Courses Recommended for First-Years

Philosophy courses offered in the 2021-2022 academic year that are recommended for first-year students

COGS UN1001 Introduction to Cognitive Science
The goal of cognitive science — and of this course — is to understand how the mind works. Trying to understand our own minds is perhaps the most ambitious and exciting (and difficult) project in all of science, and this project requires tools drawn from fields including experimental psychology, computer science and artificial intelligence, linguistics, vision science, philosophy, anthropology, behavioral economics, and several varieties of neuroscience (among others). This course will introduce you to the major tools and theories from these areas, as they relate to the study of the mind. We will employ these perspectives while exploring the nature of mental processes such as perception, reasoning, memory, attention, imagery, language, intelligence, decision-making, morality— and even attraction and love. In sum, this course will expose you to cognitive science, the assumptions on which it rests, and many of the most important and fascinating results obtained so far. 

PHIL UN1001 Introduction to Philosophy
Survey of some of the central problems, key figures, and great works in both traditional and contemporary philosophy.  Topics and texts will vary with instructor and semester.

PHIL UN1010 Methods and Problems of Philosophical Thought
Critical introduction to philosophical problems, ideas and methods.

PHIL UN1401 Introduction to Logic
Explicit criteria for recognizing valid and fallacious arguments, together with various methods for schematizing discourse for the purpose of logical analysis. Illustrative material taken from science and everyday life.

PHIL UN2101 The History of Philosophy I: Pre-Socratics to Augustine
Exposition and analysis of the positions of the major philosophers from the Pre-Socratics through Augustine. 

PHIL UN2110 Philosophy & Feminism
Is there an essential difference between women and men? How do questions about race conflict or overlap with those about gender? Is there a normal way of being queer? Introduction to philosophy and feminism through a critical discussion of these and other questions using historical and contemporary texts, art, and public lectures. Focus includes essentialism, difference, identity, knowledge, objectivity, and queerness.

PHIL UN2201 History of Philosophy II: Aquinas to Kant
Exposition and analysis of the metaphysics, epistemology, and natural philosophy of the major philosophers from Aquinas through Kant. Authors include Aquinas, Galileo, Gassendi, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant.

PHIL UN2301 History of Philosophy III: Kant - Nietzsche
Exposition and analysis of major texts and figures in European philosophy since Kant. Authors include Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche.