Department of Philosophy

PHIL 30007. The Metaphysics of Action. 100 Units.

A fundamental category through which we understand the world is the category of action. This course offers an intensive overview of the metaphysics of action. We will first cover some basics including the relationship between actions, agency, and agents, the range of action kinds, what kind of thing action is, the distinction between basic and nonbasic action, agent nihilism, and the possibility of mental action. Next, in hopes of coming to better understand the nature of action, we will look at how action relates to other phenomena such as reasons, causation, knowledge, control, and normative life. (B) (II)

Instructor(s): Mikayla Kelley     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): One prior philosophy course.
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 20007

PHIL 30012. Accelerated Introduction to Logic. 100 Units.

This course provides an introduction to logic for students of philosophy. It is aimed at students who possess more mathematical training than can be expected of typical philosophy majors, but who wish to study logic not just as a branch of mathematics but as a method for philosophical analysis. (II)

Instructor(s): Anubav Vasudevan     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): While no specific mathematical knowledge will be presupposed, some familiarity with the methods of mathematical reasoning and some prior practice writing prose that is precise enough to support mathematical proof will be useful.
Note(s): Students may count either PHIL 20012 or PHIL 20100, but not both, toward the credits required for graduation.
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 20012

PHIL 30106. Perception, Language, and Action: an Introduction to Sartre and Merleau-Ponty. 100 Units.

The thoughts of Sartre and Merleau-Ponty are intertwined throughout their philosophical developments. Both take their departure in phenomenology's central insight that the mind transcends itself toward the world and the attending dissolution of the false problem of how the mind can hook up onto the world. As Sartre once put it: "Each of us was trying to understand the world insofar as he could, and with the means at his disposal. And we had the same means - then called Husserl and Heidegger - as we were similarly disposed." ("Merleau-Ponty vivant") At the same time, Sartre and Merleau-Ponty were both dissatisfied with the accounts that Husserl and Heidegger provided of the relations between perception, language and action. German phenomenology, they argue, stumbles over the problems of other minds and history. However, their respective diagnoses are fundamentally divergent, and so are the alternative accounts that they seek to articulate. The aim of the course is to introduce students to the thoughts of Sartre and Merleau-Ponty by attending to the life-long philosophical debate between them. It is driven by the hypothesis that each of the two authors is at once the most penetrating reader and the deepest critic of the other. Although the course will recurrently present their philosophies against the background of concepts and problems bequeathed by the analytic tradition and in the light of recent debates in analytic philosophy.

Instructor(s): Jean-Philippe Narboux     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 20106

PHIL 30308. What is Hegelianism? 100 Units.

The seminar will explore the fundamental issues in Hegel's philosophy by means of attention to the texts where he most clearly states his ambitions: his early essay, "The Difference Between Fichte's and Schelling's Systems of Philosophy"; The Introduction to his "Phenomenology of Spirit"; The long Introduction to his "Encyclopedia Logic"; The Preface and Introduction to his "Philosophy of Right," and the Introduction to his "Lectures on Fine Art."

Instructor(s): Robert Pippin     Terms Offered: Autumn. Autumn 2024
Prerequisite(s): The course is open to graduate and undergraduate students.
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 20308, SCTH 30308, SCTH 20308

PHIL 31002. Human Rights: Philosophical Foundations. 100 Units.

In this class we explore the philosophical foundations of human rights, investigating theories of how our shared humanity in the context of an interdependent world gives rise to obligations of justice. Webegin by asking what rights are, how they are distinguished from other part of morality, and what role they play in our social and political life. But rights come in many varieties, and we are interested in human rights in particular. In later weeks, we will ask what makes something a human right, and how are human rights different from other kinds of rights. We will consider a number of contemporary philosophers (and one historian) who attempt to answer this question, including James Griffin, John Rawls, John Tasioulas, Samuel Moyn, Jiewuh Song, Pablo Gilabert, and Martha Nussbaum. Throughout we will be asking questions such as, "What makes something a human right?" "What role does human dignity play in grounding our human rights?" "Are human rights historical?" "What role does the nation and the individual play in our account of human rights?" "When can one nation legitimately intervene in the affairs of another nation?" "How can we respect the demands of justice while also respecting cultural difference?" "How do human rights relate to global inequality and markets?" (A)

Instructor(s): Ben Laurence, Pozen Center for Human Rights Instructional Professor     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): DEMS 21002, HMRT 31002, MAPH 42002, HIST 39319, HIST 29319, INRE 31602, HMRT 21002, PHIL 21002

PHIL 31114. Philosophy of Logic. 100 Units.

