Summer Session II: August 3 - September 4

Course Descrption:

What makes an argument good? How can you know whether someone’s reasoning is sound? How can you tell whether a conclusion really follows from its premises? This course is an introduction to formal logic, which will help us answer questions like these.

Logic provides a foundation for all other disciplines. We will approach it as the study of valid arguments, which are an essential part of correct reasoning. Regardless of what you study, logic will sharpen your ability to analyze arguments and think clearly. At its core, thinking clearly requires investigating the consequences of our assumptions—and that’s often harder than it sounds. Logic provides systematic methods for uncovering hidden consequences and thereby evaluating our assumptions.

In this course, we will learn a formal language—truth-functional logic—that allows us to be precise enough to eliminate ambiguity from our descriptions. We will learn how to construct proofs to rigorously derive conclusions that are not immediately obvious, prove arguments, distinguish valid from fallacious arguments, and construct counterexamples to bad arguments. By the end of the course, you will have a powerful set of tools for thinking clearly, arguing rigorously, and navigating complex reasoning in most disciplines. 

Instructor: Huadian Liu
TuTh 2:00p-4:50p
In Person

Instructor: Sam Delorme
TuTh 2:00p-3:50p
In Person

Course Description:

Are there objective moral truths, or is morality ultimately a matter of opinion, culture, or emotion? Do we have strong obligations to help those in need, even when doing so is costly? What do we owe our parents, our children, and strangers? And what makes an action right or wrong in the first place?  This course investigates these fundamental ethical questions. 

The subject of ethics is concerned with how we ought to live and how we ought to treat others. In this course, we will approach these questions through the study of philosophical arguments. We will examine major ethical theories, including utilitarianism and contractualism, and we will consider how those theories bear on concrete moral issues. Topics will include moral skepticism, charitable giving, parental licensing, family obligations, and the demands morality places on us in everyday life.

Throughout the course, we will focus on reading, understanding, and evaluating different points of view on these questions. We will ask not only what different philosophers claim, but also what reasons they offer and whether those reasons are convincing. This course will guide you through questions that are important to each of our lives, and teach you how to think more thoughtfully and carefully about them.

Instructor: A. Lamey
MW 9:00a-10:50a
Remote

Course Description: 

This class investigates issues of justice through the prism of contemporary political philosophy. We will pay particular attention to issues of justice as they revolve around both questions of redistribution and representation. Questions of redistribution are addressed by theories of distributive justice, which address the question of whether or not the state should redistribute wealth. If not, why not? If so, based on what principles? Questions of representation address issues of identity in one form or another, as they pertain to matters such as immigration and culture.

As part of this class students will spend multiple class sessions playing a role-immersion game online. Students will play roles inspired by different perspectives in political philosophy. Working as parts of factions or as unaligned indeterminates they will work with and sometimes against one another to achieve their victory objective. During the game students will write an essay and give speeches from the point of view of their role.

The class assumes no background in philosophy and students who put in the necessary effort can do well. Students will do particularly well if they stay current with the weekly readings and actively participate in our game.

Please note that this offering of Phil 28 requires students to use a computer with a working camera. While no one will ever have to show their background, you will need to show your face, barring special accommodation with the instructor.

Instructor: Andy Lamey
MW 11:00a-1:50p
In Person

Course Description: 

Examination of freedom and equality under the US Constitution, focusing on Supreme Court cases concerning discrimination on grounds of race, ethnic background, gender, undocumented status, wealth, and sexual orientation, and cases regarding contraceptives, abortion, interracial marriage, polygamy, and same-sex marriage.

Instructor: D. Baird
TuTh 11:00a-1:50p
In Person

Course Description:

What can a philosopher do with film? As one might expect they can start by simply watching a film, to see if it raises philosophical problems of any sort. They can also make use of a film by considering the thought experiments the film depicts, if any (the first season of Star Trek seems to be full of those!). More generally, a philosopher can think about film as art or a certain medium and ask philosophical questions about the medium itself (e.g., what is film? Is film a form of art? What is a good film? What makes a film beautiful? What is its nature?…).

These are all worthwhile activities; but in this class we will do something different: we will focus on film as a ‘philosophical toy.’ We will ask first of all whether film as film can philosophize. This question can be broken into several: Can we make philosophy with film? Can a film propose a philosophical argument? Can we philosophize using film language only? What stories can be told through film without using natural language and narrative?

To answer these questions we will refrain from watching films that depict or mimic reality, but will turn instead to those that focus on the interiority of human life. How does thinking work? How are we affected? How does memory work? How do we fear?