Proseminar PHIL-GA 1000 For first-year Ph.D. students in philosophy only. 4 points. Every semester.
Examination of central philosophical texts as preparation for further graduate study. Topics range over most key areas of philosophy.
Topics in Ethics & Political Philosophy PHIL-GA 1002 Scheffler, Viehoff. 4 points. 2021-22, 2022-23.
Logic for Philosophers PHIL-GA 1003 Field, Fine, Malink. 4 points. 2018-19, 2021-22, 2022-23.
Introduction to logic. Topics will include the basic theory of propositional logic, fuzzy logic, multi-valued logic, boolean logic, modal logic, temporal logic, and more, including a general account of first-order predicate logic, covering the issues of validity, provability, completeness, incompleteness and logical independence, while taking every opportunity to explore fun logical paradoxes.
Advanced Introduction to Ethics PHIL-GA 1004 Scheffler, Street, Unger. 4 points. 2018-19.
Background course for entering graduate students.
Advanced Introduction to Metaethics PHIL-GA 1009 Street. 4 points. 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21.
Background course for entering graduate students. The topic of the course is the nature of normativity and where to “place” it with respect to our scientific conception of the world. Positions to be considered include naturalist realism; non-naturalist realism; expressivism and quasi-realism; and constructivism.
Advanced Introduction to Metaphysics PHIL-GA 1100 Dorr, Fine, Horwich, Unger, Wright. 4 points. 2018-19, 2020-21.
Background course for entering graduate students. Covers a selection of topics from traditional and contemporary metaphysics. Topics may include the mind/body problem; the nature of space and time; explanation and causation; truth and meaning; realism/antirealism; the existence of universals; personal identity; the identity of events and material things; modality and essence. The emphasis is on providing the students with a background in the subject that will be of help in their subsequent work.
Advanced Introduction to Epistemology PHIL-GA 1101 Boghossian, Field, Friedman, Unger. 4 points. 2017-2018, 2018-19, 2020-21.
Background course for entering graduate students. Topics include the issue of the reducibility of knowledge, its role in explanation, and the significance of skeptical arguments about its possibility. The course covers particular kinds of knowledge, including perceptual knowledge, knowledge about the past, knowledge of other minds, and a priori knowledge.
Advanced Introduction to Philosophy of Language PHIL-GA 1102 Field, Fine, Horwich, Wright. 4 points. 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21, 2022-23.
Background course for entering graduate students. This comprehensive seminar covers the leading issues in the philosophy of language and the leading positions on those issues. Among topics discussed are the ontology of content; the relation between language and thought; explications of meaning; the relation between the semantic and the physical; problems of reference; and vagueness. The seminar is systematic and presents various issues and theories as part of an integrated whole in which those issues and theories stand in certain presupposition relations to one another. The seminar is critical and places emphasis less on who said what and more on the plausibility of the views considered.
Advanced Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind PHIL-GA 1103 Chalmers, Block. 4 points. 2018-19
This course will focus on three areas of the philosophy of mind: consciousness, intentionality, and perception. In each area we will discussing one article by each of the convenors and some by other authors, starting with foundational readings and progressing to current work.
Advanced Introduction to Philosophy of Science PHIL-GA 1104 Franklin-Hall, Maudlin, Strevens. 4 points. 2018-19, 2022-23.
Background course for entering graduate students.
Philosophical Logic PHIL-GA 1180 Field. 4 points. 2020-21.
Philosophy of Mathematics PHIL-GA 1181 Dorr, Field, Fine. 4 points. 2018-19, 2019-20.
Aristotle PHIL-GA 1192 Malink, Moss. 4 points. 2020-21, 2021-22.
Examination of selected topics in the works of Aristotle.
20th-Century Continental Philosophy PHIL-GA 1210 Richardson. 4 points. 2018-19, 2022-23.
Deals in different years with some of the leading figures of the Continental tradition, such as Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, or with some particular movement in that tradition, such as phenomenology, existentialism, or hermeneutics.
Rationalism in the 17th Century PHIL-GA 1250 Garrett. 4 points. 2021-22.
Study of some selections from the works of Descartes, Malebranche, Spinoza, and Leibniz.
British Empiricism in the 18th Century PHIL-GA 1251 Garrett. 4 points. 2018-19.
Study of some selections from the works of Locke, Berkeley, and Hume.
