Fall 2025

Undergraduate courses

R1B  Reading and Composition Through Philosophy. Crockett. MW 5-6:30, Wheeler 124.

This is a seminar in reading and writing philosophy. Students will practice analyzing, critically assessing, and writing about philosophical texts. The class will also involve student presentations and review of others students’ written work. Readings will include texts in ethics and aesthetics. This course fulfills the university’s second-semester reading and composition (R&C) requirement.

2  Individual Morality and Social Justice. Viehoff. MWF 12-1, Lewis 100.

The course deals with fundamental ethical issues and is intended, at the same time, as an introduction to philosophy. It seeks to addresses questions concerning the self, our relations to others and our commitment to various human communities. It asks, thus: How can I lead a good life? Are there rules for my relations with others? How are we to settle questions of social living together?

3  The Nature of Mind. Campbell. MWF 10-11, Lewis 100.

In this introductory course we will be looking at the relation of psychological states, such as desires or memories, to the physical world. There are five sections in the course: Foundations (Dualism, Behaviorism and Central-State Materialism), Functionalism, Consciousness, Intentionality, and Personal Identity. What is the mind? Are mental states, such as beliefs and desires, memories and hopes, characteristics of a non-physical substance, or are they configurations of the physical world? And if we think that mental states are entirely physical, should we think of them as relating to the ways in which a person tends to behave, or are they rather states of the person’s brain? Can a mental state be explained by its potential for causal relations with other mental states and with behavior? What is the relation between conscious experience and the brain? Is consciousness something over and above the ordinary biological functioning of the brain, or can it somehow be explained in biological terms? How can we explain our ability to think about the world? What is a person? These questions will be explored in the course of beginning to understand the nature of the mind.

12A  Introduction to Logic. Holliday. TuTh 11-12:30, Physics 1.

Logical reasoning is essential in most areas of human inquiry. The discipline of Logic treats logical reasoning itself as an object of study. Logic has been one of the main branches of philosophy since Aristotle; it revolutionized the foundations of mathematics in the 20th century; and it has been called “the calculus of computer science,” with applications in many areas. Logic has also played an important role in the investigation of language and the mind, as the basis for formal semantics in linguistics and automated reasoning in artificial intelligence. Today, Logic is an interdisciplinary subject with many applications.

PHILOS 12A is intended as a first course in logic for students with no previous exposure to the subject. The course treats symbolic logic. Students will learn to formalize reasoning in symbolic languages with precisely defined meanings and precisely defined rules of inference. Symbolic logic is by nature a mathematical subject, but the course does not presuppose any prior coursework in mathematics—only an openness to mathematical reasoning.

The Fall 2025 installment of 12A will concentrate on three systems of symbolic logic: propositional logic (also known as sentential logic); syllogistic logic; and predicate logic (also known as first-order logic). Propositional logic formalizes reasoning involving “propositional connectives” such as ‘and’, ‘or’, ‘not’, ‘if…then’, and ‘if and only if’, as these words are used in mathematics. Syllogistic logic formalizes reasoning involving basic patterns of “quantification” such as ‘all whales are mammals’ or ‘some animals are carnivores’. Finally, predicate logic formalizes reasoning involving a greater variety of patterns of quantification, plus the attribution of properties to objects, both of which are on display in a statement such as ’for every number that is prime, there is a larger number that is prime’.

Students from philosophy, mathematics, computer science, and linguistics will find important connections between the symbolic logic covered in 12A and their other coursework.

18  Confucius for Today. Shun. MWF 5-6, Wheeler 222.

The teachings of Confucius (6th to 5th century B.C.) have had a profound influence on Chinese and East Asian cultures, and have attracted significant interest throughout the world. In what ways are they still of relevance to life in the twenty-first century? The course will consider the contemporary relevance of Confucius’ teachings for a range of selected topics. The first three weeks will be devoted to an introduction to the historical background of Confucius’ teachings, the key terms in Confucian thought, and important themes in the Analects of Confucius. The remainder of the semester will be devoted to a range of topics related to contemporary life such as: family relations, etiquette and good manners, compassion, humility and modesty, confronting hardship and loss, death, anger, tranquility, learning and liberal education, as well as the idea of spirituality. In addition to the Analects of Confucius, we will read some contemporary works on related topics (including selected philosophical articles), and will also consider elaborations on Confucius’ ideas by later Confucians, including Mencius (4th century B.C.), Zhu Xi (1130-1200) and Wang Yangming (1472-1529), as well as (time permitting) related ideas from Buddhist and Daoist thought.

