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Independent Studies
Section numbers vary by instructor. Please check Banner for the correct section number and CRN to use when registering for this course.
- Primary Instructor
- Ackerman
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Hill
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Gill
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Heck
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Schechter
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Reginster
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Broackes
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Dreier
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Christensen
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Estlund
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Pautz
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Larmore
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Arpaly
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Guyer
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
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Senior Thesis
An elective for students writing a thesis. Section numbers vary by instructor. Please check Banner for the correct section number and CRN to use when registering for this course.
- Primary Instructor
- Ackerman
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Arpaly
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Broackes
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Christensen
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Dreier
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Estlund
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Gill
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Guyer
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Heck
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Hill
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Larmore
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Pautz
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Reginster
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Schechter
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
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Research in Philosophy
Section numbers vary by instructor. Please check Banner for the correct section number and CRN to use when registering for this course.
- Primary Instructor
- Ackerman
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Hill
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Gill
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Heck
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Miller
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Schechter
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Reginster
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Broackes
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Dreier
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Christensen
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Estlund
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Pautz
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Larmore
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Arpaly
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Guyer
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
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Thesis Preparation
For graduate students who have met the tuition requirement and are paying the registration fee to continue active enrollment while preparing for a preliminary examination.
- Schedule Code
- E: Graduate Thesis Prep
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Thesis Preparation
For graduate students who have met the residency requirement and are continuing research on a full time basis.
- Schedule Code
- E: Graduate Thesis Prep
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Free Speech
Freedom of speech is a challenging and controversial ideal. Legal questions are central, but the issues range into moral and political philosophy as well. We will study John Stuart Mill’s influential 19th century treatment of the idea, and then concentrate mostly on discussions within the last fifty years, including much that is on the cutting edge of current thinking about freedom of speech. Topics will vary, including such things as: political speech, art and offense, pornography, hate speech, protest, copyright, internet and new media, and campaign finance laws.
- Primary Instructor
- Estlund
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Ethics in the Novel
Consideration of novels in terms of their treatment of such ethical themes as love, friendship, envy, death, courage, faith, integrity, betrayal, responsibility to others, revenge, justice, and mercy. The course deals with twentieth-century and twenty-first-century novels and also with Malory. No prerequisites. This class will be conducted entirely as online synchronous sessions via Zoom. All sessions will be recorded for asynchronous access as well.
- Primary Instructor
- Ackerman
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Dissertation Workshop
Course for graduate students during their 4th year or above.
- Primary Instructor
- Schechter
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Perception
Can we achieve knowledge of objective reality through perception, or does perception only put us in touch with subjective appearances? What is the relationship between perception and cognition? What is the nature of perceptual phenomenology? What is the nature of perceptual consciousness? Which of the general theories of perception is correct -- representationalism, Gibsonianism, adverbialism, or the acquaintance model? Representationalism is the most popular of these accounts among philosophers and psychologists, so we will consider representationalist models in detail, focusing on the question, What is it for a perceptual state to represent an external object? Readings from philosophers and psychologists.
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Consciousness
Topics will include: (i) the different features of various types of consciousness; (ii) dualist, physicalist, and representationalist theories of experience; (iii) the nature of pain and other bodily sensations; (iv) the nature of conscious thought; (v) the qualitative dimension of perception; (vi) introspection; (vii) the roles of attention and working memory in perceptual consciousness; (viii) blindsight, inattentional blindness, hemineglect, and related phenomena; (ix) the unconscious; and (x) what it is for a state of consciousness to be unified.
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Contemporary Ethical Issues
Are we morally obligated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? Do we have moral obligations toward nature, animals and other people, for instance future generations and refugees? Is abortion morally wrong? Is legalization of drugs the right thing to do? In this course we will explore these and other contemporary ethical issues in the context of important moral theories; utilitarianism, virtue ethics, and the social contract theory. This course will serve as an introduction to applied ethics and normative ethics.
- Primary Instructor
- Bjurman Pautz
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Food and Philosophy
This course will deal with questions about the epistemology, metaphysics, aesthetics, ethics and politics of food: how we should reason about the things we eat, what makes them tasty or artistic, and what we ought and ought not to eat and how we ought to structure the environment in which food is produced and distributed. This seminar is meant as a general introduction to philosophy, in which you will familiarize yourself with long-standing kinds of philosophical questions and modes of reasoning. Food will be our anchor topic, the subject matter that gives us the occasion for such philosophical reflection.
- Primary Instructor
- Guindon
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Epistemology
We’ll concentrate on several issues involving knowledge and rational belief: What is knowledge, and how does it relate to rational or justified belief? Does a person’s knowing something depend on non-evidential factors such as the practical importance of the person’s being correct? Does the justification of a person’s belief depend just on facts internal to the person—or might it depend on her environment? And what can we learn from thinking about the skeptical position which claims that we’re not justified in believing even the most ordinary things about the world around us? Pre-req: Must have taken one course in Philosophy.
- Primary Instructor
- Christensen
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Moral Theories
A systematic examination of the main alternative normative moral theories: consequentialism; moral rights; moral duties; moral virtues. Focuses on the principal issues in the formulation of the different theories, on the main points of conflict between them, and on the critical evaluation of each. Readings are drawn mainly from contemporary work in moral philosophy.
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Kant's Moral Philosophy
An introduction to the central themes of Kant's moral philosophy, including autonomy, freedom, happiness, obligation, and virtue. Kant's position in the history of moral philosophy will also be considered. Readings to include all of Kant's major writings in this field, thus Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, Critique of Practical Reason, Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, and Metaphysics of Morals, as well as several essays and lectures. Work will include two short papers and one term paper.
