Graduate Course Listing Spring 2008

Click here to see Fall 2007 Course Descriptions

 

Spring 2008 Course Descriptions

 

83209 01 (28026) Plato's Republic
O'Connor
1:30-2:45 MW

This is a graduate seminar on Plato’s Republic. If there is space, a few undergraduates with special backgrounds may also be admitted. The first half of the semester, we will simply read the Republic, along with some of the epic poetry of Homer and Hesiod through and against which Plato defines his own project. The second half of the semester, we will go through the Republic again, this time reading contemporary essays in two recent collections intended for a broad audience, the Cambridge Companion to Plato’s Republic and Blackwell’s Guide to Plato’s Republic. This should strike a balance between considering Plato in his own place and time and considering his importance to recent scholarship.

The course will be taught in translation, but there will be a supplemental one-credit Greek reading course, focusing on Plato’s critique of poetry.

83249 01 (28030) Philosophy of Mind & Cognitive Psychology in Scotus
Cross
2:00-3:15 TR

The course explores Scotus's account of how the mind forms (true) beliefs about the world. After considering the relevant metaphysical background, we will examine in detail the cognitive powers of the mind and the mental entities Scotus holds to be required for such belief-formation. The course is text-based, focusing on close readings of relevant passages from Scotus's works in translation.

83250 01 (TBA) Introduction to Meister Eckhart
Gersh
12:30-1:45 TR
Cross List: MI 40028/60028

This course will attempt to introduce Eckhart's thought by reading a selection of his most important Latin works. This close textual study will demonstrate the extent to which Eckhart presents a possibly unique combination of extreme technical exactitude and exegetical flexibility and how, thanks to these skills he is able to develop a radically Neoplatonic (Dionysian) philosophy within the context of Augustinian readings and a methodology responsive to the demands of the Aristotelian or Scholastic traditions. . Selections will be from works including the Exposition of Genesis, the Book of the Parables of Genesis, the Exposition of John, the Parisian Questions, the Prologue to the Tripartite Work, and the Prologue to the Work of Propositions.  Although the works to be selected for study are available at least in German and sometimes also in French or English translations, a reading of knowledge of Latin is essential for this course. Requirements: regular translation exercises (written and oral) and one short oral presentation.

83266 01 (27999) Hume
Joy
11:45-1:00 MW
Cross List: PHIL 43180

This seminar considers how Hume transformed the modern study of epistemology and metaphysics in the British empiricist tradition. It also focuses on his special relation to Newtonian natural philosophy and his development of a Newtonian account of human nature. That account encompassed not only his philosophy of mind but also his moral psychology and ethics. The seminar thus examines the conceptual connections in Hume's treatment of causation, belief, and moral action. Readings will include contemporary analyses of Hume's problems as well as his own writings.

Requirements: Two medium-length papers, a midterm exam, and short class presentations.

83279 01 (28029) Kant and the Exact Sciences
Jauernig
3:30-6:00 R
Cross List: HPS 93814

This course examines Kant's philosophy in relation to the exact sciences, i.e., mathematics and physics. The exact sciences play an important role in Kant's critical philosophy: they function as inspiration and model in that they already are on the high road on which Kant wants to bring metaphysics, and they are among the intended beneficiaries of the critical enterprise in that Kant's theoretical philosophy is meant to provide metaphysical foundations for them. In the first part of the course, we will look at Kant's engagement with the exact sciences in the pre-critical period. The second part of the course deals with Kant's (critical) philosophy of mathematics; the third part with his (critical) philosophy of physics. In the final part of the course, we will look at selected neo-Kantian attempts to 'rescue' at least part of Kant's philosophy in response to the development of non-Euclidean geometry, and Einstein's theories of relativity.

