Department: Philosophy

Code Name Description
PHIL1 Introduction to Philosophy Is there one truth or many? Does science tell us everything there is to know? Can our minds be purely physical? Do we have free will? Is faith rational? Should we always be rational? What is the meaning of life? Are there moral truths? What are truth...
PHIL100 The History of Ancient Greek Philosophy We shall cover the major developments in Greek philosophical thought, focusing on Plato, Aristotle, and the Hellenistic schools (the Epicureans, the Stoics, and the Skeptics). Topics include epistemology, metaphysics, psychology, ethics and political...
PHIL101A History of Philosophy from Al-Kindi to Averroes The rise of Islam saw a flourishing of philosophical and scientific activity across Islamic civilizations from Central Asia to Spain. Between the 7th to 13th centuries, many of the major philosophers in the history of philosophy lived in the Muslim w...
PHIL102 Modern Philosophy, Descartes to Kant Major figures in early modern philosophy in epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind. Writings by Descartes, Leibniz, Hume, and Kant.
PHIL104 Normativity in Ancient Greek Metaethics Grads enroll in 204. In this course, we shall examine some basic issues in metaethics in the context of Plato's and Aristotle's philosophy. First-order ethics asks questions such as 'What makes an action right?', 'What are virtues and vices?', 'Do I...
PHIL106 Ancient Greek Skepticism We will study ancient Greek skeptics and the views that for any claim there is no more reason to assert it than deny it, and that a suspension of belief is the best route to happiness. There will also be some consideration both of ancient opponents o...
PHIL107B Plato's Later Metaphysics and Epistemology A close reading of Plato's Theatetus and Parmenides, his two mature dialogues on the topics of knowledge and reality. We will consider various definitions of knowledge, metaphysical problems about the objects of knowledge, and a proposed method for e...
PHIL107C Plato's Timaeus In this course, we will explore the Timaeus, Plato's account of the nature and creation of the universe. This work, from Plato's late period, with its highly notable postulations of the Demiurge and the receptacle, received the place of prominence in...
PHIL108 Aristotle's Metaphysics Book Alpha An introduction both to Aristotle's own metaphysics and to his treatment of his predecessors on causality, included the early Ionian cosmologists, atomism, Pythagoreans, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Anaxagoras and Plato. Prerequisite: one co...
PHIL108B Aristotle's Physics Book One A chapter by chapter analysis of Aristotle's introductory discussions of physical theory. Topics to be considered include Aristotle's treatment of Eleatic monism, the role of opposites in pre-Socratic physics, the role of matter in physics, and an a...
PHIL108C Topics in Aristotle: Aristotle on Potentiality tba
PHIL110 Plato's Republic We shall examine this complex and fascinating dialogue in detail, comparing it with other relevant Platonic texts, focusing on its ethics, epistemology, metaphysics, and political philosophy. We shall examine the connections that Plato sees between t...
PHIL110C The Stoics on Freedom and Determinism We will investigate ancient Stoic conceptions of causality and freedom, their arguments for causal determinism, and ancient attaches on and defenses of compatibilism.
PHIL111 Aristotle's Posterior Analytics TBA
PHIL113 Hellenistic Philosophy Ancient philosophy did not end with Aristotle: the centuries after Aristotle's death saw considerable philosophical output from often-competing philosophical schools in the Greco-Roman world. In this course, we will study the major Hellenistic school...
PHIL113A Porphyry's Introduction to Logic The main text will be Porphyry's Isagoge. For more than a thousand years this book was every student's first text in philosophy. We will focus on five main topics: genera, species, differences, properties, accidents.
PHIL114 Normativity in Ancient Greek Metaethics Aristotle's ethical theory is a primary source of later philosophical reflection on ethics, and on philosophy of mind and metaphysics in so far as they are related to ethics. For this reason it allows us to understand some of the motives and starting...
PHIL117 Descartes (Formerly 121/221.) Descartes's philosophical writings on rules for the direction of the mind, method, innate ideas and ideas of the senses, mind, God, eternal truths, and the material world.
PHIL117P Aristotle, On Coming-to-be and Passing-away In this course, we will explore Aristotle's De Generatione et Corruptione, known in English as either On Generation and Corruption or On Coming-to-be and Passing-away. In the work, Aristotle confronts issues of change, particularly of substantial cha...
PHIL11N Skepticism Preference to freshmen. Historical and contemporary philosophical perspectives on the limits of human knowledge of a mind-independent world and causal laws of nature. The nature and possibility of a priori knowledge. Skepticism regarding religious be...
PHIL125 Kant's First Critique (Graduate students register for 225.) The founding work of Kant's critical philosophy emphasizing his contributions to metaphysics and epistemology. His attempts to limit metaphysics to the objects of experience. Prerequisite: course dealing with sys...
PHIL127 Kant's Foundations of Morality, 2nd Critique (Graduate students enroll in 227.) A study of Kant's ethical thought, focusing on The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, The Critique of Practical Reason, and The Metaphysics of Morals. Prerequisite: having taken or taking during the same quart...
PHIL13 Humanities Core: Great Books, Big Ideas -- Europe, Modern What is a good life? How should society be organized? Who belongs? How should honor, love, sin, and similar abstractions govern our actions? What duty do we owe to the past and future? This course examines tcourse examines these questions in the mode...
PHIL132 Phenomenology: Merleau-Ponty (Graduate students register for 232.) French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty wrote that we are neither angels nor machines but living beings. In contrast to both a first person introspective analysis and the third person scientific approach, Merle...
PHIL134 Phenomenology: Husserl (Graduate students register for 234.) Neuroscience, psychology, linguistics, artificial intelligence, and other related fields face fundamental obstacles when they turn to the study of the mind. Can there be a rigorous science of us? German philosop...
PHIL134A Phenomenology: Animals Philosophers have wondered what it is like to be an animal (the question of animal consciousness) and what we owe animals (animal ethics). But how do we understand these nonhuman animals in the first place? How do they act, and interact with one an...
PHIL134B The Normal and the Pathological In this class we consider at the recent history and contemporary constructions the normal and the pathological in the sciences of the mind. We will investigate current best practices in neuropsychology, analyzing well-known human lesion studies, whi...
PHIL135 Existentialism Focus is on the existentialist preoccupation with human freedom. What constitutes authentic individuality? What is one's relation to the divine? How can one live a meaningful life? What is the significance of death? A rethinking of the traditional pr...
PHIL135X Citizenship This class begins from the core definition of citizenship as membership in a political community and explores the many debates about what that membership means. Who is (or ought to be) a citizen? Who gets to decide? What responsibilities come with ci...
PHIL136 History of Ethics. Central Questions in Ethical Theory: Sidgwick and Alternatives Undergrads enroll in PHIL 136. The main ¿ but not exclusive - focus of this course will be one book: Henry Sidgwick¿s The Methods of Ethics, first published in 1874. This is one of the most careful, systematic, and influential defences of utilitaria...
PHIL137 Wittgenstein (Graduate students register for 237.) An exploration of Wittgenstein's changing views about meaning, mind, knowledge, and the nature of philosophical perplexity and philosophical insight, focusing on the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and Philosophi...
PHIL13N Justice across Borders Most people are not your fellow citizens. (Over 95% of human beings, for example, are not Americans.) What do you owe to them as a matter of justice? What do they owe to you? Should you save a foreigner's life instead of buying luxuries for yourself?...
PHIL150 Mathematical Logic An introduction to the concepts and techniques used in mathematical logic, focusing on propositional, modal, and predicate logic. Highlights connections with philosophy, mathematics, computer science, linguistics, and neighboring fields.
