We will examine these (and other questions) in the context of the great philosophical revolution at the beginning of the last century: the linguistic turn and the birth of analytic philosophy. We will examine these (and other questions) in the context of the great philosophical revolution at the beginning of the last century: the linguistic turn and the birth of analytic philosophy. In addressing these substantive questions, we will also consider which methodological approach--if a single one can be privileged--we should adopt for examining emotions. They help us ask: What is freedom? Last modified on Wed 26 Oct 2016 19.14 EDT. Science is only "true" for some people, agnosticism is the only alternative to foolish superstition, and moral relativism and, consequently, nihilism are obvious. Here are a few: In the first part of this course, we are going to focus on what this following-from business amounts to, and ask whether there is a special sense of following-from that characterizes logic? In this way the goal of the course is significantly different from that of Logic and Language (PHIL 203). Despite these rather grim pronouncements, tragic drama has continued to fascinate and educate generations. They have three adult children: Shevaun, Jessica, and Cameron. Dubois, The Talented Tenth, Frederick Rudolph, Williams College 1793-1993: Three Eras, Three Cultures, Michael S. Roth, Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters, Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind, Martha Nussbaum, Cultivating Humanity, William Deresiewicz, Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure, and Anthony T. Kronman, The Assault on American Excellence. In this course we will investigate the the broad topics of consciousness and thought by surveying the many approaches to mind that yield the contemporary debates. But how often do we ask: What is freedom? How does our experience justify our beliefs? [more], We will consider a series of debates in 20th Century Analytic Philosophy concerning the relationship between the mind and the world. To do this we will explore topics that might traditionally be considered "women's issues" in healthcare, such as medicine and body image (e.g., cosmetic surgery, eating disorders), reproductive and genetic technologies, and research on women and their health care needs. We will then turn to several of Plato's dialogues, examining Plato's portrayal of Socrates and his development of a new and profoundly powerful philosophical conception. seek answers to the following kinds of questions: When is it rational to have a particular belief? Do our beliefs have their meanings one-by-one? Is it forced on people who endorse cultural pluralism as their political ideal as the only tenable philosophical position? On the other hand, there is a heap of sand in my backyard. Some maintain that these issues are solely the provinces of philosophy, using traditional a priori methods. What are emotions, and how should we think about them? We will raise questions concerning the task of philosophy, the structure and meaning constituting function of consciousness, the relationship between self and other, the mind-body relationship, freedom, authenticity, and absurdity. We will concentrate both on making precise the philosophical problem of consciousness and on understanding the role of the relevant neuroscientific and cognitive research. As we read through these plays, we will also examine a number of philosophical works about tragedy. "For any family, regardless of who it is, is one of the worst things that you could imagine that could happen to you," he said. And please refer to Class Notes for further information . We will begin the course by looking at Hume's and Kant's discussion of causation. It is difficult, however, to get clear on the relation between the meaning of an expression and its reference. the cosmos. We will move on to examine ethical issues of truth-telling with terminally ill patients and their families, decisions to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatments, the care of seriously ill newborns, physician-assisted suicide, euthanasia, and posthumous interests. You are psyched to be reading this course description right now. In this course we address key themes and figures from two of the most influential movements in twentieth century European philosophy, namely, existentialism and phenomenology, a philosophical approach to which existentialism is indebted. Our study will definitely include Frege, Russell, Quine, Searle, and Kripke. We will also study contemporary philosophers who have written on education, such as Martha Nussbaum and Cornel West. [more], This course will examine central questions in normative ethics, including the following: Which features of actions are morally important and why (e.g., their motive, their intrinsic nature, or their consequences)? How do I know that I am one? Much of the moral philosophy produced in Greece and Rome remains as relevant today as when it was written. It will be very helpful, though not absolutely necessary, for you to have some familiarity with logic and some experience in reading philosophy. This tutorial aims to provide students with the skills necessary for careful, serious and thorough reading of Wittgenstein's later philosophy. Supt Bray said the domestic incident was a tragedy. In school? But three grains isn't enough for a heap. What does it take to realize this fact? in conflict. [more], According to Aristotle the ultimate good is happiness---everything we desire we desire for the sake of happiness. [more], This course involves independent study under the supervision of a member of the department. UPDATE: Footy world pays tribute to Crows coach as AFL cancels Crows clash, Walsh, a man consumed by football Phil Walsh tragedy: rolling coverageCrows-Cats clash called offStatement from Gillon McLachlan on round 14. Our main goal will be to prove things about this logical system rather than to use this system to think about ordinary language arguments. In pursuing the answers to these questions, we will discuss both classic and contemporary theories from philosophy and linguistics. What do you expect to learn? The first, shorter part will focus on the writings of the three classics of American pragmatism--Charles S. Peirce, William James and John Dewey--and analyze their reaction against traditional epistemology, as well as the positive philosophical ideas that they had to offer. I don't know why, she just does. Does it matter who is offended? 1-3), and selected interviews and course lectures. It is a paradox, because I started with seemingly true statements and used valid reasoning to arrive at contradictory conclusions. . For example, many people would agree that 'Keith's favorite unicorn' is a meaningful expression. What do the social and psychological sciences have to teach us about happiness? The tragedians emphasize the ways in which the cosmos and our role in it resists any attempt to be understood, and emphasize the ways in which the success or failure of our lives often turns on things completely beyond our control. As we proceed through the course, we will look at the way in which each thinker characterizes happiness, virtue and the relation between the two. It will be very helpful, though not absolutely necessary, for you to have some familiarity with logic and some experience in reading philosophy. nature and origins of the mother-child bond, and to replace--or to let us think we can replace--chance with choice." Possible additional topics would include: modal logic, the theory of counterfactuals, alternative representations of conditionals, the use of logic in the foundations of arithmetic and Godel's Incompleteness theorems. Of course, this question cannot really be answered, nor is there any value in trying to answer it, and any "answer" will only be "true" for you. Or are some of our beliefs true in virtue of their meanings alone? In this course we will investigate the the broad topics of consciousness and thought by surveying the many approaches to mind that yield the contemporary debates. Is a sentence's relation to previously uttered sentences similar to its relation to extra-linguistic events? The choice of literary works and films to be discussed will to some extent depend on students' interest. The first portion of the course will address the emergence of the "Ethics of Care," critically assessing its origins in feminist theory, its development within the context of the caring professions, and its potential as a general approach to bioethical reasoning. [more], The sentence "Every cookie is chocolate chip and three of them are oatmeal raisin" is a perfectly grammatical sentence of English, but it's self-contradictory. How should moral equality be understood, and what is its foundation? Is it moral for us to pass along these sorts of decisions to AI's? Is relativism a form of skepticism? [more], American Pragmatism left a deep legacy in contemporary epistemology and the philosophy of science, but it is--more often than not--a legacy difficult to disentangle from other intellectual influences. Phil was stabbed to death by his son, who habitually used hallucinogenic drugs, in one of the most shocking tragedies in . Along the way we will discuss principles of syntax, the sub-field that studies sentence structures, and pragmatics, the sub-field that studies inferences of non-literal content. Initial tutorial meetings will focus on theoretical materials that will background later discussions and will include classic readings from the environmental ethics literature (e.g., Leopold, Taylor, Rolston). Logic is sometimes called the study of reason. Some of them explicitly engage meta-philosophical debates; others exemplify particular philosophical styles and methods. [more], The Williams College Mission statement says that "free inquiry requires open-mindedness, and commitment to community draws on concern for others". Conversation is dynamic--the back and forth exchange of information is a process that grows and adapts to the surrounding context. We will examine the wager in its original home of Pascal's Pensees, and look at William James' related article, "The Will to Believe." There is a village where the barber shaves (a) all those and (b) only those who do not shave themselves. Dean's Office. Further, even where there is agreement as to the proper way of answering epistemological questions, there is a stunning variety of possible answers to each question. Or can meaning be allocated only to entire sets of beliefs? However, this approach is too narrow, since people use language to do a myriad of things: to ask, demand, promise, praise, blame, threaten, command, insinuate, evoke, express feelings, and sometimes just to play. In this class, we will attempt to carry on the noble tradition of corruption by philosophy. Cognitive science synthesizes research from cognitive psychology, computer science, linguistics, neuroscience, and contemporary philosophy. This first-year seminar will examine the philosophy of education through educational autobiographies: works that tell the story of a moral and intellectual education. In addition, we will devote several class meetings interspersed throughout the semester to reading