Philosophy Courses

Please visit the Graduate Bulletin for course descriptions. The notes included below provide additional information on a course's topics and/or approaches for Fall 2026.

• APHI 522: Theory of Knowledge
   
• APHI 546: The Continental Rationalists
  • Notes on Topics and/or Approaches: Leibniz says that Descartes’ philosophy is the “antechamber” of the true philosophy. This course will first focus on mapping out the various parts of this antechamber by considering how they fit together. Next the course will examine some of the background for Descartes’ philosophy and how it is criticized by Leibniz. Descartes’ metaphysics and epistemology will be viewed alongside his natural philosophy and optics. The course will attend to significant shifts in Descartes’ philosophy over his lifetime: early works, such as the Rules for the Direction of the Mind, will be contrasted with later works, such as the Meditations on First Philosophy and the Principles of Philosophy. Topics may include the following: innate ideas, substance, the Cartesian circle, eternal truths, the will, occasionalism and re-creationalism, and the passions. The latter part of the course will survey some of these themes as they relate to Descartes’ contemporaries and as they figure in Leibniz’ criticisms of Descartes.
     
• APHI 621: Topics in Ethics - Topic: Hume’s Ethics
  • Notes on Topics and/or Approaches: Our subject is David Hume's moral philosophy. This includes, primarily, carefully interpreting Hume's moral philosophy in its context and evaluating his positions; but also, occasionally, considering some of the systematic issues he addresses in their own right. Topics: motivational psychology, especially whether unaided reason can provide an impulse to act; the relation between morality on the one hand, and reason and emotion on the other; the nature of moral judgment, including ethical noncognitivism; the structure of an ethics of virtue, especially how it analyzes justice; to what degree morality is conventional; how Hume’s ethical thought may have changed over the course of his life. Graded work will probably include an oral presentation on a selected passage, a shorter paper, a longer paper, weekly writing based on the readings, and participation in a mini-conference prior to submitting the longer paper.
     
• APHI 634: Seminar in Philosophy of Law - Topic: Normative Powers
  • Notes on Topics and/or Approaches: You have probably never heard of the term “normative power.” Roughly, a normative power is your capacity to change the norms that bind you or others. And yet, normative powers appear to be everywhere in our personal, social, and political lives. If you’ve ever demanded a right, claimed a property right to something, or made a promise, arguably, you’ve exercised a normative power. Normative powers also appear to structure many other interpersonal relations, paradigmatically when you consent to certain actions or treatment by others (e.g., surgery, waivers, sex, dinner invites), or, if others have done you wrong, when you forgive them. Further, public powers appear to be key to legal, political authority. Indeed, if H.LA. Hart was right, public powers are essential to the very nature of law. In short, normative powers may turn out to be like the air we breathe: usually invisible and in the background, but absolutely essential to our lives. Yet, the nature, grounding, and diverse applications of normative powers remain poorly understood by philosophers. This seminar in moral, legal, and political philosophy will focus both on the possibility of a general theory of normative powers and on their specific manifestation through topics such as: the nature of property, promising, consent, public authority, and forgiveness. Shared resource course with APHI 409.