Course Descriptions, Spring 2008

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Click here for a complete list of undergraduate philosophy offerings.

PHI 107 - Theories of Knowledge & Reality

17 Separate Sections

Philosophy 107 is an introductory course in philosophy. Though we will not address all major fields within philosophy, we will be addressing four important sets of questions, which will give students a taste of what philosophical thinking is all about. The four areas we will be studying are:

(i) The Existence of God: What arguments can be given to demonstrate his existence or to demonstrate his non-existence? We will critically evaluate these arguments through the use of logical and conceptual analysis, which are traditional philosophical methods of critical appraisal.

(ii) The Mind-Body Problem: Is there a distinction to be made between minds and brains? Do minds exist? What types of relations hold between minds and bodies? Are we simply physical organisms without a mind or a soul (i.e. brains with chemical and electrical operations fully explained by physical laws)?

(iii) Knowledge and Skepticism: What are the conditions that must be met for a belief to count as knowledge? Can these conditions be met? What justifies our knowledge claims about (a) the existence of the external world, (b) about cause and effect relations and (c) about the existence of other minds?

(iv) Free Will and Determinism: Do we have free will or is our behavior determined by forces we do not control? Can we have free will and be determined? What does it mean to have free will or to be determined?

Our study of the four areas mentioned above will focus on metaphysical and epistemological questions; but, if time allows, we may be able to discuss other related fields (e.g. Are we morally responsible for our acts if we do not have free will and are determined to behave in certain ways?).

PHI 171 - Critical Thinking

Instructor: Mark Heller
TTH - 11:00 - 11:55

This course is an introduction to thinking clearly in a complicated and deceptive world. We will examine such issues as • How should we make a decision when we lack sufficient information • What counts as a good explanation • When is a correlation evidence of causation • What tricks are used by politicians and advertisers • When do we let our desires and expectations mislead us about our evidence • What is the difference between science and pseudo-science • How can we be misled by statistics

PHI 172 - Making Decisions

Instructor: Samuel Gorovitz
MW - 9:30 - 10:25

This course has an objective at once simple and of profound importance. We consider the question: what is the difference between a decision made well and a decision made badly? The readings are from many different domains, including cognitive psychology, management, religion, literature, and others as well as philosophy. There will be some tests, short papers, a group project, and a final examination. Active participation in discussion sections is also required. We begin with a focus on small questions: how to deal with the choices on a menu, or the movie listings, or a used car lot. We soon confront more basic matters: how to think about choosing a major, a career, a spouse. Finally, we ask the most fundamentally philosophical question: what sort of life ought one aspire to lead, and how will it be shaped by one's approach to making decisions? At this point we have moved beyond the question of how to increase the likelihood that we will achieve our goals; we are asking what goals are most worth pursuing.

PHI 191 - Ethics and Value Theory

Instructor: Laurence Thomas
TTH - 12:30 - 1:25

The course takes up a number of topical social issues such as abortion, homosexuality, and friendship. The moral theories of Kant and Bishop Butler are also discussed. The course aims to get members of the class to think critically about moral issues. The class is conducted in an engaging fashion with all students being invited to participate. Course requirements include: the best 3 out of 5 quizzes; a six-page essay; and a final examination.

PHI 209 - Intro. to Moral Philosophy (Honors)

Instructor: Ben Bradley
TTh - 12:30 - 1:50

We will discuss such questions as: Is morality “objective” or “subjective”? What does happiness consist of? What makes an action morally right? We may also discuss some controversial ethical topics, such as abortion, cloning, animal rights or poverty relief.

PHI 251 - Logic

Instructor: Thomas McKay
MW - 2:15 - 3:10

We would like to be able to say when we have good reasons for accepting a conclusion. In PHI 251 we undertake a systematic study to develop an understanding of the standards for deductive reasoning: this is the study of valid argument. In developing this understanding, we learn how to distinguish valid arguments from invalid ones, and we learn how to show that an argument is valid (if it is) and how to show that an argument is invalid (if it is invalid). In looking at the expression of arguments, we examine two general types of structure: structures that are distinguished by the way that compound sentences and their constituents are related in arguments, and structures that depend on the features of both compound sentences and quantifier words (like 'all' and 'some'). We connect linguistic structure with validity of arguments and see how the study of linguistic structure is a foundation for recognizing valid arguments and for showing that they are valid. In addition to validity, we will study a number of related concepts (such as inconsistency, logical equivalence, and logical truth). This course develops a student's abilities of analysis and proof. In particular, a student should be able to determine whether a type of argument is valid or invalid and then show that it is valid or that it is invalid. Students will develop a much finer ability for abstraction, the ability to see what is in common among concrete examples that differ in subject matter. In addition, students should learn a great deal about what is needed for showing something to someone else.

PHI 252 - Logic and Language

Instructor: Mark Brown
TTh - 3:30 - 4:50

This course will explore how the logical system introduced in PHI 251 can be adapted and extended so that it can be used to explore problems in other areas, such as: linguistics, mathematics, computer science, and philosophy. A major theme of the course will be the relationship between natural languages (e.g. English), formal languages (e.g. logic) and computer languages (e.g. ProLog). Another major theme will be the meaning of language - exploring how pieces of language can be meaningful.

PHI 313 - British Philosophy

Instructor: Ernesto Garcia
TTH - 12:30 - 1:50

This course focuses on the three main British empiricists: Locke, Berkeley and Hume. We will discuss two main topics. First, we will look at the relevant historical background, in particular (a) scholasticism (Aquinas), (b) rationalism (Descartes), and (c) the broader modern scientific revolution in terms of the so-called new “Mechanical Philosophy” (Galileo/Bacon). Second, we will focus on the various metaphysical and epistemological views of Locke, Berkeley, and Hume, including their views about substance, personal identity, skepticism, free will, God, and causality.

PHI 317/PSC 373 - Social Contract Tradition

Insructor: John Robertson
MW - 12:45 - 2:05

Text: Modern Political Thought, ed. D Wootton, Hackett. We will be reading the political theorists of the early mordern social contract tradition and their critics: the main contractualist writers are Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau. The critics will include Burke and Hume. Primary attention will be given to the nature of the idea that political society can be understood as based on some agreement or contract. This thought has deep implications for the ideas of political legitimacy, of the limits of state power against the individual, and of human rights.

PHI 379/PSC/JSP 379 - Slavery & the Holocaust

Instructor: Laurence Thomas
TTH - 5:00 - 6:20

For many, if only unwittingly, the issue between these two events is: Who suffered more? Which event was worse than the other? Indeed, take themselves to have a satisfactory answer to these two questions. I have no interest in either of these questions. In fact, my view is that structurally these two evils were so different that the two questions that seem to animate so many are quite out of place. Neither evil can be subsumed under the other. Support for this comes from the writings of actual victims. Some of the fundamental claims written by Frederick Douglass about American Slavery are simply inapplicable to the Holocaust. Likewise, some of the fundamental claims written by Elie Wiesel about the Holocaust are simply inapplicable to American Slavery. Readings in the course will be divided evenly between writings about American Slavery and writings about the Holocaust. These readings will include writings by Douglass and Wiesel, Genovese (American Slavery), and Lifton (the Holocaust). Work load: to be determined the first day of class. The exception is that I am psychologically constructed to attach enormous weight to attendance. I advice anyone for whom attendance will be a problem not to take this course. For anyone who (barring obviously legitimate excuses such as illness or death in the family) is absent more than three times will automatically receive a grade of “F” for the course.

PHI 391 - History of Ethics

Instructor: Michael Stocker
MW - 2:!5 - 3:35

A study of some of the major ethical works on pleasure and desire, starting with Plato's Philebus, and including works by Hume and Mill.

PHI 401 - Seminar for Philosophy Majors

Instructor: Edward McClennen
Th - 3:30 - 6:15

I want to do something a bit unusual this semester. The topic will be "philosophy and public affairs," but I would like to start by seeing what "issues" you would like to cover. The only constraint that I will place is that a number of the "issues" must be other than the usual ones, e.g., abortion, capital punishment, stem cell research, etc. These might include, for example, dealing with terrorism, the longstanding debate between those who advocate that the government focus on economic growth and those who think that government must adopt measures to reduce the inequalities in society, the responsibility of the government to deal with disastrous situations, and/or the question of whether the United Nations can limit national sovereignty. So you should come to the first class with some ideas about which issues you would like to focus upon. As it is a seminar course, you will be expected to learn how to research a topic, to present a paper sometime during the course sketching your view some one of the issues, and complete a term paper of 15 to 20 pages, double-spaced, that fill out the sketch that you presented in class. There will be no mid-term, and no final. Your grade will be based on class participation and your term paper. Come by my office this semester, if you would like to find out more about how I hope, with your assistance, to structure the course.

