Spring Quarter

Dept	Course No and Title	Instructor
PHILOS (S20)	30 INTR SYMBOLIC LOGIC	WEHMEIER, K.
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PHILOS (S20)	143 EVOL OF HUM MRL PSY	STANFORD, P.
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PHILOS (S20)	144 THE SOCIAL CONTRACT	SKYRMS, B.
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PHILOS (S20)	31 INTRO INDUCT LOGIC	ROTHFUS, G.
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PHILOS (S20)	110 TOPICS ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY - STOICISM	PERIN, C.
Stoicism was a philosophical school of thought founded in the fourth century BCE by Zeno of Citium that became particularly influential during the Roman imperial period. Bizarrely, it also seems to be fashionable now among the entrepeneurs and programmers of Silicon Valley. In fact, Stoicism is alive and well in contemporary culture. There is a popular website called The Daily Stoic, an annual conference of those who think of themselves as modern Stoics (yes, it's called 'Stoicon'), and shelves of Stoic themed self-help manuals with titles like The Obstacle is the Way, Stoicism: How to Stop Fearing and Start Living, and How to Think Like a Roman Emperor. In this course we'll read and try to make sense of the most important ancient Stoic texts. We'll start with the philosopher who inspired Zeno and whom the Stoics themselves counted as the first Stoic, Socrates. We'll then turn to writings by Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. Our task will be to determine whether Stoicism is really a plausible guide to the good life or just an elaborate, maybe even pernicious, philosophical fantasy.
PHILOS (S20)	105C INCOMPLETENESS	MEADOWS, T.
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PHILOS (S20)	103 INTR TO MORAL PHIL	JAMES, A.
Speech Ethics: This course will consider how moral theory might help illuminate a variety of questions about the ethics of speech. Topics include: insults, slurs and hate speech; "silencing" and misogyny; "call outs" and "calling bullshit"; "bullshitting," "fake news," and propaganda; "mansplaining," testimony and credibility; U.S. "free speech" exceptionalism; and the cooperative "speech commons" required for functioning democracy.
PHILOS (S20)	4 INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS	JAMES, A.
Selected topics from the history of ethics, e.g., the nature of the good life and the moral justification of conduct. (IV)
PHILOS (S20)	1 INTRO TO PHILOSOPHY	HELMREICH, J.
A selection of philosophical problems, concepts, and methods, e.g., free will, cause and substance, personal identity, the nature of philosophy itself. Materials fee. (IV)
PHILOS (S20)	165 PHILOSOPHY OF ACTION	GREENBERG, S.
What is an action? How are actions to be explained? How do we know our actions? What is it to be an agent? Such questions--ontological, metaphysical, epistemological, and moral--are at the beart of the philosophy of action, to which this course is an introduction. These questions--and others--will be considered through a reading of texts from the mid-twentieth century to the present.
PHILOS (S20)	2 PUZZLES & PARADOXES	FENSEL, J.
Introduction to the formal tools needed to comprehend and evaluate philosophical arguments and theoretical reasoning in general. (IV and VB ).
PHILOS (S20)	130 ANIMAL ETHICS	DONALDSON, B.
In their definition of religion, Emile Durkheim and Mircea Eliade present the human/animal boundary as a fundamental hallmark of the discipline, one often overlooked in contemporary studies of “animals and religion.” In this course we will utilize this fundamental binary to identify the construction of “human” and “animal” subjectivities in religious narratives such as Jewish, Islamic, Christian, Jain, and Buddhist, as well as in other scientific and ethical accounts of humans and animals, including those considered secular. We will identify practices and modes of thinking that might disturb this conceptual binary, creating new opportunities for rethinking identity, community, and response beyond species lines.
PHILOS (S20)	21 INTRO PHIL & RELIGN	DONALDSON, B.
Religious claims are of particular interest to philosophers because they raise important metaphysical issues. These issues include the ultimate nature of reality, the distinction between mind, body, and soul, the existence or character of God/gods, the problem of evil and suffering, afterlife, the relationship between humans, animals, and plants, as well as the link between rationality and belief, among others. Utilizing methods and concepts in the field, we will look at several of these issues, with additional reference to related themes such as religion and science, the role of morality, and religious pluralism. Our sources will include classic western philosophical debates, with some reference to views from the Indian traditions—Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism—as well as perspectives through the lens of race, gender, and species.
PHILOS (S20)	3 TECH & SOCIETY	CAPISANI, S.
Technology is pervasive in contemporary society, affecting virtually every facet of human existence. It is commonplace in our homes and work. It has transformed our communities, including affecting the very meaning of the word community. It has made the world smaller through advances in communication and afforded new ways to interact with others. As technology has become so central to our lives, we often take it for granted and neglect to think deeply about its impact and ethical issues that arise from its creation, use, and implementation. This course is designed to encourage such reflection by inviting you into a deeper discourse on technology, its impacts, and what relationship ethics has to technology and society. We will examine the relationship between ethics, and the notion of progress that arises in the context of emerging technologies. We will consider different applications and ethical consequences of the development and use of technology in different domains, such as in its use to address climate change, its application to energy and the environment, food production, information and communication, military use, human enhancement, biomedical technologies, etc.
PHILOS (S20)	13 HIST CONTEM PHILOS	BONCOMPAGNI, A.
This course focuses on American pragmatism. We will read classical pragmatists such as Charles s. Peirce, William James and John Dewey, but also Jane Addams and other lesser known women thinkers, and will also consider some more recent perspectives. Topics include knowledge, truth, language, common sense, belief and action, education and society.
PHILOS (S20)	163 SOCIAL EPISTEMOLOGY	BONCOMPAGNI, A.
A selection of topics in social epistemology with a special emphasis on testimony, implicit bias, background assumptions, prejudice, feminist epistemology, and the epistemology of resistance. We will work on the blurred boundary between common sense certainties and deeply entrenched prejudices, making use of the Wittgenstein-inspired perspective of hinge epistemology in the social domain.