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Fall 2008 Philosophy Graduate Courses
Philosophy 5301. Seminar in Contemporary Philosophy. Wednesdays 9:30-12. Prof. Troyer.
This seminar provides a survey of 20th century analytic philosophy. If you've steeped in this tradition, you don't need this seminar. Readings will include: Ayer (ed), Logical Positivism; Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic; Quine, From a Logical Point of View; Kripke, Naming and Necessity; and various articles.
Philosophy 5307. Logic Seminar. Wednesdays 1:30-4:00 p.m. Prof. Beall.
This is an introduction to some standard philosophical logics, including modal and many-valued logics. Students are exposed to formal techniques used in philosophy, and particularly in philosophical logic (where philosophical logic is formal logic in the service of philosophy, usually modeling some philosophically interesting fragment of discourse or other). We begin with a crash course in (alas, in effect naive) set theory, and get a sense of basic proof techniques. In turn, we use the set-theoretic notions to march through our target logics and languages (beginning with a review of classical languages and logic). For the most part, we take a fairly "semantic" slant towards logic, leaving serious proof-theoretic issues and techniques for other courses. This course does <i>not</i> presuppose a background in mathematics! If you have never taken classical first-order logic, you need to consult the instructor for some background reading: (jc dot beall at uconn dot edu)
Philosophy 5320. Seminar in the History of Philosophy. Thursdays 9:30-12:00 p.m. Prof. Baxter.
We will focus on Hume's skepticism as evinced in Book I of the Treatise and the First Enquiry, as well as some other places, such as the Dialogues. Background may include readings from Sextus, Cicero, Montaigne, Bayle, etc. A useful secondary source will be Popkin's History of Scepticism. Participants will make a seminar presentation on a relevant figure and write a research paper.
Philosophy 5333. Seminar on Nietzsche. Tuesdays 6:30-9:00 p.m.. Prof. Kupperman.
Nietzsche is a philosopher of asides and aphorisms, and his answer to many key questions is "Yes and No." His studied ambivalence has influenced others (compare Wittgenstein, "pain is not a something but is not a nothing either"). In this seminar we will read and discuss four main works: Thus Spake Zarathustra, The Genealogy of Morals, Beyond Good and Evil, and Human, All Too Human. The requirements will include one brief oral presentation, and two papers in the eight to twelve page range.
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