Logic is, and always has been, a branch of philosophy. Why? What is logic? In this course we will explore the nature of logic, and how it relates to thought; to reasoning; to ordinary language; to mathematics; and to philosophy. We will read texts on the subject of logic by Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, Quine, Black, Prior, Gödel, Kripke, Dummett, Boolos, Putnam, Benacerraf, Harman, Williamson, Priest, and others. The course will be completely non-technical: we will be trying to make philosophical sense of logic. (B)

Instructor(s): Benjamin Callard     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 21114

PHIL 31206. Philosophy of Race and Racism. 100 Units.

The idea that there exist different "races" of human beings is something that many-perhaps even most-people in the United States today take for granted. And yet modern notions of "race" and "racial difference" raise deep philosophical problems: What exactly is race? Is race a natural kind (like water) or a social kind (like citizenship)? If race is a social kind-i.e. something human beings have constructed-are there any good reasons to keep using it? According to many philosophers, these questions cannot be properly analyzed in abstraction from the history of modern racism and the liberation struggles racial oppression has given rise to. Together, we'll read classic and contemporary texts on these themes by authors such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Frantz Fanon, Angela Davis, Charles Mills, Naomi Zack, Chike Jeffers, Kwame Anthony Appiah, and Lucius Outlaw. (A)

Instructor(s): Tyler Zimmer     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 21206, RDIN 31206, RDIN 21206

PHIL 31414. MAPH Core Course: Contemporary Analytic Philosophy. 100 Units.

This course is designed to provide MAPH students - especially those interested in pursuing a Ph.D. in Philosophy - with an introduction to some recent debates between philosophers working in the analytic tradition. The course is, however, neither a history of analytic philosophy nor an overview of the discipline as it currently stands. The point of the course is primarily to introduce the distinctive style and method - or styles and methods - of philosophizing in the analytic tradition, through brief explorations of some currently hotly debated topics in the field.

Instructor(s): Mikayla Kelley     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): This course is open only to MAPH students. MAPH students who wish to apply to Ph.D. programs in Philosophy are strongly urged to take this course.
Equivalent Course(s): MAPH 31414

PHIL 31505. Wonder, Magic, and Skepticism. 100 Units.

In the course of discussing how it is that a philosophical problem arises in the first place, Wittgenstein says, "The decisive movement in the conjuring trick has been made, and it was the very one that we thought quite innocent." This isn't the only place where Wittgenstein speaks as if being gripped by philosophical problems is a matter of succumbing to illusions--as if a philosophers are magicians who are taken in by their own tricks. In this course, we'll discuss philosophy and magical performance, with the aim of coming to a deeper understanding of what both are about. We'll be particularly concerned with Wittgenstein's picture of what philosophy is and does. Another focus of the course will be the passion of wonder. In the Theaetetus, Plato has Socrates say, "The sense of wonder is the mark of the philosopher. Philosophy indeed has no other origin." And when magicians write about their aesthetic aims, they almost always describe themselves as trying to instill wonder in others. Does magic end where philosophy begins? And what becomes of wonder after philosophy is done with it? (B) (IV)

Instructor(s): David Finkelstein     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Successful completion of at least two prior courses from U of C’s Department of Philosophy (not Core courses).
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 21505

PHIL 31513. Accuracy and the Patterns of Rational Belief. 100 Units.

Accuracy-first epistemology seeks to explain and justify rationality norms on belief by appeal to the epistemic good of accuracy. Its central commitment is that it is better to have accurate beliefs than inaccurate beliefs, and so one argument for satisfying some rationality norm is that doing so improves the accuracy of one's beliefs. This course will be an introduction to accuracy-first epistemology---its foundations, its promise, and its limits. (B) (II)

Instructor(s): Mikayla Kelley     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Two previous courses in philosophy and a strong background in mathematics are required.
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 21513

PHIL 32966. Epistemology of Bias. 100 Units.

TBA

Instructor(s): Ginger Schultheis     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 22966

PHIL 33029. Justice for Animals in Ethics and Law. 100 Units.

