¹297A Seminar: The Normativity of Nature

 

The seminar explores the origins and developments of an assumption present in virtually every current of Ancient Greek Philosophy, namely that the natural state of things is the good state of things. This assumption entails that nature as such is the source of norms - cosmological, metaphysical, epistemological, ethical, aesthetic. We shall examine texts belonging to different philosophers and periods and spanning from the so-called era of the Presocratic philosophers to the Sophists, Socrates and the Socratics, Plato, Aristotle, and the philosophers of the Hellenistic period (Stoics, Epicureans, and Sceptics). We shall proceed with a broad notion of normativity and a broad conception of nature (physis), seeking how or whether evaluative or strictly normative elements may be involved in the latter. The work that we shall do is primarily historical and follows a roughly linear path. It will be of interest to historians of philosophy as well as those specialising in core areas, including metaethics, in so far as it highlights from new angles essential features and presuppositions of morality.

¹Debunking arguments purport to show that there is no appropriate explanatory connection between beliefs in some domain and the subject matter of those beliefs. The recognized absence of such a connection is meant to render our beliefs about those domains unjustified. In some cases, the challenges arise because the best scientific explanation of these beliefs makes no mention of the facts in those domains (e.g., evolutionary explanations of our moral beliefs). In others, the challenges arise because there looks to be no way for the abstract facts in question (e.g., mathematical facts) to cause or otherwise explain our beliefs. We will examine how these challenges arise for beliefs about (among other things) morality and mathematics.

 

² What is the relationship between mental capacities such as conceptual thought and the capacity for communication? Some philosophers, from Descartes to Davidson and beyond, have argued that conceptual thought requires communicative capacities that are as richly expressive as human language, but this makes it hard to understand how these capacities could have evolved. Some ethologists studying animal communication have favored a pragmatics-before-semantics account of animal communication to avoid getting into the thickets of linguistic reference and conceptual meaning. But the dominant approach to pragmatics in philosophy and linguistics is Grice's theory of non-natural meaning which requires at least third-order mental states (beliefs about beliefs about beliefs), thus again making it hard to see how meaningful communication could have evolved. In this course we will work through a manuscript of a forthcoming book by Dorit Bar-On (U. Connecticut) addressing these issues, titled Expression, Communication, and Origins of Meaning.

 

Number	Title	Instructor
UNDERGRADUATE
1	Introduction to Philosophy	Allen
3	Critical Thinking	Charry
4	Introduction to Ethics	Lamb
20C	History of Philosophy: Early Modern	Holden
100A	Ethics	Elizondo
100C	Philosophy of Language	Salmon
100E	Metaphysics	Falvey
124A	Philosophy of Science	Barrett
134	Moral Psychology	Zimmerman
139	Meta-Ethics	Mokriski
143	Philosophy of Law	Greene
149	Action Theory	Falvey
150A	Advanced Ethical Theory	Elizondo
184	Intermediate Modern Logic	Robertson Ishii
189	Philosophy of Love and Sex	Jarrett
MIXED UNDERGRAD/GRAD
124A/224A	Philosophy of Science	Barrett
134/234	Moral Psychology	Zimmerman
143/243	Philsophy of Law	Greene
149/249	Action Theory	Falvey
150A/250A	Advanced Ethical Theory	Elizondo
184/284	Intermediate Modern Logic	Robertson Ishii
224F	Philosophy of Cognition	Roskies
GRADUATE
296C	Seminar in Philosophy of Language	Salmon
297A	Seminar in History of Philosophy1	Holden
298B	Problems in Legal and Political Philosophy	Greene

Number	Title	Instructor
UNDERGRADUATE
1	Introduction to Philosophy	Associate
3	Critical Thinking	Barrett
4	Introduction to Ethics	Associate
7	Biomedical Ethics	Associate
20B	History of Philosophy: Medieval	Zylstra
100D	Philosophy of Mind	Zimmerman
100E	Metaphysics	Korman
143	Philosophy of Law	Jarrett
150E	Advanced Topics in Metaphysics	Mokriski
161	Spinoza	Zylstra
MIXED UNDERGRAD/GRAD
121/221G	Political Philosophy	Greene
128/228G	Feminist Philosophy	Mason
131/231G	Advanced Applied Ethics	Hanser
133/233G	Historical Political Thought	Greene
150D/250D	Advanced Philosophy of Mind	Falvey
175A/275A	American Philosophy1	Zimmerman
184/284G	Intermediate Modern Logic	Robertson Ishii
GRADUATE
296A	Seminar in Ethics2	Mason
296E	Seminar in Metaphysics3	Korman
297A	Seminar in History of Philosophy	Tsouna

¹ 175A/275A: This course in American Philosophy begins with an examination of John Locke’s creationist theory of natural rights, which posits entitlements to life, liberty and property, and an assessment of the role Locke’s ideas played in the American Revolution, the construction of its founding documents, and the struggle to abolish slavery and racial segregation.  We then turn to the growing popularity of Darwin’s theory of natural selection in the subsequent century and its consequences for the idea of God-given rights referenced in the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution.

² 296A: This seminar will focus on the nature of false consciousness and ideology.

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Number	Title	Instructor
UNDERGRADUATE
1	Introduction to Philosophy	Korman
3	Critical Thinking	Mokriski
4	Introduction to Ethics	Mason
20A	History of Philosophy: Ancient	Neidlinger
100A	Ethics	Elizondo
100C	Philosophy of Language	Korman
100F	Intro to Philosophy of Science	Barrett
130	Freedom & Determinism	Jarrett
135	Contemporary Philosophy	Mokriski
160	Descartes	Zylstra
MIXED UNDERGRAD/GRAD
144/244G	Advanced Topics in Philosophy of Law	Hanser
145/245G	Punishment & Responsibility	Mason
149/249G	Action Theory	Falvey
153/253G	Aristotle	McKirahan
156/256G	Hellenistic Philosophy1	Tsouna
176/276G	Historical Philosophy2	Holden
183/283G	Beginning Modern Logic	Robertson Ishii
GRADUATE
296A	Seminar in Ethics	Elizondo
296C	Seminar in Philosophy of Language	Salmon
594	First Year Grad Student Pro-Seminar	Korman

¹ 156/256G: This course focuses on the three main philosophical movements of the Hellenistic period, i.e. the period extending over approximately three centuries after the deaths of Aristotle and of Alexander the Great: Epicureanism, Stoicism, and Scepticism.

² 176/276G: This course will examine the philosophical system of Nagarjuna (c.150-250 AD), the founder of the Madhyamaka (‘Middle Path’) school of Buddhist philosophy. The main focus will be Nagarjuna’s metaphysics, philosophy of language, and epistemology.