Majors & minors courses

This seminar will discuss the major themes of Plato’s ethics and metaphysics in the Republic. In this central text, Plato addresses problems that pertain to various domains of philosophy. The official theme of this work is the question ‘What is justice?’ After considering various answers that he regards as unsatisfactory, Plato adopts the strategy of discovering the nature of justice in human individuals by looking at the nature of justice in the state. In offering and defending his accounts of just persons and just states, he also raises important metaphysical questions and introduces his theory of forms, according to which only incorporeal abstract forms are fully real and the world of perception is merely appearance. In seminar, we will consider the plausibility of his accounts of these topics.

Merleau-Ponty
43224 01 (20936)
Watson
3:30-6:15 Thursday

Ethical Theory: Seminar on the Epistemology of Ethics
43301 01 (18036)
Audi
11:00-12:15 TTH

This seminar explores major texts in the history of ethics as well as selected contemporary writings in the field, with a view to understanding both moral theories and their authors’ conceptions of how we can know moral truths—or even be justified in affirming moral statements.

Part I deals with Aristotle’s virtue ethics, Mill’s utilitarianism, Kant’s master principle view centered on the categorical imperative, and W. D. Ross’s commonsense intuitionism (the least famous, but not least practiced of these four most prominent kinds of moral theory). Some of these positions (other than Ross’s) will be familiar to some participants, but all of the positions merit further exploration. In each case there will be emphasis on the epistemology of ethics. Some general theory of knowledge and justification is introduced as needed in relation to both the background of the participants and a good understanding of the field of ethics.

Part II explores contemporary moral theories, including contractualism as found in John Rawls (A Theory of Justice) and T. M. Scanlon (What We Owe to Each Other); the theory of value and its relation to reasons for action as seen by selected contemporary authors; and some problems in applied ethics, including the abortion issue as presented by Bertha Alvarez Manninen (a “pro-choice” advocate) and Jack Mulder, Jr. (a “pro-life” advocate) in their recent joint book, Civil Dialogue on Abortion.

Part III is devoted to presentations of papers by the participants. These papers, revised in the light of both comments provided by the instructor and the give and take of the seminar discussions, constitute term papers. The papers normally go through several drafts, each discussed with the instructor, and are the main (though not the only) written work. The seminar has two broad kinds of aims: to enhance understanding of ethical perspectives, moral theories, and moral knowledge, and to improve skills in 2 both oral presentations and in writing.

This course will be an exploration of the philosophy of painting and music. We will explore questions such as: What is the meaning of a work of art and what does it mean to say that a work of art *represents* some subject out there in the world? What is the value of painterly representation? Can music be said to be representational in this way, or should we rather think of it as "expressive"? What is the value of music? What is the relationship between the medium of a work of art (e.g. the marked canvas of a painting) and the subject of that artwork? How is "beauty" (and aesthetic value) related to our ethical judgment and sensibilities? Over the duration of the course, students will become familiar with central themes in the philosophy of painting and the philosophy of music. Our philosophical reflection will be motivated by the study of core examples: for instance, in painting, we will focus on the Italian Quattrocento and Cinquecento; and in music, on a selection of pieces from Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert.

An examination of major theories of justice, both ancient and modern. Readings include representatives of liberal theorists of right, such as John Rawls, as well as perfectionist alternatives. The course also serves as the core seminar for the philosophy, politics, and economics concentration.

This class will use metaphysics to examine the natures of a wide range of social entities and phenomena. Topics discussed will include the metaphysics of social kinds, including gender, race, and disability; the metaphysics of social groups, like baseball teams, the Beatles, and the Supreme Court; the metaphysics of social entities, like restaurants; the metaphysics of social relationships and activities, like love and video games; the metaphysics of virtual reality and cryptocurrency; and the metaphysics of food. We will end by discussing the metaphysics of collective responsibility.

Placement-related topics will encompass explanations of each step in the academic philosophy job market, including how to prepare one’s job market materials, how to perform well in a first-round interview, how to give a good job talk and teaching presentation, and how to negotiate a job offer.

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 a broad-ranging understanding of probabilistic reasoning in philosophy. We'll examine, in particular, how probabilistic methods have recently been applied to tackle some thorny philosophical problems. A self-contained introduction to more formal aspects of probability will be followed by an exploration of how probabilistic methods have been used to address, inter alia, various epistemological puzzles, as well as puzzles in the sciences (such as puzzles related to fine-tuning). (Note that only very minimal background in mathematics and in the sciences will be assumed---the course is indeed designed to be largely self-contained.)

Through much of its history, academia has been gendered in a particular way -male dominated, focused on men¿s interests, and privileging those interests -and much of it still is. In response, the area of enquiry known as women¿s studies or gender studies emerged in the 1970s as part of the feminist movement. In this course we will explore gender, the concept that lies at the heart of this area of enquiry. We will find that this concept is as complex and multi-faceted as the diverse disciplines from which it now draws and as political as its feminist origins suggest. We will also find that it is fraught with controversy. Though the disciplines that contribute to the idea of gender comprise nearly all of academia, we will concentrate on the sciences, from which the concept of gender first emerged. We will start with the gendered origins of the concept - the gender of science - and then proceed to the science that developed as a result - the science of gender; and we will conclude with some questions concerning the connection between the two - the gender of science and the science of gender. No particular scientific background will be presupposed, and visits from science faculty will be organized to help us understand the terrain we will be covering. The rest of the time the course will be run as a seminar. Students will lead class discussions, present the results of individual research projects to the group, and have the opportunity to further develop those projects using feedback from the group. Throughout, our aim will be for each student to develop a fully informed and defensible response to the controversial terrain we will be exploring.

The aim of this class is to explore five representative answers to the question: What is the nature of truth? The question, in other words, is: In virtue of what feature are truths true? In yet other words: Is there a feature common to all and only the truths where that feature makes a truth a truth? (The question is in fact familiar. Example: is there a feature common to all and only tables that makes them tables? or a feature that makes humans humans (versus some other animal)? etc.) Some philosophers say that the target feature is "correspondence" -- that is, something is a truth if and only if it "corresponds to reality" (in the requisite way). Others say that the target feature is "verification" -- that is, something is a truth if and only if it is "verifiable" (in the requisite way). Others say that the search for "the nature of truth" is like the search for gold at the end of rainbows: it's a badly motivated quest, since there is no such "nature of truth". And there are other answers. In this class, we'll discuss these answers; we'll figure out which, if any, is the true (!) answer; and we'll explore implications, both theoretical and practical, of different answers.

Required text: Jc Beall & Ben Middleton, Truth: The Basics, Routledge 2024.

Questions may be sent to Professor Beall at jbeall@nd.edu <mailto:jbeall@nd.edu>.