PHIL151 Metalogic (Formerly 160A.) The syntax and semantics of sentential and first-order logic. Concepts of model theory. Gödel's completeness theorem and its consequences: the Löwenheim-Skolem theorem and the compactness theorem. Prerequisite: 150 or consent of inst...
PHIL152 Computability and Logic This course is devoted to understanding the limits of (formalized, or at least formalizable) mathematical proof. As we will see, the subject is closely tied to the foundations of computation and computability. We will therefore spend the first half o...
PHIL154 Modal Logic (Graduate students register for 254.) Syntax and semantics of modal logic and its basic theory: including expressive power, axiomatic completeness, correspondence, and complexity. Applications to classical and recent topics in philosophy, computer...
PHIL155 Topics in Mathematical Logic: Non-Classical Logic This year's topic is Non-Classical Logic. May be repeated for credit.
PHIL157 Decision Theory How is it possible to make a rational decision when you don't know what the outcomes of your choices will be, and when you have to rely on others to cooperate? This course introduces some mathematical tools to answer this broad question (expected uti...
PHIL160 What are Laws of Nature? Scientists, and philosophers, regularly speak of the laws of nature: Newton's laws of motion or Avogadro's law. But what is a law of nature? Is it just a generalization that allows for exceptions? Is it just a summary statement of a pattern in events...
PHIL162 Philosophy of Mathematics Prerequisite: PHIL150 or consent of instructor. This is a general overview of the philosophy of mathematics, focusing on the nature of mathematical truth and knowledge, the metaphysics of mathematical objects, and issues arising from mathematical pra...
PHIL165 Philosophy of Physics: Space, Time, and Spacetime Theories Graduate students register for 265.PREREQUISITES: previous course in philosophy of science or natural science or CS or engineering. Topic for 2022-2023: Space, Time, and Spacetime Theories.
PHIL167D Philosophy of Neuroscience How can we explain the mind? With approaches ranging from computational models to cellular-level characterizations of neural responses to the characterization of behavior, neuroscience aims to explain how we see, think, decide, and even feel. While...
PHIL167M Evolutionary Contingency This course explores evolutionary contingency¿the role of dependency relations and chance in the history of life. Topics to be explored will include some work by Stephen Jay Gould in addition to philosophical debates concerning modal and process-base...
PHIL168R Philosophy of Biology No Description Set
PHIL169M Introduction to Eighteenth-Century Philosophy This course is an exploration of the eighteenth-century landscape of ideas starting with the scientific origin of the Enlightenment in Western Europe and the philosophical worldviews that it generated. The main topics are philosophy and natural scien...
PHIL170 Ethical Theory This course explores some major topics/themes in ethical theory from the middle of the 20th century through the present. We'll read philosophy by John Rawls, Thomas Nagel, Bernard Williams, Christine Korsgaard, G.E.M. Anscombe, Philipa Foot, and oth...
PHIL170B Metaphor In metaphor we think and talk about two things at once: two different subject matters are mingled to rich and unpredictable effect. A close critical study of the main modern accounts of metaphor's nature and interest, drawing on the work of writers,...
PHIL171 Justice Justice, as we use the term in this class, is a question about social cooperation. People can produce much more cooperatively than the sum of what they could produce as individuals, and these gains from cooperation are what makes civilization possibl...
PHIL171P Liberalism and its Critics In this course, students will learn and engage with the core debates that have animated political theory in modern times. What is the proper relationship between the individual, the community, and the state? Are liberty and equality in conflict, and,...
PHIL172 History of Modern Moral Philosophy A critical exploration of some main forms of systematic moral theorizing in Western philosophy from Hobbes onward and their roots in ancient, medieval, and earlier modern ethical thought. Prerequistes are some prior familiarity with utilitarianism an...
PHIL172C The Ethics of Care Since the 1970s, a number of feminists, socialists, and virtue theorists have directed their attention to the importance of care in practical philosophy. In this class, we will focus on the ambition to employ the notion of care in systematic politica...
PHIL173 The Birth of Modern Moral Philosophy Grads enroll in 273. Undergrads enroll in 173.
PHIL173B Undergraduate Introduction to Metaethics This is an intensive, undergraduate-only introduction to, and survey of, contemporary metaethics. Can moral and ethical values be justified or is it just a matter of opinion? Is there a difference between facts and values? Are there any moral truths?...
PHIL174B Universal Basic Income: the philosophy behind the proposal Universal basic income (or UBI) is a regular cash allowance given to all members of a community without means test, regardless of personal desert, and with no strings attached. Once a utopian proposal, the policy is now discussed and piloted througho...
PHIL174E Egalitarianism and Anti-Egalitarianism How do we argue for equality today? How did we argue for equality in the past? This class will introduce students to egalitarian and anti-egalitarian thought and to contemporary conceptions of equality. It will provide an in-depth introduction to the...
PHIL174L Justice Across Borders Undergraduates only.
PHIL175 Philosophy of Law This course will explore foundational issues about the nature of law and its relation to morality, and about legal responsibility and criminal punishment. Toward the end we will turn to issues about the criminal culpability of children. Prerequisit...
PHIL175A Ethics and Politics of Public Service Ethical and political questions in public service work, including volunteering, service learning, humanitarian assistance, and public service professions such as medicine and teaching. Motives and outcomes in service work. Connections between service...
PHIL175B Philosophy of Public Policy From healthcare to voting reforms, social protection and educational policies, public policies are underpinned by moral values. When we debate those policies, we typically appeal to values like justice, fairness, equality, freedom, privacy, and safet...
PHIL175W Philosophy of Law: Protest, Punishment, and Racial Justice In this course, we will examine some of the central questions in philosophy of law, including: What is law? How do we determine the content of laws? Do laws have moral content? What is authority? What gives law its authority? Must we obey the law? If...
PHIL176 Political Philosophy: The Social Contract Tradition (Graduate students register for 276.) What makes political institutions legitimate? What makes them just? When do citizens have a right to revolt against those who rule over them? Which of our fellow citizens must we tolerate?Surprisingly, the answer...
PHIL176A Classical Seminar: Origins of Political Thought Political philosophy in classical antiquity, centered on reading canonical works of Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle against other texts and against the political and historical background. Topics include: interdependence, legitimacy, justice; political...
PHIL176P Democratic Theory Most people agree that democracy is a good thing, but do we agree on what democracy is? This course will examine the concept of democracy in political philosophy. We will address the following questions: What reason(s), if any, do we have for valui...
PHIL178 Ethics in Society Honors Seminar For students planning honors in Ethics in Society. Methods of research. Students present issues of public and personal morality; topics chosen with advice of instructor.
PHIL178M Introduction to Environmental Ethics How should human beings relate to the natural world? Do we have moral obligations toward non-human animals and other parts of nature? And what do we owe to other human beings, including future generations, with respect to the environment? The first p...
PHIL179R Feminist Philosophy Feminism denotes both a political movement and a set of philosophical concerns. In this course we will focus on the latter to move to the former. The goal is to obtain a philosophical background that will allow us to analyze and understand the philos...
PHIL179W Du Bois and Democracy In this course, we will work together to develop a detailed and comprehensive understanding of the political philosophy of W. E. B. Du Bois, giving special attention to the development of his democratic theory. We will do so by reading a number of ke...
PHIL180 Metaphysics Intensive introduction to core topics in contemporary metaphysics. What is the fundamental structure of reality? Is it objective? How can there be truths about what is possible or necessary, if only the actual exists? Do we have free will? What is it...
PHIL181 Philosophy of Language The study of conceptual questions about language as a focus of contemporary philosophy for its inherent interest and because philosophers see questions about language as behind perennial questions in other areas of philosophy including epistemology,...
PHIL181B Topics in Philosophy of Language This course builds on the material of 181/281, focusing on debates and developments in the pragmatics of conversation, the semantics/pragmatics distinction, the contextuality of meaning, the nature of truth and its connection to meaning, and the work...
PHIL181E External World Skepticism No Description Set
PHIL182A Naturalizing Representation Notions of meaning and representation are ubiquitous in how we conceive of our mental lives. Intentionality is one of the marks of the mental -- but it's not clear how these semantic notions can fit into our understanding of the natural world. In t...
PHIL182B Naturalizing Content Meaning is mysterious. Right now you are looking at funny marks on a screen. Somehow, these marks are conveying to you information about a class that will be offered at Stanford during the winter quarter 2020. But how is this happening? These marks s...
PHIL182D Ethical Anti-theory Ethicists often attempt to refine, systematize, and explain ordinary ethical convictions by getting them to follow from a small number of less familiar, more fundamental philosophical principles. Some ethicists challenge this theory-based conception...
PHIL182H Truth Philosophical debates about the place in human lives and the value to human beings of truth and its pursuit. The nature and significance of truth-involving virtues such as accuracy, sincerity, and candor. Prerequisite Phil 80 or permission of the ins...
PHIL183 Self-knowledge and Metacognition The course will be divided into two parts. In the first, we will survey the dominant models of how we come to know our own mental states. Among the issues we will explore will be our ways of discovering and coming to terms with "implicit" attitudes (...
PHIL184 Epistemology This is an advanced introduction to core topics in epistemology -- the philosophical study of knowledge. Questions covered will include: What is knowledge? Must all knowledge rest on secure foundations? What are the connections between knowledge and...
PHIL184B Formal Epistemology Grads enroll in 284B. Prerequisite: PHIL 80.
PHIL184M Topics in the Theory of Justification graduate seminar. Prerequisite: PHIL 80.
PHIL186 Philosophy of Mind (Graduate students register for 286.) This is an advanced introduction to core topics in the philosophy of mind. Prerequisite: PHIL 80
PHIL187 Philosophy of Action This course will explore foundational issues about individual agency, explanation of action, reasons and causes, agency in the natural world, practical rationality, interpretation, teleological explanation, intention and intentional action, agency an...
PHIL193E Film & Philosophy CE Issues of authenticity, morality, personal identity, and the value of truth explored through film; philosophical investigation of the filmic medium itself. Screenings to include Blade Runner (Scott), Do The Right Thing (Lee), The Seventh Seal (Bergma...
PHIL194D Capstone Seminar: How Virtual is Reality, and Vice Versa We will pursue questions of metaphysics and epistemology through a focus on the nature of virtual realities and their relationships to non-virtual realities. Readings will be chosen from historical and contemporary sources, including David Chalmers'...
PHIL194F Capstone seminar: Beauty and Other Forms of Value The nature and importance of beauty and our susceptibility to beauty, our capacity to discern it and enjoy it and prize it, as discussed by philosophers, artists, and critics from various traditions and historical periods. Relations between beauty an...
PHIL194G Capstone Seminar: Visual Representation and Visual Narrative Capstone seminar for senior Philosophy majors. This seminar examines the meaning of visual signs, through the lens of philosophy and cognitive science. In the first half, we'll focus on the meanings of pictures and maps, and their relationship to p...
PHIL194H Capstone Seminar: What is Explanation? Capstone seminar for the major. Prerequisites: Junior or Senior, PHIL 80, PHIL 150, and one course in contemporary theoretical philosophy numbered between PHIL 180 and PHIL 189.
PHIL194J Capstone Seminar: Other Minds Capstone seminar for the major.
PHIL194P Capstone Seminar: The Meaning of Life What makes life meaningful? It's a question that pulls on many, if not most, people, particularly in light of our current global situation; and in this course, we will give this question rigorous consideration. We'll explore matters of identity, auth...
PHIL194T Capstone Seminar: Practical Reason Contemporary research on practical reason, practical rationality, and reasons for action. Enrollment limited to 10. Priority given to undergraduate Philosophy majors. Prerequisite: three courses in Philosophy including Philosophy 80.
PHIL194W Capstone Seminar: Imagination in Fiction and Philosophy This course spans the disciplinary divide between philosophy and literature by examining a mental faculty they both use: the imagination. The importance of the imagination in philosophy is contested: can it really help us understand what is possible...
PHIL194Y Capstone seminar: Common Sense Philosophy No Description Set
PHIL196 Tutorial, Senior Year (Staff)
PHIL197 Individual Work, Undergraduate May be repeated for credit.
PHIL197C Curricular Practical Training (Graduate students enroll in 297C) Students engage in internship work and integrate that work into their academic program. Following internship work, students complete a research report outlining work activity. Meets the requirements for curricular p...
PHIL198 The Dualist What is the purpose of philosophy? What is its method? What is its relationship to science? How does analytic philosophy differ from continental philosophy? The Dualist is the undergraduate organization for students interested in philosophy. Through...
PHIL199 Seminar for Prospective Honors Students Open to juniors intending to do honors in philosophy. Methods of research in philosophy. Topics and strategies for completing honors project. May be repeated for credit.
PHIL2 Introduction to Moral Philosophy What should I do with my life? What kind of person should I be? How should we treat others? What makes actions right or wrong? What is good and what is bad? What should we value? How should we organize society? Is there any reason to be moral? Is mor...
PHIL204 Normativity in Ancient Greek Metaethics Grads enroll in 204. In this course, we shall examine some basic issues in metaethics in the context of Plato's and Aristotle's philosophy. First-order ethics asks questions such as 'What makes an action right?', 'What are virtues and vices?', 'Do I...
PHIL206 Ancient Greek Skepticism We will study ancient Greek skeptics and the views that for any claim there is no more reason to assert it than deny it, and that a suspension of belief is the best route to happiness. There will also be some consideration both of ancient opponents o...
PHIL207B Plato's Later Metaphysics and Epistemology A close reading of Plato's Theatetus and Parmenides, his two mature dialogues on the topics of knowledge and reality. We will consider various definitions of knowledge, metaphysical problems about the objects of knowledge, and a proposed method for e...
PHIL207C Plato's Timaeus In this course, we will explore the Timaeus, Plato's account of the nature and creation of the universe. This work, from Plato's late period, with its highly notable postulations of the Demiurge and the receptacle, received the place of prominence in...
PHIL208 Aristotle's Metaphysics Book Alpha An introduction both to Aristotle's own metaphysics and to his treatment of his predecessors on causality, included the early Ionian cosmologists, atomism, Pythagoreans, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Anaxagoras and Plato. Prerequisite: one co...
PHIL208B Aristotle's Physics Book One A chapter by chapter analysis of Aristotle's introductory discussions of physical theory. Topics to be considered include Aristotle's treatment of Eleatic monism, the role of opposites in pre-Socratic physics, the role of matter in physics, and an a...
PHIL208C Topics in Aristotle: Aristotle on Potentiality tba
PHIL20N Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence Is it really possible for an artificial system to achieve genuine intelligence: thoughts, consciousness, emotions? What would that mean? How could we know if it had been achieved? Is there a chance that we ourselves are artificial intelligences? Woul...
PHIL210 Plato's Republic We shall examine this complex and fascinating dialogue in detail, comparing it with other relevant Platonic texts, focusing on its ethics, epistemology, metaphysics, and political philosophy. We shall examine the connections that Plato sees between t...
PHIL210C The Stoics on Freedom and Determinism We will investigate ancient Stoic conceptions of causality and freedom, their arguments for causal determinism, and ancient attaches on and defenses of compatibilism.
PHIL211 Aristotle's Posterior Analytics TBA
PHIL213 Hellenistic Philosophy Ancient philosophy did not end with Aristotle: the centuries after Aristotle's death saw considerable philosophical output from often-competing philosophical schools in the Greco-Roman world. In this course, we will study the major Hellenistic school...
PHIL213A Porphyry's Introduction to Logic The main text will be Porphyry's Isagoge. For more than a thousand years this book was every student's first text in philosophy. We will focus on five main topics: genera, species, differences, properties, accidents.
PHIL214 Normativity in Ancient Greek Metaethics Aristotle's ethical theory is a primary source of later philosophical reflection on ethics, and on philosophy of mind and metaphysics in so far as they are related to ethics. For this reason it allows us to understand some of the motives and starting...
PHIL217 Descartes (Formerly 121/221.) Descartes's philosophical writings on rules for the direction of the mind, method, innate ideas and ideas of the senses, mind, God, eternal truths, and the material world.
PHIL217P Aristotle, On Coming-to-be and Passing-away In this course, we will explore Aristotle's De Generatione et Corruptione, known in English as either On Generation and Corruption or On Coming-to-be and Passing-away. In the work, Aristotle confronts issues of change, particularly of substantial cha...
PHIL21S Classical Greek Philosophy This course introduces students to the ancient Greek philosophical tradition through the three great philosophers of the classical period: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. No prerequisites.
PHIL225 Kant's First Critique (Graduate students register for 225.) The founding work of Kant's critical philosophy emphasizing his contributions to metaphysics and epistemology. His attempts to limit metaphysics to the objects of experience. Prerequisite: course dealing with sys...
PHIL227 Kant's Foundations of Morality, 2nd Critique (Graduate students enroll in 227.) A study of Kant's ethical thought, focusing on The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, The Critique of Practical Reason, and The Metaphysics of Morals. Prerequisite: having taken or taking during the same quart...
PHIL229 Plotinus and Augustine Professor's permission required to register. A reading course focused on the influence of Plotinus Enneads on Augustine's Confessions, early dialogues, and sections on reason and memory in the De trinitate. Proficiency in Greek and Latin will be help...
PHIL22Q Being Reasonable In everyday life, we ask each other to be reasonable, and we fault unreasonable behavior in ourselves and others. Moreover, the Anglo-American legal system makes extensive use of the ¿reasonable person standard¿ in everything from negligence to admin...
PHIL232 Phenomenology: Merleau-Ponty (Graduate students register for 232.) French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty wrote that we are neither angels nor machines but living beings. In contrast to both a first person introspective analysis and the third person scientific approach, Merle...
PHIL234 Phenomenology: Husserl (Graduate students register for 234.) Neuroscience, psychology, linguistics, artificial intelligence, and other related fields face fundamental obstacles when they turn to the study of the mind. Can there be a rigorous science of us? German philosop...
PHIL234A Phenomenology: Animals Philosophers have wondered what it is like to be an animal (the question of animal consciousness) and what we owe animals (animal ethics). But how do we understand these nonhuman animals in the first place? How do they act, and interact with one an...
PHIL234B The Normal and the Pathological In this class we consider at the recent history and contemporary constructions the normal and the pathological in the sciences of the mind. We will investigate current best practices in neuropsychology, analyzing well-known human lesion studies, whi...
PHIL236 History of Ethics. Central Questions in Ethical Theory: Sidgwick and Alternatives Undergrads enroll in PHIL 136. The main ¿ but not exclusive - focus of this course will be one book: Henry Sidgwick¿s The Methods of Ethics, first published in 1874. This is one of the most careful, systematic, and influential defences of utilitaria...
PHIL237 Wittgenstein (Graduate students register for 237.) An exploration of Wittgenstein's changing views about meaning, mind, knowledge, and the nature of philosophical perplexity and philosophical insight, focusing on the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and Philosophi...
PHIL239 Teaching Methods in Philosophy For Ph.D. students in their first or second year who are or are about to be teaching assistants for the department. May be repeated for credit.
PHIL240 Individual Work for Graduate Students May be repeated for credit.
PHIL241 Second Year Paper Development Seminar Required of second-year Philosophy Ph.D. students; restricted to Stanford Philosophy Ph.D. students. Prerequisite: consent of instructor. This seminar will focus on helping students complete their second year paper.
PHIL24A Tutorial: Philosophy Through Sports Tutorial taught by grad student. Limited to 10 students. In 1983 the Raiders won the Superbowl and Marcus Allen was the MVP. Marcus Allen no longer plays for the Raiders and neither do any of his teammates. The Raiders have since moved from LA to Oak...
PHIL24B Grad Tutorial: Topics in Feminist Social Epistemology Tutorial taught by grad student. Enrollment limited to 10. Philosophical work in social epistemology recognizes that knowledge is usually dependent on a range of social institutions, practices, and relations, and considers how these social dimensions...
PHIL24C Tutorial: Ethics for the Wild Robot Frontier Tutorial taught by grad student. Enrollment limited to 10. Robots and artificial intelligence present a new sort of Wild West. AI programs drive cars without a license; robots offer sexual services in exchange for payment; autonomous weapons systems...
PHIL24D Tutorial: Thinking Together: Deliberation, Collaboration, and Instagram? Tutorial taught by grad student. Enrollment limited to 10. When is it appropriate to like a thirst trap on Instagram? How should agents reason together about important questions determining how we live together? At what should such reasoning aim? Ca...
PHIL24F Tutorial: Free Will Tutorial taught by grad student. Enrollment limited to 10. Do we have free will? What, exactly, does 'free will' refer to? Does it refer to the ability to do otherwise, holding fixed the facts? That one is the source of one's behavior? Does it refer...
PHIL24J Tutorial: Capitalism and Socialism Tutorial taught by grad student. Limited to 10 students. Through this course, students will be introduced to a selection of the key philosophical debates between proponents of capitalism and socialism. We will read and discuss historically significa...
PHIL24L Tutorial: Theories of Consciousness in Early Modern Philosophy Tutorial taught by grad student. Enrollment limited to 10. What is consciousness? Are all thoughts conscious? Is consciousness the same as reflection? What is the difference between conscious and unconscious mental states? In this class, we'll see h...
PHIL24S Free Will & Moral Responsibility Do we have free will? Are we morally responsible for our conduct? In this course we will explore debates from roughly the past 50 years between philosophers who defend the common sense view that we do have free will and are sometimes morally responsi...
PHIL24Y Grad Tutorial: Fanon on Colonialism Tutorial taught by grad student. Limited to 10 students. Frantz Fanon was an Afro-Caribbean psychiatrist and decolonial philosopher from the French colony of Martinique who dedicated the latter part of his life to writing and fighting against French...
PHIL250 Mathematical Logic An introduction to the concepts and techniques used in mathematical logic, focusing on propositional, modal, and predicate logic. Highlights connections with philosophy, mathematics, computer science, linguistics, and neighboring fields.
PHIL251 Metalogic (Formerly 160A.) The syntax and semantics of sentential and first-order logic. Concepts of model theory. Gödel's completeness theorem and its consequences: the Löwenheim-Skolem theorem and the compactness theorem. Prerequisite: 150 or consent of inst...
PHIL252 Computability and Logic This course is devoted to understanding the limits of (formalized, or at least formalizable) mathematical proof. As we will see, the subject is closely tied to the foundations of computation and computability. We will therefore spend the first half o...
