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Philosophy

Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences

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  • Explore our Programs
  • University-​wide Policies and Information
    • Academic Policies and Information
      • Academic Calendar
      • Academic Integrity Policies
      • Animal Care and Use Program
      • Credit Hour Policy
      • FERPA
      • PHD Specific Policies
      • Student Leave of Absence Policy
      • Student Status (Course Load)
      • Transcripts and Enrollment Verifications
    • Admission and Aid
      • Tuition, Fees, and Cost of Attendance
        • Financial Aid
    • Higher Education Act Disclosures
      • General Institutional Information
      • Health and Safety Information
      • Student Financial Assistance Information
    • Office of Institutional Equity
      • Discrimination and Harassment Policy and Procedures
      • Equal Opportunity and Title IX Notice
      • Sexual Misconduct Policy and Procedures
    • Rights, Privileges, and Responsibilities
      • Academic Grievance Policy: Students and Postdoctoral Fellows
      • New Child Accommodations for Full-​Time Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Trainees
      • Personal Relationships Policy
      • Photography and Film Rights Policy
      • Student Conduct Code
      • Student Disability Services (SDS)
      • Student Health
    • Veterans Affairs
  • Bloomberg School of Public Health
    • Academic Calendar
    • Admission
    • CEPH Requirements
    • Departments
      • Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
        • Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, MHS
        • Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, ScM
        • Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, PhD
        • Non-​Degree Training
      • Department of Biostatistics
        • Biostatistics, MHS
        • Biostatistics, ScM
        • Biostatistics, PhD
      • Department of Environmental Health and Engineering
        • Environmental Health, MHS
        • Environmental Health, SCM
        • Toxicology for Human Risk Assessment, MS
        • Environmental Health, PhD
        • Non-​Degree Training
      • Department of Epidemiology
        • Epidemiology, MHS
        • Epidemiology, ScM
        • Epidemiology, PhD
        • Non-​Degree Training
      • Department of Health, Behavior and Society
        • Health Education and Health Communication, MSPH
        • Genetic Counseling, ScM
        • Health, Behavior, and Society, MHS
        • Health, Behavior and Society, PhD
        • Non-​Degree Training
      • Department of Health Policy and Management
        • Health Administration, MHA
        • Health Economics and Outcomes Research, MHS
        • Health Finance and Management, MHS
        • Health Policy, MSPH
        • Health Policy and Management, PhD
        • Health Policy and Management, DrPH (Tsinghua)
        • Non-​Degree Training
      • Department of International Health
        • Global Health Economics, MHS
        • International Health, MSPH
        • International Health, MSPH, Human Nutrition-​Dietitian
        • International Health, MA/​MSPH
        • International Health, PhD
        • Non-​Degree Training
      • Department of Mental Health
        • Mental Health, MHS
        • Mental Health, PhD
        • Non-​Degree Training
      • Department of Molecular Microbiology &​ Immunology
        • Molecular Microbiology &​ Immunology, MHS
        • Molecular Microbiology &​ Immunology, ScM
        • Molecular Microbiology &​ Immunology, PhD
        • Non-​Degree Training
      • Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health
        • Population, Family and Reproductive Health, MHS
        • Population, Family and Reproductive Health, MHS Online
        • Population, Family and Reproductive Health, MSPH
        • Population, Family and Reproductive Health, PhD
      • Doctor of Public Health (DrPH)
      • Graduate Training Programs in Clinical Investigation
        • Graduate Training Programs in Clinical Investigation, MHS
        • Graduate Training Programs in Clinical Investigation, PhD
        • Graduate Training Programs in Clinical Investigation, ScM
      • Master of Arts in Public Health Biology
      • Master of Bioethics
      • Master of Public Health Program
        • DNP/​MPH
        • DVM/​MPH
        • JD/​MPH
        • LLM/​MPH
        • MBA/​MPH with China Europe International Business School
        • MD/​MPH
        • MPH/​MBA
        • MSW/​MPH
      • MAS-​Office
        • Master of Applied Science in Community-​Based Primary Health Care Programs in Global Health
        • Master of Applied Science in Humanitarian Health
        • Master of Applied Science in Patient Safety and Healthcare Quality
        • Master of Applied Science in Population Health Management
        • Master of Applied Science in Spatial Analysis for Public Health
      • Residency Programs
        • General Preventive Medicine Residency Program
        • Occupational and Environmental Medicine Residency
    • Certificates
      • Adolescent Health, Certificate
      • Bioethics, Certificate
      • Climate and Health, Certificate
      • Clinical Trials, Certificate
      • Community-​Based Public Health, Certificate
      • Demographic Methods, Certificate
      • Environmental and Occupational Health, Certificate
      • Epidemiology for Public Health Professionals, Certificate
      • Evaluation: International Health Programs, Certificate
      • Food Systems, the Environment &​ Public Health, Certificate
      • Gender and Health, Certificate
      • Gerontology, Certificate
      • Global Digital Health, Certificate
      • Global Health, Certificate
      • Global Health Practice, Certificate
      • Health and Human Rights, Certificate
      • Health Communication, Certificate
      • Health Disparities and Health Inequality, Certificate
      • Health Education, Certificate
      • Health Finance and Management, Certificate
      • Healthcare Epidemiology and Infection Prevention and Control, Certificate
      • Humane Sciences and Toxicology Policy, Certificate
      • Humanitarian Health, Certificate
      • Implementation Science and Research Practice, Certificate
      • Injury and Violence Prevention, Certificate
      • International Healthcare Management and Leadership, Certificate
      • Leadership for Public Health and Healthcare, Certificate
      • Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Public Health, Certificate
      • Maternal and Child Health, Certificate
      • Mental Health Policy, Economics and Services, Certificate
      • Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety, Certificate
      • Population and Health, Certificate
      • Population Health Management, Certificate
      • Product Stewardship for Sustainability, Certificate
      • Public Health Advocacy, Certificate
      • Public Health Economics, Certificate
      • Public Health Informatics, Certificate
      • Public Health Practice, Certificate
      • Public Health Preparedness, Certificate
      • Public Health Training Certificate for American Indian Health Professionals
      • Public Mental Health Research, Certificate
      • Quality, Patient Safety, and Outcomes Research, Certificate
      • Quantitative Methods in Public Health, Certificate
      • Rigor, Reproducibility and Responsibility in Scientific Practice, Certificate
      • Risk Sciences and Public Policy, Certificate
      • Spatial Analysis for Public Health, Certificate
      • Training Certificate in Public Health
      • Tropical Medicine, Certificate
      • Vaccine Science and Policy, Certificate
    • Policies
      • Academic
        • Academic Ethics Code
        • Compliance Line
        • Grade Appeal Policy
        • Grading System
        • Graduation Policy
        • Interdivisional Registration
        • Multi-​Term Course Policy
        • Post-​Doctoral Fellow Student Status
        • Student Grievance Policy
        • Voluntary Leave of Absence Policy
      • Research
        • Animal Research
        • Human Subjects Research
        • Worker's Compensation
  • Carey Business School
    • Admission
      • Master’s Programs
      • Certificate Programs
      • Graduate Degree Requirements
      • International Student Admission Policy
      • Verification of Credentials
      • Other Admission Policies
    • Degrees and Certificates
      • Business Administration (Flexible), MBA
      • Business Administration (Full Time), MBA
      • Business Analytics and Risk Management (Part Time), Master of Science
      • Business Analytics and Risk Management, Master of Science
      • Design Leadership, MBA/​MA Dual Degree
      • Finance (Part Time), Master of Science
      • Finance, Master of Science
      • Financial Management, Graduate Certificate
      • Financial Management, Graduate Certificate, Investments, Graduate Certificate, Applied Economics, MS
      • Health Care Management (Part Time), Master of Science
      • Health Care Management, Master of Science
      • Information Systems, Master of Science
      • Investments, Graduate Certificate
      • Leadership Development Program, Graduate Certificate
      • Marketing (Part Time), Master of Science
      • Marketing, Master of Science
      • MBA/​Applied Economics, MS Dual Degree
      • MBA/​Biotechnology, MS Dual Degree
      • MBA/​Communication, MA Dual Degree
      • MBA/​DNP Dual Degree
      • MBA/​Government, MA Dual Degree
      • MBA/​Healthcare Organizational Leadership, MSN Dual Degree
      • MBA/​JD Dual Degree
      • MBA/​MA in International Relations
      • MBA/​MD Dual Degree
      • MBA/​MPH Dual Degree
      • Real Estate and Infrastructure (Part Time), Master of Science
      • Real Estate and Infrastructure, Master of Science
      • Business, Minor
    • Policies and Resources
      • Academic Calendar
      • Academic Ethics Policy
      • Academic Progress and Standards
      • Changing Degree Program
      • Grading Policy
      • Graduation
      • Attendance Policy
      • Leave of Absence
      • Registration
      • Student Accounts
      • Transfer of Graduate Credit
      • Waiver Exams
  • Peabody Institute
    • General Information, Procedures and Regulations
      • Introduction and Nomenclature
      • Mission
      • Accreditation
      • Links
      • Honor Societies
    • Procedural Information
      • Applicability
      • Studio Assignments
      • Course Numbering
      • Large Ensemble Participation
      • Competitions
      • Recitals
      • Academic Advising
      • Inter-​Institutional Academic Arrangements
      • Study Abroad Program
      • Outside Instruction and Public Performance
    • Academic Regulations
      • Applicability
      • Academic Code of Conduct
      • Program Classification, Status, and Credit Limits
      • Sources of Credit
      • Grading System and Regulations
      • Dean's List Criteria
      • Academic Standing
      • Registration Regulations
      • Attendance and Absences
      • Interruption of Degree Work
      • Graduation Eligibility
    • Degree and Diploma Programs
      • Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance (BFA)
      • Bachelor of Music (BM)
        • Curricula
          • Bachelor of Music in Composition
          • Bachelor of Music in Jazz Performance
          • Bachelor of Music in Music Education
            • Bachelor of Music in Music Education -​ Composition
            • Bachelor of Music in Music Education-​ Guitar
            • Bachelor of Music in Music Education -​ Jazz
            • Bachelor of Music in Music Education -​ Orchestral Instruments
            • Bachelor of Music in Music Education -​ Piano
            • Bachelor of Music in Music Education -​ Voice
          • Bachelor of Music in Music for New Media
          • Bachelor of Music in Performance
            • Bachelor of Music in Performance -​ Computer Music
            • Bachelor of Music in Performance -​ Guitar
            • Bachelor of Music in Performance -​ Harpsichord
            • Bachelor of Music in Performance -​ Historical Performance
            • Bachelor of Music in Performance -​ Orchestral Instruments
            • Bachelor of Music in Performance -​ Organ
            • Bachelor of Music in Performance -​ Piano
            • Bachelor of Music in Performance -​ Voice
          • Bachelor of Music in Recording Arts &​ Sciences
            • Bachelor of Music in Recording Arts &​ Sciences -​ Composition
            • Bachelor of Music in Recording Arts &​ Sciences -​ Computer Music
            • Bachelor of Music in Recording Arts &​ Sciences -​ Guitar
            • Bachelor of Music in Recording Arts &​ Sciences -​ Jazz
            • Bachelor of Music in Recording Arts &​ Sciences -​ Orchestral Instruments
            • Bachelor of Music in Recording Arts &​ Sciences -​ Piano
        • Minors
          • Business of Music, Minor
          • Directed Studies, Minor
          • Historical Performance, Minor
          • Historical Performance: Voice, Minor
          • Liberal Arts, Minor
          • Music Theory, Minor
          • Musicology, Minor
        • Combined Degree Programs
          • Peabody-​Homewood Double Degree Program
        • Accelerated Graduate Degrees
          • Five-​Year BM/​MM Program
          • Five-​Year BMRA/​MA Program
            • Five-​Year BM/​MA: Music for New Media Variant
      • Master of Music (MM)
        • Master of Music in Composition
        • Master of Music in Film and Game Scoring
        • Master of Music: Performance
          • Master of Music, Performance -​ Choral Conducting Specialization
          • Master of Music, Performance -​ Computer Music specialization
          • Master of Music, Performance -​ Guitar specialization
          • Master of Music, Performance -​ Harpsichord specialization
          • Master of Music, Performance -​ Historical Performance Instruments specialization
          • Master of Music, Performance -​ Historical Performance Voice specialization
          • Master of Music, Performance -​ Jazz specialization
          • Master of Music, Performance -​ Orchestral Conducting specialization
          • Master of Music, Performance -​ Orchestral Instruments specialization
          • Master of Music, Performance -​ Organ specialization
          • Master of Music, Performance -​ Piano specialization
          • Master of Music, Performance -​ Wind Conducting specialization
          • Master of Music, Performance -​ Voice specialization
        • Master of Music: Academic Majors
          • Performance, Master of Music -​ Pedagogy emphasis
          • Music Education, Master of Music
          • Musicology, Master of Music
          • Music Theory Pedagogy, Master of Music
        • Master of Music: Low Residency
      • Master of Arts (MA)
        • Audio Sciences: Acoustics, Master of Arts
          • Five-​Year BM/​MA Program Requirements: Acoustics
        • Audio Sciences: Recording Arts and Sciences, Master of Arts
          • Five-​Year BM/​MA Program Requirements: Recording Arts
      • Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA)
        • Composition, Doctor of Musical Arts
        • Performance, Doctor of Musical Arts -​ Guitar specialization
        • Performance, Doctor of Musical Arts -​ Historical Performance Instruments specialization
        • Performance, Doctor of Musical Arts -​ Orchestral Conducting specialization
        • Performance, Doctor of Musical Arts -​ Orchestral Instruments specialization
        • Performance, Doctor of Musical Arts -​ Organ specialization
        • Performance, Doctor of Musical Arts -​ Piano specialization
        • Performance, Doctor of Musical Arts -​ Voice specialization
        • Performance, Doctor of Musical Arts -​ Wind Conducting specialization
      • Performer’s Certificate (PC)
        • Guitar, Performer's Certificate
        • Orchestral Instruments, Performer's Certificate
        • Organ, Performer's Certificate
        • Piano, Performer's Certificate
        • Voice, Performer's Certificate
      • Graduate Performance Diploma (GPD)
      • Artist’s Diploma (AD)
    • Extension Study
      • Music Education Certification -​ Instrumental
      • Music Education Certification -​ Vocal
  • Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
    • Degrees and Certificates
      • International Studies, Doctor of Philosophy
      • International Affairs, Doctor of
      • European Public Policy, Master of Arts
      • Global Policy, Master of Arts
      • Global Risk, Master of Arts (On-​site)
      • Global Risk, Master of Arts (Online)
      • International Affairs, Master of Arts
      • International Economics and Finance, Master of Arts
      • International Relations, Master of Arts
      • International Studies, Master of Arts
      • International Public Policy, Master of
      • Strategy, Cybersecurity, and Intelligence, Master of Arts
      • Sustainable Energy, Master of Arts (Online)
      • Chinese and American Studies, Hopkins-​Nanjing Center Certificate
      • Dual Degrees and Exchange Programs
      • Graduate Certificates
      • International Studies, Diploma
    • Policies and Resources
      • Academic Integrity
      • Academic Policies and Resources
      • Student Life
    • School Leadership and Key Contacts
  • School of Education
    • Academic and Student Policies
      • Academic and Student Conduct Policies
      • Academic Standards
      • Grading System and Academic Records
      • Grievances and Complaints
    • Admission
    • Graduation
    • Programs
      • Doctoral Programs
        • Education (Online), EdD
        • Education, PhD
      • Master's Programs
        • Counseling, Master of Science
