Steven Arkonovich
Moral psychology, ethics.
Mark Adam Bedau
Philosophy of biology, philosophy of science, artificial life. On sabbatical fall 2020.
Troy Cross
Metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind.
Mark Hinchliff
Metaphysics, philosophy of language, epistemology.
Paul Hovda
Metaphysics, philosophy of language, logic, philosophy of logic.
Margaret Elizabeth Scharle
Ancient Greek philosophy. On sabbatical 2020–21.
Philosophy systematically investigates and attempts to understand and solve some of the most enduring and challenging problems: What do we know and how do we know it? Do we project our values onto the world or find them there? Do we invent mathematical truths or discover them? Are we responsible for what we do, or are we helpless victims of our genetic endowment, environment, and upbringing? How can we justify our judgments about the merits of novels, paintings, poems, films, and symphonies? Are we complex animals or simplified angels, minds or molecules? What are goodness, truth, and beauty? Is there anything in the world besides matter in motion?
Our courses address questions like these at different degrees of sophistication. The number of a course is a good guide to its intended level. The 200-level courses are intended for sophomores, 300-level courses for juniors, and 400-level courses for seniors. A qualified student, however, may gain admission to a course of any level by consent of the instructor.
Courses of interest to students of philosophy are also taught in the political science and mathematics departments in classical political philosophy, modern political philosophy, Hegel and Marx, judgment, and mathematical logic.
Some students study philosophy together with another subject, such as religion, mathematics, literature, political science, or biology. Students who wish to include philosophy in an interdisciplinary major are required to take Logic, Introduction to Philosophy, and four other philosophy courses (besides the senior thesis), to be chosen in consultation with an adviser in the philosophy department.
Our graduates are admitted to top philosophy graduate schools, and our program is consistently ranked among the top philosophy undergraduate programs in the country. Our majors advance to graduate study and careers in many fields in addition to philosophy, including law, mathematics, medicine, business, education, and the sciences.
The philosophy major includes area requirements, level requirements, and the thesis requirement.
A single course may satisfy both an area and a level requirement. No single course is permitted to satisfy two area or two level requirements. At most two courses at the 200 level may satisfy area requirements. Thesis (470) is not permitted to satisfy any area or level requirements.
1. Area requirements:
- one unit each in epistemology, ethics, logic, and metaphysics;
- one unit in either ancient or modern; and
- one additional unit in the history of philosophy.
2. Level requirements:
- two units at the 200 level;
- Junior Seminar (370);
- two units at the 400 level; and
- three additional units at the 300 or 400 level.
3. Thesis (470)
Philosophy 201 - Logic
Full course for one semester. This course is an introduction to the formal logic of propositions, identity, and quantification, which may include metalogic, philosophy of logic, alternate and deviant logics, and applying formal logic when evaluating real arguments. This course meets the department’s logic requirement. Lecture.
Philosophy 202 - Introduction to Metaphysics
Full course for one semester. An examination of selected topics in metaphysics, such as: What kind of beings are we? Do we have free will? Does God exist? Is time real? Does anything exist independently of our minds? This course meets the department’s metaphysics requirement. Conference.
Philosophy 203 - Introduction to Ethics
Full course for one semester. An examination of selected historical and contemporary accounts of how we should live, of what makes life good, of what does harm, of what constrains our actions, and of what gives our lives meaning. This course meets the department’s ethics requirement. Conference.
Not offered 2020–21.
Philosophy 204 - Introduction to Epistemology
Full course for one semester. An examination of the sources, structure, and scope of knowledge and justification. This course meets the department’s epistemology requirement. Conference.
Philosophy 205 - Introduction to Philosophy of Science
Full course for one semester. An examination of selected questions in the philosophy of science, such as: Are scientists discovering the real structure of nature or creating models that fit the data? Do our data dictate our theories? Do our expectations about the future have any rational basis? Does science explain anything, help us understand anything, or does it just describe things? How do sciences develop? Do they undergo revolutions? If so, how should that affect our views of science’s aims, activities, and products? This course meets the department’s epistemology requirement. Conference.
Not offered 2020–21.
Philosophy 207 - Persons and Their Lives
Full course for one semester. What is it to be a person, and to live a life distinctive of persons? This course will explore a variety of philosophical issues relevant to answering these questions, among them: What is it to be the same person across time? Is a person essentially a mind? Is there something distinctive about the way persons act? Must their actions always be rational, and must agents always pursue some perceived good? Do persons have free will? What makes a life meaningful? Is immortality required for a meaningful life, or can only mortals have meaningful lives? This course meets the department’s ethics requirement. Conference.
Philosophy 220 - Introduction to Philosophy I
Full course for one semester. An introduction to contemporary perspectives on traditional issues and questions in metaphysics and epistemology through an engagement with original texts, both historical and contemporary. Topics may include: Does God exist? Is it reasonable to believe without evidence? Is mind material? What is knowledge? What is consciousness? How can we know about matters we have not observed? What is color? How can we know our own minds, or the minds of others? What is there? How can we know about the external world? What are we? Conference.
Not offered 2020–21.
Philosophy 301 - Ancient Philosophy
Full course for one semester. This course is an introduction to ancient Greek philosophy focusing on the works of Plato and Aristotle. Prerequisites: two 200-level philosophy courses. This course applies to the department’s history of philosophy requirement. Conference.
Philosophy 302 - Modern Philosophy
Full course for one semester. This course is an introduction to the metaphysical and epistemological views of major modern philosophers such as Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. Prerequisites: Philosophy 201 and one other 200-level course in philosophy. This course applies to the department’s history of philosophy requirement. Conference.
Not offered 2020–21.
Philosophy 306 - History of Modern Social and Political Philosophy
Full course for one semester. This course is an introduction to modern social and political thought and its epistemological foundations, covering authors from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, such as Machiavelli, More, Erasmus, Luther, Montaigne, Galileo, Descartes, Pascal, Hobbes, and Locke. This course applies to the department’s history of philosophy or ethics requirements. Prerequisite: two 200-level philosophy courses. Conference.
Not offered 2020–21.
Philosophy 310 - Metaphysics
Full course for one semester. This course is a study of the central topics and problems of metaphysics, including the mind-body problem, free will and determinism, persistence and change, and the natures of particulars, properties, time, space modality, causality, identity, and persons. Prerequisites: Philosophy 201 and one other 200-level course in philosophy. This course meets the department’s metaphysics requirement. Conference.
Philosophy 311 - Epistemology
Full course for one semester. This course is an introduction to the central topics in the theory of knowledge, including the nature of knowledge, the nature of epistemic justification, and varieties of skepticism. Prerequisites: Philosophy 201 and one other 200-level course in philosophy. This course meets the department’s epistemology requirement. Conference.
Not offered 2020–21.
Philosophy 312 - Ethical Theories
Full course for one semester. This course is an introduction to the central theories and problems of ethics. Prerequisites: Philosophy 201 and one other 200-level course in philosophy. This course meets the department’s ethics requirement. Conference.
Philosophy 315 - Philosophy of Language
Full course for one semester. This course is a study of such topics as truth, reference, meaning, convention, linguistic and nonlinguistic communication, and the relationships between language, thought, and reality. Prerequisites: Philosophy 201 and one other 200-level course in philosophy. Conference.
Not offered 2020–21.
Philosophy 316 - Philosophy of Science
Full course for one semester. A philosophical investigation of the nature of science and the light science sheds on the world. Topics covered include the difference between science and pseudoscience, the Quine/Duhem thesis on the underdetermination of theory by evidence, the problem of induction and the grue paradox, the problem of scientific confirmation, Bayesian approaches to confirmation, the nature of scientific explanations and scientific theories, the nature and philosophical implications of scientific revolutions, the rationality of science, the social construction of scientific facts, scientific realism and scientific social responsibility. Prerequisites: Philosophy 201 and one other 200-level course in philosophy, or consent of the instructor. This course meets the department’s epistemology requirement. Conference.
Not offered 2020–21.
Philosophy 318 - Philosophy of Biology
Full course for one semester. This course is a philosophical study of such topics as adaptation; units of selection; emergence and reduction; function and teleology; the nature of life; the nature and epistemological status of biological mechanisms; the nature and epistemological status of species; evolutionary trends; implications of evolutionary theory for psychology, culture, epistemology, and ethics; and the social implications of contemporary biology and biotechnology (such as the human genome project, genetic engineering, and artificial life). Prerequisites: Philosophy 201 and one other 200-level course in philosophy, or consent of the instructor. Conference.
Not offered 2020–21.
Philosophy 320 - Topics in Logic
Full course for one semester. The course covers topics in logic relevant to contemporary philosophy, beyond the basic elements of first-order logic. Topics covered may include: definite descriptions and scope; elementary metalogic (e.g., soundness and completeness theorems); plural logic; nonexistence and free logic; higher-order logic; generalized quantifiers; temporal and modal logics; epistemic logic; vagueness; paraconsistent logic. Prerequisite: Philosophy 201. Conference.
Philosophy 321 - Modal Logic and Metaphysics
Full course for one semester. This course is an introduction to modal logic, possible-world semantics, and associated philosophical issues. Prerequisites: Philosophy 201 and one other 200-level course in philosophy. This course meets the department’s logic or metaphysics requirement. Conference.
Not offered 2020–21.
Philosophy 370 - Junior Seminar (Philosophy)
Full course for one semester. An intensive study of selected philosophical problems or works. The course aims to develop in each student the skills needed to do independent work in philosophy by having the student write a long research paper on a topic defined by the readings. For 2020–21, the course focus is on the mind-body problem. Prerequisite: junior standing and two 300-level courses in philosophy, or consent of the instructor. Conference. May be repeated for credit.
Philosophy 411 - Advanced Topics in Metaphysics
Full course for one semester. See descriptions for prerequisites. Conference. May be repeated for credit.
The Metaphysics of Science
Full course for one semester. Science tells us what the laws are, what causes what, what would happen under which circumstances, what tends to happen in various circumstances, and what the chances are of various kinds of events. In other words, it uses notions of law, causation, counterfactuals, tendencies, and chance; but it does not tell us what it is to be a law, what causation is, what chances or tendencies are, or what grounds the truth of counterfactuals. These questions are left to philosophy. The course will focus on Humean and non-Humean approaches to these “scientific modalities.” Prerequisite: one 300-level philosophy course. This course meets the department’s metaphysics requirement. Conference. Not offered 2020–21.
Structure and Grounding
Full course for one semester. The thesis that some properties, relations, or objects are more natural or more fundamental than others has been elaborated in a number of ways in the work of contemporary philosophers. David Lewis’s use of the notion of naturalness to play, simultaneously, central roles in philosophy of language, epistemology, and metaphysics is an important example. The course will closely examine Lewis’s theory, as well as related recent work by Theodore Sider and others. We will also consider how the idea of metaphysical grounding relations, running from the more to the less fundamental, connects to the issues raised by our main themes. Prerequisites: Philosophy 201 and one 300-level course in philosophy. This course meets the department’s metaphysics requirement. Conference. Not offered 2020–21.
Philosophy 412 - Advanced Topics in Epistemology
Full course for one semester. See descriptions for prerequisites. Conference. May be repeated for credit.
Classification and Natural Kinds
Full course for one semester. This course surveys contemporary philosophical and scientific work on classification and kinds. Special focus is given to whether certain classifications and kinds are especially objective or natural, and contemporary theories of natural kinds and biological species will be reviewed and applied. The course will also examine new methods for classifying the evolution of technology, using natural language processing and machine learning tools to analyze big textual data repositories. Readings will be taken primarily from contemporary philosophy. Prerequisite: two 300-level philosophy courses, or consent of the instructor. This course meets the department’s epistemology requirement. Conference.
Computation
Full course for one semester. This course surveys the important epistemological roles of computation in philosophy and science, especially concerning complex systems. The course surveys computation theory, and it includes computer laboratory exercises involving programming and computer simulations. Key course topics are illustrated with case studies, such as cellular automata, artificial life, and intelligent robot scientists. Prerequisite: two 300-level philosophy courses, or consent of the instructor. This course meets the department’s epistemology requirement. Conference. Not offered 2020–21.
