Online courses directory (7)

This course will introduce you to the major topics, problems, and methods of philosophy and surveys the writings of a number of major historical figures in the field. Philosophy can be - and has been - defined in many different ways by many different thinkers. In a scholarly sense, philosophy is the study of the history of human thought. It requires familiarity with great ideas understood through the various major thinkers in world history. In its most general sense, philosophy is simply the investigation of life’s “big questions.” We will explore such fundamental questions in several of the core areas of philosophy, including metaphysics, epistemology, political philosophy, ethics, and the philosophy of religion. With the help of commentaries and discussions from a number of contemporary philosophers, we will read and reflect on texts by major Western and non-Western thinkers including Lao Tzu, Buddha, Confucius, Plato, Aristotle, Saint Anselm, René Descartes, Blaise Pascal, John Locke, Immanuel…

This course provides an introduction to critical thinking, informal logic, and a small amount of formal logic.  Its purpose is to provide students with the basic tools of analytical reasoning, which will give them a distinctive edge in a wide variety of careers and courses of study.  While many university courses focus on the presentation of content knowledge, the emphasis here is on learning how to think effectively.  Although the techniques and concepts covered here are classified as “philosophical,” they are essential to the practice of nearly every major discipline, from the physical sciences and medicine to politics, law, and the humanities.  The course touches upon a wide range of reasoning skills, from verbal argument analysis to formal logic, visual and statistical reasoning, scientific methodology, and creative thinking.  Mastering these will help students become more perceptive readers and listeners, more persuasive writers and presenters, and more effective researchers and scientists. Th…

This course will introduce you to the basic concepts and methods of moral and political philosophy.  Its primary focus is on the development of moral reasoning skills and the application of those skills to contemporary social and political issues.  Although the course is organized around the central concept of justice, it uses this notion as a point of departure for discussing a wide range of philosophical topics and perspectives. Topics range from the value of human life, the moral standing of the free market, and the notion of fundamental human rights, to equality of opportunity, the legality of same-sex marriage, and the conditions for a moral community.  In order to investigate these topics, this course makes extensive use of Professor Michael Sandel’s video lecture course on justice, delivered at Harvard University in 2009.  In addition to these lectures, you will study a number of important moral and political philosophers, including Plato, Aristotle, John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Jeremy Bentham, Joh…

This class provides an in-depth introduction to the philosophical problems surrounding death.  It takes its starting point in the fact that everyone, eventually, will die.  This is one of the few facts that human beings can be absolutely sure about.  Given this certainty, however, death still presents us with many difficult and pressing questions. What does it mean to die in the first place?  Who or what is the “person” that dies?  Is it merely a physical body, or is it also something like a soul, and, if so, does the existence of a soul indicate that there is some hope of immortality?  Moreover, what should our attitude toward death be?  Should we think of it as a good thing or a bad thing?  And what effect should it have on the way we live our lives?  At some point in our lives, we all grapple with these questions.  This course uses the doctrines and arguments of a number of prominent philosophers concerning death as a means to investigate these and other questions.  The course is organized a…

This course is a survey of philosophical issues surrounding the concepts and practices of modern science.  The course covers the major areas of contemporary philosophy of science, including scientific reasoning, scientific progress, interpretations of scientific knowledge, and the social organization of scientific practice.  Its aim is not only to familiarize you with philosophical issues about science but also to equip you to critically interpret popular reports about contemporary scientific research. Unit 1 introduces philosophy of science as a discipline distinct from psychology of science, history of science, and sociology of science.  Unit 2 examines the nature and objectivity of observational evidence, and Unit 3 examines methods of reasoning relevant to induction, confirmation, and explanation.  Unit 4 examines accounts of theory change and scientific progress, and Unit 5 addresses the interpretation of scientific knowledge.  Finally, Unit 6 explores various topics concerning science in a social…

Existentialism is a philosophical and literary movement that first was popularized in France soon after World War II by figures such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. The roots of this movement can be traced back to the religious writings of Blaise Pascal in the seventeenth century and those of Søren Kierkegaard in the nineteenth century. The common thread that unites existentialists is a focus on existence, particularly the concrete existence of individual human beings. Unlike rationalist thinkers such as René Descartes and G.W. F. Hegel, existentialists reject the premise that human beings are primarily rational creatures who live in an ordered, well-designed universe. They also do not believe that the answers to life’s challenges can be solved through thoughtful consideration and reasoned deliberation. Instead, existentialists view human beings as creatures whose reason is subordinate to human passions and anxieties, and who exist in an irrational, absurd, and insignificant universe. In such…

This course provides an introduction to the history of technology for the Science, Technology, and Society (STS) major. The course surveys major technological developments from ancient to modern times with particular attention to social, political, and cultural contexts in Europe and the United States. You will also think critically about the theory of technological determinism, the ways in which technology has defined “progress” and “civilization”, and the major ethical considerations surrounding today’s technological decisions. This course begins with discussions of the promotion of technology in centralized states of the ancient and medieval worlds: the Roman Empire, Song and Ming China, and the Islamic Abbasid Empire. After a period of relative decline, the states of Western Europe centralized and flourished once again, having benefited from the westward transmission of key ideas and technologies from the East. The focus of the course then shifts to the West, to the technologies of the Renai…