Current course(s) (Spring 2024)
Philosophy 430: History of Ancient Philosophy
In this course, we will examine how ancient Greek philosophers approached fundamental questions about knowledge and reality. What is the nature and origin of the world? Did it come to be by chance, intelligence or some other cause? How do the senses and reason contribute to our understanding of the world? Is it possible to be certain about anything at all? What is the connection between language and reality? We will focus on Plato and Aristotle, but we will also study some of their philosophical predecessors, such as Parmenides and Heraclitus, as well as the post-Aristotelian philosopher Epicurus.
Past courses
Classes offered regularly:
Philosophy 241: Introductory Ethics
In this course we will investigate the ethical dimension of human life. What makes an action right or wrong? What obligations do we have to other people or the community and what do we do when these obligations conflict? What makes someone a good or bad person? How do we make ethical judgments and can they be objective? We will examine three historically important theoretical approaches to ethics (virtue ethics, utilitarianism and Kantian ethics), as well as objections that have been raised against each of them.
Philosophy 430: History of Ancient Philosophy
In this course, we will examine how ancient Greek philosophers approached fundamental questions about knowledge and reality. What is the nature and origin of the world? Did it come to be by chance, intelligence or some other cause? How do the senses and reason contribute to our understanding of the world? Is it possible to be certain about anything at all? What is the connection between language and reality? We will focus on Plato and Aristotle, but we will also study some of their philosophical predecessors, such as Parmenides and Heraclitus, as well as the post-Aristotelian philosopher Epicurus.
Other Undergraduate courses:
Philosophy 541: Modern Ethical Theories
This course will cover three main types of ethical theory: virtue ethics, consequentialism, and deontology. We will investigate their historical roots and how they continue to shape contemporary debates in normative ethics. In addition, we will discuss a variety of topics and concerns brought into contemporary ethical discourse by feminist philosophers. Topics include love, friendship, manipulation and deception, the value of anger (both interpersonal and political), disability, what constitutes a meaningful life, how to become a good person, and whether morality should be the primary value that structures one's life.
Philosophy 556: Feminism and Philosophy
Feminism refers to a range of intellectual and social movements that are unified by the aim of ending injustices against women and girls. Within philosophy, feminist thinkers have drawn attention to marginalized perspectives, introduced new topics of inquiry, and challenged the ways in which philosophers have standardly conducted philosophical inquiry. In this course, we will discuss topics in feminism and philosophy, with an emphasis on moral and political philosophy. The course will be organized thematically, but it will contain historical elements, including selections from early feminist thinkers such as Mary Wollstonecraft, John Stuart Mill, and Anna Julia Cooper.
Philosophy 454: Friendship and Justice in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Justice and friendship both have to do with how we to relate other people, but beyond that, they might seem to have little in common. We choose our friends but are always bound by justice. However, ancient philosophers saw these two ideas as tightly intertwined. Aristotle wrote, “if people are friends, they have no need of justice, but if they are just they need friendship in addition; and the justice that is most just seems to belong to friendship.” In this course we will inquire into the nature of justice and friendship, both independently and in relation to one another. Can justice and friendship ever come into conflict, and if so, how? What is the relationship between justice and the law? Does friendship provide a good model for justice? What does justice look like between friends? What are the roles of friendship and justice in a good human life? Readings will be drawn primarily from Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy and literature, including works by Plato, Sophocles, Aristotle, Cicero and Seneca.
Philosophy 549: Pleasure and Morality
What does pleasure have to do with performing morally right actions, being a good person or living a good human life? Are there different kinds of pleasure, and if so, are some morally more valuable than others? Given the centrality of pleasure in our lives -- and its ability to motivate us -- every moral philosopher has something to say about how pleasure relates to morality. For some, pleasure is what makes an action morally right, whereas for others, the desire for pleasure undermines our ability to do the right thing. We will read some of the most influential moral philosophers, including Plato, Hume, Kant and Mill. One central question of the course is how, if at all, disagreements about the value of pleasure are related to disagreements about what pleasure is.
Philosophy 454: Plato's Republic
In this course, we will undertake a comprehensive study of Plato’s Republic. The stated topic of the dialogue is the nature and value of justice; however, the conversation that ensues touches on important questions in every major area of philosophy. What is human nature? How are human beings shaped by culture and education? What is the best political system? What are the most real things, and how can we distinguish between reality and illusion? The Republic challenges us to think about how what we usually consider distinct areas of philosophy are inextricably connected.
Philosophy 454: Socrates and the Examined Life
Socrates had a huge impact on the history of philosophy, despite claiming to lack knowledge and never writing a word. Socrates put forward bold and unpopular views, challenging his contemporaries to engage in rational argument, rather than following unreflective opinion about how to live. He also developed a powerful method of examination, which enables non-experts to evaluate views of those who claim to have knowledge. Socrates approached philosophy as much more than an intellectual pastime: for him philosophical examination was the most important activity one could engage in, and he refused to give it up, even in the face of death. We will focus on the famous portrayal of Socrates in Plato’s dialogues, but we will also compare the way in which he is portrayed in the dialogues of Xenophon and a play by the comic poet Aristophanes, in order to get the best possible picture of his philosophical commitments and way of life.
Philosophy 104: Homer and Plato
Plato and Homer, two of the most influential figures from the Ancient Greek world, tackled foundational questions about human life and values. Plato admired Homer, but also frequently criticized both the ethical ideals celebrated in the Homeric epics and the poetic medium in which they are set forth.
In this course, we will read Homer alongside Plato in order to think about the value of literature and different models for a good human life. Is literature good for us? If so, how? Is it dangerous to read literature that puts forward a bad ethical model? What value, if any, do myths have in helping us to understand the world? What is it to be courageous, and how do we understand courage within and outside of war? What role does knowledge or wisdom have in living a good life?
