An introduction to symbolic logic and probability. In the first two parts of the course we study formal ways of determining whether a conclusion of an argument follows from its premises. Included are truth-functional logic and predicate logic. In the third part we study the basic rules of probability, and learn how to make probability calculations and decisions in life.

• Days/Times: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
• Instructor: Achinstein, Peter
• Room: Gilman 50
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 1/20
• PosTag(s): PHIL-LOGSCI, COGS-PHLMND

An introduction to symbolic logic and probability. In the first two parts of the course we study formal ways of determining whether a conclusion of an argument follows from its premises. Included are truth-functional logic and predicate logic. In the third part we study the basic rules of probability, and learn how to make probability calculations and decisions in life.

• Days/Times: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
• Instructor: Achinstein, Peter
• Room: Gilman 50
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 7/20
• PosTag(s): PHIL-LOGSCI, COGS-PHLMND

An introduction to symbolic logic and probability. In the first two parts of the course we study formal ways of determining whether a conclusion of an argument follows from its premises. Included are truth-functional logic and predicate logic. In the third part we study the basic rules of probability, and learn how to make probability calculations and decisions in life.

• Days/Times: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
• Instructor: Achinstein, Peter
• Room: Gilman 50
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 7/20
• PosTag(s): PHIL-LOGSCI, COGS-PHLMND

An introduction to symbolic logic and probability. In the first two parts of the course we study formal ways of determining whether a conclusion of an argument follows from its premises. Included are truth-functional logic and predicate logic. In the third part we study the basic rules of probability, and learn how to make probability calculations and decisions in life.

• Days/Times: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
• Instructor: Achinstein, Peter
• Room: Gilman 50
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 10/20
• PosTag(s): PHIL-LOGSCI, COGS-PHLMND

Introduction to the philosophy of mind with special emphasis on the relationship between human minds and artificial machines. Questions to be discussed include: Is the mind the brain, or something over and above it? Can computers think, and if so, do they think the way we do? How do our thoughts get to be about things in the external world? What is the nature of conscious experience?

• Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 12:50PM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PM
• Instructor: Green, E. J.
• Room: Ames 234
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 1/15
• PosTag(s): PHIL-MIND, COGS-PHLMND, MSCH-HUM

Introduction to the philosophy of mind with special emphasis on the relationship between human minds and artificial machines. Questions to be discussed include: Is the mind the brain, or something over and above it? Can computers think, and if so, do they think the way we do? How do our thoughts get to be about things in the external world? What is the nature of conscious experience?

• Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 12:50PM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
• Instructor: Green, E. J.
• Room: Ames 234
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 2/15
• PosTag(s): PHIL-MIND, COGS-PHLMND, MSCH-HUM

Introduction to the philosophy of mind with special emphasis on the relationship between human minds and artificial machines. Questions to be discussed include: Is the mind the brain, or something over and above it? Can computers think, and if so, do they think the way we do? How do our thoughts get to be about things in the external world? What is the nature of conscious experience?

• Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 12:50PM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PM
• Instructor: Green, E. J.
• Room: Ames 234
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 1/15
• PosTag(s): PHIL-MIND, COGS-PHLMND, MSCH-HUM

Introduction to the philosophy of mind with special emphasis on the relationship between human minds and artificial machines. Questions to be discussed include: Is the mind the brain, or something over and above it? Can computers think, and if so, do they think the way we do? How do our thoughts get to be about things in the external world? What is the nature of conscious experience?

• Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 12:50PM, F 1:30PM - 2:20PM
• Instructor: Green, E. J.
• Room: Ames 234
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 2/15
• PosTag(s): PHIL-MIND, COGS-PHLMND, MSCH-HUM

In the Islamic Golden Age (800-1400 CE), philosophers such as al-Farabi, Avicenna, al-Ghazali, and Averroes made enormous contributions to every aspect of philosophy, including metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, and philosophical theology. But philosophy in the Islamic world did not end with Averroes. It continued to flourish in Muslim Eastern countries, in particular Persia and India, with the works of such philosophers as Suhrawardi and Mula Sadra. In the contemporary era, drawing on their rich tradition, Muslim philosophers such as Muhammad lqbal, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and Amina Wadud continue to tackle social, philosophical, and theological issues in the Islamic world. In this course, we will discuss the works of Muslim philosophers from the Golden Age to the present day.

• Days/Times: MW 4:30PM - 5:45PM
• Instructor: Morvarid, Hashem
• Room: Ames 218
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 18/20
• PosTag(s): INST-PT

An overview of philosophical thought in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. We shall focus on fundamental questions in epistemology (knowledge, how we acquire it, its scope and limits), metaphysics (the ultimate nature of reality, the relation of mind and body, free will), and theology (the existence and nature of God, God’s relation to the world, whether knowledge of such things is possible): all questions that arose in dramatic ways as a result of the rise of modern science. The principal philosophers to be discussed are Descartes, Locke, Hume and Kant, though we shall also make the acquaintance of Spinoza, Leibniz and Berkeley.

