ON LEAVE SPRING SEMESTER:

Alan Berger

Jennifer Marušić 

Kate Moran

Spring 2012 Courses

Courses numbered below 100 are primarily for undergraduates, but M.A. students can usually arrange to take below-100 level courses for M.A. credit by doing extra work and getting permission from the instructor.


PHIL 1a  Introduction to Philosophy
A general course presenting the problems of philosophy, especially in the areas of metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and social and political philosophy. Texts include works of selected philosophers of various historical periods from antiquity to the present.
Mr. Marušić 
T, F 12:30 PM–1:50 PM

PHIL 17a Introduction to Ethics
Explores the basic concepts and theories of ethical philosophy. What makes a life good? What are our moral obligations to other people? Applications of ethical philosophy to various concrete questions will be considered.
Mr. Greenberg
T, F 2:00 PM–3:20 PM

PHIL 22b Philosophy of Law
Examines the nature of criminal responsibility, causation in the law, negligence and liability, omission and the duty to rescue, and the nature and limits of law. Also, is the law more or less like chess or poker, cooking recipes, or the Ten Commandments? Usually offered every year.
Mr. Teuber,
T, F 9:30 AM–10:50 AM

PHIL 35a Philosophy of Science
Philosophers in the twentieth century have often taken scientific activity to be the ideal source of our knowledge about the world. Discusses the problems involved in the analysis of the principles and methods of scientific activity, with an eye to assessing this claim. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Hirsch
T, Th 2:00 PM–3:20 PM

PHIL 39b Philosophy of Mind
Covers the central issue in the philosophy of mind: the mind-body problem. This is the ongoing attempt to understand the relation between our minds -- our thoughts, perceptions, feelings, and so on -- and our bodies. Is the mind just a complex configuration of (neural) matter, or is there something about it that's irreducibly different from every physical thing? Topics include intentionality, consciousness, functionalism, reductionism, and the philosophical implications of recent work in neuroscience, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Cushing
T, Th 3:30 PM–4:50 PM

PHIL 78a Existentialism
Theories of meaning, reference, and methodological issues in account of language and translation. Readings from contemporary sources. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Marušić
T, F 9:30 AM–10:50 AM


(100-199) For Both Undergraduate and Graduate Students


PHIL 107b Kant's Moral Theory
An examination of the main philosophical issues addressed in Kant's Critique of Practical Reason from the perspective of their relation to works specifically belonging to his ethical theory: the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals and the Metaphysics of Morals. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Greenberg
T, Th 5:00 PM–6:20 PM

PHIL 112a Philosophy of the State
Explores a variety of normative arguments for and against the legitimacy of the state that have been put forward by key figures in the history of western political philosophy; e.g. Hobbes, Kant, Rousseau, Hume, and Dewey. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Smiley
M, W 2:00 PM–3:20 PM

PHIL 113b Aesthetics: Painting, Photography and Film
Explores representation in painting, photography, and film by studying painters Rembrandt, Velázquez, and Vermeer, as well as later works by Manet, Degas, Cézanne, and Picasso; photographers Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Edward Weston, Walker Evans, Alfred Stieglitz, and Diane Arbus; and filmmakers Renoir and Hitchcock. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Teuber
T, F 12:30 PM–1:50 PM

PHIL 114b Topics in Ethical Theory: Metaethics
Metaethics concerns the nature of moral claims: whether they are objective, subjective, in some sense relative, or absolute. This course provides a survey of the metaethical terrain: the arguments purporting to show that moral discourse is importantly different from scientific discourse, and the major positions about the nature of moral claims.
Mr. Sherman
M,W, Th 1:00 PM–1:50 PM

PHIL 131b The Metaphysics of Death
Explores the most salient fact of our existence that it ends; we die. We confront, thus, the problem of nonexistence, and also time, since death is our future, not our past. Those conundrums are the focus of this class. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Yourgrau,
T, Th 5:00 PM–6:20 PM

PHIL 136a Personal Identity
 An examination of some major issues involved in the question of personal identity. What am I? What are the conditions of self-identity? How does the identity of the self relate to the identity of a physical object? Is identity an illusion? Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Hirsch
M 2:00 PM–4:50 PM

PHIL 137a Nature or Nurture: The Innateness Controvery
The question: How much of what we are--what we believe and know, what we think and feel, and how we act--is due to our environment and training and how much is a function of our inherent nature? This interdisciplinary course covers: the main answers in the history of philosophy (from Plato through Logical Positivism); the contemporary philosophical debate on this question; and current scientific research in linguistics, psychology, ethology, artificial intelligence, and evolutionary biology. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Samet
T, Th  5:00 PM–6:20 PM

PHIL 145b Topics in the Philosophy of Language
Topics may vary from year to year and course may be repeated for credit. Topics include the relationship between the language we speak and our view of reality, reference, the sense in which language may structure reality, and formal semantics. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Sherman
T, Th  5:00 PM–6:20 PM

PHIL 177b Simone Weil
Studies the French philosopher Simone Weil, revolutionary and mystic. Is divine perfection reconcilable with human suffering? Weil shook the foundations of Christianity and Judaism attempting to answer this question and this course will rejoin her quest. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Yourgrau
T, Th  3:30 PM–4:50 PM

For Graduate Students Only


PHIL 235a Grad Seminar in Epistemology: Disagreement and Testimony
Mr. Sherman
W 6:30PM – 9:20PM

Cross-Listed in Philosophy


WMGS 205a Graduate Foundational Course in Women's and Gender Studies
Ms. Smiley
W 5:00 PM –7:50PM

LING 130a Formal Semantics: Truth, Meaning and Language
Ms. Malamud
T, Th 2:00 PM–3:20 PM

POL 192b Topics in Law and Political Theory: American Political Thought
Mr. McCarty
T, Th 3:30 PM–4:50 PM