foundational sources in ethical theory. How important are honor, money, love, work, friendship and our connections to others to our happiness? Nietzsche texts may include selections from: historical traditions. This seminar will try to establish, with as much accuracy as the subject allows, what are the central tenets of American Pragmatism, how they have shaped contemporary epistemology and the philosophy of science, and finally, to what extent are pragmatist approaches to human knowledge philosophically sound and fruitful. philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome were among the first thinkers to develop rigorous arguments in response to such musings. How did you develop your character? The order in which you say things matters, and it matters for what you communicate what actions you take and what events happen around you. Our seminar will have two aims: (1) to reconstruct the single most compelling moral theory from Kant's various ethical writings, and (2) to trace the influence of Kant's ethics in contemporary philosophy. While social justice and distributive justice are deeply intertwined in the health care context and we will discuss both, we will focus primarily on the concept of distributive justice. Some of them explicitly engage meta-philosophical debates; others exemplify particular philosophical styles and methods. (iii) You exist. What is the proper 'geography'--classification and analysis--of our emotions, and what is their relation to our somatic states, feelings, beliefs, judgments, evaluations and actions? Gulliver's Travels, Part III, chapter 10. We will discuss the importance of specific genre conventions and broader contextual matters to the interpretation of literary texts (along the lines suggested by Quentin Skinner); the possibility of using intention to rule out mistaken and arrive at acceptable interpretations, if not a single correct interpretation (a possibility denied by such relativists as Stanley Fish); the use and meaning of metaphors; and the host of questions surrounding the intentional fallacy (the alleged result of invoking authorial intention to determine textual meaning). [more], In this course, we will begin with an in-depth study of the theory of first-order logic. We pursue this reflection by examining the views of James, Husserl, Sartre and Merleau-Ponty, particularly as they concern the methods for the study of the mind and the relation between consciousness, reflexivity and the body. Do our society's laws limit our freedom in order to make us safe? In this course we'll examine several influential attempts to provide a rational foundation for morality, along with Nietzsche's wholesale rejection of these efforts. Nevertheless, comparatively few people realize that the views we commonly think of as "Platonic" represent only one strand in Plato's thought. What if they are more fair? We will begin with questions about how to define death, as well as reflections on its meaning and function in human life. We shall first explore the salient features of the pragmatic approaches to language, paying special attention to Austin's notion of illocutionary force and Grice's notion of non-natural meaning. In this course, we will investigate dynamic communicative phenomena and discuss competing theoretical explanations about how they're interpreted. Our readings will include the relevant works of Plato, Sextus Empiricus, Carnap, Quine, Davidson, Goodman, Elgin, Hacking, Krausz, Foot, and Williams, among others. However, in his philosophically more sophisticated and notoriously difficult later dialogues (such as the Parmenides, Philebus, Sophist and Statesman), Plato engages in radical criticism and revision of his earlier views. The second, longer part of the seminar will try to isolate and follow some of the pragmatist currents which run through epistemology and philosophy of science in the 20th and 21st centuries. Dean's Office. Its probing and intimate reflections on the meaning of human life, the nature of God and mind, time and eternity, will and world, good and evil, love and sexuality have challenged every generation since Augustine's own. If loyalty is a virtue, what are the proper limits of its cultivation and expression? This site was launched in Spring of 2020, and includes death notifications beginning January 1, 2020. [more], The core activity of this seminar is the careful reading and sustained discussion of selected works by Plato and Aristotle, but we will also engage such other thinkers as Epictetus and Augustine, and, from a political and theoretical point of view, selections from the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. The seminar will be structured around a close, critically engaged reading of the Confessions (in English translation) and will give attention to its historical context and significance as well as to its philosophical and theological ideas. We will pay special attention to the first amendment and questions concerning free speech and hate speech. How could proponents of each be claiming to follow in the footsteps of Socrates? Is philosophy of film really autonomous, independent from traditional philosophical disciplines which help generate its central questions, such as aesthetics, philosophy of art, epistemology, ontology, semiotics, ethics, social and political philosophy? Is patriotism incompatible with cosmopolitanism, and if so, which of the two should we value? [more], Animals are and always have been part of human life. Is democratic rule always best? How does our experience justify our beliefs? What are space and time? [more], This course examines some of the central