• Days/Times: MW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, F 9:00AM - 9:50AM
• Instructor: Dong, Hao
• Room: Ames 218
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 12/20
• PosTag(s): PHIL-MODERN, MSCH-HUM, INST-GLOBAL, INST-PT, COGS-PHLMND

An overview of philosophical thought in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. We shall focus on fundamental questions in epistemology (knowledge, how we acquire it, its scope and limits), metaphysics (the ultimate nature of reality, the relation of mind and body, free will), and theology (the existence and nature of God, God’s relation to the world, whether knowledge of such things is possible): all questions that arose in dramatic ways as a result of the rise of modern science. The principal philosophers to be discussed are Descartes, Locke, Hume and Kant, though we shall also make the acquaintance of Spinoza, Leibniz and Berkeley.

• Days/Times: MW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, F 10:00AM - 10:50AM
• Instructor: Dong, Hao
• Room: Ames 218
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 2/20
• PosTag(s): PHIL-MODERN, MSCH-HUM, INST-GLOBAL, INST-PT, COGS-PHLMND

An introduction to moral philosophy through in-depth and critical reading of selected texts from the history of philosophy. The philosophers whose texts will be discussed include Aristotle, Kant, Mill, and Hannah Arendt.

• Days/Times: MW 9:00AM - 9:50AM, F 9:00AM - 9:50AM
• Instructor: Velleman, James David
• Room: Ames 234
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 7/15
• PosTag(s): PHIL-ETHICS, AGRI-ELECT

An introduction to moral philosophy through in-depth and critical reading of selected texts from the history of philosophy. The philosophers whose texts will be discussed include Aristotle, Kant, Mill, and Hannah Arendt.

• Days/Times: MW 9:00AM - 9:50AM, F 9:00AM - 9:50AM
• Instructor: Velleman, James David
• Room: Ames 234
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 4/15
• PosTag(s): PHIL-ETHICS, AGRI-ELECT

An introduction to moral philosophy through in-depth and critical reading of selected texts from the history of philosophy. The philosophers whose texts will be discussed include Aristotle, Kant, Mill, and Hannah Arendt.

• Days/Times: MW 9:00AM - 9:50AM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
• Instructor: Velleman, James David
• Room: Ames 234
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 8/15
• PosTag(s): PHIL-ETHICS, AGRI-ELECT

An introduction to moral philosophy through in-depth and critical reading of selected texts from the history of philosophy. The philosophers whose texts will be discussed include Aristotle, Kant, Mill, and Hannah Arendt.

• Days/Times: MW 9:00AM - 9:50AM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
• Instructor: Velleman, James David
• Room: Ames 234
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 9/15
• PosTag(s): PHIL-ETHICS, AGRI-ELECT

This course begins by reviewing canonical texts in modern political philosophy beginning with Thomas Hobbes and John Locke and ends by exploring classic questions in contemporary debates in race, gender, and identity.

• Days/Times: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
• Instructor: Chaput, Emmanuel
• Room: Krieger 302
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 15/20
• PosTag(s): PHIL-ETHICS, INST-PT

This course begins by reviewing canonical texts in modern political philosophy beginning with Thomas Hobbes and John Locke and ends by exploring classic questions in contemporary debates in race, gender, and identity.

• Days/Times: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 1:30PM - 2:20PM
• Instructor: Chaput, Emmanuel
• Room: Krieger 302
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 4/5
• PosTag(s): PHIL-ETHICS, INST-PT

Prometheus is Johns Hopkins' undergraduate philosophical society. The society organizes a conference and publishes a journal each year and more generally provides a community for philosophically-minded students. The Prometheus workshop facilitates this through open philosophical discussion; interaction with faculty, graduate students, and other members of the Philosophy Department; and other activities. For more information, please visit . Prerequisite: MUST have taken one philosophy course

• Days/Times: T 7:00PM - 8:00PM
• Instructor: Cummings, Cara Rei
• Room: Gilman 288
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 18/28
• PosTag(s): n/a

In this course, we will explore various philosophical views concerning the nature and ethics of love. We will address questions such as “What is love?”, “Are there reasons to love (or not to love) particular people or objects?”, “What role does love play in leading a flourishing life?”, and “How does one love well?” In examining these issues, we will focus on contemporary debates in the philosophy of love, but we might also engage with prominent historical treatments of love, psychological research, literature, and art.

• Days/Times: TTh 9:00AM - 10:15AM
• Instructor: Wonderly, Monique Lisa
• Room: Gilman 288
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/15
• PosTag(s): PHIL-SEM, PHIL-ETHICS

A study of major selected texts of Aristotle.

• Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
• Instructor: Bett, Richard
• Room: Gilman 288
• Status: Waitlist Only
• Seats Available: 0/18
• PosTag(s): PHIL-ANCIEN

Euclid set a precedent for the codification of mathematics by axiomatizing the set of geometric truths. An obvious question that arises is whether all branches of mathematics are axiomatizable, especially fundamental ones, such as arithmetic. In the late nineteenth century, what became known as Peano arithmetic was proposed as an axiomatization. The essential feature of an axiomatization is that, although one might have an infinite number of axioms, as does Peano arithmetic, one must have a decision procedure for determining whether a given proposition is or is not an axiom. In 1931, Gödel proved the astounding result that, not only is Peano arithmetic incomplete in the sense that it does not entail all arithmetic truths, but any attempted axiomatization of arithmetic is incomplete, and thus the set of arithmetic truths must be undecidable. Subsequently, Alfred Tarski showed the set of arithmetic truths is not even definable. Also, by finding a finitely axiomatizable undecidable subtheory of Peano arithmetic, Alonzo Church was able to show that there is not even an effective procedure for determining whether a given sentence is a logical truth. Finally, in his 1931 paper, Gödel argued a second incompleteness theorem, viz., that any theory strong enough to express its own consistency, as he showed Peano arithmetic to be, cannot prove its own consistency unless it is inconsistent. We will cover these and other results that have had a profound effect on the foundations of mathematics. It remains an open question whether so basic a theory as Peano arithmetic is consistent.

• Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
• Instructor: Rynasiewicz, Robert
• Room: Greenhouse 110
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 10/12
• PosTag(s): PHIL-LOGSCI

Catastrophe Ethics explores the question, “how do you live a morally decent life in an era of massive, structural catastrophes?” Most of what we do contributes to harm and injustice as a result of climate change, ecological devastation, child labor and exploitation in the global supply chain, the spread of infectious diseases like Covid-19, animal welfare issues, and much more. And yet, as individuals with incredibly little power, most of us can’t make a difference to any of these problems no matter what we choose. So our actions seem to matter morally (Recycle! Boycott bad companies! Go vegan!), and yet also to matter not at all (You don’t make a difference!). In attempting to address this problem—the puzzle of individual responsibility amidst collective threats—this course takes students on a tour of both traditional moral philosophy, and newer, disruptive moral concepts. By the end of the semester, students will be provided with tools to think more clearly about living in our chaotic world and hopefully, to do better and feel better about the mark that they’re leaving on the planet and on society.

• Days/Times: F 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Rieder, Travis N
• Room: Krieger 180
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 4/40
• PosTag(s): PHIL-BIOETH, PHIL-ETHICS, MSCH-HUM

An advanced introduction to the philosophical work of Ludwig Wittgenstein. We shall begin by examining the central ideas of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus against the background of the philosophical work of Frege and Russell. We shall then move on to the Philosophical Investigations, paying special attention to his searching self-criticisms and to the “rule-following” and “private language” problems, as highlighted by Saul Kripke’s pathbreaking but controversial account of Wittgenstein’s argument.

• Days/Times: M 4:30PM - 7:00PM
• Instructor: Williams, Michael
• Room: Gilman 288
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 5/15
• PosTag(s): n/a

Immanuel Kant's political philosophy is primarily presented in two works very late in his corpus: Perpetual Peace and the Metaphysics of Morals. In these Kant presents an account of justice as based on the innate right of individuals to freedom, which situates his account in the history of the liberal tradition of political philosophy. But what really follows from the starting point of individual freedom? In this course we will both pay careful attention to Kant's texts, and also think about the implications of the position for contemporary concerns, as well as for how liberalism should be understood.

• Days/Times: W 4:00PM - 6:30PM
• Instructor: Allais, Lucy
• Room: Gilman 288
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 10/21
• PosTag(s): PHIL-MODERN, PHIL-ETHICS, INST-PT

This course explores philosophical issues raised by developments in Artificial Intelligence. For example, can a machine be conscious? (What is consciousness?) Who is responsible for a bad decision made by AI? What light, if any, do developments in AI shed on age-old debates about nature vs. nurture?

• Days/Times: T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Gross, Steven
• Room: Gilman 288
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 5/28
• PosTag(s): PHIL-LOGSCI, PHIL-MIND, COGS-PHLMND, MSCH-HUM

This course examines the works, influence, and legacy of often underappreciated and overlooked women philosophers of the German tradition in the 19th and 20th centuries. Although they were largely deprived of formal education and academic positions and excluded from academic discourse, women thinkers developed their own ways of philosophizing, of engaging in dialogue with their contemporaries, and of shaping the philosophical movements of their time. The course will focus on Lou Andreas-Salomé (1861-1937) and her engagement with the philosophy of life movement and psychoanalysis, Edith Stein (1891-1942) and her impact on the phenomenological tradition, and Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) and her lasting contribution to existential questions of human intellectual, social, and political life. The underlying theme of the course that connects these three thinkers is the life of the mind: what can we learn from each thinker about the conditions of human life, the dynamics of personal development, and the potential for emancipation?

• Days/Times: Th 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Kraus, Katharina
• Room: Greenhouse 110
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 11/15
• PosTag(s): PHIL-MIND, PHIL-MODERN, INST-PT

This course will consider the bearing of theories of justice on health care. Topics will include national health insurance, rationing and cost containment, and what justice requires of researchers in developing countries.

• Days/Times: W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Bok, Hilary
• Room: Hodson 203
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 6/20
• PosTag(s): PHIL-ETHICS, PHIL-BIOETH, MSCH-HUM

That the nations of the world could ever work together seems utopian, but also unavoidable: migration, war, and not least climate change make some form of global coordination increasingly necessary. This course will give historical and philosophical depth to the idea of a cosmopolitan order and world peace by tracing it from its ancient sources through early modernity to today. At the center of the course will be the text that has been credited with founding the tradition of a world federation of nations, Immanuel Kant’s "Toward Perpetual Peace" (1795). Confronting recent and current political discourse, literature, and philosophy with Kant’s famous treatise, we will work to gain a new perspective on the idea of a world order. In addition to Kant, readings include Homer, Erasmus, Pico della Mirandola, Rousseau, Jeremy Bentham, Emily Dickinson, Tolstoy, Whitman, Rosa Luxemburg, Gandhi, Hannah Arendt, John Lennon, and Martin Luther King as well as lesser-known authors such as the Abbé de Saint-Pierre, Ellen Key, Odette Thibault, Simone Weil, and Claude Lefort. Taught in English.

