This is a first course in logic for graduate students in philosophy. Wherever possible we will explore the relevance of logic to philosophy.

Topics to be covered include the following:

1. An introduction to elementary logic, i.e., sentence logic and predicate logic with identity.
2. A survey of topics in metalogic, e.g., basic syntactic and semantic concepts, consistency and completeness.
3. A survey of some philosophically interesting systems, e.g. modal logic, many valued logic, intuitionistic logic, free logic and classic Aristotelian logic.

Textbooks:

• Elements of Deductive Inference, Bessie and Glennan
• Gödel's Proof, Nagel and Newman

N.B. Students are advised to prepare for the course by reviewing sentence logic and truth tables.

N.N.B. Before the semester begins go to Amazon, Barnes and Noble etc. to purchase less expensive used copies of the text books.

[Web Editor's Note: Besides saving yourself money on these books—and the Bessie & Glennan is very expensive if you buy it new—you can help the Graduate Center by using the links on this page to search for used copies on Amazon or Powell's. If you use the links on this page or go through the Graduate Center's Virtual Bookshop to buy your books, then the Graduate Center's library will get a cut of the proceeds.]

In the recent secondary literature on Plato, two rather different modes of interpretation are to be found. One, more traditional, privileges arguments, largely in abstraction from the dialogues' historical context and from their literary and dramatic features. The other interprets the arguments in light of contextual, literary, and dramatic features. In this seminar we will read four dialogues—Charmides, Meno, Phaedo, and Phaedrus—considering the advantages and disadvantages of each of interpretive orientation for understanding of the dialogues and key platonic concepts such as dialectic, Forms, knowledge, philosophy, rhetoric, and politics, recollection, the soul, the nature and acquisition of virtue, madness and inspiration, and the attack on writing.

The dialogues and secondary sources in the first two sections of the reading list below are required for the course. The alternate translations in the third section of the list are recommended, but not required.

Platonic Dialogues (required)

• Plato. Laches and Charmides. Tr. Sprague (Hackett) ISBN 9780872201347
• Plato. Phaedo. Tr. Grube. In Plato. Five Dialogues. Hackett. ISBN 0915145227 (includes Meno and Phaedo)
• Alexander Nehamas and Paul Woodruff (trans.), Plato, Phaedrus. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1995. ISBN 0-87220-220-8

Secondary sources on Plato (required)

• A. E. Taylor, Plato: The Man and His Work (Dover, 2001) ISBN 0486416054
• C. J. Rowe, Plato. Second edition. London: Bristol Classical Press, 2003. ISBN 1-85399-662-9
• Gerald A. Press, Plato: A Guide for the Perplexed. Continuum, 2007. ISBN 0826491766

Recommended (alternate translations of dialogues)

• Plato. Phaedo. Tr. Gallop. Oxford World's Classics ISBN 0-19-283953-5
• Plato, Phaedrus. Tr. Waterfield. Oxford World's Classics ISBN 0-19-280277-1
• Plato. Meno and other dialogues (Charmides, Laches, Lysis). Tr. Waterfield. Oxford World's Classics ISBN 0-19-280425-1

[Counts towards the comprehensive exam in History of Philosophy: Ancient]

This class meets during the last seven weeks of the term (3/25/2008–5/13/2008).

The Kantian tradition in moral theory emphasizes the "purity" of moral theory, its freedom from any admixture or taint of the empirical. Kant even tried to provide a logical criterion—the "universalizability criterion"—for determining what is morally permitted or prohibited.

The Kantian stance has come under criticism from philosophers who maintain that certain characteristic human attitudes and dispositions, including partiality and personal affection, not merely our rationality, contribute to determining the content of defensible moral norms, and that deontological approaches to morality are generally untenable, insofar as virtuous persons are flexible and responsive to the novelty and specificity of situations. The Kantian stance has also come under criticism, chiefly however from non-philosophers, for its disregard of individual and group differences, especially those linked to sex, intelligence, cerebral pathology, and other biological features.

The aim of the course is to determine whether Kant's purity constraint on moral theorizing can be rejected without invidious consequences and perhaps even with progressive ones. How might egalitarian ideals be defended in the face of human differences? Can punishment that has no deterrent effect be defended in light of our scientific knowledge of criminality?

Readings will be based on Kant's Metaphysics of Morals, and a selection of writings by contemporary moral philosophers and social scientists.

[Counts towards the comprehensive exam in Ethics]

I wish to discuss some relatively recent issues and ideas in the philosophy of mathematics. Among them: the view that mathematics is a subject that should be eliminated were not for its applications to physics, and the related view that its justification is therefore empirical. Field's claims in his book Science without Numbers. Boolos' view of second order logic as plural quantification. The neo-Fregean movement. (That is, pertaining mostly to the later part of the 20th century or the present century rather than emphasizing the earlier works.) My own views, derived from a consideration of Wittgenstein on the nature of the natural numbers. If time allows I will discuss the mereological views and some of my own work on the Gödel theorem. Perhaps some other things will be covered if time and inclination permit.

[Counts towards the comprehensive exam in Philosophy of Science]

This course focuses on key topics in contemporary philosophy of science, particularly in the areas of scientific explanation, inter and intra theoretical relationships, validation of scientific knowledge, conceptual change, and the ontological import of scientific knowledge. No special scientific knowledge is presupposed, only elementary (undergraduate) logic and philosophy. We will discuss essays representing the central contemporary positions and approaches, with special emphasis on the current GC Philosophy "Reading List" for philosophy of science.

GRADING: There will be two examinations (one hour each). Class participation is strongly encouraged and will be correspondingly rewarded.

COURSE PROGRAM

We will concentrate on the following selection of readings, which is meant to be varied enough both to embody relevant dialogue among key authors and to encourage critical discussion.

EXPLANATION:

• C. Hempel, "Deductive-Nomological vs. Statistical Explanation." In H. Feigl and G. Maxwell, eds., Minnesota Studies in Philosophy of Science, vol. III, 98-169 . "Two Basic Types of Explanation"; in CC: 685-694. "The Thesis of Structural Identity"; in CC: 695-705.
• W. Salmon, Scientific Explanation and the Causal Structure of the World, ch. 2
• P. Railton, "A Deductive-Nomological Model of Statistical Explanation," Philosophy of Science 45 (1978): 206-226.
• P. Kitcher, "Explanatory Unification," in R. Boyd, P. Gasper and J. Trout, The Philosophy of Science (BGT), 329-247.
• B. van Fraassen, "Pragmatics of Explanation"; in BGT

REDUCTION:

• E. Nagel, The Structure of Science, ch. 11.
• P. Feyerabend, "How to be a Good Empiricist," CC, 922-949.
• P. Kitcher, "1953 and All That" in M. Curd and J. Cover, Philosophy of Science: The Central Issues (CC), 971-1003; BGT, 553-570.

INDUCTION AND CONFIRMATION:

• K. Popper, "Science: Conjectures and Refutations" in Popper, Conjectures and Refutations, 33-65.
• C. Hempel, "Criteria of Confirmation and Acceptability"; in CC: 445-459. "Studies in the Logic of Confirmation." in Aspects of Scientific Explanation, 3-51; also in B. Brody and R. Grandy, Readings in the Philosophy of Science (BG), 258-278.

SCIENTIFIC CHANGE:

• T. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, chapters 9 and 10; alternatively, selections from Kuhn in CC, 86-101, or BGT, 148-157.
• D. Shapere, "Meaning and Scientific Change," in E. Colodny, ed., Mind and Cosmos.
• Lakatos, "Falsification and The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes," in Lakatos and A. Musgrave, eds., Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge, 91-196.

SCIENTIFIC REALISM:

• B van Fraassen, The Scientific Image, chs 1-2.
• E. McMullin, "A Case for Scientific Realism," in Leplin, ed. Scientific Realism.
• L. Laudan, "A Confutation of Convergent Realism," in CC, 1114-1135.
• J. Leplin, A Novel Defense of Scientific Realism, chapters 3 and 5.

Modal logic is usually thought of as the logic of qualified truth: necessarily true, true at all times, and so on. From at least Montague on, quantified modal logic has also been thought of as the natural setting for a logic of intensions. This course will cover the whole range.

We begin with propositional modal logic, presented semantically via Kripke models, and proof theoretically using both tableaus and axiom systems. First-order modal logic will be studied in considerable detail, using possible-world semantics and tableau systems, but not axiom systems. Various philosophical issues will be discussed, amongst which are: the nature of possible worlds, possibilist and actualist quantification, rigid and non-rigid designators, intensional and extensional objects, existence and being, equality, synonymy, designation and non-designation, and definite descriptions in a modal context.

The prerequisites for the course are: a familiarity with classical logic, both propositional and first-order, a certain degree of sophisication, and tolerance and patience. The textbook is First-Order Modal Logic by Melvin Fitting and Richard L. Mendelsohn, ISBN 978-0-7923-5335-5.

[Counts towards the comprehensive exams in Philosophy of Language or Philosophy of Science]

The course will discuss various formulations of rigid designation, direct reference, and various problems associated with these views. Depending upon time, topics will include Carnap's notion of individual concepts and his distinction between intension and extension, David Kaplan's Demonstratives, various notions of propositions, the sense in which natural kind terms are rigid, problems concerning belief contexts and vacuous names for the new theory of reference. Basic familiarly with Naming and Necessity will be assumed.

Readings, if time permits, will include (but not be restricted to), selections from the following:

• Carnap Meaning and Necessity
• Kaplan's "Demonstratives"
• Kripke "Identity and Necessity" and Naming and Necessity
• Berger Terms and Truth
• Salmon, various articles on possible worlds
• Stalnaker, "Possible World Semantics: Philosophical Foundations" and "Propositions"
• Plantinga, "Actualism and Possible Worlds"

Requirements

In addition to attendance, you will be asked to write one short paper of approximately 1,500 words (approximately 5-7 pages) around the second half of the semester and at the end of the semester a regular full length term paper, which may be an extension of the short paper. This paper will around 2,500 words (approximately 10-15 pages in length).

[Counts towards the comprehensive exam in Philosophy of Language]

This class will consider social contract, utilitarian, Kantian, socialist and to some extent feminist and other standpoints on the well-ordered society. Particular attention will be given to conceptions of freedom, property, political personhood, individual rights, justice, the state and ideals of community, democracy and the nature of the political in general. The focus is quite narrow in the hope of gaining some depth of understanding. Theorists to be considered will include Locke, Hume, Kant, Marx and John Rawls with Iris Young, Susan Okin, Habermas and even Carl Schmidt as possibilities towards the end.

A comprehensive introduction to contemporary epistemology. Topics include:

1. Skepticism and the Regress Problem.
2. Foundationalism and Coherentism.
3. Sellars on Foundationalism.
4. Internalism and Externalism.
5. The Analysis of Knowledge: Gettier, Closure, Relevant Alternatives, Contextualism, Reliabilism.
6. A Priori Knowledge and Quine's challenge.
7. A Posteriori Knowledge: Induction and Perception.
8. Naturalism.
9. Testimony and Social Epistemology.
10. The Ethics of Belief.

Requirements: Probably, but not definitely, 1-2 critical analyses of an article (5-7 pages) from outside the readings and a final exam.

Readings: A major collection (if it is out on time, the forthcoming one from Blackwell)

This course meets during the second half of the semester (3/25/2008–5/13/2008)

Analytical metaphysics is again flourishing. But metaphysical systems are still relatively rare. I propose in this course to give an outline of my own system. A key text is my book A World of States of Affairs (CUP 1997, paperback) and a later work of mine Truth and Truthmakers (CUP 2004, paperback). A useful, but not uncritical, introduction is David Armstrong by Stephen Mumford (McGill-Queen's University Press/Acumen Books, 2007 paperback). Topics considered will include properties, causation, powers, laws of nature, states of affairs, modality, number, classes, and truthmakers.

[Counts towards the comprehensive exams in Metaphysics or Philosophy of Science]

As a core course, the seminar is designed to prepare you for advanced work. With that in mind, we shall begin with a historical overview to understand the problems that have defined the field and how such concerns stand in relation to those in other areas, including ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology. (Substantial selections from Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, Dewey. You are strongly encouraged to read these prior to the beginning of the term.) During the second half of the course, each class meeting will be devoted to discussion of a set of contemporary articles, primarily organized around themes (expression, intention, representation, interpretation, aesthetics and cognitive science).

Assignments:

• Weekly papers (due 2 days prior to class meeting, generally electronically): format may vary
• 1 class summary
• Final exploratory paper (explanation in syllabus)

Texts:

• Required
  • Philosophies of Art and Beauty: Selected Readings in Aesthetics from Plato to Heidegger, edited by Albert Hofstadter and Richard Kuhns, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964). 0-226-34812-1 $24.00
  • Articles on line.
• Helpful:
  • The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics, edited by Jerrold Levinson (Oxford University Press, 2003) ISBN: 0-19-927945-4 $45.00

Our class will have a BlackBoard site, and most of the materials for the second half of the course will be posted there.

Office hour: Mondays 2-3

Email contact: christa.acampora@hunter.cuny.edu

The purpose of this seminar is to scrutinize the concepts involved in theories of verbal and textual interpretation, to explore their deployment in various philosophies of statutory and constitutional interpretation, and in important decisions actually handed down by the Courts, bringing to bear advances in the philosophy of language, philosophical logic, and theoretical linguistics. Much of the discussion will concern debates about the roles of authorial intention in textual interpretation, the role of semantic and pragmatic conventions, the various ways in which linguistic meaning underspecifies propositional content, notions of vagueness and indeterminacy, distinctions between types of implicit meaning, and the problem of analytic definition.

Seminar Requirements

1. A brief weekly email raising questions about, making criticisms of, or developing points concerning, matters discussed in the class and reading for that week. The email should be between 150 and 300 words and should be sent by the Sunday following the Wednesday class. It should be submitted as an attachment in Word. 50% of grade (based on the best 10 emails).
2. A class presentation of 15 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of discussion, based on a draft for a final paper. The topic should be chosen in consultation with me. The presentation will be scheduled for one of the classes toward the end of the semester. 20% of grade.
3. A final 2,500-word paper submitted as an attachment in Word, topic chosen in consultation with me, and very likely arising from the draft mentioned in (ii). 30% of grade.

Principal Texts

• R. Dworkin, Law's Empire
• H. P. Grice, Studies in the Way of Words
• H. L. A. Hart, The Concept of Law
• A. Marmor, Interpretation & Legal Theory
• S. R. A. Neale, "Textualism and Legislative Intent"
• D. Patterson, Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory: An Anthology
• A. Scalia, A Matter of Interpretation.

[Counts towards the comprehensive exams in Philosophy of Language or Social and Political Philosophy]

An examination of some of the central arguments, concerning the objectivity, or lack thereof, of moral judgments and statements employing moral concepts. The intuition that moral judgments are not quite like, not quite as objective as, judgments about the empirical world is very deep, and, on my view, when stated modestly enough, almost certainly right. Yet recent years have seen an array of powerful arguments to the effect that the asymmetry between moral and empirical judgments is only apparent, and that when we understand "realism" with sufficient sophistication, realism is as irresistible in the moral sphere as it seems to be everywhere else. If these arguments are found wanting, does that mean some version of non-factualism, some version of an "error theory" is inevitable? And how good are these deflationary or projectivist theories in turn? What sort of conception of moral justification are we left with when within them, and if this conception is incomplete, is that a reason to reject the metaphysics, or must these dissatisfactions just be swallowed? Can we understand morality as constructed, as an artifice, and yet as objective all the same? Do moral concepts perform any explanatory work? Is it really a problem or a shortcoming if they do not? Can we say there are "objective" moral reasons for action?

We will pursue these issues by taking up some of the better known writers on this subject Mackie, Harman, Blackburn, Railton, Boyd, Dworkin, and Rawls, among others. The readings for this course are largely found in the anthology Moral Discourse and Practice, edited by Steven Darwall, Allan Gibbard, and Peter Railton. This anthology is available at Shakespeare & Co. on Lexington Avenue and 69th St, but of course may be purchased elsewhere, or on line.

Students taking the course must read the Mackie excerpt before the first class, the selection from his "Ethics, Inventing Right and Wrong." If you have time, read also Gilbert Harman's "Ethics and Observation."

[Counts towards the comprehensive exam in Ethics]

This is the Mount Sinai School of Medicine/Graduate Center, CUNY doctoral seminar in Biomedical Ethics

This course examines "classic" and emerging issues in biomedical ethics paying particular attention to the history of medicine and the nature of scientific thought as it relates to medical ethics. While many issues in biomedical ethics seem timeless such as our concerns about the withholding of treatment, abortion, truth-telling - others have arisen out of the development of an increasingly scientific medicine beginning in the 1700s. It is the availability of well confirmed effective treatments that forces us to wrestle with such questions as the propriety of medical intervention over the objection of the patient, the treatment of children over the objection of their parents, the right of all citizens to health care, the regulation of the sale of body parts for transplantation, and numerous circumstances arising out of assisted reproduction. In the not too distant past it would have seemed bizarre to consider the adjudication of competing rights when one woman contracts to rent the uterus of a surrogate to bear through in vitro fertilization the embryo formed from the egg of a third individual. The current revolution in biotechnology, microelectronics and nanotechnology continuously produces new issues. What is the meaning of confidentially in a world where an enormous amount of information about each of us can be extracted rapidly from numerous searchable databases? What is the moral status of the embryonic stem cell derived from a discarded embryo, or a non-human animal? How are we to regulate cloning and our ability to shape and alter the human genome? We now implant electrodes into the brains of patients with Parkinson's disease and essential tremor. Soon we may be treating depression, disorders of impulse control, anxiety and phobias electronically. Does such technology present different issues as compared with today's drug and surgical therapies? We will also be challenged by the products of bioengineering. We already have prosthetics that remarkably link the brain directly to external mechanical devises and further alter the meaning of disability.

