Philosophical issues in ethics, social theory, and theories of human nature insofar as they bear on contemporary conduct of business. Issues include: Does business have moral responsibilities? Can social costs and benefits be calculated? Does modern business life determine human nature of the other way around? Do political ideas and institutions such as democracy have a role within business?

This course provides a rewarding opportunity for students in their second year to work in the research project of a professor in return for 299Y course credit. Students enrolled have an opportunity to become involved in original research, learn research methods and share in the excitement and discovery of acquiring new knowledge. Participating faculty members post their project descriptions for the following summer and fall/winter sessions in early February and students are invited to apply in early March. See Experiential and International Opportunities for more details.

A study of some topic or thinker in the ancient period.

This course explores major themes in Plato’s philosophy through a selective reading of his dialogues. Among the areas tackled are the human good, the nature of the soul, knowledge, and the ultimate constitution of reality. Readings may include, though will not necessarily be confined to, the Protagoras, Euthydemus, Meno, Gorgias, Republic, Phaedo, Phaedrus, Theaetetus and Sophist.

This course explores major themes in Aristotle’s philosophy belonging to the fields of natural philosophy, metaphysics, ethics and epistemology. Readings may include, though are not necessarily confined to, the Nicomachean Ethics, the Physics, the Metaphysics, the Categories, the Analytics and the De anima (On the soul).

This course explores major themes in Aristotle’s philosophy belonging to the fields of natural philosophy, metaphysics, ethics and epistemology. Readings may include, though are not necessarily confined to, the Nicomachean Ethics, the Physics, the Metaphysics, the Categories, the Analytics and the De anima (On the soul).

A study of a topic or thinker in the 17th or 18th century.

An intermediate-level course on one or more philosophical traditions from the South Asian world, including orthodox Indian schools (Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mimamsa, and Vedanta) and non-orthodox schools such as Buddhism and Jainism, with a focus on their theories of religion, ethics, epistemology, or metaphysics.

A concentrated study of Immanual Kant’s philosophy. Topics will vary from year to year, covering issues in metaphysics and epistemology, ethics, religion, or aesthetics. This course may focus on individual texts or include selections from Kant’s canonical writings, such as the Critique of Pure Reason, the Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, the Critique of Practical Reason, or the Critique of Judgment.

A study of some topic or thinker in the 19th century.

An examination of some of the classic texts of early analytic philosophy, concentrating on the work of Frege, Russell and Wittgenstein. Central topics to be covered include: the development of logic and its relation to arithmetic; the nature of language and meaning; truth and objectivity; the distinction between sense and reference; logical analysis; the relation between language and thought; and the bounds of intelligibility.

An examination of the later analytic tradition from logical positivism to Kripke. The course will cover some of the following topics: meaning and verifiability; the relation between science and philosophy; ordinary language and philosophy; the nature and status of the analytic-synthetic distinction; meaning and theories of meaning; theories of truth; the nature of necessity; and reference and identity.

Typical topics: ontological categories; ontological commitment; the objectivity of space and time: causality and determinism; mind and body.

Typical topics: knowledge and belief, perception, the analytic-synthetic distinction, theories of truth, necessity and the a priori.

Typical topics: the relationship between mind and brain; consciousness; intentionality and the mental; personal identity; the self; subjective and objective; the nature of human action.

(Formerly: Freedom, Responsibility, and Human Action) The course will cover various topics in action theory and the nature of practical reason, such as the nature of intentional action and intentional explanations, the relation between morality and practical reason, the distinction between theoretical and practical reasoning, and the relation between motivation and evaluation.

This course will examine the question of whether determinism is true, and to which extent and whether, determinism is compatible with the possibility that our will is free as well as the relation between freedom and responsibility. In particular, we will look at the plausibility of views such as compatibilism, hard determinism and libertarianism.

A continuation of PHL245, requiring no other prior knowledge of philosophy or mathematics. Symbolization, natural deduction, and models in polyadic predicate logic with operations and identity. Symbolization, natural deduction, and models for theories of descriptions. Introduction to metatheory, such as soundness and completeness.

An intermediate level look at reasoning and decision making in the face of uncertainty. Topics may include: decision theory, game theory, social choice theory, confirmation theory, foundations of probability and statistics, puzzles of infinity and self-location, and the relationship between knowledge and uncertainty.

Study of the concepts of necessity and possibility using extensions of classical logic: modal sentential logic, modal quantification logic, possible-world semantics, the metaphysics of modality. Other possible topics include: counterfactuals, epistemic logic, temporal logic, deontic logic, many-valued logic, and supervaluations.

Topics may include: Different philosophical approaches to the study of language; the philosophical analysis of central notions (e.g., reference and assertion) in the theoretical description of language; the relation between thought and language; the relation between philosophy of language and other areas of theoretical inquiry (e.g., theoretical linguistics and the philosophy of logic, metaphysics, epistemology, and mind).

Introduction to philosophical issues that arise from mathematics. Topics may include: platonism, logicism, formalism, intuitionism, mathematical application, and mathematical realism vs nominalism. This course will be accessible to students without a significant background in mathematics, but with an interest in the philosophical challenges that mathematics poses.

Central problems and contemporary issues. Topics may include: scientific inference and method; explanation; under-determination; the pessimistic induction; constructive empiricism; entity realism; structural realism; laws of nature.

Conceptual issues in modern biology. Topics may include natural selection, biological kinds, the role of evolution in explaining human attributes such as rationality, cooperation, and communication, reductionism in molecular biology, and functional explanation in biology.

This course examines philosophically controversial topics in cognitive science, such as consciousness, social cognition, communication, and reasoning in biologically and artificially intelligent systems.

This course examines contemporary artificial intelligence from a philosophical perspective. Topics include: the nature of intelligence, comparisons between biological and artificial learning, linguistic understanding and grounding in foundation models, moral guidance for AI systems, and the moral status of artificial agents.

A study of work by political philosophers, typically both historical and contemporary, on topics such as justice, rights, welfare, and political authority. 

In this class we will consider the moral standards that govern states rights (if any) to enforce restrictions on immigration, residency, and citizenship and peoples rights (if any) to immigrate and emigrate. Questions to be considered include: Do people have a right to move wherever they want? Do the citizens of a state have a right to choose who will be their co-nationals? Do they have a right to prefer people of particular religious, cultural, ethnic, or political persuasions? Do people have a right to leave the country in which they are born? Do countries have special obligations to refugees who are the victims of human rights violations? Are economic migrants due the same rights? Is it morally permissible to grant lesser rights to would-be migrants than native born citizens? Is it acceptable to sell the right to citizenship or permanent residency?

This course will examine selected philosophical topics in feminism, such as multiculturalism and women's rights, feminist epistemologies, ethics of care, the intersection between sexism and other forms of oppression, pornography.