Courses - Spring 2026
PHIL100
Introduction to Philosophy
An introduction to the literature, problems, and methods of philosophy either through a study of some of the main figures in philosophic thought or through an examination of some of the central and recurring problems of philosophy.
PHIL140
Contemporary Moral Issues
The uses of philosophical analysis in thinking clearly about such widely debated moral issues as abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, pornography, reverse discrimination, the death penalty, business ethics, sexual equality, and economic justice.
PHIL202
Know Thyself: Wisdom Through Cognitive Science
Credit only granted for: PHIL209N or PHIL202.
Formerly: PHIL209N.
How do we improve our decision making? Cognitive science demonstrates that self-knowledge isn't as easy as we think, and that there are numerous biases and fallacies that impact our decision-making in ways that are hard for us to be aware of. In this course you will learn what some of these are and how they have been discovered, and you will explore potential strategies for avoiding these fallacies and for making wiser choices.
PHIL203
Credit only granted for: PHIL209J or PHIL203.
Formerly: PHIL209J.
Virtually everyone thinks it's permissible to kill people only in special circumstances. But why is killing usually wrong? Is it ever acceptable to kill an innocent human being intentionally? This course raises these and related questions and examines cases such as terrorism, suicide, abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty, war. Except for a brief discussion of animals, all the controversies considered deal with killing and causing death to human beings.
PHIL205
Credit only granted for: PHIL205, PHIL209G, or HONR229E.
Formerly: HONR229E.
Things happen routinely in sports that would seem morally unacceptable in other context: violence between the participants, attempts to trick the referee, fans hoping that some players would do embarrassingly badly, spectators feeling anger towards whole nations. Nonetheless, all of this may seem reasonable and even justifiable within a sporting context. This course will investigate the ethical structure of sports, and what it tells us about the ethics of everyday life. Philosophy will provide the primary disciplinary context, but we will also think about sociological, legal and anthropological perspectives on sports. Issues will include the nature of sportsmanship, what types of violence in sports are acceptable, drug use in sports, what it means to be a fan (for example, asking why loyalty to your team is valuable) and how our view of sports interacts with our view of nations. By the end of the course you should have gained familiarity with a variety of ethical concepts and a sensitivity to the ethical issues in sports. You should also find that by thinking about morality in the context of sports, you will look at larger ethical issues in new ways.
PHIL211
AI & ETHICS
Credit only granted for: PHIL209D or PHIL211.
Formerly: PHIL209D.
An introduction to a major subfield of contemporary Philosophy, namely applied ethics, and the experience of using some major tools in the practice of philosophy more generally, namely, the construction and formal evaluation of arguments, conceptual analysis, the use of thought experiments, and clear, direct and persuasive writing. Learning how to execute the latter will involve an intense iterative process. The substantive focus of the course will be the ethical evaluation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in some of its current and potentially future incarnations. We'll examine algorithmic opacity, algorithmic bias and decision-making, autonomous weapons systems, human-robot interaction, and artificial moral agents, in order to uncover what, if any, ethical issues they give rise to.
PHIL220
Credit only granted for: PHIL209A or PHIL220.
Formerly: PHIL209A.
Bioethicists formulate ethical guidelines. They answer questions such as: When life-saving health resources are scarce, who should get them? Should we increase supply of one such resource, kidneys, by buying them from living "donors"? If drug trials in developing countries benefit patients who consent to participate, are the trials ethical, even if the same research would be forbidden in the US? If a sick person aims to hasten her death, how, if at all, might her doctor permissibly help her? In this course, students construct and defend ethical rules in four domains: research ethics, allocation of scarce resources, markets in organs, and physician-assisted dying.
PHIL245
Political and Social Philosophy I
A critical examination of such classical political theories as those of Plato, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Mill, Marx, and such contemporary theories as those of Hayek, Rawls, and recent Marxist thinkers.
PHIL271
Symbolic Logic
Recommended: PHIL170.