• Days/Times: W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Frey, Christiane; Seguin, Becquer D
• Room: Gilman 381
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 1/15
• PosTag(s): INST-PT

What does it mean to exist, and to be able to reflect on this fact? What is it mean to be a self? This course explores the themes of existentialism in literature and philosophy, including the meaning of existence, the nature of the self, authenticity and inauthenticity, the inescapability of death, the experience of time, anxiety, absurdity, freedom and responsibility to others. It will be examined why these philosophical ideas often seem to demand literary expression or bear a close relation to literary works. Readings may include writings by Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, Heidegger, Rilke, Kafka, Simmel, Jaspers, Buber, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Camus, and Daoud.

• Days/Times: T 3:00PM - 5:30PM
• Instructor: Gosetti, Jennifer Anna
• Room: Gilman 479
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 1/20
• PosTag(s): n/a

This course critically engages the presentation and imagination of animals and other non-human life in modern literature, philosophy, and thought. We will examine the figure of the animal and the means of conceptual differentiation between the animal and the human, considering animals' relation to or perceived exclusion from language, pain, embodiment, sexuality, and the visual gaze. The course is ideal for students interested in fascinating themes in literature and how they reflect philosophical concerns. No prior courses in philosophy are required. Students will read philosophical texts alongside literary works in learning the conceptual history of animals and of humanity as a distinct species. Expect fascinating readings and engaging, lively discussions. Readings may include works by Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Heidegger Derrida, Agamben, Poe, Kleist, Hofmannsthal, Rilke, Kafka, Mann, Pirandello, and Coetzee.

• Days/Times: W 3:00PM - 5:30PM
• Instructor: Gosetti, Jennifer Anna
• Room: Bloomberg 276
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 1/15
• PosTag(s): n/a

This course critically engages the presentation and imagination of animals and other non-human life in modern literature, philosophy, and thought. We will examine the figure of the animal and the means of conceptual differentiation between the animal and the human, considering animals' relation to or perceived exclusion from language, pain, embodiment, sexuality, and the visual gaze. The course is ideal for students interested in fascinating themes in literature and how they reflect philosophical concerns. No prior courses in philosophy are required. Students will read philosophical texts alongside literary works in learning the conceptual history of animals and of humanity as a distinct species. Expect fascinating readings and engaging, lively discussions. Readings may include works by Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Heidegger Derrida, Agamben, Poe, Kleist, Hofmannsthal, Rilke, Kafka, Mann, Pirandello, and Coetzee.

• Days/Times: W 3:00PM - 5:30PM
• Instructor: Gosetti, Jennifer Anna
• Room: Bloomberg 276
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 2/4
• PosTag(s): n/a

Existentialism, a powerful movement in modern drama and theatre, has had a profound influence on contemporary political thought, ethics, and psychology, and has transformed our very notion of how to stage a play. Selected readings and lectures on the philosophy of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Camus, and Sartre -- and discussion of works for the stage by Sartre, Ionesco, Genet, Beckett, Albee, Pinter, and the late plays of Caryl Churchill. Opportunities for projects on central European Absurdism in works by Dürrenmatt, Havel, Witkiewicz, and Mrozek. Students may also choose to examine post-colonialism in the work of Frantz Fannon and second-wave feminism in essays by Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre's long-time collaborator.

• Days/Times: W 4:30PM - 7:00PM
• Instructor: Martin, Joe
• Room: Gilman 77
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 8/14
• PosTag(s): n/a

Novel developments in the field of artificial intelligence have recently delivered staggering improvements nearly in any field imaginable. Machine learning models which detect and classify latent features of text, image and sound helped us read ancient scrolls we have not been able to read, improve cancer detection techniques and design better self-driving cars. Machine learning models also became better at producing new text, image and sound. ChatGPT is reaching level of competence which urges us to watermark its output and Dall-E is recreating any image to text in any style requested. The complexity of these models rivals and even surpasses their human counterparts at times. At other times, however, these models also behave shockingly incompetently. Self-driving cars struggle with unfamiliar situations, which give rise from absurd to dangerous situations. The detection models perform significantly worse on groups of individuals lying outside their training data. ChatGPT4 does not sound less confident when it makes up an answer than when it provides accurate information. These failures range from being merely amusing to threatening the very existence of humanity. With its promises of new heights and threats of new lows, machine-learning-based AI raises new and hard ethical issues. This course aims to introduce you both to the basic concepts in machine-learning-based AI as well as the hard ethical questions they raise from a philosophical perspective.

• Days/Times: MTWTh 12:00PM - 2:00PM
• Instructor: Gungor, Huseyin
• Room: Gilman 134
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 15/15
• PosTag(s): PHIL-ETHICS, PHIL-LOGSCI

The current paradigm for understanding addiction is a brain disease of compulsion, investigated in large part through animal models. Yet addiction in humans has dimensions of meaning and suffering alike that cannot be captured by neuroscience or modelled in animals. This First-Year Seminar explores addiction by combining what we know from addiction science with what we know from philosophy and the humanities, as well as therapy, journalism, film, and autobiographical narratives. We will work to understand the puzzle of why people use drugs in ways that can come to destroy their lives through these various lenses and without recourse to stigma, dogma, or dehumanization. This interdisciplinary course will develop students' skills in reading, analytic thinking, and writing; we will also visit an animal lab.

• Days/Times: M 10:30AM - 1:00PM
• Instructor: Pickard, Hanna
• Room: Gilman 288
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 12/12
• PosTag(s): n/a

It is difficult to think about the fact that you will die. It is confusing theoretically and it is confusing emotionally. We will be spending the course trying to think our way through the confusions. On the theoretical side, thinking about the fact that you will die raises a cluster of philosophical questions. What are you? Are you necessarily the sort of thing that ceases to exist when your biological life ends? What is it that connects you to your childish self and makes some person in the future you? And does the fact that you die diminish the value of your life? If it means the end of your existence, does it make life absurd, or meaningless, or only more precious? We will address these questions as well as whether death should be feared, whether death is bad, and whether immortality would be desirable. Being confronted with the fact of your death can also help focus questions about how you should live. It presses you to think about what makes life worth living? What makes a life meaningful? Are there objective answers to what makes a life meaningful, or is this a personal choice? If meaningfulness involves some kind of overarching project (e.g., achieving something, leaving something behind, participating in something larger than ourselves) is meaningfulness worth pursuing, or should we instead throw off the tyranny of purposes and just live?

• Days/Times: W 12:00PM - 2:30PM
• Instructor: Gross, Steven; Ismael, Jenann T
• Room: Gilman 288
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 12/12
• PosTag(s): n/a

More than 500 federally recognized Native tribes and many more who are not federally recognized live within the borders of the United States. Each of these communities has its own history, identity, traditions, relationship to the land, and story of survivance. This First Year Seminar will examine the philosophical views of some of these American Indian communities as they relate to topics like truth, knowledge, identity and the self, causation, and ethics. We will compare these Indigenous approaches with one another and with Euro-American approaches. We will also explore contemporary American Indian thought as it relates to colonialism and anti-colonialism, land, futurity, sovereignty, and resistance.

• Days/Times: MW 10:30AM - 11:45AM
• Instructor: Connolly, Patrick; Gross, Steven
• Room: Gilman 134
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 12/12
• PosTag(s): n/a

Philosophers and scientists raise important questions about the nature of the physical world, the mental world, the relationship between them, and the right methods to use in their investigations of these worlds. The answers they present are very different. Scientists are usually empiricists, and want to answer questions by experiment and observation. Philosophers don’t want to do this, but defend their views a priori. Why? Can both be right? Readings will present philosophical and scientific views about the world and our knowledge of it. They will include selections from major historical and contemporary figures in philosophy and science. The course has no prerequisites in philosophy or science.

• Days/Times: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
• Instructor: Achinstein, Peter
• Room: Gilman 50
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 8/20
• PosTag(s): PHIL-LOGSCI, COGS-PHLMND, ARCH-RELATE

Philosophers and scientists raise important questions about the nature of the physical world, the mental world, the relationship between them, and the right methods to use in their investigations of these worlds. The answers they present are very different. Scientists are usually empiricists, and want to answer questions by experiment and observation. Philosophers don’t want to do this, but defend their views a priori. Why? Can both be right? Readings will present philosophical and scientific views about the world and our knowledge of it. They will include selections from major historical and contemporary figures in philosophy and science. The course has no prerequisites in philosophy or science.

• Days/Times: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PM
• Instructor: Achinstein, Peter
• Room: Gilman 50
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 18/20
• PosTag(s): PHIL-LOGSCI, COGS-PHLMND, ARCH-RELATE

Philosophers and scientists raise important questions about the nature of the physical world, the mental world, the relationship between them, and the right methods to use in their investigations of these worlds. The answers they present are very different. Scientists are usually empiricists, and want to answer questions by experiment and observation. Philosophers don’t want to do this, but defend their views a priori. Why? Can both be right? Readings will present philosophical and scientific views about the world and our knowledge of it. They will include selections from major historical and contemporary figures in philosophy and science. The course has no prerequisites in philosophy or science.

• Days/Times: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
• Instructor: Achinstein, Peter
• Room: Gilman 50
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 15/20
• PosTag(s): PHIL-LOGSCI, COGS-PHLMND, ARCH-RELATE

Philosophers and scientists raise important questions about the nature of the physical world, the mental world, the relationship between them, and the right methods to use in their investigations of these worlds. The answers they present are very different. Scientists are usually empiricists, and want to answer questions by experiment and observation. Philosophers don’t want to do this, but defend their views a priori. Why? Can both be right? Readings will present philosophical and scientific views about the world and our knowledge of it. They will include selections from major historical and contemporary figures in philosophy and science. The course has no prerequisites in philosophy or science.

• Days/Times: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PM
• Instructor: Achinstein, Peter
• Room: Gilman 50
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 19/20
• PosTag(s): PHIL-LOGSCI, COGS-PHLMND, ARCH-RELATE

A survey of the earlier phase of Greek philosophy. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle will be discussed, as well as two groups of thinkers who preceded them, usually known as the pre-Socratics and the Sophists.

• Days/Times: MW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, F 10:00AM - 10:50AM
• Instructor: Bett, Richard
• Room: Ames 234
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 11/15
• PosTag(s): PHIL-ANCIEN

A survey of the earlier phase of Greek philosophy. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle will be discussed, as well as two groups of thinkers who preceded them, usually known as the pre-Socratics and the Sophists.

