Philosophy

This course mainly investigates questions and problems related to theories of human nature and ethics and their interconnectedness. It covers works by key figures in the Classical and Post-Classical periods of Islamic Philosophy including Avicenna, Averroes, Ibn ‘Arabi, al-Ījī and al-Dawwānī, and by figures in Modern and Enlightenment philosophy including Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Kant and Hegel. Among the main themes the course tackles is the relationship between mind and body and its implications for understanding good and evil as ethical categories in the two traditions, examining the convergences and divergences among them. Methodologically, the class combines both a thematic approach focusing on the main themes in philosophy of mind and its connection with key ethical problems with a historical approach investigating the historical development of these themes and their moral implications. This course is offered to both graduate and undergraduate students with distinct assessment requirements for each; this represents the undergraduate version of the course. 

This course considers the relationship between philosophical reflection and aesthetic practice through the lens of cinema, with the purpose of engaging students of both philosophy and film theory in a cross-disciplinary investigation into cinema. The course draws both from philosophical texts on film, and classical and contemporary film theory. Topics may include epistemological, ontological, and ethical questions about film; the role of memory, subjectivity, identity, and desire in cinema; time, space, and the nature of the image; perspectives on sexuality, gender, and race in film; psychoanalytic, feminist, and postcolonial film theory; and analytic and continental approaches to film and philosophy. This course is offered to both graduate and undergraduate students with distinct assessment requirements for each; this represents the graduate version of the course. 

This course explores the central developments in modern philosophy occurring between the foundation of modern empiricism and rationalism by Locke and Descartes in the 17th century, and the emergence of Kant’s philosophical system in the late 18th century. 

This course introduces students to important concepts, movements, and thinkers within the "late modern" period of philosophy between Kant and the early 20th century. This period encompasses many thinkers and movements of enduring relevance today. They are still relevant because they set the terms of questions that philosophers are still asking, or because important currents of contemporary philosophy are defined in terms of their opposition to these late modern movements. This course introduces students to a range of thinkers and texts from this period. Students critically engage with some of the philosophical concerns and projects that motivated late modern thinkers, and consider their relevance to philosophy today. The thinkers and texts covered vary from year to year, but the period covered by the course usually includes: Kant and post-Kantian thought; Hegel and Marx and the roots of existentialist and phenomenological philosophy (in e.g. Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Sartre, and de Beauvoir).

This political philosophy course offers a study of the basic concepts related to the ethical and legal foundation of society including justice, freedom, security, wealth, property, authority, human rights, forms of government, electoral laws, democratic institutions, etc. It covers political philosophy from Ancient Greece to Marx.

This course offers a historical and systematic analysis of the notion of freedom in its various meanings and dimensions. Topics include: the system of the human condition-- active life and life of the spirit; philosophers and will; concealment and falsification of original phenomena; will as the source of action; freedom and sovereignty; original experiences at the base of the notion of will in the texts of postclassical and premodern tradition-- from Paul the Apostle to Duns Scotus; the cases of Augustine of Hippo and Duns Scotus-- beginning and contingency.

This course aims to equip students with an understanding of the methodology of the philosophy of science, encouraging them to strike a reflective balance between the theoretical perspectives of the philosophy of mind and the empirical evidence of cognitive science. By engaging with original texts in both philosophy and cognitive science, students will enhance their ability to articulate and defend their views clearly while developing strong, disciplined philosophical writing skills.

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the history and thought of major Indian Buddhist philosophical schools. It surveys four key traditions of Buddhist philosophy in India, including Abhidharma, Madhyamika, Yogacara, and Buddhist epistemology and logic. No background in Buddhist thought is presumed on the part of the participants. 

Reading assignments will balance primary sources from key moments of Buddhist thought with recent introductory texts. Primary texts covered or sampled in the course include: Treasury of Metaphysics with its auto commentary; Treatise on the Middle Way, Introduction to the Middle Way and its auto commentary; Twenty Verses and its auto commentary; Thirty Verses, Demonstration of the Three Natures, A Compendium of Means of Knowledge, and its auto commentary. Lectures will be combined with in-class discussions, with particular attention paid to the close reading of primary texts.  

This course introduces students to basic ideas and knowledge in formal logic and equips students with a sufficient background for understanding technical arguments containing logical symbols in philosophy literature.  

The course consists of three main parts: (1) Propositional logic, its language, semantics and syntax; (2) Predicate Logic, its language, semantics and syntax; and (3) Some relevant background in basic (non-axiomatic) set theory (including some ideas about classes, functions, and relations) and basic three-valued logic. Together with these lectures on formal logic, some basic topics in the philosophy of logic are also introduced, such as propositions, logical connectives, reference and definite descriptions, etc.  

This course explores the use of ChatGPT, a large language model, as a tool for engaging with philosophical questions and problems. The course instructs how to interact with  ChatGPT to generate responses to philosophical questions and covers a range of topics on the philosophy of space. For instance, the course seeks to answer the questions: Does space exist like a substance in its own right, or is it nothing but spatial relationships between objects? Are there objective facts about the geometry of space, or are they in some way conventional?   
 
Overall, this course aims to develop students' critical thinking and analytical skills by providing them with a unique opportunity to engage with philosophical questions using cutting-edge technology.