Philosophy 104: Facing Death
Death is something that we will all inevitably face, and yet it is not obvious what death is and what attitude it is appropriate to have towards it. In this class, we will examine the topic of death by reading philosophical texts throughout the history of philosophy, with special emphasis on the ancient world, alongside modern reflections on death in philosophy and literature. Philosophical questions will include: Is death always bad, and if so, what makes it bad? Is it rational to fear death? Would immortality be preferable? Is there such a thing as the afterlife, or is death the end of our existence? Can things that happen after we die affect us? For example, does it make a difference if we are remembered? Does death give meaning to life or rob it of meaning?
Philosophy 454: Plato on Pleasure and Desire
What types of pleasure and desire are there? What is the relationship between pleasure and the good? What happens when desires conflict, and what does this tell us about the nature of human motivation and the unity of the individual who undergoes such conflict? How do health and disease affect what a subject desires and enjoys? What about virtue and vice? Are some pleasures and desires more valuable or beneficial than others, and if so, is there such a thing as expert knowledge concerning them? In this seminar, we will explore these and related questions in Plato's Gorgias, Symposium, Republic, Phaedrus, Timaeus, and Philebus.
Graduate seminars:
Philosophy 830: Plato's Philebus
In this seminar, we will investigate the causes and processes of moral corruption in Plato’s dialogues. Scholars often form a picture of Plato’s ethics and moral psychology primarily through examining his conception of virtue and moral education. We will take a different approach, using vice and moral corruption as starting points for understanding these important areas of Platonic thought. We will read selections from several of Plato’s longest and most philosophically rich dialogues, including the Gorgias, Protagoras, Republic, Timaeus, and Laws. These dialogues offer a wide variety of views about the causes of moral corruption, ranging from a bad upbringing or the influence of Sophists (a mysterious and fascinating group of intellectuals represented by Gorgias and Protagoras), to bodily causes, including everything from a poor diet and exercise regime to physical illness. We will supplement our reading of Plato’s works with fragmentary writings from some of the very sophists that appear in his dialogues.
Philosophy 830: Plato's Philebus
Plato’s Philebus is the most important Platonic dialogue that contemporary philosophers have never heard of. It is one of the six dialogues we can confidently date to late in Plato’s life, and so it represents Plato’s mature views in metaphysics, moral psychology, ethics and philosophical methodology, among other areas. The Philebus had a large influence on Aristotle, for example on his views about happiness and pleasure in the Nicomachean Ethics and his notion of “imagination” (phantasia) in the De Anima. The dialogue is enjoying a resurgence of interest among Plato scholars, and a collection of 15 new essays has recently been published (Plato’s Philebus, A Philosophical Discussion, Oxford 2019).
Framed as a debate between Socrates and a hedonist about whether knowledge or pleasure is responsible for the good human life, the dialogue contains very little of what one would normally consider ethical discussion. Socrates describes a method for philosophical inquiry known as “collection and division,” which is distinctive of the late dialogues. The dialogue also contains a unique ontology in which forms have no obvious place. The analysis of pleasure and its relationship with perception, desire and judgment is Platonic moral psychology at its finest. Socrates also presents a unified account of knowledge, including technical knowledge and experience, which significantly complicates the sharp distinctions between better and worse epistemic powers we find in other dialogues.
In this seminar, we will read the Philebus, along with recent scholarship on the dialogue and short supplementary passages from other Platonic dialogues, including the Protagoras, Gorgias, Republic, Timaeus and Sophist. Depending on interest, we will devote the final few weeks of the course to Aristotle’s reception of the Philebus, especially in the Nicomachean Ethics.
Philosophy 830: Plato's Republic
In this course, we will undertake a comprehensive study of Plato’s Republic, one of his most ambitious dialogues. The central question of the dialogue is “what is the nature and value of justice?” and certainly part of the interest of the dialogue is the account of justice. However, Plato also provides some of his most influential accounts of knowledge, human psychology, the nature of different political regimes, as well as his famous theory of forms. The Republic reveals how Plato’s views in what we usually consider distinct areas of philosophy (e.g. metaphysics, epistemology and ethics) are inextricably connected. We will work through the text sequentially, so we can think about each part of this complex whole, while at the same time thinking about the overall structure of the dialogue.
Philosophy 830: Pleasure in Ancient Greek Philosophy
In this course we will study the nature and value of pleasure in Ancient Greek philosophy. Focusing on treatments of pleasure in Plato, Aristotle and the Stoic and Epicurean schools, we will explore broader questions about the connection between the soul and the body, as well as the relationship between sense perception and other forms of cognition. We will pay special attention to distinctions between different types of pleasure. What type of psychological phenomenon is pleasure? Do those pleasures that require the body differ fundamentally from those pleasures that belong to the soul alone? Do pleasures differ in their very nature, or only in their source or object? Do pleasures necessarily have objects? Is there an intrinsic difference between good and bad pleasures, or does pleasure get its value from something external, such as its object or the condition of the subject? Is it possible to give a unified account of pleasure at all, or is pleasure essentially heterogeneous? We will end the course by comparing a few of the most prominent contemporary treatments of pleasure in philosophy of mind and ethics.
Philosophy 830: Plato's Moral Psychology
In this course we will study the nature and development of Plato's moral psychology. Topics include the structure of the soul, pleasure, pain, desire, the possibility of psychic conflict, moral character, and the immortality of the soul. What is the motivation for the division of the soul in the Republic? What is the relationship between the soul and the body? How do human souls differ from those of gods and other animals? What does the nature of the soul imply about the possibility of virtue and happiness? Primary readings will be drawn from Plato's Phaedo, Gorgias, Republic, Phaedrus, Timaeus, Philebus and Laws.