        • Education, Master of Science
          • Education, Master of Science – Digital Age Learning and Educational Technology (Online)
          • Education, Master of Science -​ Educational Studies
          • Education, Master of Science -​ Gifted Education
          • Education, Master of Science -​ School Administration and Supervision
        • Education Policy, Master of Science
        • Health Professions (Online), Master of Education
        • Special Education, Master of Science
        • Teaching Professionals, Master of Education
      • Post Master's Certificates
        • Applied Behavior Analysis, Post–Master’s Certificate
        • Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Post–Master’s Certificate
        • Evidence-​Based Teaching in the Health Professions, Post–Master’s Certificate
      • Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study
        • Counseling, Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study
      • Graduate Certificates
        • Education of Students with Autism and Other Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Graduate Certificate
        • Educational Leadership for Independent Schools, Graduate Certificate
        • Gifted Education, Graduate Certificate
        • Leadership in Technology Integration (Online), Graduate Certificate
        • Mathematics/​STEM Instructional Leader (PreK-​6) (Online), Graduate Certificates
        • Mind, Brain and Teaching (Online), Graduate Certificate
        • School Administration and Supervision, Graduate Certificate
        • Urban Education, Graduate Certificate
    • Centers &​ Institutes
    • Scholarships
    • State Authorization of Distance Education (NC-​SARA)
  • School of Medicine
    • General Information
      • Conduct in Teacher/​Learner Relationships (Student Mistreatment Policy)
      • Lectureships and Visiting Professorships
      • Loan Funds
      • Medical Student Advising
      • Named Professorships
      • Office of Medical Student Affairs
      • Scholarships
      • Student Research Scholarships and Awards
      • Tuition
      • Tuition and Other Fees
      • Young Investigators’ Day
    • Policies
    • Graduate Programs
      • Anatomy Education, MS
      • Applied Health Sciences Informatics, MS
      • Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology, PhD
      • Biological Chemistry, PhD
      • Biomedical Engineering, PhD
      • Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry, PhD/​Molecular Biophysics, PhD
      • Cellular and Molecular Medicine, PhD
      • Cellular and Molecular Physiology, PhD
      • Clinical Anaplastology, MS
      • Clinical Informatics, Post-​Baccalaureate Certificate
      • Cross-​Disciplinary Program in Biomedical Sciences, PhD
      • Functional Anatomy and Evolution, PhD
      • Health Sciences Informatics, PhD
      • Health Sciences Informatics–Research, MS
      • History of Medicine, MA (On-​site)
      • History of Medicine, MA (Online)
      • History of Medicine, PhD
      • History of Medicine, Post-​Baccalaureate Certificate (Online)
      • Human Genetics and Genomics, PhD
      • Immunology, PhD
      • Medical and Biological Illustration, MA
      • Medical Physics, MS
      • Neuroscience, PhD
      • Pathobiology, PhD
      • Pharmacology, PhD
    • Medical Program
      • Doctor of Medicine, MD
      • MD-​PhD, Combined Degree
      • Subject Areas
        • Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine
        • Biological Chemistry
        • Biomedical Engineering
        • Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry
        • Cell Biology
        • Department of Genetic Medicine
        • Dermatology
        • Emergency Medicine
        • Epidemiology
        • Functional Anatomy and Evolution
        • Gynecology and Obstetrics
        • Health Sciences Informatics
        • History of Medicine
        • Medicine
        • Molecular and Comparative Pathobiology
        • Molecular Biology and Genetics
        • Multi-​Department Courses
        • Neurology
        • Neuroscience
        • Oncology
        • Ophthalmology
        • Pathology
        • Pediatrics
        • Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences
        • Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
        • Physiology
        • Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
        • Public Health
        • Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences
        • Radiology and Radiological Science
        • Section of Surgical Sciences
    • Postdoctoral Fellows
  • School of Nursing
    • Admission
    • Advising
    • Certificates
      • Healthcare Organizational Leadership, Post-​Master’s Certificate
      • Nursing Education, Post-​Master's Certificate
      • Pediatric Acute Care Nurse Practitioner, Post-​Master's Certificate
      • Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, Post-​Master's Certificate
    • Doctoral Degrees
      • Doctor of Nursing Practice, Advanced Practice Track
        • Adult-​Gerontological Acute Care Nurse Practitioner, DNP Advanced Practice Track
        • Adult-​Gerontological Critical Care Clinical Nurse Specialist, DNP Advanced Practice Track
        • Adult-​Gerontological Health Clinical Nurse Specialist, DNP Advanced Practice Track
        • Adult-​Gerontological Primary Care Nurse Practitioner, DNP Advanced Practice Track
        • Family Primary Care Nurse Practitioner, DNP Advanced Practice Track
        • Nurse Anesthesia, DNP Advanced Practice Track
        • Pediatric Critical Care Clinical Nurse Specialist, DNP Advanced Practice Track
        • Pediatric Dual Primary/​Acute Care Nurse Practitioner, DNP Advanced Practice Track
        • Pediatric Primary Care Nurse Practitioner, DNP Advanced Practice Track
        • Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, DNP Advanced Practice Track
      • Doctor of Nursing Practice: Executive Track
      • Nursing, Doctor of Philosophy
      • Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP): Advanced Practice Track/​Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing (PhD) Dual Degree
    • Dual Degrees
      • DNP Executive/​MBA Dual Degree
      • DNP Executive/​MPH Dual Degree
      • Healthcare Organizational Leadership, MSN/​MBA, Dual Degree
    • Financial Aid
    • Master's Degrees
      • Entry into Nursing, Master of Science in Nursing
      • Healthcare Organizational Leadership Track, Master of Science in Nursing
    • Online Prerequisites for Health Professions
    • Policies
      • Academic Integrity Policy
      • Academic Standards for Progression
      • Administrative Leave
      • Absence and Attendance Policy
      • Canvas and SON IT Help
      • Clinical Placements
      • Clinical Warnings
      • Complaint/​Grievance Policy
      • Compliance
      • Course Policies
      • Criminal Conduct/​Background Check Policies
      • Drug Testing Policy
      • Email Policy
      • Examination Policy
      • Grading Policy
      • Health Insurance for Students
      • Incomplete Coursework
      • Independent Study Policy
      • Leave of Absence
      • Letters of Recommendation
      • NCLEX
      • Non-​Degree-​Seeking Students
      • Notification of Missed Clinical Time
      • Pet Guidelines
      • Printing and Copying
      • Professional Attire Policy
      • Professional Ethics Policy
      • Registration Policies and Procedures
      • Religious Observance Attendance Policy
      • Social Media Guidelines
      • Student Code of Conduct
      • Technical Standards for Admission and Graduation
      • Transcripts and Enrollment Verifications
      • Transfer of Graduate Credit
      • Withdrawal Policy
    • Student Accounts
    • Tuition and Fees
  • Whiting School of Engineering
    • Full-​time, On-​campus Undergraduate and Graduate Programs (Homewood)
      • Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences &​ Whiting School of Engineering Full-​Time, On-​Campus Undergraduate and Graduate Policies
      • Departments, Program Requirements, and Courses
        • Applied Mathematics and Statistics
          • Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Bachelor of Arts
          • Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Bachelor of Science
          • Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Master of Science in Engineering
          • Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Minor
          • Applied Mathematics and Statistics, PhD
          • Data Science, Master's Degree
          • Financial Mathematics, Master of Science in Engineering
        • Biomedical Engineering
          • Bioengineering Innovation and Design, Master of Science in Engineering
          • Biomedical Engineering, Bachelor of Arts
          • Biomedical Engineering, Bachelor of Science
          • Biomedical Engineering, Master of Science in Engineering
          • Biomedical Engineering, PhD through the School of Medicine
        • Center for Leadership Education
          • Accounting and Financial Management, Minor
          • Engineering Management, Master of Science
          • Global Innovation and Leadership Through Engineering, Master of Science
          • Leadership Studies, Minor
          • Marketing and Communications, Minor
          • Professional Communication Program
          • Professional Development Program
          • W.P. Carey Entrepreneurship and Management, Minor
        • Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
          • Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Bachelor of Science
          • Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Master of Science in Engineering
          • Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, PhD
        • Civil &​ Systems Engineering
          • Civil Engineering, Bachelor of Science
          • Civil Engineering, Master of Science in Engineering (MSE)
          • Civil Engineering, Minor
          • Civil and Systems Engineering, PhD
          • Systems Engineering, Bachelor of Science
          • Systems Engineering, Master of Science
          • Systems Engineering, Minor
        • Computational Medicine
          • Computational Medicine, Minor
        • Computer Science
          • Computer Science, Bachelor of Arts
          • Computer Science, Bachelor of Science
          • Computer Science, Master of Science in Engineering
          • Computer Science, Minor
          • Computer Science, PhD
        • Doctor of Engineering
          • Engineering, Doctor of Engineering
        • Electrical and Computer Engineering
          • Computer Engineering, Bachelor of Science
          • Electrical and Computer Engineering, Master of Science in Engineering
          • Electrical and Computer Engineering, PhD
          • Electrical Engineering, Bachelor of Science
          • Energy, Minor
        • Environmental Health and Engineering
          • Engineering for Sustainable Development, Minor
          • Environmental Engineering, Bachelor of Science
          • Environmental Engineering, Minor
          • Environmental Sciences, Minor
          • Geography and Environmental Engineering, Master of Arts
          • Geography and Environmental Engineering, Master of Science
          • Geography and Environmental Engineering, Master of Science in Engineering
          • Geography and Environmental Engineering, PhD
          • Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, Master of Science
        • General Engineering
          • General Engineering, Bachelor of Arts
        • Information Security Institute
          • Security Informatics, Master of Science
          • Security Informatics, Master of Science/​Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Master of Science in Engineering Dual Master's Program
          • Security Informatics, Master of Science/​Computer Science, Master of Science in Engineering Dual Master's Program
        • Materials Science and Engineering
          • Materials Science and Engineering, Bachelor of Science
          • Materials Science and Engineering, Master of Science in Engineering
          • Materials Science and Engineering, PhD
        • Mechanical Engineering
          • Engineering Mechanics, Bachelor of Science
          • Mechanical Engineering, Bachelor of Science
          • Mechanical Engineering, Master of Science in Engineering
          • Mechanical Engineering, PhD
        • NanoBioTechnology
        • Robotics and Computational Sensing
          • Computer Integrated Surgery, Minor
          • Robotics, Master of Science in Engineering
          • Robotics, Minor
      • Multi-​School Programs of Study
        • Business, Minor
        • Peabody-​Homewood Double Degree Program
        • Space Science and Engineering
    • Part-​Time, Online Graduate Programs (Engineering for Professionals)
      • Academic Policies
        • Academic Calendar
        • Academic Regulations
        • Registration Policies
        • Tuition and Fees
      • Admission Requirements
      • Applied and Computational Mathematics
        • Applied and Computational Mathematics, Graduate Certificate
        • Applied and Computational Mathematics, Master of Science
        • Applied and Computational Mathematics, Post-​Master’s Certificate
      • Applied Biomedical Engineering
        • Applied Biomedical Engineering, Graduate Certificate
        • Applied Biomedical Engineering, Master of Science
        • Applied Biomedical Engineering, Post-​Master’s Certificate
      • Applied Physics
        • Applied Physics, Master of Science
        • Applied Physics, Post-​Master’s Certificate
      • Artificial Intelligence
        • Artificial Intelligence, Graduate Certificate
        • Artificial Intelligence, Master of Science
      • Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
        • Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Master of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
      • Civil Engineering
        • Civil Engineering, Graduate Certificate
        • Civil Engineering, Master of Civil Engineering
      • Computer Science
        • Computer Science, Graduate Certificate
        • Computer Science, Master of Science
        • Computer Science, Post-​Master’s Certificate
      • Cybersecurity
        • Cybersecurity, Graduate Certificate
        • Cybersecurity, Master of Science
        • Cybersecurity, Post-​Master’s Certificate
      • Data Science
        • Data Science, Graduate Certificate
        • Data Science, Master of Science
        • Data Science, Post-​Master’s Certificate
      • Electrical and Computer Engineering
        • Electrical and Computer Engineering, Graduate Certificate
        • Electrical and Computer Engineering, Master of Science
        • Electrical and Computer Engineering, Post-​Master’s Certificate
      • Engineering Management
        • Engineering Management, Graduate Certificate
        • Engineering Management, Master of Engineering Management
      • Environmental Engineering, Science, Management, and Sustainability Programs
        • Climate Change, Energy, and Environmental Sustainability, Graduate Certificate
        • Climate, Energy, and Environmental Sustainability, Master of Science
        • Environmental Engineering
          • Environmental Engineering, Graduate Certificate
          • Environmental Engineering, Master of Environmental Engineering
          • Environmental Engineering, Post-​Master’s Certificate
        • Environmental Engineering and Science
          • Environmental Engineering and Science, Graduate Certificate
          • Environmental Engineering and Science, Master of Science
          • Environmental Engineering and Science, Post-​Master’s Certificate
        • Environmental Planning and Management
          • Environmental Planning and Management, Graduate Certificate
          • Environmental Planning and Management, Master of Science
          • Environmental Planning and Management, Post-​Master’s Certificate
      • Financial Mathematics
        • Financial Mathematics, Master of Science
        • Financial Risk Management, Graduate Certificate
        • Quantitative Portfolio Management, Graduate Certificate
        • Securitization, Graduate Certificate
      • Healthcare Systems Engineering
        • Healthcare Systems Engineering, Master of Science
      • Industrial and Operations Engineering
        • Industrial and Operations Engineering, Master of Science
      • Information Systems Engineering
        • Information Systems Engineering, Graduate Certificate
        • Information Systems Engineering, Master of Science
        • Information Systems Engineering, Post-​Master’s Certificate
      • Materials Science and Engineering
        • Materials Science and Engineering, Master of Science
      • Mechanical Engineering
        • Mechanical Engineering, Master of Science
        • Mechanical Engineering, Post-​Master’s Certificate
      • Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
        • Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, Master of Science
      • Robotics and Autonomous Systems
        • Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Master of Science
      • Space Systems Engineering
        • Space Systems Engineering, Master of Science
        • Space Systems Engineering, Post-​Master's Certificate
      • Systems Engineering
        • Systems Engineering, Graduate Certificate
        • Systems Engineering, Master of Science
        • Systems Engineering, Master of Science in Engineering (ABET-​accredited)
        • Systems Engineering, Post-​Master’s Certificate
  • Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences
    • Full-​time, On-​campus Undergraduate and Graduate Programs (Homewood)
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Department website: http://philosophy.jhu.edu/

