Graduate Seminars
Graduate-level seminars are an integral part of the doctorate program. The seminars vary each semester; see the most recent offerings below.
Spring 2026
PHIL 9010 History of Philosophy: Hellenistic Philosophy (H1)
T 3:10–5:30pm
Professor Scott Aikin
This seminar will be a survey of the highlights of the Hellenistic period of philosophy, with emphasis on four schools, their development, their critical exchanges in the period, and their reception in the history of philosophy. We will look closely at the Epicurean tradition, with Epicurus’s letters and Lucretius’s De Rerum. We will investigate the Cynics, with selections of Diogenes’s biography and other fragments of lives of the later Cynics. We will read both early and later Imperial Stoic literature, with emphasis on the development of the tradition, from Zeno of Citium to Epictetus. Finally, we will turn to the skeptical responses to these schools, first with the Academics (with Cicero), then with the Pyrrhonians (with Sextus Empiricus). At regular periods in the course, we will read modern scholarship in philosophy informed by these ancient debates. Two short papers.
PHIL 3910/5910 Iris Murdoch and Twentieth-Century Philosophy (H5)
W 3:10–5:30pm
Professor Matthew Congdon
This seminar will be an intensive introduction to the philosophical writings of Iris Murdoch, whose works we will read alongside key texts from both anglophone and continental philosophical traditions. Well-known in her lifetime as the author of twenty-six novels, Murdoch also studied and taught philosophy at Oxford, where she was a heterodox figure, arguing against reductive pictures of language, the fact/value dichotomy, behaviorist eliminations of the inner life, and models of ethical life that privileged the rational choosing will over all else. Together, these elements constituted for Murdoch an impoverished “picture of the soul,” which she countered with her own rival “soul-picture.” This rival picture drew inspiration from figures from Plato to Simone Weil and attempted to make concepts like imagination, vision, attention, and love central to ethics. Murdoch was also uncommon in her time for drawing connections otherwise mostly ignored between the analytic philosophy of her Oxford colleagues and the philosophical trends emerging on the continent, particularly the existentialism of Sartre and Beauvoir but also, later in her life, Frankfurt School Critical Theory and Derrida. Our aim in the class shall be, first, to gain an appreciation for how a single author like Murdoch can serve as a kind of prism for approaching a wide range of twentieth-century philosophical ideas, movements, and texts and, second, to ask whether and how Murdoch’s insights can be carried into the twenty-first century. Most of our readings of Murdoch’s texts will come from two sources: the collection Existentialists and Mystics and her last great (and extremely difficult) work, Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals. Other authors to be read in conversation with Murdoch will likely include Gilbert Ryle, A.J. Ayer, G.E. Moore, R.M. Hare, Stuart Hampshire, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone Weil, and Theodor Adorno. We will also discuss texts by authors inspired by Murdoch’s ideas, including Martha Nussbaum, Cora Diamond, Charles Taylor, and Richard Moran.
PHIL 9020 Topics in Philosophy: Good Will, Character, and Virtue in Kant’s and Kantian Ethics
(T2) R 6:00–8:20pm
Professor Julian Wuerth
This course first reviews constructivist Kantian interpretations of Kant’s ethics offered by Christine Korsgaard, Onora O’Neill, and John Rawls. A contrasting interpretation of Kant’s theory of self and theory of action is then reviewed, setting the stage for a contrasting interpretation of Kant’s ethics as a form of virtue ethics. Kant sees his ethics as departing from all previous ethics in its recognition of a deep and irreducible distinction in kind between our intellectual and sensible faculties and in turn a recognition of a deep and irreducible distinction in kind between two conative currencies: the moral and the pragmatic. For Kant, the final end of the world, and the worth of humanity, rests in our capacity to prioritize morality over our own happiness. This is the “spirit” of the moral law, whereas Kant’s famous “categorical imperative” concerns only the “letter” of the moral law. Our prioritization of the moral over the pragmatic is also what Kant calls a “good will” in his 1785 Groundwork and a virtuous “character” or a virtuous “disposition” in his 1788 Critique of Practical Reason, his 1793 Religion, and his 1797 Metaphysics of Morals. One problem facing Kant’s account of virtue is explaining how pure reason could be practical. This is the problem of the freedom of the will, and we will examine Kant’s solution as presented in his Groundwork and Critique of Practical Reason. Another fundamental problem is related to the first: even if we are free and can choose morally, why would we choose morally when it undermines our happiness? Here we will consider Kant’s account of the cultivation of virtue as he develops this account in his Religion and Metaphysics of Morals.