Readings: Immanuel Kant, 'Inquiry on the distinctness…'; 'On the first ground of the difference of regions in space'; Inaugural Dissertation; Critique of Pure Reason, Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science; Hans Reichenbach, The Theory of Relativity and A priori Knowledge; Ernst Cassirer, Einstein's Theory of Relativity, Considered from the Epistemological Standpoint; Michal Friedman, Dynamics of Reason

83280 01 (28845) Descartes
David
TBA

 

83501 01 (20145) Metaphysics
van Inwagen
3:00-5:30 M

The topic of this seminar is the problems and methods of metaphysics. It is designed to introduce graduate students to recent and current thought on several central metaphysical problems: being and existence; the existence and nature of universals and other abstract objects; the nature of concrete particulars; modality and possible worlds; the reality of time and "temporal passage"; persistence through time and personal identity; metaphysical realism and anti-realism.

83701 01 (21754) Epistemology
Plantinga
1:30-2:45 MW

A survey of some of the main topics of contemporary analytic epistemology including the analysis of knowledge, theories of warrant and justification, foundationalism, coherentism, reliabilism, theism and warrant, internalism and externalism in epistemology, naturalism and epistemology, and skepticism.

Requirements: This course will proceed by lecture, discussion, and student participation. There will be a good deal of reading, occasional short papers (3-5 pages), a term paper and a final exam.

Reading: We'll read all or most of the pieces in the course reader. We will examine and discuss some, but of course not nearly all of these pieces in depth; the short papers will address some of the pieces we discuss in class.

Final exam: will be addressed for the most part to the readings we won't have the opportunity to discuss in class; it will be designed to encourage completion of the readings.

85105 01 (20089) Teaching Practicum
McKim
3:00-4:15 M

A required seminar for philosophy graduate students preparing to take full responsibility for teaching undergraduate courses in the department. The focus is on teaching at the college level as well as on teaching philosophy. Students will construct and defend detailed course syllabi and prepare drafts of a philosophy of teaching statement during the seminar. Also included will be opportunities to observe, and be observed, teaching.

93325 01 (28035) Recent French Philosophy
Gutting
12:30-1:45 TR

The course will center on fairly brief but central texts from four recent French philosophers: Foucault's "Man and His Doubles" (Order of Things), Derrida's "Differance", something from Deleuze's Difference and Repetition, and something from Badiou's Being and Event. In each case, I will provide some background via lectures, and then we will proceed to a close reading of the text. The readings will pay particular attention to questions about clarity and obscurity (e.g., does this make any sense? are there anything like arguments here?) and about what the significant philosophical achievement of each text might be.

93401 01 (28036) Topics in Philosophy of Religion
Audi
3:30-6:00pm T

This will be a wide-ranging research seminar with all participants contributing and everyone presenting a paper. One major emphasis, especially in the first part, will be in religious epistemology, with a focus on rationality, justification, and knowledge and on the importance of each in appraising the rationality of an overall religious commitment. Traditional arguments for God's existence will not be discussed in detail (unless someone presents a paper on one of them); but acquaintance with them will be presupposed for purposes of comparing their evidential value with the more direct grounding that Alston, Plantinga, and others have argued is an element of appropriate religious experiences. A second major topic will be the nature of faith and its place in an overall religious commitment that includes not only cognitive elements but ranges to attitudes, emotions, and social conduct. A third topic will be the relation between theology (and indeed religion understood more broadly) and ethics. Discussion on this will focus on moral epistemology and some versions of divine command theory. In the last part of the seminar, two problems for the rationality of religious commitment will be explored: the problem of evil and philosophical naturalism, particularly its implications for understanding personhood. Readings will include the instructor's MS, Rationality and Religious Commitment, and selections from William P. Alston's Perceiving God, Plantinga on reformed epistemology, Marilyn Adams and Peter van Inwagen on the problem of evil, R. M. Adams on divine command theory, and some of the recent papers in Michael L. Peterson and Raymond J. VanArragon, eds., Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Religion (Blackwell 2004), probably including Lynne rudder Baker and Dean Zimmerman on the nature of persons.

93518 01 (TBA) Monism in Contemporary Metaphysics
Newlands
TBA

This advanced seminar in metaphysics critically examines the recent resurgence of interest in monism among contemporary metaphysicians. Although monism has a rich historical legacy in a number of different forms, 20th century metaphysics has been largely dismissive of any and all monistic theses. However, the past 10 years have witnessed a renewed effort to revitalize the debate between forms of monism and its counterparts, nihilism and pluralism. We will study this recent development by reading both the most recent debates concerning the viability of various forms of monism and the most recent attempts to apply monism to address other philosophical issues in metaphysics.