PHIL254 Modal Logic (Graduate students register for 254.) Syntax and semantics of modal logic and its basic theory: including expressive power, axiomatic completeness, correspondence, and complexity. Applications to classical and recent topics in philosophy, computer...
PHIL255 Topics in Mathematical Logic: Non-Classical Logic This year's topic is Non-Classical Logic. May be repeated for credit.
PHIL257 Decision Theory How is it possible to make a rational decision when you don't know what the outcomes of your choices will be, and when you have to rely on others to cooperate? This course introduces some mathematical tools to answer this broad question (expected uti...
PHIL25Q Digital Privacy and Ethics Introductory Seminar. Preference to sophomores; first-year students admitted if space available. Advance sign-up process and deadlines at http://introsems.stanford.edu
PHIL260 What are Laws of Nature? Scientists, and philosophers, regularly speak of the laws of nature: Newton's laws of motion or Avogadro's law. But what is a law of nature? Is it just a generalization that allows for exceptions? Is it just a summary statement of a pattern in events...
PHIL262 Philosophy of Mathematics Prerequisite: PHIL150 or consent of instructor. This is a general overview of the philosophy of mathematics, focusing on the nature of mathematical truth and knowledge, the metaphysics of mathematical objects, and issues arising from mathematical pra...
PHIL265 Philosophy of Physics: Space, Time, and Spacetime Theories Graduate students register for 265.PREREQUISITES: previous course in philosophy of science or natural science or CS or engineering. Topic for 2022-2023: Space, Time, and Spacetime Theories.
PHIL267D Philosophy of Neuroscience How can we explain the mind? With approaches ranging from computational models to cellular-level characterizations of neural responses to the characterization of behavior, neuroscience aims to explain how we see, think, decide, and even feel. While...
PHIL267M Evolutionary Contingency This course explores evolutionary contingency¿the role of dependency relations and chance in the history of life. Topics to be explored will include some work by Stephen Jay Gould in addition to philosophical debates concerning modal and process-base...
PHIL268R Philosophy of Biology No Description Set
PHIL269M Introduction to Eighteenth-Century Philosophy This course is an exploration of the eighteenth-century landscape of ideas starting with the scientific origin of the Enlightenment in Western Europe and the philosophical worldviews that it generated. The main topics are philosophy and natural scien...
PHIL270 Ethical Theory This course explores some major topics/themes in ethical theory from the middle of the 20th century through the present. We'll read philosophy by John Rawls, Thomas Nagel, Bernard Williams, Christine Korsgaard, G.E.M. Anscombe, Philipa Foot, and oth...
PHIL270B Metaphor In metaphor we think and talk about two things at once: two different subject matters are mingled to rich and unpredictable effect. A close critical study of the main modern accounts of metaphor's nature and interest, drawing on the work of writers,...
PHIL271T History of Ethics: Central Questions in Modern Ethical Theory Hobbes marks the beginning of a period of intensive discussion and debate among moral philosophers writing (mainly) in English. His successors argue about questions that are still among the primary questions in ethical theory: 1. The nature of moral...
PHIL272 History of Modern Moral Philosophy A critical exploration of some main forms of systematic moral theorizing in Western philosophy from Hobbes onward and their roots in ancient, medieval, and earlier modern ethical thought. Prerequistes are some prior familiarity with utilitarianism an...
PHIL273 The Birth of Modern Moral Philosophy Grads enroll in 273. Undergrads enroll in 173.
PHIL273B Graduate Introduction to Metaethics This is a graduate student only introduction to contemporary metaethics. Can moral and ethical values be justified or is it just a matter of opinion? Is there a difference between facts and values? Are there any moral truths? Does it matter if there...
PHIL274B Universal Basic Income: the philosophy behind the proposal Universal basic income (or UBI) is a regular cash allowance given to all members of a community without means test, regardless of personal desert, and with no strings attached. Once a utopian proposal, the policy is now discussed and piloted througho...
PHIL274E Egalitarianism and Anti-Egalitarianism How do we argue for equality today? How did we argue for equality in the past? This class will introduce students to egalitarian and anti-egalitarian thought and to contemporary conceptions of equality. It will provide an in-depth introduction to the...
PHIL275A Ethics and Politics of Public Service Ethical and political questions in public service work, including volunteering, service learning, humanitarian assistance, and public service professions such as medicine and teaching. Motives and outcomes in service work. Connections between service...
PHIL275B Philosophy of Public Policy From healthcare to voting reforms, social protection and educational policies, public policies are underpinned by moral values. When we debate those policies, we typically appeal to values like justice, fairness, equality, freedom, privacy, and safet...
PHIL275W Philosophy of Law: Protest, Punishment, and Racial Justice In this course, we will examine some of the central questions in philosophy of law, including: What is law? How do we determine the content of laws? Do laws have moral content? What is authority? What gives law its authority? Must we obey the law? If...
PHIL276 Political Philosophy: The Social Contract Tradition (Graduate students register for 276.) What makes political institutions legitimate? What makes them just? When do citizens have a right to revolt against those who rule over them? Which of our fellow citizens must we tolerate?Surprisingly, the answer...
PHIL276A Classical Seminar: Origins of Political Thought Political philosophy in classical antiquity, centered on reading canonical works of Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle against other texts and against the political and historical background. Topics include: interdependence, legitimacy, justice; political...
PHIL276D Origins of Political Thought Political philosophy in classical antiquity, focusing on canonical works of Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero. Historical background. Topics include: political obligation, citizenship, and leadership; origins and development of democracy; and...
PHIL278C Free Speech, Academic Freedom, and Democracy The course examines connected ideas of free speech, academic freedom, and democratic legitimacy that are still widely shared by many of us but have been subject to skeptical pressures both outside and inside the academy in recent years. The course e...
PHIL278M Introduction to Environmental Ethics How should human beings relate to the natural world? Do we have moral obligations toward non-human animals and other parts of nature? And what do we owe to other human beings, including future generations, with respect to the environment? The first p...
PHIL279R Feminist Philosophy Feminism denotes both a political movement and a set of philosophical concerns. In this course we will focus on the latter to move to the former. The goal is to obtain a philosophical background that will allow us to analyze and understand the philos...
PHIL279W Du Bois and Democracy In this course, we will work together to develop a detailed and comprehensive understanding of the political philosophy of W. E. B. Du Bois, giving special attention to the development of his democratic theory. We will do so by reading a number of ke...
PHIL280 Metaphysics Intensive introduction to core topics in contemporary metaphysics. What is the fundamental structure of reality? Is it objective? How can there be truths about what is possible or necessary, if only the actual exists? Do we have free will? What is it...
PHIL281 Philosophy of Language The study of conceptual questions about language as a focus of contemporary philosophy for its inherent interest and because philosophers see questions about language as behind perennial questions in other areas of philosophy including epistemology,...
PHIL281B Topics in Philosophy of Language This course builds on the material of 181/281, focusing on debates and developments in the pragmatics of conversation, the semantics/pragmatics distinction, the contextuality of meaning, the nature of truth and its connection to meaning, and the work...
PHIL281E External World Skepticism No Description Set
PHIL282A Naturalizing Representation Notions of meaning and representation are ubiquitous in how we conceive of our mental lives. Intentionality is one of the marks of the mental -- but it's not clear how these semantic notions can fit into our understanding of the natural world. In t...
PHIL282B Naturalizing Content Meaning is mysterious. Right now you are looking at funny marks on a screen. Somehow, these marks are conveying to you information about a class that will be offered at Stanford during the winter quarter 2020. But how is this happening? These marks s...
