8/9/2019 Course Descriptions Graduate Fall 2013 (1)

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PHILOSOPHY  Fall 2013 (2138 )

GRADUATE COURSE DESCRIPTIONS 

PHI 533 R: POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY  STANG  TUES & THURS · 2:30  PM—3:15 PM  

This course is an advanced survey of the Crical Theory tradion in social and polical philosophy. Crical Theory was founded

in 1920s by a group of German philosophers who were interested in developing and applying Marx's ideas of aliena on and

ideology crique. Their main aim was to understand and crique people's support of Nazism and other forms of totalitarianism.

As the crical theory tradion developed, its thinkers raised more general quesons about how social, cultural, and economicforces can facilitate or undercut our ability to achieve free, raonal, and humane forms of life. Having moved to the US, many

of them worried, for example, that the forces of modern technology and capitalism can "colonize" our ways of thinking and

acng and thereby block us from realizing our full human potenal. They worried that even if these forces were not as bad as

Nazism, they might sll be bad for us and threaten the legimacy of modern liberal democrac states. Our study of this tradi‐

on will begin by reading Kant on enlightenment and Marx on alienaon and objecficaon. We will then skip ahead to exam‐

ine in detail some classic writers of the ‘Frankfurt School’ and other 20th century crical theorists, including Lukacs, Horkheim‐

er, Habermas, Foucault, and Honneth.

PHI 540 T:  EPISTEMOLOGY  HILPINEN  TUES & THURS · 5:00  PM—6:15 PM  

A survey of some main topics and problems in recent epistemology. The quesons to be discussed are related to following top‐

ics: (1) the analysis of the concept of knowledge and knowledge ascripons; (2) the view that knowledge is good or epistemical‐

ly perfect belief (cognion) and the “good‐making’ properes of beliefs; (3) the structure of epistemic jusficaon and the em‐

pirical basis of knowledge; (4) skepcal arguments and the responses to various forms of skepcism in recent epistemology;

and (5) arguments and paradoxes involving the concepts of knowledge, belief, and reasoning.

PHI 543 E: INDUCTION, PROBABILITY & SCIENTIFIC METHOD  LEWIS  MON, WED & FRI · 12:20  PM–  1:10PM  

The noon of probability enters into science in at least two ways. First, scienfic arguments are inducve; the evidence is usual‐

ly (though by no means universally) regarded as conferring a certain probability on the hypothesis under test. Second, the hy ‐

pothesis under test may itself be probabilisc; e.g. “Smoking increases the chance of developing lung cancer”. But what does it

mean to aach a probability to a scienfic hypothesis, or to developing lung cancer? The noon of probability is notoriously

difficult to analyze, and we will canvas the advantages and drawbacks of various interpretaons. What’s more, the analysis of

probability is closely connected with issues in the methodology of science. Typically (but not always), working sciensts regard

probabilies as long‐run frequencies, and use classical (Neyman‐Pearson) methods for reasoning about hypotheses, whereas

philosophers of science regard probability as a measure of subjecve degree of belief, and prefer Bayesian methods. We willexamine the arguments in favor of each methodology, and look at the diff erence this choice makes in the actual pracce of sci‐

enfic research.

PHI 581 1J: PRAGMATISM  HAACK  MON  · 5:00  PM—7:30  PM  

Pragmasm—an American tradion originang in the early 1870s—is an exceponally rich source of ideas in just about every

area of philosophy: logic, epistemology, philosophy of science, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, ethics, aesthecs, social and

polical philosophy, philosophy of law, etc. This course will cover the work of Charles Sanders Peirce and William James, the

founders of pragmasm; of John Dewey and George Herbert Mead, who carried the tradion forward; and of Oliver Wendell

Holmes, who off ers a disncvely pragmast legal philosophy; and will also explore the radical versions of pragmasm devel‐

oped in England by F. C. S. Schiller and in Italy by Giovanni Papini, as well as by recent “kidnappers” of pragmasm, such as Rich‐

ard Rorty.

PHI 601 01: PROSEMINAR  HILPINEN  MON   · 2:00  PM—4:30  PM  

A study of some main developments in analyc philosophy from the 1950’s to the present. Discussion on selected topics and

problems in epistemology and philosophy of science, ethics, metaphysics, philosophical logic, philosophy of acon, and philoso‐

phy of language and mind.

PHI 640 01: EPISTEMOLOGY  CHUDNO  WED  · 2:00  PM—4:30  PM  

Tradionally philosophers have disnguished two types of knowledge: there is a posteriori knowledge about our immediate

environment, its inner constuon, and the surrounding cosmos; and there is a priori knowledge about abstract reality, such as

mathemacs, metaphysics, and morality. The focus of this seminar will be a priori knowledge and its explanaon. Topics will

include: the nature of the a priori/a posteriori disncon, conceptual and analyc truth, worries about the cognive inaccessi‐

bility of abstract reality, the similaries and diff erences between sensing and thinking, and the explanatory role of norms. We

will cover background issues in epistemology, e.g. the internalism/externalism debate, as needed.

PHI 644 S: PHILOSOPHY OF MIND  ROWLANDS  TUES & THURS · 3:30  PM  ‐ 4:45 PM