Philosophy

This course teaches critical thinking approaches, methods, and techniques for evaluating information and making sound decisions. It examines misinformation, common logical fallacies, and misleading uses of statistics and data visualization, using everyday examples to build practical analytical skills. Emphasis is placed on assessing the credibility and validity of information in an environment saturated with competing claims. By strengthening the ability to identify and challenge misinformation, the course highlights the importance of critical thinking for informed decision-making, scientific literacy, and the functioning of democratic societies.

The notion of risk is central to areas such as economics, finance, medicine, and law as well as branches of philosophy such as ethics and epistemology. It is also a prominent part of ordinary everyday decision making. Risk is standardly understood in a probabilistic way, on which the risk of a given outcome is connected with the probability that the outcome will occur. In some recent philosophical literature, however, the dominance of this probabilistic approach has been challenged, and certain non-probabilistic conceptions of risk have been proposed. This literature serves the starting point for this course, but students go on to consider a much broader range of literature, drawing upon sources in psychology, risk management and legal theory. Specific topics to be covered vary from year to year but may include the ethics of risk imposition, risk-taking in extreme sport, the legal distinction between attacks and endangerments, and whether there is such a thing as a "de minimis risk" - a risk that is so small that it can be rationally ignored.

This course is an introduction to critical thinking and the analysis of argument. It examines arguments drawn from diverse sources including journalism, advertising, science, medicine, history, economics, and politics. It also will grapple with scepticism, conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, and fallacies.

This course explores the history of social and political thought, focusing on an alternating set of formative texts and their authors. Global early modernity and the Age of Discovery saw the rise of various imperial powers, within and beyond Europe, as well as rapid economic transformation. The onset of modernity and the Age of Enlightenment further strengthened the secular state and witnessed the sustained critique of inherited political and moral ideas. These developments spawned new works of political, moral, and social philosophy that often became famous in their own day and have intrigued intellectual historians and philosophers ever since. The main purpose of this module is to investigate selected texts in order to ascertain their conceptual significance, but also to attempt to understand the historical circumstances in which they were born, and which they themselves influenced. 

This seminar explores Plato’s views on akrasia and its reception in the Platonic tradition, especially by Plotinus. The exploration begins with a close reading and discussion of several key passages in Plato’s dialogues before moving on to equally careful readings of key passages in the later tradition. Students discuss various versions of akrasia (synchronic, diachronic, knowledge-based, belief-based, etc.) and some views found in the secondary literature. No knowledge of Ancient Greek is required, but at times the Greek text is discussed in a manner accessible to all.

This course covers the history of western philosophy from the Greek era to the present and changes in debates and concepts of major philosophers.

This course critically examines aesthetics from a historical perspective, focusing on the theory of both Plato and Aristotle. The course explores topics of aesthetics and form; aesthetics as a historical discipline, and aesthetics as a normative discipline. It then compares and contrasts Platonic aesthetics to Aristotelian poetics.

This course introduces the study of meaning. With the rapid rise in practical applications of artificial intelligence systems, it is now more crucial than ever for us to define what it means to be human, and there is nothing more humanistic than studying the concept of meaning itself. 

Students engage with some of the most influential scientific, literary, and philosophical texts that have shaped the world today with the objective to move beyond a passive understanding. Students are challenged to think critically and actively about how the ideas put forth in these texts have come to be rejected, revised, and/or replaced, and how this very process of the shifting dominant narrative of meaning (i.e., not just the works by themselves in isolation) continues to influence the society and culture that they currently live in. 

Topics include Writing systems, Rhetoric, Similes, metaphors, and meaning, Creating new knowledge via logic, What is knowledge, Are signs arbitrary, Meaning as behavior, Language and thought Sarcasm, Mathematical meaning (axiomatic system), Mathematical meaning (axiomatic system), Can computers and AI understand meaning, Society and language use, How might aliens define meaning. 

This course examines Plato’s political philosophy through the lens of John Rawls’s distinction between ideal and non-ideal theory. Rawls characterizes ideal theory as assuming full compliance with the demands of justice, while non-ideal theory addresses the conditions under which such compliance fails. By engaging closely with Plato’s Republic and Laws, the class explores how each text embodies or challenges these frameworks in order to achieve a greater understanding of the aims of Plato’s political thought and the merits versus limits of philosophical idealization.

This seminar introduces feminist theories that aim to decentralize the predominantly English-speaking discourse on feminism. It includes texts written in languages other than English or French, with a focus on German-speaking and Latin American feminist works. Decentralization is understood broadly: The course examines feminist perspectives from the peripheries, such as rural areas in contrast to urban centers, and the global south in contrast to the global north. Through these diverse viewpoints, the seminar seeks to expand the understanding of feminism beyond dominant frameworks and critically explore intersections of gender, race, and class.