Courses
Philosophy
0411. Intermediate Logic (3
s.h.)
Metatheory of the elementary logic of predicates and quantifiers
(familiarity with which is presupposed). Proofs that a standard
derivation system is both sound and complete; i.e., that all
and only logical truths are provable as theorems of the system.
Other metalogical issues also explored.
0416. Philosophy of Science (3
s.h.)
Basic issues in the current philosophy of science, and particularly
various accounts of such key notations of science as: hypotheses,
confirmation, laws, causation, explanation, and theories.
0417. Feminist Epistemology
and Philosophy of Science (3 s.h.)
A discussion of feminist perspectives on knowledge in general
and science in particular, ranging from feminist empiricism,
to feminist standpoint theory, to feminist post-moderism.
0422. Contemporary Ethical
Theory (3 s.h.)
Issues in ethical theory that have come to prominence in the
20th century. Both metaethical issues (about the meaning and
justification of ethical statements) and normative issues (about
obligation, responsibility, and goodness) will be examined.
0423. Feminist Ethics
and Political Philosophy (3 s.h.)
An examination of feminism's contribution to ethics, political
philosophy, and legal theory. Issues may include: the role
of care versus that of justice in determining moral obligations;
the nature and causes of women's oppression (including the
difference between the sexual oppression experienced by white
women and the additional forms of oppression to which women
of color/third-world women are subject); pornography and prostitution;
equality and difference; essentialism as it pertains to gender
and race; feminist jurisprudence; postmodern feminism.
0429. Philosophy in Literature (3
s.h.)
Selected philosophical themes as they appear in classical and
modern literature. Frequently the themes concern the "enlightenment
project," "modernism," and their critics.
0432. History of Aesthetics (3
s.h.)
A study of major works in the history of aesthetics selected
from such philosophers as Plat, Aristotle, Hume, Kant, Schopenhauer,
Hegel, Dewey, Bell, Collingwood, Beardsley, Langer, Dickie,
Danto, and contemporary figures.
0433. Problems in Aesthetics (3
s.h.)
An examination of the philosophical issues concerning the nature
and importance of the arts and artistic practice, including
questions about the nature of aesthetic experience, the definition
of art, representation and expression in art, the ontological
status of artworks, truth and reference in art, and the values
of art.
0434. Philosophy of Music (3
s.h.)
0435. Classics in Moral
Philosophy (3 s.h.)
Major works in the history of moral philosophy selected from
among the writings of such philosophers as Plato, Aristotle,
Aquinas, Hobbes, Spinoza, Hume, Kant, Mill, Nietzsche, Bradley,
Ross, and Sidgwick.
0443. Philosophy of
Law (3 s.h.)
Selected philosophical questions raised by laws and legal systems,
e.g., questions about the nature and limits of law, and about
the concepts of legal obligation, legal responsibility, and
legal punishment.
0444. Philosophy of
Mind (3 s.h.)
An examination of such issues as the nature of thought; the
possibility of free will; the nature of persons; materialist
theories of mind; mentalism vs. behaviorism; and the innate
ideas controversy.
0449. Ethics in Medicine (3
s.h.)
Exploration of ethical issues generated by the application
of scientific and technological advances to the preservation,
destruction, and programming of human life. Topics may include:
ethics of medical research, abortion, euthanasia, behavior
control, allocation of scarce medical resources, and the ethics
of patient-physician interaction.
0451. Philosophy of
Language (3 s.h.)
Development of a theory of meaning and a criterion of meaningfulness,
with a study of selected topics in semantics such as vagueness,
metaphor, and the theory of reference.
0453. Philosophy of
History (3 s.h.)
Problems of historical knowledge, e.g., problems about the
historian's claim to explain historical events (causation in
history, reasons for actions, challenges to the objectivity
of history) and problems about historical interpretation (including
global interpretations of the historical process, such as Hegel's
and Spengler's).
0468. Indian Philosophy:
an Introduction (3 s.h.)
Beginnings of Indian philosophical thinking in the hymns of
Rig Veda and the upanishads and the major schools of Indian
philosophy as they took shape during the next thousand years.
The latter include samkhya, the Buddhist schools, the Vaiseskika,
the Nyaya and the major schools of Vedanta. Issues in metaphysics,
epistemology, and logic emphasized.
0473. Advanced Greek
Philosophy (3 s.h.)
Interpretation and critical examination of the dialogues of
Plato and the works of Aristotle.
0475. British Empiricism (3
s.h.)
0477. Continental Rationalism (3
s.h.)
0479. Kant (3
s.h.)
Selected major philosophical works of Immanuel Kant.
0481. Nineteenth-Century
Philosophy (3 s.h.)
For Fall 2005 the topic will be Art, History, and Understanding.
How do we understand other cultures? How do we get beyond our
own horizon of beliefs and practices? Is it at all possible
to understand cultures that are - historically or geographically
- distant and different from our own? What is the value of
trying to understand others? And what role does art and artistic
expressions play within this field? In this course we shall
be looking at how these questions structure the beginnings
of modern hermeneutics in the work of Kant, Herder, Schleiermacher,
Hegel, and Dilthey. Combining a systematic and a historical
focus, we shall see how each of these thinkers pose a number
of questions that are still of relevance to our conception
of cultural differences and identity politics.
0484. Pragmatism and
American Thought (3 s.h.)
American pragmatism and naturalism, with emphasis on James,
Peirce, Royce, Santayana, Mead, Dewey, and Whitehead.
0486. Contemporary
Continental Philosophy (3 s.h.)