PHI 417/PSC 382 - Contemporary Political Philosophy

Instructor: Elizabeth Cohen
TTH - 11:00 - 12:20

This course examines the works of prominent contemporary theorists of politics through the lens of basic issues central to the organization of social and political life. Such issues will include: nationalism, distributive justice, feminism, citizenship, animal rights, and multiculturalism. Readings will include both abstract theoretical works written by authors including Rawls, Nozick and Isaiah Berlin as well as more concrete and immediately relevant political case studies.

PHI 418/618 - Hegel, Marx & Nietzsche

Instructor: Kenneth Baynes
TTH - 2:00 - 3:20

This course will examine the ideas of the three most influential continental philosophers of the 19th century whose ideas continue to shape much contemporary thought. We will begin with Hegel’s charge (in the Phenomenology of Spirit) that Kant’s conception of transcendental philosophy is insufficiently historical and thus “dogmatic”. Marx in turn criticized Hegel’s idealism as an inversion of the relation between thought and reality. Finally, Nietzsche dismissed previous “Germanic philosophy” as a form of asceticism that was ultimately “life-denying”. Each philosopher thus claims to offer an improvement upon his predecessor(s) by reassessing the relationship between philosophy and life (or history, or praxis, or reality). Our more modest aim will be to get a clearer view about the possible connections between philosophy and the world through a reading of these very different thinkers. Attention will be devoted to epistemological, moral, political and religious dimensions of their works.

PHI 422/622 - 20th Century French & German Philosophy

Instructor: Linda Alcoff
MW - 12:45 - 2:05

This course will cover two of the most important philosophical trends in contemporary continental philosophy: Critical Theory (or the Frankfurt School) and Post-structuralism. Both of these are concerned with charting the limitations of the Enlightenment, and especially its core assumptions concerning the nature of the self, agency, human nature, and knowledge. Both also offered innovative analyses of mass culture, the impact of technology on society, the nature of political repression and the possibilities of progress. In brief, they both have argued that the Enlightenment conceptions of subjectivity, knowledge, and human progress were based on faulty metaphysical assumptions, and that if we retain the Enlightenment goals we need to rethink the conceptual and analytical tools necessary to reach them. However, Critical Theory and Post-structuralism sharply disagree with each other over many of these issues. Thus, we will compare their approaches and toward the end of the course look at some of the famous debates between them. Readings will include Adorno, Benjamin, Horkheimer, Marcuse, Althusser, Habermas, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Derrida, Foucault, Deleuze, Guattari, Irigaray, and Lyotard. Course Requirements: There will be three or four take home essays required, spaced throughout the term. I will give out a list of questions based on the readings and class discussions, and you will choose one of these as an essay topic. These essays should be about 5 typed pages each.

PHI 487/687 - History of Epistemology - Contemporary

Instructor: Mark Heller
T - 3:30 - 6:15

Well, whadaya know? Maybe, not so much. Or, at least, maybe not in the way that you thought you knew it. This class will focus on the skeptic’s challenge to our knowledge, taking very seriously the possibility that we might not know much of anything at all. We will consider various attempts to answer the skeptic, and these answers will force us into a deeper understanding of what knowledge is and why we care about it. In the end, the class may end in despair—perhaps it is impossible to have everything we care about. Topics to be covered include skepticism, foundationalism, coherence theory, internalism vs externalism, the Gettier problem, defeasibility theory, reliabilism, evidentialism, and contextualism, with perhaps a few more isms thrown in for good luck. Readings will be primarily from contemporary sources. We will begin with Descartes’s Meditations on First Philosophy from the 17th century, but then we will jump to the 20th and 21st century, reading articles from the last 30 years or so, with several from the last five years. The philosophical study of knowledge is a live discussion, and we will join in.

PHI 500/REL 600 - Thoreau's Religious Philosophy

Instructor: Edward Mooney
M - 12:45 - 3:30

In this class we consider familiar aspects of Thoreau's "Nature Writing", and furthermore, how it might be linked to his political essays (on civil disobedience and abolition). But Thoreau is also a rich resource for understanding themes of death, emotion, and what I'd call 'ecstatic epistemology.' Finally his immersion in what he knew as "Eastern Religions" raises the possibility of his contribution to cross-cultural and inter-religious insight. A full-page flyer with topics and readings is available on-line at http://religion.syr.edu/mooney.html

