Philosophy College of Letters & Science

Cody Gilmore, Ph.D., Chairperson of the Department; term ends June 30, 2023
Elaine Landry, Ph.D., Chairperson of the Department; term July 1, 2023-June 30, 2026

Department Office

1240 Social Sciences & Humanities; Admin; Philosophy; Faculty

Advising

Staff advisors are located in Young Hall; philadvising@ucdavis.edu. For more information on how to make an appointment or join Drop-In Advising hours, see Yellow Cluster Undergraduate Advising Center.

Philosophy (PHI)

PHI 001 — Introduction to Philosophy (4 units)

Course Description: Problems of philosophy through major writings from various periods. Problems are drawn from political, aesthetic, religious, metaphysical, and epistemological concerns of philosophy.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Discussion 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 005 — Critical Reasoning (4 units)

Course Description: Criteria of good reasoning in everyday life and in science. Topics to be covered may include basic principles of deduction and induction; fallacies in reasoning; techniques and aids to reasoning; principles of scientific investigation; aids to clarity.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Discussion 1 hour(s).
  • Credit Limitation(s): Not open for credit to students who have completed PHI 006.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 007 — Philosophical Perspectives on Sexuality (3 units)

This version has ended; see updated course, below.
Course Description: Philosophical issues related to sexuality, including, but not limited to, ethical and social issues regarding sexual practice, orientation, classification and identity.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH).
  • PHI 007 — Philosophical Perspectives on Sexuality (3 units)
  • Course Description: Philosophical issues related to sexuality, including, but not limited to, ethical and social issues regarding sexual practice, orientation, classification and identity.
  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Domestic Diversity (DD).
  • This course version is effective from, and including: Winter Quarter 2024.

PHI 007Y — Philosophical Perspectives on Sexuality (3 units)

Course Description: Philosophical issues related to sexuality, including, but not limited to, ethical and social issues regarding sexual practice, orientation, classification and identity.

  • Learning Activities: Web Virtual Lecture 1.50 hour(s), Discussion 1 hour(s).
  • Credit Limitation(s): Not open for credit to students who have completed PHI 007.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Domestic Diversity (DD).

PHI 010 — Introduction to Cognitive Science (4 units)

Course Description: Introduction to the interdisciplinary cognitive scientific approach to the study of mind, drawing concepts and methods from psychology, philosophy, linguistics, artificial intelligence, and other disciplines.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 4 hour(s).
  • Enrollment Restriction(s): Pass One open to Cognitive Science majors only.
  • Cross Listing: CGS 001.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Science & Engineering (SE); Scientific Literacy (SL).

PHI 011 — Asian Philosophy (4 units)

Course Description: Survey of the main philosophical systems of south and east Asia: Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. Topics include the nature of reality, including God, the universe and the human self, human knowledge, and the proper conduct of human life.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Discussion 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 012 — Introduction to Symbolic Logic (4 units)

Course Description: Syntax and semantics of the symbolic language sentence logic. Symbols of sentence logic. Translation between sentence logic and English. Truth table interpretation of sentence logic. Proof techniques. Application of truth tables and proof techniques to arguments in English.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Discussion 1 hour(s).
  • Credit Limitation(s): Not open for credit to students who have taken PHI 112, PHI 113, PHI 134, or PHI 135 and passed with a grade of C or better.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH).

PHI 013 — Minds, Brains, & Computers (3 units)

Course Description: Computational theories of the nature of the mind. Mind as a computer process. Possibility of machine intelligence, consciousness, and mentality.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s).
  • Credit Limitation(s): Not open for credit for students who have completed PHI 013G.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Science & Engineering (SE) or Social Sciences (SS); Scientific Literacy (SL).

PHI 013G — Minds, Brains, & Computers with Discussion (4 units)

Course Description: Computational theories of the nature of the mind. Mind as a computer process. Possibility of machine intelligence, consciousness, and mentality.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Discussion 1 hour(s).
  • Credit Limitation(s): Not open for credit for students who have completed PHI 013.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH) or Science & Engineering (SE); Scientific Literacy (SL); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 014 — Ethical & Social Problems in Contemporary Society (4 units)

Course Description: Philosophical issues and positions involved in contemporary moral and social problems. Possible topics include civil disobedience and revolution, racial and sex discrimination, environment, population control, technology and human values, sexual morality, freedom in society.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Discussion 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 015 — Introduction to Bioethics (4 units)

Course Description: Critical analysis of normative issues raised by contemporary medicine and biology. Possible topics include euthanasia, reproductive technologies, genetic engineering, informed consent and patient autonomy, experimentation on human subjects and non-human animals.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Discussion 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 016 — Philosophical Foundations of American Democracy (4 units)

Course Description: The philosophical underpinnings of democratic government and the tension between the goals of providing security and of preserving democracy and civil liberties. Illustration of the tension through focus on issues related to war and terrorism.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Discussion 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); American Cultures, Governance, & History (ACGH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 017 — Language, Thought, & World (4 units)

Course Description: Puzzles in the philosophy of language, such as what language is, how language conveys thoughts, whether we each speak our own private language, and what we can learn about the world by studying language.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Discussion 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Social Sciences (SS); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 021 — Philosophical Classics of the Ancient Era (4 units)

Course Description: Survey of ancient Western philosophy with special attention to the Pre-Socratics, Plato, Aristotle, and the Sceptics.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Discussion 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 022 — Philosophical Classics of the Modern Era (4 units)

Course Description: Survey of modern Western philosophy, including Descartes, Locke, Hume, and Kant.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Discussion 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 024 — Introduction to Ethics (4 units)

Course Description: Reading of historical and contemporary philosophical works in ethics. Topics include the nature of morality, the justification of moral claims, and major ethical theories, such as consequentialist, deontological, and virtue theories.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Discussion 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 030 — Introduction to Philosophy of Science (4 units)

Course Description: Basic problems in the philosophy of science, common to the physical, biological, and social sciences. Analysis of explanation, confirmation theory, observational and theoretical terms, the nature of theories, operationalism and behaviorism, realism, reduction.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Discussion 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH) or Science & Engineering (SE); Scientific Literacy (SL); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 031 — Appraising Scientific Reasoning (4 units)

Course Description: Introduction to scientific hypotheses and the kinds of reasoning used to justify such hypotheses. Emphasis on adequate justification, criteria, and strategies for distinguishing scientific from pseudoscientific theories. Concrete historical and contemporary cases.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Discussion 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH) or Science & Engineering (SE); Scientific Literacy (SL); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 032 — Understanding Scientific Change (4 units)

Course Description: Concepts of scientific change in historical and philosophical perspective. Survey of models of growth of knowledge, 17th century to present. Relationship between logic of theories and theory choice. Kuhns revolution model. Examples from various sciences.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Discussion 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH) or Science & Engineering (SE); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 038 — Introduction to Philosophy of Biology (4 units)

Course Description: Non-technical introduction to philosophical, social, and scientific ideas, methods and technologies in contemporary biological fields such as evolution, genetics, molecular biology, ecology, behavior. Philosophical consideration of determinism, reductionism, explanation, theory, modeling, observation, experimentation. Evaluation of scientific explanations of human nature.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Discussion 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH) or Science & Engineering (SE); Scientific Literacy (SL); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 098 — Directed Group Study (1-5 units)

Course Description: Directed group study.

Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Variable.
  • Grade Mode: Pass/No Pass only.

PHI 099 — Special Study for Undergraduates (1-5 units)

Course Description: Special study for undergraduates.

Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Variable.
  • Grade Mode: Pass/No Pass only.

PHI 101 — Metaphysics (4 units)

Course Description: Theories of being. Such topics as reality, substance, universals, space, time, causality, becoming, body, experience, persons, freedom, and determinism. Views of the nature and method of metaphysics. Anti-metaphysical arguments.

Prerequisite(s): One course in Philosophy recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Discussion 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 102 — Theory of Knowledge (4 units)

Course Description: Analysis of the concept of knowledge. The relation between knowledge, belief and truth. Development of foundationalist, coherentist and externalist theories of justified belief. Examination of skepticism.

