fictional objects, necessity and possibility, human nature and transhumanism, and the categories of race and gender. We will also be concerned with the relationship between metaphysics and other domains within and beyond philosophy, such as literature and natural science. Classes will be seminar-style, focused on discussion of readings and student work. This class is textless - all materials will be made available on Moodle.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Thinking systematically about right and wrong often leads to meta-questions--questions about what ethics itself is. What makes a person's life worth living? Why should I be ethical? Can we convince bad people to be good? Is ethics objective? What does it even mean to ask whether ethics is objective? This class concerns those questions, and others. Prerequisite(s): PHIL 121

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Thinking systematically about right and wrong often leads to meta-questions--questions about what ethics itself is. What makes a person's life worth living? Why should I be ethical? Can we convince bad people to be good? Is ethics objective? What does it even mean to ask whether ethics is objective? This class concerns those questions, and others. Prerequisite(s): PHIL 121

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The Philosopher Aristotle said "without friends no one would choose to live, though they had all other goods". (Nicomachean Ethics, 1055a 5-7). It is not clear exactly what Aristotle means by this, but the high value he gives to friendship and love is shared by many other ancient Greek and Chinese Philosophers, such as Plato, Epicurus, and Confucius. This class will begin with an overview of central themes in ancient and contemporary philosophy -- epistemology, metaphysics and ethics -- and then undertake a detailed investigation of friendship and love: Why are friendship and love valuable? How do we become friends, and when should we break off friendships? With whom can we be friends: family members? pets? on-line friends? AI? Is ’romantic’ love real or merely a social construction? Should we love only one other, or many, or everyone? Could it be good for us to have no friends, or should we have as many friends as possible? How should we think philosophically about polyamory and asexuality? What role, if any, does gender play in four conceptions of friendship and love? What, if anything, do we owe to our friends and lovers? We will consider texts by Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Sappho, Confucius, Montaigne, Kant, Emerson, de Beauvoir, Sartre, bell hooks, as well as several contemporary philosophical perspectives on friendship and love. We will also read works of literature, such as Shakespeare’s Sonnets, and love poems of Emily Dickinson, and view together several films, such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Your grade will be based on three short papers, two ’take-home’ examinations, reading responses (’convos’), and attendance/participation.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The Philosopher Aristotle said "without friends no one would choose to live, though they had all other goods". (Nicomachean Ethics, 1055a 5-7). It is not clear exactly what Aristotle means by this, but the high value he gives to friendship and love is shared by many other ancient Greek and Chinese Philosophers, such as Plato, Epicurus, and Confucius. This class will begin with an overview of central themes in ancient and contemporary philosophy -- epistemology, metaphysics and ethics -- and then undertake a detailed investigation of friendship and love: Why are friendship and love valuable? How do we become friends, and when should we break off friendships? With whom can we be friends: family members? pets? on-line friends? AI? Is ’romantic’ love real or merely a social construction? Should we love only one other, or many, or everyone? Could it be good for us to have no friends, or should we have as many friends as possible? How should we think philosophically about polyamory and asexuality? What role, if any, does gender play in four conceptions of friendship and love? What, if anything, do we owe to our friends and lovers? We will consider texts by Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Sappho, Confucius, Montaigne, Kant, Emerson, de Beauvoir, Sartre, bell hooks, as well as several contemporary philosophical perspectives on friendship and love. We will also read works of literature, such as Shakespeare’s Sonnets, and love poems of Emily Dickinson, and view together several films, such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Your grade will be based on three short papers, two ’take-home’ examinations, reading responses (’convos’), and attendance/participation.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

An introduction to formal methods for evaluating deductive arguments. Topics include formal fallacies, decision procedures, translation of arguments to argument forms, and natural deduction proofs in propositional and predicate logic.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q1

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

An introduction to formal methods for evaluating deductive arguments. Topics include formal fallacies, decision procedures, translation of arguments to argument forms, and natural deduction proofs in propositional and predicate logic.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q1

