Courses for Spring 2016 | Department of Philosophy

	Title	Instructor	Location	Time	Description	Cross Listings	Fulfills	Registration Notes
PHIL 001-601	INTRO TO PHILOSOPHY	NOAH, THOMAS	FISHER-BENNETT HALL 244	M 0600PM-0900PM	Philosophers ask difficult questions about the most basic issues in human life. Does God exist? What is real? What can we know about the world? What does it mean to have a mind? Do I have free will? What should I do? How should we live together? Do our lives have meaning? This course is an introduction to some of these questions and to the methods philosophers have developed for thinking clearly about them.		Hum & Soc Sci Sector (new curriculum only)	HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCE SECTOR
PHIL 002-601	ETHICS	CASTELLITTO, PAUL	MCNEIL BUILDING 285	R 0600PM-0900PM	Ethics is the study of right and wrong behavior. This introductory course will introduce students to major ethical theories, the possible sources of normativity, and specific ethical problems and questions. Topics may include euthanasia, abortion, animal rights, the family, sexuality, bioethics, crime and punishment and war.		Society sector (all classes)	SOCIETY SECTOR
PHIL 003-601	HIST ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY	PARKER, HAROLD	LAB-STRUC OF MATTER 112B	MW 0430PM-0600PM	This course is an introduction to philosopy in the ancient world. While today, philosophy is considered a branch of academic inquiry, many of the ancient Greeks and Romans, however, held a radically different conception of the discipline. For them, philosophy was nothing less than an entire way of life--not just a set of doctrines or arguments, but an orientation and set of lived practices, a conscious and continual reforming of the self in light of some principle or principles. In this course, we will examine the major movements and figures of ancient philosophy. Major figures will include Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, the Epicureans, and the Skeptics.	CLST103601	History & Tradition Sector (all classes)	HISTORY & TRADITION SECTOR
PHIL 004-401	HISTORY OF MODERN PHIL	DETLEFSEN, KAREN	DAVID RITTENHOUSE LAB A2	MW 1100AM-1200PM	This course is an introduction to a few central themes in philosophy in the 17th and 18th centuries, and to some of the crucial thinkers who addressed those themes. Topics to be covered may include, among others, the nature of the human being (including the human mind), the relationship between God and the created world, the nature of freedom, and the relations among natural sciences, philosophy and theology in this rich period of human history.	GSWS006401	History & Tradition Sector (all classes)	SECTION ACTIVITY CO-REQUISITE REQUIRED; HISTORY & TRADITION SECTOR
PHIL 005-401	FORMAL LOGIC I	WEINSTEIN, SCOTT	CLAUDIA COHEN HALL 402	MWF 1000AM-1100AM	This course provides an introduction to some of the fundamental ideas of logic. Topics will include truth functional logic, quantificational logic, and logical decision problems.	LGIC010401 PHIL505401		FORMAL REASONING COURSE; FORMAL REASONING
PHIL 008-401	THE SOCIAL CONTRACT	TAN, KOK-CHOR	CLAUDIA COHEN HALL G17	TR 0900AM-1000AM	This is a critical survey of the history of western modern political philosophy, beginning from the Early Modern period and concluding with the 19th or 20th Century. Our study typically begins with Hobbes and ends with Mill or Rawls. The organizing theme of our inventigation will be the idea of the Social Contract. We will examine different contract theories as well as criticisms and proposed alternatives to the contract idea, such as utilitarianism. Besides the above, examples of authors we will read are Locke, Rousseau, Hume, Mill and Marx.	PPE 008401	Society sector (all classes)	SECTION ACTIVITY CO-REQUISITE REQUIRED; SOCIETY SECTOR
PHIL 010-050	PHILOSOPHY OF CHINESE TRADITIONAL ART				In this course we will explore the philosophical concepts that motivate psychological investigations of cognition and emotion. These two features of human life seem to clash at times, both in terms of how they operate and how they cause our behavior. But what is the relationship between cognition and emotion? We will look at potential answers offered by theorists throughout the history of the discipline of psychology. Topics will include behaviorism, functionalism, embodiment and appraisal theory. Readings will come from historical figures such as Descartes, Darwin, and James, along with plenty of contemporary theorists in both psychology and philosophy.			STUDY ABROAD
PHIL 015-001	LOGIC & FORMAL REASONING	DOMOTOR, ZOLTAN	WILLIAMS HALL 301	MWF 1100AM-1200PM	This course offers an introduction to three major types of formal reasoning: deductive, inductive (probabilistic and statistical), and practical (decision-making). The course will begin with the study of classical sentential and predicate logics. It will move on to elementary probability theory, contemporary statistics, decision theory and game theory.		General Requirement in Formal Reasoning & Analysis	FORMAL REASONING COURSE; FORMAL REASONING
PHIL 029-601	PHILOSOPHY OF SPORT	MEYER, MILTON	CLAUDIA COHEN HALL 337	W 0600PM-0900PM	This is an introductory philosophy course that uses philosophical tools to understand and answer questions that arise in and about sports. The central question to be answered is what constitutes cheating in sports, especially by methods that enhance athletic performance. Other topics may include the nature of competition in sport, the appropriate competitors in sporting events, and the ethics of team loyalty.