Prerequisite(s): One course in Philosophy recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing, Discussion.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 103 — Philosophy on Mind (4 units)

Course Description: The relation between mind and body, our knowledge of other minds, and the explanation of mental acts. Discussion of such concepts as action, intention, and causation.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 104 — The Evolution of Mind (4 units)

Course Description: Interpretation of human thought and behavior through the lens of evolutionary theory. Topics include the nature/nurture debate concerning cognitive and other mental capacities and traits, and the interaction between evolution, learning and development.

Prerequisite(s): One previous course in Philosophy recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Social Sciences (SS); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 105 — Philosophy of Religion (4 units)

Course Description: Logical, metaphysical, epistemological, and existential aspects of selected religious concepts and problems.

Prerequisite(s): One course in Philosophy recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Discussion 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 107 — Philosophy of the Physical Sciences (4 units)

Course Description: Nature of testability and confirmation of scientific hypotheses; nature of scientific laws, theories, explanations, and models. Problems of causality, determininism, induction, and probability; the structure of scientific revolutions.

Prerequisite(s): One Philosophy course or a science background recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Discussion 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH) or Science & Engineering (SE); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 108 — Philosophy of the Biological Sciences (4 units)

Course Description: Scientific method in biology. Nature of biological theories, explanations, and models. Problems of evolutionary theory, ecology, genetics, and sociobiology. Science and human values.

Prerequisite(s): One course in Biology or one course in Philosophy recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Discussion 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH) or Science & Engineering (SE); Scientific Literacy (SL); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 109 — Philosophy of the Social Sciences (4 units)

Course Description: The nature of the social sciences, their subject matter and methods. Similarities to and differences from natural and life sciences. Predicting and explaining human behavior. Behaviorism. Reduction, holism, and individualism. Related moral issues. The social sciences and philosophy.

Prerequisite(s): One course in Philosophy or a social science recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Discussion 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH) or Social Sciences (SS); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 111 — Philosophy of Space & Time (4 units)

Course Description: Philosophical problems of space and time. Philosophical implications of space-time theories, such as those of Newton and Einstein. Topics may include the nature of geometry, conventionalism, absolutist versus relationist views of space and time, philosophical impact of relativity theory.

Prerequisite(s): One upper division Philosophy course recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 112 — Intermediate Symbolic Logic (4 units)

Course Description: Predicate logic syntax and semantics. Transcription between predicate logic and English. Models, truth-trees, and derivations. Identity, functions, and definite descriptions. Introduction to concepts of metatheory.

Prerequisite(s): PHI 012 C- or better; or consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Discussion 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH).

PHI 113 — Metalogic (4 units)

Course Description: The metalogic of classical propositional and first-order predicate logic. Consistency, soundness and completeness of both propositional and predicate logic. The Löwenheim-Skolem theorem for predicate logic. Undecidablity of predicate logic.

Prerequisite(s): PHI 112; MAT 108; or the equivalent.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 4 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH).

PHI 114 — History of Ethics (4 units)

Course Description: Study of some classic texts from the history of philosophical writing on central problems of ethics, taking the form either of a survey or concentrated examination of selected historical figures. Readings from such philosophers as Aristotle, Butler, Hume, Kant, Mill.

Prerequisite(s): One previous Philosophy course recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 4 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 115 — Problems in Normative Ethics (4 units)

Course Description: Moral philosophy studied through examination of moral problems and the moral principles and common sense intuitions that bear on them. Problems discussed may include: animal rights, fetal rights, euthanasia, justice and health care, war, nuclear deterrence, world hunger, environmental protection.

Prerequisite(s): One previous course in Philosophy recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 116 — Ethical Theories (4 units)

Course Description: Study of fundamental concepts and problems in ethical theory through an examination of classical and contemporary philosophical theories of ethics. Among the theories that may be discussed are utilitarianism, virtue theory, theories of natural rights, Kantian ethical theory, and contractarianism.

Prerequisite(s): One course in ethics recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 117 — Foundations of Ethics (4 units)

Course Description: Advanced investigation of questions about the nature and foundations of morality. Among the topics that may be discussed are moral realism and anti-realism, cognitivism and non-cognitivism, types of relativism, moral skepticism, normative language and normative belief.

Prerequisite(s): PHI 114, 115, 116, 101, or 137 recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 118 — Political Philosophy (4 units)

Course Description: Intensive examination of some central concepts of political thought such as the state, sovereignty, rights, obligation, freedom, law, authority, and responsibility.

Prerequisite(s): One course in Philosophy recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Discussion 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH) or Social Sciences (SS); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 119 — Philosophy of Law (4 units)

Course Description: Philosophical theories of the nature of law, legal obligation, the relation of law and morals. Problems for law involving liberty and justice: freedom of expression, privacy, rights, discrimination and fairness, responsibility, and punishment.

Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor; one course in Philosophy recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Discussion 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH) or Social Sciences (SS); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 120 — Environmental Ethics (4 units)

Course Description: Conceptual and ethical issues concerning the environment. Extension of ethical theory to animals, all life, and ecosystem wholes. Topics may include contemporary environmental issues such as global warming, sustainability and biodiversity.

Prerequisite(s): One course in Philosophy recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Credit Limitation(s): Not open for credit for students who have completed PHI 115 prior to fall 2011.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 121 — Bioethics (4 units)

Course Description: In-depth coverage of topics in bioethics including resource allocation, measures of health and disease/disability, public health, and ethical issues related to research on human subjects and emerging technologies.

Prerequisite(s): PHI 015 recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 122 — Philosophy of Race (4 units)

Course Description: Core issues in the philosophy of race, including investigation of the nature and reality of race, use of race in science and medicine, nature of racial identity, and ethical responses to racial injustice.

Prerequisite(s): One previous course in Philosophy recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Discussion 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 123 — Aesthetics (4 units)

Course Description: Nature of art, of artistic creation, of the work of art, and of aesthetic experience; nature and validity of criticism; relations of art to its environment.

Prerequisite(s): One course in Philosophy recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 125 — Theory of Action (4 units)

Course Description: Survey of prominent contemporary approaches to leading problems in action theory. Problems include issues about the nature of intentional action and the conceptual character of explanations of actions in terms of the agent's reasons.

Prerequisite(s): One course in Philosophy recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing/Discussion 1 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 128 — Rationality (4 units)

Course Description: Philosophical issues concerning rationality in its various forms. Focus is on theoretical and practical reasoning and conditions for rational belief, choice, and action. Possible additional topics include rationality and human limitations; paradoxes of rationality; varieties of irrationality; rationality and objectivity.

Prerequisite(s): One course in Philosophy recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH).

PHI 129 — Knowledge & the A Priori (4 units)

Course Description: Self-evidence, intuition, the (in)fallibility and (in)defeasibility of a priori methods. Analytic, formalist and Kantian accounts of how knowledge can be acquired through reasoning and intuition alone, without recourse to empirical methods.

Prerequisite(s): One course in Philosophy recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 131 — Philosophy of Logic & Mathematics (4 units)

Course Description: Nature of formal systems and mathematical theories. Selected topics include logical and semantical paradoxes; foundations of mathematics; set theory, type theory, and intuitionistic theory; philosophy of geometry; philosophical implications of Gödels incompleteness results.

Prerequisite(s): PHI 012 or one course for credit in mathematics.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 133 — Logic, Probability, & Artificial Intelligence (4 units)

Course Description: Introduction to theoretical artificial intelligence with a focus on nonmonotonic logic, Bayesian networks, and learning theory.

Prerequisite(s): PHI 012; (PHI 112 or STA 013).

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 4 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.

PHI 134 — Modal Logic (4 units)

Course Description: Survey of the main systems of modal logic, including Lewis systems S4 and S5. Possible worlds semantics and formal proofs. Applications to epistemology, ethics, or temporality.

Prerequisite(s): PHI 112 or MAT 108; or the equivalent.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 4 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH).

PHI 135 — Alternative Logics (4 units)

Course Description: Alternatives to standard truth-functional logic, including many-valued logics, intuitionist logics, relevance logics, and non-monotonic logics.

Prerequisite(s): PHI 012 or MAT 108; or the equivalent.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 4 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH).

PHI 136 — Formal Epistemology (4 units)

Course Description: Formal (mathematical) approaches to belief revision, knowledge and deduction, meta-knowledge, (multi-agent) epistemic logic, Bayesian confirmation, Bayes nets, epistemic and probabilistic paradoxes.

