53 courses with the subject PHI, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
PHI 100Thinking About Thinking4
What is thinking? What is the distinction between mind and body, and ought one accept it? Can the mind survive the death of the body? Can people be thoughtful and passionate at the same time? What kind of access can one have to the worlds of human beings from other cultures and historical periods? Readings from ancient, modern, and contemporary philosophers primarily in the Western tradition. Designed to introduce beginning students to problems and methods in philosophy and to the philosophy department at Smith. Enrollment limited to 30. {H}{S}
PHI 101Plausible and Implausible Reasoning: What Happened? What Will Happen Next?4
The course provides an introduction to deductive and inductive logic. It introduces classical Aristotelian and modern truth-functional logic; explains the relationship between truth-functional logic, information science and probability; and it introduces basic features of statistical and causal reasoning in the sciences. This course is designed for students who are uncomfortable with symbolic systems. It is not a follow-up to PHI 102. Restrictions: Not open to students who have taken PHI 102. Enrollment limited to 24. {M}
PHI 102Valid and Invalid Reasoning: What Follows From What?4
Formal logic and informal logic. The study of abstract logic together with the construction and deconstruction of everyday arguments. Logical symbolism and operations, deduction and induction, consistency and inconsistency, paradoxes and puzzles. Examples drawn from law, philosophy, politics, literary criticism, computer science, history, commercials, mathematics, economics and the popular press. Enrollment limited to 30. {M}
Introduction to some of the canonical texts and most influential ideas in the early Chinese philosophical schools, including those of Confucius, Mencius and Zhuangzi. Questions to be covered include: What is the nature of reality? How can we know what is the right thing to do? What is the self? How important is the family and obeying parents and guardians? Is there such a thing as "human nature?" Does anyone have access to the truth? How should one understand the relationship between humans and the natural world? Enrollment limited to 30. {H}
PHI 124History of Ancient and Medieval Western Philosophy4
A study of Western philosophy from the early Greeks to the end of the Middle Ages, with emphasis on the pre-Socratics, Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics and Epicureans, and some of the scholastic philosophers. {H}{M}
PHI 125History of Early Modern European Philosophy4
A study of Western philosophy from Bacon through the 18th century, with emphasis on Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume and especially Kant. Enrollment limited to 30. {H}{M}
An introduction to the two-thousand-odd years of philosophy on the Indian subcontinent, focusing on central texts and topics: the nature of self, mind and reality; knowledge and its acquisition; morality and meaning; language and aesthetics. Students read selections of primary texts in translation, such as the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, Milinda's Questions, the Nyaya Sutras and others. The course focuses on premodern Indian philosphy but includes some modern Indian thought, especially that which reflects on the relationship between modern and traditional ideas in the subcontinent. {H}
Intensive practice in writing and discussing philosophy and in applying philosophical methods to key problems raised in essays written by members of the philosophy department. The spring semester course must be taken by the end of the student's sophomore year unless the department grants a deferral or the student declares the major itself during the spring of their sophomore year. Minors are encouraged but not required to take the class. Prerequisite: Two college courses in philosophy, one of which may be taken concurrently, or equivalent. Enrollment limited to 20. WI
Design is one of the most pervasive human activities. Its effects--intended or unintended--permeate our lives. Questions abound about the role of design and the significance of being able to exercise it and of being subject to it. For example: Are there particular pleasures, as well as special responsibilities, characteristic of designing? What is the nature of deprivation imposed upon people when they lack the opportunity or the knowledge to share in the design of their living or working conditions? How much control do designers actually have over the meaning and use of what they design? {S}
Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary study of the mind. This course is divided into units corresponding to these disciplines: Linguistics, Computer Science, Psychology and Neuroscience. In looking at each of these fields, the course focuses on the philosophical issues. Key questions include: Can computers think? Is the human mind a computer? Is language innate? Does language affect thought? What are mental images? Do humans perceive as much as they think they do? Do humans reason rationally? How is conscious experience related to the brain? What are emotions? Why do humans dream? Is there a self? How do animals think? {M}{N}
PHI 211OBTopics in Science and Society: Objectivity4
Beyond the vague idea that scientific, claims, methods and results should not be "influenced" by particular perspectives, the notion of objectivity in the sciences has proven difficult to characterize. How should scientific objectivity be defined? Is it desirable? To what extent can scientists achieve it? What are the consequences for society of different conceptions of scientific objectivity? This course explores these and other questions through examination of past and current scientific practice. Enrollment limited to 40. {H}{M}{S}