PHIL 032-301	CONTEMPORARY PHIL: Beyond Biology: Enhancing the human mind through technology	PURPURA, GARY	CLAUDIA COHEN HALL 237	MW 0330PM-0500PM	Transhumanists seek to extend the capacities of the human mind beyond the bounds of the human brain and body through technology. Indeed, for them, such an extension of human thinking and feeling represents the next big step in human cognitive evolution. In this course, we will examine the philosophical conception of a mind that underpins this movement to extend the human mind beyond human biology. Through an examination of the hypothesis that there can be non-biological thinking and feeling, we consider whether technologies that enable or enhance human mental faculties might one day completely supplant the biological machinery of the human body. We will also consider the moral issues surrounding the creation of transhumans. The questions that we consider in this course will get to the heart of what it means to possess a human mind and indeed to be a human being.			FRESHMAN SEMINAR; FRESHMAN SEMINAR
PHIL 034-601	PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION	STEINBERG, STEPHEN	CLAUDIA COHEN HALL 392	T 0600PM-0900PM	An introductory philosophical examination of questions regarding the nature of religious experiences and beliefs; arguments for and against the existence of God; the problem of evil; the relationships of faith, reason and science, the possibility of religous knowledge, the role of religious communities, etc. Readings from the history of philosophy, 20th century and contemporary analytic philosophy, and the European phenomenological, existential, and hermeneutic traditions.
PHIL 045-601	ANIMAL MINDS	CHANG, SHEREEN	CLAUDIA COHEN HALL 493	MW 0600PM-0730PM	In this course, we will examine philosophical issues in nonhuman animal cognition. We will consider questions such as the following: Do nonhuman animals use concepts? How do we assess different interpretations of their behaviour? What is the role of anthropomorphism in thinking about nonhuman animal cognition? How are intelligence and sociality related?
PHIL 050-601	Indian Philosophy: Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism	PATEL, DEVEN	DAVID RITTENHOUSE LAB 3C4	T 0530PM-0830PM	This course is an introduction to philosophy written in the Islamic world. Our primary focus is the classical period of Islamic thought, spanning roughly 800 to 1200 C.E. We begin with the religious and political context of the early Islamic world out of which emerged some of the lasting intellectural concerns and questions of the Islamic tradition. We then study the works of some of the most important thinkers of the classical period, including al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, al-Ghazali, Ibn Rushd, and Ibn-Tufayl. The readings are (for the most part) in chronological order, but each of the authors is treated thematically. Representative topics include: whether the world is eternal; theories of causation; what it is to know something; the distinction between essence and existence; whether philosophy (or science) and religion are in harmony or conflict; animal ethics.	RELS155601 SAST150601	History & Tradition Sector (all classes)	CROSS CULTURAL ANALYSIS; HISTORY & TRADITION SECTOR; CROSS-CULTURAL ANALYSIS
PHIL 072-301	BIOMEDICAL ETHICS	BERNSTEIN, JUSTIN	FISHER-BENNETT HALL 244	TR 0130PM-0300PM	This course is an introduction to bioethics, focusing on ethical questions arising at the beginning and end of life. Topics will include procreative responsibilities, the question of wrongful life, and prenatal moral status as well as questions of justice related to markets for sperm, eggs and gestation. We will also attend to dilemmas at the end of life, including the authority of advance directives, euthanasia and the allocation of life-saving therapies.		Society sector (all classes)	SOCIETY SECTOR
PHIL 072-401	BIOMEDICAL ETHICS	GIBBONS, SARAH	ANNENBERG SCHOOL 111	MW 1000AM-1100AM	This course is an introduction to bioethics, focusing on ethical questions arising at the beginning and end of life. Topics will include procreative responsibilities, the question of wrongful life, and prenatal moral status as well as questions of justice related to markets for sperm, eggs and gestation. We will also attend to dilemmas at the end of life, including the authority of advance directives, euthanasia and the allocation of life-saving therapies.	HSOC101401 PPE 072401	Society sector (all classes)	SECTION ACTIVITY CO-REQUISITE REQUIRED; SOCIETY SECTOR