The William H. Miller III Department of Philosophy offers programs and courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The courses cover major periods in the history of Western philosophy and many of the main topics of systematic investigation: epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, philosophy of language, mathematical logic, and philosophy of science.

The undergraduate courses are designed to introduce students to the history of philosophy and its place in Western civilization, to teach them how to read philosophical texts, and to help them think about philosophical problems, including those that arise in other disciplines. Students may major in philosophy or use it as a concentration for an area major in Humanistic Studies. They may also study philosophy along with another subject, either by constructing a double major or by taking courses designed to help them develop philosophical perspectives on their own fields of interest.

The graduate program is intended primarily for those planning to teach philosophy and make their own contributions to it. While the acquisition of a broad background in the history and different systematic fields of philosophy is required, students will have ample opportunity to develop their own special interests.

The William H. Miller III Department of Philosophy encourages its students to take advantage of the rich resources of other departments at Johns Hopkins University. As a look at their offerings will show, numerous philosophically important courses are offered by such departments as Political Science (political philosophy), History of Science and Technology (philosophy of science), the Humanities Center (hermeneutic, interpretive, and literary theory), and Cognitive Science.

Programs

  • Philosophy, Bachelor of Arts
  • Philosophy, Bachelor of Arts/Master of Arts
  • Philosophy, Minor
  • Philosophy, PhD

For current course information and registration go to https://sis.jhu.edu/classes/

Courses

AS.150.111.  Philosophic Classics.  3 Credits.  

The course introduces students to philosophy by critically examining selected texts in the Western philosophical tradition. Philosophers whose ideas will be examined include Plato, Descartes, Rousseau and Nietzsche.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.112.  Philosophical Problems.  3 Credits.  

An introduction to philosophy through several central problems. This year’s topics are free will, death, time, and race.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.114.  Introduction to Environmental Ethics.  3 Credits.  

Some of the most pressing moral issues of our time arise from our impact on the environment. We will explore questions such as: What obligations, if any, do we have to future generations, other species, or ecosystems? What does it mean for something to be natural, and is being natural desirable? What is sustainability, and is it desirable? What does justice look like in a world where alleviating poverty may require worsening climate change? What kinds of actions (if any) are ethically required of us as individuals: should we leave action on environmental issues to the state, billionaires, and corporations, or ought we to make drastic changes in our own lifestyles? Is violent or destructive action appropriate to avert disasters that could kill millions? How can ordinary individuals determine which experts to listen to on complex issues, and can we deal with such issues within a liberal democratic society?

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.118.  Introduction to Formal Logic.  3 Credits.  

An introduction to symbolic logic and probability. In the first two parts of the course we study formal ways of determining whether a conclusion of an argument follows from its premises. Included are truth-functional logic and predicate logic. In the third part we study the basic rules of probability, and learn how to make probability calculations and decisions in life.

Distribution Area: Humanities, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Science and Data (FA2)

AS.150.125.  Life and Death.  3 Credits.  

This course will address some of the Big Picture questions about human life using the methods of analytic philosophy. These questions include: What am I, and what kinds of things could happen to me before I'd no longer be me? Should I be afraid of death? Is it better to be than to never have been anything at all? When is it permissible to end a life? To what extent do I live my life freely?

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.136.  Philosophy & Science: An Introduction to Both.  3 Credits.  

Philosophers and scientists raise important questions about the nature of the physical world, the mental world, the relationship between them, and the right methods to use in their investigations of these worlds. The answers they present are very different. Scientists are usually empiricists, and want to answer questions by experiment and observation. Philosophers don’t want to do this, but defend their views a priori. Why? Can both be right? Readings will present philosophical and scientific views about the world and our knowledge of it. They will include selections from major historical and contemporary figures in philosophy and science. The course has no prerequisites in philosophy or science.

Distribution Area: Humanities, Natural Sciences

AS Foundational Abilities: Science and Data (FA2), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.139.  Introduction to Philosophy of Mind.  3 Credits.  

Introduction to the philosophy of mind with special emphasis on the relationship between human minds and artificial machines. Questions to be discussed include: Is the mind the brain, or something over and above it? Can computers think, and if so, do they think the way we do? How do our thoughts get to be about things in the external world? What is the nature of conscious experience?

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.161.  Introduction to Nietzsche.  3 Credits.  

This course will provide an introduction to Nietzsche's thought. We shall read and discuss selections from each period of his philosophical development. Students will receive a grade based on a combination of attendance, participation, and a final essay, drafts of which will be discussed with the instructor prior to the final due date.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.183.  The Scientific Method: Historical and Contemporary Approaches.  3 Credits.  

Some scientists and philosophers believe that there is a universal scientific method for discovering and proving truths about the world. Other scientists and philosophers deny that such a method exists. Those in the first camp defend various viewpoints, including rationalism, inductivism, hypothetico-deductivism, and retroduction. Those in the second camp argue that these methods do not work universally and that what method a scientist should use is not general but is specific to the scientific problem and situation. In this introductory course we examine various universal methods proposed by scientists and philosophers including Rene Descartes and Isaac Newton in the 17th century, William Whewell and John Stuart Mill in the 19th, and various writers in the 20 and 21st. We also examine works of contemporary writers, including Thomas Kuhn and Paul Feyerabend, who reject all universal methods and claim that science is most innovative and successful when these methods are violated. Who is right, and why?

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Science and Data (FA2), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.201.  Introduction To Greek Philosophy.  3 Credits.  

A survey of the earlier phase of Greek philosophy. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle will be discussed, as well as two groups of thinkers who preceded them, usually known as the pre-Socratics and the Sophists.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.202.  Introduction to Islamic Philosophy.  3 Credits.  

In the Islamic Golden Age (800-1400 CE), philosophers such as al-Farabi, Avicenna, al-Ghazali, and Averroes made enormous contributions to every aspect of philosophy, including metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, and philosophical theology. But philosophy in the Islamic world did not end with Averroes. It continued to flourish in Muslim Eastern countries, in particular Persia and India, with the works of such philosophers as Suhrawardi and Mula Sadra. In the contemporary era, drawing on their rich tradition, Muslim philosophers such as Muhammad lqbal, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and Amina Wadud continue to tackle social, philosophical, and theological issues in the Islamic world. In this course, we will discuss the works of Muslim philosophers from the Golden Age to the present day.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.205.  Introduction to the History of Modern Philosophy.  3 Credits.  

An overview of philosophical thought in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. We shall focus on fundamental questions in epistemology (knowledge, how we acquire it, its scope and limits), metaphysics (the ultimate nature of reality, the relation of mind and body, free will), and theology (the existence and nature of God, God’s relation to the world, whether knowledge of such things is possible): all questions that arose in dramatic ways as a result of the rise of modern science. The principal philosophers to be discussed are Descartes, Locke, Hume and Kant, though we shall also make the acquaintance of Spinoza, Leibniz and Berkeley.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.215.  Problems with Knowledge, Evidence, and Action.  3 Credits.  

This course covers a selection of recent work in epistemology and serves as an introduction to these topics. Issues to be discussed include new approaches to the nature of knowledge and skepticism, normative aspects of the way we handle information in our decision-making, epistemic injustices, and epistemic requirements for democratic discourse.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.219.  Introduction to Bioethics.  3 Credits.  

Introduction to a wide range of moral issues arising in the biomedical fields, e.g. physician-assisted suicide, human cloning, abortion, surrogacy, and human subjects research. Cross listed with Public Health Studies.

Distribution Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.220.  Introduction to Moral Philosophy.  3 Credits.  

An introduction to moral philosophy through in-depth and critical reading of selected texts from the history of philosophy. The philosophers whose texts will be discussed include Aristotle, Kant, Mill, and Hannah Arendt.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.223.  Formal Methods of Philosophy.  3 Credits.  

For better or for worse (and we think better), during the last century or so, philosophy has become infused with logic. Logic informs nearly every area of philosophy; it is part of our shared language and knowledge base. Vast segments of literature, especially in contemporary analytic philosophy, presuppose basic competence in logic and a familiarity with associated formal methods, particularly set theoretical. The standard philosophy curriculum should therefore guarantee a minimum level of logic literacy, thus enabling students to read the literature without it seeming like an impenetrable foreign tongue. This course is an introductory survey of the formal methods that a contemporary philosopher should be familiar with. It is not mathematically demanding in the way that more advanced courses in metalogic and specialized topics may be. The emphasis is on basic comprehension, not on mathematical virtuosity.

Prerequisite(s): Students who have already taken AS.150.434, are not eligible to take AS.150.223.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Science and Data (FA2), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.235.  Philosophy of Religion.  3 Credits.  

Can one prove or disprove the existence of God? What is the relation between reason and faith? Are science and religion at odds with one another? We will consider historically significant discussions of these questions as well as important contemporary writings.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.240.  Introduction to Modern Political Philosophy: The Social Contract Tradition.  3 Credits.  

This course begins by reviewing canonical texts in modern political philosophy beginning with Thomas Hobbes and John Locke and ends by exploring classic questions in contemporary debates in race, gender, and identity.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Citizens and Society (FA4), Democracy (FA4.1)

AS.150.245.  Philosophy of Mind.  3 Credits.  

If we know anything, it is natural to think it is our own minds. Despite this, philosophers have long disagreed about the natures of the states which make up our minds. And there is equally little agreement as to what makes such states count as mental in the first place. This course will investigate the nature of different aspects of mind and their interrelations. Time permitting, we will explore debates and puzzles about perception, memory, imagination, dreaming, pain and bodily sensation, emotion, action, volition and those states commonly classed as propositional attitudes: knowledge, belief, desire and intention. This will put us in a position to ask what if anything unifies such phenomena as mental

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.260.  Introduction to Metaphysics.  3 Credits.  

Metaphysics addresses fundamental questions about the nature and structure of reality. This course will offer an introduction to metaphysics, and a survey of metaphysical debates about topics including free will, possibility and necessity, and arguments for the existence of God.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.300.  Prometheus Workshop.  1 Credit.  

