Philosophy

In this course, students learn about a number of key topics in the philosophy of mathematics. It ensure students are familiar with the main views such as Platonism, nominalism, logicism, formalism, intuitionism, and structuralism, as well as the main criticisms of each. Students learn about the philosophical significance of Russell’s paradox and Gödel’s incompleteness theorems. From here, they consider topics in the philosophy of mathematical practice, such as the nature of mathematical proofs, the use of diagrams in mathematical reasoning, explanation and understanding in mathematics, mathematical knowledge, and the ethics of mathematics.  

The course explores a selection of puzzles, ideas, arguments, and debates in political philosophy broadly conceived. The specific selection of topics changes every year.

Through lectures/seminars, students will explore the ways in which philosophers have sought to understood and respond to the demands of Christian faith from both within and without that faith.Students will explore the social and psychological context of such faith, and the ways in which one might understand Christian notions of love, purity, devotion and sainthood, amongst others. Students will explore the ways in which some thinkers have seen Christianity as deepening our sense of the human condition whilst others have seen Christianity as degrading of our condition. The course is text based as, in this context, this is one of the best ways in which students can come to a deepened intellectual understanding of the matters under consideration.

This course is an introduction to what is known as formal or mathematical logic, requiring no prior knowledge of philosophy or mathematics. It does not communicate results about logical systems but instead it imparts a skill - the ability to recognize and construct correct deductions and refutations. The course provides a general introduction to both propositional logic and predicate logic. Lectures and detailed handouts provide the central course material; and weekly tutorial groups provide support for students to work through the formal exercises. 

This introductory course discusses how to identify types of arguments, how to evaluate them, and how to avoid fallacies and mistaken beliefs. It approaches critical argumentation as a practical skill that is learned through examples of real arguments. The methods presented are based on techniques developed in argumentation theory and informal logic, as well as the most updated discoveries on cognition and argumentation. Coursework includes public debate on a selected topic.

This course examines, from a philosophical perspective, the ways in which recent developments in genetics and neuroscience challenge our conceptions of what we are — and what we could become.

This course examines the ambivalent role of digital technologies in our societies and interrogates the future by questioning their relevance. It considers where we come from and how the pre-web world prepared us for this new reality, notably through science fiction. Then, it discusses what is happening in our daily lives by deciphering the announced technological advances and their effects on reality; in particular, a "synthetic horizon" where the Metaverse, crypto-assets, and artificial intelligence coexist to help humanity meet the challenges ahead. Finally, it considers whether these technologies will really help and explores a horizon that seems the most desirable for all. 

This course tackles contemporary ethical issues regarding the development of technology and its impact on the environment by engaging with the latest research being done in this field. In order to achieve these goals, this class will be held in a “flipped classroom” style, wherein students will read through lecture materials in advance to allocate more time for classroom discussions on these pressing issues.

This course highlights the development of Buddhist thought in Japan. Founded in India in the fifth century BCE, Buddhism was brought to Japan via China and Korea in the sixth century CE. Due to the influence of local structures and beliefs, Buddhism in Japan acquired some features which make it distinct from other forms of Buddhism in East and Southeast Asia. Concretely, this course examines the Buddhist teachings that had been influential in Japan at one time in the past; trace the interaction of Buddhism with other religions such as Shinto during the premodern period and shed light on the process of its development and transformation into the modern age.

In this course, we will bring together Plato's and Wittgenstein's discussions of negation, truth, and being. This is not an arbitrary juxtaposition: Plato's Theaetetus is a text that Wittgenstein responds to directly in the Philosophical Investigations--one of a very few philosophical texts to be mentioned at all. In the first half of the semester, we will engage in close reading of parts of Plato's Theaetetus and Sophist that discuss the structure of propositions, the nature of truth, the possibility of false belief and false statements, and also negation. (The Sophist is closely tied to the Theaetetus, by both literary signals and philosophical themes.) In the second half of the semester, we will turn to Wittgenstein, reading selections from the Tractatus and the Investigations. We will be interested both in how Wittgenstein responds explicitly to Plato and in how Wittgensteins responds indirectly (or unintentionally) to Plato.