PHIL 073-301	TOPICS IN ETHICS: GLOBAL ETHICS	TAN, KOK-CHOR	COLLEGE HALL 217	TR 1030AM-1200PM	This course examines some of the central theoretical and applied questions of ethics. For example, what is the good life? By what measure or principles do we evaluate the rightness and wrongness of actions? How does ethical reasoning help us understand and address real world problems such as world hunger, social injustice, sex and race discrimination, allocation of scare resources and the like. The course can be organized around an applied topic or practical issue such as global ethics, just war, biomedical ethics or environmental ethics.			FRESHMAN SEMINAR; FRESHMAN SEMINAR
PHIL 073-401	TOPICS IN ETHICS: BEING HUMAN	GIBBONS, SARAH	CLAUDIA COHEN HALL 392	MW 0200PM-0330PM	This course examines some of the central theoretical and applied questions of ethics. For example, what is the good life? By what measure or principles do we evaluate the rightness and wrongness of actions? How does ethical reasoning help us understand and address real world problems such as world hunger, social injustice, sex and race discrimination, allocation of scare resources and the like. The course can be organized around an applied topic or practical issue such as global ethics, just war, biomedical ethics or environmental ethics.	ENVS073401 PPE 073401
PHIL 211-401	ANCIENT MORAL PHILOSOPHY: ARISTOTLE'S ETHICS	HAHMANN, ANDREE	CLAUDIA COHEN HALL 392	TR 0130PM-0300PM	The Nicomachean Ethics is considered to be Aristotle's major ethical work, and it is still counted among the most influential ethical texts altogether. This course will focus on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics with a special emphasis on questions that are systematically relevant for problems discussed in contemporary approaches to virtue ethics. These questions concern, for example, the Aristotelian conception of virtue, the scope and nature of practical wisdom, and the relationship between virtue and justice.	CLST211401	Society sector (all classes)	SOCIETY SECTOR
PHIL 223-401	PHIL & VISUAL PERCEPTION: Hallucinations, Illusions and Knowledge	CONNOLLY, KEVIN	FISHER-BENNETT HALL 138	MW 0200PM-0330PM	In this course, we'll use the biology, psychology and phenomenology of vision to explore philosophical questions abaout color, such as these: Color vision helps us get around in our environments, but in what sense is it a window onto reality, if it is? Are colors properties of objects, or are they inherently private, subjective properties of minds? What can non-human forms of color vision teach us about the nature of color, and how should we empirically study color vision? Do we need to see in color to understand it? How do our ordinary ways of talking and thinking about colors relate to the experiences we have in color? How does color vision figure in aesthetic judgment? And to what degree can it be influenced by learning, or by social biases like sexist or racist prejudices?	VLST223401
PHIL 226-401	PHILOSOPHY OF BIOLOGY	WEISBERG, MICHAEL	CLAUDIA COHEN HALL 402	MW 1200PM-0100PM	This course consists of a detailed examination of evolutionary theory and its philosophical foundations. The course begins with a consideration of Darwin's formulation of evolutionary theory and the main influences on Darwin. We will then consider two contemporary presentations of the theory: Richard Dawkins' and Richard Lewontin's. The remainder of the course will deal with a number of foundational issues including adaptation, the units of selections, the evolution of altruism, and the possibility of grounding ethics in evolutionary theory.	PHIL521401 PPE 225401	Nat Sci & Math Sector (new curriculum only)	SECTION ACTIVITY CO-REQUISITE REQUIRED; NATURAL SCIENCE & MATH SECTOR
PHIL 228-401	PHIL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE	KRUT-LANDAU, RAPHAEL	COLLEGE HALL 200	MW 0100PM-0200PM	This course is about the foundations of contemporary social science. It focuses on the nature of social systems, the similarities and differences between social and natural sciences, the construction, analysis, and confirmation of social theories, and the nature of social explanations. Specific topics may include: What are social norms and conventions? What does it mean to have one gender rather than another, or one sexual orientation rather than another? Should social systems be studied quantitatively or qualitatively?	PPE 204401		SECTION ACTIVITY CO-REQUISITE REQUIRED