PHIL282D Ethical Anti-theory Ethicists often attempt to refine, systematize, and explain ordinary ethical convictions by getting them to follow from a small number of less familiar, more fundamental philosophical principles. Some ethicists challenge this theory-based conception...
PHIL282H Truth Philosophical debates about the place in human lives and the value to human beings of truth and its pursuit. The nature and significance of truth-involving virtues such as accuracy, sincerity, and candor. Prerequisite Phil 80 or permission of the ins...
PHIL283 Self-knowledge and Metacognition The course will be divided into two parts. In the first, we will survey the dominant models of how we come to know our own mental states. Among the issues we will explore will be our ways of discovering and coming to terms with "implicit" attitudes (...
PHIL284 Epistemology This is an advanced introduction to core topics in epistemology -- the philosophical study of knowledge. Questions covered will include: What is knowledge? Must all knowledge rest on secure foundations? What are the connections between knowledge and...
PHIL284B Formal Epistemology Grads enroll in 284B. Prerequisite: PHIL 80.
PHIL284M Topics in the Theory of Justification graduate seminar. Prerequisite: PHIL 80.
PHIL286 Philosophy of Mind (Graduate students register for 286.) This is an advanced introduction to core topics in the philosophy of mind. Prerequisite: PHIL 80
PHIL287 Philosophy of Action This course will explore foundational issues about individual agency, explanation of action, reasons and causes, agency in the natural world, practical rationality, interpretation, teleological explanation, intention and intentional action, agency an...
PHIL293E Film & Philosophy CE Issues of authenticity, morality, personal identity, and the value of truth explored through film; philosophical investigation of the filmic medium itself. Screenings to include Blade Runner (Scott), Do The Right Thing (Lee), The Seventh Seal (Bergma...
PHIL297C Curricular Practical Training (Undergraduate students enroll in 197C) Students engage in internship work and integrate that work into their academic program. Following internship work, students complete a research report outlining work activity. Meets the requirements for curricu...
PHIL298 Research Methods Research Methods will introduce incoming students to Stanford¿s many libraries and library resources. Throughout the quarter, students will have regular research tasks on campus, structured with the aim of familiarizing students with our libraries, l...
PHIL30 Democracy Matters Should the U.S. close its border to immigrants? What are the ramifications of income inequality? How has COVID-19 changed life as we know it? Why are Americans so politically polarized? How can we address racial injustice? As the 2020 election appr...
PHIL300 Proseminar Topically focused seminar. Required of all first year Philosophy PhD students. This seminar is limited to first-year Ph.D. students in Philosophy. We will focus on some major work over roughly the past 60 years on inter-related issues about practical...
PHIL301 Dissertation Development Proseminar A required seminar for third year philosophy PhD students designed to help them transition to writing a dissertation.
PHIL302P Plato's Laws X Grad seminar. Close reading and analysis of Book 10 of Plato's Laws. In this book, Plato's political thought intersects with his philosophic theology (and therein also with his physics and metaphysics) as he considers the appropriate handling of god(...
PHIL312 Aristotle's Psychology Graduate seminar. 2 unit option only for Phil PhDs beyond the second year.
PHIL313T Aristotle's Moral Theory The aim of this seminar is philosophical; we want to discuss the basis, the structure, the merits, and the defects of Aristotle's moral theory. But we intend to draw on all of the three major ethical treatises in the Aristotelian Corpus: the Nicomach...
PHIL313W Aristotle on Virtues Graduate seminar. 2 unit option only for Phil PhDs beyond the second year.
PHIL314 Aristotle and Later Developments Grad seminar. 2 unit option only for Philosophy PhD students beyond the second year.
PHIL316P Aristotle's On the Motion of Animals A seminar based around a close reading and analysis of Aristotle's De Motu Animalium. This short text, on how animals bring about action (motion), is something of a treasure-trove of various interesting details and complications concerning Aristotle'...
PHIL317 Topics in Plato and Aristotle The idea that humans have a special function (ergon) plays an important role in Plato's ethics and a fundamental role in Aristotle's ethics. In this seminar, we'll examine the content and role of the idea of function in both philosophers. Readings wi...
PHIL318 Aquinas and Aristotle's Ethics Graduate seminar. 2 unit option only for Philosophy PhDs beyond the second year.
PHIL319 Aristotle on Substance Aristotle's views about substance and the nature and possibility of metaphysics. Focus is on 'Categories' and 'Metaphysics' Book Zeta. The 2 unit option is only for Philosophy PhD students beyond the second year.
PHIL320 Aristotle on the problems of metaphysics The main text will be Metaphysics Beta. 2 unit option only for Philosophy PhD students beyond the second year.
PHIL322 Hume Hume's theoretical philosophy emphasizing skepticism and naturalism, the theory of ideas and belief, space and time, causation and necessity, induction and laws of nature, miracles, a priori reasoning, the external world, and the identity of the self...
PHIL325 Kant's Third Critique 2 unit option only for Philosophy PhD students beyond the second year.
PHIL327 Scientific Philosophy: From Kant to Kuhn and Beyond Examines the development of scientific philosophy from Kant, through the Naturphilosophie of Schelling and Hegel, to the neo-Kantian scientific tradition initiated by Hermann von Helmholtz and the neo-Kantian history and philosophy of science of Erns...
PHIL329 Plotinus and Augustine Professor's permission required to register. A reading course focused on the influence of Plotinus Enneads on Augustine's Confessions, early dialogues, and sections on reason and memory in the De trinitate. Proficiency in Greek and Latin will be help...
PHIL331 Happiness and Value in Ancient Greek Philosophy Grad seminar. 2 unit option only for Philosophy PhD students beyond the second year.
PHIL333 Philosophy, Literature, and the Arts Core Seminar This course serves as the Core Seminar for the PhD Minor in Philosophy, Literature, and the Arts. It introduces students to a wide range of topics at the intersection of philosophy with literary and arts criticism. The seminar is intended for graduat...
PHIL335 Topics in Aesthetics Much of the seminar will focus on notions of abstraction in the arts (and related notions of formalism) in painting, music, poetry, etc. What is it for a work to be abstract, or more or less abstract than other works? How is abstraction important, an...
PHIL337 Virtue and Reason in Plato We shall consider questions about the nature of virtue and the role of reason in ethics and ethical psychology in Plato. Questions to be considered include: the nature of virtue, the value of non-rational virtues, the unity of the virtues, the rela...
PHIL338R Ancient Greek Rationality, Public and Private In this seminar, we'll consider ancient Greek views about and theories of practical rationality and compare and contrast them with some modern theories, especially theories of instrumental rationality. We'll consider both philosophic authors, especi...
PHIL341 Learning and Teaching in the Humanities: Pedagogy and Professional Development for Graduate Students This course introduces graduate students to research-based strategies for effective course design and instruction in the humanities. Topics include course design, creation of reading and writing assignments, rubrics for equitable assessment, discussi...
PHIL342B Normativity in Ancient Philosophy This seminar will examine the notion of normativity in Plato and Aristotle. Advanced grad seminar. Open to Philosophy PhD students only.
PHIL347 Aristotle's Logic In this seminar we read through Aristotle's Prior Analytics, paying close attention to the relation between Aristotle's logic to Greek mathematics, and to its place within Aristotle's overall philosophy. Knowledge of Greek is not required. Open to ad...
PHIL348 Evolution of Signalling Explores evolutionary (and learning) dynamics applied to simple models of signaling, emergence of information and inference. Classroom presentations and term papers.Text: Skyrms - SIGNALS: EVOLUTION,LEARNING and INFORMATIONand selected articles.
