Knowledge in Society (lower-division lecture course)
How should you respond when someone disagrees with you? How do you know whom to believe? Do you have an obligation to believe your friends or loved ones? Are women and people of color better positioned to understand misogyny or racism? Throughout the course, we will focus on learning to identify the main claim of a philosophical text and to reconstruct philosophical arguments accurately and concisely.
Science and Pseudoscience (lower-division lecture course)
Every day, we confront pseudoscience and misinformation. In this course, we will cover: (i) what distinguishes science from pseudoscience? (ii) how can a layperson identify a genuine expert? and (iii) how does misinformation spread? At the end of the semester, you will develop a blog post, infographic, or short form video designed to inform a non-philosopher of your proposed answers to these questions.
Philosophy of Language (upper-division course)
We will study two aspects of philosophy of language in depth: how can you convey information with words, such as telling your friend the time? How can you do things with words, such as get married or make a promise? We will apply what we’ve learned to study ethical and political aspects of language use, such as dog whistles and consent.
Virtue Epistemology (upper-division course)
You might have been told you should be open-minded, you should be curious, or you should “think for yourself.” Each of these traits is an intellectual virtue. Virtue epistemology is the study of what kind of thinker you ought to be and how your intellectual faculties can function well. We will examine virtue-based approaches to defining knowledge as well as virtue epistemologists’ attempts to understand epistemic value. We will close by examining particular intellectual virtues: open-mindedness, curiosity, and intellectual autonomy.
Trust and Rationality (seminar)
I might trust a friend to pick me up at the airport on time. You might trust your friend that the store will be open at noon. Trusting another person involves relying on them in a special way. What does this reliance involve, and why is it hard to capture using traditional accounts of rationality? In this course we will survey different approaches to trust and compare accounts in the practical and the epistemic domain. Can we find one unified account of trust, or are there many kinds of trust? We will read authors such as Annette Baier, Judith Baker, Richard Holton, and Karen Jones.
Knowledge and Its Limits (Summer 2025)
Philosophy of Language (Seth Yalcin; Fall 2025)
Theory of Knowledge (Snow Zhang; Spring 2025)
Metaphysics (Verónica Gómez Sánchez; Fall 2024)
Philosophical Methods (Shamik Dasgupta; Spring 2024, Fall 2022; Geoffrey Lee; Spring 2022)
Philosophy of Science (Ezra Rubenstein; Fall 2023)
Philosophy of AI (Josh Beatty; Summer 2023)
Social Choice Theory (Wesley Holliday; Spring 2023)
Philosophy of Mind (James Blackmon; Summer 2022)
Introductory Logic (Daniel Warren; Fall 2021)
Introductory Ethics (Paula Gottlieb; Spring 2020)
Contemporary Moral Issues (Stephanie Sheintul; Fall 2019)