Graduate

Courses: Fall 2005 (06-1)

2020/19543 Plato

Allen | Tuesday 7:00-9:30

Cross-listed with Classics 2313/19542

The Seminar will be devoted to Plato's Cratylus and Theaetetus and the questions with which they are concerned, viz. whether names are by nature or convention (the Cratylus) and the nature of knowledge (the Theaetetus).

2130/19367 Leibniz

Rescher | Wednesday 9:30-12:00

A comprehensive examination of the philosophy of G. W. Leibniz, with primary emphasis on those of his ideas, primarily in logic, metaphysics and epistemology, which exercised a powerful influence upon later philosophers.

Prerequisite(s): Some prior courses in the history of philosophy and graduate status

2171/19359 Kantian Ethics

Engstrom | Monday 2:00-4:30

The primary aim of this seminar will be to examine the basic structure of Kant's moral philosophy as it is expounded in three central texts: the Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, the Critique of Practical Reason, and the Doctrine of Virtue (the second part of the Metaphysics of Morals). In pursuing this aim, we shall explore the interpretive proposal that Kant's moral philosophy is an articulation of the idea that morality is practical knowledge.

Prerequisite(s): Graduate status

300/19360 Ethics (core)

Boxer | Tuesday 4:00-6:30

Through contemporary readings, this class will focus on some of the core issues in philosophical ethics. Potential topics for discussion include the following: the Amoralist, Internal v. External Reasons, Cognitivism v. Noncognitivism, Objectivism v. Subjectivism, the Ethics of Virtue v. the Ethics of Duty, Consequentialism and the Demands of Morality, Free Will and Moral Responsibility. Prerequisite(s): For philosophy department graduate students only.

2310/20179 Moral Theory

Thompson | Thursday 7:00-9:30

Description will be available from department at a later date.

2385/19362 Rationality

Setiya | Thursday 4:00-6:30

This course will be about practical and theoretical reason, with a special focus on their relationship to one another, and to similarities and differences between them. Possible topics include: akrasia, believing at will, epistemic reason as instrumental reason, epistemic agency, judgement, intention and belief, deliberation. We may discuss work by: Elizabeth Anscombe, Jonathan Bennett, Gilbert Harman, Christine Korsgaard, Rae Langton, Richard Moran, Philip Pettit, Michael Smith, David Velleman, and Bernard Williams, among others.

Prerequisite(s): Graduate status in philosophy

2420/20178 Philosophy of Language: Vagueness

Dorr | Wednesday 1:00-3:30

This will be a background seminar, surveying the central philosophical issues that arise in connection with the phenomenon of vagueness. What is it for a predicate to be vague? What is it for an object to be a borderline case of a property or predicate? What is the correct diagnosis of the Sorites paradox? What revision of classical logic, if any, is required in connection with vagueness? We will try not to let the technical developments that arise in connection with the last of these questions loom so large that they make us lose sight of the rest. The main reading for the seminar will be Timothy Willimson’s Vagueness. We will also look at papers by Russell, Black, Lewis, Fine, Evans, Parsons, Sorensen, McGee and McLaughlin, Wright, Field and myself.

2501/19365 Advanced Logic 2

Gupta | Thursday 1:00-3:30

This course will cover the basics of recursion theory (Turing Machines, Enumeration Theorem, Recursion Theorem, etc.) and Godel's Incompleteness Theorems. If time permits, we will explore some supplementary topics, e.g., set theory and the modal logic of provability.

2585/19366 Topics in Philosophy of Mathematics

Manders | Monday 9:30-12:00

Conceptual Structures in Modern Mathematics (Co-Taught with Jeremy Avigad, Philosophy, CMU)

One of the main reasons for the power of modern mathematics has been its use of algebraic structures in many different areas. The seminar aims to start to understand why this is powerful. A more detailed description will be available later.

2600/11188 Philosophy of Science (core)

Ruetsche | Tuesday 9:30-12:00

Cross-listed with HPS 2501/11497

This course will consider philosophical questions pertaining to or provoked by the natural sciences, questions such as: What's the point of scientific theorizing? What is it to believe a scientific theory? (When) is such belief rational? Sometimes working scientists, or philosophers concerned with the foundations of a particular scientific theory, or philosophers who are not consciously philosophers of science, have a stake in such questions. Some attempt will be made to identify these stakes. Authors to be read may include Carnap, Hempel, Kuhn, Lewis, Longino, Railton, Reichenbach, Sellars, and van Fraassen.

Prerequisite(s): Graduate status.

2656/19551 Aristotle-Modality of Change

McGuire | Thursday 5:00-7:30 G-28 CL

Cross-listed with HPS 2656/19550

This seminar is concerned with the basic explanatory concepts of Aristotle's world picture. The central issues which we consider have to do with his views concerning the nature of change, the circumstances under which it can or cannot occur, and the kinds of factors which shape it. In grappling with these issues Aristotle develops distinctive views on causality, the roles played by natures and capacities, and the ground of necessity and possibility In our view, Aristotle thinks that temporality is essential for understanding certain types of natural modality. As developed in his writings on metaphysics and the natural sciences, his ideas bear on present debates concerning what it is for one thing to cause another, whether or not causes operate deterministically, and on what it is for a event to be necessary or contingent, actual or possible. In contrast with the 20th commentators who interpret Aristotle as primarily concerned with language and logic, we stress the ontology of the problems he addresses and the solutions he proposes. Among the works to be considered according to their relevance to the topics of the seminar are: Categories, De Interpretatione, Physics, Generation and Corruption, De Caelo, De Anima, and the Metaphysics.

Greek is not necessary but helpful.

2660/19547 Philosophy of Space and Time

Earman | Wednesday 3:00-5:30 G-28 CL

Cross-listed with HPS 2675/19549

This seminar will concentrate on problems of time, including tensed and tenseless theories of time; McTaggart's argument for the unreality of time; presentism (the view that only the present time exist); the direction of time; time travel and backwards causation. You must be of graduate standing or must get permission of the instructor.