PHIL350 What makes a good explanation? Psychological and philosophical perspectives Explanation is a topic of longstanding interest in philosophy and psychology, and has recently attracted renewed attention due to novel challenges in interpreting and interacting with relatively opaque AI systems. In this graduate seminar, we will st...
PHIL351D Measurement Theory What does it mean to assign numbers to beliefs (as Bayesian probability theorists do), desires (as economists and philosophers who discuss utilities do), or perceptions (as researchers in psychometrics often do)? What is the relationship between the...
PHIL352 Advanced Set Theory The statement that the cardinality of the real numbers is the next infinite cardinality after the cardinality of the natural numbers, namely Cantor's Continuum Hypothesis (CH), was at the top of David Hilbert's 1900 list of the most significant open...
PHIL353 Seminar on Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics (Conventionalism) This class will be a discussion of inferentialism and conventionalism in logic and mathematics. To structure discussion, we'll work through the manuscript of Shadows of Syntax, my forthcoming book on these topics, in addition to classic readings from...
PHIL357 Research Seminar on Logic and Cognition How might cognitive modeling and logical theory be of mutual benefit? What kinds of interesting logical questions arise from the study of cognition? And what kinds of tools from logic and theory of computation might be useful in modeling cognitive ph...
PHIL359 Logic Spring Seminar Topics in current research in logic, with an emphasis on information, computation, agency, and cognition. Guest presentations by Stanford faculty and advanced students, and colleagues from elsewhere. Course requirement: active participation plus pape...
PHIL36 Dangerous Ideas Ideas matter. Concepts such as equality, tradition, and Hell have inspired social movements, shaped political systems, and dramatically influenced the lives of individuals. Others, like race and urban renewal, play an important role in contemporary d...
PHIL360 Grad Seminar: Explanatory Models in Neuroscience Pre-reqs TBD. Repeatable for credit. 2 unit option only for Philosophy PhD students beyond the second year.
PHIL361 Philosophy of Social Science: Social Scientific Methodology The philosophy of social science is both descriptive and prescriptive. It describes the philosophical assumptions that form the basis of social inquiry and its practices, and it criticizes them to secure their ability to explain and/or predict social...
PHIL362 The Aim and Structure of Cosmological Theory Graduate Seminar. This course, based around a book manuscript with Chris Smeenk, will survey a range of philosophical issues connected to the four main pillars of the "Standard Model" of cosmology. The thread running through the term will be the fo...
PHIL363A Seminar in History and Philosophy of Science: Democratic Science - of the Climate, Races, H2O Is the Earth's climate real? Does it exist beyond experimental data, computer simulation, and scientists' writings? This seminar considers philosophical, historical, and anthropological perspectives on the reality of scientific entities. It asks how...
PHIL364M Mathematics in Practice What does "good" mathematics look like? Certainly, it should be correct, but mathematicians are often far more demanding. For example, they want their work to be deep, explanatory, fitting or even beautiful. This simple observation from mathematic...
PHIL365 Seminar in Philosophy of Physics 2 unit option for PhD students only.
PHIL366 Levels of Analysis in Cognitive Science Graduate seminar. A perennial theme in cognitive science is the idea that the mind/brain can be studied at different levels of abstraction, leading to influential frameworks positing levels of analysis and of explanation. The aim of this seminar is t...
PHIL368 Philosophy of Biology: Learning and Evolution Graduate seminar. 2 unit option for Philosophy PhDs beyond the second year only.
PHIL368A Explanation in Neuroscience 2 unit option for Philosophy PhD students beyond the second year. May be repeated for credit.
PHIL370 Grad seminar: Contemporary Political Theory Graduate seminar.
PHIL370W Consequentialism Grad seminar. 2 unit option only for Philosophy PhDs beyond the second year.
PHIL371E New Themes in Democratic Theory After a tradition of skepticism about democracy, and then a period mostly in the 20th century of virtually unquestioned approval of it, normative democratic theory recently is showing (collectively) more ambivalence. After an introduction to the peri...
PHIL371W Representation: Race, Law, and Politics Graduate seminar. In this course, we will work together to develop a detailed and comprehensive understanding of the concept(s) of political representation. We will do so by examining a number of historical and contemporary theories of political repr...
PHIL372M Mini Course: Solidarity Mini course runs from May 9th to June 3rd. In this course we will consider the hypothesis that solidarity is the most fundamental source of moral and political authority. Solidarity is a property of collaborations involving mutual concern and recogni...
PHIL373 Graduate Seminar Grad seminar on ethical topic. May be repeated for credit. 2 unit option for PhD students beyond the second year only.
PHIL373M Ethical Foundations of Socialism A number of important issues in the ethical foundations of socialism have been overlooked by mainstream ethical theory. This is doubly regrettable, since both socialist theory and mainstream ethical theory might be improved by their integration. In t...
PHIL374F Science, Religion, and Democracy How should conflicts between citizens with science-based and religion-based beliefs be handled in modern liberal democracies? Are religion-based beliefs as suitable for discussion within the public sphere as science-based beliefs? Are there still imp...
PHIL375G Seminar on Emotion This undergraduate and graduate seminar will examine ancient Greek philosophical and contemporary psychological literatures relevant to emotion. Questions to be investigated include: What is the nature of emotions? What is the appropriate place in...
PHIL375J Jurisprudence This course examines the diverse ways in which the philosophy of law bears on the practice of law. Our subject is thus a set of philosophical concepts, particularly legal positivism and natural law, but the approach is not purely conceptual. Rather,...
PHIL375K Criminal Procedure: Theoretical Foundations This course examines the theoretical foundations of criminal procedure- political, historical, and, above all, philosophical. What are the ideas at work in the American system of criminal procedure? How, historically, did the system develop, and why...
PHIL375V Graduate Seminar: Voting Graduate Seminar. 2 unit option only for Philosophy PhD students beyond the second year.
PHIL376A Shared Agency and Organized Institutions Our human lives involve remarkable forms of practical organization: diachronic organization of individual intentional activity; small-scale social organization of shared intentional action; and the organization of complex, organized institutions. A p...
PHIL376B Institutions and Practical Reason We live our lives in a thicket of institutions: small-scale, such as friendships and marriages, large-scale, such as massive economic and political systems, and everything in between. These institutions yield standards by which individual conduct in...
PHIL377A Planning, Time, and Rationality Intentions seem subject to basic rationality norms, including norms of consistency, means-end coherence, and (perhaps) stability over time. Such norms seem central to the planning agency in which intentions are normally embedded. But what is the natu...
PHIL377B Normativity, Rationality, and Reasoning This 4-week mini course in February 2020 will explore the nature and interconnections of normativity, rationality and reasoning. It particularly concentrates on practical rationality and practical reasoning. Broome's book "Rationality Through Reasoni...
PHIL378B Unequal Relationships Over the past three decades, a relational egalitarian conception of equality has emerged in political philosophy. Proponents of the view argue that the point of equality is to establish communities whose members are able to stand and relate as equals...
PHIL379 Graduate Seminar in Metaethics This is a graduate research seminar in metaethics. We will be investigating current issues in the metaethical literature. PHIL 273B, the graduate introduction to metaethics, (or an equivalent) is a required pre-requisite. The course can be retaken fo...
PHIL379W Du Bois and Democracy In this course, we will work together to develop a detailed and comprehensive understanding of the political philosophy of W. E. B. Du Bois, giving special attention to the development of his democratic theory. We will also touch on other themes that...
