Course Room Roster

Course Register

Penn In Touch

Skip to:

200-level courses

300-level courses

400-level courses

500-level courses

600/700-level courses

PPE courses

CGS courses

An introduction to such topics as our knowledge of the material world, the relation of mind and body, the existence of God, and the nature of morality. Readings from both historical and contemporary sources.
ENROLLMENT RESTRICTED TO FRESHMEN
GENERAL REQUIREMENT II: HISTORY & TRADITION

PHIL 001-302 INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY (FRESHMEN SEMINAR)
Seminar: Tuesday, Thursday -- 10:30-12:00
Staff

An introductory survey of some central philosophical issues, including: Is there a God? What is the relationship between the mind and the body? Are free will and determinism incompatible? Are there objective moral standards? Readings will be taken from both contemporary and historical sources.
ENROLLMENT RESTRICTED TO FRESHMEN
GENERAL REQUIREMENT II: HISTORY & TRADITION

PHIL 001-303 INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY (FRESHMEN SEMINAR)
Seminar: Tuesday, Thursday -- 1:30-3:00
Staff

An introduction to such topics as our knowledge of the material world, the relation of mind and body, the existence of God, and the nature of morality. Readings from both historical and contemporary sources.
ENROLLMENT RESTRICTED TO FRESHMEN
GENERAL REQUIREMENT II: HISTORY & TRADITION

PHIL 002-001 ETHICS
Lecture: Monday, Wednesday -- 11:00-12:00
Rahul Kumar, rakumar@nous.phil.upenn.edu
REGISTRATION REQUIRED FOR LECTURE AND RECITATION

RECITATIONS:

PHIL 002-201 Friday - 11:00-12:00 STAFF
PHIL 002-202 Friday - 11:00-12:00 STAFF
PHIL 002-203 Friday - 11:00-12:00 STAFF
PHIL 002-204 Friday - 10:00-11:00 STAFF

PHIL 002-205 Friday - 12:00-1:00 STAFF
PHIL 002-206 Friday - 1:00-2:00 STAFF

An investigation of some of the central questions about the nature of morality: Are moral judgments objective and justifiable? Can moral disagreements be resolved rationally? How are we to understand the idea of a good life, and what is the relationship between a good life and morality? To what extent can we be held responsible for our conduct? Readings will be from both contemporary and historical sources, and will concern both practical problems and theoretical issues.
GENERAL REQUIREMENT I: SOCIETY

PHIL 003-401 HISTORY OF ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY
Lecture: Monday, Wednesday, Friday -- 10:00-11:00
Charles H. Kahn, chkahn@sas.upenn.edu
REGISTRATION REQUIRED FOR LECTURE AND RECITATION
CROSS LISTED WITH: CLST 103-401
WATU CREDIT OPTIONAL -- SEE INSTRUCTOR

RECITATIONS:

PHIL 003-402 Friday - 10:00-11:00 STAFF
Cross Listed w/CLST 103-402
PHIL 003-403 Friday - 11:00-12:00 (WATU) STAFF
Cross Listed w/CLST 103-403
PHIL 003-404 Friday - 10:00-11:00 (WATU) STAFF
Cross Listed w/CLST 103-404
PHIL 003-405 Friday - 12:00-1:00 STAFF
Cross Listed w/CLST 103-405
PHIL 003-406 Friday - 10:00-11:00 STAFF
Cross Listed w/CLST 103-406
PHIL 003-407 Friday - 12:00-1:00 (WATU) STAFF
Cross Listed w/CLST 103-407

A survey of classical Greek approaches to questions about knowledge, the nature of the world, the soul, ethics and politics. Will focus on Presocratics, Plato and Aristotle.
FULFILLS GENERAL REQUIREMENT II: HISTORY AND TRADITION

PHIL 009-301 WRITING ABOUT MORAL ISSUES
Freshman Seminar: Tuesday, Thursday -- 10:30-12:00
Susan Meyer, smeyer@nous.phil.upenn.edu