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

What matters in life?  Is pleasure the only thing that matters?  If so, whose pleasure should I pursue-just my own, my family's, or everyone's? Does suffering matter, too? What about the suffering of non-human animals? Is it okay for me to make animals suffer in order for me to enjoy the pleasure of eating their flesh? Or how about the suffering of people who are really far away from me-say, on another continent? Is it okay for me to spend money on cool stuff for myself when instead I could donate it to help people who are suffering very badly far away?  If things in life other than pleasure matter too, what are they? People who oppose torture think that it's wrong to hurt one person really badly even in order to prevent a large number of people from being hurt.  Are they right?  Is it always wrong to treat someone as merely a means to an end? Is it in general wrong to do things to people without their consent?  Why?  When do people deserve to be praised or blamed for their actions? What kind of person should I be?  Should I try to be happy? Or should I try to be virtuous? Is virtue its own reward? Or are we all inevitably faced with a choice between being virtuous and being happy?  If we are faced with that choice, which one should we pick?  In Ethics, we will talk about these questions, and others.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

What matters in life?  Is pleasure the only thing that matters?  If so, whose pleasure should I pursue-just my own, my family's, or everyone's? Does suffering matter, too? What about the suffering of non-human animals? Is it okay for me to make animals suffer in order for me to enjoy the pleasure of eating their flesh? Or how about the suffering of people who are really far away from me-say, on another continent? Is it okay for me to spend money on cool stuff for myself when instead I could donate it to help people who are suffering very badly far away?  If things in life other than pleasure matter too, what are they? People who oppose torture think that it's wrong to hurt one person really badly even in order to prevent a large number of people from being hurt.  Are they right?  Is it always wrong to treat someone as merely a means to an end? Is it in general wrong to do things to people without their consent?  Why?  When do people deserve to be praised or blamed for their actions? What kind of person should I be?  Should I try to be happy? Or should I try to be virtuous? Is virtue its own reward? Or are we all inevitably faced with a choice between being virtuous and being happy?  If we are faced with that choice, which one should we pick?  In Ethics, we will talk about these questions, and others.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

A study of major philosophers of ancient Greece, Rome and the medieval period, including the Pre-Socratics, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, the Stoics, Augustine, Anselm, and Aquinas.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Bioethics deals with a variety of ethical issues arising in the context of medical care and biomedical research. These issues include informed consent, euthanasia, reproductive rights, confidentiality, and the distribution of health care resources. The course uses ethical theory to shed light on issues in medicine, and issues in medicine to illuminate ethical theory.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course considers the question: what philosophical questions arise with respect to the law, and how should we answer them? In the first part of the course, we'll consider philosophical questions related to making laws. For instance, is it permissible to create laws that are primarily aimed at preventing people from harming themselves, or should laws only be aimed at preventing people from harming others? In the second part of the course, we'll consider philosophical questions related to breaking laws. For example, to what extent are civil disobedience - and uncivil disobedience - justified? Along the way, we'll discuss myriad issues of serious contemporary relevance: the abolition of criminal punishment; the complexities of legal responses to sexual misconduct; and the complex relationship between morality and the law.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

“Free choice is the only miracle the moderns recognize” (Karol Berger). We will read texts from Aristotle to Hume, Kant, Marx, Nietzsche, Hegel, and Freud to Adorno, Arendt, Lorde, and others that question the idea of individual freedom our liberal order is based on while offering radical alternatives. Freedom turns out to be something we can neither entirely conceive of nor do without. Weekly reading responses; three mid-length papers with revisions. No prerequisites, but be prepared to work your way through some densely argued texts.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Have you ever thought to yourself - What should I be doing with my life? And what should all of us be doing with our lives, in our local communities and our world at large? Generations of South Asian philosophers have addressed these fundamental moral and political questions. In this class, we'll be tackling these big life questions, seeing what lessons we can learn from the rich philosophical thought of South Asia. Topics might include: Buddhist arguments that the non-existence of a self should lead us to care about other people's well-being just as much as our own well-being; arguments for and against abolishing the caste system as a system of social organization; South Asian feminist ideas and practices; and more.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials