Previous Graduate Seminars | Department of Philosophy

Fall 2021

PHIL 501 - Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy ~ Weinberg (Fall 2021)

Title: "Early Modern Women Philosophers"

In this course, we will consider theoretical issues in the works of 17^th century philosopher Margaret Cavendish and 18^th-19^th century philosopher Mary Shepherd. Both philosophers can be seen as responding to philosophical views of others, Hobbes, Descartes, and Van Helmont for Cavendish and Berkeley and the Scottish enlightenment (Hume through Reid) for Shepherd, both should also be seen for putting forth independent metaphysical and epistemological views. Although we will look at a variety of theories (the nature of substance, knowledge, representation, and the notion of the self and personal identity), our underlying investigation will concern the role of causation.

PHIL 511 - Seminar Ethical Theory: Freedom, Violence, and Oppression ~ Varden (Fall 2021)

One of the philosophically most exciting, so-called “ideal” theories of justice as freedom is found in Immanuel Kant’s “Doctrine of Right,” and this course starts by exploring this theory. It is equally uncontroversial to say that Kant himself failed and the Kantian philosophical tradition has yet to deliver an equally rich “non-ideal theory,” meaning a theory that explains how to apply the principles of justice as freedom to our ever so earthly human condition and historical societies. For example, a plausible theory of justice as freedom must give us philosophical tools with which to understand our temptations to do bad things to one another. Such a theory must also be able to capture the related, historical patterns of violence and oppression against certain social groups—behavior that is often condoned or even carried out by public institutions. In the second part of this course, we therefore bring Kant’s theory of rightful freedom into dialogue with some of the most complex accounts of violence and oppression available, namely those found in the writings of Karl Marx (on economic relations), W.E.B. Du Bois (on racial relations), Hannah Arendt (on modern totalitarian forces), Simone de Beauvoir (on gender relations), and Eva Kittay (on care relations).

PHIL 514 – Seminar in Cognitive Science ~ Hummel (Fall 2021)

An in-depth, integrative overview of the major themes in the study of Cognitive Science, including cognition as computation, the relation between mind and brain, computability and the role of heuristics in "solving" unsolvable problems, and the logical/mathematical foundations of these themes. Specific topics covered include inverse optics and vision; induction and reasoning; learnability and language; philosophy of minds and brains; evolution; artificial intelligence and computational modeling; information theory; knowledge representation. The emphasis throughout is on the interrelations among these topics as examples of important but fundamentally unsolvable problems.

PHIL 517 - Seminar Philosophy of Science ~ Weaver (Fall 2021)

This course will explore the history and foundations of statistical mechanics. We will pay close attention to the development of Boltzmannian statistical mechanics, the reduction of thermodynamics to statistical mechanics, and the problem of the arrow of time.

Spring 2021

PHIL 512 - Seminar Social Philosophy ~ Luck Egalitarianism and Its Critics ~ Bojanowski (Spring 2021)

In this seminar, we will explore contemporary theories of distributive justice through the lens of luck egalitarianism. Luck egalitarianism is the view that a distribution of goods is unjust if someone is worse off than someone else through no fault of their own. We will challenge three aspects of this view: its methodological basis, its fundamental normative principle, and its consequences for economic justice. In other words, we will consider the extent to which political philosophy can be carried out as “ideal theory” (ad 1). We will discuss the normative principle of luck egalitarianism in light of three main criticisms: relational egalitarianism, libertarianism, and sufficientarianism (ad 2). Finally, we will examine the claim that luck egalitarianism is an (or even the) essential mark of a socialist economy, and whether this economy is desirable (ad 3).

PHIL 525 - Seminar Philosophy of Language ~ Neufeld (Spring 2021)

This class will be on theories of concepts and their application to topics such as conceptual engineering or different phenomena in the philosophy of language and mind. We will discuss the desiderata a theory of concepts should fulfill, and have a look at how classic and more contemporary proposals—ranging from Wittgenstein, Hume, and Frege to contemporary versions of atomist and prototype theories—fare with respect to the desiderata. We will also explore more recent advances in the study of category representation, such as psychological essentialism and causal model theory, and examine whether they can circumvent problems faced by other models. Throughout the seminar, we will investigate how the models in question can help us understand phenomena such as bias, perceptual categorization, or slurs. Finally, we will look into recent research in conceptual engineering and conceptual ethics, and explore questions of how our concepts ought to look like, and what some of the challenges of the implementation of such projects are.

Fall 2020

PHIL 501 - Seminar on Early Modern Philosophy ~ Ben-Moshe (Fall 2020)

Title: "Nietzsche and Freud on Mind and Morality"

In this course, we will examine central themes in Friedrich Nietzsche’s and Sigmund Freud’s psychology and philosophy and their importance for contemporary philosophical debates. In particular, we will examine these thinkers’ accounts of the mind, conscience, and agency, as well as their genealogical method and understanding of religion, civilization, and morality.

PHIL 507 - Formal Semantics I ~ Lasersohn (Fall 2020)

Introduction to formal semantic theory for natural language, with attention to quantification, anaphora, tense, intensionality, and related topics.

Same as PHIL 507. Prerequisite: LING 407 or consent of the instructor.

PHIL 513 - Seminar Philosophy of Logic ~ Kishida (Fall 2020)

The primary subject of this course is modal logic. Originally a study of the logic of necessity and possibility, modal logic has come to deal with a much broader range of modalities or "modes of truth" that are found in philosophy and other disciplines, such as linguistics, mathematics, and computer science. This course will explore these developments and conceptual issues surrounding them. Within philosophy, special attention will be given to modal logic in epistemology and metaphysics. In the intersection with neighboring disciplines, the topics to be discussed include modalities in natural language semantics, foundations of mathematics, and theoretical computer science.

PHIL 511 - Seminar Ethical Theory: Persons, Organisms, Things ~ Sussman (Fall 2020)

This seminar will consider recent “constitutivist” attempts to ground morality in the metaphysics of agency. Such constitutivism, inspired by Kant and Hegel, aims to show how recognizably moral principles are preconditions of the possibility of intentional action, at least insofar as such action is distinct from animal behavior or mere causal mechanism. Supposedly, some ethical commitments are an essential aspect of the first-person point-of-view, and so of my being able to make up my mind about what to do (and so immediately know what I’m doing). We will consider if the more specific distinctions between human, animal, plant, and various sorts of inanimate objects are also fundamentally ethical rather than scientific in nature. If so, then constitutivism may provide not just a general grounding of morality, but also a plausible way of situating other beings in our (ethical) world.

PHIL 514 – Seminar in Cognitive Science ~ Hummel (Fall 2020)

Spring 2020

PHIL 511 - Seminar Ethical Theory: Kant and Arendt on Evil ~ Varden (Spring 2020)

This course explores central questions regarding evil with the help of the works of Immanuel Kant and Hannah Arendt. In particular, we investigate questions such as: Why is it tempting for human beings to do bad things to themselves and to others? Why are we responsible for wrongdoing, indeed even in cases where there is much self-deception or other subjectively difficult subjective states involved? How should we describe and face evil whether it comes from other individuals, from society, or from legal-political institutions? How can we capture different kinds and degrees of wrongdoing and heinousness? What are typical institutional kinds of wrongdoing? And what are distinctive features of institutional uses of institutional unjustifiable violence? To investigate these questions, we will engage the resources found in both Kant’s practical philosophy, including his writings on law and politics, history, religion, and anthropology, as well as Hannah Arendt’s writings on politics, including her writings on the human condition, violence, totalitarianism, revolution, the mind and thoughtlessness, and Eichmann and the banality of evil.

PHIL 521 - Seminar Contemporary Problems ~ Livengood (Spring 2020)

PHIL 521 will be a research and writing seminar on the problem of induction and its history. My aim is for the seminar participants to produce a publishable paper together. I will provide a framing for the paper and direct the main line of our collective investigation. Seminar participants will be responsible for writing initial drafts of sections of the paper and helping to refine it as we move along.

