Courses 2026-27: Philosophy

Why do some people believe in Bigfoot, crystal healing, or red-light therapy? What distinguishes science from pseudoscience? This course begins with classic cases of pseudoscientific belief, from homeopathy to conspiracy theories, and moves on to issues like climate denialism and vaccine misinformation. But our goal isn’t to laugh at bad ideas. We ask deeper questions: Why should science be trusted? What does the replication crisis reveal about the scientific method? How do corporate interests—like those of Big Pharma or fossil fuel companies—shape what gets published, funded, or believed? How should non-experts evaluate scientific claims in a world of information overload? We’ll explore philosophical tools for evaluating evidence, identifying biases, and distinguishing reliable authority from manufactured doubt.

This course introduces students to philosophical thinking about the nature of reality and the limits of knowledge. It is structured around three topics of perennial philosophical importance: 1. Skepticism. How much can I know about the world? Can I be certain of anything? Is it possible that most of what I believe is false? 2. The Mind-Body Problem. What is the nature of the mind? How is the mind related to the body and to the physical world more generally? 3. Personal Identity. What is the nature of a person? Am I the same person today that I was yesterday and will be tomorrow? If so, what makes me the same person? Readings will include both classical and contemporary sources such as Plato, Zhuangzi, Descartes, Locke, and Russell.

This course will provide a broad introduction to philosophy using examples from science fiction to make abstract philosophical problems vivid. Topics may include: time travel and the reality of the past and future; teleportation and what makes someone the same person over time; fictional tales of extended deception and Cartesian skepticism; futuristic utopias and the question of what make a life good; the moral status of aliens and animals; intelligent robots and the relation between mind and body; parallel universes and the philosophical foundations of quantum physics.

How do we reconcile the possibilities of modern machine learning with ethical and moral demands of fairness, accountability and transparency? This course will cover several challenges at the interface of algorithms and human values. By exploring existing debates on algorithmic bias, explainable AI and data ownership, students will be exposed to the relevance of ethical systems of thought to modern social questions.

This course will count as a first-year humanities course in philosophy. It is usually taught by new or visiting faculty. This course is not repeatable. Limited to 15 students. See registrar's announcement for details.

Required of students taking the philosophy option. To be taken in any two consecutive terms of the senior year. Students will research and write a thesis of 10,000-12,000 words on a philosophical topic to be determined in consultation with their thesis adviser. Limited to students taking the philosophy option.

An individual program of directed reading in philosophy, in areas not covered by regular courses.

This course will examine the interrelationships between the concepts of causation, moral responsibility, and legal liability. It will consider legal doctrines of causation and responsibility, as well as attempts within philosophy to articulate these concepts. Questions to be addressed include: Can you be morally or legally responsible for harms that you do not cause? Is it worse to cause some harm, than to unsuccessfully attempt it? Is it justified to punish those who cause harm more severely than those who attempt harm? When, if ever, can the ends justify the means? What constitutes negligence? Is it worse to cause some harm, than to allow it to happen (when you could have prevented it)?

This course examines the question of what it means to have free will, whether and why free will is desirable, and whether humans have free will. Topics may include historical discussions of free will from writers such as Aristotle, Boethius, and Hume; what it means for a scientific theory to be deterministic, and whether determinism is compatible with free will; the connection between free will and moral responsibility; the relationship between free will and the notion of the self; beliefs about free will; the psychology of decision making; and the insanity defense in law.

Correlation may not imply causation, but what does imply causation? This course covers accounts of causation and offers an introduction to the causal graphical modeling framework. The course will consist of a mixture of philosophical analysis and the introduction of statistical and algorithmic techniques to infer causal relations from data.

An introduction to fundamental philosophical problems concerning the nature of science. Topics may include the character of scientific explanation, criteria for the conformation and falsification of scientific theories, the relationship between theory and observation, philosophical accounts of the concept of "law of nature," causation, chance, realism about unobservable entities, the objectivity of science, and issues having to do with the ways in which scientific knowledge changes over time.

This course will focus on questions about the nature of space and time, particularly as they arise in connection with physical theory. Topics may include the nature and existence of space, time, and motion; the relationship between geometry and physical space (or space-time); entropy and the direction of time; the nature of simultaneity; and the possibility of time travel.

This course will focus on philosophical and foundational questions raised by quantum physics. Questions may include: Is quantum mechanics a local theory? Is the theory deterministic or indeterministic? What is the role of measurement and observation? Does the wave function always obey the Schrödinger equation? Does the wave function give a complete description of the state of a system? Are there parallel universes? How are we to understand quantum probabilities?

The United States made an astonishing transition from scientific backwater to superpower over the course of just one century, culminating in the atomic bomb. This course will track the development of peculiarly American conceptions of scientific methodology in the context of this rapid transition. American conceptions of science tend to privilege the practical over the theoretical. We will focus on two such conceptions: operationalism and behaviorism. Operationalism was developed to reconcile a practical conception of physics with radical theoretical changes due to relativity and quantum mechanics. Behaviorism extended this account of the theory and practice to the domain of psychology. Special attention will be given to class discussion and reading primary texts: Major figures include Peirce, Bridgman, Boring, Stevens, and Skinner.

This is an advanced humanities course on a specialized topic in HPS and Philosophy. It is usually taught by new or visiting faculty. The course may be re-taken for credit except as noted in the course announcement. Limited to 15 students. See registrar's announcement for details.

One of the last great challenges to our understanding of the world concerns conscious experience. What exactly is it? How is it caused or constituted? And how does it connect with the rest of our science? This course will cover topics related to consciousness in the philosophy of mind, cognitive psychology, and cognitive neuroscience in a mixture of lectures and in-class discussion. Limited to 20.