Animals are in trouble all over the world. Intelligent sentient beings suffer countless injustices at human hands: the cruelties of the factory farming industry, poaching and trophy hunting, assaults on the habitats of many creatures, and innumerable other instances of cruelty and neglect. Human domination is everywhere: in the seas, where marine mammals die from ingesting plastic, from entanglement with fishing lines, and from lethal harpooning; in the skies, where migratory birds die in large numbers from air pollution and collisions with buildings; and, obviously, on the land, where the habitats of many large mammals have been destroyed almost beyond repair. Addressing these large problems requires dedicated work and effort. But it also requires a good normative theory to direct our efforts. This class is theoretical and philosophical. Because all good theorizing requires scientific knowledge, we will be reading a good deal of current science about animal abilities and animal lives. But the focus will be on normative theory. We will study four theories currently directing practical efforts in animal welfare: the anthropocentric theory of the Non-Human Rights Project; the Utilitarian theory of Jeremy Bentham, J. S. Mill, and Peter Singer; the Kantian theory of Christine Korsgaard; and an approach using the Capabilities Approach, recently developed by Martha Nussbaum.

Instructor(s): Martha C. Nussbaum     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): This is a new 1L elective, in connection with the Law School’s new program in Animal Law. Law students and PhD students may register without permission. MA students and undergrads need the instructor’s permission, and to receive permission they must be third or fourth-year Philosophy concentrator with a letter of recommendation from a faculty member in the Philosophy Department. Because all assessment is by an eight-hour take-home exam at the end of the class, the letter should describe, among other things, the student’s ability in self-monitored disciplined preparation.
Equivalent Course(s): PLSC 33029, RETH 33029

PHIL 33206. Negation, Limit, and Intentionality. 100 Units.

Issues attending the concepts of negation, limit, and intentionality (construed as thought's capacity to be answerable to reality) are typically approached in isolation one from another. The course will pursue the contrary hypothesis: namely, that the puzzles arising in connection with these three concepts form a nexus, so that none of them can be comprehended apart from the relations that it entertains with the two others. In order to motivate and substantiate this hypothesis, we will exhume and revive a philosophical tradition that runs from Plato to Wittgenstein through Kant and Sartre and whose defining feature lies in the upholding of this approach. We will examine how the three notions come into play in what Wittgenstein calls "the mystery of negation": "This is not how things are, and yet we can say how things are not." Bringing out their nexus requires accounting for the unity and univocity of the concept of negation across two ways of using negation that seem to pull in opposite directions: in the one case, "not-p" makes use of "not" in order to reject p as false (as in "The shirt is not red"), which requires that p lies within the limits of the realm of the intelligible; in the other case, "not-p" makes use of "not" to reject p as nonsensical (as in "The sweet is not a colour"), as if excluding p from the realm of the intelligible. (B)

Instructor(s): Jean-Philippe Narboux     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 23206

PHIL 33451. Perception and Self-Consciousness. 100 Units.

In the first part of the course, we'll be discussing an argument to the effect that: in order for radical skepticism about empirical knowledge not to be intellectually obligatory, we must understand ourselves as enjoying a very particular kind of self-consciousness. In the remainder of the course, we'll be trying to get into view what an adequate account of that sort of self-consciousness might look like. (B) (II)

Instructor(s): David Finkelstein     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Successful completion of at least two prior courses from U of C’s Department of Philosophy (not Core courses).
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 23451

PHIL 35122. Modern Philosophy of Religion: A Historical Perspective. 100 Units.

The course will start by looking at the intellectual connections of several major figures in 18th and 19th century philosophy of religion. We will examine David Hume's "Essay on Miracles" and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Søren Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling, John Stuart Mill's "The Utility of Religion," Friedrich Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morality, and selections from William James's The Varieties of Religious Experience. In the last third of the course we will examine more recent writers such as Ludwig Wittgenstein and Emmanuel Levinas. The goal of the course is to present and to assess different ways in which philosophers have conceived of and argued for or against religious belief. (IV)

Instructor(s): Dan Brudney     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 35122, RLST 25122, PHIL 25122

PHIL 35714. An Introduction to Wittgenstein's Tractatus. 100 Units.

This will be an introductory course on Wittgenstein's Tractatus. The seminar will be organized around the following proposal: the book is meant to reveal the sort of understanding that is at stake whenever a philosophical problem arises. It teaches that such understanding is not a form of knowledge - and in particular not scientific knowledge- of whether or why something is the case. Its clarification of the sort of understanding at issue here allows for a reading according to which the Tractatus, contrary to what most commentators assume, seeks to affirm rather than to cancel philosophy. It affirms it as a fundamental concern with understanding distinct from science or from reason.