PHIL 009-302 WRITING ABOUT MORAL ISSUES
Freshman Seminar: Tuesday, Thursday -- 9:00-10:30
Staff

PHIL 009-303 WRITING ABOUT MORAL ISSUES
Freshman Seminar: Tuesday, Thursday -- 10:30-12:00
Milton Meyer, mwmeyer@nous.phil.upenn.edu

PHIL 009-304 WRITING ABOUT MORAL ISSUES
Freshman Seminar: Tuesday, Thursday -- 12:00-1:30
Staff

PHIL 009-305 WRITING ABOUT MORAL ISSUES
Freshman Seminar: Monday, Wednesday -- 3:00-4:30
Staff

Discussion of several contemporary ethical topics such as limitations on freedom of expression, civil disobedience, affirmative action, privacy rights, treatment of animals, euthanasia, health care distribution, informed consent, and obligations to future generations.
ENROLLMENT RESTRICTED TO FRESHMEN
MAY NOT BE COUNTED TOWARD A PHILOSOPHY MAJOR
FULFILLS THE COLLEGE WRITING REQUIREMENT

PHIL 026-401 PHILOSOPHY OF SPACE AND TIME
Lecture: Monday, Wednesday, Friday -- 11:00-12:00
Zoltan Domotor, zdomotor@sas.upenn.edu

This course provides an introduction to the philosophy and intellectual history of space-time and cosmological models from ancient to modern times with special emphasis on paradigm shifts, leading to Einstein’s theories of special and general relativity and cosmology. Other topics include Big Bang, black holes stellar structure, the metaphysics of substance, particles, fields, and superstrings, unification and grand unification of modern physical theories. No philosophy of physics background is presupposed.
CROSS LISTED WITH: HSSC 026-401
GENERAL REQUIREMENT VII: SCIENCE STUDIES

PHIL 050-401 INDIAN PHILOSOPHY
Lecture: Monday, Wednesday -- 3:00-4:30
Valerie Stoker
REGISTRATION REQUIRED FOR LECTURE AND RECITATION
WATU CREDIT OPTIONAL -- SEE INSTRUCTOR

RECITATIONS:

PHIL 050-402 Friday -- 3:00-4:00
Cross Listed w/SARS 103-402, AMES 103-402
PHIL 050-403 Friday -- 2:00-3:00
Cross Listed w/SARS 103-403, AMES 103-403

The fundaments of Hindu and Buddhist philosophy, the main patterns of Western response to it, and some basic questions of “comparative philosophy”. Selected readings from classical Indian texts in English translation.
CROSS LISTED WITH: SARS 103-401, AMES 103-401
GENERAL REQUIREMENT II: HISTORY & TRADITION

[Return to top]

PHIL 234-401 PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
Seminar: Monday, Wednesday -- 3:00-4:30
Steven Gross, gross2@nous.phil.upenn.edu

This course will address such questions as: Can one prove or disprove the existence of God? What is the relation between faith and reason? Are science and religion at odds with another? We will look both at historically significant discussions of our topics (for example, by Plato, Anselm, Aquinas, Pascal, Hume, and Kiekegaard) and more recent writings (for example, by Adams, Boyer, Plantinga, and Van Inwagen).
CROSS LISTED WITH: RELS 204-401
DISTRIBUTION II: HISTORY AND TRADITION

PHIL 244-301 PHILOSOPHY OF MIND
Seminar: Tuesday, Thursday -- 3:00-4:30
Staff

Botany of philosophical models of the mind, including Cartesian/Humean dualistic, reductive/eliminative materialistic, behavioristic, functional, representational and connectionist models. Objects of consciousness, determinism vs. free will, and the concept of personhood. The Turing test, Searle’s Chinese Room Problem, computational psychology and artificial mind.
DISTRIBUTION II: HISTORY AND TRADITION

[Return to top]

PHIL 342-301 METAPHYSICS: SCIENTIFIC REALISM
Seminar: Tuesday, Thursday -- 4:30-6:00
Michael Weisberg

Can scientific methods produce theories that are literally true? Do we have good reasons to believe that unobservable entities such as electrons, quarks, and electromagnetic fields exist? Are phenomena neatly organized into natural kinds for which universal generalizations can be made? These are a few of the questions addressed in discussions of scientific realism, the topic of this undergraduate seminar. We will study empiricist, neo-Kantian, deflationist, and realist answers to these questions and others. We will discuss authors such as Smart, van Fraassen, Boyd, Hacking, Fine, Kitcher, and Psillos.
PHILOSOPHY MAJORS ONLY

PHIL 362-301 MODERN PHILOSOPHICAL FIGURES
Seminar: Tuesday, Thursday -- 1:30-3:00
Karen Detlefsen, detlefse@nous.phil.upenn.edu

Descartes has been called “the father of modern philosophy” for having transformed philosophical thinking in the seventeenth century. This belief rests partly on Descartes’ involvement with “the New Science”, his attempts to provide a metaphysical basis for that science, and his goal of applying that science to all kinds of phenomena in the created world. In this course, we shall conduct a close study of Descartes’ philosophy, ranging from an investigation of his own scientific work to his thoughts on human emotions and morality. One of our guiding concerns will be to evaluate the claim that Descartes’ thought represents a radical break from the past – how much of ancient thought did Descartes really leave behind, and how much did he smuggle into his own ‘new’ system? Our study will include: paying close attention to Descartes’ arguments for his philosophical positions; looking at his thought against the historical (philosophical, religious, political) background of the late Medieval and early modern periods; seeing how and why his own thinking changes and matures throughout his life; studying his intellectual relations with his contemporaries, including women; and evaluating his impact on western thought in the ensuing centuries.
PHILOSOPHY MAJORS ONLY
DISTRIBUTION II: HISTORY AND TRADITION

[Return to top]

PHIL 416-401 MODEL THEORY
Seminar: Tuesday, Thursday -- 10:30-12:00
Scott Weinstein, weinstei@cis.upenn.edu

The course will cover the basic results and techniques of the model theory of first-order logic. Additional topics may include extensions of first-order logic and finite model theory.
CROSS LISTED WITH: PHIL 516-401, MATH 670-401

PHIL 425-401 PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Seminar: Monday -- 3:00-6:00
Zoltan Domotor, zdomotor@sas.upenn.edu

Historically oriented survey and contemporary analysis of the basic concepts and arguments in philosophy of science. An in-depth examination of the nature of scientific theories, their confirmation and theory-world relations, laws of nature and their role in unification and explanation, causation, and teleology, reductionism and supervenience, values and objectivity. Additional topics covered include arguments concerning scientific realism, the ontological status of theoretical entities, the Quine-Duhem thesis, Kuhn’s paradigm shifts, Bayesianism, and the success of science.
CROSS LISTED WITH: HSSC 425-401
PREREQUISITE: BACKGROUND IN ELEMENTARY LOGIC AND SOME RUDIMENTS OF SCIENCE

PHIL 472-301 SURVEY OF ETHICAL THEORY
Seminar: Tuesday, Thursday -- 10:30-12:00
Rahul Kumar, rakumar@nous.phil.upenn.edu

T, M. Scanlon’s magisterial book, What We Owe to Each Other, is amongst the most significant and sophisticated contributions to moral philosophy to appear in the last few decades. In it, Scanlon advances important positions on many of the central topics in philosophical ethics, such as the nature of practical reasoning, the relationship between practical reasoning and values, the nature of well-being and its moral importance, the basis of morality’s claim to authority, how best to characterize moral reasoning in recognizably Kantian terms, the grounds of moral responsibility, and the defensibility of moral relativism. This seminar will be devoted to the close study of Scanlon’s book, with special attention to understanding the contours of the specific discussions in moral philosophy to which the views that Scanlon argues for in the book are significant, and often controversial, contributions.

PHIL 475-401 PHILOSOPHY, POLITICS & ECONOMICS

CANCELLED

An investigation of some problems in political philosophy. In the first part we will deal with Just War theories; in the second, with the explanation of some basic concepts such as development, freedom and well-being. Participants will be encouraged to present independent projects of their own.
CROSS LISTED WITH: PPE 475-401

PHIL 510-301 PLATO’S TIMAEUS
Seminar: Wednesday -- 3:00-6:00
Charles H. Kahn, chkahn@sas.upenn.edu

Close reading of Plato’s cosmological and psychological doctrines in the Timaeus in the context of the later dialogues, with reference to C. Bobonich’s Plato’s Utopia Recast.
UNDERGRADUATES NEED PERMISSION
DISTRIBUTION II: HISTORY AND TRADITION

PHIL 514-301 HELLENISTIC ETHICS
Seminar: Thursday -- 3:00-6:00
Susan Meyer, smeyer@nous.phil.upenn.edu

A study of the major schools of ethical thought in the Hellenistic period, Epicureanism and Stoicism, together with later developments in the period of the Roman Empire. Authors to be read include Cicero, Seneca, Lucretius, and Diogenes Laertius. All works will be read in translation; no knowledge of Greek or Latin will be presupposed.
UNDERGRADUATES NEED PERMISSION

PHIL 516-401 MODEL THEORY
Lecture: Tuesday, Thursday -- 10:30-12:00
Scott Weinstein, weinstei@cis.upenn.edu

The course will cover the basic results and techniques of the model theory of first-order logic. Additional topics may include extensions of first-order logic and finite model theory.
CROSS LISTED WITH: PHIL 416-401, MATH 670-401
UNDERGRADUATES NEED PERMISSION

PHIL 525-401 TOPICS IN PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Seminar: Monday -- 12:00-3:00
Michael Weisberg

For the last five decades, scientific explanation has been one of the central topics in philosophy of science. In the first part of the seminar, we will examine the major accounts of explanation beginning with Hempel’s classic treatment. We will also pay special attention to the accounts offered by Salmon, Railton, Friedman, Kitcher, and van Fraassen. More recently, philosophers of science have emphasized the role idealization plays in scientific explanations. The remainder of the seminar will be devoted to theories of idealization and on the connection between idealization and explanation.
CROSS LISTED WITH: HSSC 527-401, COML 525-401
UNDERGRADUATES NEED PERMISSION

PHIL 551-301 TOPICS IN EARLY MODERN PHILOSOPHY: CAUSATION IN EARLY MODERN PHILOSOPHY
Seminar: Wednesday -- 12:00-3:00
Karen Detlefsen, detlefse@nous.phil.upenn.edu

The problem of causation in early modern metaphysics is often thought of as a problem of efficient causation between minds and bodies. But it also concerns the interaction among bodies, among minds, and between God and his creation. In addition, some early modern were reluctant to drop final causes from their explanatory systems. In this course, we shall study the various and innovative ways that some early modern philosophers tried to deal with the general problem of causation, and how the solutions offered to this problem are closely related to other issues in early modern philosophy, including the metaphysics of time (how can an a temporal God interact with a temporal world?), the physics of motion, the theory of ideas, and the problem of how to individuate both mind and bodies. The figures we shall study include some of: Boyle, Cavendish, Conway, Descartes, Hobbes, Hume, Leibniz, and Malebranch.
UNDERGRADUATES NEED PERMISSION

[Return to top]

PHIL 600-301 PROSEMINAR
Seminar: Monday -- 6:00-9:00
Steven Gross, gross2@nous.phil.upenn.edu

This seminar is restricted to first-year graduate students in philosophy.

PHIL 700-301 DISSERTATION WORKSHOP
Seminar: Monday -- 6:30-9:00
Samuel Freeman, sfreeman@sas.upenn.edu

Registration required for all third-year doctoral students. Fourth year students and beyond attend and present their work. From time to time, topics pertaining to professional development and dissertation writing will be discussed.

PPE 253-301 SPECIAL TOPICS IN BEHAVIORAL LAW AND ECONOMICS
Seminar: Monday, Wednesday, Friday -- 11:00-12:00
Jonathan Baron, baron@cattell.psych.upenn.edu

Economic theory has invaded legal scholarship and law schools, in the form of “Law and Economics”. But the psychology of judgments and decisions has invaded economic theory, showing that people do not follow the classic model of economic rationality. Many legal scholars, such as Cass Sunstein, claim to have started a new field called “Behavioral Law and Economics”, which explores the implications of psychology for legal theory. This seminar will review basic readings in law and economics and then the
recent literature on the relevance of psychology. Topics include risk regulation, liability, and regulation of political behavior.
CROSS LISTED WITH: PSYC 253-301
PPE MAJORS ONLY

PPE 475-301 PHILOSOPHY, POLITICS & ECONOMICS: SELF-INTEREST AND RATIONALITY IN DECISION-MAKING
Seminar: Tuesday, Thursday -- 12:00-1:30
Waldemar Hanasz, whanasz@sas.upenn.edu

The course will examine the role of the assumptions of self-interest and rationality in our moral, political, and economic behavior. First, it will trace the historical development of the ideas of self-interest and rationality. Second, it will pay special attention to the fundamental theoretical implications that shaped political and economic theories. Third, it will try to apprehend the interdisciplinary connections between psychology, philosophy, economics, and political science that these two assumptions generate. We shall study these problems by reading the works of Robert Rfank, Albert Hirschman, Amartya Sen, and others.
PPE MAJORS ONLY

PPE 475 303 PHILOSOPHY, POLITICS & ECONOMICS
Seminar: Tuesday, Thursday -- 1:30-3:00
Staff

This course will consider issues of membership and belonging (and their antithesis, in the form of exclusion) through the careful study of a mix of classical and contemporary works. Of particular concern will be how ancient and modern political thinkers envisioned the boundaries of a political community, or what we often refer to as citizenship; the susceptibility of various political theories (and especially liberal theory) to the problem of exclusion; and how our sense of belonging in a political community is conditioned by its economic system. Readings may include sources as diverse as Aristotle, Locke, Marx, Arendt, Ellison, and Shklar. Seminar will emphasize careful reading of the texts and student discussion.
PPE MAJORS ONLY

PPE 475-402 POLITICAL THEORY AND PUBLIC POLICY
Seminar: Friday -- 2:00-5:00
Nancy Hirschmann, njh@sas.upenn.edu

This PPE capstone seminar will explore the relevance of canonical and some contemporary work in modern political theory to various public policy and practical political issues such as welfare, funding for education, and hate speech. Although readings will include some work in empirical political science and public policy, the course’s primary focus is on political theory. We will consider what political theory can tell us about the ethics of practical issues, and how it might help create better policy. We will also explore whether and how reading political philosophy in light of specific concrete issues encourages us to look at both the theories and the policies differently than if each were considered on their own. Course has a seminar format, students will write research papers and make in-class presentations.
CROSS LISTED WITH: PSCI 475-402

PHIL 225-601 INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Lecture: Monday, Wednesday -- 5:30-7:00
Murad Akhundov, akhundov@sas.upenn.edu

A study of the historical introduction to the philosophy of science from ancient Greek “First Scientific Programs” to modern conceptions. We will especially focus on Aristotle’s philosophy of science and on the development of cosmology from Aristotle-Ptolemy to Copernicus. Then we will study the seventeen-century attacks on Aristotelian philosophy and the development of a new world view: J. Kepler, F. Bacon, G. Galilei. We will discuss the Newton’s mechanical picture of the universe and his methodology of science. Particular attention will be devoted to rationalism, empiricism and critical idealism (R. Descartes, J. Mil, I. Kant) Some lectures will be devoted to the crisis of the mechanical world view and the origin of the modern science (A. Einstein, N. Bohr). We will investigate very interesting topics: “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” and “Science and Values” (T. Kun, I. Lakatos, D. Bloor).
GENERAL REQUIREMENT VII: SCIENCE STUDIES