• Days/Times: MW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, F 10:00AM - 10:50AM
• Instructor: Bett, Richard
• Room: Ames 234
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 12/15
• PosTag(s): PHIL-ANCIEN

A survey of the earlier phase of Greek philosophy. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle will be discussed, as well as two groups of thinkers who preceded them, usually known as the pre-Socratics and the Sophists.

• Days/Times: MW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
• Instructor: Bett, Richard
• Room: Ames 234
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 12/15
• PosTag(s): PHIL-ANCIEN

A survey of the earlier phase of Greek philosophy. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle will be discussed, as well as two groups of thinkers who preceded them, usually known as the pre-Socratics and the Sophists.

• Days/Times: MW 10:00AM - 10:50AM, F 11:00AM - 11:50AM
• Instructor: Bett, Richard
• Room: Ames 234
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 14/15
• PosTag(s): PHIL-ANCIEN

Introduction to a wide range of moral issues arising in the biomedical fields, e.g. physician-assisted suicide, human cloning, abortion, surrogacy, and human subjects research. Cross listed with Public Health Studies.

• Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 12:50PM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PM
• Instructor: Bok, Hilary
• Room: Shaffer 3
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 6/16
• PosTag(s): PHIL-BIOETH, PHIL-ETHICS, BEHB-SOCSCI, MSCH-HUM

Introduction to a wide range of moral issues arising in the biomedical fields, e.g. physician-assisted suicide, human cloning, abortion, surrogacy, and human subjects research. Cross listed with Public Health Studies.

• Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 12:50PM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PM
• Instructor: Bok, Hilary
• Room: Shaffer 3
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 12/16
• PosTag(s): PHIL-BIOETH, PHIL-ETHICS, BEHB-SOCSCI, MSCH-HUM

Introduction to a wide range of moral issues arising in the biomedical fields, e.g. physician-assisted suicide, human cloning, abortion, surrogacy, and human subjects research. Cross listed with Public Health Studies.

• Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 12:50PM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PM
• Instructor: Bok, Hilary
• Room: Shaffer 3
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 15/16
• PosTag(s): PHIL-BIOETH, PHIL-ETHICS, BEHB-SOCSCI, MSCH-HUM

Introduction to a wide range of moral issues arising in the biomedical fields, e.g. physician-assisted suicide, human cloning, abortion, surrogacy, and human subjects research. Cross listed with Public Health Studies.

• Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 12:50PM, F 1:30PM - 2:20PM
• Instructor: Bok, Hilary
• Room: Shaffer 3
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 15/16
• PosTag(s): PHIL-BIOETH, PHIL-ETHICS, BEHB-SOCSCI, MSCH-HUM

Introduction to a wide range of moral issues arising in the biomedical fields, e.g. physician-assisted suicide, human cloning, abortion, surrogacy, and human subjects research. Cross listed with Public Health Studies.

• Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 12:50PM, F 1:30PM - 2:20PM
• Instructor: Bok, Hilary
• Room: Shaffer 3
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 16/16
• PosTag(s): PHIL-BIOETH, PHIL-ETHICS, BEHB-SOCSCI, MSCH-HUM

Introduction to a wide range of moral issues arising in the biomedical fields, e.g. physician-assisted suicide, human cloning, abortion, surrogacy, and human subjects research. Cross listed with Public Health Studies.

• Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 12:50PM, F 1:30PM - 2:20PM
• Instructor: Bok, Hilary
• Room: Shaffer 3
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 14/16
• PosTag(s): PHIL-BIOETH, PHIL-ETHICS, BEHB-SOCSCI, MSCH-HUM

Introduction to a wide range of moral issues arising in the biomedical fields, e.g. physician-assisted suicide, human cloning, abortion, surrogacy, and human subjects research. Cross listed with Public Health Studies.

• Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 12:50PM, F 3:00PM - 3:50PM
• Instructor: Bok, Hilary
• Room: Shaffer 3
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 16/16
• PosTag(s): PHIL-BIOETH, PHIL-ETHICS, BEHB-SOCSCI, MSCH-HUM

Introduction to a wide range of moral issues arising in the biomedical fields, e.g. physician-assisted suicide, human cloning, abortion, surrogacy, and human subjects research. Cross listed with Public Health Studies.

• Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 12:50PM, F 3:00PM - 3:50PM
• Instructor: Bok, Hilary
• Room: Shaffer 3
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 16/16
• PosTag(s): PHIL-BIOETH, PHIL-ETHICS, BEHB-SOCSCI, MSCH-HUM

Introduction to a wide range of moral issues arising in the biomedical fields, e.g. physician-assisted suicide, human cloning, abortion, surrogacy, and human subjects research. Cross listed with Public Health Studies.

• Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 12:50PM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PM
• Instructor: Bok, Hilary
• Room: Shaffer 3
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 14/16
• PosTag(s): PHIL-BIOETH, PHIL-ETHICS, BEHB-SOCSCI, MSCH-HUM

Introduction to a wide range of moral issues arising in the biomedical fields, e.g. physician-assisted suicide, human cloning, abortion, surrogacy, and human subjects research. Cross listed with Public Health Studies.

• Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 12:50PM, F 3:00PM - 3:50PM
• Instructor: Bok, Hilary
• Room: Shaffer 3
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 16/16
• PosTag(s): PHIL-BIOETH, PHIL-ETHICS, BEHB-SOCSCI, MSCH-HUM

Introduction to a wide range of moral issues arising in the biomedical fields, e.g. physician-assisted suicide, human cloning, abortion, surrogacy, and human subjects research. Cross listed with Public Health Studies.

• Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 12:50PM, F 3:00PM - 3:50PM
• Instructor: Bok, Hilary
• Room: Shaffer 3
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 16/16
• PosTag(s): PHIL-BIOETH, PHIL-ETHICS, BEHB-SOCSCI, MSCH-HUM

Introduction to a wide range of moral issues arising in the biomedical fields, e.g. physician-assisted suicide, human cloning, abortion, surrogacy, and human subjects research. Cross listed with Public Health Studies.

• Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 12:50PM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PM
• Instructor: Bok, Hilary
• Room: Shaffer 3
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 11/16
• PosTag(s): PHIL-BIOETH, PHIL-ETHICS, BEHB-SOCSCI, MSCH-HUM

Prometheus is Johns Hopkins' undergraduate philosophical society. The society organizes a conference and publishes a journal each year and more generally provides a community for philosophically-minded students. The Prometheus workshop facilitates this through open philosophical discussion; interaction with faculty, graduate students, and other members of the Philosophy Department; and other activities. For more information, please visit . Prerequisite: MUST have taken one philosophy course

• Days/Times: T 7:00PM - 7:50PM
• Instructor: Taylor, Elanor Jane
• Room: Gilman 288
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 17/25
• PosTag(s): n/a

Metaphysics addresses fundamental questions about the nature and structure of reality. In this majors' seminar we will explore a range of topics in metaphysics, focusing particularly on distinctions between realism and anti-realism. We will also work on core philosophical skills including argument reconstruction, presenting original work to an audience, and writing longer philosophy papers.

• Days/Times: TTh 9:00AM - 10:15AM
• Instructor: Taylor, Elanor Jane
• Room: Gilman 313
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 4/15
• PosTag(s): PHIL-SEM

Truth is a topic which connects questions about language, logic, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of science, and ethics. In this course, students will learn about truth and the role that truth plays in central topics in philosophy. The course consists of three units, addressed to three big questions: (1) What is truth? (2) What are the different ways that a sentence can come close to being true? (3) How should our actions and speech be guided by truth?

• Days/Times: TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM
• Instructor: Lettie, Jacob Randolph
• Room: Gilman 288
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 15/18
• PosTag(s): PHIL-MIND

Aesthetics is the subdiscipline of philosophy that explores the nature and value of beauty, often with an emphasis on the beautiful work of art. In this course, we shall pursue the following questions, and doubtless many others: Why do human beings produce works of art? What “counts” as a work of art? What is beauty, and why do we value it so highly? Are aesthetic judgments purely subjective or is there an objective (or intersubjective) standard against which beauty might be measured? Is there a relationship between beauty and morality? What is “taste”? What role does the work of art play in education, in our emotional lives, and in the relationships that we form with one another? Included among the philosophers who shall serve as our points of reference, we will be reading: Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Hume, Shaftesbury, Kant, Schelling, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Goodman, and Danto.

• Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
• Instructor: Eggert, Nick William
• Room: Gilman 288
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 9/18
• PosTag(s): PHIL-ETHICS

Are there objective moral truths, or is morality just a matter of opinion? When someone says that ‘lying is wrong,’ or ‘you shouldn’t steal,’ what do these sentences mean? The branch of philosophy concerned with questions like these is called metaethics. Metaethics is distinct from ordinary (or first order) ethics. Ethics concerns what we ought to do, and whether various actions and choices are right or wrong. Metaethics, by contrast, is about what moral sentences mean, whether they assert (or describe) objective facts, what it means for a moral sentence to be ‘true,’ and more. In this course, we will use the tools of philosophical analysis to examine these questions and engage with the five most prominent answers to them. Students will discover where they stand on important metaethical issues, and then develop their own arguments to defend their position. Recommended Course Background: at least one course in philosophy.

• Days/Times: TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM
• Instructor: Ioakimidis, Alexander Milton
• Room: Bloomberg 172
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 9/18
• PosTag(s): PHIL-ETHICS

Truth is one of the oldest and most central subjects in the philosophical tradition. Its influence extends throughout the discipline, from the philosophy of language, where a longstanding idea is that understanding the meaning of a sentence involves knowing the conditions under which it is true and cooperative speakers are expected to speak the truth, to epistemology, where belief is considered to aim at the truth, among other places. However, truth may, of course, be partial. What one says or believes may be true about one subject matter, false about another. In this seminar, we seek a systematic understanding of the notion of partial truth, drawing on recent work in the framework of truthmaker semantics. We will then explore how various philosophical debates oriented around truth look when recast in a partial light.

• Days/Times: Th 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Bledin, Justin
• Room: Krieger 306
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 4/15
• PosTag(s): PHIL-LOGSCI, PHIL-LOGSCI, COGS-PHLMND

A study of later Greek philosophy, stretching roughly from the death of Aristotle to the Roman imperial period. Epicureans, Stoics, and Skeptics will be the main philosophical schools examined.

• Days/Times: MW 3:00PM - 4:15PM
• Instructor: Bett, Richard
• Room: Gilman 217
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 6/15
• PosTag(s): PHIL-ANCIEN

This course revisits the idea of tragedy as represented in Ancient Greek thought for the purpose of approaching questions of flourishing and ethical living from a different angle.