Instructor(s): Irad Kimhi     Terms Offered: Autumn. Autumn 2024
Prerequisite(s): Background in philosophy for Undergrads.
Note(s): Undergrads require the Instructor's consent to register.
Equivalent Course(s): SCTH 25714, PHIL 25714, FNDL 25714, SCTH 35714

PHIL 35715. Aristotle: Action, Embodied Agents and Value in Acting. 100 Units.

The aim of the course is to understand and assess central aspects of Aristotle's account of actions and agency. We will locate his views within the context of his discussion of (a) the relation between psychological and physical states, processes, and activities and (b) the value of acting well. The course is aimed at graduates and advanced undergraduates (seniors and juniors) in Philosophy or Classics.

Instructor(s): David Charles     Terms Offered: Autumn. Autumn 2024
Prerequisite(s): Knowledge of Greek is not required.
Note(s): Only senior Undergraduates with the instructor's consent can register. No consent is required for Graduate Students. Auditors are allowed subject to enrollment and with the instructor's permission. Auditors will be expected to attend all classes, complete all reading assignments, and participate in class discussions, but not to complete writing assignments.
Equivalent Course(s): FNDL 25715, CLCV 25924, CLAS 35924, SCTH 35715, PHIL 25715, SCTH 25715

PHIL 35716. The Linguistic Turn in Philosophy (Language, Meaning, Being) 100 Units.

How did philosophy come to be understood in the twentieth century as a special concern with our language? We shall deal with this question by studying the central philosophical approaches to language and philosophy (Frege, Wittgenstein, Carnap, Quine, Davidson, Dummett, McDowell).

Instructor(s): Irad Kimhi     Terms Offered: Winter. Winter 2025
Prerequisite(s): Consent Required for Undergraduate Students.
Equivalent Course(s): FNDL 25716, SCTH 35716, PHIL 25716

PHIL 35908. Aristotle on Knowledge and Understanding. 100 Units.

This course will consist of a focused reading of Aristotle's Prior and Posterior Analytics. Our aim will be to understand Aristotle's theory of knowledge, the significance of experience, and the nature of reasoning. Readings will include some of the Platonic antecedents of Aristotle's work, including the Theaetetus and Sophist. (B)

Instructor(s): Arnold Brooks     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 25908

PHIL 36101. Interpretation and Philosophy. 100 Units.

We discuss the nature and philosophical implications of the practice of interpretation, focusing especially on the interpretation of philosophy. We will address questions such as: what is interpretation, and at what does it aim? What counts as success or failure? Is the interpretation of philosophy itself a form of philosophy? What is the ethical significance of interpretation? This course will involve a practical element. In addition to reading texts on the theory of interpretation, we will spend time in and out of class developing interpretations of selected philosophical texts. (B)

Instructor(s): Arnold Brooks     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 26101

PHIL 36425. Reading Marx's Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. 100 Units.

Karl Marx's account of "those societies in which the capitalist mode of production prevails" remains one of the most influential yet contentious theories ever committed to paper. Often invoked in times of turmoil, his name has come to mean different things to different people. Yet it is not always clear in fact just what his theory is, doubtless in part because his writings are quite challenging to read. In this course, students will engage fundamentally with Marx's writings to gain a clear idea of his theory for themselves. We will do so by reading volume 1 of Marx's Capital as well as selections from volumes 2 and 3 and Theories of Surplus Value. We will approach Marx own his own terms, considering context and comparison with other highlights from the history of political economy only where they are relevant. Topics which we will address include Marx's view of "alienation", "commodity fetishism", and "class struggle", but also labor, employment, money, capital, profit, and crisis. We will be reading Paul Reiter's new translation of Capital: Critique of Political Economy, Volume 1 (Princeton 2024), which students must bring to every class. The course will be held in English and there are no prerequisites. But students should read Marx's short essay, "Wage Labor and Capital", to prepare in advance of our first meeting.

Instructor(s): Daniel Burnfin     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): MAPS 31529, PLSC 26425, MAPH 36425, PHIL 26425, GRMN 26425, GRMN 36425

PHIL 36520. Mind, Brain and Meaning. 100 Units.

What is the relationship between physical processes in the brain and body and the processes of thought and consciousness that constitute our mental life? Philosophers and others have puzzled over this question for millennia. Many have concluded it to be intractable. In recent decades, the field of cognitive science--encompassing philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, computer science, linguistics, and other disciplines--has proposed a new form of answer. The driving idea is that the interaction of the mental and the physical may be understood via a third level of analysis: that of the computational. This course offers a critical introduction to the elements of this approach, and surveys some of the alternative models and theories that fall within it. Readings are drawn from a range of historical and contemporary sources in philosophy, psychology, linguistics, and computer science. (B) (II)

Instructor(s): Jason Bridges; Leslie Kay; Chris Kennedy     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): SIGN 26520, COGS 20001, LING 36520, NSCI 22520, LING 26520, PHIL 26520, PSYC 36520, PSYC 26520

PHIL 36710. First Philosophy. 100 Units.

Aristotle said that "first philosophy" is the branch of knowledge that is both most general-having to do with everything-and the most foundational. In this course we will explore various attempts in the history of philosophy to describe and produce such a science, beginning with Plato and Aristotle's attempts to describe being and ending with Wittgenstein's skepticism about such a project. We will try to produce a generalization about what first philosophy is and about its possibility and limitations. (B)

Instructor(s): Arnold Brooks     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 26710

PHIL 37327. Lucretius. 100 Units.

We will read selections of Lucretius' magisterial account of a universe composed of atoms. The focus of our inquiry is: how did Lucretius convert a seemingly dry philosophical doctrine about the physical composition of the universe into a gripping message of personal salvation? The selections include Lucretius' vision of an infinite universe, of heaven, and of the hell that humans have created for themselves on earth.

Instructor(s): Elizabeth Asmis     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 27327, LATN 22100, LATN 32100, FNDL 27601

PHIL 37328. Friedrich Nietzsche: The Gay Science. 100 Units.

The Gay Science is the only work that Nietzsche wrote and published before and after the Zarathustra experiment of 1883-1885. It first appeared in 1882, ending with the last aphorism of Book IV and anticipating verbatim the opening of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. In 1887 Nietzsche republished The Gay Science and added a substantial new part: Book V looks back to "the greatest recent event" announced by The Gay Science of 1882, "that 'God is dead'." I shall concentrate my interpretation on books IV and V, the only books of The Gay Science for which Nietzsche provided titles: "Sanctus Januarius" and "We Fearless Ones." And I shall pay special attention to the impact of the Zarathustra endeavor, which separates and connects these dense and carefully written books.

Instructor(s): Heinrich Meier     Terms Offered: Spring. Spring 2025
Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates Need Instructor's Permission to Register.
Note(s): The seminar will take place in Foster 505 on Mondays and Wednesdays, 10:30 a.m. – 1:20 p.m.*, during the first five weeks of the term (March 24 – April 23, 2025).
Equivalent Course(s): SCTH 37327, FNDL 27328, PHIL 27328

PHIL 37351. Personal Identity. 100 Units.

This course provides an overview of the metaphysics of personal identity, addressing questions like: "What makes an entity a person, rather than a non-person?", "What does it take for a person to survive, rather than perish?", "Why is surviving important (if it is)?", and "What makes you you?" We will consider a range of theories of personal identity, including nihilism, psychological continuity theories, and narrative approaches. (B) (II)

Instructor(s): Ray Briggs     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): For undergraduates, PHIL 23000: Introduction to Metaphysics and Epistemology.
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 27351

PHIL 37500. Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. 100 Units.

This will be a careful reading of what is widely regarded as the greatest work of modern philosophy, Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Our principal aims will be to understand the problems Kant seeks to address and the significance of his famous doctrine of "transcendental idealism". Topics will include: the role of mind in the constitution of experience; the nature of space and time; the relation between self-knowledge and knowledge of objects; how causal claims can be justified by experience; whether free will is possible; the relation between appearance and reality; the possibility of metaphysics. (B) (IV)

Instructor(s): Thomas Pendlebury     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): CHSS 37901, PHIL 27500, HIPS 25001, FNDL 27800

PHIL 37523. Reading Kierkegaard. 100 Units.

This will be a discussion-centered seminar that facilitates close readings two texts: Philosophical Fragments and Concluding Unscientific Postscript. Each of these texts is officially by the pseudonymous author Johannes Climacus. But the author of that author is Soren Kierkegaard. Topics to be considered will include: What is subjectivity? What is objectivity? What is irony? What is humor? What is the difference between the ethical and the religious? What is it to become and be a human being? We shall also consider Kierkegaard's form of writing and manner of persuasion. In particular, why does he think he needs a pseudonymous author? (IV)

Instructor(s): Jonathan Lear     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): This course is intended for undergraduate majors in Philosophy and Fundamentals and graduate students in Social Thought and Philosophy. Permission of instructor required.
Equivalent Course(s): FNDL 27523, SCTH 37523, PHIL 27523, SCTH 27523

PHIL 39903. The Philosophy of AI: Induction in the age of Big Data. 100 Units.