25A  Ancient Philosophy. Staff. MWF 1-2, Lewis 100.

This course is an introduction to ancient Greek philosophy–and, for the uninitiated, to philosophy itself. We will spend almost all of our time on the three most important Greek philosophers–Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle–with a passing glance at pre-Socratic and Hellenistic philosophers. Our primary goal will be to understand these philosophers’ characteristic methods and views, and (more importantly) their reasons for holding these views. It is often said that we should study ancient Greek philosophy because it is the intellectual basis for all later western philosophy and natural science. That is true, but it is only half the story. We should also study ancient Greek philosophy to become familiar with a worldview so alien that it throws our own into sharp relief. As you are outraged by some of the things these philosophers say, you will come to see more clearly what your own views are, and you will be forced to ask what justifies them. You will not just be studying the history of philosophy; you will be doing philosophy. Prerequisite: None.

100  Philosophical Methods. Dasgupta. W 4-6, Social Sciences 56.

THIS COURSE IS RESTRICTED TO PHILOSOPHY MAJORS. It is intended to improve the student’s ability to read and write philosophy. Special emphasis will be placed on developing analytic skills. This semester we will first discuss questions about the ethics of AI and other future technologies, and then examine a number of philosophical texts on the foundations of ethical theory. There will be short written assignments each week, as well as a longer final paper, which will focus on the essays we are reading. In addition to two hours of lecture, students will meet in tutorials with a teaching assistant in order to discuss the reading, their weekly writing assignment, and the preparation for the final paper.

115  Political Philosophy. Munoz-Dardé. MWF 10-11, Wheeler 222.

This course is devoted to some of the central questions in contemporary political philosophy: liberty, authority, justice and equality. The course is focused particularly on the work of John Rawls.

The course will be organized around three basic themes:

Problems of Authority: Consent and Membership We will look at the significance of obedience to the law in political theory. Are we obliged to obey the laws of a state because we have offered our (tacit) consent by residing within the borders of this state? What, if any, is the force of hypothetical consent? Is there a relation between valuing one’s membership in the political society to which one belongs, and one’s obligations to obey the laws of that society?

Rawls’s Political Liberalism Rawls offers a conception of justice and of the contractualist outlook in his A Theory of Justice and Justice as Fairness a Restatement. We shall examine the basic elements of Rawls’s approach: the role of the Original Position in justifying the account; the significance of the Basic Structure; the priority of liberty; the Difference Principle; the contrast with utilitarianism; the importance of reflective equilibrium; the idea of Political Liberalism.

Egalitarianism Rawls presents his political liberalism as a version of egalitarian theory. Various political philosophers have questioned whether political liberalism is genuinely a form of egalitarianism. We will look at this egalitarian critique. We will also examine the question of whether equality matters, and if so how.

116  Special Topics in Political Philosophy. Viehoff. MWF 3-4, Wheeler 222.

128  Philosophy of Science. Rubenstein. TuTh 3:30-5, TBA.

We will be considering a few of the classic questions in the philosophy of science, such as: how are scientific theories supported by evidence? How does scientific explanation work? What is the nature of causation, laws, probability, and time, and how do they relate to one another? Does the success of science suggest that everything can ultimately be explained in physical terms?

As taught this semester, Phil 128, can satisfy group A of the Epistemology/Metaphysics requirement.

132  Philosophy of Mind. Lee. TuTh 12:30-2, Wheeler 222.

This course will focus on the philosophy and science of conscious experience. What is consciousness? Can it be explained scientifically, and if so, what would a mature science of it look like? Optimistic philosophers and scientists have proposed theories of consciousness, while pessimists argue that there are fundamental philosophical obstacles to achieving a fully satisfactory theory. We will consider a number of proposed theories, and assess some of the alleged obstacles, including the notorious “hard problem” of consciousness.

133  Philosophy of Language. Yalcin. TuTh 11-12:30, Wheeler 222.

An advanced introduction to the philosophy of language. We will consider questions like: What is distinctive of language as a system of representation and communication? In virtue of what can pieces of language be true or false? How do we model the way the meaning of a whole sentence depends on the meanings of its parts? What is information? How can we model its transfer in conversation? How does language-specific knowledge interact with general reasoning in communication and action? How do meaning and communication depend on context? What is it, in general, to know a language? What kind of limits, if any, does language place on our conception of reality?

This should not be your first or second course in philosophy. Phil 12A is strongly recommended.

146  Philosophy of Mathematics. Mancosu. TuTh 9:30-11, Wheeler 222.

This is an introduction to the classics of philosophy of mathematics with emphasis on the debates on the foundations of mathematics. Topics to be covered: infinitist theorems in seventeenth century mathematics; the foundations of the Leibnizian differential calculus and Berkeley’s ‘Analyst’; Kant on pure intuition in arithmetic and geometry; the arithmetization of analysis (Bolzano, Dedekind); Frege’s logicism; the emergence of Cantorian set theory; Zermelo’s axiomatization of set theory; Hilbert’s program; Russell’s logicism; Brouwer’s intuitionism; Gödel’s incompleteness theorems.

Prerequisites: Phil 12A or equivalent.

156A  Foundations of Analytic Philosophy: Frege. Sluga. TuTh 9:30-11, Wheeler 102.

170  Descartes. Crockett. MWF 2-3, Wheeler 222.

This course will provide an intensive introduction to Descartes’s views on physics, metaphysics and epistemology. We will begin by examining some of Descartes’s early works on method, physics and physiology. We will then turn to an in-depth study of the Meditations, focusing on both Descartes’s epistemological project and his anti-scholastic metaphysics. We will supplement our study of the Meditations with readings from the Objections and Replies, the Principles, and several important pieces of secondary literature. Some of the issues we will discuss in this section include the method of doubt, the Cartesian circle, Descartes’s mode of presentation in the Meditations, the creation and ontological status of the eternal truths, the status of the human being, the nature of substance, and the real distinction between mind and body. After our study of the Meditations, we will examine Descartes’s physics as presented in the Principles.

176  Hume. Martin. MWF 11-12, Wheeler 222.

Passion, Doubt & Justice: Hume & the 18th Century Origin of the Social Sciences

We will be reading through David Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature (1739/40). The intention is for us to gain some sense of how the three books that comprise the Treatise fit together (or fail to fit together). Since we cannot read through the complete Treatise in one semester, we will focus on four themes (passions, causation, body, justice), having first looked at some basic elements of Hume’s system.

This is a lecture course designed primarily for upper division undergraduate students who have taken at least one course in philosophy.

Texts needed are David Hume, A Treatise concerning Human Nature and the preferred edition is: Selby-Bigge OUP. Recommended reading is Barry Stroud, Hume, Routledge.

181  Hegel. Novakovic. TuTh 2-3:30, Wurster 102.

This course will be an introduction to Hegel’s philosophy. We will read selections from the Phenomenology of Spirit, Elements of the Philosophy of Right, Lectures on the Philosophy of History, and others. Hegel is a notoriously difficult writer, so one aim of this course is to teach you how to read Hegel, how to interpret his texts so that you can do it on your own. Another aim is to address central questions in his work: What is his “dialectical” method? What are the relationships between consciousness, self-consciousness, reality, and recognition? Why is he so critical of morality? Why does he consider history to be a rational process? What does a fully rational society look like? And why are the family, the market, and the state essential institutions in such a society?

Graduate seminars

200  First-Year Graduate Seminar. Dasgupta/Martin. Tu 4-6, Stroud Room.

Enrollment is limited to first-year Philosophy Ph.D. students only.

290-1  Graduate Seminar: Emotion and Value. Bailey. Tu 4-6, Phil 234.

This seminar is devoted to exploring the relationship between emotion and value, with a particular eye to these two questions: What role or roles do emotions play in constituting value? Is emotion the indispensable vehicle of knowledge, understanding, and/or acquaintance with value?

290-2  Graduate Seminar:. Gómez Sánchez/Lee. Th 2-4, Phil 234.

290-3  Graduate Seminar: Normativity and Its Relation to Reasons. Ginsborg. W 2-4, TBA.

The seminar will explore the question how the notion of normativity is related to that of reasons. The focus of the seminar will be the instructor’s book-in-progress, “Normativity without reasons,” which aims to challenge the commonly held view that normativity has an essential connection to reasons. We will explore in particular the idea that there is a kind of normativity whose recognition is required for language-learning and concept-acquisition, and which is thus more “primitive” than the normativity that is typically invoked in practical philosophy (notably by Christine Korsgaard in her influential book The Sources of Normativity). Readings are likely to include, in addition to material by the instructor, work by Raz, Korsgaard, Parfit, Burge, Kripke, and Wittgenstein, as well as some work in developmental psychology.

290-4  Graduate Seminar: Kadish Workshop on Expression: Its Value and its Norms. Cohen/Wallace. F 12-3, UCB Law 141.

This course is a workshop for discussing work in progress in moral, political, and legal theory. The workshop creates a space for students to engage directly with philosophers, political theorists, and legal scholars working on normative questions, with the goal of fostering critical thinking about concepts of value and developing analytical thinking and writing skills. Another aim is to bring together people from different disciplines and perspectives who have strong normative interests or who speak to issues philosophers and theorists should know something about.

The theme for the Fall 2025 workshop is “Expression: Its Value and its Norms.” We’ll look at new and recent work on free speech in a range of contexts, including political speech, artistic expression, online speech, campus protest, and academic freedom. Presenters are Eugene Volokh (Hoover), Erwin Chemerinsky (Berkeley), Jacob Mchangama (Vanderbilt), Rae Langton (Cambridge), David Cole (Georgetown), Seana Shiffrin (UCLA), Sarah Song (Berkeley), Mary Anne Franks (George Washington), Daphne Keller (Stanford), Adrienne Stone (Melbourne), Erin Miller (USC), Lea Ypi (LSE), and Ben Eidelson (Harvard).

The workshop will be co-taught by Joshua Cohen and R. Jay Wallace.

The format of workshop meetings is as follows. A designated student commentator will lead off with a 15-minute comment on the paper. The presenter will have 5-10 minutes to respond and then we will open up the discussion to all in attendance, including both enrolled and non-enrolled students, faculty, and visitors. After a short break at 2:00 p.m., discussion will continue with enrolled students for the final 50 minutes.

The first meeting of the Workshop will be on Friday, August 22, 2025.

For updated details during the semester, please consult the Kadish Workshop website.

290-5  Graduate Seminar: Risk and Aggregation. Holliday. Tu 2-4, Phil 234.

Seminar on attitudes toward risk and the aggregation of such attitudes. Readings from decision theory, social choice theory, and ethics. Applications to AI safety.

290-6  Graduate Seminar: Consent and Normative Powers. Kolodny/Munoz-Dardé. Th 12-2, Phil 234.

The overarching topic of this seminar is consent, of the sort that makes, or seems to make, what is otherwise impermissible — such as surgery or sex — permissible.

For one of us, the main focus is on questions of consent in intimate relations. Many approaches take a uniform approach to questions of consent across property, the regulation of interference with the body, and sexual relations. But the questions surrounding medical consent highlight different social structures from those that relate to intimate questions. Focusing on the latter, one might question whether acts of consent, or the normative significance of an attitude of consenting, are fundamental to our concerns here, rather than foregrounding consensual or cooperative activities.

For one of us, the main focus is on consent as an instance of a so-called “normative power.” It seems hard to doubt that we have powers to alter the normative situation of ourselves and others — releasing others from obligations as with consent, undertaking obligations ourselves as with promises, or imposing obligations on others, as with authoritative commands. But what is involved in the exercise of these powers? Does it suffice, for example, to intend the relevant alteration or to communicate such an intention? What conditions must be met to exercise these powers? How informed must we be, for example, about the alteration? Are there limits on these powers? Are there things we cannot consent to, for example, or cannot promise? Do these powers bring about the relevant alterations directly, or by somehow changing the non-normative situation? What accounts for normative powers? Does it suffice that we have interests in possessing them? Do they depend, in one way or another, on social conventions?

Philosophers we will read may include Hume, Raz, Owens, Enoch, Tadros, Dougherty, Liberto, Gardner, Munoz-Dardé, Bolinger, and Lewinsohn.

375  Teaching Seminar. Kaiser. W 6-8, Phil 234.

A hands-on training seminar for new philosophy GSIs that addresses both practical and theoretical issues.