Students will all give in-class presentations on class readings and will have a choice of one long or two short papers. No prior coursework is presupposed, though my previous seminar, which focused mainly on Kant’s ethics up through the first section of the Groundwork, provides useful background.
As an unofficial capstone to this course, a workshop, “Good Will, Character, and Virtue: Themes from Kant’s Groundwork and Beyond,” will be hosted by our department on May 28-29, 2026. Papers will address the philosophy of Kant but also German Idealism. The list of speakers has not been finalized but participants will include Kate Moran, Karen Ng, Julia Peters, Jens Timmermann, and myself.
Fall 2025
PHIL 8000.01 Teaching and Research Methods: Graduate Proseminar
T 11:10a–1:00p
Prof. Karen Ng
The graduate proseminar aims to provide first-year graduate students with a general orientation into graduate school and academic life in the department. Specifically, students will learn some basics pertaining to research and teaching methods, general practices within the discipline, professionalization towards a career in philosophy, and resources offered by the department and university for research and teaching. Students will also be introduced to the philosophy department faculty and their areas of research and have a chance to hear their unique perspectives on graduate school and the wider profession. In addition to faculty visits and assigned readings, each week we will discuss a different aspect of academic life, including topics such as: writing successful seminar papers; AOSs and AOCs; submitting papers to journals; forming a dissertation committee and dissertation writing; the APA; participating in conferences; the job market; applying for fellowships and grants; crafting a syllabus; scaffolding assignments; classroom dynamics; presentation skills; and more.
PHIL 9010.01 Plato (H1)
T 3:10–5:30p
Prof. Lenn Goodman
Plato’s chief dialogues, read with a view to understanding his arguments, and ideas about how to teach them. Included: the Euthyphro, Apology, Phaedo, Menexenus (Plato’s parody of Pericles’ Funeral Oration for the Athenian war dead), Laches, Crito, Meno, Philebus, Symposium, Alcibiades, Phaedrus, Gorgias, Republic,Cratylus, Parmenides, Theaetetus, Sophist, Statesman, Timaeus.
PHIL 9020.01 Social Equality (T2)
T 6:00-8:20p
Prof. Robert B. Talisse
Egalitarianism is the thesis that justice requires that something be made equal (or perhaps that inequalities of a certain kind be eliminated). One question instantly emerges: Why think that? Others promptly follow: Equality of what? Among whom? Secured how? Towards what end? Some versions of egalitarianism – often called distributivist views – hold that equality in the justice-relevant sense is a property of distributions of some specified stuff (welfare, resources, opportunities, etc.). This is to be contrasted with versions of egalitarianism – typically called relationalist or social equality views – according to which equality in the justice-relevant sense is fundamentally a property of social relations. According to social egalitarians, justice prevails when people stand towards one another in relations of equality rather than in hierarchical relations. This seminar examines this relationalist strand of egalitarian thinking. We will begin with some of the background debate between distributive and relational egalitarians. From there, we will turn to social egalitarianism, paying special attention to the question of what it means for people to stand towards one another in relations of equality. The seminar will close by exploring a view according to which the demand not to be placed within hierarchical relations towards others is in some sense normatively fundamental.
No prior work in political philosophy will be presumed, though familiarity with the major historical texts in ethics and political philosophy will prove helpful. Seminar readings will include work by Danielle Allen, Elizabeth Anderson, Nyla Branscombe and Derrick Darby, G. A. Cohen, Ronald Dworkin, Niko Kolodny, Martha Nussbaum, Rekah Nath, Amartya Sen, Samuel Scheffler, Kok-Chor Tan, and Jonathan Wolff.
PHIL 9020.02 Critical Theory (T5)
W 3:10–5:30p
Prof. Karen Ng
This graduate seminar is an intensive introduction to the tradition known as Frankfurt School Critical Theory, engaging with thinkers associated with its first generation to the present. Rooted in the philosophies of Hegel and Marx, critical theory is a tradition of social and political philosophy that combines descriptive and normative aims, where social critique has the goal of transforming society to ameliorate the human condition. The focus of the seminar will be the concept of “ethical life” (Sittlichkeit) and how this idea provides a lens through which to understand the unique contributions of this tradition. Readings may include works by Aristotle, Hegel, Marx, Lukács, Horkheimer, Adorno, Marcuse, Robinson, Césaire, Habermas, Honneth, Jaeggi, Fraser, and others.