(B) (II)

Instructor(s): Anubav Vasudevan     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 29903

PHIL 43114. Foundations of the Philosophy of Action. 100 Units.

In this seminar we will explore a set of interrelated topics in the philosophy of action. These include: the purposive structure of practical reason, the nature of the relationship between means and ends, the idea of 'practical inference', and the place of causation in the understanding of intentional agency. Course readings comprise a manuscript by the course instructor in conjunction with a constellation of primarily contemporary writings on these topics.

Instructor(s): Jason Bridges     Terms Offered: Winter

PHIL 44503. Locke and Leibniz. 100 Units.

This course will consist of a close study of Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding alongside Leibniz's chapter-by-chapter response to Locke in his New Essays on Human Understanding. Locke's Essay is the great manifesto and development of empiricism, and Leibniz's New Essays is a detailed, sustained rebuttal of Locke's book. As such, it is both a fascinating work by one of the giants of rationalism and a text that provides an opportunity to take seriously the idea that philosophy develops through dialogue. Topics to be discussed include innate ideas, necessary truths, reason, experience, substance, essence, personal identity, the nature of mind and body, and freedom, among others. We will also ask larger questions about the nature of the rationalist and empiricist traditions to which these philosophers belong - e.g., the extent to which empiricism is indebted to the experimental sciences, and whether rationalism is best understood as a doctrine concerning the sources of human knowledge or as a metaphysical claim about the intelligibility of being. (B)

Instructor(s): Andrew Pitel     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Open to undergraduate and MA students, and all others with consent.
Equivalent Course(s): MAPH 44503, PHIL 24503

PHIL 45798. Substance in Medieval, Modern, and Contemporary Metaphysics. 100 Units.

The notion of substance has long been at the center of metaphysical theorizing. Substances are said to be fundamental and independent things, capable of existing on their own, which are the bearers of properties. An account of substance has also been thought central to metaphysics in that the primary sense of 'being' is the sense in which substances are beings. But there has been a great deal of controversy over how to give an account of the nature or being of substance, what sorts of things we should count as substances, what we can know of substance, and even whether the notion of substance is intelligible. In this course we will examine a number of influential accounts of substance in medieval, early modern, and contemporary metaphysics. Historical figures we will likely read include Aquinas, Scotus, Ockham, Suárez, Descartes, Spinoza, and Locke. Contemporary readings may include texts by Justin Broackes, Kit Fine, Robert Pasnau, Kathrin Koslicki, Michael Della Rocca, and Shamik Dasgupta. (B)

Instructor(s): Andrew Pitel     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Open to undergraduate and MA students, and all others with consent.
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 25798, MAPH 45798

PHIL 49701. Topical Workshop. 100 Units.

This is a workshop for 3rd year philosophy graduate students, in which students prepare and workshop materials for their Topical Exam.

Instructor(s): Malte Willer     Terms Offered: Autumn Winter
Prerequisite(s): A two-quarter (Autumn, Winter) workshop for all and only philosophy graduate students in the relevant years.

PHIL 49702. Paper Revision and Publication Workshop. 100 Units.

Preparing papers to submit to journals for review and revising papers in response to the feedback received from journal editors and referees is an essential part of professional academic life, and students applying for academic positions with no publications to their name are at a disadvantage in today's highly competitive job market. The Department of Philosophy has therefore instituted the Paper Revision and Publication Workshop to provide our graduate students with support and assistance to prepare papers to submit for publication in academic philosophy journals. The workshop was designed with the following three aims in mind: 1. to provide students with a basic understanding of the various steps involved in publishing in academic journals and to create a forum in which students can solicit concrete advice from faculty members about the publishing process; 2. to direct and actively encourage students to submit at least one paper to a journal for review on a timeline that would allow accepted submissions to be listed as publications on a student's CV by the time they go on the academic job market; and 3. to create and foster a departmental culture in which the continued revision of work with the ultimate aim of publication in academic journals is viewed as an essential aspect of the professional training of our graduate students and in which both faculty and students work together to establish more ambitious norms for publishing while in graduate school.

Instructor(s): Malte Willer     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): PhD students in Years 2-6, with approval by the DGS.

PHIL 49900. Reading & Research. 100 Units.

Reading and Research.

Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter
Prerequisite(s): Consent of Instructor.

PHIL 50100. First-Year Seminar. 100 Units.

This course meets in Autumn and Winter quarters.

Instructor(s): Anubav Vasudevan     Terms Offered: Autumn Winter
Prerequisite(s): Enrollment limited to first-year graduate students.

PHIL 50208. Kant's Ethics. 100 Units.

In this course we will read, write, and think about Kant's ethics. After giving careful attention to the arguments in the Second Critique, portions of the Third Critique, the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, the Metaphysics of Morals, and several other primary texts, we will conclude by working through some contemporary neo-Kantian moral philosophy, paying close attention to work by Christine Korsgaard, David Velleman, Stephen Engstrom, and others. (IV)

Instructor(s): Thomas Pendlebury     Terms Offered: Winter

PHIL 51414. Love and Friendship. 100 Units.

We will consider the popular question: "What is love? And why does it hurt so bad?" Our systematic point of departure will be the analysis of love in contemporary analytic philosophy. In the second part of the class, we will turn to the dialectic of love as it presents itself in Hegel's work and its critical reception in Feminist Philosophy. The conundrum we encounter will be the following. On the one hand, Hegel's speculative concept appears to render intelligible the modern ideal of love that feels well familiar from inside intuition but doesn't seem to be quite captured by the received analysis of love. In one way or another, the analytic accounts on offer seem to imply a tension between two aspects that intuitively both belong to the concept of true love: being with the beloved and realizing the freedom traditionally thought to be essential to being a person. Hegel's speculative account is meant to resolve the apparent tension. As he has it, love's bond is a liberation: love sets you free. His articulation of this thought promises to make sense of the intuitively familiar and yet on the reflection deeply puzzling idea that it is precisely the devotion to the other through which one finds oneself. On the other hand, the explanation Hegel offers appears to entail his problematic views on patriarchy. We will investigate whether this is just Hegel's fault or perhaps the contradiction in which we live. (I)

Instructor(s): Matthias Haase     Terms Offered: Autumn

PHIL 51492. Anscombe's Practical Philosophy. 100 Units.

G. E. M. ('Elizabeth') Anscombe wrote on many different topics in the history of philosophy, in theoretical philosophy, and in practical philosophy. We will read, write, talk, and think about her work in practical philosophy, with special emphases on her writings on action theory, moral psychology, ethics, and practical reason. Engagement with her work in practical philosophy has become the focus of significant philosophical research by prominent mainstream Anglophone philosophers in recent decades, and we also will engage some work by scholars and theorists whose work is indebted to hers. (I)

Instructor(s): Candace Vogler     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Consent required for enrollment.

PHIL 51830. Advanced Topics in Moral, Political & Legal Philosophy. 100 Units.

Topic: MARX'S PHILOSOPHY AND 20TH-CENTURY MARXISM: HISTORY, ECONOMICS, THE STATE, IDEOLOGY The first half of the seminar will introduce some major themes of Marx's philosophy-especially historical materialism, his economics and analysis of capitalism, his theory of ideology (especially as applied to morality and law), and the early Marx's views on human nature and human flourishing-while the second half will consider the reception and development of Marx's ideas about history, the state, ideology, and economics in 20th-century Continental European thought, with readings from, among others, Lukács, Adorno, Kojève, Hilferding, Luxemburg, Gramsci, and others.

Instructor(s): Michael Forster; Brian Leiter     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Instruction permission required for students outside the philosophy PhD program or the law school.

PHIL 51833. Wittgenstein and Moore's Paradox. 100 Units.

Wittgenstein wrote a letter to G. E. Moore after hearing Moore give the paper which first set forth a version of (what has come to be known as) Moore's paradox. The version of the paradox that Moore first set forward involved imagining someone uttering the following sentence: "There is a fire in this room and I don't believe there is." Wittgenstein's understanding of the importance of Moore's paradox may be summarized as follows: Something on the order of a logical contradiction arises when we attempt to combine the affirmation of p and a denial of a consciousness of p within the scope of a single judgment. In his letter to Moore, Wittgenstein writes: To call this … "an absurdity for psychological reasons" seems to me to be wrong, or highly misleading. It … is in fact something similar to a contradiction, though it isn't one…. This means roughly: it plays a similar role in logic. You have said something about the logic of assertion. Viz: It makes sense to say "Let's suppose: p is the case and I don't believe that p is the case," whereas it makes no sense to assert "p is the case and I don't believe that p is the case." This assertion has to be ruled out and is ruled out by "common sense," just as a contradiction is. And this just shows that logic isn't as simple as logicians think it is. In particular: that contradiction isn't the unique thing people think it is. It isn't the only logically inadmissible form. (II)

Instructor(s): James Conant; David Finkelstein     Terms Offered: Winter

PHIL 53422. Kant's Theology. 100 Units.