• Days/Times: F 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Lebron, Christopher Joseph
• Room: Gilman 134
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 4/15
• PosTag(s): PHIL-ANCIEN

A development of Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory (ZF), including the axiom of choice (ZFC), a system in which all of mathematics can be formulated (i.e., entails all theorems of mathematics). Although, we’ll do an exposure to transfinite ordinals and cardinals in general so that you can get a sense for how stupendously “large” these can be, the main thrust concerns certain simple, seemingly well-posed conjectures whose status appears problematic. For example, the Continuum Hypothesis (CH) is the conjecture that the cardinality of the real numbers is the first uncountable cardinality, i.e., the first cardinality greater than that of the set of natural numbers. Equivalently, there is no uncountable subset of real numbers strictly smaller in cardinality than the full set of reals. (You’d think that if there were one, you would be able eventually to find such.) Cantor thought that CH is true, but could not prove it. Gödel showed, at least, that if ZFC is consistent, then so is ZFC+CH. However, Paul Cohen later proved that if ZFC is consistent, then so is ZFC + the negation of CH. In fact, CH could fail in astoundingly many ways. For example, the cardinality of the continuum could be (weakly) inaccessible, i.e., of a cardinality that cannot even be proved to exist in ZFC (although the reals can certainly can be proved to exist in ZFC). So, are there further, intuitively true axioms that can be added to ZFC to resolve the cardinality of the continuum, and CH is definitely true or false? Or, as Cohen thought, does CH simply lack a definite truth value?

• Days/Times: TTh 9:00AM - 10:15AM
• Instructor: Rynasiewicz, Robert
• Room: Gilman 288
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 10/12
• PosTag(s): PHIL-LOGSCI

An advanced introduction to the central problems, concepts and theories of contemporary philosophical epistemology (theory of knowledge). Topics to be explored will includes: what is knowledge (and why do we want it)?; theories of justification (foundationalism, the coherence theory, etc.); externalism and internalism in epistemology; skepticism, relativism and how to avoid them. Reading from contemporary sources.

• Days/Times: W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Goodman, Jeremy
• Room: Gilman 17
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 8/15
• PosTag(s): MSCH-HUM, COGS-PHLMND, PHIL-MIND

The seminar is a study of Spinoza’s philosophical masterpiece, the Ethics. We will attempt to cover all five parts of the book and discuss major interpretive problems and debates.

• Days/Times: M 4:30PM - 7:00PM
• Instructor: Melamed, Yitzhak Yohanan
• Room: Gilman 381
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 7/15
• PosTag(s): PHIL-MODERN

An exploration of historical and contemporary work on the metaphysics of essence, and related questions about modality, explanation, identity and the Principle of Sufficient Reason. Readings will include work from Aristotle, Avicenna, Spinoza, Kripke, and Fine.

• Days/Times: W 4:30PM - 7:00PM
• Instructor: Melamed, Yitzhak Yohanan; Morvarid, Hashem
• Room: Gilman 288
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 13/15
• PosTag(s): PHIL-MIND

A reading of some of the classic philosophical works in 20th Century Analytic Philosophy, beginning with G. Frege and ending with W.V.O. Quine.

• Days/Times: Th 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Williams, Michael
• Room: Gilman 381
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 13/15
• PosTag(s): n/a

Eating is an essential human activity: we need to eat to survive. But how should we eat? In this course, we consider such ethical questions as: Is it morally wrong to make animals suffer and to kill them in order to eat them? What is the extent of hunger and food insecurity, in this country and globally, and what should we as individuals do about it? Should the government try to influence our food choices, to make them healthier?

• Days/Times: T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
• Instructor: Barnhill, Anne
• Room: Gilman 381
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 6/15
• PosTag(s): PHIL-BIOETH, ENVS-MAJOR, ENVS-MINOR, MSCH-HUM, PHIL-ETHICS

A review of literature in Greek drama and virtue ethics on achieving human flourishing. Recommended Course Background: At least one course in Philosophy.

• Days/Times: MW 4:30PM - 5:45PM
• Instructor: Lebron, Christopher Joseph
• Room: Gilman 413
• Status: Reserved Open
• Seats Available: 4/15
• PosTag(s): PHIL-ANCIEN, PHIL-ETHICS

This course will survey German ideas—in philosophy, social and political theory, and drama—since the Enlightenment. Authors include Kant, Schiller, Lessing, Goethe, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Weber, Horkheimer, and Adorno.

• Days/Times: TTh 1:30PM - 2:45PM
• Instructor: Egginton, William
• Room: Gilman 443
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 8/10
• PosTag(s): INST-GLOBAL, INST-PT, HIST-EUROPE, MLL-GERM

A comparative tour of modern narrative forms from 3 continents. The emphasis is on the development of shorter fictional models, though some of the founders and innovators are better known for their novels. The emphasis will be on the emergence new structural, rhetorical, and thematic concerns, including adaptation to other media. There will be an optional hour for queries and discussion TBA.

• Days/Times: TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM
• Instructor: Marrati, Paola
• Room: Gilman 208
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 22/25
• PosTag(s): MSCH-HUM

What do films and philosophy have in common? Do films express, with their own means, philosophical problems that are relevant to our experience of ourselves and the world we live in? This term we will study such issues with a particular focus on questions of justice, truth, revenge, forgiveness, hope, hate, and fear.

• Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM
• Instructor: Marrati, Paola
• Room: Gilman 208
• Status: Open
• Seats Available: 5/25
• PosTag(s): n/a