This course provides students with a thorough treatment of the basic concepts and techniques of modern symbolic logic, through classical first-order logic with identity. We will concentrate on the construction of natural deduction proofs and on the evaluation of logical statements in semantic models. Along the way, we will study some of the concepts from set theory (sets, functions, relations) used in the definition of semantic models for logical systems. We may also introduce some alternative, or non-classical logics. Although the subject of symbolic logic was developed by mathematicians and philosophers for their own special purposes (which we will discuss), logical concepts and techniques have found applications in a variety of disciplines, including computer science, economics, law, linguistics, and psychology. We may also consider some of these applications.
PHIL308F
Studies in Contemporary Philosophy; . Concepts of AI
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Additional Information: This course is not suitable for students who have taken or plan to take CMSC421 (or a similar AI course), as there will be significant overlap in content.
This course offers an introduction to the fundamental principles and tools of artificial intelligence, designed to be accessible and relevant to students from the humanities and other non-technical disciplines. The course focuses on three key areas: search, probabilistic methods, and reinforcement learning, with possible additional topics including logical agents and planning.
This course offers an introduction to the fundamental principles and tools of artificial intelligence, designed to be accessible and relevant to students from the humanities and other non-technical disciplines. The course focuses on three key areas: search, probabilistic methods, and reinforcement learning, with possible additional topics including logical agents and planning.
PHIL318G
Studies in Epistemology/Metaphysics
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
PHIL320
Knowing Oneself and Knowing the World: Early Modern Philosophy from Descartes to Kant
Prerequisite: 6 credits in PHIL courses; or permission of instructor.
A study of major philosophical issues of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries through an examination of such philosophers as Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Cavendish, Locke, Berkeley, Hume and Kant
PHIL328J
Studies in the History of Philosophy
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
An introduction to modern Jewish philosophy, focusing in particular on the efforts of modern Jewish philosophers to reconceptualize their religious tradition along the lines of modern philosophy. Philosophers to be studied in this course include Baruch Spinoza, Moses Mendelssohn, Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, Hannah Arendt, Leo Strauss, and Emmanuel Levinas.
Cross-listed with JWST419F and JWST419F. Credit granted only for PHIL328J, JWST619F, or JWST419F.
Cross-listed with JWST419F and JWST419F. Credit granted only for PHIL328J, JWST619F, or JWST419F.
PHIL338C
Studies in Value Theory; Sexual Ethics
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
PHIL360
Philosophy of Language
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: LING311; or 2 courses in PHIL and (PHIL170 or PHIL370); or permission of ARHU-Philosophy department.
Cross-listed with: LING350.
Credit only granted for: LING350 or PHIL360.
The nature and function of language and other forms of symbolism from a philosophical perspective.
PHIL362
Theory of Knowledge
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: 6 credits in PHIL courses; and PHIL170.
Formerly: PHIL462.
Some central topics in the theory of knowledge, such as perception, memory, knowledge, and belief, skepticism, other minds, truth, and the problems of induction.
PHIL366
Philosophy of Mind
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: 6 credits in PHIL courses.
An introduction to core issues in the philosophy of mind, focusing especially on the basic metaphysical question of dualism versus physicalism.
PHIL386
Experiential Learning
Credits:
3 - 6
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F
Restriction: Permission of ARHU-Philosophy department; and junior standing or higher.
Consult Director of Undergraduate Studies: C. Manekin. Prerequisites: 12 credit hours of philosophy and 3.0 GPA. Carries no credit toward philosophy major.
PHIL408J
Topics in Contemporary Philosophy; The Ethics of Migration: Borders, Immigrants, and Emigrants
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
PHIL408M
Topics in Contemporary Philosophy; The Ethics of Migration: Borders, Immigrants, and Emigrants
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
PHIL408P
Topics in Contemporary Philosophy; Philosophy of Psychiatry
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
PHIL409J
Advanced Studies in Contemporary Philosophy; . Social Ontology
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
PHIL414
The Philosophy of Aristotle
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: 6 credits in PHIL courses.
A critical study of selected portions of Aristotle's writings.
PHIL428D
Topics in the History of Philosophy; . Political Realism
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
PHIL428J
Topics in the History of Philosophy; Kantian Ethics
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
PHIL438K
Topics in Value Theory; . Philosophical Anarchism
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
PHIL438V
Topics in Value Theory; . The Theory of Voting
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
PHIL443
Moral Psychology
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite: 2 courses in PHIL.
Recommended: PHIL341 is strongly recommended for background on the historical authors that the readings make reference to.
Credit only granted for: PHIL408P or PHIL443.
Formerly: PHIL408P.
Philosophers often stress reasoning as the appropriate source for practical and moral action. Would a realistic view of human psychology undermine this assumption? This course will examine recent philosophical and empirical work on the relevance of emotion and/or intuition to rationality, moral worth, and moral judgment.
PHIL470
Logical Theory II: Incompleteness and Undecidability
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F
Prerequisite: PHIL370; or permission of instructor.
Introduces the formal theory of computation, and then presents the the central limitative results of modern first-order logic: Church's undecidability theorem and Godel's first and second incompleteness theorems. The primary focus of the course is a thorough technical study of these fundamental results, but we will also discuss some of the philosophical issues they raise. Further topics may include second-order logic.
PHIL478
Topics in Philosophical Logic
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F
PHIL498F
Topical Investigations; Topical Investigation
Credits:
1 - 3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite:Two courses in philosophy or permission of the department.
PHIL498G
Topical Investigations; Topical Investigation
Credits:
1 - 3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Prerequisite:Two courses in philosophy or permission of the department.
PHIL640
Value Theory
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud, S-F
A basic course in value theory for beginning graduate students, covering a number of topics in depth, to provide a springboard for further study and research in the area.
PHIL788G
Research in Philosophy; Research in Philosophy
Credits:
1 - 6
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
PHIL788I
Research in Philosophy; Research in Philosophy
Credits:
1 - 6
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
PHIL799
Master's Thesis Research; Masters Thesis Research
Credits:
1 - 6
Grad Meth:
S-F
PHIL808L
Seminar in the Problems of Philosophy
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud, S-F
PHIL808M
Seminar in the Problems of Philosophy; Topics in Metaphysics
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud, S-F
Prerequisite: open to graduate students in philosophy or to those who receive permission from the instructor. Permission will only be given to students with substantial philosophical background.
In this seminar, we are going to read a selection of the nascent philosophical (and philosophy-adjacent) literature on large language models, with an eye to how research in philosophy interfaces with it. Our focus will be on topics pertaining to language, cognition, rationality, explanation, intentionality, and learning. The seminar willbe articulated in a small number of units (3-5). Each unit will havea gateway philosophical reading (that does not have to be recent) to frame discussion. This will be followed by in-depth discussion of two or more cutting-edge articles.
In this seminar, we are going to read a selection of the nascent philosophical (and philosophy-adjacent) literature on large language models, with an eye to how research in philosophy interfaces with it. Our focus will be on topics pertaining to language, cognition, rationality, explanation, intentionality, and learning. The seminar willbe articulated in a small number of units (3-5). Each unit will havea gateway philosophical reading (that does not have to be recent) to frame discussion. This will be followed by in-depth discussion of two or more cutting-edge articles.
PHIL828C
Seminar in the History of Philosophy
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud, S-F
PHIL888
Professional Mentoring for Doctoral Students
Credits:
1 - 3
Grad Meth:
S-F
PHIL889
Pedagogical Mentoring for Doctoral Students
Credits:
1 - 3
Grad Meth:
S-F
PHIL898
Pre-Candidacy Research
Credits:
1 - 8
Grad Meth:
Reg
PHIL899
Doctoral Dissertation Research; Doctoral Dissertation Research
Credits:
6
Grad Meth:
S-F
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