PHIL 9010.02 Spinoza’s Ethics (H3)
R 3:10–5:30p
Prof. Emanuele Costa
In this course, we will explore one of the crucial texts of the Early Modern era. Written by Baruch Spinoza throughout the course of his life, the Ethics is a unique example of how systematic metaphysics can be implemented in philosophy of mind, philosophical anthropology, and moral philosophy. The geometric style in which the work is composed represents a challenge for the contemporary reader. However, it also offers a fascinating and streamlined cascade of theses that have stimulated philosophical reflection for the past four centuries.
Spring 2025
PHIL 3920/5920.01 Argumentation Theory (T5) – Mezzanine Class
T 3:10–5:30p
Prof. Scott Aikin
Argumentation Theory is the domain of research focusing on the norms of interpersonal reason-exchange. There are epistemic, ethical, practical, and aesthetic objectives behind critical dialogue, and in making these objective explicit, argumentation theorists hope to explain what goes right in good dialogue and what goes wrong in bad. This course will focus first on the early orienting documents of the movement, and then we will read chapters from the forthcoming Routledge Handbook of Argumentation Theory (ed. Aikin, Casey, and Stevens), with cutting edge research agendas. Two short (2-3K) papers.
PHIL 9020.01 Contemporary Metaethics (T2)
T 6:00-8:20p
Prof. Sarah Raskoff
This seminar offers an in-depth exploration of key debates in metaethics, focusing on influential 20th-century formulations and cutting-edge developments of four major views: non-naturalism, naturalism, non-cognitivism, and error theory. We will engage with fundamental questions such as: Do moral thoughts and statements correspond to properties? If so, are these properties natural or “sui generis”? How can different theories account for moral knowledge? And how can they account for the practical or action-guiding role of moral judgments?
PHIL 9010.01 History of Normative Ethics (H6)
W 3:10–5:30p
Prof. Diana Heney
This class is a deep survey of the history of normative ethics in Western philosophy, including readings on eudaimonism, virtue ethics, deontology, utilitarianism, and care ethics. Our goal will be to understand these theories and consider their contemporary relevance. All students will read the core text each week, as well as at least one piece chosen from a set of supplementary readings.
PHIL 9020.02 Philosophy of Emotion (T1)
R 3:10–5:30p
Prof. Matthew Congdon
What is an emotion? Can emotions be rational? If so, how? And what roles might emotional rationality play in ethics? Our aim in this seminar will be to pose these questions by way of a survey of philosophical work on emotions. Our guiding theme shall be the complex relationship between emotions and rationality, with special attention paid to the variety of models of emotional rationality that philosophers have proposed. Authors from the ancient Stoics to the present have urged that emotions are evaluative judgments (e.g., to fear x is to judge that x is dangerous). Others, arguing from a roughly Aristotelian perspective, have urged that emotions are forms of evaluative perception (and so a virtuous person’s perceptions of situations will be colored by appropriate emotional responses). Still others, echoing themes in the traditions of phenomenology and existentialism, have urged that emotions help establish an agent’s “world” in an encompassing sense (as in Sartre’s claim that emotions are “transcendental” structures of consciousness or Karen Jones’ more recent claim that emotions “frame” human agency). Our task shall be to take stock of these and other competing proposals, as a way of critically evaluating the hypothesis that emotional responses form a crucial aspect of human rationality. Readings will span key texts from philosophy of mind, moral psychology, social philosophy, and the history of philosophy, as well as recent work in empirical psychological research on emotion.
PHIL 9020.03 Epistemology (T3)
R 6:00–8:20p
Prof. David Thorstad
This course is an advanced introduction to epistemology. The course will cover core topics including the nature of knowledge, theories of justified belief, and sources of justification. We will conclude with an examination of contemporary topics in epistemology.
