PHIL 501: Topics in History of Philosophy – Descartes (Romagni)

This seminar focused on Descartes. The structure of the seminar followed Descartes' tree analogy of the structure of philosophical inquiry from his Principles of Philosophy. We began by discussing his views on philosophical methodology and then turned to the 'roots' of the tree: foundational metaphysics and epistemology. Following this, we looked at the 'trunk': his physics. Finally, we turned to the 'branches', which Descartes thinks of as the special sciences. This final portion emphasized Descartes' views on psychology and ethics, in particular.

PHIL 527: Seminar in Philosophy of Science (Rice)

This course will focus on the social structures that influence the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge, explanations, and understanding via idealized models. In particular, we will examine the ways that scientific communities that make use of multiple conflicting idealized models/theories and include scientists with diverse sets of values might be better able to accomplish these epistemic aims of science. We will start by looking at the challenges of drawing reliable inferences from multiple highly idealized scientific representations. We will then turn to the social structures and values that influence the construction of scientific models and the inferences drawn from them. Finally, we will look at the place of scientific knowledge, explanation and understanding in democratic societies and methods for effectively communicating the messy and difficult business of doing science to the public and policymakers.

PHIL 535: Seminar in Metaphysics (Hamid)

What is the nature of reality, consciousness, and value (i.e., goodness) in the cosmos? How do personal consciousness and action interact with cosmic reality? Put another way: What is truth? Metaphysics involves the struggle to discover and to articulate, in an intelligible and coherent manner, a system of general principles that governs the development of reality, consciousness, and value; and reveals their classification in relation to the general forms of human experience.

What does it mean to be human? What are the fundamental forms of human experience, of consciousness and action? Metaphysics studies the movement of consciousness within each level of experience, and the transcendence of consciousness from each lower level to the higher. Metaphysics seeks a common roadmap through which each person may objectively seek answers to the above and related questions, with a view to thereby contextualize and guide one’s actions in the world at large.

How is metaphysics related to my field of study? How is it related to my future research or career? Metaphysics is relevant to virtually every domain of human inquiry. This includes the liberal arts, the sciences, and business. The enterprise of metaphysics aims to articulate a science of wisdom that ties together the foundations of the various domains and paths of scientific and other human inquiry. In the words of Erwin Schrödinger, the famous scientist: The isolated knowledge obtained by a group of specialists in a narrow field has in itself no value whatsoever, but only in its synthesis with all the rest of knowledge and only inasmuch as it really contributes in this synthesis toward answering the demand: Who are we?

This seminar will work primarily, but not exclusively, within the Western tradition of metaphysical investigation that begins with Heraclitus, Plato, and Aristotle, and which reaches its pinnacle in the systems of Hegel and Whitehead. Consideration will also be given to some global traditions of metaphysics (e.g., Chinese and Islamic).

PHIL 547: Seminar in Meta-Ethics (Tropman)

This Seminar is a survey graduate course in metaethics.  Metaethics asks and tries to answer questions about ethics rather than questions within ethics.  Central metaethical questions that we will explore include the following.  Can moral claims be true or false, and if so, what makes them true?  If moral claims are neither true nor false, what is the function of moral discourse?  Is moral truth an objective matter, and if so, in what sense?  If there are moral facts, are they natural?  How do we know about such moral facts?  In this seminar, we will consider a range of possible responses to such questions, focusing especially on those answers offered by the metaethical theories of intuitionism, emotivism, error theory, Cornell moral realism, constructivism, quasi-realism, hybrid theories, and sensibility theory.  Students taking the 447 ethical theory course as a remedial are welcome to enroll, as metaethics is supposed to proceed independently of normative ethical theory, and the seminar does not presuppose prior knowledge.

PHIL 525: Seminar in Epistemology (Kasser)

Following the lead of Jane Friedman, epistemologists have (very) recently been exploring the relationships between epistemic norms (those concerned with knowledge, understanding, and justification) on the one hand and zetetic norms (those concerned with inquiry) on the other. Inquiries sometimes place demands on us that prevent us from pursuing or obtaining epistemic goods unrelated to those inquiries. This seminar will consider typical positions in contemporary epistemology (e.g. evidentialism), develop zetetic alternatives thereto, and wrestle with the tensions that arise. Should zetetic norms be seen as epistemic, practical, or both? Should epistemology be reconfigured along zetetic lines? As Friedman suggests, epistemology has historically been construed more expansively than it is these days, so we will also look historical figures (e.g. Sextus Empiricus, Bacon, Peirce, and Dewey) for whom the epistemic and the zetetic are especially closely intertwined.

PHIL 535 Seminar in Metaphysics / PHIL 581A3: Logic and Paradoxes (Tucker)

This course works through in detail all but one chapter of an excellent book: On the Brink of Paradox, by Agustín Rayo. It covers theorems from the intersection of logic, mathematics, and philosophy, and the surprising and sometimes paradoxical results they lead to. Topics include Cantorian set theory, infinite sets, large cardinals, infinite sequences, decision theory, probability theory, measure theory, the Banach-Tarski theorem, computability theory, and Gödel's incompleteness theorems.

PHIL 565: Seminar in Environmental Philosophy: Environmental Harm (Shockley)

The idea that we can harm the environment is intuitively clear. But do the typical notions of harm and benefit, common to human morality, apply whatever it is we refer to as “the environment”? In this seminar we will look at different ways in which the idea of harm might be applicable to features of the nonhuman environment. In addressing these concerns, we will need to consider not only traditional and alternative notions of harm, but also questions about the nature of the nonhuman environment. This course will work through basic literature on environmental values, on philosophical conceptions of harm, and on efforts to make sense of environmental harm. Participants will be expected to lead one or two sessions of the course, to present their work and review the work of others, and to be actively engaged in the course throughout the term.

PHIL 548 Seminar in Normative Ethical Theory: Ethical Theories and Their Applications (Cafaro)

Some of the most interesting recent work in philosophical ethics falls under the heading of virtue ethics. This seminar will explore recent work in virtue theory and various applications of virtue theory to development ethics, environmental ethics, and other areas in applied ethics. It will also look at recent work in “positive psychology,” which seeks to specify an objective science of human well-being and character development, asking how this empirical work complements philosophical virtue ethics. Along the way, we will consider criticisms of virtue ethics, such as the situationist and egalitarian critiques, and the relationship of virtue ethics to the other dominant theoretical approaches within ethics, utilitarianism and deontology, and to anti-theoretical methodologies, such as narrative approaches to ethics.

PHIL 500 Seminar in Major Philosophical Texts (Archie)

This seminar will offer an in-depth analysis of primary texts in ancient Greek philosophy. The most recent topics covered have been Plato's Republic, Plato's Middle Dialogues and Aristotle's Politics. Although the seminar revolves around Plato and Aristotle, its focus also takes into account developments outside of the classical period.

PHIL 535 Seminar in Metaphysics: Freewill (Gorin)

Do human beings have free will? Is the existence of free will compatible with a deterministic universe, that is, a universe in which every event (or every macro-level event)—including human choices and actions—is determined by the state of the universe at an earlier time and the laws of nature? What kind of freedom must we have in order for us to be the kind of beings we seem to ourselves to be, that is, agents whose actions are in some fundamental sense “up to us,” such that we are morally responsible for our choices and actions? If it turns out that we lack the sort of free will required for moral responsibility, what should we say about our practices of praising, blaming, rewarding, and punishing? Have developments in neuroscience shown free will to be an illusion?

This seminar will explore these questions, among others. Though we briefly will cover some figures from the history of philosophy, we will focus most of our attention on work done over the last century, up to and including recently published work.

PHIL 565 Seminar in Environmental Philosophy: Citizenship and Community in Environmental Ethics (McShane)

Aldo Leopold famously said that people should think of themselves as “plain members and citizens” of the biotic community. But what would that amount to? Is it possible to extend the ideas of citizenship and community beyond humanity? This seminar will explore ideas of citizenship and community in light of two related questions (1) What legitimate constraints are there on who or what can count as a citizen or a community member? and (2) Will the rapidly shifting composition of communities (both human and nonhuman) caused by climate change diminish the usefulness of the idea of citizenship or community in determining rights and obligations? To answer these questions, we will bring together discussions from holist environmental ethics, animal rights, and political philosophy. Our readings will include J. Baird Callicott and Aldo Leopold on the ethical importance of ecological communities, Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka on extending citizenship to nonhuman animals, and Michael Blake on problems of justice in migration policy.