Prerequisite(s): PHI 012.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 4 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH).

PHI 137A — Philosophy of Language: Theory of Reference (4 units)

Course Description: Survey of issues and views concerning reference, or how words refer to things. Topics include names and descriptions, the distinction between sense and reference, the puzzle of non-referring terms, causal theories of reference, and possibility and necessity.

Prerequisite(s): One course in Philosophy or Linguistics recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 137B — Philosophy of Language: Truth & Meaning (4 units)

Course Description: Comparative treatment of theories about the relationship between truth and meaning. Topics include: the identification of meaning with truth conditions, the nature of propositions, theories of linguistic understanding, the roles of mind and world in determining meaning.

Prerequisite(s): One course in Philosophy or Linguistics recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 137C — Philosophy of Language: Semantics & Pragmatics (4 units)

Course Description: Philosophical issues and positions concerning the meaning and use of language. Topics include the distinction between meaning and implication, the roles of context and convention in language use, speaker meaning versus linguistic meaning and speech act theory.

Prerequisite(s): One course in Philosophy or Linguistics recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 141 — Socrates & the Socratic Dialogue (4 units)

Course Description: Philosophy of Socrates as found in the Socratic dialogues of Plato. Topics include the Socratic practice of refutation, its method, epistemological foundation, and moral purpose; Socratic eudaimonism and Socratic virtue theory; the paradoxes of Socratic intellectualism.

Prerequisite(s): PHI 021 recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 143 — Hellenistic Philosophy (4 units)

Course Description: Positions and arguments of the major philosophical schools of the Hellenistic period: Stoicism, Epicureanism, and Scepticism. Focus is on ethical, epistemological and metaphysical questions and their interconnectedness.

Prerequisite(s): PHI 021 recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 145 — Christian, Islamic, & Jewish Philosophers of the Middle Ages (4 units)

Course Description: Major Christian, Islamic, and Jewish philosophers of the Middle Ages.

Prerequisite(s): PHI 021 recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 4 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); World Cultures (WC).

PHI 151 — 19th-Century European Philosophy (4 units)

Course Description: Survey of the main movements in 19th-century philosophy on the European continent. Idealism in Schopenhauer and Hegel, dialectical materialism in Marx, irrationalism in Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Dostoevsky.

Prerequisite(s): PHI 022 recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 4 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 156 — Contemporary Analytic Philosophy (4 units)

Course Description: Consideration of central issues such as meaning/reference, analytic/synthetic, reductionism, formal and ordinary language, essential properties, ontological commitment, possible world semantics; influential works by philosophers such as Russell, Moore, Wittgenstein, Austin, Carnap, Quine, Putnam, Kripke, van Fraassen.

Prerequisite(s): One course in Philosophy recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 157 — 20th-Century European Philosophy (4 units)

Course Description: Survey of the main movements in 20th-century philosophy on the European continent, including phenomenology, existentialism, post-structuralism and post-modernism. Philosophers covered are Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Foucault, Derrida.

Prerequisite(s): One course in Philosophy recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 4 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 160 — Pre-Socratics (4 units)

Course Description: Study of the metaphysical views of such pre-Socratic figures as the Milesians, the Pythagoreans, Heracleitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, and the atomists.

Prerequisite(s): PHI 021 recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 161 — Plato (4 units)

Course Description: Examines Platos most important contributions in metaphysics, epistemology, psychology, cosmology, ethics and political philosophy. Dialogues will be selected from Platos middle and later writings.

Prerequisite(s): PHI 021 recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 162 — Aristotle (4 units)

Course Description: Overview of Aristotles most central and influential writings. Topics selected from fields such as metaphysics, physics, ethics, logic, and psychology.

Prerequisite(s): PHI 021 recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 168 — Descartes (4 units)

Course Description: Philosophical writings of René Descartes. Topics include the refutation of skepticism, the nature and existence of mind and body, the existence of God, and the foundations of science.