PHIL 525 - Seminar Philosophy of Language ~ Del Pinal (Spring 2020)

In this seminar, we will explore the relation between language and higher cognition through the lens of one of its most fascinating and increasingly well-understood interfaces: the interface between semantics and ‘natural logic’, i.e., the component of the mind that governs reason and inference. We will focus in particular on two sub-systems of this interface that have been the subject of intense research by semanticists, philosophers and cognitive scientists. (i) The relation between our general reasoning capacities and the semantics of modal terms—such as must, likely, and allowed—which can be used to express what follows, and with what force, from some body of evidence, information or rules. (ii) The relation between the literal or purely semantic meaning of expressions, including modalized ones, and the pragmatic procedures that we us to increase or enrich the information that we draw from their assertion in speciﬁc contexts. Questions we will discuss include: (i) Is there such a thing as a ‘natural logic’, i.e., a kind of automatic, unconscious system of reasoning used by natural language operators? (ii) Is this system domain general—i.e., is it an extension of our non-linguistic reasoning capacities—or does it consist of language-speciﬁc or modular subsystems? (iii) Does the inferential system of language have access to general beliefs/information? (iv) What is the relation between the natural logic used by language and our general capacities reasoning for numerical cognition, reasoning under uncertainty, thinking about counterfactual possibilities, and for common-sense reasoning about the basic properties of kinds of things? (v) Is the natural logic used by language normatively acceptable/correct, or does it generate some systematic patterns of biased or incorrect reasoning?

PHIL 547 - Formal Semantics II ~ Lasersohn (Spring 2020)

A continuation of LING 507 covering advanced topics in formal semantic theory. Same as PHIL 547. Prerequisite: LING 507 or consent of instructor.

Fall 2019

PHIL 501 - Seminar on Early Modern Philosophy ~ Weinberg (Fall 2019)

In this course, we will consider issues in the philosophy of mind, epistemology, and their intersection primarily in Locke, but also in other early modern figures. First, we will investigate the nature of consciousness in relation to other perceptual acts in Descartes, Arnauld, Malebranche, and Locke, as well as problems and solutions in the intersection of the logic of ideas, signification, and knowledge in Descartes, Locke, and the Port Royal logic. Second, we will investigate the nature of testimony both in terms of the natural and religious epistemologies in Locke, Hume, and Reid. In both cases, we will look to later and contemporary views to better understand what the early modern figures might have been thinking.

PHIL 507 - Formal Semantics I ~ Lasersohn (Fall 2019)

Introduction to formal semantic theory for natural language, with attention to quantification, anaphora, tense, intensionality, and related topics.

Same as PHIL 507. Prerequisite: LING 407 or consent of the instructor.

PHIL 511 - Seminar Ethical Theory: Response-Dependence in the Moral Philosophy of the 18th & 20th Centuries ~ Ben-Moshe (Fall 2019)

For those who embrace a naturalistic picture of the world and are skeptical about the prospects of meta-ethical realism, an answer to the question of what accounts for the correctness of moral judgment has proven to be elusive. Assuming one wishes to avoid subjectivism and relativism, one could opt for the position that it is the responses of agents who are under certain conditions that constitutes what is morally right. In this course, we will examine some of the contemporary guises of this manner of thinking about moral judgment as well as its historical roots. We will commence the course by examining 20th century projectivism, dispositional theories of value, ideal observer theory, and sensibility theory, as well as criticisms of these theories. We will then return to the 18th century and consider David Hume’s and Adam Smith’s sentimentalism, according to which being under the relevant conditions (Hume's "general point of view" and Smith's "impartial spectator") makes the objects of spectators’ sentiments of approval and disapproval—which arise from sympathetic reactions with the actor or with those affected by his actions—merit that approval or disapproval. Time permitting, we will conclude the course by considering the prospects of a sentimentalist account of "humanity."

PHIL 514 – Seminar in Cognitive Science ~ Hummel (Fall 2019)

PHIL 523 - Seminar Decision Theory ~ Levinstein (Fall 2019)

We will study the nature of rational decision-making and means-ends rationality. Our primary interest will be in cases where the outcome of your action depends on some external facts about which you're uncertain. The class will start with variations of decision theories that require maximizing expected utility (such as Evidential, Causal, and Functional Decision Theories). After briefly touching on game theory, we'll turn to rivals to EU-maximizing theories and explore issues surrounding the nature of risk. The course will finish with discussions of applications of decision theory to epistemology and ethics.