Fall 2024
PHIL 8000 Teaching and Research Methods: Graduate Proseminar
T 11:00a-1:00p
Professor Karen Ng
The graduate proseminar aims to provide first-year graduate students with a general orientation into graduate school and academic life in the department. Specifically, students will learn some basics pertaining to research and teaching methods, general practices within the discipline, professionalization towards a career in philosophy, and resources offered by the department and university for research and teaching. Students will also be introduced to the philosophy department faculty and their areas of research and have a chance to hear their unique perspectives on graduate school and the wider profession. In addition to faculty visits, each week we will discuss a different aspect of academic life, including topics such as: writing successful seminar papers; AOSs and AOCs; submitting papers to journals; forming a dissertation committee and dissertation writing; the APA; participating in conferences; the job market; applying for fellowships and grants; crafting a syllabus; scaffolding assignments; classroom dynamics; presentation skills; and more.
PHIL 9000 Maimonides and Friends (H2)
T 1:00-3:20p
Professor Lenn Goodman
Exploring Maimonides’ masterwork, the Guide to the Perplexed. Exiled from Cordoba, the city of his birth, in the wake of the Almohad conquest, Maimonides (1138-1204) became an accomplished physician, jurist, and philosopher. The Guide, his magnum opus in philosophy, aims to show an educated reader how to navigate the straits between logic, science, and philosophy on the one hand and one’s religious commitments on the other. Our reading will center on the new translation from the Arabic original and the philosophical commentary on this text by Lenn Goodman and Phillip Lieberman. We’ll also read Goodman’s companion volume, A Guide to the Guide. The “friends” examined will include the major Muslim philosophers that Maimonides studied closely: al-Farabi, Avicenna, the Ikhwan al-Safa, al-Ghazali, and Ibn Tufayl.
PHIL 9010-01 Kant’s Ethics (H3)
W 3:35-5:55p
Professor Julian Wuerth
What Should I Do? Kant identifies this as one of four questions that together comprise all of philosophy, and Kant answers this question with his ethics. Kant sees an ambiguity built into this question that has undermined all previous attempts at ethics: is it a pragmatic question, a moral question, or both? This course traces the evolution of Kant’s views in ethics and his strategy for disambiguating this question. We start with Kant’s beginnings as a moral sense theorist, next review his grounds for a radical switch to an ethics of reason in 1769, and then, after considering his unpublished work from the “silent decade” of the 1770s, examine his mature ethics in the Groundwork, the Critique of Practical Reason, and the Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone. Here we pay special attention to Kant’s theory of action, the starting points of Kant’s arguments, the role of skepticism, Kant’s distinction between the pragmatic and the moral, his accounts of freedom and the “fact of reason,” and his views on character and our Gesinnung, or moral disposition.
PHIL 9010-02 Marx (H4)
R 2:45-5:05p
Professor Karen Ng
This course is an in-depth philosophical exploration of the work of Karl Marx (1818–1883), ranging from his early writings of the 1840s to the full development of his critique of political economy in the three volumes of Capital. In focusing on the philosophical contributions of Marx’s work, we will consider questions such as the following: How is Marx’s project a continuation or transformation of the philosophical tradition that immediately preceded him, particularly, the work of Hegel and the German idealists? How does Marx’s work set the stage for the tradition of critical theory, and how does Marx understand the normative basis of social criticism? How might we understand the ethical dimensions of Marx’s philosophy? Does Marx present a philosophical anthropology, and if so, what role does it play in his critique of capitalism? How does Marx understand the relation between human beings and nature, and how does this relationship shape his understanding of labor, political economy, and history? The goal of the course is to understand Marx’s contributions to a number of longstanding philosophical questions and how his answers lead to the conclusion that capitalism constitutes a normatively deficient form of ethical life.
PHIL 9020 Ideal and Non-Ideal Theory (T5)
T 3:10-5:30p
Professor Jacob Barrett
This seminar will investigate the ideal and non-ideal theory debate, first, in political philosophy, and second, in neighboring fields. Within political philosophy, ideal theorists aim to characterize the perfectly or ideally just society. The first part of the course will focus on the value of this sort of ideal theorizing in relation to more directly practically relevant forms of non-ideal theorizing — for example, about how to solve the problems of injustice we currently face. Is ideal theory relevant to, or in some important sense prior to, non-ideal theory? If not, might ideal theory be important to do anyway — or might it, conversely, be pointless or even harmful? In the second part of the course, we will explore related debates in fields such as ethics and epistemology, with our precise focus depending on student interest.