Prerequisite(s): PHI 022 recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 4 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 170 — Spinoza & Leibniz (4 units)

Course Description: Philosophical writings of Spinoza and Leibniz in the 17th century. Topics drawn from both philosophers include: the nature and existence of God, the nature of mind, the relation between mind and body, human freedom, metaphysical monism vs. pluralism.

Prerequisite(s): PHI 022 recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 4 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 171 — Reimagining Early Modern Philosophy (4 units)

Course Description: Historically underrepresented figures and topics in early modern philosophy. Early modern women philosophers, such as Margaret Cavendish, Elisabeth of Bohemia, and Anne Conway. African philosophers or freed slaves such as Anton Wilhelm Amo and Olaudah Equiano. Topics may include the relation between the mind and the body, human nature, human diversity, equality, the ethics of slavery, and the nature of race and gender.

Prerequisite(s): PHI 022 recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s); Extensive Writing.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).
  • This course version is effective from, and including: Fall Quarter 2023.

PHI 172 — Locke & Berkeley (4 units)

Course Description: Principal metaphysical works of John Locke and George Berkeley. Topics include abstract ideas, existence of matter, primary and secondary qualities, essence, substance, the existence of God, and the nature of scientific knowledge.

Prerequisite(s): PHI 022 recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 4 hour(s).
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 174 — Hume (4 units)

Course Description: David Hume's Treatise of Human Nature and related writings. Topics include empiricism, space, causality, belief, skepticism, the passions, and morality.

Prerequisite(s): PHI 022 recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 4 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 175 — Kant (4 units)

Course Description: Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and related writings. Topics include the nature of human cognition, space and time, a priori concepts, substance, causality, human freedom, and the existence of God.

Prerequisite(s): PHI 022 recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 4 hour(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 178 — Frege (4 units)

Course Description: Development of Gottlob Frege's views about language and logic. Formulation of his grand mathematical idea known as logicism and how it led to the philosophy of language.

Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor; one upper division course in Philosophy recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 189A — Special Topics in Philosophy: History of Philosophy (4 units)

Course Description: Special topics in History of Philosophy.

Prerequisite(s): One course in the area of the special topic recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated 8 unit(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 189B — Special Topics in Philosophy: Metaphysics (4 units)

Course Description: Special topics in Metaphysics.

Prerequisite(s): One course in the area of the special topic recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated 8 unit(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 189C — Special Topics in Philosophy: Theory of Knowledge (4 units)

Course Description: Special topics in Theory of Knowledge.

Prerequisite(s): One course in the area of the special topic recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated 8 unit(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 189D — Special Topics in Philosophy: Ethics (4 units)

Course Description: Special topics in Ethics.

Prerequisite(s): One course in the area of the special topic recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated 8 unit(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 189E — Special Topics in Philosophy: Political Philosophy (4 units)

Course Description: Special topics in Political Philosophy.

Prerequisite(s): One course in the area of the special topic recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated 8 unit(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 189F — Special Topics in Philosophy: Philosophy of Law (4 units)

Course Description: Special topics in Philosophy of Law.

Prerequisite(s): One course in the area of the special topic recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated 8 unit(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 189G — Special Topics in Philosophy: Aesthetics (4 units)

Course Description: Special topics in Aesthetics.

Prerequisite(s): One course in the area of the special topic recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated 8 unit(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 189H — Special Topics in Philosophy: Philosophy of Mind (4 units)

Course Description: Special topics in Philosophy of Mind.

Prerequisite(s): One course in the area of the special topic recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated 8 unit(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 189I — Special Topics in Philosophy: Philosophy of Science (4 units)

Course Description: Special Topics in Philosophy of Science.

Prerequisite(s): One course in the area of the special topic recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated 8 unit(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH) or Science & Engineering (SE); Writing Experience (WE).

PHI 189J — Special Topics in Philosophy: Philosophy of Language (4 units)

Course Description: Special topics in Philosophy of Language.

Prerequisite(s): One course in the area of the special topic recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated 8 unit(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH).

PHI 189K — Special Topics in Philosophy: Logic (4 units)

Course Description: Special topics in Logic.

Prerequisite(s): One course in the area of the special topic recommended.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 4 hour(s).
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated 8 unit(s).
  • Grade Mode: Letter.
  • General Education: Arts & Humanities (AH).

PHI 194HA — Honors Research Project (4 units)

Course Description: Completion of honors research project under direction of an instructor. Consult departmental major advisor for list of instructors available in a given quarter.

Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor; open to students who are members of the honors program in Philosophy.

  • Learning Activities: Tutorial 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.

PHI 194HB — Research Project (4 units)

Course Description: Completion of honors research project under direction of an instructor. Consult departmental major advisor for list of instructors available in a given quarter.

Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor; open to students who are members of the honors program in Philosophy.

  • Learning Activities: Tutorial 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.

PHI 198 — Directed Group Study (1-5 units)

Course Description: Directed group study.

Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Variable.
  • Grade Mode: Pass/No Pass only.

PHI 199 — Special Study for Advanced Undergraduates (1-5 units)

Course Description: Special study for advanced undergraduates.

Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Variable.
  • Grade Mode: Pass/No Pass only.

PHI 200A — Proseminar I (4 units)

Course Description: Intensive study of core works in a selected area of philosophy. Intensive experience in philosophical writing, discussion, and presentation of written work.

Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Seminar 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Enrollment Restriction(s): Open only to students in their first quarter of the Philosophy Ph.D. program.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.

PHI 200B — Proseminar II (4 units)

Course Description: Intensive study of core works in a selected area of philosophy. Intensive experience in philosophical writing, discussion, and presentation of written work.

Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Seminar 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Enrollment Restriction(s): Open only to students in their first quarter of the Philosophy Ph.D. program.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.

PHI 201 — Metaphysics (4 units)

Course Description: Topics vary from quarter to quarter and may include the following: What are things? Do names refer to things? If so, how? Do things have essential properties? What is the nature of necessity?

Prerequisite(s): Graduate standing or consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Seminar 3 hour(s), Term Paper 1 hour(s).
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated when topic differs and with consent of instructor.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.

PHI 202 — Theory of Knowledge (4 units)

Course Description: Topics vary from quarter to quarter. Sample topics include belief, skepticism, justification, externalism, naturalized epistemology.

Prerequisite(s): Graduate standing in Philosophy or consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Seminar 3 hour(s), Term Paper 1 hour(s).
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated when topic differs and with consent of instructor.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.

PHI 203 — Philosophy of Mind (4 units)

Course Description: Topics in the philosophy of mind, such as the mind-body problem, mental representation, consciousness, intentionality.

Prerequisite(s): Graduate standing or consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Seminar 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated with consent of instructor.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.

PHI 203P — Philosophy of Mind Practicum (4 units)

Course Description: Specific research conducted and prepared for publication by advanced students in a team setting. Topics include knowledge representation and learning in neural networks, the nature and formal properties of mental representation.

Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Practice 12 hour(s).
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated when topic differs and consent of instructor.
  • Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory only.

PHI 207 — Philosophy of Physics (4 units)

Course Description: Intensive treatment of one (or more) topic(s) in the philosophy of physics, such as foundations of spacetime theories, the interpretation of quantum mechanics, or foundations of statistical mechanics.

Prerequisite(s): Graduate standing in Philosophy or consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Seminar 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated when topic differs and consent of instructor.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.

PHI 208 — Philosophy of Biology (4 units)

Course Description: Intensive treatment of one (or more) topic(s) in the philosophy of biology, such as foundations of evolutionary theories, reductionism in biology, sociobiology and cultural evolution.

Prerequisite(s): Graduate standing or consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Seminar 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated when topic differs and consent of instructor.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.

PHI 210 — Philosophy of Science (4 units)

Course Description: Treatment of one or more general topics of current interest in philosophy of science. Topics may include scientific explanation, theories of confirmation, scientific realism, reduction in physics and biology.

Prerequisite(s): Graduate standing or consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Seminar 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated when topic differs and consent of instructor.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.

PHI 212 — Philosophy of Logic & Mathematics (4 units)

Course Description: Philosophical issues in logic and math. Topics may include nature of logical and mathematical truth or knowledge, correctness of logical systems, foundations of mathematics, metaphysical and epistemological presuppositions, applications to philosophical problems and formalization of philosophical theories.

