Courses
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.
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
An introduction to philosophy through several central problems. This year’s topics are free will, death, time, and race.
Area: Humanities
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?
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences
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?
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities, Natural Sciences
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.
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
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?
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
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.
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
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.
Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Writing Intensive
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.
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
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
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities
Prometheus is an international undergraduate philosophy journal published by students at Johns Hopkins University. The purpose of the journal is to promote philosophic discourse of the highest standard by offering students an opportunity to engage in open discussion, participate in the production and publication of an academic journal, and establish a community of aspiring philosophers. Students enrolled in this workshop will act as the staff readers for the journal. For more information, please visithttps://prometheus.students.jh.edu/Prerequisite: MUST have taken one philosophy course
Area: Humanities
Topics change by semester. Please view class search to see what the topic is for a specific term.
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
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.
Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Writing Intensive
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.
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
We investigate rational decision making at the individual and group level. In the first section of the course on decision theory, we consider how a single rational agent will act in a choice situation given her knowledge, or lack thereof, about the world and her particular risk profile. In the second section on game theory, we explore different kinds of competitive and cooperative strategic interactions between agents, and we define different kinds of solutions, or equilibria, of these games. We also apply game theory to the study of morality, convention, and the social contract. In the final section of the course on social choice theory, we turn to group decision making with a focus on the impossibility results of Arrow and Sen.
Area: Humanities
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?
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
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.
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
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.
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
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.
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
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.
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
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.
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
A study of major selected texts of Aristotle.
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
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.
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
The Idea of Power surveys seminal texts in the history of political thought on the nature, promise, and dangers of political and social power; it also critically engages contemporary texts on race and gender power relations
Area: Humanities
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?
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
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.
Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
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.
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities
An examination of the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, with emphasis on The Critique of Pure Reason.
Area: Humanities
An introduction to two of the most important and influential schools in twentieth-century German philosophy. This course examines the works of four leading representatives of these schools, i.e. Heidegger, Gadamer, Horkheimer, and Habermas.
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences
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
Area: Humanities, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences
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?
Area: Humanities, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences
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.
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities
An examination of some of the central texts of the Enlightenment, including works by Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Kant.
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
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
Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Writing Intensive
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.
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.
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?
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
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?
Area: Humanities, Natural Sciences
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.
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
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.
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
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.
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities
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).
Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
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.
Area: Humanities, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences
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.
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
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.
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
Readings from Duhem, Carnap, Hempel, Popper, Quine, Kuhn, Feyerabend, van Fraassen, and others who got us where we are in the field today. Quine said: Philosophy of science is philosophy enough. Is it?
Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
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.
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities
This course will be a close reading of G.W.F. Hegel's Philosophy of Right. Some of the main topics for discussion will be the relation of law and morality, the dependence of the political philosophy on Hegel's Logic, and the relation of individual and social conceptions of freedom.
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities
A reading of some of the classic philosophical works in 20th Century Analytic Philosophy, beginning with G. Frege and ending with V.O. Quine.
Area: Humanities
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
Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Writing Intensive
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.
Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
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.
Area: Humanities
What is death? How should we think about death? How should we think about it? How should we treat those who are dying including ourselves? This course will examine these and other philosophical questions.
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan is a masterpiece of modern political philosophy. This class is an in-depth study of that work.
Area: Humanities
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?
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities
Descartes and Spinoza are two of the leading philosophers of the modern period. In the class we will study the works of both figures. Special attention will be assigned to Spinoza’s early works.
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities
This is a close study of David Hume's major work, the Treatise of Human Nature.
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities
Studies of major figures in the history of American philosophy beginning with the 19th century. The course focuses on the development of pragmatism in the work Peirce, James and Dewey. Other philosophers, such as Royce and Mead, may also be studied.
Area: Humanities, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences
This course will be a close reading of Plato's Republic, with special attention to the parallel of city and soul, the relevance of metaphysics to politics, and the relation of aristocracy, democracy and tyranny.
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences
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.
Area: Humanities
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Area: Humanities
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.
Recent work on the philosophy of perception, including Tyler Burge's new book Perception: First Form of Mind
Area: Humanities
Philosophical Views of Descartes, Newton, Duhem, Popper, Carnap, Goodman (grue), Kuhn, and Feyerabend.
Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
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.
Area: Humanities
A high level review of key thinkers in contemporary political thought.
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
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.
Area: Humanities, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences
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.
Area: Humanities
"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).
Area: Humanities, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences
This research seminar examines the reasons that led Kant to revise his transcendental philosophy late in life. Special attention to problems in the Metaphysics of Nature and the Metaphysics of Morals. Students should be familiar with Kant’s theoretical and practical philosophy.
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.
Area: Humanities, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences
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.
Area: Humanities
Presentations by invited speakers.
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.
Area: Humanities
An investigation into the metaphysics and semantics of truthmakers and their application in various areas of philosophy.
Area: Humanities
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.
This seminar will survey classic and contemporary work on the nature of attitudes like belief, knowledge, desire, and intention.
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences
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.
Area: Humanities
An investigation into central topics in practical philosophy.
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities
Rather than having a set topic, the point of this seminar is to stay up-to-date with the current philosophy literature by working through 1-2 recently published papers each week. The papers covered will depend on the research interests of the seminar participants (and my own).
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities
An exploration of the metaphysics of social construction, examining different theories of social construction and related questions about social ontology, scientific realism and the boundaries of metaphysics.
Area: Humanities
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.
Area: Humanities
An examination of recent philosophical and empirical work on perception and consciousness.
Area: Humanities
By special arrangement, at the discretion of the Instructor.
Please see AS.150.810 for section numbers to use when registering.
Please see AS.150.810 for section number to use when registering.
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
Area: Humanities
A workshop for current departmental research in language and mind. Permission required.
Area: Humanities
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
Area: Humanities
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
Area: Humanities
Writing Intensive
For 3rd and 4th year Philosophy graduate students working on their Qualifying Papers and Dissertation Proposals. Meets every other week.
Area: Humanities
In this course students will present drafts of Qualifying Papers and first dissertation chapters, receiving feedback from students, the instructor and other relevant faculty.
Area: Humanities
Students research and develop their dissertation topic.