Teaching

The primary aim of this course is not to train students to be professional philosophers, but rather to teach them to think philosophically. The ability to think philosophically consists of four things: (1) the courage to question that we haven’t questioned (and often would rather not); (2) the ability to make distinctions; (3) the ability to interpret and understand complex ideas expressed in written or spoken form; (4) and the ability to intelligibly express one’s own questions, assumptions, or complex ideas. These skills are practical for almost any human endeavor, personal or professional. This is so in part because philosophy is everywhere; it’s just hiding and you have to know where to look. To develop their ability to think philosophically, we examine some long-standing philosophical questions, such as what’s the right thing to do and why should I do it, do I exist and if so what am I, what is my mind, do I have free will, and what’s the meaning of life anyway? We examine the answers provided by some philosophers, both ancient and contemporary.

This is an introductory course on philosophy of language. Language is perhaps humanity’s most complex and most quotidian tool. We use it to inform (and misinform), emote, manipulate, boast, cajole, convince, connect, create, question, declare, demonize, defend, and so much more. There is rarely a context in which language is not used in some way, and further in which understanding the nature of and use of language will enhance one’s ability to succeed in that context.

The study of language was a centerpiece of 20th-century analytic philosophy. If philosophers or scientists make truth claims via language, we must understand what they meant first in order to determine if what they said is true. We can also mean a great deal more than we say, and the very act of speaking can accomplish things. We will begin here, focusing on theories of reference, implicature, and speech acts.

More recently, philosophers have shifted from the uses of language to its misuses. We will examine accounts of lying, bullshit, propaganda, manipulation and dog whistles, slurs and pejoratives, misinformation and conspiracy theories, ambiguity, jokes, and bragging.

Throughout our lives we encounter a wide range of ethical quandaries regarding how to live morally. Learning to examine the various ethical dimensions of these quandaries takes practice and is necessary for leading a good life. This course will examine a wide range such ethical quandaries related to life as a college student, such as dating and sexual relationships, drinking, cheating, campus speech, and consumer ethics. The underlying assumption here is that by learning how to think through ethical quandaries you currently face, students will be able to adapt these moral thinking processes to solve novel ethical quandaries in the future.

The study of ethics is not the rote memorization of ethical principles and the mechanistic application of them to real-life situations. It is the cultivation of our moral character through conversation and consideration of a wide variety of moral views and moral problems that can arise. It is learning to see what morally is problematic and possible and learning how to be the sort of person who cares about the way things ought to be.

Moral psychology is an interdisciplinary field that draws on both normative theorizing in philosophy and empirical research and modelling in psychology and other social sciences. Despite popular misconception, many philosophical claims beget empirical hypotheses that can be tested. Scientific investigation of human thinking and behavior and the norms thereof are inspired by, speak to, or assume various philosophical theories. As the field of moral psychology has developed recently, moral philosophers have been increasingly offering philosophical interpretations of empirical work in psychology and other social sciences, and at times even conducting their own experiments. Likewise, psychologists empirically examining human morality have become increasingly philosophically self-aware. The resulting literature is increasingly conversant in both cutting-edge scientific findings and long-standing philosophical theories.

This course examines the intersection of philosophy and psychology on questions of human nature and how we should live. We will focus on many of the main concepts and theories in contemporary moral psychology. Students will learn how psychology and philosophy enrich one another. Readings will primarily focus on contemporary empirical findings with philosophical underpinnings discuss in class. Students will learn to criticize methodologies and analyses in the empirical literature. The following topics will be covered this term include preferences, responsibility, emotions, character, cultural and moral disagreement, cooperation, altruism, evolution and morality, dual-process theory, and wellbeing.

Bioethics is the application of normative ethics to issues in life sciences, medicine, and health care. This course provides an initial introduction to major principles and theories in normative ethics. The course then covers theories, topics, and cases in, but not limited to, paternalism, confidentiality, genetics, human research, reproduction, public health, and death. This course is a required component of the Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Health Sciences.