Prometheus is Johns Hopkins' undergraduate philosophical society. The society organizes a conference and publishes a journal each year and more generally provides a community for philosophically-minded students. The Prometheus workshop facilitates this through open philosophical discussion; interaction with faculty, graduate students, and other members of the Philosophy Department; and other activities. For more information, please visit <https://prometheus.students.jh.edu/>. Prerequisite: MUST have taken one philosophy course

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5), Projects and Methods (FA6)

AS.150.301.  Majors Seminar:.  3 Credits.  

Topics change by semester. Please view class search to see what the topic is for a specific term.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.311.  So True: Truth, Clarity, and Getting Things Right.  3 Credits.  

Truth is a topic which connects questions about language, logic, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of science, and ethics. In this course, students will learn about truth and the role that truth plays in central topics in philosophy. The course consists of three units, addressed to three big questions: (1) What is truth? (2) What are the different ways that a sentence can come close to being true? (3) How should our actions and speech be guided by truth?

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.312.  Applied Public Health Ethics and Decision-Making.  3 Credits.  

In this course, students receive an introduction to core theoretical foundations and case studies in public and global health ethics. this course adopts an applied framework for understanding how public health ethical values are navigated in different decision-making processes. This course is geared toward juniors and seniors.

Distribution Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS Foundational Abilities: Science and Data (FA2), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.313.  Technology, Democracy, and Social Justice.  3 Credits.  

This course will consider healthcare technologies through the lens of political values: democracy and social justice. At a broad level, we will ask of these technologies: Who should decide on their design and use when the experts don’t resemble the public and the public lacks expertise? How can we provide broad access to the benefits of these new technologies without exposing vulnerable people to further risk and unfairness? More narrowly, the course will focus on four technologies that affect healthcare: anti-malarial “gene drive” mosquitoes, medical AI, genomic data collection, and social media. Gene drives hold the promise of modifying mosquitoes to prevent the spread of infectious disease, but they also expose people in lower-income countries to unanticipated risks. Artificial intelligence and genomic data can deliver scarce medical resources to those who need it most and tailor it to minorities based on their precise characteristics. But they can also exacerbate existing unfairness while exposing minorities to risks of further discrimination and surveillance. Social media has a similar potential to deliver crucial health data, especially in a pandemic. But it also promotes the spread of misinformation among the populations most in need of help. This course will consider how we can balance the benefits and risks of these novel technologies and who gets to decide that balance.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Citizens and Society (FA4), Democracy (FA4.1), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.318.  Art, Beauty, and the Sublime.  3 Credits.  

Aesthetics is the subdiscipline of philosophy that explores the nature and value of beauty, often with an emphasis on the beautiful work of art. In this course, we shall pursue the following questions, and doubtless many others: Why do human beings produce works of art? What “counts” as a work of art? What is beauty, and why do we value it so highly? Are aesthetic judgments purely subjective or is there an objective (or intersubjective) standard against which beauty might be measured? Is there a relationship between beauty and morality? What is “taste”? What role does the work of art play in education, in our emotional lives, and in the relationships that we form with one another? Included among the philosophers who shall serve as our points of reference, we will be reading: Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Hume, Shaftesbury, Kant, Schelling, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Goodman, and Danto.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.331.  Themes from the Philosophy of Religion.  3 Credits.  

Religion has always been a contested and extensively debated topic throughout the history of philosophy, and the topics from the philosophy of religion are still relevant today. In this course, we will look at several of those topics: what is religion? Do we have reason to believe or not believe in God? How does God relate to the world (or are there many Gods)? How can we understand religious practice? And what role (if any) should religion play in our society?

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.333.  An Iconoclast in Islamic Philosophy: Abu Bakr al-Razi.  3 Credits.  

Abu¯ Bakr al-Ra¯zi¯ was a fascinating philosopher and physician in the golden age of Islam. He was credited with being the first to apply placebos in clinical trials and scientifically distinguishing measles from smallpox. He also applied his rigorous methodology in medicine to philosophy. He provided very original arguments for surprising conclusions on topics ranging from metaphysics to religion. In this course we will survey al-Razi’s philosophy in general. We will both learn and examine al-Razi’s philosophical ideas on metaphysics, ethics and religion as well as the relevant philosophical background for his philosophy. We will also compare his ideas in various fields of philosophy to contemporary approaches to these issues. Recommended Course Background: Introductory Philosophy Course.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.338.  The Philosophy of Conspiracy Theories.  3 Credits.  

The study of conspiracy theories is of increasing societal importance. The course will largely focus on two main questions: What are conspiracy theories? And when, if ever, is it rational to believe a conspiracy theory? Answering the first question will involve determining whether we should conceive of conspiracy theories as necessarily having a negative connotation. Answering the second question will involve assessing philosophical arguments that have been given for and against the potential rationality of conspiracy theories.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.345.  Me, Myself, and I: Personal Identity and the Self.  3 Credits.  

This course focuses on two questions: (1) What am I? And (2) who am I? The first question is the central problem in the personal identity literature—a core topic analytic philosophy. Philosophers have offered a wide variety of answers, including souls, persons, brains, human animals, and nothing at all, often through fantastical thought experiments. The second question concerns the self—the stable traits and characteristics that make you the sort of person you are and underwrite your choices and actions. In this course, we will examine the foundations of these topics, as well as their applications to issues like pregnancy, dementia, addiction, and attitudes towards death. Recommended Course Background: Introductory Philosophy Course.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Citizens and Society (FA4), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.352.  What do 'good' and 'bad' mean? - An Introduction to Metaethics.  3 Credits.  

Are there objective moral truths, or is morality just a matter of opinion? When someone says that ‘lying is wrong,’ or ‘you shouldn’t steal,’ what do these sentences mean? The branch of philosophy concerned with questions like these is called metaethics. Metaethics is distinct from ordinary (or first order) ethics. Ethics concerns what we ought to do, and whether various actions and choices are right or wrong. Metaethics, by contrast, is about what moral sentences mean, whether they assert (or describe) objective facts, what it means for a moral sentence to be ‘true,’ and more. In this course, we will use the tools of philosophical analysis to examine these questions and engage with the five most prominent answers to them. Students will discover where they stand on important metaethical issues, and then develop their own arguments to defend their position. Recommended Course Background: at least one course in philosophy.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.355.  Philosophy of Law.  3 Credits.  

In this course we will examine major issues in the philosophy of law, including the nature of law, the role of the Constitution in legal decisions, and the justification of punishment. No previous knowledge of law or philosophy is required.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Citizens and Society (FA4), Democracy (FA4.1), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.361.  Partial Truth.  3 Credits.  

Truth is one of the oldest and most central subjects in the philosophical tradition. Its influence extends throughout the discipline, from the philosophy of language, where a longstanding idea is that understanding the meaning of a sentence involves knowing the conditions under which it is true and cooperative speakers are expected to speak the truth, to epistemology, where belief is considered to aim at the truth, among other places. However, truth may, of course, be partial. What one says or believes may be true about one subject matter, false about another. In this seminar, we seek a systematic understanding of the notion of partial truth, drawing on recent work in the framework of truthmaker semantics. We will then explore how various philosophical debates oriented around truth look when recast in a partial light.

Distribution Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.375.  Majors Seminar: Philosophy of Language (Proper Names and Descriptions).  3 Credits.  

In talking with each other, we often use proper names like 'Juliet' and definite descriptions like 'The most beautiful fresco in Italy' to pick out persons and objects in our world. But what do these expressions mean exactly? In this seminar, we'll slowly and carefully work through some classic philosophical texts that address this issue. These texts will provide an introduction to the philosophy of language, and to analytic philosophy in general.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.400.  Simone de Beauvoir.  3 Credits.  

Seminar on Beauvoir’s moral philosophy, covering the major works of the 1940s. Readings will include selections from The Blood of Others, Pyrrhus and Cineas, All Men are Mortal, The Ethics of Ambiguity, and The Second Sex. Open to graduate students and advanced undergraduates. (Beginning undergraduates should contact Professor Kosch.) No prerequisites.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.401.  Greek Philosophy: Plato and His Predecessors.  3 Credits.  

A study of pre-Socratic philosophers, especially those to whom Plato reacted; also an examination of major dialogues of Plato with emphasis upon his principal theses and characteristic methods. Cross-listed with Classics.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.402.  Aristotle.  3 Credits.  

A study of major selected texts of Aristotle.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.403.  Hellenistic Philosophy.  3 Credits.  

A study of later Greek philosophy, stretching roughly from the death of Aristotle to the Roman imperial period. Epicureans, Stoics, and Skeptics will be the main philosophical schools examined.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.405.  Evidence: An Introduction.  3 Credits.  

What is evidence? Can it ever be disregarded in science, the law, or religion, and if so, when? What are the paradoxes of evidence (grue, ravens) and how can they be solved?

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Science and Data (FA2), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.406.  Tragedy and Living Well.  3 Credits.  

This course revisits the idea of tragedy as represented in Ancient Greek thought for the purpose of approaching questions of flourishing and ethical living from a different angle.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.411.  Modal Psychology.  3 Credits.  

In this seminar, we'll consider recent theoretical and experimental work by philosophers, psychologists, and cognitive scientists on the impact of our modal judgments (i.e., our judgments about whether a state or event is possible or not, statistically probable or not, morally bad or not, and so forth) in various cognitive domains. Among other things, we'll look at recent studies suggesting that our moral judgments can affect our judgments about whether an agent is free to act, our selection of causes, and our simulation of counterfactual possibilities in surprising ways.

Distribution Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS Foundational Abilities: Science and Data (FA2), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.413.  The Nature of Consciousness in Kant and Beyond.  3 Credits.  

This course examines theories of consciousness in Kant and selected post-Kantian thinkers in the German tradition, including Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and Edmund Husserl. Important topics includes the unity of consciousness, the perspectival nature of consciousness, subjectivity, reflexivity and self-consciousness, temporality and phenomenal qualities, intentionality, objectivity and intersubjectivity. Emphasis will be placed on close reading of the original texts, historically informed interpretation, and systematic argumentation.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.415.  Typefaces and Meaning.  3 Credits.  

While linguists and philosophers have developed deep and intricate theories of meaning for natural language, considerably less attention has been paid to how the form of written and printed language can itself communicate content. In this seminar, we'll look at recent theoretical and experimental work across a range of different disciplines that converges on the idea that typeface choice can be a rational means to communicate and construct different personae. To get clearer about this phenomenon, we'll also look at philosophical work on meaning, and related research on sociolinguistic variation and the semantics and pragmatics of expressive language.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.417.  Kant's 'Critique Of Pure Reason'.  3 Credits.  

An examination of the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, with emphasis on The Critique of Pure Reason.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.420.  Mathematical Logic I.  3 Credits.  

Mathematical Logic I (H,Q) is the first semester of a year long course studying the logical methods used in mathematical reasoning. The first semester explores the construction of formal languages in which to cast mathematical discourse, introduces systems of proof for deriving propositions from assumptions, and develops a formal semantics that provides a precise criterion of logical consequence. We expect a system of proof to allow the derivation only of propositions that are logical consequences of the assumptions (soundness). A principle result establishes the converse: these systems of proof are such that any logical consequence is derivable (completeness). This provides us with a purely mathematical characterization of logic within which mathematical theories can be formulated and their properties studied (decidability, axiomatizability, consistency, completeness), a pursuit commonly known as metamathematics.

Distribution Area: Humanities, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences

AS Foundational Abilities: Science and Data (FA2), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.421.  Mathematical Logic II.  3 Credits.  

Euclid set a precedent for the codification of mathematics by axiomatizing the set of geometric truths. An obvious question that arises is whether all branches of mathematics are axiomatizable, especially fundamental ones, such as arithmetic. In the late nineteenth century, what became known as Peano arithmetic was proposed as an axiomatization. The essential feature of an axiomatization is that, although one might have an infinite number of axioms, as does Peano arithmetic, one must have a decision procedure for determining whether a given proposition is or is not an axiom. In 1931, Gödel proved the astounding result that, not only is Peano arithmetic incomplete in the sense that it does not entail all arithmetic truths, but any attempted axiomatization of arithmetic is incomplete, and thus the set of arithmetic truths must be undecidable. Subsequently, Alfred Tarski showed the set of arithmetic truths is not even definable. Also, by finding a finitely axiomatizable undecidable subtheory of Peano arithmetic, Alonzo Church was able to show that there is not even an effective procedure for determining whether a given sentence is a logical truth.Finally, in his 1931 paper, Gödel argued a second incompleteness theorem, viz., that any theory strong enough to express its own consistency, as he showed Peano arithmetic to be, cannot prove its own consistency unless it is inconsistent. We will cover these and other results that have had a profound effect on the foundations of mathematics. It remains an open question whether so basic a theory as Peano arithmetic is consistent.

Prerequisite(s): AS.150.420

Distribution Area: Humanities, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences

AS Foundational Abilities: Science and Data (FA2), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.422.  Axiomatic Set Theory.  3 Credits.  