Prerequisite(s): PHI 112 or PHI 113 or MAT 108; or MAT 125 or the equivalent.

  • Learning Activities: Seminar 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated when topic differs and consent of instructor.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.

PHI 213 — Advanced Logic for Graduate Students (4 units)

Course Description: Intensive study of advanced logic, including set theory, metatheory of predicate logic, and modal logic.

Prerequisite(s): Graduate standing in Philosophy.

  • Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hour(s), Extensive Problem Solving.
  • Enrollment Restriction(s): Enrollment in the Philosophy Ph.D. program.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated 2 time(s) when topic differs.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.

PHI 214 — Ethics (4 units)

Course Description: Topics may include morality and motivation, objectivity in ethics, the relationship between the factual and the moral. Topics vary from quarter to quarter.

Prerequisite(s): Graduate standing in Philosophy or consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Seminar 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated when topic differs and consent of instructor.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.

PHI 217 — Political Philosophy (4 units)

Course Description: Advanced studies in political philosophy. Topics vary but may include distributive justice, enforcement of morality by the state, equality, obligation to obey the law, social contract theory.

Prerequisite(s): Graduate standing or consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Seminar 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated when topic differs and consent of instructor.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.

PHI 220 — Environmental Ethics (4 units)

Course Description: Intensive treatment of one or more topic(s) in environmental ethics, such as biodiversity, sustainability, composition of the moral community, invasive species, endangered species, applications of ethical theories to contemporary environmental issues.

Prerequisite(s): Graduate standing or consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Seminar 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.

PHI 237 — Philosophy of Language (4 units)

Course Description: Study of philosophical issues raised by language, such as the nature of semantic content, proper semantics for verbs of propositional attitude, feasibility and limitations of formal semantics and pragmatics for natural languages.

Prerequisite(s): Graduate standing or consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Seminar 3 hour(s), Term Paper 1 hour(s).
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated when topic differs and consent of instructor.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.

PHI 238 — Philosophy of Language Workshop (4 units)

Course Description: Discussion of recently published, unpublished and in-progress research in philosophy of language, including work on the relation of language and mind, of language and logic, and linguistic theory.

  • Learning Activities: Seminar 3 hour(s), Extensive Writing.
  • Enrollment Restriction(s): Open to graduate students only.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated when topic differs.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.

PHI 261 — Plato (4 units)

Course Description: Advanced seminar designed for analysis of arguments, doctrines, and texts from Plato's works. Methods of argumentation and interpretation are especially stressed. Topics vary according to instructor.

Prerequisite(s): Graduate standing or consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Seminar 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated with consent of instructor.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.

PHI 262 — Aristotle (4 units)

Course Description: Advanced seminar designed for analysis of arguments, doctrines, and texts from Aristotle's works. Methods of argumentation and interpretation are especially stressed. Topics vary according to instructor.

Prerequisite(s): Graduate standing or consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Seminar 3 hour(s), Term Paper 1 hour(s).
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated with consent of instructor.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.

PHI 275 — Kant (4 units)

Course Description: Intensive study of a topic in the philosophy of Kant, in such areas as metaphyics, theory of knowledge, ethics.

Prerequisite(s): Graduate standing in Philosophy or consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Seminar 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated with consent of instructor.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.

PHI 290 — History of Philosophy (4 units)

Course Description: Topics in the history of philosophy. Topics vary according to instructor from quarter to quarter.

Prerequisite(s): Graduate standing or consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Seminar 3 hour(s), Term Paper.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated when topic differs and with consent of instructor.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.

PHI 298 — Group Study (1-5 units)

Course Description: Group study.

Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Variable.
  • Grade Mode: Letter.

PHI 299 — Research (1-12 units)

Course Description: Research.

Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor.

  • Learning Activities: Variable.
  • Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory only.

PHI 396 — Teaching Assistant Training Practicum (1-4 units)

Course Description: Teaching assistant training.

Prerequisite(s): Graduate standing.

  • Learning Activities: Variable.
  • Repeat Credit: May be repeated.
  • Grade Mode: Pass/No Pass only.