Fall 2024

Undergraduate courses

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

2  Individual Morality and Social Justice. Frick. MWF 11-12, TBA.

3  The Nature of Mind. Campbell. MWF 9-10, TBA.

5  Science and Human Understanding. Rubenstein. MWF 10-11, TBA.

12A  Introduction to Logic. Gómez Sánchez. TuTh 11-12:30, TBA.

This course is an introduction to first-order logic. You will learn how to put arguments from ordinary language into a formal language, how to ascertain validity using truth tables and first-order models, and how to construct derivations within a fitch-style system of natural deduction.

18  Confucius for Today. Shun. TuTh 6:30-8, TBA.

25A  Ancient Philosophy. MacFarlane. MWF 1-2, TBA.

98BC-1  Berkeley Connect. Staff. Tu 5-6, TBA.

98BC-2  Berkeley Connect. Staff. Tu 6-7, TBA.

100  Philosophical Methods. Dasgupta. W 4-6, TBA.

104  Ethical Theories. Kolodny. MWF 9-10, TBA.

116  Special Topics in Political Philosophy: Equality and Identity. Munoz-Dardé. TuTh 12:30-2, TBA.

This course will be focused on the political ideal of equality. We will pay special attention to:

  1. the relation between ideas of equality, priority and sufficiency, or needs,
  2. the notion of equality of opportunity,
  3. the relation between equality, responsibility and desert; and
  4. discrimination of given social groups or identities.

As taught this semester, Phil 116 satisfies the ethics requirement for the philosophy major.

117AC  Philosophy of Race, Ethnicity and Citizenship. Crockett. MWF 2-3, TBA.

125  Metaphysics. Gómez Sánchez. TuTh 2-3:30, TBA.

Metaphysics is concerned with very general questions about the objective nature/structure of reality. In this course we will tackle four foundational metaphysical questions, through the lens of contemporary analytic metaphysics: (i) what is it for something to be possible or impossible? (ii) do the natural laws of our world leave any room for free will and/or moral responsibility? (iii) what does it take for a person to persist from one time to another (e.g., from childhood to adulthood)? (iv) what is the nature of time?

136  Perception. Martin. TuTh 12:30-2, TBA.

142  Philosophical Logic. Mancosu. TuTh 9:30-11, TBA.

The course aims at introducing students to the basic topics in philosophy of logic. Topics to be covered will be selected from among the following: theories of truth, logical consequence, modal notions (necessity/possibility) and possible world semantics, vagueness, quantification, existence and descriptions, first vs second-order logic, extensionality vs intentionality, realism and antirealism in logic.

Prerequisites (no exceptions!): Phil 12A (or equiv) and at least another course in philosophy.

148  Probability and Induction. Zhang. MWF 12-1, TBA.

170  Descartes. Carriero. TuTh 11-12:30, TBA.

A close reading of Descartes’s Meditations. We’ll try to let Descartes’s own agenda come through by seeking a philosophically sensitive and historically informed interpretation that can be sustained across the entire six meditations, rather than treating the work as a collection of interesting arguments. No previous knowledge of Descartes presupposed.

171  Hobbes. Primus. TuTh 2-3:30, TBA.

189  Topics in Recent European Philosophy: Foucault. Sluga. TuTh 9:30-11, TBA.

Michel Foucault: A comprehensive examination of Foucault’s thought from The Order of Things of 1966 to his late writings from the 1980’s on politics and ethics.

Readings: Foucault, Discipline and Punish The History of Sexuality, vol. 1 A class reader (to be made available at Copy Central)

*As taught this semester, this course satisfies the 160-187 (but not the 160-178) requirement for the major.

198BC-1  Berkeley Connect. Staff. M 5-6, TBA.

198BC-2  Berkeley Connect. Staff. Tu 6-7, TBA.

198BC-3  Berkeley Connect. Staff. W 5-6, TBA.

198BC-4  Berkeley Connect. Staff. W 5-6, TBA.

Graduate seminars

200  First Year Graduate Seminar. Campbell/Ginsborg. Tu 2-4, TBA.

290-1  Graduate Seminar. Holliday/Zhang. M 2-4, TBA.

290-2  Graduate Seminar. Wallace. Tu 12-2, TBA.

290-3  Graduate Seminar. Martin. Tu 4-6, TBA.

290-4  Graduate Seminar. Viehoff. Th 2-4, TBA.

290-5  Graduate Seminar. Cohen/Munoz-Dardé. F 12-3, TBA.

375  Teaching Seminar. Kaiser. M 6-8, TBA.