Seminars

Classics in Philosophy of Mind

We are going to read and discuss the works of Frege, Russell, Quine, Grice and others on meaning. Our topics of investigation will include: (a) the relationship between truth and meaning, (b) the difference between implicature, entailment and presupposition, (c) the semantic contribution of singular terms, i.e. names and definite descriptions, to the meanings of complete sentences and (d) the analysis of belief-ascriptions (as well as other propositional attitudes)

Metaphysics and Epistemology

In the first part of this course our main interest will be in philosophical questions about the nature of time, the identity of persons across time, and the conditions for free will. In the second part of this course our main interest will be in questions about the nature of human knowledge: what is knowledge, what are our sources of knowledge, and how–if at all–we can show that we have knowledge and deal with the problem of skepticism. Throughout the course there will be various introductory lectures on inductive and deductive logic.

Wittgenstein's Tractatus and the Philosophical PART 2

A deep dive into Kripke's classic 'Naming and Necessity'. Important distinctions such as the following will be explored: (a) a priori vs. a posteriori propositions, (b) necessity and contingency, (c) the analytic vs. synthetic distinction.

Recent Issues in Epistemology

We will examine a range of topics/ problems/ issues in contemporary epistemology. These will include the puzzling nature of human knowledge, the lottery paradox, the preface paradox, the problem of epistemic circularity, the nature of belief and its relation to credences, faith, and pragmatic encroachment. We will spend time investigating the nature of philosophical knowledge and the nature of intuitions and their epistemic value. We will conclude by looking at issues regarding ignorance and its implications for human rationality.