How are pandemics represented? How do these representations implicate science, politics, and society? The prevalent "contagion" frame is a story about seeing the microbe as the enemy, erasing or downplaying human agency and practices (especially the expansion into new ecosystems), and affirming epidemiology and medical science as the only solution. The frame carries over into politics and culture and provides a way to translate the science of contagious disease into social terms that influence the public and also public policy. This frame and others are used to explore past and current pandemics. Enrollment limited to 40. {H}{S}
PHI 211SRTopics in Science and Society-The Scientific Revolution4
What was the Scientific Revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries? Did a revolution even occur? If it did, was it really revolutionary? If it occurred, what forces produced it? How did the boundaries of “science,” which was known as “natural philosophy,” change during this time period? Readings are drawn from primary and secondary sources. Enrollment limited to 40. {H}{N}
PHI 220Incompleteness and Inconsistency: Philosophy of Logic4
Among the most important and philosophically intriguing results in 20th-century logic are the limitative theorems such as Gödel’s incompleteness theorem and Tarski’s demonstration of the indefinability of truth in certain languages. A wide variety of approaches to resolving fundamental mathematical and semantical paradoxes have emerged in the wake of these results, as well as a variety of alternative logics including paraconsistent logics in which contradictions are tolerated. This course examines logical and semantic paradoxes and their philosophical significance, as well as the choice between accepting incompleteness and inconsistency in logic and knowledge. Prerequisite: One course in logic. {M}
What does morality demand of us in the real world? How does ethical reflection inform our social, economic and personal lives? Every informed citizen must ask these questions. This course addresses issues that arise in the context of environmental ethics (preserving species and places, genetically modified foods, global warming); animal rights (vegetarianism, vivisection, experimentation); biomedical ethics (abortion, euthanasia, reproductive technologies); business ethics (advertising, accounting, whistle-blowing, globalism); sexual ethics (harassment, coercion, homosexuality); social justice (war, affirmative action, poverty, criminal justice); and other such topics. Enrollment limited to 30. {H}{S}
An examination of the works of some major moral theorists of the Western philosophical tradition and their implications for understanding the nature of the good life and the sources and scope of moral responsibilities. Enrollment limited to 30. {H}{S}
This class is a survey of epistemology, the subfield of philosophy concerned with the nature of knowledge, evidence, and rational belief. Students begin by investigating sources of doubt about whether one can know anything at all. Students then puzzle through how, in light of these sources, one can nevertheless know about the world. Next, students explore questions that arise when one goes about gathering knowledge. Among these are questions about how one’s social identities influence what they know, whether one’s emotions ever guide one to knowledge and how echo chambers and political polarization make knowledge-gathering fraught. {M}{S}
Case studies in the history of science are used to examine philosophical issues as they arise in scientific practice. Topics include the relative importance of theories, models and experiments; realism; explanation; confirmation of theories and hypotheses; causes; and the role of values in science. {M}{N}
This course provides a survey of major figures and developments in continental philosophy. Topics to be addressed include human nature and the nature of morality; conceptions of human history; the character and basis of societal hierarchies; and human beings’ relationship to technology. Readings from Hegel, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Marx, Heidegger, Sartre, Beauvoir and others. Prerequisite: One PHI course. {H}
This course provides a survey of different Latin American philosophical traditions and figures. Against some regimes of knowledge that doubt whether or not such philosophy does exist or could have its own status, the course considers from the very beginning the existence of a Latin American philosophy in its own right and its contributions to theorizing about the very idea of philosophy. Students examine different figures in Latin American thought relevant to social and political philosophy, Feminist philosophy, philosophy of liberation, Latin American Marxism, and philosophy of history. The course focuses on figures such as Guaman Poma de Ayala, Bartolomé de las Casas, Carlos Mariátegui, Enrique Dussel, Paulo Freire, Aníbal Quijano, Maria Lugones, Gloria Anzaldúa, Beatriz Nascimento, and Silvia Rivera Cusicánqui, among others. {H}{S}
This course introduces students to central themes in political philosophy regarding how societies should be organized and governed. Discussions include: the legitimacy of political authority and the nature of citizens’ obligations to the state; theories of freedom, equality, and justice, and how these concepts can be used to evaluate social, political, and economic institutions; questions about power, oppression, and social change; how social institutions structure opportunities and constrain individuals; and when resistance or disobedience can be morally justified. Prerequisite: one course in PHI or GOV 100, or equivalent. (E) {S}
PHI 232SSTopics in Metaphysics- The Self and Selflessness4