In medical ethics both the past and the future need to inform out vision of proper behavior and decision making In our world of rapidly advancing technology, much medical ethics policies misread and mishandle the present and construct rules with an eye towards an idealized past, while failing to consider a fast approaching future.

An aim of this course is to prepare philosophers to enter into medical institutions with the preparation necessary to be helpful additions to the provision of health care in ethically acceptable ways.

Principal text is the latest edition of Contemporary Issues in Bioethics, Beauchamp and Walters, Wadsworth. Plus handouts in history and philosophy of medicine.

[Web Editor's Note: Besides saving yourself money on this book—and the Beauchamp and Walters is very expensive if you buy it new—you can help the Graduate Center by using the links on this page to search for used copies on Amazon or Powell's. If you use the links on this page or go through the Graduate Center's Virtual Bookshop to buy your books, then the Graduate Center's library will get a cut of the proceeds.]

[Counts towards the comprehensive exam in Ethics]

A range of questions about (nonhuman) animal cognition will be addressed from a philosophical perspective (philosophy of mind, language, and science). Most generally, what kinds of questions should we be asking about animal cognition? And how should we go about answering them? Other questions are likely to include: Do any animals have beliefs? What concepts or mental representations might they have? What are we to make of the communication systems of bees and prairie dogs? Are any animals “self-aware”? Can any animals read other minds? To what extent are animals rational? How do animals navigate? To what extent have we been able to teach animals a language like English and what does this show about their minds? Attention will be paid to the empirical literature and to the views of various philosophers including Davidson, Stich, Dennett, Searle, Dretske, Bennett, Allen, Kornblith, and Hurley.

Some background in the philosophy of mind and language will be an advantage in taking this course.

Requirements

• A brief weekly email raising questions about, making criticisms of, or developing points concerning, matters discussed in the class and reading for that week. 50% of grade.
• A class presentation based on a draft for a paper (topic chosen in consultation with me). The draft to be submitted before Tuesday of the week of presentation. 20% of grade.
• A 2,500 word paper probably arising from the draft in (ii).

Books

Books playing a role in the course will include:

• Allen and Bekoff. Species of Mind. MIT (1997) [0-262-01163-8]
• Bekoff and Jamieson, ed. Readings in Animal Cognition. MIT (1996) [0-262-52208X]
• Bekoff, Allen, Burghardt, ed. The Cognitive Animal. MIT (2002) [0-262-523221]
• Hurley and Nudd, ed. Rational Animals? (2006). [978-0-19-852827-2]
• Kornblith. Knowledge and Its Place in Nature. OUP (2002). [0-19-924632-7]

[Counts towards the comprehensive exam in Philosophy of Mind]

This course is intended to enhance each student's skills in teaching philosophy. Among the matters to be discussed and practiced in class are motivating students, choosing texts, organizing courses, making presentations, constructing examinations, and providing grades.

We shall review all the steps in teaching an introductory philosophy course, using as our introductory anthology Exploring Philosophy 2/e (2005), ed. Cahn (Oxford University Press paperback). The book will be provided at no cost.

Grades will be based on the performance of numerous pedagogical assignments. The course is not open to auditors.

Class size is limited. Preference will be given to those who have taught philosophy or are planning to teach philosophy this year or next.

January 29–May 13, 2008

The concepts of "autonomy" and "liberty" have a significant place in medical and research ethics. In the clinical realm, autonomy is the central concept in our appreciation of informed consent for treatment and in the assessment of decisional capacity. In the context of research, many people see informed consent as the central factor in determining the ethical acceptability or unacceptability of research. In public policy, liberty is at issue in legislation requiring vaccination, quarantine, or reporting of infectious disease. Infringements on liberty are also involved in legislation that imposes limitations on abortion and reproductive choices, in our regulation of therapeutic and recreational drugs, and in the prohibition of physician-assisted suicide.

This course will begin with discussion of the recent Abigail Alliance cases that argued in terms of liberty and autonomy for the release of Phase I trial drugs for use by people with terminal illnesses. With that appreciation of the centrality of these terms, we will go on to explore the philosophic concepts of autonomy and liberty themselves. We shall read and discuss the work of classic and contemporary authors (e.g., Aristotle, Kant) in order to develop a clear understanding of how the terms are used and the controversies that they raise. We will then examine these concepts in the context of contemporary bioethics debates by reviewing some of the literature that speaks to matters such as: personal responsibility for health, public health efforts to promote good health, the assessment of decisional capacity in adults and children, justified paternalism, forced treatment and forced confinement, abortion, embryo selection, life extension, physician-assisted suicide, selling transplant organs, infectious disease, and genetic testing of children for adult onset diseases.