An exploration of basic issues in social & political philosophy, including the nature and justification of government, the nature and value of rights, freedom, and democracy, justice and equality,and the morality of war and peace (not necessarily all of these).

BUILDING: MOREY | ROOM: 525

PREREQUISITES: One previous course in philosophy.

Most health care ethics focuses on the individual decisions about health care, but many ethical questions have implications for society at large. The demands that individual health decisions make on the system may create collective problems, and conversely, the needs of society may limit the freedoms that individuals think they should have. Public health ethics then, lie at the intersection of medicine, political philosophy, and public policy. This course will examine the values of health, social needs, and freedom through a systematic examination of situations in which these conflicts arise.

BUILDING: GRGEN | ROOM: 108

Theories and controversies about the nature and aims of education; boundaries of educational authority; educational adequacy, equality, and justice; learning, inquiry, knowledge, and critical thinking; the measurement of learning; moral and civic education; patriotism, evolution, and sex in the curriculum.

BUILDING: LATT | ROOM: 531

There are several philosophical questions pertaining to knowledge that will be the subject matter of this course. These questions include: 1) What is knowledge? 2) Do people really know the sorts of things that we usually take ourselves to know? If not, why not? If so, how so? 3) What makes a belief justified or rational? Readings will be from contemporary philosophical sources. Texts: Feldman, Epistemology; Steup, Contemporary Debates in Epistemology.

BUILDING: LATT | ROOM: 531

This is a contemporary introduction to the philosophy of science. We will discuss what science is and how it works via in-depth investigations of several controversial issues in science today. By examining legal decisions regarding the teaching of intelligent design in schools, we will consider what, if anything, distinguishes science from other ways of understanding the world. By examining the replicability crisis in medicine and other fields, we will seek to understand the tools that scientists use to design experiments and evaluate data, asking whether these tools are flawed and whether they should be replaced with others. By examining incredible theories in contemporary physics, we will consider whether we ought to believe in the unobservable entities postulated by our best scientific theories. Lastly, we will investigate the role that values play in science by examining several ethically controversial experiments.

BUILDING: B&L | ROOM: 270

Equal parts science, history, and philosophy, this course will examine the interaction between science and religion, especially as it pertains to Darwin’s theory of evolution. Through primary and secondary readings, students will investigate: whether the relationship between science and religion has been primarily one of conflict or harmony; how religious context influenced both the formulation and acceptance of Darwin’s theory; whether evolution is incompatible with common religious views; and the ongoing relevance of Darwinism to debates over the relationship between science and religion. These questions will be explored in part through an examination of Darwin’s own evolving scientific, philosophical, and religious views. This course is reading-intensive and discussion-based.

BUILDING: LATT | ROOM: 531

Foundations of Ancient Greek philosophy from Presocratic to Hellenistic periods. Covers ancient Greek ethics, metaphysics and epistemology, philosophy of mind. Special attention to Plato and Aristotle.

BUILDING: LATT | ROOM: 531

We'll study three medieval philosophers: one from each of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions. We will read the following closely: • Anselm: Proslogion; • Maimonides: Guide for the Perplexed; • Al-Ghazali: Incoherence of the Philosophers. We’ll also look at their philosophical context, and bring them to bear on contemporary philosophical debates.

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In this seminar, we will be dealing with two central questions about intentionality, i.e., the feature of mental states to be about the world or to represent the world: Firstly, how can intentionality be explained—in other words, in virtue of what do mental states have representational contents? Secondly, how should these contents be characterized? Among others, we are going to have a closer look at the debate between internalists and externalists. (Internalists claim that the contents of a subject’s mental states are determined by their intrinsic properties, whereas externalists deny this.) We will try to bring out why this debate is important and how it connects our two guiding questions.

BUILDING: LATT | ROOM: 531

Critical exploration of work in contemporary metaethics and normative ethical theory and its applications.

BUILDING: LATT | ROOM: 531

Study of recent articles; writing short commentaries, replies, criticisms. Covers various topics under guidance of several faculty members.

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Supervised teaching of undergraduates, including leading discussion sections, grading tests and papers, and meeting with students.

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Continuation of PHL 580, with practice lecturing to the undergraduate classes.

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