American Philosophy PHIL-GA 1270 Richardson. 4 points. 2020-21.
Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason PHIL-GA 2109 Jauernig. 4 points. 2018-19.
Detailed examination of this important Kantian text.
Political Philosophy PHIL-GA 2280 Scheffler, Viehoff. 4 points. 2018-19, 2020-21, 2021-22.
Traditional and contemporary theories of the relation between individuals and the state or community. Topics include political obligation, distributive justice, social contract theory, individual rights and majority rule, the nature of law, political and social equality, and liberty and coercion.
Aesthetics PHIL-GA 2283 Boghossian, Hopkins, Jauernig, Strevens. 4 points. 2018-19, 2021-22, 2022-23.
This seminar will address various problems in aesthetics and the philosophy of art. Topics covered might include the definition and ontology of art; the status, sources and epistemology of aesthetic judgement; what, if anything, particular art-forms are distinctive in offering to the appreciator; and the nature, and role in art, of expression, representation and style.
Ethics: Selected Topics PHIL-GA 2285 Scheffler, Street, Unger. 4 points. 2018-19, 2019-20.
Seminar on different topics in ethical theory and applied ethics, varying yearly. Some of the following topics (as well as others of research interest to the instructor and students) may be considered: concepts of duty, virtue, and right; kinds of moral failure; the moral distinction between actions and omissions; the relation of individual ethics to group ethics and politics; morality and the law.
Philosophy of Mind PHIL-GA 2294 Block. 4 points. 2019-20.
Research Seminar on Mind and Language PHIL-GA 2295 Block, Boghossian, Chalmers, Field, Fine, Garrett, Horwich, Strevens, Wright. 4 points per term. Every spring.
In a typical session of this course, the members of the seminar receive, a week in advance, copies of work in progress from a thinker at another university. After reading the week’s work, the students discuss it with one of the instructors on the day before the colloquium. Then at the colloquium the next day, the instructors give critiques of the work, and the author responds to the critiques and also to questions from others in the audience.
Philosophy of Language PHIL-GA 2296 Dorr, Mandelkern. 4 points. 2020-21, 2021-22.
History of Philosophy: Selected Topics PHIL-GA 2320 Garrett, Richardson, Jauernig, Moss, Malink. 4 points. 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21, 2022-23.
Deals with different periods or figures from the history of philosophy not covered in the other historical courses regularly offered by the department. The content varies, depending on student and faculty interests. Examples of topics that may be covered are pre-Socratics; Greek ethics; medieval philosophy; Kant’s Critique of Judgment; utilitarianism; Hegel; Nietzsche; and Schopenhauer.
Topics in Philosophical Logic PHIL-GA 3001 Boghossian, Field, Fine, Wright. 4 points. 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22.
Selected topics in philosophical logic.
Topics in Epistemology PHIL-GA 3003 Boghossian, Field, Friedman, Maudlin, Unger, Wright. 4 points. 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21, 2022-23.
Selected topics in epistemology.
Topics in Metaphysics PHIL-GA 3004 Chalmers, Field, Fine, Unger, Horwich, Strevens. 4 points. 2017-18, 2018-19, 2020-21, 2021-22.
Selected topics in metaphysics.
Topics in Ethics PHIL-GA 3005 Scheffler, Street, Unger. 4 points. 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23.
Selected topics in ethics.
Topics in Philosophy of Science PHIL-GA 3009 Franklin-Hall, Strevens, Maudlin. 4 points. 2017-18, 2018-19, 2020-21, 2021-22.
Selected topics in the philosophy of science.
Topics in Philosophy of Mind PHIL-GA 3010 Block, Boghossian, Hopkins. 4 points. 2017-18, 2018-19.
Selected topics in philosophy of mind.
Topics in Philosophy of Physics PHIL-GA 3011 Maudlin, Strevens. 4 points. 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20, 2021-22.
Selected topics in philosophy of physics.
Philosophical Research PHIL-GA 3300, 3301. 1-8 points. Every semester.
Specialized individual research.
Thesis Research PHIL-GA 3400 For Ph.D. students who have completed core requirements. 1-8 points. Every semester.
Associated Writing PHIL-GA 3500 Required writing course for Ph.D. students. 4 points. Every semester.
Work in Progress Seminar PHIL-GA 3601. 4 points. Every semester.