A study of philosophical approaches to understanding various aspects of contemporary culture and/or society. Topics may include theories of modernity, capitalism and consumerism, architecture and design, cultural pluralism, globalization, media and internet.

An examination of some of the classic texts of early analytic philosophy, concentrating on the work of Frege, Russell, and Wittgenstein.

This course covers topics in Sanskrit philosophy, with a special focus on ethics and/or philosophy of religion. Students will investigate specific primary texts (in translation) and will learn how to recognize and analyze the philosophical arguments they contain. Example texts and ideas include: theology and atheism in various Sanskrit schools (with selected readings from Dharmakīrti, Udayana, Rāmānuja etc.); the place of ethics in Sanskrit philosophy and beyond (with selected readings from Śāntideva, B.K. Matilal and epic and juridical texts).

This course covers topics in Sanskrit philosophy, with a special focus on metaphysics and epistemology (and related issues in philosophy of language and logic). Students will investigate specific primary texts (in translation) and will learn how to recognize and analyze the philosophical arguments they contain. Example texts and ideas include: the Upaniṣads, the Mahābhārata, the Buddhist dialogues, the Nyāya- and Vaiśeṣika-sūtra, the works of Dignāga, and others.

Selected topics and themes in continental philosophy of the 20th century, drawing on such approaches as hermeneutics, phenomenology, critical theory, structuralism, deconstruction, feminism, psychoanalysis, and post-colonial theory. Authors and texts will vary, but may include such authors as: Adorno, Arendt, Benjamin, Bloch, Deleuze, Derrida, Fanon, Foucault, Freud, Gadamer, Habermas, Heidegger, Irigaray, Kristeva, Lacan, Levi-Strauss, Levinas, Merleau-Ponty.

A discussion of selected problems and debates in recent Continental philosophy. Authors and texts will vary, but may include such authors as: Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou, Étienne Balibar, Judith Butler, Jacques Derrida, Catherine Malabou, Achille Mbembe, Quentin Meillassoux, Jean-Luc Nancy, Jacques Rancière, Gayatri Spivak, Slavoj Žižek, Sylvia Wynter.

Historical and systematic approaches to topics in metaphysics, such as the nature of reality, substance and existence, necessity and possibility, causality, universals and particulars.

Historical and systematic approaches to topics in the theory of knowledge, such as truth, belief, justification, perception, a priori knowledge, certitude, skepticism, other minds.

Time travel, truth, infinity, rational decision making: each of these topics gives rise to philosophical puzzles and paradoxes. In this class we'll consider a variety of such paradoxes. Using logic and other philosophical tools, we'll show how these paradoxes can lead to deep and important philosophical conclusions.

Issues in the philosophy of mind and language played a crucial role in the philosophical discourse of classical China. This course will guide students in reconstructing this role and exploring its philosophical significance by interpreting and critically evaluating selected early Chinese philosophical texts that treat mind, language, and interrelated aspects of psychology. Topics to be discussed include the nature and functions of names and speech; the role of “correcting names”; semantic theory and argumentation; perception and knowledge; the role of language in knowledge and action; and the ontological grounds of linguistic distinctions. Texts to be discussed include the Analects, Guǎnzǐ, Mòzǐ, Mèngzǐ, Dàodéjīng, Xúnzǐ, Zhuāngzǐ, and Annals of Mr. Lǚ.

Some specific problem(s) in the philosophy of religion, such as the relationship of religious faith and religious belief, the ontological argument for the existence of God, theories about divine transcendence, the philosophical presuppositions of religious doctrines, the modern critique of religion.

This course explores and critiques personal and social ethical ideals as presented in early Chinese Confucian, Mohist, and Daoist writings and considers their relevance to issues in contemporary ethics. Major texts discussed include the Analects, Mèngzǐ, Xúnzǐ, Mòzǐ, Dàodéjīng, and Zhuāngzǐ. Central questions examined include: What is the way (dào)? What standards can guide us in following the way? What grounds can we have for confidence that these are the correct standards? What kind of person should we strive to be? What is virtue (dé)? What values take priority in a life of virtue? How does the person of virtue act?

A selection of texts and issues in Jewish philosophy, for example, Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed, Buber's The Prophetic Faith, prophecy and revelation, Divine Command and morality, creation and eternity, the historical dimension of Jewish thought.

Typical issues include: the mind-brain identity theory; intentionality and the mental; personal identity.

Human action, and the nature of freedom and responsibility in the light of contemporary knowledge concerning the causation of behaviour.

An investigation of philosophical questions raised by contemporary cognitive science and artificial intelligence (AI). Possible topics to be addressed: whether machines could think and be conscious; the computational theory of mind; embodied cognition and the extended mind hypothesis; the “singularity”; and moral and political implications of machine learning research.

A survey of philosophical topics related to the emotions, from a range of philosophical perspectives. Questions to be considered may include the following: What exactly is an emotion? Are emotions feelings? What emotions are there, and how are they shaped by culture and society? How are emotions related to reason, the brain and the body? What role do -- and should -- the emotions play in decision-making? Can an emotion be morally right or wrong, and what makes it so? 

A continuation of PHL245H1, requiring no other prior knowledge of philosophy or mathematics. First-order logic, including basic metalogical results such as soundness and completeness. An introduction to basic set theory and metalogic. Topics may include the Loewenheim-Skolem theorems for first-order logic, Goedel’s incompleteness theorems.

Formal study of the concepts of necessity and possibility, modal, propositional and quantificational logic, possible-worlds semantics, and the metaphysics of modality. Other topics may include counterfactuals, truth, vagueness, epistemic logic, temporal logic, or non-classical logic.

Topics will include Kurt Gödel's celebrated incompleteness theorems, the technical ideas and methods involved in proving them, their relation to the abstract theory of computation, and their philosophical implications. Are there mathematical truths that cannot be known? Are mathematical concepts such as number and set indeterminate to some extent? Are there limits to what can be modeled formally?

An introduction to set theory emphasizing its philosophical relevance as a unifying framework for mathematics and logic. Topics examined may include the paradoxes of the 'naïve' conception of sets and their resolution through axiomatization, the construction of natural numbers and real numbers in set theory, equivalents of the axiom of choice, and model theory.

The nature of language as a system of human communication, theories of meaning and meaningfulness, the relation of language to the world and to the human mind.

Platonism versus nominalism, the relation between logic and mathematics, implications of Gödel's theorem, formalism and intuitionism.

The structure and methods of science: explanation, methodology, realism and instrumentalism.

Introduction to philosophical issues which arise in modern physics, especially in relativity and quantum mechanics. This course will be accessible to students without a significant background in physics, but with an interest in the philosophical challenges that modern physics poses.

Philosophical issues in the foundations of biology, e.g., the nature of life, evolutionary theory; controversies about natural selection; competing mechanisms, units of selection; the place of teleology in biology; biological puzzles about sex and sexual reproduction; the problem of species; genetics and reductionism; sociobiology; natural and artificial life.

An advanced introduction to topics at the intersection of philosophy and psychiatry. Topics may include: what makes something a psychiatric disease? What can psychiatric syndromes tell us about the nature of moods and decision-making? Do some psychiatric patients act with less agency, and should they have less moral or criminal responsibility?

Typical questions include: Has history any meaning? Can there be general theories of history? How are the findings of historians related to the theories of metaphysics and of science? Is history deterministic? Must the historian make value judgements? Is history science or an art? Are there historical forces or spirits of an epoch?

A study of some of the central problems of political philosophy, addressed by historical and contemporary political theorists.

A focused examination of a selected issue in political philosophy.