Teaching

Human beings are tool-using and tool-producing animals. Technology plays an essential role in all of our lives: it satisfies our needs, it lessens our burdens, it facilitates our social exchanges, and it furnishes us with ever new capabilities. It also informs our lives in complex, sometimes obscure ways – and not always for the better. In this course, we will examine technology from a philosophical point of view with the aim of understanding both (1) the nature of technological artifacts and (2) their impact on human life. Is technology an extension of the human will? How does it contribute to human flourishing? What role does it play in generating or eliminating social inequalities? Does technology have a will of its own? Has its progress outstripped human control? At the end of the course, we will apply our analysis of technology to the topic of artificial intelligence.

In this course, we explore answers to fundamental questions about the nature of the world and our place in it by examining the works of some of the central figures in modern western philosophy. Can we obtain knowledge of the world and, if so, how? Does God exist? What is the nature of the self? How do we determine morally right answers? What sorts of policies and political structures can best promote justice and equality? These questions were addressed in “modern” Europe in the context of the development of modern science and the religious wars. In a time of globalization we are all, more or less, heirs of the Enlightenment which sees its legacy to be modern science and the mastery of nature together with democracy and human rights. This course explores the above questions and considers them in their historical context. Some of the philosophers considered include Descartes, Locke, Hume, Kant, and Wollstonecraft.

We take ourselves to know many things. Some of these things we know by experience, some by reasoning, some from memory, and some on the basis of testimony. Though we all make claims to knowledge, and affirm or deny the knowledge claims of others, we often struggle to say just what we mean by “knowledge.” This course is an introduction to epistemology – the philosophical study of knowledge. We will begin with questions about the nature of knowledge: What can we know? How do we justify our claims to knowledge? Can we know things without knowing that we know them? If we know something, can it still turn out to be false? And what role does language play in shaping our knowledge? We will then proceed to questions in social epistemology: How can knowledge be acquired from the testimony of others? How do we resolve disagreements between knowers? How should we respond to the threat of disinformation? And how does social position (e.g. gender) bear on claims to knowledge?

In contemporary political discourse, we often hear the accusation that a belief is “mere ideology” or that an utterance is “pure propaganda.” We sometimes even hear that we live in an age of heightened “ideological conflict” or that we are now more than ever inundated by propaganda. What do we mean, though, by “ideology”? And what do we mean by “propaganda”? What is their relationship to one another? What is their relationship to truth? And what is their relationship to our ethical and political values? In this course, we will examine these questions from both historical and contemporary perspectives, tracing “ideology” and “propaganda” from their origins in the early-modern critique of prejudice, through Marx and the Marxist tradition, to cutting-edge debates among recent political philosophers – all with the aim of developing a sharper analysis of ideology and propaganda as they function in the real world.

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This course introduces students to major figures and ideas in nineteenth-century philosophy. We will begin with a review of Kant, whose work shaped nineteenth-century thought more than any other. We will then proceed through four modules: one concerned with Hegel’s philosophy of history; one concerned with Feuerbach and Marx’s materialistic modifications to Hegel’s philosophy; one concerned with British and American philosophy of science, stressing early reflections on the logic of discovery; and one concerned with the anti-materialist philosophy of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche.

Scientists often conceive of their research as autonomous inquiry, where its being “autonomous” means that it is not determined in its path by values external to science. In this course, we will examine the relationship between science and values with the aim of grasping (1) what values would be operative in a science that were truly autonomous; (2) in cases where science is not fully autonomous, what role heterogenous values (i.e. values originating outside of science) play in shaping the activity of inquiry; and (3) how broader social values bear on science in both its pure and applied dimensions. Can good science be motivated by moral concerns? Is it ever right to block inquiry into particular domains for moral (or otherwise extra-scientific) reasons? In asking these questions, we will evaluate what power we should afford heterogenous values to influence science. The course will conclude, however, with a module treating efforts in the opposite direction: attempts to organize society along scientific lines.