A development of Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory (ZF), including the axiom of choice (ZFC), a system in which all of mathematics can be formulated (i.e., entails all theorems of mathematics). Although, we’ll do an exposure to transfinite ordinals and cardinals in general so that you can get a sense for how stupendously “large” these can be, the main thrust concerns certain simple, seemingly well-posed conjectures whose status appears problematic. For example, the Continuum Hypothesis (CH) is the conjecture that the cardinality of the real numbers is the first uncountable cardinality, i.e., the first cardinality greater than that of the set of natural numbers. Equivalently, there is no uncountable subset of real numbers strictly smaller in cardinality than the full set of reals. (You’d think that if there were one, you would be able eventually to find such.) Cantor thought that CH is true, but could not prove it. Gödel showed, at least, that if ZFC is consistent, then so is ZFC+CH. However, Paul Cohen later proved that if ZFC is consistent, then so is ZFC + the negation of CH. In fact, CH could fail in astoundingly many ways. For example, the cardinality of the continuum could be (weakly) inaccessible, i.e., of a cardinality that cannot even be proved to exist in ZFC (although the reals can certainly can be proved to exist in ZFC). So, are there further, intuitively true axioms that can be added to ZFC to resolve the cardinality of the continuum, and CH is definitely true or false? Or, as Cohen thought, does CH simply lack a definite truth value?

Distribution Area: Humanities, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences

AS Foundational Abilities: Science and Data (FA2), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.423.  Theory of Knowledge.  3 Credits.  

An advanced introduction to the central problems, concepts and theories of contemporary philosophical epistemology (theory of knowledge). Topics to be explored will includes: what is knowledge (and why do we want it)?; theories of justification (foundationalism, the coherence theory, etc.); externalism and internalism in epistemology; skepticism, relativism and how to avoid them. Reading from contemporary sources.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Science and Data (FA2), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.424.  Moral Emotions.  3 Credits.  

Certain emotions seem closely related to our regarding other people as moral agents, who are responsible for their actions. These include: resentment, forgiveness, trust, guilt, shame, shamelessness, gratitude, hope, contempt, respect, regret. After starting with a quick introduction to ways philosophers think about emotions, we will spend investigate these emotions and their role in responsibility attributions.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.425.  Enlightenment Moral and Political Theory.  3 Credits.  

An examination of some of the central texts of the Enlightenment, including works by Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Kant.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.426.  Philosophy and Disability.  3 Credits.  

In this course, we will consider various philosophical issues related to disability. What counts as a disability? What obligations do we have, both as individuals and as a society, to people with disabilities? What counts as respecting people with disabilities, and what counts as unjustifiable discrimination against them?

Prerequisite(s): AS.150.219 OR AS.150.220

Distribution Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Citizens and Society (FA4), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.428.  Spinoza’s Theological Political Treatise.  3 Credits.  

The course is an in-depth study of Spinoza’s Theological-Political Treatise. Among the topics to be discussed are: Spinoza’s Bible criticism, the nature of religion, philosophy and faith, the nature of the ancient Hebrew State, Spinoza’s theory of the State, the role of religion in Spinoza’s political theory, the freedom to philosophize, the metaphysics of Spinoza’s Theological-Political Treatise, and finally, the reception of the TTP.

AS Foundational Abilities: Citizens and Society (FA4), Democracy (FA4.1), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.430.  Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit.  3 Credits.  

From the opening chapter on "Sense-certainty" to the concluding "Absolute Knowledge," we will follow Hegel's account of the experience of consciousness through the transitions to self-consciousness, reason, spirit, and religion.

AS Foundational Abilities: Citizens and Society (FA4), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.432.  Philosophy of Memory.  3 Credits.  

Memory is amongst the most fundamental capacities of the mind. Without memory, we would be limited to our present experience, and many of our other cognitive capacities and social practices would be impossible. In this course we will investigate interconnected questions including: What is the nature of memory and of its different varieties? How should we study memory: what should be the roles of psychology, neuroscience, and introspection? If someone loses many of their memories due to injury or disease, are they still the same person—and should we still respect their past wishes and hold them responsible for their past deeds? What kinds of memory do other animals have and is this morally significant? Is forgetting always bad, or do we have a duty to remember? How do collective memory and public memorials relate to individual memory, and what lessons does the study of individual memory have for the politics of collective memory?

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.433.  Philosophy of Space & Time.  3 Credits.  

Is space an entity that exists independently of matter (substantivalism), or is it only an abstraction from spatial relations between bodies (relationism)? Is there a lapse of time even when nothing changes, or is time only a measure of motion? Are motion and rest contrary properties or states of a body, or are there only changes in the positions of bodies relative to one another? Philosophers and physicists have disputed these questions from antiquity to the present day. We survey the arguments and attempt to find a resolution. But there are further questions. What is the significance of incongruent counterparts (left hands vs. right hands)? Is there a fact of the matter as to the geometry of space (flat, hyperbolic or elliptical), or as to whether space-like separated events occur at the same time? What is the principle of relativity? Does Einstein’s theory have consequences for the substantivalist/relationist debate? What is the status of spacetime in current physics and cosmology? Why does time but not space have a “direction”? Are past, present and future objective features of reality, or are they merely “stubborn illusions”? Does time flow? If not, how do we account for our sense of the passage of time?

Distribution Area: Humanities, Natural Sciences

AS Foundational Abilities: Science and Data (FA2), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.434.  Formal Methods of Philosophy.  3 Credits.  

For better or for worse (and we think better), during the last century or so, philosophy has become infused with logic. Logic informs nearly every area of philosophy; it is part of our shared language and knowledge base. Vast segments of literature, especially in contemporary analytic philosophy, presuppose basic competence in logic and a familiarity with associated formal methods, particularly set theoretical. The standard philosophy curriculum should therefore guarantee a minimum level of logic literacy, thus enabling students to read the literature without it seeming like an impenetrable foreign tongue. This course is an introductory survey of the formal methods that a contemporary philosopher should be familiar with. It is not mathematically demanding in the way that more advanced courses in metalogic and specialized topics may be. The emphasis is on basic comprehension, not on mathematical virtuosity. Co-taught with AS.150.223 Formal Methods of Philosophy.

Prerequisite(s): If you have taken AS.150.223 Formal Methods of Philosophy you cannot take AS.150.434.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Science and Data (FA2), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.436.  Philosophy of Gender.  3 Credits.  

In this class we will examine philosophical questions about gender, and about the intersections between gender and other social categories including race, class and sexuality. We will focus specifically on questions about the metaphysics of gender and other social categories.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Citizens and Society (FA4), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.437.  Kierkegaard.  3 Credits.  

A survey of the works of Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, considered by many to be the most important figure in the history of what came to be called ‘existential philosophy’, and one of the great moral psychologists in the history of western philosophy. We will read a broad selection from Kierkegaard's pseudonymous works, including Either/Or, Fear and Trembling, The Concept of Anxiety and The Sickness unto Death.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.438.  Spinoza's Ethics.  3 Credits.  

The seminar is a study of Spinoza’s philosophical masterpiece, the Ethics. We will attempt to cover all five parts of the book and discuss major interpretive problems and debates.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.439.  Catastrophe Ethics.  3 Credits.  

Catastrophe Ethics explores the question, “how do you live a morally decent life in an era of massive, structural catastrophes?” Most of what we do contributes to harm and injustice as a result of climate change, ecological devastation, child labor and exploitation in the global supply chain, the spread of infectious diseases like Covid-19, animal welfare issues, and much more. And yet, as individuals with incredibly little power, most of us can’t make a difference to any of these problems no matter what we choose. So our actions seem to matter morally (Recycle! Boycott bad companies! Go vegan!), and yet also to matter not at all (You don’t make a difference!). In attempting to address this problem—the puzzle of individual responsibility amidst collective threats—this course takes students on a tour of both traditional moral philosophy, and newer, disruptive moral concepts. By the end of the semester, students will be provided with tools to think more clearly about living in our chaotic world and hopefully, to do better and feel better about the mark that they’re leaving on the planet and on society.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.441.  Paradoxes of Agency and Belief.  3 Credits.  

This course will focus on issues arising from the Socratic paradoxes of agency and from Moore's Paradox. Readings will include Platonic dialogues, the ethical writings of Kant, Fichte and Hegel, selections from Moore and Wittgenstein, and writings by contemporary philosophers of agency.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.442.  The Philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein.  3 Credits.  

An advanced introduction to the philosophical work of Ludwig Wittgenstein. We shall begin by examining the central ideas of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus against the background of the philosophical work of Frege and Russell. We shall then move on to the Philosophical Investigations, paying special attention to his searching self-criticisms and to the “rule-following” and “private language” problems, as highlighted by Saul Kripke’s pathbreaking but controversial account of Wittgenstein’s argument.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.445.  Berkeley’s Idealism.  3 Credits.  

Idealism is the view that, at bottom, whatever is - is an idea. For the idealist, to be is to be perceived. George Berkeley is probably the most famous idealist among European philosophers, and on this seminar we will read closely two of his major texts: Principles of Human Knowledge and Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonus. Topics to be discussed include: the nature of bodies, the nature of the mind, the possible sources of our ides, and Berkeley’s understanding of God.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.447.  The Logic of Spinoza’s Ethics.  3 Credits.  

One of the unique aspects of Spinoza’s major work, the Ethics, is its formal or "geometric" structure. The book is written following the model of Euclid’s Elements, with Definitions, Axioms, Propositions, and Demonstrations. In this seminar, we scrutinize the deductive structure of the Ethics and some of its earlier drafts. We consider the role and epistemic status of the definitions and axioms, attempt to provide rigorous reconstructions of some of its key propositions, and also investigate the possibility of alternative routes between these propositions.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.449.  New Foundations for Mathematics.  3 Credits.  

With the appearance of Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory (ZF) in the early 20th century and the subsequent identification of first-order logic, the problem of an adequate foundations for mathematics was thought to have been solved. The emergence of category theory (Cat) in the latter half of the century and more recently of homotopy type theory (HoT) has been seen to undermine ZF’s foundational status and to threaten to replace it. In this course we will (1) see how ZF serves as a foundation, (2) learn a bit of Cat and HoT, and (3) discuss what the foundations can and should be (if any).

Distribution Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS Foundational Abilities: Science and Data (FA2), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.450.  Topics in Biomedical Ethics.  3 Credits.  

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.451.  Animal Points of View.  3 Credits.  

Are non-human animals conscious? Do they possess a stream of consciousness like our own? This course will explore these questions by asking what it is for an animal to possess a point of view and a temporal point of view in particular.

Distribution Area: Humanities, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences

AS Foundational Abilities: Science and Data (FA2), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.452.  Freedom of Will & Moral Responsibility.  3 Credits.  

What are freedom of the will and moral responsibility? Are they compatible with determinism or naturalism? This course will examine various philosophers' answers to these questions.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.453.  Hegel’s Logic.  3 Credits.  

This seminar is a close study of Hegel’s major work, the Science of Logic. Among the issues to be discussed are the questions: How should philosophy begin and what - if anything - can it take for granted? We will also attempt to scrutinize Hegel’s attitude toward the law of non-contradiction.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.455.  Ethics And Animals.  3 Credits.  

Do we have moral obligations towards nonhuman animals? If so, what are they? If not, are there any limits on how we can permissibly treat nonhuman animals? In this course we will consider these and other questions concerning the moral status of nonhuman animals and how we should treat them.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.460.  Rawls and His Critics.  3 Credits.  

John Rawls was the most important moral and political thinker of the 20th century. In this course we will look at his two main works, A Theory of Justice and Political Liberalism, along with some of the more influential criticisms of his ideas. Main topics will include the derivation of principles of justice, the role of the good in liberal political theory, and the nature of reasonable pluralism.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Citizens and Society (FA4), Democracy (FA4.1), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.461.  Theory Of Value.  3 Credits.  

What is value? What is the difference between instrumental and final value? What is the relation of ethical and economic value? This course will explore a range of answers to these questions, with special focus on the role of desire and reason in determining value. Readings will include historical and contemporary authors.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.465.  Topics in the Philosophy of Physics.  3 Credits.  

This course will consider some philosophical topics in the foundations of physics. Entropy and the arrow of time -- why time has a direction, whether it can be explained in terms of entropy, and what role the arrow of time plays in causation and emergence. Anthropics and indexical uncertainty -- approaches to probability, reference classes, the cosmological multiverse, Boltzmann brains, simulation and doomsday arguments. Foundations of quantum mechanics -- the measurement problem, many-worlds, probability and structure, alternative approaches.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.468.  Essence.  3 Credits.  

An exploration of historical and contemporary work on the metaphysics of essence, and related questions about modality, explanation, identity and the Principle of Sufficient Reason. Readings will include work from Aristotle, Avicenna, Spinoza, Kripke, and Fine.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.469.  Immanuel Kant's Political Philosophy.  3 Credits.  

Immanuel Kant's political philosophy is primarily presented in two works very late in his corpus: Perpetual Peace and the Metaphysics of Morals. In these Kant presents an account of justice as based on the innate right of individuals to freedom, which situates his account in the history of the liberal tradition of political philosophy. But what really follows from the starting point of individual freedom? In this course we will both pay careful attention to Kant's texts, and also think about the implications of the position for contemporary concerns, as well as for how liberalism should be understood.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Citizens and Society (FA4), Democracy (FA4.1), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.470.  Philosophical Naturalism.  3 Credits.  

Naturalism, in the philosophical sense, is the claim that the natural world is the entire world -- there is no need for anything supernatural or non-natural in our best understanding of reality. This course will discuss varieties of philosophical naturalism as well as the related notions of materialism and physicalism. We will investigate challenges to naturalism from a variety of sources -- the origin of the universe, the origin of life, consciousness, morality, and meaning -- and how they might be overcome. We will also touch on the ontological status of mathematical objects, laws of physics, and other worlds.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.471.  Philosophy and AI.  3 Credits.  

