From its earliest days, philosophy has been done in the autobiographical style. But why should an author present their ideas as a firsthand account? What effects does this have on the substance of their arguments? In this course we ask these questions and more through the examination of works of Parmenides, Qohelet, Marcus Aurelius, Augustine, Boethius, Descartes, Nietzsche, Tolstoy, and others.

What is the role of hope and imagination in social or political movements? Many pressing issues today, from criminal justice reform to the ongoing climate crisis, are overwhelming in their scope; they require coordinated structural change as well as a shift in moral perspectives. Given the complex nature of structural injustice, how do we understand and work towards social progress? This course will explore a number of topics related to hope, political imagination, moral revolutions, and social activism. Course texts will come from social/political philosophy, metaethics, and social epistemology, and will largely come from the Western philosophical tradition.

Why do we perceive nature as beautiful? How does this beauty differ from that found in works of art? Do ethical considerations color our perception of nature’s beauty, or are they entirely separate? Is there a difference between organic and inorganic beauty? And how can our answers to these questions inform environmental studies more broadly? In this seminar, we will investigate these questions through the works of philosophers spanning different traditions and eras, from ancient times through the modern period. No previous background in aesthetics will be presumed or required.

Darwin changed the way we see nature. Darwin changed the way we see our own nature. Darwin, in a sense, created the modern world (the one you and I live in). From memes to vaccines—from the latest version of your phone to the debate about abortion—none of it would be the same (or at all) without Darwin’s innovations. If this sounds over the top, this course is designed to show that it’s not. We begin by looking at earlier explanations of the origin of the natural and biological world through the lens of David Hume’s biting criticism of those explanations. We then study the basic elements of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. Finally, we’ll look at the difference the theory has made to our understanding of the natural, cultural, and moral world we live in.

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We live in a time of widespread hypocrisy. The pro-life politician who pays for his mistress’s abortion, the eco-activist who commutes in a gas-guzzler SUV, and the deadline-strict professor who frequently returns grades late are all guilty of hypocrisy. But just what is it that ties them all together under this common label? Some philosophers think hypocrisy is a moral wrong. Others see it as a character vice. We also seem to be allowed to ignore or reject the blame that hypocrites address to us. But why is that the case, since we usually acknowledge others when they point out our wrongdoing? This course will cover literature and case studies from both philosophy and psychology in an attempt to better understand the concept of hypocrisy. Topics include: normative standing, moral-vs-normative hypocrisy, hypocrisy’s religious roots, types of moral address, insincerity, and double standards.

From its earliest days, philosophy has been done in the autobiographical style. But why should an author present their ideas as a firsthand account? What effects does this have on the substance of their arguments? In this course we ask these questions and more through the examination of works of Parmenides, Qohelet, Marcus Aurelius, Augustine, Boethius, Descartes, Nietzsche, Tolstoy, and others.

What is the ultimate form of a good life? Is it centered around fame, power, and material gains? What about doing good deeds and serving one’s country? The philosopher Zhuangzi (ca. 4th century BCE) rejects these options. Instead, he believes in a life of wandering along the Way. But what could that mean? And is it relevant for us today? This course is a close reading of the classical Daoist text Zhuangzi in light of contemporary philosophy and science. The Zhuangzi contains a captivating blend of imaginary and real characters. It is both deeply personal and profoundly abstract. Through this course, students learn to see how foundational concepts in Western philosophy, such as the self, cognition, and well-being, are carved out differently in the Zhuangzi, and the radical new possibilities of philosophy it reveals.

Description: Why do you have the moral beliefs you have? What constitutes a moral judgment? What does the source of our moral beliefs imply about their legitimacy? This seminar is designed as a deep dive into the major debates in both philosophical and empirical moral psychology

This capstone course will consider the concept of an “ultimate being” in philosophy and in world religions. Subjects under consideration will include Plato’s Form of the Good, Aristotle’s Unmoved Mover, Ibn Sina’s “Necessary Existent,” Aquinas’s Act of Existing, Spinoza’s God-or-Nature, the Buddhist notion of the Void, and the Hindu god, Brahman. The end of the course will be devoted to arguments from the American pragmatist tradition that the motion of “supreme being” is incoherent since, given any being, one can imagine something better.

Human language use is downright miraculous. Just by making sounds with our mouths or scratching shapes on a page, we are able to communicate complex meanings across time and space–even meanings that have never before been considered! This ability is not limited to some special few; nearly every human is fluent in at least one language. But how does a language work and how do humans learn to use them? Where does this remarkable ability come from and is it different from what other animals do? These are some of the questions we will be considering in this class. In particular, we will be approaching these issues through the lens of whether language is arbitrary and considering the ways in which a language’s arbitrariness (or lack thereof) should impact our understanding of how it works.

Technology has made it possible to measure and digitize many areas of our lives—tracking our movements, location, sleep, digital search history, patterns of communication, and attention. This raises questions about privacy and the extent to which people can exercise meaningful control over their information. Moreover, the algorithms used as decision aids in finance, healthcare, criminal justice, and the provision of social services shape people’s opportunities in profound ways, raising further questions about algorithmic bias, fairness, manipulation, and discrimination. This course will examine the central values and rights at stake in the current data ecosystem. We will investigate questions of privacy, consent, fairness, and justice, drawing on traditional philosophical sources as well as interdisciplinary work at the intersection of technology, law, ethics, and public policy.

Who, exactly, is responsible for structural injustices such as racism, gender-based discrimination, homelessness, and environmental harm? We normally attribute blame to individuals who act willfully and voluntarily for the harms they directly cause. But structural injustices are imbedded in our social systems and cannot simply be traced to discrete, intentional contributions by blameworthy individuals. How should we even understand responsibility in these contexts? Is complicity a useful framework, and what does it entail? Does it make sense to hold people responsible for injustices that they neither intend nor control? We will explore these questions together, drawing on contemporary selections from ethics, feminist philosophy, political philosophy, and critical philosophy of race.

Recently a number of state legislatures have enacted bans on the participation of transgender athletes on female sports teams. The standard argument is that competition between birth females and transition females is unfair. But what is fair in these circumstances? When, in general, is a competition fair? Is it fair for East Africans, who live at altitude, to compete in marathons with athletes who live at sea level? Is it fair to have athletes of different heights compete in the standard high jump? Why do we have weight classes in boxing but not in track? All these questions are entangled with the concepts of justice. Sports provides us with vivid study cases of our concept of what is fair and what is unfair. The course will explore such cases and the possibility that the concept of fair competition in sports has political connotations.

Why do you have the moral beliefs you have? What constitutes a moral judgment? What does the source of our moral beliefs imply about their legitimacy? This seminar is designed as a deep dive into the major debates in both philosophical and empirical moral psychology, including moral development, moral rationalism, moral intuitionism, dual-process accounts of morality, the psychology of metaethics, the effects of moral identity, moralization in politics, and the metaethical and normative implications of moral psychology.

Many pressing issues today, from criminal justice reform to the ongoing climate crisis, are overwhelming in their scope; they require coordinated structural change as well as a shift in moral perspectives. Given the complex nature of structural injustice, how do we understand and work towards social progress? This course will explore a number of topics related to moral progress, individual and collective responsibility, and social activism. Course texts will come from social/political philosophy, metaethics, and social epistemology, and will largely come from the Western philosophical tradition.

Human language use is practically miraculous–just by making sounds with my mouth or scratching shapes on a page, I am able to communicate complex meanings across time and space. This seems possible because I can do things like use the word “cat” to say something about cats. But why is “cat” a word for cats: is it something about my community, something about cats, something about the word “cat”, or some combination? This class tackles this question. In particular, we will consider the degree to which languages are arbitrary and consider how the possible answers to this question impact such matters as why languages exist, how languages are learned, and the role language use plays in human cognition. In this way, we will gain a better understanding of language’s power and its place in the human mind. Please note: the course will begin with an overview of key background ideas from the philosophy of language and linguistics, so prior knowledge of these areas is NOT required or expected.

This seminar will use a diversity of tools—historical, psychological, philosophical, and more—to consider the nature of comedy as a form of creative expression. Understanding comedy requires considering questions such as: what makes something funny? When is it okay (and not okay) to laugh at a joke? Why do we laugh at all? Can comedy be used as a tool for pursuing social justice?

We often worry that others do not see us as we truly are, that the way they experience us may be biased in various ways. Conversely, we may believe that we know more about ourselves than others do. But is this true? If so, to what extent? If not, why? What can we say about the nature of selfhood and self-knowledge? In this course we will explore these questions, drawing primarily (though not exclusively) from non-Western sources.

Our belief forming faculties evolved in a very different world than the one we currently inhabit. The forces that affected our ancient mechanisms served us well, but modern life provides new pitfalls for advertising, propaganda, and just plain falsehoods to get a hold. In this course we will focus on models of how humans form, store, and change beliefs, as well as how we should form and change beliefs, and how we might get better at both.

Is war ever legally or morally justified? When? Why? Are there limits on how wars should be fought? Who sets these limits? What happens when they are ignored? Is pacifism morally desirable? Is pacifism practically possible? Can groups other than states fight wars? Does that change the legal or moral status of the war? Philosophers, diplomats and world leaders have struggled with these questions for centuries. Now, it’s our turn. In this course, we will struggle with these questions. We will analyze historical approaches, like Just War Theory and Kant’s Perpetual Peace, but we will also consider contemporary perspectives as we work together to tackle these thorny and vexing philosophical questions.