Spring 2019

PHIL 501 - Seminar on the History of Philosophy ~ Newton (Spring 2019)

Topic: This course will examine three ancient logical problems and both Kantian and post-Kantian attempts to solve them. First, there is the Platonic problem of universals, or of the One in Many: what accounts for the possibility of one feature shared by many different things, or of one thought reoccurring in many different thoughts? Second, there is the problem of the unity of a proposition (from Plato’s Sophist): in virtue of what is a proposition a unity, rather than a mere list of elements? Third, there is the ancient Parmenidean problem of the possibility of thinking a negation: what are we thinking, when we think what is not, and how is such thought possible? We will first consider Kant’s argument that self-consciousness can account for the possibility of the one in the many, of the unity of a thought, and of negation. Then we will look at challenges to Kant’s position among his successors, and at the historical progress (or regress) made by their attempts to answer the three ancient problems.

PHIL 501 - Seminar on the History of Philosophy ~ Sanders (Spring 2019)

"Socrates"

In this course, we will use ancient accounts of Socrates’ trial to structure our investigation into the historical person and philosophy of Socrates, as well as of his cultural/intellectual milieu. In addition to a close reading of Plato’s Apology, primary sources will include selections from other Platonic dialogues, large chunks of Xenophon’s Socratic writings, Aristophanes’ Clouds, and relevant fragments from so-called “Minor Socratics” (all in English translation).

PHIL 511 – Seminar Ethical Theory ~ Sussman (Spring 2019)

Punishment - This seminar will examine philosophical attempts to justify the punishment of law-breakers by the state. To what extent does such punishment depend on retributive notions of deserved suffering, and are any of those notions morally defensible? What would happen if we abandoned our retributive sentiments entirely? Can punishment be justified by such “forward-looking” concerns as deterrence, incapacitation, and moral education, or by appeal to punishment’s expressive powers? We’ll also see what these putative justifications show us about the right ways to punish. Are there good defenses of lengthy incarceration that do not apply equally well (or better) to torture, slavery, mutilation, or death? What about shaming punishments? Does it make sense to punish merely attempted crimes any less severely than successful ones? Finally, we’ll consider possible alternatives to punishment, such as systems of restitution or “restorative justice.” These alternatives will be examined in light of how different understandings of repentance, forgiveness and mercy might bear on these questions. Here we’ll try to figure out what is going on morally when we seek or grant forgiveness, and whether these personal dynamics have any place (or significant analogues) in the sphere of law.

PHIL 551 - Pragmatics ~ Lasersohn (Spring 2019)

Examination of the major theoretical frameworks in Gricean and post-Gricean pragmatics with an emphasis on theories of implicature, speech acts and im/politeness. Same as PHIL 551. Prerequisite: LING 501 and LING 507, or consent of instructor.

Fall 2018

PHIL 507 - Formal Semantics I ~ Lasersohn (Fall 2018)

Introduction to formal semantic theory for natural language, with attention to quantification, anaphora, tense, intensionality, and related topics.

PHIL 512 - Seminar in Social Philosophy: Theories of Justice ~ Murphy (Fall 2018)

This seminar focuses on justice. We examine historical and contemporary accounts of justice in general, as well as accounts of particular kinds of justice. The particular kinds of justice upon which we focus are: distributive justice, corrective justice, retributive justice, international justice, and transitional justice.

PHIL 514 – Seminar in Cognitive Science ~ Hummel (Fall 2018)

PHIL 521 - Composition ~ Saenz (Fall 2018)

Questions about parts and wholes are ubiquitous in metaphysics. Indeed, one of the central metaphysical questions of the past three decades or so is the following: under what conditions do some things compose another?

In this class, we will examine the existence, nature, and import of composition:

What is composition?
Is composition identity?
Are there any composite entities?
Is composition fundamental?
Is composition a natural relation?
Is composition a dependence relation?
How do composition and grounding relate?

Along the way, we will be forced to examine issues surrounding parthood, identity, plural logic, fundamentality, grounding, and naturalness.