This course explores philosophical issues raised by developments in Artificial Intelligence. For example, can a machine be conscious? (What is consciousness?) Who is responsible for a bad decision made by AI? What light, if any, do developments in AI shed on age-old debates about nature vs. nurture?

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS.150.472.  Women Philosophers in the German tradition.  3 Credits.  

This course examines the works, influence, and legacy of often underappreciated and overlooked women philosophers of the German tradition in the 19th and 20th centuries. Although they were largely deprived of formal education and academic positions and excluded from academic discourse, women thinkers developed their own ways of philosophizing, of engaging in dialogue with their contemporaries, and of shaping the philosophical movements of their time. The course will focus on Lou Andreas-Salomé (1861-1937) and her engagement with the philosophy of life movement and psychoanalysis, Edith Stein (1891-1942) and her impact on the phenomenological tradition, and Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) and her lasting contribution to existential questions of human intellectual, social, and political life. The underlying theme of the course that connects these three thinkers is the life of the mind: what can we learn from each thinker about the conditions of human life, the dynamics of personal development, and the potential for emancipation?

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.473.  Classics of Analytic Philosophy.  3 Credits.  

A reading of some of the classic philosophical works in 20th Century Analytic Philosophy, beginning with G. Frege and ending with W.V.O. Quine.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.474.  Justice and Health.  3 Credits.  

This course will consider the bearing of theories of justice on health care. Topics will include national health insurance, rationing and cost containment, and what justice requires of researchers in developing countries.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Citizens and Society (FA4), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.475.  The Nature and Significance of Animal Minds.  3 Credits.  

Humans have a complicated relationship with other animals. We love them, befriend them and save them. We hunt, farm and eat them. We experiment on and observe them to discover more about them and to discover more about ourselves. For many of us, our pets are amongst the most familiar inhabitants of our world. Yet when we try to imagine what is going on in a dog or cat’s mind — let alone that of a crow, octopus or bee — many of us are either stumped about how to go about this, or (the science strongly suggests) get things radically wrong. Is our thought about and behaviour towards animals ethically permissible, or even consistent? Can we reshape our habits of thought about animals to allow for a more rational, richer relationship with the other inhabitants of our planet? In this course, students will reflect on two closely intertwined questions: an ethical question, what sort of relationship ought we to have with animals?; and a metaphysical question, what is the nature of animal minds? Readings will primarily be from philosophy and ethics and the cognitive sciences, with additional readings from literature and biology. There are no prerequisites for this class. It will be helpful but certainly not necessary to have taken previous classes in philosophy (especially ethics and philosophy of mind) or in cognitive science

Distribution Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Science and Data (FA2), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.476.  Philosophy and Cognitive Science.  3 Credits.  

This year's topic is perception. Questions will include: In what ways might perceptual states be like and unlike pictures? Does what we believe affect what we perceive? Is linguistic comprehension a kind of perception? This course is geared toward advanced undergraduates and graduate students in philosophy and in the mind brain sciences and related fields. Others may be successful in the course depending on their prior course of study.

Distribution Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS Foundational Abilities: Science and Data (FA2), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.479.  The Ethics of Making Babies.  3 Credits.  

In this class, we will investigate many aspects of the ethics of making babies, asking not only which children we should create and how we should create them, but whether we should make any more people at all. Investigating these questions will take us through large chunks of moral theory, bioethics, and public health ethics. For more information, or to request permission of the instructor (for those who do not meet the prerequisite requirements), email Travis Rieder at trieder@jhu.edu.Recommended Course Background: One course in ethics or bioethics, or permission of the instructor.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.482.  Food Ethics.  3 Credits.  

Eating is an essential human activity: we need to eat to survive. But how should we eat? In this course, we consider such ethical questions as: Is it morally wrong to make animals suffer and to kill them in order to eat them? What is the extent of hunger and food insecurity, in this country and globally, and what should we as individuals do about it? Should the government try to influence our food choices, to make them healthier?

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.483.  Evidence, Foundations of Probability, and Speculation.  3 Credits.  

The course examines major theories about the meaning of evidence and probability, and in terms of these provides answers to the questions “What is a scientific speculation?” and “When, if at all, is speculating important or even legitimate in science?” No preview study of evidence or probability is required.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Science and Data (FA2), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.484.  Knowledge, Meaning and Necessity: Themes from Wilfrid Sellars.  3 Credits.  

Wilfrid Sellars was one of the most original American philosophers of the second half of the last century, notable for combining systematic theorizing with a deep and wide knowledge of the history and of philosophical problems. This seminar will involve close reading of some of Sellars’s most important essays, including "Inference and Meaning, “Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind,” and "Philosophy and the Scientific Image of Man". Time and interest permitting, we may look at the reception and development of some of Sellars’s central ideas in the work of contemporary philosophers, Robert Brandom and John McDowell.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.486.  Moral Imagination.  3 Credits.  

This course explores the relationship between moral principles and how we use imagination to put or fail to put principles to work. We will read widely and eclectically in exploring this relationship.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.488.  Hume's Treatise of Human Nature.  3 Credits.  

This is a close study of David Hume's major work, the Treatise of Human Nature.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.490.  Mutual Recognition.  3 Credits.  

This course will examine the historical origins of mutual recognition theory in J.G. Fichte and G.W.F. Hegel, and then turn to the recent appropriations of mutual recognition by Jürgen Habermas, Axel Honneth, Judith Butler, and others.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Citizens and Society (FA4), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.494.  Being Human.  3 Credits.  

A review of literature in Greek drama and virtue ethics on achieving human flourishing. Recommended Course Background: At least one course in Philosophy.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.150.498.  Modal Logic and Its Applications.  3 Credits.  

In the first part of the course, we'll investigate the theory of modal logic, considering its syntax, semantics, and proof theory. We'll then turn to some its philosophical applications: epistemic logic, counterfactuals, deontic logic, intuitionistic logic, and the metaphysics of time.

Distribution Area: Humanities, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences

AS Foundational Abilities: Science and Data (FA2), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.499.  The Principle of Sufficient Reason.  3 Credits.  

According to the Principle of Sufficient Reason every fact must have a reason, or explanation. In other words: there are no brute facts. If a certain penguin has three dots on its right wing - there must be a reason for this. If there are no penguins with precisely three dots on their right wings – there must be a reason for that as well. One half of the course will concentrate on works by the two philosophers who introduced the principle: Spinoza and Leibniz. In the other half, we will read texts by Kant, Maimon, and some contemporary analytic philosophers, and discuss the plausibility, implications, and justification of the principle, as well as its application to theories of grounding.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.150.511.  Directed Study.  3 Credits.  

Individual study of special topics, under regular supervision of a faculty member. Special permission is required.

Prerequisite(s): You must request Independent Academic Work using the Independent Academic Work form found in Student Self-Service: Registration, Online Forms.

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Ethics and Foundations (FA5), Projects and Methods (FA6)

AS.150.512.  Directed Study.  1 - 3 Credits.  

By special arrangement, at the discretion of the Instructor.

Prerequisite(s): You must request Independent Academic Work using the Independent Academic Work form found in Student Self-Service: Registration, Online Forms.

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Ethics and Foundations (FA5), Projects and Methods (FA6)

AS.150.551.  Honors Project.  3 Credits.  

See departmental major adviser.

Prerequisite(s): You must request Independent Academic Work using the Independent Academic Work form found in Student Self-Service: Registration, Online Forms.

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Ethics and Foundations (FA5), Projects and Methods (FA6)

AS.150.552.  Honors Project.  1 - 3 Credits.  

By special arrangement, at the discretion of the Instructor.

Prerequisite(s): You must request Independent Academic Work using the Independent Academic Work form found in Student Self-Service: Registration, Online Forms.

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Ethics and Foundations (FA5), Projects and Methods (FA6)

AS.150.601.  Topics in Philosophy of Language.  3 Credits.  

TBA

Distribution Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.150.603.  Seminar in Modern Philosophy.  3 Credits.  

German-style colloquium for advanced graduate students working in the history of modern philosophy. Course will meet synchronously online every other week for the duration of the academic year. Spring offering will carry a separate course number.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS.150.606.  Seminar on Skepticism - Ancient & Modern.  3 Credits.  

Course will focus on ancient skepticism as a way of life, and on the role of epistemological argument in skepticism so conceived. The seminar will end with a brief look at early modern reactions to ancient skepticism.

AS.150.613.  Graduate Seminar: Topics in the Philosophy of Mind - Perception.  3 Credits.  

Recent work on the philosophy of perception, including Tyler Burge's new book Perception: First Form of Mind

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS.150.616.  Is Scientific Knowledge Possible?.  3 Credits.  

Philosophical Views of Descartes, Newton, Duhem, Popper, Carnap, Goodman (grue), Kuhn, and Feyerabend.

Distribution Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.150.617.  Origins of Analytic Philosophy; Frege to Carnap.  3 Credits.  

Course description forthcoming. Previous philosophy classes of History of Modern Philosophy and/or Elementary Logic useful. This class is geared toward graduate students in philosophy.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS.150.620.  Political Philosophy.  3 Credits.  

A high level review of key thinkers in contemporary political thought.

Distribution Area: Humanities

Writing Intensive

AS.150.621.  Advanced Topics in Philosophy of Mind and Cognitive Science.  3 Credits.  

An exploration of a variety of advanced topics in philosophy of mind and cognitive science.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS.150.622.  Graduate Seminar: Metametaphysics.  3 Credits.  

Metametaphysics is the study of the nature and viability of metaphysics. In this seminar we will engage with questions about metametaphysics, including questions about the relationship between metaphysics and science, responses to deflationist challenges, and the nature of social metaphysics.

Distribution Area: Humanities, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences

AS.150.623.  Seminar in German Idealism.  3 Credits.  

This course explores the transformation of Kantian idealism by F.W.J. Schelling and G.W.F. Hegel in their early years in Jena. Readings will include Schelling's System of Transcendental Idealism as well as Hegel's "Difference" essay and Faith and Knowledge.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS.150.624.  Topics in Epistemology.  3 Credits.  

Discussion of recent research on knowledge and belief, with attention to connections between traditional and formal epistemology.

Distribution Area: Humanities

Writing Intensive

AS.150.626.  Complexity, Information, and Emergence.  3 Credits.  

This course will examine the notion of a complex system through scientific and philosophical lenses. Through a series of readings of classic papers and contemporary research, we will discuss what it means to be a complex system, the role of information, and how complexity can emerge from fundamentally simple underlying behavior.

AS.150.628.  Aboutness and Experience.  3 Credits.  

This seminar will straddle the philosophy of perception and metaphysics/philosophical logic. We will explore two overarching questions: (i) Can the phenomenology and cognitive significance of perceptual experiences be accounted for in terms of those experiences' logical contents, and (ii) How fine-grained are propositions, properties, and relations? These two questions turn out to be intimately related: if we hope to give an affirmative answer to the first, we are pushed towards some new and surprising answers to the second.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS.150.632.  Formal Logic.  3 Credits.  

"An introduction to symbolic logic and probability. In the first two parts of the course we study formal ways of determining whether a conclusion of an argument follows from its premises. Included are truth-functional logic and predicate logic. In the third part we study the basic rules of probability, and learn how to make probability calculations and decisions in life." Co-listed with AS.150.118 (for undergraduate students) (01-F 11:00-11:50am).

Distribution Area: Humanities, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences

AS.150.635.  Graduate Seminar: Truthmaker Semantics & Pragmatics.  3 Credits.  

An investigation into the theory of truthmaker semantics and pragmatics and its applications to various problems in philosophical logic and linguistics. This course is geared toward graduate students. Some background in mathematical logic will be useful in this class.

Distribution Area: Humanities, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences

AS.150.637.  Self and Self-Formation in Kant and selected Post-Kantian Thinkers.  3 Credits.  

This course examines theories of the self and self-formation in Immanuel Kant and selected post-Kantian thinkers in the German tradition, including Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and Wilhelm Dilthey. The course will focus on how knowing oneself and becoming oneself are mutually dependent. For each thinker, we will discuss their accounts of self-consciousness and self-understanding as well as the conditions for forming a moral character. Emphasis will be placed on close reading of the original texts, historically informed interpretation, and systematic argumentation.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS.150.641.  Dept Colloquium.  1 Credit.  

Presentations by invited speakers.

AS.150.642.  Seminar on Ancient Greek Ethics.  3 Credits.  

The seminar will focus on the ethical system of the Stoics. Stoic ethics is notorious for a number of apparently extreme assertions, such as “Virtue is the only good”, “Virtue is sufficient for happiness”, and “The wise man is happy on the rack”. Yet the system had a wide following, over several centuries, in both the Greek and Roman worlds; and its devotees (including at least one Roman emperor, and a close adviser to another) were certainly not all fanatics. We will attempt to make sense of this ethical outlook, with particular focus on the relations among virtue, wisdom and happiness.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS.150.645.  Truthmakers.  3 Credits.  

An investigation into the metaphysics and semantics of truthmakers and their application in various areas of philosophy.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS.150.651.  Animal Points of View.  3 Credits.  

Are non-human animals conscious? Do they possess a stream of consciousness like our own? This course will explore these questions by asking what it is for an animal to possess a point of view and a temporal point of view in particular.

AS.150.652.  Topics in Epistemology, Language and Mind.  3 Credits.  

This seminar will survey classic and contemporary work on the nature of attitudes like belief, knowledge, desire, and intention.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS.150.653.  Seminar: Philosophy of Physics.  3 Credits.  

Philosophical questions about time have a long history. What is time? Is it something that exists without relation to anything external, or is it merely a measure of change (no change, no time)? How does time differ from space? What is the difference between past and future? Does time flow: and what does that even mean? These kinds of questions were taken up by natural philosophers at least since Aristotle. When physics came into its own as a distinctive sub-enterprise of natural philosophy in the 17th century, these kinds of questions passed into the hands of physics. In this class we will be looking at the way that physics transformed our conception of time, the considerations that drove those developments, and how time as described by physics relates to the seemingly familiar flowing time of everyday sense.

Distribution Area: Humanities, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences

AS.150.666.  Philosophy of Emotional Attachment.  3 Credits.  

In this seminar, we will explore various ways in which we might be emotionally connected to others and how those relations bear on philosophical treatments of agency and emotion. In particular, we will focus on the roles that attachment plays in structuring human agency, constituting and informing certain emotions and emotional processes, and helping us to lead flourishing lives. In examining these issues, we will engage with philosophical literature (and some psychological research) on attachment and related forms of emotional connectedness, including some relevant work on caring, love, and grief.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS.150.669.  Topics in Practical Philosophy.  2 Credits.  

An investigation into central topics in practical philosophy.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS.150.671.  The First-Person Perspective.  3 Credits.  

In this seminar, we will study the first-person perspective and its implications for both theoretical reasoning (including self-understanding) and practical reasoning (including self-development). Drawing on texts from historical and contemporary sources, we will explore questions such as: --What does it mean to be a thinker with a first-person perspective? (Can there be a thinker without one?) --Does the first-person perspective necessarily include a position for the subject? --What role does the body play in the first-person perspective? --Are perspectivity and objectivity mutually exclusive? --Do empathy and morality require us to exit the first-person perspective? --What is the relation (if any) between the first-person perspective and “the self” as it figures in moral psychology? Readings may include, but are not limited to, texts by Descartes, Kant, and Husserl, as well as Anscombe, Perry, Lewis, and Bar-On.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS.150.675.  Recent Works in Skepticism.  3 Credits.  

We all take it for granted that perceptual experience yields knowledge of the world around us. But in his Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes presents new and puzzling thought experiments. He asks whether there is any way to be sure that, when he tales himself to be experiencing things in the world around him, he is not dreaming. From there, he goes on to imagines an Evil Demon with the power to manipulate the total course of his (Descartes’s) experience, so that what he naturally takes to be experience of the world around him is really a kind of perpetual dream: a simulation or virtual reality, as we might say today. Descartes’s problem, which has made its way into popular culture through films like those in the "Matrix" series, remains a source of philosophical puzzlement. While no one believes that skeptical hypotheses like Demon or computer deception are true, it is not easy to say how we can exclude them. Given that the deception is systematic, it seems that any 'evidence' I cite could itself be part of the simulation. So how do I (or could I) know (for sure) that I’m not the victim of the Deceiver or the Matrix? We shall examine some of the latest attempts to respond to Descartes’s challenge. Does the “How could I know?” question admit of a theoretical answer. Is the question itself somehow ill-posed? Can we answer it without making significant concessions to skepticism? What can we learn about knowledge (or the concept of knowledge) by coming to understand how skepticism arises and how it goes wrong (if it does)? Readings from contemporary sources.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS.150.684.  Philosophical Issues in Newton and Newtonianism.  3 Credits.  

The seminar will examine Isaac Newton’s engagement with a number of philosophical topics: the nature of space and time, causation, matter theory, laws of nature, God, and the mind-body problem. The goal will be to understand the development of Newton’s views in response to the work of Descartes, Hobbes, Gassendi, and Henry More as well as the ways in which Newton’s philosophical views informed and were informed by his various scientific and theological commitments. We will also look at the early reception of Newton’s thought, both efforts to further develop it by Newton’s allies and efforts to criticize it by figures like Leibniz.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS.150.810.  Independent Study.  3 - 9 Credits.  

By special arrangement, at the discretion of the Instructor.

AS.150.811.  Directed Study.  10 - 20 Credits.  

Please see AS.150.810 for section numbers to use when registering.

AS.150.812.  Directed Study.  10 - 20 Credits.  

Please see AS.150.810 for section number to use when registering.

AS.150.813.  Seminar in Modern Philosophy.  2 Credits.  

German-style colloquium for graduate students working in the history of modern philosophy. We will read newly-published work, invite speakers, and have presentations by advanced graduate students. First- and second-year students may register for a grade. Advanced graduate students in history of modern should audit/present

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS.150.815.  TA Practicum.  3 Credits.  

This course is to develop essential teaching skills.

AS.150.822.  Readings and Skills in Contemporary Philosophy Part I.  2 Credits.  

This course provides skills training for a successful career in philosophy, through engagement with contemporary work across a wide range of areas of philosophy. As a class, we will choose accessible articles of general interest recently published in top journals. Each student will be responsible for presenting one of these articles to the class and leading discussion, with guidance from the instructors. All students will be required to carefully and closely read each paper for each class, and come prepared to discuss it in depth. The aim of this part of the course is to learn how to read and analyze articles, present work, and engage in constructive philosophical discussion. After presenting the paper, each presenter will be required to write a short reply. As a class, we will then engage in a mock review process, crafting anonymous referee reports, revising replies in the light of these, and writing letters to the editor explaining the revisions. The aim of this part of the course is to gain knowledge and skills relevant to writing philosophy and successful publication. The course is open to 1st and 2nd year Philosophy PhD students only. It will meet every other week in both the fall and the spring semesters; each semester is worth 2 credits and students are required to enroll in both. Grading will be based predominantly on participation and effort

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS.150.823.  Readings and Skills in Contemporary Philosophy II.  2 Credits.  

This course provides skills training for a successful career in philosophy, through engagement with cutting-edge contemporary work across a wide-range of areas of philosophy. As a class, we will choose accessible articles of general interest recently published in top journals. Each student will be responsible for presenting one of these articles to the class and leading discussion, with guidance from the instructors. All students will be required to carefully and closely read each paper for each class, and come prepared to discuss it in depth. The aim of this part of the course is to learn how to read and analyze articles, present work, and engage in constructive philosophical discussion. After presenting the paper, each presenter will be required to write a short reply to it, in the style of the relevant journal. As a class, we will then engage in a mock review process, crafting anonymous referee reports, revising replies in the light of these, and discussing these as editors. The aim of this part of the course is to gain knowledge and skills relevant to writing philosophy and successful publication. The course is open to 1st and 2nd year graduate students. It will meet every other week in both the fall and the spring semesters; each semester is worth 2 credits and students are required to enroll in both. Grading will be based predominantly on participation and effort. Upper-year graduate students may audit the course by permission of the instructors, conditional on their commitment to attend and engage as full members of the class; if student numbers are high, priority with respect to presentations will be given to 1st and 2nd year students.

Prerequisite(s): AS.150.822

Distribution Area: Humanities

Writing Intensive

AS.150.824.  Research Seminar.  2 Credits.  

For 3rd and 4th year Philosophy graduate students working on their Qualifying Papers and Dissertation Proposals. Meets every other week.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS.150.825.  Research Seminar.  2 Credits.  

In this course students will present drafts of Qualifying Papers and first dissertation chapters, receiving feedback from students, the instructor and other relevant faculty.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS.150.850.  Summer Research.  9 Credits.  

Students research and develop their dissertation topic.

Cross Listed Courses

Classics

AS.040.626.  Plato and Poetry.  3 Credits.  

This graduate seminar will explore Plato’s contributions to the “old quarrel” between poetry and philosophy, encompassing such topics as the relationship between poetic inspiration and human reason, the role of literature in pedagogy, and the metaphysical implications of poetic fiction. We will focus on several Greek texts from the Platonic corpus related to these themes, as well as some later sources that engage with Platonic ideas.

Comparative Thought and Literature

AS.300.351.  The Concept of Time.  3 Credits.  

The purpose of this course is to ask the most important questions concerning the concept of time. What is time? Does time exist? Is it a fundamental aspect of the cosmos or just an illusion of human perception? Do different cultures, historical periods, or individuals have unique conceptions of time? Or are there universal aspects of time that transcend our differences? Do animals perceive time or is the perception of time a uniquely human phenomenon? Is time travel possible? The history of philosophy, both Western and Eastern, provides an array of different answers to these and other fundamental questions related to time. Additionally, there is much contemporary research on the concept that is entirely original. In the past four decades, time has been a major interdisciplinary theme, often bringing together humanists and scientists fascinated by its paradoxes. The guiding concern of this course will be to diagnose those aspects of time that are most relevant to us. What can we add to what has been written about time? Does our unique place in time—post COVID-19 pandemic, on the verge of a possible Third World War—prepare us in any specific way to examine the concept? The syllabus for the course will juxtapose canonical philosophical texts by some of the greatest thinkers of time with contemporary writings about time. The readings will support a problem-centered approach, exploring different possibilities for understanding the concept of time and different possible solutions for its many difficulties.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS.300.357.  Who or What Counts as Human?.  3 Credits.  

A comparative tour of modern narrative forms from 3 continents. The emphasis is on the development of shorter fictional models, though some of the founders and innovators are better known for their novels. The emphasis will be on the emergence new structural, rhetorical, and thematic concerns, including adaptation to other media. There will be an optional hour for queries and discussion TBA.

AS Foundational Abilities: Citizens and Society (FA4), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.300.399.  Cinema and Philosophy.  3 Credits.  

What do films and philosophy have in common? Do films express, with their own means, philosophical problems that are relevant to our experience of ourselves and the world we live in? This term we will study such issues with a particular focus on questions of justice, truth, revenge, forgiveness, hope, hate, and fear.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Citizens and Society (FA4)

AS.300.402.  What is a Person? Humans, Corporations, Robots, Trees.  3 Credits.  

Knowing who or what counts as a person seems straightforward, until we consider the many kinds of creatures, objects, and artificial beings that have been granted—or demanded or denied—that status. This course explores recent debates on being a person in culture, law, and philosophy. Questions examined will include: Should trees have standing? Can corporations have religious beliefs? Could a robot sign a contract? Materials examined will be wide-ranging, including essays, philosophy, novels, science fiction, television, film. No special background is required.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.300.618.  What is a Person? Humans, Corporations, Robots, Trees..  3 Credits.  

Knowing who or what counts as a person seems straightforward, until we consider the many kinds of creatures, objects, and artificial beings that have been granted—or demanded or denied—that status. This course explores recent debates on being a person in culture, law, and philosophy. Questions examined will include: Should trees have standing? Can corporations have religious beliefs? Could a robot sign a contract? Materials examined will be wide-ranging, including essays, philosophy, novels, science fiction, television, film. No special background is required.

Distribution Area: Humanities

Writing Intensive

East Asian Studies

AS.310.335.  Theorizing Race and Mixed-Race in Asia and its Diasporas.  3 Credits.  

This class will explore the construction of race and its applications in Asia and its diasporas. Using the notion of “mixed-race” as an analytic, we will examine how the colonial origins of race and the ensuing Cold War have influenced concepts of national identity and belonging. Employing an inter-sectional approach towards race, gender, and sexuality, the course will draw on a variety of media including memoirs, archives, and videos, to contemplate the locus of race and mixed-race and their importance within the larger nexus of identity formation in Asia and its diasporas.

Distribution Area: Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS Foundational Abilities: Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Citizens and Society (FA4)

Writing Intensive

First Year Seminars

AS.001.121.  FYS: Socrates and his Intellectual Context.  3 Credits.  

This First-Year Seminar will focus on the figure of Socrates. Socrates wrote nothing, so we depend on others for our knowledge of him. We will examine the ways he is portrayed by several different authors, including Plato. We will also examine some other ideas around in his time - some of which were pretty radical - and consider how he may have reacted to them. Finally, we will examine his influence on later thought.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS.001.142.  FYS: The Physics of Democracy.  3 Credits.  

This First-Year Seminar considers what we can learn about democratic societies by thinking of them as complex physical systems. We will discuss voting and social choice theories and their relationship to renormalization and emergence; organization and segregation in complex systems: power laws, inequality, and polarization; and the dynamics of information and opinions: networks, bubbles, filters, and phase transitions.

Distribution Area: Humanities, Natural Sciences

AS.001.182.  FYS: Seeing Things.  3 Credits.  

This First-Year Seminar will explore diverse aspects of how we see and fail to see the world. We’ll discuss questions such as: What can we learn about vision from illusions and hallucinations? What explains why we sometimes miss things even though we’re looking right at them? Does what we believe and desire affect what we see? What happens to our visual experience when the brain is damaged, for example in conditions such as “blindsight,” “neglect” and “visual form agnosia”? And: Is there such a thing as subliminal or unconscious perception? Though primarily psychological, the course will draw on other disciplines, especially the philosophy of perception. We’ll also think about some of the ways visual artists and magicians exploit the workings of our visual systems to achieve their aims. This will likely involve at least one outing to a local art gallery to look for examples of what we’ve learned, an in-class screening, and hopefully a guest speaker or two.

Distribution Area: Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS.001.188.  FYS: Skepticism - Ancient, Modern, Contemporary.  3 Credits.  

Can we gain knowledge of reality, or is everything a matter of opinion? Does it matter? Why do we want (or need) knowledge anyway? Questions like this have been the stock in trade of philosophical skeptics throughout the entire history of our Western philosophical tradition. This First-Year Seminar will involve close readings of some classic works on the topic of skepticism with a view to understanding some of the main arguments for (and against) skepticism: how they work and how they may have changed over time. Readings include selections from Sextus Empiricus, Descartes, Hume and Wittgenstein.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS.001.194.  FYS: The Arrow of Time.  3 Credits.  

This First-year Seminar will study the direction of time, pointing from past to future. It will primarily be based on the physics of entropy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics, covering aspects of statistical mechanics, probability, and cosmology. But it will also touch on how time's arrow manifests itself in the macroscopic world, including questions of memory, prediction, aging, and causality.

Distribution Area: Humanities, Natural Sciences

AS.001.202.  FYS: The Human Face of Addiction.  3 Credits.  

The current paradigm for understanding addiction is a brain disease of compulsion, investigated in large part through animal models. Yet addiction in humans has dimensions of meaning and suffering alike that cannot be captured by neuroscience or modelled in animals. This First-Year Seminar explores addiction by combining what we know from addiction science with what we know from philosophy and the humanities, as well as therapy, journalism, film, and autobiographical narratives. We will work to understand the puzzle of why people use drugs in ways that can come to destroy their lives through these various lenses and without recourse to stigma, dogma, or dehumanization. This interdisciplinary course will develop students' skills in reading, analytic thinking, and writing; we will also visit an animal lab.

AS.001.211.  FYS: Getting a Life.  3 Credits.  

Every person has a life to live, but what is this thing, “a life”, that every person has? To begin with, it’s just the temporally extended existence of the person, the proverbial three score and ten. But a person’s life is more than that, because it follows a natural progression of life-stages, from childhood to adolescence to middle age to senescence. And it’s even more still, since it is partly the creation of the person living it, who can plan it, evaluate it, anticipate its future, and remember its past. In this First-Year Seminar, we will explore these and other aspects of a person’s life through works of literature and philosophy. What makes you the same person throughout the different stages of your life? How does the passage of time color your perception of life? What makes for a good life? A meaningful life? Should you be grateful for having been born or dismayed at having to die?

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS.001.244.  FYS: Death and the Meaning of Life.  3 Credits.  

It is difficult to think about the fact that you will die. It is confusing theoretically and it is confusing emotionally. We will be spending the course trying to think our way through the confusions. On the theoretical side, thinking about the fact that you will die raises a cluster of philosophical questions. What are you? Are you necessarily the sort of thing that ceases to exist when your biological life ends? What is it that connects you to your childish self and makes some person in the future you? And does the fact that you die diminish the value of your life? If it means the end of your existence, does it make life absurd, or meaningless, or only more precious? We will address these questions as well as whether death should be feared, whether death is bad, and whether immortality would be desirable.Being confronted with the fact of your death can also help focus questions about how you should live. It presses you to think about what makes life worth living? What makes a life meaningful? Are there objective answers to what makes a life meaningful, or is this a personal choice? If meaningfulness involves some kind of overarching project (e.g., achieving something, leaving something behind, participating in something larger than ourselves) is meaningfulness worth pursuing, or should we instead throw off the tyranny of purposes and just live?These are the things we will be talking about over the course of the semester.

AS.001.245.  FYS: American Indian Philosophy.  3 Credits.  

More than 500 federally recognized Native tribes and many more who are not federally recognized live within the borders of the United States. Each of these communities has its own history, identity, traditions, relationship to the land, and story of survivance. This First Year Seminar will examine the philosophical views of some of these American Indian communities as they relate to topics like truth, knowledge, identity and the self, causation, and ethics. We will compare these Indigenous approaches with one another and with Euro-American approaches. We will also explore contemporary American Indian thought as it relates to colonialism and anti-colonialism, land, futurity, sovereignty, and resistance.

History

AS.100.295.  American Thought since the Civil War.  3 Credits.  

A survey of major developments in American philosophy, literature, law, economics, and political theory since 1865. Among other subjects, readings will explore modernism and anti-modernism, belief and uncertainty, science and tradition, uniformity and diversity, scarcity and surfeit, and individualism and concern for the social good.

Distribution Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Citizens and Society (FA4), Democracy (FA4.1), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

Modern Languages and Literatures

AS.211.265.  Panorama of German Thought.  3 Credits.  

This course will survey German ideas—in philosophy, social and political theory, and drama—since the Enlightenment. Authors include Kant, Schiller, Lessing, Goethe, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Weber, Horkheimer, and Adorno.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.211.387.  Theories of Peace from Kant to MLK.  3 Credits.  

That the nations of the world could ever work together seems utopian, but also unavoidable: migration, war, and not least climate change make some form of global coordination increasingly necessary. This course will give historical and philosophical depth to the idea of a cosmopolitan order and world peace by tracing it from its ancient sources through early modernity to today. At the center of the course will be the text that has been credited with founding the tradition of a world federation of nations, Immanuel Kant’s "Toward Perpetual Peace" (1795). Confronting recent and current political discourse, literature, and philosophy with Kant’s famous treatise, we will work to gain a new perspective on the idea of a world order. In addition to Kant, readings include Homer, Erasmus, Pico della Mirandola, Rousseau, Jeremy Bentham, Emily Dickinson, Tolstoy, Whitman, Rosa Luxemburg, Gandhi, Hannah Arendt, John Lennon, and Martin Luther King as well as lesser-known authors such as the Abbé de Saint-Pierre, Ellen Key, Odette Thibault, Simone Weil, and Claude Lefort. Taught in English.

Distribution Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

AS Foundational Abilities: Citizens and Society (FA4), Democracy (FA4.1), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.213.363.  Environmental Humanities.  3 Credits.  

This course considers the importance of philosophical, literary, aesthetic, and other humanist approaches to ecology and environmental issues.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

AS.213.374.  Existentialism in Literature and Philosophy.  3 Credits.  

What does it mean to exist, and to be able to reflect on this fact? What is it mean to be a self? This course explores the themes of existentialism in literature and philosophy, including the meaning of existence, the nature of the self, authenticity and inauthenticity, the inescapability of death, the experience of time, anxiety, absurdity, freedom and responsibility to others. It will be examined why these philosophical ideas often seem to demand literary expression or bear a close relation to literary works. Readings may include writings by Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, Heidegger, Rilke, Kafka, Simmel, Jaspers, Buber, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Camus, and Daoud.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.213.437.  Phenomenology and Literature.  3 Credits.  

Phenomenology and Literature engages the most fertile interchanges between literature and philosophy in the 20th century, focusing on the roots of phenomenology in German philosophy and its connections with and expansion to literary writing. Themes include: the nature of literary experience, including the experience of reading and writing, literary and phenomenological descriptions of reality, the literary construction of the self, and the understanding of literary imagination from a phenomenological perspective. We will read philosophers and literary theorists such as Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Camus, Merleau-Ponty, Blanchot, Beauvoir, Hamburger, Ingarden and Iser in connection with the works of many modernist writers, including Rainer Maria Rilke, Franz Kafka, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Thomas Mann, Thomas Bernhard, Virginia Woolf, Marcel Proust, and Wallace Stevens.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Culture and Aesthetics (FA3)

Writing Intensive

AS.213.460.  Animals and Animality in Literature and Philosophy.  3 Credits.  

This course critically engages the presentation and imagination of animals and other non-human life in modern literature, philosophy, and thought. We will examine the figure of the animal and the means of conceptual differentiation between the animal and the human, considering animals' relation to or perceived exclusion from language, pain, embodiment, sexuality, and the visual gaze. The course is ideal for students interested in fascinating themes in literature and how they reflect philosophical concerns. No prior courses in philosophy are required. Students will read philosophical texts alongside literary works in learning the conceptual history of animals and of humanity as a distinct species. Expect fascinating readings and engaging, lively discussions. Readings may include works by Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Heidegger Derrida, Agamben, Poe, Kleist, Hofmannsthal, Rilke, Kafka, Mann, Pirandello, and Coetzee.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.213.623.  Poetry and Philosophy.  2 Credits.  

This course will trace the tensions, antagonisms, and collaborations between poetry and philosophy as distinctive but fundamental expressions of human thought and experience. We will engage poetry as a form of artistic expression that compliments, completes, or challenges other forms of knowledge, and consider the range of philosophy's responses to poetry and poetics. Readings will include works by philosophical poets and poetic philosophers including Hölderlin, Schlegel, Rilke, Bachmann, Celan, Stevens, Heidegger, Gadamer, Adorno, Benjamin, Merleau-Ponty, Valéry, Wittgenstein, and Agamben.

AS.213.626.  Husserl’s Ideas: An Introduction to Phenomenology.  2 Credits.  

The first volume of Husserl’s Ideas I (1913) provides an overarching picture of the phenomenological method that came to define much twentieth-century German and French thought. This course will consider the foundational concepts introduced in this volume (eidetic analysis, intentionality, bracketing, correlationism, time consciousness, the natural attitude and the phenomenological reduction) as well as responses to them by Merleau-Ponty, Derrida, Heidegger and others. We will also consider Husserl’s later efforts to incorporate history, other minds, and even that which is other-than-mind into his idealist system.

AS.213.643.  Franz Kafka in Philosophical and Literary Perspective.  2 Credits.  

This course is devoted to close study of the writings of Franz Kafka from both philosophical and literary perspectives. Writings will include Kafka’s short prose works and novels along with philosophical and literary critical interpretations thereof. Readings may include commentaries by Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, Hannah Arendt, Albert Camus, Giles Deleuze, and Giorgio Agamben. Primary texts for students from the German section will be in original; any other students may read Kafka in translation.

AS.213.705.  Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit.  3 Credits.  

We will study key passages of The Phenomenology of Spirit from a queer-feminist and a literary perspective and engage with scholarship on Hegel that is pertinent to these approaches.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS.214.479.  Dante Visits the Afterlife.  3 Credits.  

One of the greatest works of literature of all times, the Divine Comedy leads us down into the torture-pits of Hell, up the steep mountain terrain of Purgatory, through the “virtual” space of Paradise, and then back to where we began: our own earthly lives. We accompany Dante on his journey, building along the way knowledge of medieval Italian history, literature, philosophy, politics, and religion. The course also focuses on the arts of reading deeply, asking questions of a text, and interpreting literary and scholarly works through discussion and critical writing. Conducted in English.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Culture and Aesthetics (FA3)

Writing Intensive

AS.215.640.  Borges, Derrida, Heidegger and the Paradoxes of Perception.  3 Credits.  

In this seminar we will the examine the ways in which Jorge Luis Borges’s narratives intersect with lines of inquiry pursued by Martin Heidegger and Jacques Derrida around perception, knowledge, language, time, and space.

Distribution Area: Humanities

Writing Intensive

Study of Women, Gender, & Sexuality

AS.363.302.  Feminist and Queer Theory: Women in Western Thought an Introduction.  3 Credits.  

Women in Western Thought is an introduction to (the history of) Western thought from the margins of the canon. The class introduces you to some key philosophical question, focusing on some highlights of women’s thought in Western thought, most of which are commonly and unjustly neglected. The seminar will be organized around a number of paradigmatic cases, such as the mind/body question in Early Modern Europe, the declaration of the rights of (wo)men during the French revolution, the impact of slavery on philosophical thought, the MeToo debate and others. By doing so, the course will cover a range of issues, such as the nature of God, contract theory, slavery, standpoint epistemology, and queer feminist politics. Students will engage with questions about what a canon is, and who has a say in that. In this sense, Women in Western Thought introduces you to some crucial philosophical and political problems and makes you acquainted with some women in the field. The long term objective of a class on women in Western thought must be to empower, to inspire independence, and to resist the sanctioned ignorance often times masked as universal knowledge and universal history. People of all genders tend to suffer from misinformation regarding the role of women and the gender of thought more generally. By introducing you to women who took it upon themselves to resist the obstacles of their time, I am hoping to provide role models for your individual intellectual and political development. By introducing you to the historical conditions of the exclusion and oppression of women (including trans and queer women as well as black women and women of color), I hope to enable you to generate the sensitivities that are required to navigate the particular social relations of the diverse world you currently inhabit. By introducing philosophical topics in this way, I hope to enable you to have a positive, diversifying influence on you future endeavours.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Writing Intensive

AS.363.306.  Feminist and Queer Theory: Race, Class, Gender, Sexuality-Intersectional Feminist Theory.  3 Credits.  

In this course, we will get to know intersectional feminist philosophy through the lens of a Black feminist epistemology. What does this mean? That means that we will focus on how the contributions of Black feminist authors can bring out the specific political and philosophical nature of an intersectional theoretical framework.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Citizens and Society (FA4), Democracy (FA4.1), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)

Theatre Arts & Studies

AS.225.328.  The Existential Drama: Philosophy and Theatre of the Absurd.  3 Credits.  

Existentialism, a powerful movement in modern drama and theatre, has had a profound influence on contemporary political thought, ethics, and psychology, and has transformed our very notion of how to stage a play. Selected readings and lectures on the philosophy of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Camus, and Sartre -- and discussion of works for the stage by Sartre, Ionesco, Genet, Beckett, Albee, Pinter, and the late plays of Caryl Churchill. Opportunities for projects on central European Absurdism in works by Dürrenmatt, Havel, Witkiewicz, and Mrozek. Students may also choose to examine post-colonialism in the work of Frantz Fannon and second-wave feminism in essays by Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre's long-time collaborator.

Distribution Area: Humanities

AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Culture and Aesthetics (FA3)

Writing Intensive

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