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Logic
An introduction to perhaps the most fundamental tool of rational thought: deductive logic. Course begins with basic sentential logic, then moves on to deduction, quantification, and predication. Argumentation and reasoning may also be addressed at times. No previous experience with logic or philosophy is required.
- Primary Instructor
- Schechter
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Ancient Greek Philosophy
This course will introduce students to the major concerns of Greek philosophy, and how they are addressed by the Presocratics, Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics. We will have two related ends: historical and critical. On the one hand, we will get clear so far as we are able what it is that these thinkers thought; on the other, it is important to evaluate their arguments. This course will emphasize the identification of the problems and the solutions to them that seemed pressing to these thinkers, especially if such problems seem alien to us.
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Philosophy of Biology
This course introduces philosophy of biology through engagement with historical and contemporary philosophical and scientific texts. We will ask epistemological questions about evolutionary biology, that seek a broader understanding of the status of biology as a science, and about fundamental concepts and categories of biological theory. We will ask whether and how biological knowledge (e.g. about health, “human nature,” or ecosystems) might be relevant to philosophical or ethical claims. Relatedly, we will ask questions about the roles of social values in biology. For example: How have concepts of ‘race’ and racial difference been theorized in philosophy and biology, and how has scientific racism mischaracterized human diversity? Students will leave the course with an appreciation for the relevance and importance of philosophical debates both within and about the life sciences.
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Gorgias
Plato's Gorgias begins with an investigation of Gorgias' rhetorical skill and its persuasive ability. It soon turns to questions about the nature of skills, justice, happiness, and much more—including the famous claim that it is better to suffer injustice than it is to do it. This class is a close reading of Plato’s dialogue, as well as Gorgias’ Helen and Palamedes, supplemented with relevant secondary literature.
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Status Anxiety
In this seminar, we explore three basic questions: What, precisely, is the status at stake in status anxiety? How are we to understand some of the typical manifestations of status anxiety, such as shame, resentment, and revengefulness? And when does status anxiety become harmful and pathological? As a particular focus, we will consider the relations between status anxiety, self-esteem, and (physical) self-preservation. Besides philosophical work on pertinent topics, such as standing, shame, resentment, respect, amour-propre, and revenge, we will also consider relevant materials from social psychology, sociology, and psychoanalytic theory.
- Primary Instructor
- Reginster
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Measuring Value
This is a seminar about the structure and aggregation of value, or good. How is what is good for a person related to what outcomes or states of affairs are good? How is what is good at a given time related to what is good over a long duration? How is what is good in one or another possible outcome related to what choices are good? Each question asks about the aggregation of good in a dimension (persons, time, possibility). As a preliminary question we ask what has to be assumed in order to make sense out of the main questions, and also of the idea of amounts of good. We will investigate some sticky problems in ‘population ethics’,especially the problem of how to compare alternatives when the identity and number of people who exist depends on which alternative is adopted.
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Love, Loyalty, Language, and Politics in George Orwell's Writing
Many people think of Orwell in almost exclusively political terms. This makes them overlook his potentially life-changing insights into love and friendship and his devastating depictions of passion, commitment, deception, and betrayal in such intimate relationships. This seminar will focus on this often-neglected side of Orwell, although his political concerns will not be neglected. In order to include students with a wide range of background and interests, the seminar has no prerequisites. This class will be conducted entirely as online synchronous sessions via Zoom. All sessions will be recorded for asynchronous access as well.
- Primary Instructor
- Ackerman
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Rawls' A Theory of Justice
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the publication of John Rawls' A Theory of Justice, this seminar will focus on the fundamental themes and arguments of this now classic work and on its enduring significance for political philosophy.
- Primary Instructor
- Larmore
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Substance and Essence from Descartes to Hume
The notions of Substance and Essence were huge in Aristotle--and by the time of Locke, a modern philosopher knew that those represented the old obscure philosophy that had to be dumped. And indeed in Locke's early drafts he dismisses the notion of Substance, and has no particular role for a notion of Essence. But over the next 20 years, he brings them both back (in different ways), convinced that they both play a crucial role in our thinking. (Hume will disagree.) 20th century philosophy has in different ways been embarrassed--or dismissive--of these same notions; and also in different ways (in Kripke, in Strawson, in Kit Fine) has brought them back. And the question arises, what is at stake, and what are the worries and the arguments that held sway in the 17th century, and which in the 20th century and today?
- Primary Instructor
- Broackes
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Freedom and Equality
In this class, we will explore perhaps the two most fundamental political ideas in modern liberal societies: that humans are (or should be) free, and that they are (or should be) equals. We will explore different conceptualizations of these two important but essentially contested concepts, reading a range of views of how freedom and equality are to be defined and what (if anything) makes them morally important, before applying these views to concrete questions like the role of race and gender in our society, how our political institutions should be organized, and whether economic inequities are morally permissible.
- Primary Instructor
- Schrepfer
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Modal Logic
Modal logic concerns the logic of necessity and possibility. In this course, we will look at formal systems that have been developed to handle these and related notions. We will cover three topics: propositional modal logic, quantified modal logic, and the logic of counterfactual conditionals. We will discuss philosophical issues, but the main focus of the course will be on the technical material. No official prerequisite. It is strongly recommended that students have taken PHIL 0540 or have a working knowledge of elementary logic.
- Primary Instructor
- Guindon