PHI 510 - Ancient Philosophy - Metaphysics & Epistemology

Instructor: John Robertson
MW - 3:45 - 5:05

Philosophy 510, Spring '08, will cover Ancient Metaphysics and Theories of Knowledge. The readings will cover the following topics: I Parmenides and the problem of ‘thinking what is not’ (through Plato’s Sophist). II The Socratic method and the origin of Plato’s Theory of Forms. III. Aristotle’s metaphysics and his criticisms of Plato’s Theory of Forms. IV Aristotle on nature. Required texts: The Collected Dialogues of Plato, eds. Hamilton and Cairns. Early Greek Philosophy. Jonathan Barnes. A New Aristotle Reader, J. Ackrill Course Requirements: a midterm, a comprehensive final, and one research paper (10-15 pages). Students will be expected to use secondary source material on their research papers. Plato’s theory of forms has suffered the odd fate of becoming quite familiar without having become well understood. The aim of this course is to approach the theory through Plato’s predecessors and through Aristotle’s criticisms of it. This will involve a close reading of many Platonic texts, as well as of some of Aristotle’s more difficult texts. Accordingly the course is not recommended as a first philosophy course. Though not required, some familiarity with contemporary philosophy of language and metaphysics is an asset.

PHI 552 - Modal Logic

Instructor: Mark Brown
TTH - 9:30 - 10:50

Text: Modal Logic, by M.A. Brown Mid-term and final exams will count equally. A term paper will be required for graduate students. Some exercises and short papers will be assigned and will collectively count about as much as one exam (i.e. about a third of the grade, for undergraduates). This course will present a connected series of systems of modal logic - logic making extensive use of the notion of possibilities - as a means to exploring some metaphysical issues. First, we will examine systems to deal with the concepts of necessity and possibility direct. We will see how, by varying the details of our assumptions about the underlying nature of the universe, we get different logical results about what is and what is not necessary. These differences in results can help us pick a theory. More, they can help us recognize different senses of 'necessary', and choose different senses for difference discussions: for example historical necessity, causal necessity, metaphysical necessity, moral necessity, and logical necessity may well all be different. Next we will look at some ways in which formally analogous systems can be reinterpreted as dealing (however crudely) with a variety of topics of philosophical interest: time, action, freedom, responsibility, ability, obligation, knowledge, belief, events, causation, and others. We will also examine some of the subtleties that come into play when we attempt to provide a theory which involves a precise account of several of these notions simultaneously. One sustained theme of the course will be the potential of formal semantics as a means of inducing clarification of our most basic theoretical and philosophical concepts. Another will be the fundamental role that possibilities play in our thinking and theorizing. Still another will be the close relationship between metaphysics and formal semantics.

PHI 555 - Philosophy of Mathematics

Instructor: José Benardete
MWF - 10:35 - 11:30

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Well, every chicken comes from an egg, which in its turn came from a chicken, which then . . . etc., ad infinitum, thereby boggling the mind of every child by the age of ten who is soon urged by his elders and betters to shrug off this puzzle that is now enshrined at the center of philosophy of mathematics. If the new set theory of Cantor was precisely designed to domesticate infinity itself in the science of mathematics, Bertrand Russell's discovery in 1902 of an outright contradiction in the theory would cast a pall over it until the early 1950's when, thanks largely to Kurt Gödel, the so-called iterative or cumulative conception of a set was widely felt to dispel Russell's Paradox. Hardly more than a decade later, however, a technical result of Paul Cohen's regarding the limits of our standard Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory will re-open doubts, anyway regarding the higher reaches of infinity. More recently, these doubts have been extended to put our grasp even merely of t he finite very much in question. Orienting newcomers in this perplexing research area will be the purpose of the course. Midterm and final exams, term paper

PHI 575 - Philosophy of Social Science

Instructor: Kenneth Baynes
TTH - 11:00 - 12:20

This course offers a survey of current debates about the methodology and aims of the social sciences. It will include discussion of such topics as the relationship between the natural and social sciences, the relationship between explanation and understanding, the relationship between the individual and larger social structures and institutions, the problems of rationality and relativism, and alternative approaches to the study of society, social norms and conduct (e.g. behaviorism, interpretivism, functionalism, rational choice theory, sociobiology, feminism, and postmodernism). Course grades will be based on several short papers, and several in-class quizzes and/or homework assignments.

PHI 594/REL 552 - Bioethics

Instructor: Ernest Wallwork
W - 6:45 - 9:45

This course is intended to develop your understanding of and appreciation for the complexities of ethical problems related to the health professions and the contribution of philosophical reflection to moral decision-making in this important area. The course is also intended to provide an opportunity for you to improve your written and verbal communication skills.