Philosophers have been interested in artificial intelligence since its origins. The reason is clear: research on artificial intelligence will almost certainly improve our understanding of human intelligence (a favorite topic for philosophers). Moreover, artificial intelligence itself seems likely to significantly modify our practical situation as human beings (another favorite topic). Recent progress in artificial intelligence—specifically the development of Large Language Models (LLMs) like GPT-4—has inspired further interest, no less in philosophers than in the general public. In this course, we will examine artificial intelligence from a philosophical point of view. We will first take a brief survey of the history of artificial intelligence research, beginning with Alan Turing and ending with deep learning and LLMs. Then we will investigate the meaning of “artificial intelligence.” What does it mean that artificial intelligence is intelligent? How does it relate to human intelligence? And what does it mean that it is artificial? How does it relate to other technologies and what does its being technology tell us about it?

Since the 18th century, the concept of “revolution” has played an immense role in both philosophical and everyday thinking. In the United States, we think of ourselves and of the country we live in as products of revolution, and the promise or threat of subsequent revolutions (or “insurrections”) continues to play an animating role in social thought. More generally, we moderns are creatures of revolution. In this course, we will trace the history of the concept “revolution” since the 18th century, especially in the context of political and social revolutions. We will consider a variety of competing perspectives on the topic, pursuing questions like the following: When, if ever, is a revolution justified or reasonable? What conditions must obtain in order for revolution to be possible? To what extent, if any, does revolution change our human nature? Are all revolutions historically progressive or are some regressive in character? By engaging with philosophical reflections on revolution, as well as with select contributions by political writers and social scientists, students will familiarize themselves with key concepts in social thought and grapple with our shared condition as modern “creatures of revolution.”

In this course, we will examine the philosophical writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, with the aim of arriving at a cursory overview of his thought. We will take as our guiding thread a paradox concerning the value of truth that arises in the course of Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morality: when, as in scientific inquiry, we take it as a rule that we should always seek the truth, we presuppose that we are the kind of creatures to whom rules can apply (i.e. morally responsible persons); but scientific inquiry, in its tendency to disenchant the world and subvert our traditional self-understanding, threatens to undermine this idea. What if truth-seeking drives us to the conclusion that we are not, in fact, morally responsible persons? What then of truth?

There has been significant concern, in recent years, about the threat of “fake news” and “disinformation.” Most of this discussion has concerned deliberate lies told for political reasons. Those who spread fake news, however, rarely do so deliberately; many believe what they say, however obvious the falsehood of their claims may seem to outsiders. Beliefs of this sort are ideological in nature. Philosophers have studied the social phenomenon of ideology for hundreds of years. In this course, we will examine a number of historical and contemporary accounts of ideology. In doing so, we will try to come to terms with the reality of ideology: What is it? How does it relate to truth? Can it be avoided? If so, how?

The philosopher Immanuel Kant claims (famously) that philosophy boils down to three questions: What can I know? What ought I to do? What may I hope? He also suggests, however, that these three questions reduce, at bottom, to a fourth: What is the human being? Philosophy, then, is the study of what it is to be a human being. In this general introduction to philosophy, we will examine a variety of efforts made by philosophers, both contemporary and historical, to answer Kant’s three questions: What can I know? What ought I to do? What may I hope? We will do this always with an eye to how these efforts contribute to answering Kant’s broader question: What is the human being?

Karl Marx counts among the most influential and controversial thinkers in human history. He made important contributions to philosophy, but he was also a scathing critic of the whole enterprise of philosophy. In this tutorial, we will trace the development of Marx’s thinking through his early career, focusing on his critique of philosophy. We will develop an understanding of Marx’s philosophical background, his own first-order philosophical commitments, and the basic character of his critique of philosophy. We will do all this with an eye to the implications such a critique may have for philosophy as it exists today.

Instructor: Dr. Benjamin Callard
Other Teaching Assistant(s): Dr. Claudia Hogg-Blake

Instructor: Dr. Raoul Moati
Other Teaching Assistant(s): Dr. Joseph Brewer

Instructor: Dr. Matthew Boyle
Other Teaching Assistant(s): Dr. Jaime Edwards & Dr. Rory O’Connell

Instructor: Dr. Anubav Vasudevan
Other Teaching Assistant(s): n/a

Instructor: Dr. Benjamin Callard
Other Teaching Assistant(s): n/a