Phenomenology and Existentialism, with emphasis on such twentieth
century philosophers as Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, and Merleau-Ponty.
0489. Contemporary
British and American Philosophy (3
s.h.)
Selected important figures and topics, e.g., Russell, Wittgenstein,
Quine, Putnam; Logical Atomism, Logical Positivism, Linguistic
Philosophy, and Analytic Philosophy.
0491. Special Topics
in Philosophy: The Socratics (3
s.h.)
The course examines a set of Greek philosophers of the fourth
century BC who, like Plato, were directly influenced by Socrates.
Until recently, their contributions have been little discussed.
However, with the publication of Gabriele Giannantoni`s four
volume edition of the fragments of the Socratics in 1990, scholars,
especially European scholars, have increasingly been re-examining
the contours of philosophy in Athens during the time of Plato
and Aristotle. We will be reading work from and about the following
Socratics and Socratic schools: Xenophon, Antisthenes (and
Cynicism), Aeschines, Aristippus (and the Cyrenaics), Euclides
(and the Megarian school), as well as Socratic dialogues of
the period whose authors are unknown. The course does not require
knowledge of Greek.
0492. Special Topics
in Philosophy: Adorno`s Politics (3
s.h.)
The seminar will be focused on Theodor W. Adorno and the implications
of his thinking for current work in social and political philosophy.
Of particular interest to us will be the fate of the political
in Adorno's assessment of modernity. Is there a space in his
otherwise bleak vision of the "totally administered society" for
conceptualizing freedom, autonomy and individuality? How can
his defense of non-identity be made politically relevant? And,
finally, what is the relation between aesthetics and politics
in Adorno? How does it differ from Benjamin and Heidegger,
and how can his thinking about art's claim to be making speculative
judgments in the Hegelian sense be applied in a post-aesthetic
or post-modern context? We will start by discussing the Dialectic
of Enlightenment. Then we will proceed to look at selected
parts of Negative Dialectics before we end by reading some
chapters in Aesthetic Theory. Ideally, students should read
all three of these books. However, in class we will be focusing
only on selections from each. In addition to these primary
texts by Adorno, we will be dealing with some of his shorter
essays, as well as some contemporary commentators and critics
of his work.
0616. Seminar in British
Empiricism (3 s.h.)
Selected topics in 17th and 18th century philosophers such
as Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Reid.
0626. Seminar in Nineteenth-Century
Philosophy (3 s.h.)
0631. Seminar in Contemporary
Continental Philosophy (3 s.h.)
For Fall 2005, the topic is Husserl and Heidegger.
0636. Seminar in Contemporary
British and American Philosophy (3
s.h.)
0661. Seminar in Philosophy
of the Physical Sciences (3 s.h.)
Prerequisite: previous work in philosophy
of science or permission of instructor..
0701. Seminar in Aesthetics (3
s.h.)
For Fall 2005, the topic will be Classics in the Philosophy
of Art. This course will involve close readings of some of
the classic texts in the philosophy of art, including works
by Plato, Aristotle, Hutcheson, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Bell and
Tolstoy. Other figures, including possibly Schopenhauer and
Collingwood, will be examined, time permitting. The assignment
for the course will be a term paper. Students will be expected
to formulate a proposal for the paper by mid-semester and to
tender their final draft at the last class. Participation in
class discussions is also expected.
0704. Seminar in Philosophy
of Literary Criticism (3 s.h.)
Topics concern the critic's task of describing, interpreting,
and judging literary works, e.g., the language of poetry, metaphor,
style, form, symbolism, truth, evaluation, obscenity.
0712. Seminar in Ethics (3
s.h.)
0721. Seminar in Social
and Political Philosophy (3 s.h.)
For Fall 2005, the topic will be Foucault in Africana Thought.
This course will be divided into two parts. The first will
be a detailed reading of Foucault's archaeological and genealogical
approaches as they emerge in The Order of Things and Discipline
and Punish and an examination of several of his lectures at
the Collège de France and at the University of California
at Berkeley. The second part will consist of criticisms and
engagements in the thought of several Africana philosophers
and social theorists, as well as non-Africana poststructuralists
who engage the study of race and racism, such as Cornel West,
Judith Butler, Lucius T. Outlaw, Joy James, Sylvia Wynter,
B. Anthony Bogues, Paget Henry, Linda Martín Alcoff,
Nelson Maldonado-Torres, and John and Jean Comaroff.
0731. Seminar in Philosophy
of Mind (3 s.h.)
Examination of current views of such topics as materialistic
accounts of mind, intentionality, the analysis of specific
mental phenomena (e.g., belief, consciousness, emotion, desire),
ascription of mental attributes to machines.
0746. Seminar in Metaphysics (3
s.h.)
0755. Seminar in Philosophy
of Language (3 s.h.)
0799. Individually
Supervised Work on the Preparation of the Dissertation
Proposal (Variable s.h.)
0899. Dissertation
Preparation (Variable s.h.)
0951. Tutorial (1,3,6,9
s.h.)
Supervised individual study of selected topics.
0953. Tutorial (1,3,6,9
s.h.)
Supervised individual study of selected topics.
0955. Tutorial (1,3,6,9
s.h.)
Supervised individual study of selected topics.
0957. Tutorial (1,3,6,9
s.h.)
Supervised individual study of selected topics.
0971. M.A. Thesis Research (1,3,6,9
s.h.)
0973. M.A. Thesis Research (1,3,6,9
s.h.)
0975. M.A. Thesis Research (1,3,6,9
s.h.)
0977. M.A. Thesis Research (1,3,6,9
s.h.)
0999. Dissertation Research (Variable s.h.)