questions raised by the study of the consciousness: the place of intentionality, the role of emotions, the relation with the body, the nature of subjectivity, the scope of reflexivity, the nature of perceptual presence, etc. Finally, we will consider how the concept of freedom is applied in contemporary social contexts, such as speech, religion, voting, and sexuality and gender. Background readings include sources rooted in traditional modes of bioethical analysis as well as those incorporating feminist approaches. S. Peirce, and John Dewey. The aim of this course is to explore and evaluate a number of rival conceptions of persons and personal identity over time. What is his legacy today? In this course, we will survey the ethics of public health through the lens of the COVID-19 pandemic, investigating concepts and arguments that are central to the ethics of public health research and practice. Our reading of Hume will be supplemented by historical and interpretive essays on his work. In this course, we will spend the first third of the semester attempting to understand the metaphysics and epistemology in Plato's middle dialogues. "Don't die," she said. Does freedom require leading (or avoiding) a political life? Further, even where there is agreement as to the proper way of answering epistemological questions, there is a stunning variety of possible answers to each question. Some critical theorists within the Frankfurt School tradition draw from upon ideas about the constitution of the subject developed in the early 19th century German philosophy of Hegel. Students who have take PHIL 203 will have a good background for this class, but students who are generally comfortable with formal systems need not have taken PHIL 203. Aristotle sets out to study being qua being, or what is insofar as it is. Messing with People: The Ethics of Human Experimentation. Are happiness and pleasure the same thing? Logicians and mathematicians have done a good deal of work developing extensions of and alternatives to classical logic. This theoretically oriented work will provide the background for subsequent examination of specific topics, which may include, among others: justice in health care financing and reform; justice in health care rationing and access to health care, with particular attention to the intersections of rationing criteria with gender, sexuality, race, disability, and age; justice in the procurement and allocation of organs for transplantation; obesity and personal responsibility for illness; and justice in medical research, including "double standards" for research conducted in low resource settings. How do I know that I am one? Our starting and central question will be: What makes me the particular person that I am, and how is my identity as this individual person preserved over time? Do our society's laws limit our freedom in order to make us safe? DuBois engaged in a great debate about the nature of education. If they are conscious, will AI's have dignity and rights? We will continue with J. S. Mill's, course is to examine the origins, grounds, and nature of this belief. How do logic and language relate? What is the mind? In this course we will seek to comprehend the dimensions in which Existentialism is a distinctive intellectual tradition. What role does the history of philosophy play in the discipline? What is the nature of language? Existentialists investigate deeply irrational phenomena of human life, including anxiety, boredom, tragedy, despair, death, faith, sexuality, love, hate, sadism, masochism, and authenticity. The reason for this is that there are two underlying structures that the original sentence can realize. Through an examination of these works, we will try to get some feeling for what Socrates' controversial positions and his arguments for these positions may have been. Other philosophers and literary theorists have used some of their ideas recently to throw light on the nature of textual meaning and the interpretation of literary texts. Ninah T. Pretto. Diamond investigated the methodology of moral philosophy, paying special attention to the role of literature. The theoretical aspect of the course will involve close readings of selected articles in contemporary aesthetics, philosophy of literature and philosophy of film. [more], It is a generally held belief, in our time and culture, that science is the best source of our knowledge of the world, and of ourselves. What are the limits of language? In addition to examining general accounts of causation, we will examine particular problems that come up in thinking about mental causation and causation in indeterministic contexts. However, in his philosophically more sophisticated and notoriously difficult later dialogues (such as the Parmenides, Philebus, Sophist and Statesman), Plato engages in radical criticism and revision of his earlier views. Consequently, many philosophers deeply influenced by pragmatism do not recognize the fact, while, on the other hand, some self-proclaimed pragmatists of our days can hardly be seen as continuing the tradition to which they pledge allegiance. We will try to determine what is the scope and nature of an adequate theory of emotions, what are the desiderata for such a theory, and what should count as evidence in its favor. Mark Williams remains shattered by the death of his great mate Phil Walsh, but finds solace in the fact one of his sons regularly visits Walsh's son in an Adelaide psychiatric facility. The debate never transpired - indeed, Leibniz suppressed his New Essays - because of Locke's death in 1705. 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