Summer Session I: June 29 - July 31

Instructor: W. Cai

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Instructor: A. Kocurek

Instructor: K. Kovaka

Course Description:

Science is a special way of making knowledge. But what, precisely, is so special about it? How
does it produce knowledge? Is scientific knowledge trustworthy in a way that other knowledge
is not? What are the limitations of science? When should we trust science, and when should we
be skeptical about it?

We will explore all of these questions in this course, with the goal of sharpening your ability
to assess particular scientific knowledge claims (e.g. "Climate change has made a megaflood in
California much more likely."), and claims about science (e.g. "We can learn facts about the world
from computer simulations."). Both kinds of claims come up all the time in day-to-day life, and
being able to evaluate them is an important part of being scientifically literate. This course will
help you do exactly that.

Instructor: F. Ray

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Instructor: S. Bazargan-Forward

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Instructor: K. Ortiz Villa

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Instructor: J. O'Brien

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Instructor: N. Tiran

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For many people, love and sex are two of the most valuable and vulnerable aspects of human life. Ideals, ideas, and experiences that center around love and sex determine many aspects of what we take to be a meaningful life and significant relationships, but also oppression, exclusion, and trauma. In this course, we will raise (and attempt to answer) some philosophical questions about love, sex, and intimacy, which may include: what is love? what distinguishes between romantic love, parental love, and friendship? What does consent amount to? Does anybody have a right to sex? What is wrong with pornography? And when (if at all) is objectification morally permissible?

This course satisfies Muir College's Humanities Area Theme 3 requirement and will be given online.

Instructor: J. Cohen

Course Description: 

This course is an introduction to the philosophy of mind. You may be asking yourself: what the heck is the philosophy of mind? Fair question.

Basically, it’s where we stop using our minds for a second and start looking at them. It’s where we ask the annoying-yet-important questions that usually get brushed aside in daily life: What exactly is a "thought"? Is your mind just your brain doing a fancy dance, or is there something else going on? And if we eventually build a robot that acts exactly like you, does it actually "feel" anything, or is it just a very expensive toaster?

Our mission—should you choose to accept it—is to wrestle with three big, foundational puzzles that keep philosophers (and increasingly, AI researchers) up at night:

1. The "What Is It?" Question (Ontology): What are mental states made of? Are they just physical neurons firing, or is "feeling happy" something that can’t be fully captured by a brain scan?

2. The "About-ness" Question (Content): How can a physical state inside your head be "about" something else—like a sandwich, or the concept of justice, or a vacation you haven't taken yet? How do thoughts actually "point" to the world?

3. The "Hard Problem" (Consciousness): Why does it feel like something to be you? Why isn't the human race just a bunch of biological "zombies" who process data and move around without any internal spark?

We’ll start by treating these as independent riddles, but as we go, you’ll start to see the "philosophical inception" at play: the moment you take a stand on one of these, it starts changing your answers to the others.

By the end of the term, you’ll be familiar with the heavy hitters in the field and the strengths and weaknesses of their views. More importantly, through regular practice, you’ll sharpen your skills in dismantling and building complex arguments. You’ll leave the course with a solid tour of the mental terrain—enough to sound smart at parties and confuse your friends by questioning whether they actually exist as conscious beings or are just highly sophisticated biological algorithms.

Instructor: M. Smith

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Instructor: S. Ridge

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