Courses
![Summer Session I: 2009
Philosophy 27/Political Science 27: Ethics and Society [Syllabus] [Paper Topic] [Final Exam Study Questions]
In this course we will explore several pressing ethical issues, all of which involve decisions that can make the difference between life and death: euthanasia, abortion, war, and aid to the needy. We will consider whether death can ever be good for a human being, whether killing a human being for her own good is ever morally permissible, whether there is a morally significant difference between killing and letting die (and, more generally, between doing harm and allowing it to occur), whether human fetuses are moral persons, whether abortion is never, sometimes, or always morally permissible, whether killing noncombatants in a just war is ever morally permissible, whether there is a morally significant difference between intending harm and merely foreseeing harm, and whether each of us has a moral obligation to help those in desperate need. The immediate aim of the course is to help you understand and evaluate arguments for and against various answers that might be provided to these questions. The ultimate aim of the course is to help you arrive at your own reasoned, justified, and well-informed position on the relevant issues.
Philosophy 120: Introduction to Symbolic Logic [Syllabus] [Reverse Truth Tables Homework Assignment] [More Reverse Truth Tables]
In this course, we will learn how to determine, of any proposed argument that may be represented in first-order predicate logic, whether or not it is deductively valid. To this end, we will learn how to symbolize arguments formulated in English by learning how to symbolize the English sentences that constitute the premises and conclusions of these arguments; we will learn the rules of a natural deduction system and learn how to apply those rules to determine the logical status of any argument symbolized in accordance with those rules; and we will also learn semantic methods for determining validity and invalidity. Those who acquire the knowledge and skills taught in this course will be able to distinguish between good and bad reasoning in the most rigorous way possible. [Note: If you are a philosophy major, PHIL 10 is a prerequisite for this course. If you are not a philosophy major and you have not taken PHIL 10, then you need to obtain my consent in order to enroll.]
Winter 2009
Dimensions of Culture 2: Justice
The course examines the history of the Bill of Rights and the function of the federal judiciary under the United States Constitution, and then discusses the proper interpretation and application of the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. We will consider famous Equal Protection cases concerning racial discrimination (Plessy, Brown, Korematsu), affirmative action (Bakke, Grutter, Gratz, Seattle Schools), sex discrimination (Bradwell, Muller, Reed, Frontiero, Craig, and United States v. Virginia), discrimination on the basis of wealth (Rodriguez), and discrimination on grounds of alienage (Plyler). We will also consider famous Due Process cases concerning contraception (Griswold, Eisenstadt), abortion (Roe, Casey), homosexual conduct (Bowers, Lawrence), gay marriage (Goodridge, Kerrigan, In Re Marriage Cases), the right to refuse unwanted medical treatment (Cruzan), and the right to die (Glucksberg).
Lecture Notes (posted as soon as they are ready)
Lecture 1 (1/5): Introduction
Lecture 2 (1/7): The Bill of Rights
Lecture 3 (1/9): Constitutional Interpretation I
Lecture 4 (1/12): Constitutional Interpretation II
Lecture 5 (1/14): Plessy
Lecture 6 (1/16): Brown
Lecture 7 (1/21): Lochner
Lecture 8 (1/23): Palko and Carolene Products, fn.4
Lecture 9 (1/26): Korematsu
Lecture 10 (1/28): Bakke
Lecture 11 (1/30): Grutter
Lecture 11 (1/30): Gratz
Lecture 12 (2/2): Seattle Schools
Lecture 13 (2/4): Bradwell and Muller
2/6: Lecture canceled (illness)
Lecture 14 (2/9): Frontiero and Craig
Lecture 15 (2/11): United States v. Virginia (VMI Case)
Lecture 16 (2/18): Rodriguez
Lecture 17 (2/20): Plyler
Lecture 18 (2/23): Griswold
Lecture 19 (2/25): Roe
Lecture 20 (2/27): Casey
Lecture 21 (3/2): Bowers
Lecture 22 (3/4): Lawrence
Lecture 23 (3/6): Goodridge
Lecture 23 (3/6): In Re Marriage Cases
Lecture 24 (3/9): Cruzan
Lecture 25 (3/11): Glucksberg
Lecture 26 (3/13): Conclusion
STUDY QUESTIONS FOR DOC2 FINAL
Philosophy 201: Hume’s Treatise of Human Nature
Graduate Seminar, co-taught with Don Rutherford
This seminar will be devoted to a careful examination of David Hume’s Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40), focusing on the lesser-studied practical philosophy of Books II and III. Hume was just 28 when he published his masterpiece, which he later said “fell dead-born from the Press; without reaching such distinction as even to excite a Murmur among the Zealots.” He spent the rest of his career attempting to present his insights in a more compelling manner, leading to the Essays Moral and Political (1741-2, 1748); An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding (1748, 1758); An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals (1751); and Four Dissertations (1757, containing “The Natural History of Religion,” “Of the Passions” and “Of the Standard of Taste”). Hume’s contributions to moral philosophy are huge. The case he mounts against moral rationalism, the doctrine that moral judgments are grounded in reason alone, remains extraordinarily influential. We will attempt to tease out the different strands of Hume’s critical argument, as well as the support he offers for his own positive account of morality as based on a distinctive “moral sentiment.” Getting clear on what Hume means by this requires that we look carefully at Book II of the Treatise, where he develops his account of the passions. And this in turn presupposes that we have understood Hume’s landmark contributions to theoretical philosophy in Book I: his views on the proper method of enquiry; the theory of ideas and impressions; the distinction of relations of ideas and matters of fact; the discussion of causation and necessary connection; and finally, his perplexing engagement with skepticism. Working forward through the text we will be concerned with investigating the arguments Hume offers for particular claims, as well as whether the Treatise as a whole hangs together as a systematic work, with later books building on the conclusions of earlier ones.
Fall 2008
Philosophy 120: Introduction to Symbolic Logic [Syllabus] [Reverse Truth Tables Assignment] [Practice Mid-Term Symbolization Answers]
In this course, we will learn how to determine, of any proposed argument that may be represented in first-order predicate logic, whether or not it is deductively valid. To this end, we will learn how to symbolize arguments formulated in English by learning how to symbolize the English sentences that constitute the premises and conclusions of these arguments; we will learn the rules of a natural deduction system and learn how to apply those rules to determine the logical status of any argument symbolized in accordance with those rules; and we will also learn semantic methods for determining validity and invalidity. Those who acquire the knowledge and skills taught in this course will be able to distinguish between good and bad reasoning in the most rigorous way possible. [Note: If you are a philosophy major, PHIL 10 is a prerequisite for this course. If you are not a philosophy major and you have not taken PHIL 10, then you need to obtain my consent in order to enroll.]
Philosophy 100: Socrates and Plato [COURSE WEBPAGE]
The course examines and evaluates the main philosophical positions advocated and defended by Socrates and Plato, as they appear in Plato’s dialogues. Topics to be covered include: Socrates’ theory of definition; Socrates’ acceptance, and Plato’s denial, of (i) hedonism [the thesis that the good is pleasure], (ii) the impossibility of weakness-of-will, and (iii) moral intellectualism [the thesis that virtue is a kind of knowledge]; Socrates’ and Plato’s (rather different) defenses of the claim that virtue (justice in particular) is sufficient for happiness; the paradox of inquiry, the doctrine of recollection, and Plato’s arguments for the immortality of the soul; and Plato’s theory of forms, his theory of knowledge, and (if there is time) the emendations to those theories forced upon him by considerations raised in the Parmenides and Theaetetus. Prerequisites: Upper-division status; at least one UCSD philosophy course recommended.](Courses_files/shapeimage_2.png)