PHIL382A Practical knowledge When you do something intentionally, you have a special kind of knowledge of what you are doing. Anscombe called this practical knowledge. She argued that it is non-observational and non-inferential, and that it plays a role in making your action int...
PHIL382P Grad seminar: Inference What do you do when you reason with beliefs or suppositions? What sort of mental event or process constitutes an inference? How can that event or process make it the case that one belief is held on the basis of another? How does it ground any form of...
PHIL383 Advanced Topics in Epistemology May be repeated for credit. 2 unit option is only for Phil PhD students beyond the second year.
PHIL384J Topics in Epistemology: Logical Probability and Inductive Logic This class is open to graduate students in philosophy, all others need explicit permission. 2 unit option is for 3rd year Philosophy PhDs only.
PHIL384P Mental Action and Its Pathologies In this graduate seminar, we will examine the nature of mental action. What is mental action? What kinds of mental actions can we perform intentionally? Is there such a thing as paralysis of mental action? Are delusions of thought insertion pathologi...
PHIL384W The Liar Paradox This is a graduate seminar on the liar and related paradoxes. We will go over recent approaches, starting with Kripke's 1975 approach. Work on the liar by Field, McGee, Priest, and others will be discussed. We will cover both technical and philosophi...
PHIL385B Topics in Metaphysics and Epistemology: Situations and Attitudes 2 unit option for PhD students only. May be repeated for credit.
PHIL385D Advanced Topics in Philosophy of Language Course may be repeat for credit. 2 unit option for PhD students only.
PHIL385M Metaphysics and Semantics 2 unit option only for Phil PhDs beyond the second year.
PHIL385N Transfeminism This graduate seminar explores the metaphysics, ethics, and epistemology of transness, using sources from the 1970s to the present, primarily focused on the US, the UK, and Canada. Among the questions we'll investigate are: How can we theorize about...
PHIL386 Philosophy of Mind Seminar This is a graduate seminar in philosophy of mind. 2 unit option for Philosophy PhD students beyond the second year only. May be repeated for credit.
PHIL387 Topics in Philosophy of Action: Decision Theory and Planning Agency This year's topic: Decision Theory and Planning Agency. Enrollment is limited to graduate students in Philosophy and others by permission of instructor. 2 unit option is only for Philosophy PhD students beyond the second year. Write to both instruc...
PHIL388 Topics in Normativity: Foundations of Epistemic Normativity Topics in Normativity. Foundations of epistemic normativity. May be repeated for credit. 2 unit option is only for Philosophy PhD students beyond the second year.
PHIL391 Seminar on Logic & Formal Philosophy Research seminar for graduate students working in logic and formal philosophy. Presentations on contemporary topics by seminar participants and outside visitors. Maybe be repeated for credit.
PHIL3N Randomness: Computational and Philosophical Approaches Is it ever reasonable to make a decision randomly? For example, would you ever let an important choice depend on the flip of a coin? Can randomness help us answer difficult questions more accurately or more efficiently? What is randomness anyway? Can...
PHIL450 Thesis (Staff)
PHIL49 Survey of Formal Methods Survey of important formal methods used in philosophy. The course covers the basics of propositional and elementary predicate logic, probability and decision theory, game theory, and statistics, highlighting philosophical issues and applications. Spe...
PHIL4N Knowing Nothing Our beliefs are subject to multiple sources of error: a traveler's perception of an oasis in the desert may turn out to be a mirage; the key witness in a trial criminal may turn out to be lying; or a fluke in the data may mislead a research team into...
PHIL500 Advanced Dissertation Seminar Presentation of dissertation work in progress by seminar participants. May be repeated for credit.
PHIL50S Introduction to Formal Methods in Contemporary Philosophy This course will serve as a first introduction to the formal tools and techniques of contemporary philosophy, including probability and formal logic. Traditionally, philosophy is an attempt to systematically tackle foundational problems related to va...
PHIL60 Introduction to Philosophy of Science This course introduces students to tools for the philosophical analysis of science. We will cover issues in observation, experiment, and reasoning, questions about the aims of science, scientific change, and the relations between science and values.
PHIL61 Philosophy and the Scientific Revolution Galileo's defense of the Copernican world-system that initiated the scientific revolution of the 17th century, led to conflict between science and religion, and influenced the development of modern philosophy. Readings focus on Galileo and Descartes.
PHIL71H Introduction to Aesthetics Aesthetics encompasses a seemingly special and particularly rewarding way of perceiving the world. Appreciating the beauty of a sunset, feeling moved by a piece of music, becoming absorbed in the composition of an artwork: these are all aesthetic mat...
PHIL72 Contemporary Moral Problems In this course, we will explore contemporary moral issues that arise in the lives of students at higher education institutions and consider their implications beyond campus. Taking the university as a starting point for moral analysis, we will explor...
PHIL74A Ethics in a Human Life Ethical questions pervade a human life from before a person is conceived until after she dies, and at every point in between. This course raises a series of ethical questions, following along the path of a person's life - questions that arise before,...
PHIL75C Computers, Ethics, and Public Policy Ethical and social issues related to the development and use of computer technology. Ethical theory, and social, political, and legal considerations. Scenarios in problem areas: privacy, reliability and risks of complex systems, and responsibility of...
PHIL75E Philosophy of Disability This course is an introduction to the ethical and political issues concerning disability. It aims to provide students with a set of tools to think critically about the connections between our ideas about disability, interpersonal relationships and po...
PHIL76 Introduction to Global Justice Our world is divided into many different states, each of which has its own culture or set of cultures. Vast inequalities of wealth and power exist between citizens of the rich world and the global poor. International commerce, immigration, and climat...
PHIL77S Philosophy of Religion Much work in philosophy of religion deals with metaphysical questions related to theism, beginning with the question whether God exists. Those are important and difficult issues (and receive treatment in other courses in the philosophy department). I...
PHIL7N Philosophy and Science Fiction What if things had been otherwise? What if things are someday, somewhere, very different than they are here and now? Science fiction and other genre fiction gives us the opportunity to explore worlds that stretch our conceptions of reality, of what...
PHIL80 Mind, Matter, and Meaning We'll cover three central topics in philosophy: personal identity; the metaphysics of mind; and the nature of belief. Readings will be drawn both from philosophy and from cognitive science more broadly. This is an intensive writing course that satisf...
PHIL801 TGR Project No Description Set
PHIL802 TGR Dissertation (Staff)
PHIL81 Philosophy and Literature Can novels make us better people? Can movies challenge our assumptions? Can poems help us become who we are? We'll think about these and other questions with the help of writers like Toni Morrison, Marcel Proust, Jordan Peele, Charlie Kaufman, Rachel...
PHIL82 Ethics, Public Policy, and Technological Change Examination of recent developments in computing technology and platforms through the lenses of philosophy, public policy, social science, and engineering.  Course is organized around five main units: algorithmic decision-making and bias; data privacy...
PHIL8N Free Will and Responsibility In what sense are we, or might we be free agents? Is our freedom compatible with our being fully a part of the same natural, causal order that includes other physical and biological systems? What assumptions about freedom do we make when we hold pe...
PHIL90R Introduction to Feminist Philosophy If feminism is a political practice aimed at ending patriarchy, what is the point of feminist philosophy? This course provides an introduction to feminist philosophy by exploring how important theoretical questions around sex and gender bear on pract...
PHIL99 Minds and Machines (Formerly SYMSYS 100). An overview of the interdisciplinary study of cognition, information, communication, and language, with an emphasis on foundational issues: What are minds? What is computation? What are rationality and intelligence? Can we pred...