PHIL 231-050	KANT'S EPISTEMOLOGY AND METAPHYSICS				Two basic assumptions of academic research are that there are truths and we can know them. Epistemology is the study how knowledge, what it is, how it is produced, and how we can have it. Metaphysics, the study of the basic constituents of reality, the study of being as such. In this introduction to metaphysics and epistemology, we will ask hard questions about the nature of reality and knowledge. No philosophy background is required for this course.			SECTION ACTIVITY CO-REQUISITE REQUIRED; STUDY ABROAD
PHIL 231-301	EPISTEMOLOGY: KNOWLEDGE AND REALITY	SINGER, DANIEL	CLAUDIA COHEN HALL 204	TR 1200PM-0130PM	Two basic assumptions of academic research are that there are truths and we can know them. Epistemology is the study how knowledge, what it is, how it is produced, and how we can have it. Metaphysics, the study of the basic constituents of reality, the study of being as such. In this introduction to metaphysics and epistemology, we will ask hard questions about the nature of reality and knowledge. No philosophy background is required for this course.
PHIL 243-050	CENTRAL PROBLEMS IN PHILOSOPHY B				In this class we employ science fiction thought experiments as a means of reflecting on questions like: What is reality? What is the nature of the self and mind? Might you be in a computer simulation (e.g., as in The Matrix)? Is time travel possible? Can your mind survive the death of your brain by uploading? Is time real or is it merely an illusion?			STUDY ABROAD
PHIL 244-050	PHILOSOPHY OF LOGIC AND LANGUAGE				This course will survey several central topics in philosophy of mind, as well as investigating how philosopy of the mind interacts with scientific study of the mind. Among the questions we'll be asking are: What is it to have a mind? What is the relationship between the mind and the brain? Can there be a science of the mind? What can it tell us? What can philosophy contribute to a science of the mind? What is consciousness? What is it to think, to perceive, to act? How are perception, thought, and action related to one another?			SECTION ACTIVITY CO-REQUISITE REQUIRED; STUDY ABROAD
PHIL 247-050	THEORY AND HISTORY OF MARXIST-LENINIST PHILOSOPHY II				Precious few, if any, communist states exist today as Karl Marx would have imagined them. Indeed, almost every part of the 19th-century culture Marx put under his philosophical microscope has in one way or another vanished or been radically transformed: the state, the school, even sex have been fundamentally altered during a long 20th century filled with revolutions of culture. This class asks: is there a future for a philosopher whose political projects seem so precarious--if they have not failed outright-in the face of global capitalism? We will try to answer this question by examining the origins and the implications of Marx's writings, but also his complex legacy, from Lenin through Guevara to Foucault and Zizek. The course will conclude with a consideration of the role of the radical in today's global politics and cultural sphere.		Hum & Soc Sci Sector (new curriculum only)	HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCE SECTOR; STUDY ABROAD
PHIL 249-001	PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION: Democracy and Education in Philadelphia	WILLISON, ROBERT	COLLEGE HALL 217	TR 1200PM-0130PM	The philosophy of education asks questions about the foundational assumptions of our formal institutions for the reproduction of culture. It ranges therefore, from epistemology and philosophy of mind to ethics and political philosophy. For instance: What is the nature of learning and teaching? How is it possible to come to know something we did not know already--and how can we aid others in doing that? How, if at all, should formal institutions of education be concerned with shaping students' moral and civic character? What is the proper relation between educational institutions and the state? We also ask questions more specific to our own time and context. For example: how, in a multicultural state, should we educate students of varied social identities, like race, gender, and religion? What is the relationship between education and justice.			COMMUNICATION WITHIN THE CURRICULUM
PHIL 273-301	ETHICS IN THE PROFESSION: BUSINESS ETHICS	SINDERBRAND, MOLLY	CHEMISTRY BUILDING 119	MW 0330PM-0500PM	This introductory course considers the ethical issues and challenges that arise in the professions. Topics may include Legal Ethics, Business Ethics, Medical Ethics, and Political Ethics. No prior background in Philosohpy or Ethics is presupposed.
PHIL 277-401	JUSTICE, LAW & MORALITY: Philosophy and the Constitution	FREEMAN, SAMUEL	STITELER HALL B26	TR 1200PM-0100PM	The course will focus on the philosophical background to the individual rights protected by the U.S. Constitution, including 1st Amendment freedoms of religion, expression, and associaton; the 14th amendment guarantee of Due Process and the rights of privacy, abortion, assisted suicide, and marriage; the Equal Protection clause and equal political rights and the legitimacy of affirmative action; and the Takings and Contract clauses and their bearing on rights of private property and economic freedoms. In addition to Supreme Court decisions on these issues, we will read works by political philosophers and constitutional theorists, including J.S. Mill, Ronald Dworkin, Cass Sunstein, Martha Nussbaum, Katherine MacKinnon and others.	PPE 277401		SECTION ACTIVITY CO-REQUISITE REQUIRED
PHIL 279-050	POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY				This course will examine contemporary theories of justice, including libertarianism, liberalism, contemporary Marxism and feminism. Examples of topics we will examine are distributive justice, liberty, human rights, republicanism, and global justice. Philosophers we will read include John Rawls, Ronald Dworkin, Robert Nozick, Michael Walzer, Martha Nussbaum, Susan Moller Okin, and G.A. Cohen.			STUDY ABROAD
PHIL 325-050	PHILOSOPHY OF MIND				Topics will vary.			STUDY ABROAD
PHIL 335-050	PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE							STUDY ABROAD
PHIL 359-301	TOPICS THEORETICAL PHIL: Modal Logic & Metaphysics	SPENCER, QUAYSHAWN	CLAUDIA COHEN HALL 493	TR 1030AM-1200PM	This is an undergraduate research seminar covering interdisciplinary research in psychology, philosophy, sociology and behavioral economics related to social norms. Social norms are informal institutions that regulate social life. We will devote particular attention to the following questions: 1. What is a good, operational definition of social norms? 2. Is there a difference between social and moral norms? 3. How can we measure whether a norm exists, and the conditions under which individuals are likely to comply with it? 4. Are behavioral experiments a good tool to answer question 3? 5. How do norms emerge? 6. How are norms abandoned? 7. What is the role of trendsetters in norm dynamics?			MAJORS ONLY
PHIL 372-301	TOPICS IN ETHICS: FOOD AND FAT IN AMERICA	SINGER, DANIEL	CLAUDIA COHEN HALL 493	TR 0300PM-0430PM	This is a special course on topics in ethics. The content of the course will vary from semester to semester, but will focus on issues in applied ethics. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the topics, readings may come from philosophy as well as other fields including sociology, public health, biology, and complex systems research. PHILOSOPHY MAJORS ONLY.			MAJORS ONLY
PHIL 405-301	PHIL OF LANGUAGE: Philosopy of Language	MIRACCHI, LISA	WILLIAMS HALL 438	TR 0300PM-0430PM	This course provides an overview of 20th century analytic philosophy of language. Here are some of the questions we will ask: How do words refer? How do they combine to express thoughts? How do words relate to ocncepts or to thoughts more generally? What do words and sentences mean? How do we use them to communicate with each other? How does word and sentence meaning depend on the contexts in which they are spoken or heard, or on stable features of environments of linguistic speakers? Prerequisites: This course will be most suitable for advanced undergraduates and graduate students in philosophy or linguistics; others need instructor's permission. Familarity with symbolic logic is highly recommended, but not required.
PHIL 414-301	PHIL OF MATH: Philosophy of Mathematics	WEINSTEIN, SCOTT	CLAUDIA COHEN HALL 203	MW 0200PM-0330PM	The course will focus on the development of the foundations and philosophy of mathematics from the late nineteenth-century through the present day. Topics will include logicism, formalism, intuitionism, and the foundations of set theory. Ample consideration will be given to some of the fundamental results of mathematical logic, such as the Godel incompleteness theorems and the independence of the Continuum Hypothesis from Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory, that have had a profound impact on contemporary approaches to the philosophy of mathematics.