93623 01 (93623) Pragnatism and Democracy
Dallmayr
3:30-6:00 T

Cross List: POLS 60639

In recent decades Western philosophy has tended to focus on epistemology, and political theory on varieties of liberalism - sidelining to a large extent the issue of democracy. The topic of this seminar is "democracy" seen not as a partisan ideology but as a political regime. As such, it was a central concern of American pragmatism. The seminar concentrates on John Dewey as a theorist of democracy, philosopher of democratic education, and advocate of a democratic ethos. Among post-Deweyan pragmatists the works of Richard Bernstein and Richard Rorty will also be examined.

93624 01 (28039) Advanced Topics in Moral & Political Philosophy
Sterba
5:00-7:30 W

This course will focus on three central questions in moral and political philosophy, one in metaethics (Why be Moral?), one in political philosophy (Are the Ideals of Liberty and Equality Incompatible?), and one in practical ethics (Is Race- and Sex-based Affirmative Action Justified?). The first question is arguably the most important question in metaethics, the second arguably the most important question in political philosophy since it determines the content and scope of our basic rights, and the third is clearly an important question in practical ethics. especially in the American scene. Happily, these questions will turn out to be interconnected such that anyone interested in any one of them should be interested in the others as well.

The goal of the course will be to introduce students to the cutting-edge research on each of these central questions so that they will be in a position to make some contribution of their own to answering them. 

The format for the course will be primarily student led-discussions of on the assigned readings.

The requirements will be one paper on each of the three questions (7-10 pages in length) and participation in class discussions.

93861 01 (28042) Philosophy of Biology
Ramsey
6:00-8:30pm M
Cross List: HPS 93805

In this seminar, we will survey some of the central issues in the philosophy of biology. We will study the theory of natural selection and consider whether it occurs only at the level of genes or if it can occur at higher levels, such as the organism or group. We will examine the nature of function or purpose in biological systems and ask if all or most features of biological organisms can be understood as adaptations or if there are alternative explanations, such as constraints, spandrels, or self-organization. We will also turn to the difficult concept of fitness, specifically how fitness is understood as both a central theoretical concept in the theory of natural selection, as well as being explanatory and predictive of evolutionary phenomena. Lastly, we will explore the scope of Darwinian explanations. In particular, we will consider the extent to which human behavior can be understood through Darwinian adaptationist explanations.

93909 01 (28046) Special Topics: Philosophy of Mathematics Workshop
Bays
3:30-6:00 R

The workshop is an ongoing research seminar in philosophical logic and the philosophy of mathematics. This term we will focus on questions in the foundations of set theory. As in previous years, many/most of the sessions will focus on new papers presented by distinguished visitors from outside ND.

Students taking the course for a grade will be asked to write a 20-25 page term paper at the end of the semester. Students can also take the course on an S/U basis, writing only a short (2-3 page) paper at the end of the term. Advanced students with ongoing projects in the relevant areas can receive credit for leading a session on their own current work.

93914 01 (28047) Philosophy of Language
Speaks
11:00-12:15 TR

Topic: The first half of this course will focus on metaphysical problems which arise in the theory of meaning, including the problem of the unity of the proposition and Plantinga's objection to the view that contingently existing objects can be constituents of propositions. We might also discuss connections between the semantics of modal statements and the metaphysics of modality.

The second half of the course will focus on the question, `What is it for a word to have a meaning?' We will consider the views that the meanings of expressions are derived from the thoughts of language users, from their use, and from causal relations to objects and properties.

Evaluation: Term paper or 8 hour exam, as the student chooses.

Texts: Readings will be made available in PDF form online.

More information will be made available on the course web site, which is at:

http://www.nd.edu/~jspeaks/courses/93914/

96697 01 (20638) Directed Readings

Holloway

96697 02 (21794) Directed Readings

Holloway

98699 01 (21318) Research and Dissertation

Holloway

98700 01 (20671) Nonresident Dissertation Research

Holloway