Although Kant wrote on theology throughout his philosophical career, contemporary scholarship often sidelines this dimension of Kant's thinking. This seminar will focus on Kant's theological work, with the dual aim of understanding Kant's theological views and assessing how or whether a theological perspective affects one's interpretation of core features of the Critical philosophy. Potential topics include Kant's account of the divine mind and the divine will, the account of the most real being (ens realissimum) in the first Critique's Dialectic, the criticisms of the traditional proofs of the existence of God, the role of God within Kant's "moral metaphysics", Kant's relationship to Baumgarten and Wolff, Pietist themes within Kant's theology, and connections with post-Kantian Idealist views on both intellectual intuition and theology as such. (IV)

Instructor(s): Maya Krishnan     Terms Offered: Winter

PHIL 53905. Heidegger, Being and Time. 100 Units.

Though unfinished, Martin Heidegger's Being and Time is one of the most influential contributions to 20th century philosophy. In it, Heidegger proposes nothing less than an exposition (in fact, a restatement) of the question of Being - a question whose subject matter is inherently intertwined with the concerns and affairs of the inquirer. Systematizing and indeed radicalizing ideas from Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and Husserl, Being and Time is at the same time a critique of the Western philosophical tradition's neglect of the Seinsfrage. We will proceed systematically through Being and Time, seeking to understand as well as to contextualize its basic moves, motivations, and key arguments. (IV)

Instructor(s): Malte Willer     Terms Offered: Autumn

PHIL 55403. Transfeminism. 100 Units.

Trans experience raises interesting philosophical questions about how people understand and misunderstand each other as gendered beings, how our internal senses of ourselves relate to the way society perceives us, and how to re-imagine our ideas of a good or normal body. This graduate seminar explores some of these questions through readings in contemporary Anglo-American philosophy that center trans and feminist perspectives. (I)

Instructor(s): Ray Briggs     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 55403

PHIL 55502. Socratic Intellectualism. 100 Units.

We will read selections from, and secondary literature on, some early Socratic dialogues in order to engage with a set of Socratic theses on desire, motivation, and value: (1) Everyone desires the good (or: what he believes to be good?) (Meno, Gorgias, Lysis) ; (2) Everyone does what he believes (or knows?) to be best (Protagoras, Apology) (3) It is better to be wronged than to do wrong (Gorgias, Apology) (4) Only good men do wrong voluntarily (Hippias Minor) (5) Courage/Moderation is Wisdom (Laches, Protagoras, Charmides). We will want to examine these views both for consistency; for their individual merits; and in order to see whether we can put them together into a distinctively Socratic ethical point of view. (III)

Instructor(s): Agnes Callard     Terms Offered: Autumn

PHIL 57504. Kant's Critique of Judgment. 100 Units.

This will be a study of Kant's third and final Critique, his Critique of Judgment. We will attempt to survey they book as a whole, including Kant's influential account of the nature of judgments of beauty and sublimity, as well as his theory of "teleological" judgment and its place in our understanding of the natural world. We will also seek to comprehend and assess Kant's claim that these studies constitute essential contributions to a critique of our cognitive power of judgment, a critique which is crucial to the completion of his larger "critical" project surveying the scope and limits of human cognition as a whole. (IV)

Instructor(s): Matthew Boyle     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Students not in Philosophy or Social Thought should consult the instructor before enrolling.
Equivalent Course(s): SCTH 57504

PHIL 59950. Workshop: Job Placement. 000 Units.

Course begins in late Spring quarter and continues in the Autumn quarter.

Instructor(s): Ginger Schultheis     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring
Prerequisite(s): This workshop is open only to PhD Philosophy graduate students planning to go on the job market in the Autumn of 2024/2025. Approval of dissertation committee is required.

PHIL 70000. Advanced Study: Philosophy. 300.00 Units.

Advanced Study: Philosophy

Instructor(s): Malte Willer     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter