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Current Course Descriptions (Spring 2012)
Philosophy 001 / Introduction to Philosophy
In all sections of Philosophy 001, an enrollment maximum
will be strictly enforced. The sections are taught as
independent classes, each with separate reading lists,
assignments, and examination policies; but the following
features are common to all:
- The classes are small and designed to introduce students
to philosophical thinking through the reading of a few great
texts.
- The classes stress the development of good writing,
reading, and thinking habits by encouraging critical
analysis, philosophical debate and discussion, and clear,
rigorous writing.
- Each section requires at least five short papers, which
are carefully criticized and graded, with attention paid
both to philosophical cogency and style.
- Students having credit for English 001 may use
Philosophy 001 to satisfy the second half of the College
Writing Requirement as well as the Humanities Requirement.
Philosophy 001-Section 01 / Introduction to Philosophy
Monica Link / M+MW / Monday, Wednesday 6:00-7:15
In this course we will take up three broad philosophical topics. The first topic is
the nature and structure of morality. How should we treat
other human beings? What principles ought we to use in
deciding when an action is right or wrong?
Next we will turn to questions about knowledge and
reality. Can we be certain that we exist?
That the external world exists? That God exists?
Are the mind and the brain identical? If they are two
separate entities, how are they related?
Lastly, we will discuss free will.
What is it, and do we have it? Is it compatible with the idea
that everything in the universe is determined? Is free will a
necessary condition for holding people morally responsible for their actions?
Readings will be drawn from both classic and
contemporary philosophers.
Philosophy 001-Section 02 / Introduction to Philosophy
Monica Link / P+MW / Monday, Wednesday 7:30-8:45
In this course we will take up three broad philosophical topics. The first
topic is the nature and structure of morality. How should we treat
other human beings? What principles ought we to use in
deciding when an action is right or wrong?
Next we will turn to questions about knowledge and
reality. Can we be certain that we exist?
That the external world exists? That God exists?
Are the mind and the brain identical? If they are two
separate entities, how are they related?
Lastly, we will discuss free will.
What is it, and do we have it? Is it compatible with the idea
that everything in the universe is determined? Is free will a
necessary condition for holding people morally responsible for their actions?
Readings will be drawn from both classic and contemporary philosophers.
Philosophy 001-Section 03 / Introduction to Philosophy
Christopher Phillips / I+MW / Monday, Wednesday 3:00-4:15
As an introduction to philosophy, we will be covering a variety of topics in
Epistemology, Metaphysics, and Ethics, philosophy's three
"main" topical areas of study. Pulling from
sources both contemporary and ancient, we will consider a variety of
philosophical issues beginning with the nature of philosophy itself.
From there, we will consider the differences between belief, opinion, and
knowledge (and whether the latter is even possible).
Following (and paraphrasing) Descartes, perhaps all we know is that "I
exist as a thinking thing" ... but what does this mean?
What is it to so exist? What is our fundamental nature as a
"thinking thing"? Indeed, what is it to exist at all?
And if we are – essentially – a Will, is ours a free will?
And what does that mean? What about God: does
God exist? Finally, how do these issues bear on our moral
status, our ethical responsibilities? How do these
considerations inform our understanding of moral obligations, how
we understand what we ought to do (if anything)?
But as an introduction to philosophy, you will learn more than
just what philosophers study, more even than how to engage with a philosophical
issue yourself. Here, you will be doing some philosophy. And in so doing,
you will be writing: to process hard, abstract thoughts; to clearly
and cogently express what you've processed; and – in what might be
paradigmatically philosophical – to argue a position and defend it
against possible critics.
Note: it is this focus on clear, cogent, critical writing that allows
Philosophy 001 to substitute for the otherwise required English 002.
Philosophy 001-Section 04 / Introduction to Philosophy
Jeff McConnell / G+MW / Monday, Wednesday 1:30-2:45
Metaphysics is the philosophical study of the ultimate character of reality. In this section, we
will examine some central metaphysical problems, such as these: What is the
nature of consciousness? Do we have free will? Are our actions causally
determined? Why is there something rather than nothing? What is the origin of
the order and of the complexity in the world? What makes us the same persons
over time? How can we know if there is a world outside our minds? Can we know
whether or not there is a God? The reading will be drawn primarily from
contemporary philosophers. There will be regular writing assignments and a final
take-home examination.
Philosophy 001-Section 05 / Introduction to Philosophy Through Film
Jeff Mc Connell / K+MW / Monday, Wednesday 4:30-5:45
05R Mandatory Film Section / Monday 7:30-9:30
This section is an introduction to philosophy by way of film. Philosophers have not until very
recently been much concerned with film, but they have had a longstanding concern
with "reality" – about what it is and about how we can know anything about it.
We will discuss a collection of historically important films which raise
questions about the nature of "reality" and about how film can "create a
reality." The films will also raise questions about a set of
related philosophical problems: What is the relation between mind and body? Do
miracles exist? Do souls exist? What makes us the same people over time despite
the radical changes we undergo? What is truth? What is knowledge? What is time?
What is morality? How should we feel about death? Does life has a meaning?
Throughout the course, we will read and discuss classical and contemporary texts
by philosophers that are related to the films. There will be regular showings of
the films to be discussed, for which attendance is required. Since this is a
writing course, students will be expected to do regular writing assignments in
conjunction with their viewing and reading, and there will perhaps be a final
take-home examination.
Philosophy 001-Section 06 / Introduction to Philosophy
Christopher Phillips / K+MW / Monday, Wednesday 4:30-5:45
As an introduction to philosophy, we will be covering a variety of topics in
Epistemology, Metaphysics, and Ethics, philosophy's three
"main" topical areas of study. Pulling from
sources both contemporary and ancient, we will consider a variety of
philosophical issues beginning with the nature of philosophy itself.
From there, we will consider the differences between belief, opinion, and
knowledge (and whether the latter is even possible).
Following (and paraphrasing) Descartes, perhaps all we know is that "I
exist as a thinking thing" ... but what does this mean?
What is it to so exist? What is our fundamental nature as a
"thinking thing"? Indeed, what is it to exist at all?
And if we are – essentially – a Will, is ours a free will?
And what does that mean? What about God: does
God exist? Finally, how do these issues bear on our moral
status, our ethical responsibilities? How do these
considerations inform our understanding of moral obligations, how
we understand what we ought to do (if anything)?
But as an introduction to philosophy, you will learn more than
just what philosophers study, more even than how to engage with a philosophical
issue yourself. Here, you will be doing some philosophy. And in so doing,
you will be writing: to process hard, abstract thoughts; to clearly
and cogently express what you've processed; and – in what might be
paradigmatically philosophical – to argue a position and defend it
against possible critics.
Note: it is this focus on clear, cogent, critical writing that allows
Philosophy 001 to substitute for the otherwise required English 002.
Philosophy 001-Section 08 / Introduction to Philosophy
Valentina Urbanek / D+TR / Tuesday, Thursday 10:30-11:45
This course introduces
students to problems in metaphysics and epistemology through close reading of
several classical texts of Western Philosophy. Metaphysics is the study of
the fundamental nature of reality. We will focus on the following
metaphysical questions: What are we? Are we immaterial things, bodily
things, some combination? What happens to us when we die? Does God
exist? Do we have free will? Epistemology is the study of knowledge.
How could we ever come to know the answers to these metaphysical questions?
What is knowledge and how do we get it -- via our senses or by reasoning alone?
Is knowledge even attainable? Throughout our examination of these
questions, we will also consider questions about values and what we should do.
For example, what attitude should we take toward death? Is suicide
immoral? If we don't have free will, does that mean that everything that
we do is pointless? If we can't know that some of our most fundamental
beliefs are true, would it matter? How should we go on with life?
Great philosophers have proposed sophisticated answers to these questions.
We will read their works, consider their theories, and analyze and evaluate
their arguments, with an aim to coming closer to our own answers, however
tentative, to some of life's biggest questions.
Philosophy 001-Section 09 / Introduction to Philosophy
Valentina Urbanek / F+TR / Tuesday, Thursday 12:00-1:15
This course introduces
students to problems in metaphysics and epistemology through close reading of
several classical texts of Western Philosophy. Metaphysics is the study of
the fundamental nature of reality. We will focus on the following
metaphysical questions: What are we? Are we immaterial things, bodily
things, some combination? What happens to us when we die? Does God
exist? Do we have free will? Epistemology is the study of knowledge.
How could we ever come to know the answers to these metaphysical questions?
What is knowledge and how do we get it -- via our senses or by reasoning alone?
Is knowledge even attainable? Throughout our examination of these
questions, we will also consider questions about values and what we should do.
For example, what attitude should we take toward death? Is suicide
immoral? If we don't have free will, does that mean that everything that
we do is pointless? If we can't know that some of our most fundamental
beliefs are true, would it matter? How should we go on with life?
Great philosophers have proposed sophisticated answers to these questions.
We will read their works, consider their theories, and analyze and evaluate
their arguments, with an aim to coming closer to our own answers, however
tentative, to some of life's biggest questions.
Philosophy 001-Section 10 / Introduction to Philosophy
Gal Kober / L+TR / Tuesday, Thursday 4:30-5:45
What can we know? How can
we know it? This course is an introduction to philosophy through seminal
questions concerning knowledge. We will investigate such questions as how we
acquire knowledge, the ability to articulate our knowledge, the relation between
theoretical and practical knowledge, and especially the relation between
external reality and what we can know of it. We will explore these issues
through the writings of major figures in the history of Western philosophy, such
as Plato, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Wittgenstein, and Moore.
Philosophy 001-Section 11 / Introduction to Philosophy
Gal Kober / J+TR / Tuesday, Thursday 3:00-4:15
What can we know? How can
we know it? This course is an introduction to philosophy through seminal
questions concerning knowledge. We will investigate such questions as how we
acquire knowledge, the ability to articulate our knowledge, the relation between
theoretical and practical knowledge, and especially the relation between
external reality and what we can know of it. We will explore these issues
through the writings of major figures in the history of Western philosophy, such
as Plato, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Wittgenstein, and Moore.
Philosophy 006 / Reasoning & Critical Thinking
Susan Russinoff / F+TR / Tuesday, Thursday 12:00-1:15
Reasoning and Critical Thinking is an introductory course intended for all students,
regardless of academic major or interests. The skills learned and
reinforced in Philosophy 006 are crucial for anyone who wants to think clearly,
read carefully, speak effectively, and argue convincingly. You will develop a
sensitivity to language, become better able to uncover arguments, and learn to
distinguish good argumentation from bad. Your ability to
recognize and evaluate your own assumptions and those of others will improve,
and you'll come away better able to provide compelling reasons for your own
views and to evaluate critically the views of others. You
will learn to reason about various subjects, including science, ethics,
philosophy, and the law and have the opportunity to evaluate and closely analyze
articles from a variety of texts and editorials from leading newspapers and
periodicals. In addition to regular written exercises, the
class will engage in oral debate. The tools you will develop
in this course are important to all the disciplines.
Note:
Philosophy 006 cannot be taken for credit by those who have already taken
Philosophy 033. You may take Philosophy 006 and then take
Philosophy 033 for credit. Unlike Philosophy 033, this course
does not satisfy the mathematical sciences requirement.
Philosophy 16 / Philosophy of Religion
Elizabeth Lemons / F+TR / Tuesday, Thursday 12:00-1:15
This course offers an
introduction to the philosophical analysis of major religious issues. We will
explore such topics as the nature of religion, religious experience, and
ultimate reality, the problem of evil and/or suffering, and the relationship
between faith and reason and between religion and science. By exploring
different philosophical approaches to the study of religion--including
existential, phenomenological, linguistic and comparative, students will develop
constructive responses to the variety of ways in which philosophers analyze
religious beliefs and practices in diverse world religions.
Philosophy 24 / Introduction to Ethics
David Denby / H+TR / Tuesday, Thursday 1:30-2:45
At this moment, like every other, you're faced with a question:
What should I do?
People often say that, in general, what you should do is help others. But then
they would, wouldn't they? Perhaps what you really should do is always act in
your own self-interest. Perhaps that is what everyone else is already doing
anyway (despite what they say).
Some people say that you should promote the values of your community or society.
But some societies have vile values. Indeed, don't the values of our society
need at least a little adjustment? Anyway, why should the fact that a society is
yours mean that you should promote its values, especially if doing so is
contrary to your self-interest?
Some people say that you should act according to God's will. But what does God
will, exactly? And surely we should obey Him only if He is good and commands us
to do what is right. Yet that seems to mean that morality is independent of Him.
Some philosophers have argued that whether you should do an action depends
entirely on its consequences (compared to those of its alternatives). But should
you really ignore the past? Doesn't just punishment,
for instance, depend on whether the person is actually guilty -- a fact about
the past?
Other philosophers have
focused instead on the motives behind an action, in particular on whether you're
acting out of respect for others (and yourself). Still others have argued that
whether you should do an action depends on a combination of these and perhaps
other factors. But each of these suggestions faces problems: What on earth is
"respecting others"? What is it to "combine" the various factors? Self-interest
then? Maybe, but even self-interest is a tricky
notion. Something is not in your self-interest simply because you want it, as
every smoker knows. And maybe our interests, or at least the best means for
achieving them, are mutually interdependent: perhaps the best way for you to get
what you want depends on what I do and vice versa.
We will discuss all this in this course. After a brief introductory discussion
of logic and the nature of ethical theory we will spend most of the semester
critically evaluating a number of normative ethical theories. These will include
various forms of Relativism, religiously-based theories, Utilitarianism,
Kantianism, Egoism and
Social Contract theories. We will also discuss self-interest,
values, and other matters. Finally, we will discuss how to apply what we've learned
to an issue of contemporary moral concern – probably abortion.
Philosophy 33 / Logic
Susan Russinoff / J / Monday 4:30-5:20; Tuesday, Thursday 3:00-3:50
*Satisfies Tufts Mathematical Sciences Distribution Requirement
How can one tell whether a
deductive argument succeeds in establishing its conclusion? What distinguishes
good deductive arguments from bad ones? Questions such as these will be
addressed in this course. We will discuss what a formal language is, how
arguments in English are to be expressed in various formal languages, and what
is gained from so expressing them. In the jargon of the
field, we will cover sentential logic, first-order predicate logic, identity
theory, definite descriptions, and topics in metatheory. The course requires no
specific background and no special ability in mathematics.
Philosophy 038 / Rational Choice
Patrick Forber / D+TR / Tuesday, Thursday 10:30-11:45
Decision making and strategic interaction are activities we engage in everyday.
But do we make the right decisions? Do we adopt the most advantageous
strategies? This course will approach these questions by using a set of formal
methods for analyzing decisions and strategies: decision theory and game theory.
We will cover the basics of probability and game theory and their application
to problems in decision making and strategic thinking, tackling a number of
troublesome paradoxes that emerge. We will also look at promising applications
of game theory to understanding evolution in both biological and cultural
domains.
Philosophy 42 / Western Political Thought II
Robert Devigne / I+MW / Monday, Wednesday 3:00-4:15
Introduction to the
central concepts of modern political thought that have underlined Western
political practice. The views of those writers who launched the Enlightenment
and challenged Christianity: Descartes and Hobbes. The conflict within modern
theory on the meaning of liberty and justice as developed by Rousseau, Smith,
Marx and others, setting the stage for a protracted period of conflict within
the West. Efforts by thinkers like Mill and de Tocqueville to reconcile
divisions within Western civilization and Nietzsche's comprehensive critique of
it. Throughout the semester we will analyze the divisions that have animated
modern thought – liberty and virtue, self-interest and morality, equality and
oligarchy, science and religion, nature and history, reason and politics – and
assess whether these divisions: a.) have been overcome; b.) are now ignored due
to diminished confidence in the human mind; c.) are persisting and harbingers of
conflicts in the future.
Philosophy 91-01 / Happiness and the Good Life
Christiana Olfert / K+MW / Monday, Wednesday 4:30-5:45
What is happiness, and how
can we become happy? How do pleasure, friendship, and luck
contribute to a life well lived? And how is living a good
life connected to being a good person? In this
course, we will take two perspectives on these questions. On
the one hand, we will examine in detail some of philosophy's oldest and most
enduring answers to these questions as they are found in Aristotle's
Nicomachean Ethics. And on the other hand, we will
examine, test, and evaluate Aristotle's classic answers in light of contemporary
thinkers' views on these subjects. Our main goal will be to
generate a conversation with Aristotle, accessible in contemporary terms, about
what counts as a good life. In doing so, we will gain a broad
and deep understanding of one of history's most important ethical texts – the
Nicomachean Ethics – and we will also see how philosophers today continue to
develop our understanding of how to live well. There are no
required prerequisites for this course.
Philosophy 91-02 / A Toolkit for Thinking
Daniel Dennett / 7W / Wednesday 1:30-4:00
"You can't do much carpentry with your bare hands and you can't do much
thinking with your bare brain." Civilization has provided us with a bounty of
thinking tools, from language and drawing to arithmetic, telescopes and computers.
Every word is a sort of tool, with many uses, but in addition to the tools we all
share--our language--there are specialized thinking tools that you can add to your
kit that will help you think clearly about really difficult questions: thought
experiments and analogies and concepts that he has devised over the years to tackle
specific problems of imagination and resistance to unsettling ideas. Prof. Dennett
is finishing a book about these tools and how to use them, and how to devise new tools,
and this seminar, for freshmen and sophomores only, will be an opportunity to participate
in the revising and improving of the penultimate draft of the book. Students will be
encouraged to take the draft apart and help rebuild it, better. Some outside reading
in addition to the draft, and weekly writing assignments.
Philosophy 110 / Biological Foundations of Language
Ray Jackendoff / I+MW / Monday, Wednesday 3:00-4:15
A prominent claim in
modern linguistics is that the human ability to learn and use language is a
specialized cognitive capacity, rather just a consequence of having a large
brain. This course will address the evidence for this claim,
based on the character of language, language learning, and language disability.
It will also address the degree to which the language faculty draws on
other cognitive capacities, the relation of language to forms of animal
communication, and hypotheses about the evolution of the language faculty.
Prerequisite: PHIL 15/PSY 64 or consent.
Philosophy 112 / Syntactic Theory
Ray Jackendoff / E+MW / Monday, Wednesday 10:30-11:45
Syntactic theory, the
study of grammatical structure, is the core subcomponent of contemporary
linguistics. Topics of the course include:
Syntactic categories, phrase structure, long-distance dependencies, the balance
between grammar and lexicon and between syntax and semantics, syntactic
universals, and the innate predispositions required for children to learn the
syntactic structure of their native languages. Multiple
theoretical approaches will be compared.
Introduction to Linguistics or consent.
Philosophy 117 / Philosophy of Mind
Stephen White / G+MW / Monday, Wednesday 1:30-2:45
This course will focus on
the nature of conscious experience, its relation to the subjective point of
view, and the implications of both for the mind-body problem, the problem of
agency, and the problem of other minds. The traditional
mind-body problem has been taken to raise such questions as whether we could
continue to exist after our bodies had been destroyed and whether
computers could be conscious. We will consider these
questions, but we will also consider carefully the nature of the subjective
point of view and the question what is involved in seeing a world that contains
opportunities for genuine action, states of affairs worth striving for, and
agents like ourselves.
We will begin by examining the Cartesian conception of consciousness,
which holds that the intrinsic features of conscious experience are fully
manifest and completely given at the time the experience takes place.
The intuition behind this conception is that conscious experience has no
hidden sides and no unnoticed features. This intuition
supports the sense-datum theories of consciousness and experience held by the
major figures from Descartes to Russell and implicit in many contemporary
arguments that there could not be a naturalistic account of "qualia."
We will go on to consider a wide range of problems for this conception of
consciousness, such as our ability to perceive depth and to perceive aspects.
We will then look at some of the contemporary alternatives to the
Cartesian conception, including behaviorism, physicalism, and functionalism and
explore their implications for such topics as narrow content, mental imagery,
and the emotions. Despite the success of some of these
theories in handling a number of the relevant issues, the objection remains that
such theories fail to explain the depth and significance of the distinction
between those entities that do and those entities that do not enjoy
consciousness.
We will then examine the relation between consciousness and our perceptual
experience of the external world. Recent work on the
"phenomenology" of perception has centered on the thesis of disjunctivism--that
as between veridical perception and a matching hallucination there is no
"highest common mental factor" in virtue of which we are given the world only
indirectly. Though disjunctivism provides an attractive
(anti-skeptical) position in epistemology, in its apparent denial of the reality
of full-blown subjective experience in cases of hallucination, it raises
apparently intractable problems in the philosophy of mind. Our discussion, in this context, of
the varieties of the "internalism/externalism distinction" will cut across not
only the boundary between epistemology and philosophy of mind, but will have
important implications for virtually every major area of philosophy.
Finally, we will examine the concept of nonconceptual content and ask
whether we can make sense of a kind of content that is radically different from
the kind we normally suppose our mental states to have in virtue of our having a
natural language.
Philosophy 120 / Metaphysics
David Denby / F+TR / Tuesday, Thursday 12:00-1:15
This is an upper-level introduction to contemporary metaphysics suitable
for undergraduate with some philosophy and beginning graduate students
(prerequisites: Phil 033, or consent). The aims will be to introduce some
techniques of contemporary philosophy, introduce some of the classic problems in
metaphysics and the main lines of response, and engage in philosophical
debate—maybe we'll even solve some of these problems! After
an initial discussion of ontology, we will focus on six topics, though other
issues will also come up.
1. Properties:
It is a fundamental fact that there are recurring patterns or similarities—in
color, shape, size, etc.—among things. What are these
"patterns" (in philosophers' parlance, "properties")? Do we really think that
they literally exist, that there is an extra entity—redness—in addition to the
red things? Or is that just a way of speaking?
2. Substances:
What are the things themselves (in philosophers' parlance, "substances")? Sure,
they include persons, chairs, animals, and tomatoes, but is there anything to
these things over and above their various properties? If so, what could it be?
3. Parts:
Substances and perhaps other things have parts.
Among the parts of my chair, for instance, are huge numbers of
fundamental particles. Now consider some arbitrary collection
of particles scattered across space and time. Unlike the
particles that compose my chair, surely this collection doesn't compose a larger
whole. So under what conditions do collections of things
constitute a whole in general?
4. Change:
Substances both persist and change—for instance, tomatoes ripen. Suppose on
Monday you say that the tomato is green. Suppose on Friday you say that the
tomato is not green. It is perfectly possible that you spoke truly both times.
How come? Surely nothing can be both green and not green; that's a
contradiction. Of course, Monday is not Friday, but how does that help? The
date was not part of the content of what you said; you talked only about the
tomato and its color. And the tomato on Monday and the tomato
on Friday are one and the same; it really persists. And the greenness it has on
Monday is the very greenness it lacks on Friday; it really changes.
What account of change can make sense of all this?
5. Causation:
Changes in things are brought about by causal
interaction. But what is causation? Do
causes necessitate their effects, make them happen? Would the
effect not have happened without the cause? Does causation
always implicate natural laws?
6. Modality:
Things might have been different: you could have been richer, or taller; Barack
Obama might not have been elected; there could have been polka dot tomatoes—you
can imagine it! There are limits, however: you couldn't have been a tomato;
there couldn't have been married bachelors, or round squares. Can we
characterize in general what is and isn't possible? We say there are ways
things might have been, alternative possibilities. But is this to be taken
literally? After all, you've never seen one. So just what
sorts of things are possibilities?
NOTE: There is no textbook for the course, instead I will put the readings on
Trunk. But, if you're interested, a number of these readings
can be found in van Inwagen and Zimmerman: Metaphysics the Big Questions
(Oxford: Blackwell, 1999) and in Laurence and Macdonald: Contemporary
Readings In the Foundations of Metaphysics (Oxford: Blackwell, 1998).
Philosophy 124 / Bioethics
Mitchell Silver / 11 / Tuesday 6:30-9:00
This course examines
standard moral theories and fundamental principles of health care ethics.
After an initial consideration of general issues in health care ethics, real and
hypothetical case studies will be used to explore such issues as: abortion,
euthanasia, informed consent, reproductive technology, doctor-patient relations,
psychiatric authority and justice in the distribution of health care.
No previous work in philosophy is required, but one course in philosophy,
especially 001 or 024, is recommended. Students are expected to have Junior or Senior
standing (the course is also open to graduate students). Sophomores must
have consent of the instructor. Freshmen will not be admitted.
Texts: The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Tolstoy, Biomedical Ethics 7th
edition by Mappes & DeGrazia, and The Spirit Catches You and You Fall
Down, by Anne Fadiman.
Philosophy 133 / Philosophy of Language
Dilip Ninan / D+TR / Tuesday, Thursday 10:30-11:45
This course introduces
the major developments in contemporary philosophy of language. We will begin by
discussing the influential idea that to understand a sentence is to know
the conditions under which it is true. We will then look at some challenges
facing this proposal by examining a number of linguistic items in detail. In
particular, we will discuss the meanings of: proper names ("Barack Obama"),
definite descriptions ("the King of France"), indexicals ("I", "now"), and
conditionals ("If Oswald didn't shoot Kennedy, someone else did"). The
final section of the course will look at how words get their meaning, and
whether we should be skeptical about the very idea that words have determinate
meanings. We will read work from Frege, Russell, Kripke, Grice, Lewis,
Wittgenstein, and others.
Philosophy 141 / Global Justice
Lionel McPherson / D+TR / Tuesday, Thursday 10:30-11:45
Questions of justice in an
international context have taken on added urgency in an era of global wars and
markets. This course surveys contemporary writings in political philosophy that
deal with such questions. Our main topics will be the distribution of resources,
human rights, cultural pluralism, and war and terrorism. These topics will be
framed by debate surrounding moral universalism versus partiality for nation,
religious or ethnic community, and family. Readings will include John Rawls,
Thomas Pogge, Susan Okin, and Michael Walzer.
Philosophy 152 / History of Modern Philosophy
Christiana Olfert / F+TR / Tuesday, Thursday 12:00-1:15
The aim of this course is to present you with a survey of canonical thinkers
and texts from the Early Modern period of philosophy. Thinkers such as Descartes,
Locke, Leibniz, Hume, and Kant all struggled to balance concerns about scepticism
and the limits of what we can know with the optimism of the European Enlightenment
and new scientific advances. This struggle, in turn, motivated some of philosophy's
most enduring and challenging questions about the existence of God, the basic structure
of reality, the nature of causation, human freedom, and personal identity, as well as
the sources and consequences of our moral capabilities. In order to capture the breadth
and systematic structure of these philosophers' concerns, we will devote roughly half
of our time to examining each thinker's theories of reality and knowledge, and the
other half to the implications of these theories for his view of ethics and morality.
Prerequisite: one philosophy course.
Philosophy 168 / Newton's Principia
George Smith / 12 W / Wednesday 6:30-9:00
This is the second of a
two-part course on the Newtonian Revolution. The first part
was devoted to the 17th Century developments in astronomy and mechanics,
background needed to read the Principia intelligently and critically.
This term we will read the entire work, with emphasis on what each
section contributes to the whole. Because it is available in
English translation, we will read the third edition, but we will also keep track
of the ways in which it deviates from the two earlier editions.
Our primary focus will be on exactly what the argument is that runs
throughout the entire work -- a point that has been a source of controversy in
both the history and the philosophy of science.
We will try to reconstruct not only what Newton took the argument to be,
but also what the argument really amounts to. Finally, at the
end of the term we will look at the immediate critical response to the
Principia and at the development of Newtonian mechanics over the next 100
years; this will enable us to see what others took the argument to be at the
time.
A single research paper
will be required on any one of the major historical or philosophical issues
surrounding the Principia. Finally, the students will
be responsible for one reading beyond those assigned weekly, specifically
Cohen's, The Newtonian Revolution.
Philosophy 170 / Computation Theory
George Smith / J / Monday 4:30-5:20; Tuesday, Thursday
3:00-3:50
Computation theory is an
area in which philosophy, mathematics, and computer science overlap.
The basic concern is the nature and limits of symbol manipulation, though
this is often expressed in terms of what can and what cannot be done by
computational devices of various sorts. The field developed
during the 1930's as an outgrowth of studies in the foundations of logic and
arithmetic. Among its major early results are conclusions,
both established by Kurt Godel, that formal logic is a matter of symbol
manipulation, whereas arithmetic involves something beyond mere symbol
manipulation. During the 1940's, computation theory provided
the theoretical foundation for the development of digital computers, and during
the 1950's it was extended to cover the mathematical study of languages and
grammars.
This course will be in three parts. The first part will be devoted to automata
theory, i.e., the mathematical theory of devices that manipulate symbols.
Topics will include McCulloch-Pitts networks and the relationship between
devices of various kinds and the kinds of languages they can process and
problems they can solve. The second part will
examine the computable functions, which will be characterized in terms of Turing
machines, recursive functions, and register machines. The
third part will then consider the relationship between computation, on the one
hand, and formal logic and arithmetic, on the other. We will
prove Godel's completeness and Church's undecidability theorems for logic and
Godel's celebrated incompleteness theorems for arithmetic.
These last results are of considerable philosophical interest since they show
that logic is and arithmetic is not, strictly speaking, axiomatizable.
The course will require written homework assignments (to be done in groups)
and an open-book final exam. No background will be presupposed. Although the course
will be self-contained, with no substantive prerequisites, it is strongly
recommended that students already be familiar with some area of the material to
be covered. Hence the formal prerequisite for
the course is at least one of the following: Philosophy 33, Electrical
Engineering 14, Math 46, or Computer Science 15.
Philosophy 192-05 / Seminar: Metaethics
Lionel McPherson / 6 T / Tuesday 1:30-4:00
This seminar will survey
prominent positions and arguments in metaethics by philosophers ranging from
G.E. Moore to John McDowell. Rather than directly diving into the debates—for
example, naturalism vs. non-naturalism, cognitivism vs. non-cognitivism, and
externalism vs. internalism—we will start with overviews before discussing
representative primary sources. The idea behind this approach is to try to get
greater clarity about the broader concerns that motivate these debates—and to
avoid assuming that the lines of debate, as well as the stakes, are obvious and
important. In the last section of the seminar, we will consider how these
debates play out in the context of the question of moral obligation—namely, by
reading selections from Stephen Darwall's recent book The Second-Person
Standpoint: Morality, Respect, and Accountability.
Philosophy 192-06 / Seminar: Philosophy of Language:
The Analytic & Continental Traditions
Stephen White / K+MW / Monday, Wednesday 4:30-5:45
Analytic topics will
include Kripke's rule-following paradox, Searle on "the background," Quine on
the indeterminacy of reference, Wittgenstein's private language argument, and
his picture theory. Continental topics will include "performativity,"
the Romantic symbol, and post-Kantian attempts (by figures like Humboldt) to
apply Kantian principles to philosophy of language.
Philosophy 192-07 / Seminar: Contemporary Problems in Philosophy of Science
Patrick Forber / 7W / Wednesday 1:30-4:00
New perspectives on causal inference
Causal inference is
indispensable for doing science and for navigating everyday life. Yet no
concept has proved so troublesome to understand. Philosophical analyses of
causation have produced an impasse, with existing positions becoming so
entrenched that many now countenance multiple concepts---consensus without
unity. Due, in part, to this impasse, philosophers have brought broader ideas
from diverse fields, such as statistics, engineering, neuroscience, and
developmental psychology, to bear on the problem. Essentially, some
philosophers have given up on reductive accounts of causation and are attempting
to naturalize the concept of a cause.
This seminar will review
and assess contemporary perspectives on causal inference. We will begin be
surveying the standard philosophical approaches and the apparent impasse. We
will then examine different proposals for naturalizing the concept, evaluating
their potential philosophical importance. Our exploration of new work on causal
inference also intersects with recent discussion on the viability of naturalism
as a strategy for philosophical theorizing, and we will conclude by discussing
whether and how this sort of strategy can inform our theories of causation.
Philosophy 192-08 / Seminar: Artificial Agents and Autonomy
Daniel Dennett / M / Monday 2:00-4:30
Software "bots" and robots
are among the artificial entities that have at least some of the central
features of autonomous agents. What can we learn about our
own agency, our autonomy, our free will and responsibility, from creating, and
experimenting with, artificial agents (and pseudo-agents)?
Philosophy 192-09/Seminar: The Self
Dilip Ninan / 2W / Wednesday 9:00-11:30
De se
thoughts -- first-person thoughts about oneself -- are connected to a wide range
of problems inmetaphysics, epistemology, and the philosophy of mind and
language. After discussing classic papers on the nature of de se thought
and indexical language, we will turn to three related philosophical topics: the
nature of self-knowledge, the metaphysics of personal identity, and the dynamics
of de se thoughts. Readings from Perry, Evans, Lewis, Stalnaker, Parfit,
Elga, and others.
Philosophy 195-01/Environmental Ethics
Sheldon Krimsky / 6 / Tuesday 1:30-4:00
The course
explores the values, rights, responsibilities and status of entities underlying
alternative ethical approaches to environmental issues. Subjects include:
anthropocentric vs. biocentric frameworks to natural resource protection;
precautionary principle; ethics of cost-benefit analysis; equity and risk
management; status of "rights" of non-human species and future generations;
ethical considerations of sustainable development & energy use; genetically
modified crops; transgenic animals; deep vs. narrow ecology; economic and
non-economic value of wilderness & sacred lands.
Philosophy 297-01/Grad Writing Seminar
Kelly/Russinoff / 10+ / Monday 6:00-9:00
The Graduate Writing Seminar (GWS), offered every term, is required of all students
entering the MA program in Philosophy in Fall 2009 or later and open to graduate
students who started the program before Fall 2009. In addition to fulfilling all
other requirements for the MA in Philosophy, students who enter the program in Fall 2009
or later must earn a grade of SATISFACTORY in the GWS. Letter grades will not be given.
Students are eligible to take the course after completion of one successful term in the MA program.
Students who wish to audit the seminar must commit to being full participants in the class,
which means attending all sessions and completing all assignments. Auditing may be appropriate
for students who have already taken the course for credit or for first-semester students who
are not used to writing in English.
Prospective members of the GWS, including auditors, must come to the first session of the
seminar with the following materials: a draft of a potential writing sample; a term paper
that might be expanded or polished; or a detailed outline of a writing project that has
already been well thought-out. The paper/outline should be accompanied by a brief abstract
and any comments the student wishes to make, such as that he or she intends to turn the paper
into a writing sample for PhD program applications.
To receive a grade of SAT in the GWS, a student must have a strong attendance record;
participate faithfully; and, by the end of the term, produce a solid writing sample or
the equivalent thereof. A student who does not meet these requirements will ordinarily
be granted a grade of INC; making up the work will involve not only producing the final
paper but also sitting through the course again.
Topics of instruction will include: how to determine the necessary extent of a literature
review; how to narrow down a topic; how to make sure that your paper is philosophical, and not
just expository; how to write an introduction to a philosophy paper; how to handle transitions
between sections of a paper; how to anticipate and address objections to your view; how to write
a conclusion; when to ask a faculty member for criticism. The course will involve intensive
peer review of papers. We will use contemporary papers in the philosophical literature as
examples of how (and perhaps how not) to write a philosophy paper.
Students will be given frequent but brief out-of-class writing assignments, sometimes
general exercises and sometimes term paper work.
PREREQUISITES: At least one successfully completed semester in the Tufts MA program in
Philosophy and submission of a suitable piece of writing or detailed outline by Friday,
January 14, 2012. Exceptions to these restrictions may be made in unusual cases.
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