Explicit criteria for recognizing valid and fallacious arguments, together with various methods for schematizing discourse for the purpose of logical analysis. Illustrative material taken from science and everyday life.

Corequisites: PHIL V2111 Required Discussion Section/ 0 points

Exposition and analysis of the positions of the major philosophers from the pre-Socratics through Augustine. This course has unrestricted enrollment.Recitation Section Required.

We will discuss some of the most fundamental questions that one can pose about human experience. For example, we will investigate how we experience time, whether anything really has color, the difference between imagining and seeing, whether beauty is subjective, how we understand other people's emotions, the ways in which the human mind is structured and the extent to which our minds are functionally fractionable. By drawing on both scientific and philosophical texts we hope to combine the best features of both approaches.

In this class, we will discus the moral dimensions of several contemporary issues, including (but not limited to) affirmative action, abortion, poverty, the treatment of non-human animals, punishment, and pornography. As we delve into these specific issues, we will also explore different conceptions of morality and justice, and the presuppositions about human nature and value that underlie them.

Prerequisites: One philosophy course or permission of the instructor.

Prerequisites: One philosophy course or instructor's permission. A study of one or more topics or major philosophers from the Renaissance through the 18th century. Sample topics: substance and matter, identity and individuation; philosophy and science; philosophy and theology. Sample philosophers: Bacon, Berkeley, Conway, Descartes, Gassendi, Hobbes, Hume, Kant, Leibniz, Locke, Newton, Pascal.

A survey of the precursors and founders of the three movements of 20th century analytical philosophy: Pragmatism, Logical Positivism and Linguistic Analysis. The course reader contains selected texts of Pragmatism including James, Peirce and Dewey as well as selected texts of Logical Positivism including Russell, Carnap and Ayer, and selected texts of Linguistic Analysis from Moore and Wittgenstein to Ryle and Austin. This survey is followed by an exposition of the Continental movements of Phenomenology and Existentialism with readings from Husserl, Heidegger and Sartre. A concluding review of some postmodernist tendencies that focuses on selected texts of Foucault and Berlin.

The Guide of the Perplexed, written in Arabic by Moses Maimonides (1138-1204), is the most influential book in medieval Jewish philosophy. It was the last great work in the Arabic Aristotelian traditon founded by the Muslim philosopher Alfarabi. It had a decisive influence on future Jewish philosophers, including Spinoza; and also had a deep impact on Christian philosophers, like Aquinas. It is a difficult but enchanting book, composed in the form of a puzzle. We shall read together Maiminides' Guide against the background of Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic thought, and try to unravel its secrets.

Corequisites: PHIL V3413 Required Discussion Section 0 points

Advanced introduction to classical sentential and predicate logic. No previous acquaintance with logic is required; nonetheless a willingness to master technicalities and to work at a certain level of abstraction is desirable. This course has unrestricted enrollment.Recitation Section Required.

Six major concepts of political philosophy including authority, rights, equality, justice, liberty and democracy are examined in three different ways. First the conceptual issues are analyzed through contemporary essays on these topics by authors like Peters, Hart, Williams, Berlin, Rawls and Schumpeter. Second the classical sources on these topics are discussed through readings from Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Marx, Plato, Mill and Rousseau. Third some attention is paid to relevant contexts of application of these concepts in political society, including such political movements as anarchism, international human rights, conservative, liberal, and Marxist economic policies as well as competing models of democracy.

This course explores philosophical reflection on the relationship between law, society and morality. We discuss the nature of law, the nature of legal reasoning, the relationship between law and social policy, and central concepts in civil and criminal law. Readings are drawn from such sources as the natural law tradidion, legal positivism, legal realism, and Critical Legal Theory. Readings will be supplemented by analysis of classic cases.

Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew philosophy from the 4th to the 14th century, including Augustine, Alfarabi, Avicenna, Anselm, Ibn Gabirol, Averroes, Maimonides, Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and Crescas.

Advanced introduction to classical sentential and predicate logic. No previous acquaintance with logic is required; nonetheless a willingness to master technicalities and to work at a certain level of abstraction is desirable. Note: Due to significant overlap, students may receive credit for only one of the following three courses: PHIL V3411, V3415, G4415.

Discussion Section Required.

Basic graduate and undergraduate course in the philosophy of language. Topics include: Language and meaning, reference, truth, the relationship between language and mind, internal and external theories, speech acts. Selections from philosophers and liguists, ranging from antiquity, through Mill, Frege, Russell, Quine, Davidson, Dummett, Grice, Searle, Saussure, Chomsky, Grice, Wittgenstein and others. Extent of material and selections will depend on time and level of class.

Corequisites: PHIL V2211 Required Discussion Section 0 points

PHIL V2101 is not a prerequisite for this course. Exposition and analysis of the metaphysics, epistemology, and natural philosophy of the major philosophers from Aquinas through Kant. Authors include Aquinas, Galileo, Gassendi, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. This course has unrestricted enrollment.Recitation Section Required.

This course will survey the most fundamental issues about the nature of language and the nature of the human mind. readings will consist of selections from Descartes, Locke, Frege, Wittgenstein, Chomsky, Quine, Davidson, Kripke, McDowell, Burge and some more recent writings

Corequisites: PHIL V3413 Required Discussion Section 0 points

Advanced introduction to classical sentential and predicate logic. No previous acquaintance with logic is required; nonetheless a willingness to master technicalities and to work at a certain level of abstraction is desirable. This course has unrestricted enrollment.Recitation Section Required.

Philosophical problems at the foundations of quantum theory, especially those having to do with the uncertainty of relations and nature of quantum mechanical indeterminacy. Exploration of a variety of interpretation and hidden variable theory.

Six major concepts of political philosophy including authority, rights, equality, justice, liberty and democracy are examined in three different ways. First the conceptual issues are analyzed through contemporary essays on these topics by authors like Peters, Hart, Williams, Berlin, Rawls and Schumpeter. Second the classical sources on these topics are discussed through readings from Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Marx, Plato, Mill and Rousseau. Third some attention is paid to relevant contexts of application of these concepts in political society, including such political movements as anarchism, international human rights, conservative, liberal, and Marxist economic policies as well as competing models of democracy.

Corequisites: PHIL W3963 Required Discussion Section 0 points

What can we know? What is knowledge? How is it different from belief? Are there irrational beliefs? Are false beliefs a mark of irrationality? These are just some of the topics that we will explore as we read various classical works in epistemology.Discussion Section Required.

Advanced introduction to classical sentential and predicate logic. No previous acquaintance with logic is required; nonetheless a willingness to master technicalities and to work at a certain level of abstraction is desirable. Note: Due to significant overlap, students may receive credit for only one of the following three courses: PHIL V3411, V3415, G4415.

Discussion Section Required.

Prerequisites: ECON W3211, W 3213, and STAT W1211

Explores topics in the philosophy of economics such as welfare, social choice, and the history of political economy. Sometimes the emphasis is primarily historical and sometimes on analysis of contemporary economic concepts and theories.