Graduate Courses

Fall 2026

Aristotle’s Categories and De Interpretatione
83211 (19914)
Crivelli
T 3:30-6:15p
Fullfills Ancient Requirement

The course will focus on Aristotle’s Categories and De Interpretatione, which are among the most influential texts in the history of Western philosophy. The course will divide into two parts, the first of which will be dedicated to the Categories while the second will focus on De Interpretatione. The topics covered will include: homonymy, synonymy, and paronymy; the quadripartite ontological division of entities of Categories 2; the classification of the categories; the accounts of substance, quantity, relatives, and quality; the theory of opposites of the Postpraedicamenta (relatives, contraries, privation-possession, and contradictories); the classification of types of priority; the theory of signification of De Interpretatione 1; the accounts of names, verbs, and formulas (logoi); declarative sentences; the ‘square of logical opposition’; future contingents (De Interpretatione 9); combinable and separable attributes; the treatment of modalities in De Interpretatione 12 and 13. The course will be a combination of upfront lectures by the instructor and presentations of important articles or chapters of books which will be offered by the other participants. Active contribution to the class discussion will be of the greatest importance and will contribute to the final evaluation. The evaluation will also be based on a final written essay.

Medieval Jewish & Islamic Philosophies of Creation
83242 (19916)
Ogden/Schoenberg
Th 12:30-3:15
Fullfills Medieval Requirement 

The idea of creation stands at the center of the Abrahamic religions and is pivotal to their respective doctrines of faith. Yet these doctrines took shape also in response to existing philosophical and scientific theories concerning the nature and origin of the world, often redefining the very concept of creation in this process. This interaction was especially fruitful for the Jewish and Islamic traditions during the Middle Ages, generating extensive discussions across theology, philosophy, and scriptural exegesis about the origin and structure of the cosmos. Among the central issues debated in this process were creation ex nihilo, temporal creation, the relation between causal necessity and divine voluntarism, the eternity of intelligible beings, and the material constitution and nature of the cosmos. In addressing these questions, Jewish and Islamic thinkers frequently adopted established philosophical frameworks—Aristotelian and Neoplatonic, among others—while reshaping them in light of their theological commitments and exegetical traditions. These encounters raise the broader question of whether we may speak of distinct “philosophies of creation” emerging from this intellectual exchange. The course will explore this question through a thematic reading of central texts from both traditions: on the Jewish side, Saʿadia Gaon, Solomon Ibn Gabirol, Abraham Ibn Ezra, and the Maimonidean tradition; on the Islamic side, al-Kindi, al-Farabi, Avicenna, al-Ghazali, and Averroes. Particular attention will be given to the shared conceptual frameworks and points of transmission linking Jewish and Islamic discussions of creation, but we will also likely examine briefly the early Christian account of Augustine and the later Christian account of Aquinas in conversation with the Jewish and Islamic models.

Philosophy of Science
83801 (14812)
Howard 
TR 3:30-4:45p
Fullfills Area 1 Requirement

Science occupies a prominent place in our society. Science, it is said, secures knowledge that other endeavors cannot possibly obtain, and it can transform the world in radical ways. But what is the nature of scientific knowledge? What makes science so special? This survey course is an introduction to the philosophical debates about the nature of modern science. We will cover the central issues in the philosophy of science from logical empiricism to contemporary debates. Topics included in the survey are: the nature of scientific knowledge; progress in science; realism and antirealism; reductionism; laws of nature; explanation and confirmation; the nature of scientific practice; the role of values in shaping scientific research.

Intermediate Logic
83901 (14813)
Blanchette
TR 12:30-1:45p
Fullfills Logic Requirement

This course is an introduction to the metatheory of first-order logic, the central system of logic for both philosophical and mathematical purposes. We begin with the basics of set theory, and then move on to first-order logic proper, covering the completeness theorem and associated results. This material is essential for those who want to understand elementary philosophical debates about the use and the significance of logic, the history of logic, and the connection between languages and models. Prerequisite: for graduate students: Formal logic or equivalent; contact the professor if you are unsure about your preparation.

Philosophy Pedagogy Workshop
83105 01 (30026)
Cutter
TBD
Fullfills Pedagogy Requirement

A course required of all graduate students before teaching their own courses for the first time. The goal will be for each prospective teacher to produce viable syllabi and raionales for the courses they will be teaching.

Metaphysics and the Mind-Body Problem
93502 (19793)
Montero
M 9:30a-12:15p
Fullfills Area 1 Requirement 

What can philosophy tell us about ourselves and our place in the world? If the will is taken for the deed, a great deal it would seem, for the ambitions of philosophers often run high. And nowhere are these ambitions more apparent than in a family of arguments, “conceivability arguments,” intended to solve the mind-body problem, the problem of identifying the relation between mind and body, or, as it is sometimes put, the problem of finding a place for the mind in the material world. Such arguments aim to take us from insights derived from pure thought about what could be to knowledge about what is. “There is a long tradition in philosophy,” David Chalmers explains, “of using a priori methods to draw conclusions about what is possible . . . and often in turn to draw conclusions about . . .the nature of things in the world.” This tradition promises to derive truths about the actual relation between mind and body from claims about merely possible relations between mind and body. In this course, we'll explore whether this promise is ever redeemed.

Topics in the Theory of Grounding
93511 (19917)
TBD
T 12:30-3:15p
Fullfills Area 1 Requirement

Grounding is an important kind of dependence and determination typically at issue when we ask in virtue of what something is the case. It is proving useful in a wide variety of applications, but there are still several issues concerning its nature. This seminar confronts some of those issues. We will begin with a number of issues that have received considerable attention in the literature and then move on to a few that are less widely discussed.

Humility and Arrogance
93614 (19920)
Callahan
W 12:30-3:15p
Fullfills Area 2 Requirement

Humility is controversial in the history of philosophy. Is it a virtue or a vice? What is it, exactly? And what are the vices to which it is opposed? Aristotle, Jesus, Augustine, Aquinas, Hume, Nietzsche, C.S. Lewis, and Murdoch all give wildly different answers, which shape their broader ethical pictures of the good life. Humility and arrogance have also received renewed attention in analytic philosophy over the last 35 years, thanks to some influential papers, the explosion of social epistemology and questions about proper deference to others, and a sense that an increasingly polarized world desperately needs something like more humility. This course will include (i) a general overview of contemporary virtue ethics, (ii) deeper engagement with influential papers on humility and arrogance (mostly contemporary), and (iii) a workshop of draft chapters of my own in-progress book on humility.

Proust and the Philosophers
93628 (19796)
Watson
R 3:30-6:15p
Fullfills Area 2 Requirement

Marcel Proust's À la Recherche Du Temps Perdue (In Search of Lost Time) has been called the most important novel of the twentieth century. Previous to its final inception, its author was uncertain of the work's status. "Must I make of it a novel, a philosophical study, am I a novelist?" (Notebook of 1908). Recent research has revealed the extent to which Proust himself was substantially trained in philosophy (for example, the metaphysics of Schopenhauer or the aesthetics of Hegel and Schelling). Perhaps even more significant is the extent of the influence of The Search on philosophers after it. Among others, Proust's work played an essential role in the arguments of Adorno or Benjamin, Merleau-Ponty and Ricoeur, Kristeva and Deleuze, or Nussbaum, Pippin, and Taylor. This seminar will begin by reading extensive parts of this multivolume work in translation and considering the philosophical positions it transforms. We will then examine Proust's influence in a number of areas of philosophy. This in turn will allow us to confront the relationship between philosophy and literature more particularly.

Probabilistic Methods in Philosophy
93806 (19794)
Azhar
W 6:30-9:15p
Fullfills Area 1 Requirement 

Probabilistic methods are in use in a number of subfields in philosophy---and the influence of these methods, especially over the last couple of decades or so, appears to be growing. In this course, we'll aim to develop an understanding of probabilistic methods in philosophy. The course will consist of three parts. The first part provides a self-contained introduction to the basic formalism of probability spaces. The second part is concerned with different philosophical approaches to probability, with a particular emphasis on subjective and objective types of probability, and the role of principles such as the Principle of Indifference and the Principal Principle. The third part will include an exploration of how probabilistic methods have been used to address epistemological puzzles, as well as puzzles in the sciences---wherein we will work through a number of papers from the recent philosophical literature. (Note that only very minimal background in mathematics and the sciences will be assumed---the course is designed to be largely self-contained.)