This course explores a cluster of the most fundamental questions about human nature: What are humans? Do humans have core selves that determine our identity? If so, what is such a self, and how does it develop? Or might humans be selfless? If humans are selfless, what is the nature of their identities? What might the reality or unreality of the self mean for the nature of the human experience, for ethics or for what gives lives meaning? These are questions that have been raised and addressed with great sophistication in both Indian and Western philosophical traditions, and that have been explored empirically in cognitive psychology and by experimental philosophers. The investigation in this class will therefore be both cross-cultural and interdisciplinary. {M}
This course focuses on two overlapping clusters of philosophical questions. The course considers aesthetic problems like: What is beauty? How does one experience it, and where—in nature, in art, in ordinary objects and activities? Are there objective standards for aesthetic judgments? In philosophy of art, the course considers problems like: What makes something a work of art? What is art for? Do artists have moral responsibilities, and can art cultivate our moral sensibilities? Readings are from worldwide philosophical traditions. Assignments involve extensive use of the resources of the Smith College Museum of Art. {A}{S}
PHI 234AMTopics in Philosophy of Human Nature-Artificial Minds4
This course examines philosophical questions at the intersection of philosophy of mind and artificial intelligence. Main questions include: can machines have conscious experiences? What would justify thinking that AI is or is not conscious? What would be the philosophical implications of AI consciousness? Students begin by exploring whether there is a theory that enables one to determine which beings are conscious. They then explore whether AI systems that generate creative content, seemingly form beliefs, and display personality genuinely have these capacities, or merely mimic them? Finally, they examine what artificial minds can reveal about consciousness. (E) {M}{S}
PHI 234HRTopics in Philosophy of Human Nature-Human Rights and Justice4
This course surveys different accounts of human rights and theoretical concerns in the critical theory of human needs. In the first part of the course, the class focuses on the most important historical and philosophical theories of human rights to get a general sense of how the tradition of western philosophy has articulated this concept. Students also look at some decolonial and critical theories of this western tradition. In the second part, the class examines the tension between human rights and human needs. Students pay attention to the literature about the problem of “needs” as they feature in the critique of capitalist society. {H}{S}
PHI 234TSTopics in Philosophy of Human Nature-The Self4
This course explores a cluster of the most fundamental questions about human nature: What are we? Do we have core selves that determine our identity? If so, what is such a self, and how does it develop? Or might we be selfless? If we are selfless, what is the nature of our identities? What might the reality or unreality of the self mean for the nature of our experience, for ethics, or for what gives our lives meaning? These are questions that have been raised and addressed with great sophistication in both Indian and Western philosophical traditions and that have been explored empirically in cognitive psychology and by experimental philosophers. Our investigation will therefore be both cross-cultural and interdisciplinary. {S}
Close examination of the different but converging ways in which moral, political and legal contexts shape the analysis of an issue. For example: questions about the status of a right to privacy; the history of disgust as a ground for laws governing human behavior. {S}
Introduction to the issues and methods of modern linguistics, including morphology, syntax, semantics, phonology and pragmatics. The focus is on the revolution in linguistics introduced by Noam Chomsky, and the profound questions it raises for human nature, linguistic universals and language acquisition. {M}{N}
This course prepares students to understand and critically evaluate various ethical perspectives on human beings’ interactions with nature and these perspectives’ applications to environmental issues. The principal ethical perspectives studied are anthropocentrism, biocentric individualism, environmental holism and environmental pragmatism. The class studies representative descriptions and defenses of these perspectives and examine in particular whether they can validly and effectively help us resolve environmental problems. Students study controversies about biodiversity, wilderness protection, global climate change and pollution. Enrollment limited to 40. {H}{S}
Over the past few decades there has been an explosion of research on animal consciousness. This class examines three interrelated issues: (i) questions of animal consciousness, (ii) issues related to the study of animal consciousness, and (iii) how current understandings of animal consciousness should impact our treatment of animals. Discussions include: whether animals have beliefs and desires, whether animals have a conception of the self and others, problems of researching animal consciousness, which animals are sentient, the ethics of animal experimentation and captivity, and whether there is evidence of cognition in plants. (E) {A}
This course examines philosophical conceptions of sex, gender, and sexuality in the context of contemporary ethical questions. In what ways are our conceptions of gender created and reinforced through cultural and social norms? How do assumptions about sex, gender, and sexuality shape and potentially limit research in natural and social sciences? In what ways are feminist and multiculturalist goals potentially at odds? Is sex and sexuality the public’s business? How do gender identities intersect with other identities? We will consider applications of these questions to a variety of contemporary debates concerning parenting, pornography, sex education, marriage, sexual harassment laws, and sexual or gender assignment or reassignment.