PHIL 425-401	PHIL OF SCIENCE	DOMOTOR, ZOLTAN	WILLIAMS HALL 723	MW 0330PM-0500PM	This self-contained course (presupposing no substantive prior background in philosophy nor any extensive knowledge of science) provides an advanced introduction to the central philosophical questions concerning the nature of scientific knowledge and its relation to experience, and the metaphysical assumptions underlying the natural sciences. Topics to be covered include: science versus pseudoscience, laws of nature, causation, determinism and randomness, theories and models in science, scientific explanation, underdetermination of theories by observation and measurement, realism and antirealism, reductionism and intertheory relations, objectivity and value judgments in science, hypothesis testing and confirmation of scientific theories, and classical paradoxes in scientific methodology.	STSC325401
PHIL 430-301	PHILOSOPHY OF MIND	MIRACCHI, LISA	FISHER-BENNETT HALL 222	TR 1030AM-1200PM	This course studies particular topics in contemporary philosophy of mind and cognitive science. Examples include: the nature of consciousness, naturalistic accounts of intentionality, the nature scope of scientific explanation in studying the mind, the intersection of philosophy of mind and epistemology, and theories of agency. Typically, readings include both philosophy and empirical work from relevant sciences. Prerequisites: This course will be most suitable for advanced undergraduates and graduate students in philosophy or related sciences; others need instructor's permission.
PHIL 467-401	TOPICS IN HIST OF PHIL: SCHILLER	HAHMANN, ANDREE	GODDARD LAB 102	TR 1030AM-1200PM	In this course, we will study figures and themes from the 17th through the 18th centuries, an especially fertile period in the history of philosophy. Topics will vary from year to year. Please see individual course descriptions.	GRMN567401
PHIL 479-301	MODERN POLITICAL PHIL: Hobbes, Locke, Mill, Marx, Rawls	FREEMAN, SAMUEL	CLAUDIA COHEN HALL 237	TR 0300PM-0430PM	A survey of several works in modern political philosophy, including Thomas Hobbes's, Leviathan; John Locke's, Second Treatise on Government and Letter Concerning Toleration; David Hume's 'Of the Original Contract' and 'On Justice'; John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism, On Liberty, and The Subjection of Women; excerpts from Karl Marx's Capital and other writings; and John Rawls's A Theory of Justice.
PHIL 489-001	Conflict, Ideology, and Public Discourse	STEINBERG, STEPHEN		CANCELED	Contemporary public discourse -- in politics, in the media, on the Internet, and throughout our culture -- gives expression to intense, sometimes violent, disagreements and conflicts that often frustrate the solution of important public policy questions, curtail productive public deliberation and dialogue, and profoundly challenge our leaders and institutions. This course will deepen our understanding of the role that political and cultural ideologies -- such as liberalism, conservatism, nationalism, totalitarianism, fundamentalism, etc. -- play in these conflicts and the psychology of ideological thinking that makes them so difficult to resolve. We will begin by considering a series of case studies in contemporary political, social and cultural conflict, drawn from contemporary events such as the 2012 political campaigns, the 2011 debt ceiling debate in Congress, nationalist movements around the globe, etc. We will identify and examine the ideologies driving such conflicts, and from these we will draw out the common philosophical characteristics and psychological features of ideological thinking. Throughout, we will seek to understand the deep attraction of ideological commitments and why they tend to push public discourse and behavior to extremes and even violence. Finally, we will consider efforts to reduce or resolve ideological conflicts thorugh strategies of political compromise, dialogue, toleration, and democratic deliberation.			UNDERGRADUATES NEED PERMISSION
PHIL 489-601	Conflict, Ideology, and Public Discourse	STEINBERG, STEPHEN	VAN PELT LIBRARY 402	W 0630PM-0910PM	Contemporary public discourse -- in politics, in the media, on the Internet, and throughout our culture -- gives expression to intense, sometimes violent, disagreements and conflicts that often frustrate the solution of important public policy questions, curtail productive public deliberation and dialogue, and profoundly challenge our leaders and institutions. This course will deepen our understanding of the role that political and cultural ideologies -- such as liberalism, conservatism, nationalism, totalitarianism, fundamentalism, etc. -- play in these conflicts and the psychology of ideological thinking that makes them so difficult to resolve. We will begin by considering a series of case studies in contemporary political, social and cultural conflict, drawn from contemporary events such as the 2012 political campaigns, the 2011 debt ceiling debate in Congress, nationalist movements around the globe, etc. We will identify and examine the ideologies driving such conflicts, and from these we will draw out the common philosophical characteristics and psychological features of ideological thinking. Throughout, we will seek to understand the deep attraction of ideological commitments and why they tend to push public discourse and behavior to extremes and even violence. Finally, we will consider efforts to reduce or resolve ideological conflicts thorugh strategies of political compromise, dialogue, toleration, and democratic deliberation.
