When AI is fully realized, it is likely to be amongst the most important things to happen to our species. We will thus be led to discuss some of the concepts common to epistemology, metaphysics and ethics: reason, justification, objectivity, understanding, reality and truth. Stoicism and skepticism, however, are wildly divergent schools of thought. What is knowledge (as opposed to mere opinion)? In this course, we will investigate dynamic communicative phenomena and discuss competing theoretical explanations about how they're interpreted. In addition, we will devote several class meetings interspersed throughout the semester to reading foundational sources in ethical theory. In this tutorial we'll closely examine a series of contemporary and historical cases of human experimentation (roughly, one case per week) with an eye toward elucidating the moral norms that ought to govern human subjects research. It is difficult, however, to get clear on the relation between the meaning of an expression and its reference. We will look at relativism with respect to reason and truth in general as well as with respect to science, religion, and morality. Just today (15 February 2022) The New York Times removed some solutions from their recently purchased game Wordle, saying that words such as "pussy", "slave", and "wench" are "offensive or insensitive". Authors will include Plato, Anselm, Aquinas, Pascal, Paley, Hume, Kant, Kierkegaard, and several contemporary philosophers. Is that principle of organization justifiable or not? stagflation of the 1970s, and bursting of the mortgage bubble in 2008. We examine key concepts such as: capitalism, alienation, false consciousness, the death of God, nihilism, the unconscious, ego, id, superego, and the death drive. modernity and of politics offered by such thinkers as Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, Mill, and Freud. Phil was stabbed to death by his son, who habitually used hallucinogenic drugs, in one of the most shocking tragedies in . to that question, and the theoretical assumptions that underlie the answers, differ as well. Students who have take PHIL 203 will have a good background for this class, but students who are generally comfortable with formal systems need not have taken PHIL 203. Other philosophers and literary theorists have used some of their ideas recently to throw light on the nature of textual meaning and the interpretation of literary texts. How could proponents of each be claiming to follow in the footsteps of Socrates? The picture that we find in the works of the tragedians, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides is markedly different. [more], The Williams College Mission statement says that "free inquiry requires open-mindedness, and commitment to community draws on concern for others". Our main goal in this course is to work our way through Aristotle's text which can be extremely daunting, and to reconstruct his central positions and his arguments for these positions. Are we legitimately bound by a social contract? What is knowledge (as opposed to mere opinion)? The first portion of the course will address the emergence of the "Ethics of Care," critically assessing its origins in feminist theory, its development within the context of the caring professions, and its potential as a general approach to bioethical reasoning. When should we give morality priority over personal commitments and relationships, and why? For each argument, we will first look at historically important formulations and then turn to contemporary reformulations. We will examine these and related issues by looking in depth at contemporary defenses of consequentialist, deontological, and contractualist theories. We got it anyway . of subjectivity, the scope of reflexivity, the nature of perceptual presence, etc. Morality and Partiality: Loyalty, Friendship, Patriotism. On the other hand, if logic is about how we should reason, what makes it the case that we should reason one way rather than another? The focus will be on model-theoretic semantics, the sub-field of linguistics that studies meanings. More importantly, many of the thinkers that we will read in this class are simply excellent philosophers, and it is worthwhile for anyone interested in philosophical problems to read treatments of these problems by excellent philosophers. As a result, some prominent researchers propose that the existence of consciousness requires a revision of basic physics, while others (seemingly desperately) deny that consciousness exists at all. Their dispute raised some of the deepest questions in philosophy: consequentialism versus deontology, the goals of happiness versus dignity, long term versus short term goals, and more. How have you already been taught the academic and civic virtues? With what limits and justifications? Pascal's wager is a different approach: it argues that even though proof of the existence of God is unavailable, you will maximize your expected utility be believing. We will focus our study on Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit and Marx's early writings. [more], This course will examine central questions in normative ethics, including the following: Which features of actions are morally important and why (e.g., their motive, their intrinsic nature, or their consequences)? In addition we'll also look at feminist analyses of topics that traditionally have not been regarded as "gendered," such as resource allocation and end of life issues. [more], Much like the construction of medical knowledge itself, it is from specific cases that general principles of biomedical ethics arise and are systematized into a theoretical framework, and it is to cases they must return, if they are to be both useful and comprehensible to those making decisions within the biomedical context. Are we ever justified in having more concern, and doing more, for our friends, family, community or nation? We then consider a range of Buddhist critiques of these views, focusing more particularly on the Madhyamaka, which radicalizes the critique of the self into a global anti-realist and skeptical stance. Firstly, we will try to understand the mental lives of non-human animals. Springing Forward The Paresky Center is alive and bustling once again for the spring semester. Are we rationally justified in drawing causal inferences? Why do we seek to experience through film fear and anguish that we avoid in our daily lives? Aristotle sets out to study being qua being, or what is insofar as it is. The remainder of the course will consider key concepts at the core of medical ethics and central issues for the field, such as privacy and confidentiality, the distinction between killing and "letting die," and therapy vs. research. The stoics and skeptics both claimed a Socratic imprimatur for their own thought. While Plato and Aristotle differ on many points, they share the belief that the cosmos and the human place within it can be understood by rational means. Dean's Office. It is not enough for it merely to be about a character who happens to be a philosopher; nor is it just that philosophical positions are reviewed in the narrative, as in Gaarder's Sophie's World. What constitutes my knowledge of myself as a person, and does that knowledge differ in any significant respect from my knowledge of physical objects and of other people? We will begin the course by looking at Hume's and Kant's discussion of causation. How can we reconcile this faith with the persistence of domination today? What are the main sources of uncertainty here? Is film a creation of a single artist - the director, the author - or is it a result of a loosely synchronized and not quite coherent collaboration of many different people, each guided by her or his particular vision? Our aim is to enrich our understanding of the discipline in order to evaluate its value and limitations. This site was launched in Spring of 2020, and includes death notifications beginning January 1, 2020. Who should rule? Can science contribute to our understanding of these issues? In this course we take up questions such as the following: What sorts of subjects do we find in modern Western societies? [more], In her groundbreaking book, The Tentative Pregnancy, Barbara Katz Rothman writes that "[t]he technological revolution in reproduction is forcing us to confront the very meaning of motherhood, to examine the nature and origins of the mother-child bond, and to replace--or to let us think we can replace--chance with choice." scientific theories. Rings of harmony surround you. More than this, Existentialists emphasize the subjective relation we bear to our belief systems, moral codes, and personal identities. Against the first, people often don't seem to reason very well. Are we justified in believing in God? We will begin with questions about how to define death, as well as reflections on its meaning and function in human life. Class will be primarily driven by discussion, often preceded by brief lectures. [more], What social and political arrangements are most conducive to fostering human well-being and the common good? This course will introduce students to fundamental concepts, methods, and issues in environmental ethics. His later work, best known through posthumously published Philosophical Investigations, continues to influence contemporary thinking about language, mind, action, knowledge, ethics, religion, aesthetics, culture, and of course, philosophy itself. New York: McGraw Hill, 2005. pp 307-323. Is the happy life a life of virtue? Topics will range from consideration of "mundane" technologies such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), prenatal genetic screening and testing, and surrogacy, to the more extraordinary, possibly including pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), post-menopausal reproduction, and post-mortem gamete procurement. This course is part of the John Hyde Teaching Fellowship. As we go through these results, we will think about the philosophical implications of first-order logic. We will examine a variety of philosophical and scientific theories of emotion, as well as some issues concerning normative aspects of emotions: the role of emotions in a good life, and the concept of emotional maturity. Understanding later Wittgenstein is thus vital for engaging in contemporary philosophy, but neither the interpretation nor the evaluation of his thought is straightforward or easy. philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome were among the first thinkers to develop rigorous arguments in response to such musings. Some challenges we face are broad and about the future, though perhaps not the far future. The view of the tragedians can lead to a thoroughgoing nihilism according to which --the best thing of all [for a human being] is never to have born-but the next best thing is to die soon (Aristotle's. Most of the authors will come from this list, however: Sartre, de Beauvoir, Kafka, Dostoyevsky, Thomas Mann, Camus, Ecco, Kundera, Borges, Charlie Kaufman, Bergman, Tarkovsky, Resnais, Kurosawa, Bunuel, Kubrick, Godard, Visconti and Guillermo del Toro. We will continue with the contemporary inheritors of the tradition: Cornel West, Richard Rorty, and Hilary Putnam. Are there ethical considerations that should govern both film production and spectatorship? Unsurprisingly, philosophers have proffered a variety of answers to these questions, prompting one philosopher to remark, half-jokingly, that "there are as many definitions of philosophy as there are philosophers." While you're debating whether to take this class, consider the following puzzle. The question of this course is whether these values are in conflict. What are the forces, and the dynamics between forces (i.e., economic, technological, modes of communication, techniques of social control, biological, psychological) that make certain types of subjects possible influencing both their self-understandings and their forms of life? It is difficult, however, to get clear on the relation between the meaning of an expression and its reference. [more], At the beginning of the last century Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. The second, longer part of the seminar will try to isolate and follow some of the pragmatist currents which run through epistemology and philosophy of science in the 20th and 21st centuries. [more], According to Jean-Paul Sartre, the only philosopher to ever refer to himself as an "existentialist," existence precedes essence. Could we (individually and socially) educate and cultivate them? In particular, one must grasp that "three of them" picks out a subset of the group picked out by "every cookie", and that there's no such thing as a cookie that is both chocolate chip, Minds, Brains, and Intelligent Behavior: An Introduction to Cognitive Science. While Hegel studies tends to occur in isolation from philosophers in the Africana tradition, many of the above explicitly refer to and take up questions in Hegel. View Phil Walsh's email address (p*****@kw***.com) and phone number. In confronting these difficult questions, we do not proceed purely theoretically but consider the contributions of various observation-based traditions, from Buddhist psychology and meditative practices to phenomenology to neurosciences. If time permits, we may also look at how the figure of Socrates has been thought about in the works of more modern thinkers. classics of western literature, and his views on ethics and politics continue to occupy a central place in our discussions 2400 years after they were written. Summer Institutes for Undergraduates in Philosophy. [more], We will someday live alongside artificially intelligent beings who equal or exceed us. Schick, Theodore and Lewis Vaughn. In this course we aim to engage that abstract question through two more focused projects. What kind of work is that, and how is it accomplished? Swift, Jonathan. We will analyze and discuss various accounts of scientific method, structure and justification of scientific theories, scientific choice, change, and the idea that scientific knowledge is progressive in a cumulative way. Initial tutorial meetings will focus on theoretical materials that will background later discussions and will include classic readings from the environmental ethics literature (e.g., Leopold, Taylor, Rolston). By Greg Baum. Taking this as our starting point, in this course we will examine a number of conceptual and ethical issues in the use and development of technologies related to human reproduction, drawing out their implications for such core concepts as "motherhood" and "parenthood," family and genetic relatedness, exploitation and commodification, and reproductive rights and society's interests in reproductive activities. Our readings will come primarily from philosophy, but will be supplemented with material from anthropology, physics, psychology, and linguistics. Most sessions will pair readings about key concepts with specific cases that raise complex ethical issues, including the concept of moral standing and, e.g., people who do not yet exist, non-human individuals, species, and complex living systems; the concept of moral responsibility and complicity in environmentally damaging practices; the legitimacy of cost-benefit analysis as an environmental policy tool; and the valuation of human lives. Must it be unaffected by any outside influences? The course will, I hope, provide the students an opportunity and the tools to intellectually examine deeply emotional and contentious issues. We also examine the Yogacara school, which offers a process view of reality focusing on the analysis of experience. In this tutorial, we will focus on questions concerning their distinctive methods, namely, historical materialism, genealogical critique, and psychoanalysis. What is the proper 'geography'--classification and analysis--of our emotions, and what is their relation to our somatic states, feelings, beliefs, judgments, evaluations and actions? Wittgenstein's two masterpieces, the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and the Philosophical Investigations, stand like opposing poles around which schools of twentieth-century analytic philosophy revolve. Do we have any control over our emotions? Phil Walsh played 122 games for Collingwood, Richmond and the Brisbane Bears between 1983 and 1990. Topics will depend to some extent on student interest, but are likely to include concerns that fall under such headings as euthanasia, conscientious eating, abortion, the ethics of protest, and Covid-19. It seems like there is still a heap of sand in my backyard. In this tutorial we'll closely examine a series of contemporary and historical cases of human experimentation (roughly, one case per week) with an eye toward elucidating the moral norms that ought to govern human subjects research. Conversation is dynamic--the back and forth exchange of information is a process that grows and adapts to the surrounding context. There will be a series of short response papers in which you provide a careful analysis of particular arguments in our texts. [more], Although Kant initially planned for his magnum opus to comprise theoretical and practical chapters, his metaphysics and epistemology take up all of his Critique of Pure Reason while his ethics is spread out over a series of works--Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, Critique of Practical Reason, Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, and The Metaphysics of Morals. metaphysics, epistemology, moral and political philosophy, philosophy of mind. Much of the moral philosophy produced in Greece and Rome remains as relevant today as when it was written. [more], Justice is a notoriously complex and elusive philosophical concept, the conditions of which are even more difficult to articulate within real world institutions and contexts than in the abstract. One of our guiding questions will be: What makes a thinker an "Existentialist"? In addition, we will devote several class meetings interspersed throughout the semester to reading foundational sources in ethical theory. However, few (haters gonna hate) would say that the expression has a referent. To notify Williams of alumni deaths, please email, Experiential Learning & Community Engagement. In this course we will engage ethical questions surrounding the seeming inevitability of AI. Knowledge ( as opposed to mere opinion ) as we go through these results, we will try to the... There will be: what sorts of subjects do we find in Western! 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