Philosophy 413 - Advanced Topics in Ethics
Full course for one semester. See descriptions for prerequisites. Conference. May be repeated for credit.
Metaethics
Full course for one semester. This course will focus on the nature and justification of ethical claims. Possible questions to be addressed include: Is ethics objective? What are the prospects for ethical realism, antirealism, quasi-realism? What is the relation between ethics and practical reason? Does evolutionary theory have any bearing on the truth of moral claims? Prerequisite: two courses in philosophy at the 300 level or higher, or consent of the instructor. This course meets the department’s ethics requirement. Conference.
The Ethics of Partiality
Full course for one semester. This course will examine the extent and limits of morally justified partial treatment. Some questions we will examine are: Is loyalty a virtue? Is it ever morally justified? How might we distinguish morally acceptable forms of loyalty (e.g., patriotism) from morally reprehensible forms (e.g., racism)? How can we justify special obligations toward some individuals (e.g., members of our family) without thinking that they are morally more important? What is it to treat others “equally?” Is impartiality really a moral ideal we should strive toward? Prerequisite: one 300-level philosophy course. This course meets the department’s ethics requirement. Conference. Not offered 2020–21.
Philosophy 414 - Advanced Topics in Contemporary Philosophy
Full course for one semester. See descriptions for prerequisites. Conference. May be repeated for credit.
Evolution
Full course for one semester. This course studies contemporary approaches to philosophical questions about evolution. Goals for the class include such things as delineating different kinds of evolutionary processes, including natural selection and genetic drift, and including attempts to quantify natural selection; identifying the causes and consequences of open-ended evolution and major transitions in evolution; explaining the similarities and differences between biological and cultural evolution, including whether cultural evolution can undergo natural selection; evaluating whether memetics is a legitimate and useful theory of cultural change, and whether evolutionary psychology is a legitimate and useful theory of human minds; and investigating the goals, methods, and achievements of computation models of evolution processes. Prerequisites: Philosophy 201 and two 300-level philosophy courses. Conference. Not offered 2020–21.
Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics
Full course for one semester. We will examine central topics within and spanning the philosophy of logic and the philosophy of mathematics. Likely topics include mathematical Platonism, formalism, logicism, intuitionism, structuralism, conventionalism, Tarski’s theory of logical consequence, free logic, other nonclassical logics, and the status of second-order logic. Prerequisite: Philosophy 201 or one 300-level mathematics course, and one 300-level philosophy course, or consent of the instructor. Conference.
Meaning and Interpretation
See English 393: Meaning and Interpretation for description. Not offered 2020–21.
Philosophy 415 - Major Figures in Philosophy
Full course for one semester. See descriptions for prerequisites. Conference. May be repeated for credit.
Aristotle
Full course for one semester. Focusing on Aristotle’s natural philosophy, biology, ethics, and politics, the course investigates the scope, extent, and character of Aristotle’s conception of nature, goodness, and teleological explanation. To what extent do Aristotle’s ethics and politics depend on his conception of the natural world and the divine? Prerequisites: Two 300-level philosophy courses or higher. This course applies to the department’s history of philosophy requirement. Conference. Not offered 2020–21.
Descartes
Full course for one semester. A course on the philosophy of René Descartes primarily through close reading, study, and discussion of Descartes’s Meditations. Other works by Descartes are to be discussed occasionally, and some secondary literature is to be considered. Prerequisites: two 300-level courses in philosophy. This course applies to the department’s history of philosophy requirement. Conference. Not offered 2020–21.
David Hume
Full course for one semester. This course will study some of the major themes and problems from Hume’s work in philosophy of mind, epistemology, philosophy of religion, and ethics. Among the topics to be discussed are: the theory of ideas; skepticism about the external world and causation; arguments against miracles and the existence of god; the scope and nature of practical reason; and the nature of emotions. Prerequisites: Philosophy 201 and one 300-level philosophy course. This course applies to the department’s history of philosophy requirement. Conference.
Philosophy 470 - Thesis
Full course for one year.
Philosophy 481 - Individual Work in Special Fields
One-half or full course for one year. Prerequisite: approval of instructor and division.