Graduate Courses, Spring 2008

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PHI 500 - 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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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PHI 600 - British Empiricists
Instructor: André Gallois
M 3:45 - 6:30

We will be examining the arguments of the Classical Empiricists, including Locke, Berkeley and Hume, on such topics as the theory of ideas, personal identity, natural kinds, scepticism, idealism, and causation. We may also look at Hume’s views on Ethics.

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PHI 618/418 - Hegel, Marx & Nietzschey
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.

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PHI 622/422 - 20th Century French & German Philosophy
Instructor: Linda Alcoff
MW 112:45 - 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.

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PHI 687/487 - Contemporary Epistemology
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.

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PHI 693 - Contemporary Ethics
Instructor: Benjamin Bradley
TTh 9:30 - 10:50

This is a survey of important recent (1903 and later) work in ethical theory, with emphasis on the most recent developments. Some of the course will be spent on normative ethics, and some will be spent on metaethics. A substantial term paper will be required.

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PHI 700 - Philosophy of History
Instructor: Frederick Beiser
Th 7:15 - 10:00

This course will examine some of the classic texts and central problems of a no longer fashionable topic: the philosophy of history. The classic texts we shall read will be Herder=s Another Philosophy of History of Mankind, Kant=s >Ideas for World History with Cosmopolitan Intent=, Hegel=s Reason in History: Lectures on World History, and Nietzsche=s Untimely Meditations, Max Weber=s >Value Freedom in the Social Sciences=, and Collingwood=s Idea of History. In addition to these classical texts, we will also read a variety of shorter more contemporary articles by Hempel, Dray, Walsh and Becker. The central prolems we shall consider: the nature of historical explanation (i.e., whether it is in principle reducible to causal explanation); the possibility of historical objectivity and value-freedom in the social sciences; whether there is (or can be) meaning or purpose to history; and whether history can be a science in any straightforward sense of the term. Amid all this we will consider the meaning, problems and implication of historicism. The course requirements will be three papers and class participation.

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PHI 740.001 - Skolem
Instructor: José Benardete
Th 3:30 - 6:30

In his famous paper "Models and Reality" Hilary Putnam promotes what he characterizes as a "Skolemization of absolutely everything" which undertakes to extend and radicalize Quine's thesis about indeterminacy of reference. In an equally famous paper "Putnam's Paradox" David Lewis credits Putnam's radicalization of Quine with opening the door for Lewis to rebut Putnam, though it is to be feared that few of Lewis's admirers on this issue have fully registered the following concession that Lewis makes midway through his paper. "It is not clear how much indeterminacy might be expected to remain. For instance, what of Quine's famous example [Gavagai]? His rabbit-stages, undetached rabbit parts and rabbit-fusions seem only a little, if any, less eligible than rabbits themselves." In any case, it is no surprise to find Lewis eight years later mentioning Skolem, in his Parts of Clases, only to protest in a fairly Moorean vein, "It's no excuse that there is a philosophical problem about how we grasp the difference between intended and Skolemized interpretations of set theory. We do grasp it. Any philosophy of thought and language that says we can't thereby stands refuted." Surprisingly, however, Lewis failed to indicate how his own vindication of "carving nature at its joints" might help in defusing Skolem's non-intended models. If one, almost inevitable theme of the seminar will be to fill that lacuna, the core theme must be to query under the auspices of Skolem our putative grasp of an omega sequence which may be defined, casually enough, as any sequence of items that consists entirely of a first, second, third, etc. ad infinitum where the natural numbers 1, 2, 3 . . . provide our paradigm. Skolem's famous non-standard models of arithmetic feature omega sequences "beyond" which lie further items that, he insists, the science of mathematics is quite incapable of identifying as being, at best, merely pseudo-numbers. Too spooky to be taken seriously? Well, the great thing these non-standard items have going for them is that no one doubts that the resources of first-order predicate logic with identity, anyway as standardly understood, are insufficient for ruling them out. And it is precisely because first-order logic is widely believed to supply the innermost core of logic itself that Skolem's challenge proves so important. As to reaching beyond first-order logic, there is Stewart Shapiro's appeal to so-called second-order logic, and - most promising of all today - there is the recent development of plural quantification which Tom McKay, in his new book, deploys against Skolem by way of an extended first-order logic. The trick here is to add to the five standard Peano axioms the following sixth. "It is not the case that there are some things all of which are natural numbers such that for an x which is one of them there is also a y which is both (a) one of them and (b) a predecessor of x." Weighing in heavily on the side of Skolem (pace Lewis) are recent papers of Hartry Field in his Truth and the Absence of Fact that urge a content-externalism so extreme that if in fact there is in nature an omega sequence, e.g. consisting of infinitely many moments of time, then we do grasp (the content of) the concept of an omega sequence. Otherwise, not. Assigned text: Field's book Term paper

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PHI 740.002 - Realization and Causation
Instructor: Robert Van Gulick
M 7:15 - 10:00

Recent work on the metaphysics of mind with special focus on the topics of realization physicalism and mental causation.

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PHI 840 - Time, Consciousness & Identity
Instructor: André Gallois
W 3:45 - 6:30

We will be focusing on issues about personal identity, self-consciousness and our awareness of time. In particular, we will be examining questions about first person thought, the contrast between the first and third person perspectives, agency and the unity of consciousness.

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PHI 860 - Emotions, Value & Psychoanalysis
Instructor: Michael Stocker
T 7:15 - 10:00

A study of some intersections of ethics, moral psychology, and philosophical psychology -- with a focus on emotions especially intellectual emotions. The topics include the role of emotions in judicial and legal practice and reasoning; responsibility for beliefs, thoughts, and emotions; the value and disvalue of emotions, especially for intellectual activity. Readings from Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, recent philosophy, contemporary psychology, psychoanalysis.

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PHI 880 - Equality
Instructor: Edward McClennen
W 7:15 - 10:00

The topic this semester will be on equality. There are a number of logically distinct questions that can be raised regarding equality. For, example, (1) one can ask, "equality of what?" (2) How is equality, or the lack thereof, to be measured? (3) At a more substantive level, is it true that mandating more equality in society means that one must settle for less economic growth. Some of what needs to be explored here is technical (e.g., measures of inequality) and some is distinctively philosophical. I want to structure the course so that we deal with something like the spectrum of questions raised above. Answering these questions will require a cross disciplinary approach, that looks primarily at the works of economists (e.g. Okun, Sen), and those of philosophers (e.g., Rawls, Dworkin, Arneson, Anderson). Course requirements: a term paper of approximately 20 or so double-spaced pages, and sustained participation in seminar discussions.

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