Carnegie Mellon University 1 Department of Philosophy Courses Note on Course Numbers 80-130 Introduction to Ethics Each Carnegie Mellon course number begins with a two-digit prefix which Intermittent: 9 units designates the department offering the course (76-xxx courses are offered As human beings, we frequently grapple with difficult moral questions. by the Department of English, etc.). Although each department maintains How ought I treat my friends and peers? What kinds of policies should its own course numbering practices, typically the first digit after the prefix a government adopt? When, if ever, can we justify harm? These are the indicates the class level: xx-1xx courses are freshmen-level, xx-2xx courses kinds of questions we will consider as we survey the most prominent, are sophomore level, etc. xx-6xx courses may be either undergraduate contemporary ethical theories. Along the way, we will consider the senior-level or graduate-level, depending on the department. xx-7xx implications of those theories for real world ethical issues, including capital courses and higher are graduate-level. Please consult the Schedule of punishment, pornography, and universalized healthcare. Classes (https://enr-apps.as.cmu.edu/open/SOC/SOCServlet) each semester for course offerings and for any necessary pre-requisites or co-requisites. 80-135 Introduction to Political Philosophy Intermittent: 9 units 80-100 Introduction to Philosophy As an introductory course, we will seek to trace out the historical and All Semesters: 9 units philosophical dimensions of the polis from its origins in Ancient Greece In this introductory course we will explore three major areas of Philosophy: to its current manifestation in present-day society. Special emphasis will Ethics, Metaphysics, and Epistemology. Accordingly the course is divided be placed on the concept and practice of "democracy." We'll begin with into three sections. In each section we will read primary sources and discuss the history of political philosophy from Plato and Aristotle (two of the some of the main philosophic problems associated with that area. These early critics of democracy) to the modern period and the arguments in will include: moral problems (Ethics), problems rising from the debates support of "republicanism" as found in the Federalist Papers (Madison, Jay, about free-will, personal identity or intelligence (Metaphysics), and inquiries Hamilton). These historical moments cast light on the philosophy behind about the scope and limits of human knowledge (Epistemology). We will the development of the US constitution. Following Ketcham, we'll discuss then introduce some theories designed to solve such problems, and try the debate between the "ancients and moderns," enlightenment ideas to understand the strengths and weaknesses of these theories. We will regarding liberty and equality as well as the distinction between private apply different techniques and theories to issues that we might encounter rights and public goods. After presenting some fundamental justifications in the real world. We will use class discussions, homeworks and papers to for democracy and our current models of democratic governance, we'll learn skills for evaluating arguments. These skills include: how to present a study the basic political frameworks of our day through a thorough-going philosophic argument, what are the assumptions that justify it, what are its analytic analysis of the writings and arguments of recent and contemporary weaknesses and its strengths, whether such weaknesses can be resolved political philosophers such as John Rawls, Ronald Dworkin, Robert Nozick, and, if they cannot be resolved, why. Charles Talyor, Michael Sandel, and Annette Baier. The course will end with a discussion of the theory and practice of deliberative democracy and 80-104 Freshman Seminar: Voting Theory a chance for students to engage in this model of democracy through the Fall: 9 units activities of an ersatz "deliberative poll." Voting Theory, with applications to Presidential politics The class will study some basic voting theory, including issues of constitutional design, 80-136 Social Structure, Public Policy & Ethics voting paradoxes, and spatial models of candidates' and voters' strategic Intermittent: 9 units behaviors. Relating to our theoretical inquiry, we will examine several ways The course will consider ethical questions surrounding social structure and in which the Internet functions during the ongoing 2012 US Presidential public policy. It will analyze the role of political institutions and individual campaign. As a public service, we will try to organize a web page to assist citizens in dealing with some of the greatest challenges facing our world: campus members with voter registration and absentee voting. Global health crises, the spread of (and threats to) democracy worldwide, and world poverty. Some of the questions we will consider include: 80-107 Freshman Seminar: Interstellar Linguistics Are developed countries obligated to ameliorate poverty by providing Fall: 9 units foreign aid? What is democratic governance, and what do democratic In this seminar we bring together linguistics, the study of human language, representatives owe to their constituents? Should wealthy nations and with the study of interstellar communication, that is, the attempt to contact corporations assist in the fight against life-threatening diseases worldwide? and communicate with intelligent life on other planets. In certain respects, The course uses ethical and political theory, case studies, and empirical the field linguist seeking to discover the meaning and organization of evidence to consider these questions. words and phrases in an unfamiliar language is in a similar position to the scientist attempting to design systems to communicate with alien 80-150 Nature of Reason beings. The linguist brings a wealth of experience to the problem, with a Intermittent: 9 units history of success in decoding languages currently spoken as well as written This course offers an intellectual history of philosophical views regarding the scripts from languages long forgotten. The interstellar communicator has nature of human reasoning in mathematics and the sciences, from ancient as yet no evidence of success, facing the added challenge that any such to modern times. The first part of the course traces the search for deductive communication is most likely one-way, and that the intended audience may methods for obtaining certain knowledge, starting with Aristotle and Euclid, not even exist. Still, both are dealing with arbitrary systems of signs the and continuing through the Middle Ages and late Renaissance thought, to meaning of which cannot be inferred directly from form. The aim of this the work of Boole and Frege in the nineteenth century. The second part of seminar, then, is to apply lessons from linguistics to the problem of devising the course considers the history of skepticism about empirical knowledge, systems for interstellar communication, while at the same time applying covering Plato, Sextus Empiricus, Descartes, Pascal, and Hume, along lessons learned from that exercise to issues in communication between with replies to skepticism in the works of Bayes and Kant. The third part humans using natural language. Students will examine past and recent of the course discusses theories of the nature of mind, culminating in the attempts to design interstellar language and they will look at case studies computational conception of mind that underlies contemporary cognitive in which difficult or dead languages have been decoded. They will then science. try their hand at devising solutions to communication problems, between worlds and here on earth. 80-180 Nature of Language Fall and Spring: 9 units 80-110 Nature of Mathematical Reasoning Language is used to talk about the world or to describe it, but how do Intermittent: 9 units we go about describing language itself? Linguistics is the name given This course focuses on understanding the principles and problems at to the science of language, whose task it is to give such a description. the root of mathematical reasoning; it is not a course on any specific The discipline of linguistics has developed novel tools for describing and mathematical theory, like linear algebra or topology. We will explore the analyzing language over the last two hundred years and in this course foundations of mathematics, both in terms of their historical origin and their we learn what these tools are and practice applying them. Sub-areas of modern purpose as a base for the study of mathematics. Then we will see linguistics which we study include phonetics (the study of speech sounds), how problems which seem to have no intuitive solution look simple after phonology (the study of sound systems), morphology (the study of parts being put in the right mathematical form, but also consider the limitations of words), and syntax (the study of combinations of words). Beyond this, this type of approach. We will treat such issues as they arise both in applied we look at changes in language over time, and we consider the puzzle of fields (policy decision-making, physics, computer science) and as more linguistic meaning. The methods of linguistics are useful in the study of recreational, speculative and abstract (Conway's game of life, the works particular languages and in the study of language generally, so this course of Escher, music). The course is aimed for students at the freshman and is useful for