PHIL 566 Seminar in Applied Philosophy: Comparative Political Philosophy (Harris)

This course looks at various forms of the Western Liberal tradition and challenges posed to it by various forms of Confucianism, Mohism,& Legalism. In particular, we look at the relationship between human nature and political theories.

PHIL 501 Seminar Topics in the History of Philosophy: Explanation in Early Modern Natural Philosophy (Romagni)

This course will focus on standards for natural philosophical explanation in the 17th century. We will discuss issues such as the 'mathematization' of nature, the role of experiment, the rise of various mechanistic frameworks, the proliferation of new tools for generating and assessing explanation, and the extent to which the conception of explanation in this period changed relative to earlier centuries. We will look at works by Descartes, Galileo, Mersenne, and Kepler, among others.

PHIL 535: Seminar in Metaphysics (Hamid)

What is the nature of reality, consciousness, and value (i.e., goodness) in the cosmos?

How do personal consciousness and action interact with cosmic reality? Put another way: What is truth? Metaphysics involves the struggle to discover and to articulate, in an intelligible and coherent manner, a system of general principles that governs the development of reality, consciousness, and value; and reveals their classification in relation to the general forms of human experience.

What does it mean to be human? What are the fundamental forms of human experience, of consciousness and action? Metaphysics studies the movement of consciousness within each level of experience, and the transcendence of consciousness from each lower level to the higher. Metaphysics seeks a common roadmap through which each person may objectively seek answers to the above and related questions, with a view to thereby contextualize and guide one’s actions in the world at large.

How is metaphysics related to my field of study? How is it related to my future research or career? Metaphysics is relevant to virtually every domain of human inquiry. This includes the liberal arts, the sciences, and business. The enterprise of metaphysics aims to articulate a science of wisdom that ties together the foundations of the various domains and paths of scientific and other human inquiry. In the words of Erwin Schrödinger, the famous scientist:

The isolated knowledge obtained by a group of specialists in a narrow field has in itself no value whatsoever, but only in its synthesis with all the rest of knowledge and only inasmuch as it really contributes in this synthesis toward answering the demand: Who are we?

This seminar will work primarily, but not exclusively, within the Western tradition of metaphysical investigation that begins with Heraclitus, Plato, and Aristotle, and which reaches its pinnacle in the systems of Hegel and Whitehead. Consideration will also be given to some global traditions of metaphysics (e.g., Chinese and Islamic).

Metaphysics 535 has no prerequisites and is open to all CSU Graduate students. No previous familiarity with philosophy is assumed. It is also open to advanced or senior undergraduates – with permission of the instructor.

PHIL 547 Seminar in Metaethics (Tropman)

This seminar is a survey graduate course in metaethics. Metaethics asks and tries to answer questions about ethics rather than questions within ethics. Central metaethical questions that we will explore include the following. Can moral claims be true or false, and if so, what makes them true? If moral claims are neither true nor false, what is the function of moral discourse? Is moral truth an objective matter, and if so, in what sense? If there are moral facts, are they natural, and what does it mean to say that morality is natural? How do we know about such moral facts? How does alleged moral knowledge motivate us to act? In this seminar, we will consider a range of possible responses to such questions, focusing especially on those answers offered by the metaethical theories of intuitionism, emotivism, error theory, Cornell moral realism, moral internalism, moral externalism, constructivism, quasi-realism, hybrid theories, and sensibility theory.

PHIL 548 Seminar in Normative Ethical Theory: Ethical Theories and Their Applications (Cafaro)

Consequentialism, deontology, contractarianism and virtue ethics are currently the dominant approaches within philosophical ethics. This seminar will explore debates within and between these theoretical approaches, as well as some of their more influential recent applications. We will also consider anti-theoretical methodologies, such as narrative approaches to ethics. Our goal is a comprehensive and accurate view of the tools available to contemporary ethicists, including their strengths and weaknesses and how different approaches may complement each other. This seminar should prove particularly useful to students considering writing masters theses in ethics or political philosophy, as they plan how best to investigate the particular issues in which they are interested.