PHIL 505-401	FORMAL LOGIC	WEINSTEIN, SCOTT	CLAUDIA COHEN HALL 402	MWF 1000AM-1100AM	This course provides an introduction to some of the fundamental ideas of logic. Topics will include truth functional logic, quantificational logic, and logical decision problems.	LGIC010401 PHIL005401		FORMAL REASONING COURSE; UNDERGRADUATES NEED PERMISSION; FORMAL REASONING
PHIL 521-401	PHILOSOPHY OF BIOLOGY	WEISBERG, MICHAEL	CLAUDIA COHEN HALL 402	MW 1200PM-0100PM	This course consists of a detailed examination of evolutionary theory and its philosophical foundations. The course begins with a consideration of Darwin's formulation of evolutionary theory and the main influences on Darwin. We will then consider two contemporary persentations of the theory: Richard Dawkins' and Richard Lewontin's. The remainder of the course will deal with a number of foundational issues including adaption, the units of selection, the evolution of altruism, and the possibility of grounding ethics in evolutionary theory. UNDERGRADUATES NEED PERMISSION	PHIL226401 PPE 225401		UNDERGRADUATES NEED PERMISSION
PHIL 558-301	TRUTH & CONCEALMENT: Science and Objectivity	SPENCER, QUAYSHAWN	CLAUDIA COHEN HALL 493	TR 0130PM-0300PM	This course is an exploration of traditional philosophical questions concerning objectivity in science. We will start by addressing central questions in feminist philosophy of science, such as what is objective reality and what is objective knowledge? Next, we will explore whether science discovers objective real entities or relations, which is a central topic in the scientific realism debate. We will also explore whether scientific knowledge is objective. We will read mostly 20th and 21st century philosophers of science, such as Goodman, Kuhn, Psillos, and Longino. We will also apply what we learn to at least one case study. UNDERGRADUATES NEED PERMISSION			UNDERGRADUATES NEED PERMISSION
PHIL 576-301	RTNALITY, MORALITY & LAW: RATIONALITY	LORD, ERROL	CLAUDIA COHEN HALL 493	W 0300PM-0600PM	This class will be dedicated to investigating topics related to rationality in its many forms. Potential areas of study are metaethics, epistemology, moral psychology, and the philosophies of mind, language and action. UNDERGRADUATES NEED PERMISSION.			UNDERGRADUATES NEED PERMISSION
PHIL 577-401	Political Authority and Pol Obligation	PERRY, STEPHEN	GOLKIN HALL 238	W 0430PM-0630PM	This seminar will examine leading academic theories of constitutional interpretation, starting with classic texts by (for illustration) Thayer, Wechsler, Ely, Bobbitt, Dworkin, and Scalia, and emphasizing current debates within originalism and between originalists and their critics. While the focus will be on American constitutional interpretation, we will also see how that literature is currently running up against, and possibly contributing to, more "philosophical" or "jurisprudential" accounts of the contents of law. Consistent with the nature of the material, the reading load is likely to be somewhat heavier and more demanding than in the average seminar. Students will be expected to read the assigned material carefully and to participate actively in class discussions; they will have the option of submitting either a single research paper or several shorter papers.	LAW 946401		UNDERGRADUATES NEED PERMISSION
PHIL 601-001	PHILOSOPHY CONSORTIUM	FREEMAN, SAMUEL		TBA TBA-	For graduate students taking courses at other institutions belonging to the Philadelphia area Philosophical Consortium.
PHIL 700-301	DISSERTATION WORKSHOP	FREEMAN, SAMUEL	CLAUDIA COHEN HALL 493	T 0430PM-0630PM	Registration required for all third-year doctoral students. Fourth year students and beyond attend and present their work in the Dissertation Seminar. From time to time, topics pertaining to professional development and dissertation writing will be discussed.			FOR PHD STUDENTS ONLY