An investigation of ethical questions that arise in the world of business, including the business of the academy; and scrutiny of the moral principles that may enable people to cope successfully with these questions. Discussions include the responsibilities of businesses and the academy toward their various stakeholders, including society at large and the environment; the ethics of investment, including endowments; product liability; advertisement and the principle of caveat emptor; sexual harassment; employee rights; spirituality and the workplace; and special privileges of the academy (academic freedom, tenure, etc.). The case-study method is used. Enrollment limited to 40.
An exploration of key issues in the area of medical ethics. Following the consideration of relevant philosophical background, discussions include patient autonomy and medical paternalism, informed consent, resource allocation and social justice, reproductive technologies and genetic screening, euthanasia and the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment, and the experimental use of human subjects. Prerequisite: One course in philosophy or health studies. {S}
What is sex? What is love? How are sex and love integral to the experience as a human being? This course serves as an exploration of historical and contemporary philosophical perspectives of sex and love through ethics, social and political philosophy, phenomenology, existentialism, and feminist and queer theory. The course investigates central philosophical debates surrounding consent, pornography, gay marriage, friendship, the nature and meaning of sex, and motherhood. Additionally, the course considers how philosophical concepts, theories, and arguments about sex and love serve to oppress or liberate individuals and communities.(E) {H}{S}
This is an introductory course to the field of philosophy of law. This course introduces students to both contemporary legal theory and a critical philosophical approach to the law from a decolonial and critical race theory. The course is structured into three parts: investigating the nature of law; studying the connection of normative notions (e.g., "authority," "rights," and "powers") with the realm of morality; and focusing on issues of race and the law, and alternative conceptions of property rights. Enrollment limited to 30. {S}
What is Ignorance? Is it simply lack of knowledge? What is its relation to illusion, deception, self-deception? What is the difference between being ignorant of something and ignoring it? Is ignorance something for which one can be held responsible? Something for which one can be punished? Something for which one can be rewarded? To what social and political ends has ignorance been put, and how?
PHI 252Buddhist Philosophy: Madhyamaka and Yogacara4
This course examines the two principal schools of Indian Mahayana Buddhist philosophy. The Madhyamaka school is highly skeptical and critical in its dialectic. The Yogācāra or Cittamatra school is highly idealist. The two present contrasting interpretations of the thesis that phenomena are empty and contrasting interpretations of the relationship between conventional and ultimate reality. The debate between their respective proponents is among the most fertile in the history of Buddhist philosophy. Students read each school's principal sutras and early philosophical texts, medieval Tibetan and Chinese commentarial literature and recent scholarly discussions of the texts and doctrines of these schools. Prerequisites: One PHI or BUS course. Enrollment limited to 40. {H}
Of late there has been talk of philosophy’s being at an end or at least in need of transformation. In order to provide a measure of renewal, people are considering whether approaches taken and insights expressed in literature might enrich the study of philosophy. This course explores this issue through an examination of philosophical and literary treatments of friendship from different periods in the Western tradition, and of literary and philosophical reflections on human flourishing in the 20th century. The class also considers work by contemporary philosophers on the topic of what literature might have to contribute to the philosophical enterprise. Prerequisite: One PHI course, or equivalent. {H}{L}
PHI 258FLTopics in the Philosophy of Language-Feminist Philosophy of Language4
Feminist philosophy of language in the analytic tradition seeks to understand how language may contribute to gendered patterns of oppression. It also proposes interventions to disrupt that oppression. This class surveys major topics in feminist philosophy of language, for example, the semantics of generics like "man" or "woman," the meaning of slurs, the silencing effects of speech, the influence of gendered metaphor, the grammatical encoding of gender into natural language, and more. Students read both foundational and contemporary works of analytic philosophy. {M}{S}
PHI 258METopics in the Philosophy of Language-Metaphor4
Metaphors are everywhere: from pop music to Shakespeare's sonnets, ordinary idioms to religious texts. But what makes a linguistic utterance count as a metaphor? What do metaphors do and how do they do it? Do they have meanings, what could those be and how can one know them? This course considers theories of metaphor, drawing on multiple philosophical traditions, such as Indian, Chinese and the broadly Anglo-European analytic tradition. Prerequisite: One PHI course. {H}{M}
PHI 262Meaning and Truth: The Semantics of Natural Language4
This course is an introduction to central topics and debates in classic and contemporary philosophy of language. What is the relation between thought, language and reality? What kinds of things are accomplished with words? Is there anything significant about the definite article "the"? How does meaning accrue to proper names? Is speaker meaning the same as the public, conventional (semantic) meaning of words? Is there a distinction between metaphorical and literal language? This course also considers contemporary topics such as silencing speech, slurs, and misleading speech. Prerequisite: PHI 101, PHI 102 or equivalent. {M}
PHI 304EHSeminar: Topics in Applied Ethics-Enhancing Humans: How We Could Do It, Whether We Should4
Humans have always sought to elevate the conditions of their existence. What differentiates enhancement’s strongest proponents, so-called transhumanists, from earlier thinkers like the ancient Greeks is their belief that crossing the divide from our plane of being to a higher one is possible, even inevitable, through humans’ technological ingenuity. Given their content and implications, scrutiny of transhumanists’ views is essential. Areas this colloquium addresses include transhumanists’ and their critics’ views of human nature; the implications of existing brain science for transhumanists’ more extravagant claims; their notions of knowledge, values and education; and transhumanists’ handling of risks, including those that are potentially grave. Restrictions: Juniors and seniors only. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission required. {H}{S}
PHI 310DVSeminar: Topics in Recent and Contemporary Philosophy- Decolonial Visions of the State4
Decolonial philosophies have critically exposed state institutions as means of domination, control, violence and exploitation. Is it possible to envision different alternatives and new narratives of future institutions from political decolonial philosophies? While most of decolonial philosophy concerns critiques of different forms of violence, other dimensions of institutional making have received less attention. This course examines figures from decolonial and post-colonial theories that offer different visions of the future of the state beyond the characteristic contractarian or republicanists theories. Restrictions: Juniors and seniors only. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission required. {H}{S}
PHI 310LASeminar: Topics in Recent and Contemporary Philosophy- Latin American Philosophy4
This course provides a survey of different Latin American philosophical traditions. The course considers the existence of a Latin American philosophy in its own right and its contributions to understanding other world philosophies. The course examines different figures in Latin American thought relevant to social and political philosophy; the history of philosophy; political violence and revolutions; and race, feminism and memory. Among others, the course focuses on figures such as Guaman Poma de Ayala, Bartolomé de las Casas, Carlos Mariátegui, Enrique Dussel, Aníbal Quijano, Maria Lugones, Gloria Anzaldúa and Silvia Rivera Cusicánqui. Restrictions: Juniors and seniors only. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission required. {H}{L}{S}
PHI 315SBSeminar: Topics in the Philosophy of Science-Sustainability4
An examination of the conceptual and moral underpinnings of sustainability. Questions to be discussed include: What exactly is sustainability? On what conceptions of the world (as resource, as machine, as something with functional integrity, etc.) does sustainability rely, and are these conceptions justifiable? How is sustainability related to future people? What values are affirmed by sustainability, and how can those values be endorsed? How does sustainability compare with environmental objectives of longer standing such as conservation? Preference given to majors in either philosophy or environmental science and policy. Restrictions: Juniors and seniors only. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission required. {H}{S}
Humans seem to respond emotionally to fictions, like films or books. It seems like they can also talk about fictions, as when someone says in which (fictional) city the (fictional) characters live. But if these places and people don’t exist, what are humans feeling and talking about? This course investigates philosophical problems related to fiction in aesthetics and philosophy of language: Do fictional entities exist somehow, in minds or in the world? How does one explain human attitudes towards them? Can domains other than literature (e.g., morality, mathematics) be explained by using the concept of fiction? Restrictions: Juniors and seniors only. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission required. {M}
PHI 334ASSeminar: Topics in Philosophy of the Mind-Consciousness and its Abnormal States4
This course examines the nature of consciousness, emphasizing the challenges abnormal states of the brain present for the understanding of consciousness. Questions raised include: What is consciousness and its nature? Can consciousness be shared between individuals? Can consciousness be divided within an individual? In answering these questions, students engage with leading theories of mind and self. This investigation is both intercultural and interdisciplinary, drawing from research in neurology, contemporary Western philosophy, and classical Asian philosophy (especially Buddhism, Yoga, Sāṃkhya, and Vedānta). Restrictions: Juniors and seniors only. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission required. (E) {M}
PHI 334SKSeminar: Topics in Philosophy of the Mind-Self Knowledge4
This course examines how humans know their own minds. The course asks questions such as these: How do humans come to know that they have minds? Is introspection a kind of inner sense? Do humans have immediate access to the contents of their own minds? Is knowledge of the mind privileged or infallible? How is language implicated in self-knowledge? Do animals know the contents of their minds? These are questions that have been raised and addressed with great sophistication in both Indian and Western philosophical traditions and that have been explored empirically in cognitive psychology and by experimental philosophers. The investigation is both cross-cultural and interdisciplinary. Restrictions: Juniors and seniors only. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission required. {M}
