Graduate Seminars 2027-2028

Kareem Khalifa, HPS 2460 Philosophy of Social Science [P]

This seminar explores issues in social ontology (social objects and social actors) , social causation (methodological individualism and meso- and macro-causes), social explanation (mechanisms, middle-range theories, and laws) and methodology (case-study methods, participant-observer methods, laboratory and statistical methods). We will consider unique issues and resources for sciences of society (rational choice theory, normativity and intentionality).

Sandy Mitchell: HPS 2164 Pragmatism and Scientific Practice [P]

Adopting a pragmatist stance is increasingly invoked in critiquing fundamentalism, representationalism, and unificationism in epistemology and metaphysics. Pragmatists appeal to the differences made to practical experience in assigning significance to the meanings of concepts and norms as well as in achieving the epistemic and metaphysical goals of warranting claims of truth and realism. This is aligned with recent shifts from exclusive focus on “rational reconstruction” of the products of science (theories, explanations, data) to naturalistic accounts of “scientific practices”  (conceptual engineering, problem solving, experimentation, etc.). In this seminar we will explore the relationships between pragmatism and pluralism, perspectivalism and the social nature of scientific practice. What forms of objectivity and realism can be crafted from a pragmatist stance? 

Paolo Palmieri: The Origin of Calculus (HPS 2522 Special Topics in History of Science) [H]

This seminar explores historical and philosophical questions concerning early calculus, its roots in the tradition of Greek mathematics and its coming of age in the early modern era. These questions include: Indivisibles quantities vs. infinitesimal quantities, the problem of tangents, fluxions vs. differentials, analysis/ synthesis, limits/ integration, discovery/ emergence/ justification in mathematics. We will place these questions in their larger historical contexts, focusing on their intellectual social, religious and esthetic dimensions, and read the relevant primary sources. The class has no requisites. 

David Wallace: HPS 2101/ PHIL 2503 Philosophy of Science Core

This seminar is an intensive and advanced introduction to some of the main themes and problems in philosophy of science including the nature of evidence, theory comparison, and the theory-observation distinction, the meaning of theoretical terms, scientific explanation and scientific change.

Porter Williams: HPS 2826 / PHIL 2686 Philosophy of Quantum Field Theory [P]

This course covers quantum field theory (QFT) and its applications in particle physics and beyond. Topics covered will vary but may include: algebraic and Lagrangian formulations of QFT; the Interpretation of effective field theories; the relation between particles and fields; spontaneous symmetry breaking; the gauge principle.

Wayne Wu: The Science of Consciousness (HPS 2634 Special Topics in Philosophy of Neuroscience and Cognitive Science) [P]

We will survey the science of consciousness as an approach to the philosophical problem of consciousness. We will ask how to properly leverage empirical work and consider the possibility that the problematic of consciousness as fixed in 20th Century philosophy might be the wrong one. We will consider alternative framings. 

Spring 2028

Mike Dietrich: HPS 2118 Human and Animal in Western Civilization [H,P]

This seminar will critically examine how different organism (animals, plants, and microbes) have been both subjects and tools of biomedical science.  The organism-human interface in biomedicine is one topic that will be explored.  We will also consider the development of model organisms, the use of indicator species in ecology, the designation of endangered organisms, and the creation of multispecies chimeras as both tools and objects of research. 

Jon Fuller: HPS 2740 / PHIL 2652 Philosophy of Psychiatry [P]

In this seminar, we will survey and discuss major topics in the philosophy of psychiatry from historical and contemporary perspectives. The philosophy of psychiatry is a growing field of research that intersects with philosophy of mind, philosophy of cognitive science and philosophy of neuroscience, among other philosophical subdisciplines. Topics to be explored may include: the antipsychiatry movement and critiques of psychiatry, the history and philosophy of the DSM, the concept of mental disorder, psychiatric kinds, biological psychiatry, and explanation and reduction in psychiatry. Students will come away with an understanding of how psychiatry illuminates broader issues in the philosophical study of mind and brain and of science.

Marian Gilton: philosophy of physics seminar, details TBC [P]

The details of this seminar will be fixed closer to the date, but it is likely to be based around Laura Ruetsche’s new book, The Physics of Ignorance, and to be concerned with topics in particle physics and effective field theory.

Edouard Machery: HPS 2505 Philosophical Foundations of Cognitive Science [P]

This course will survey the main philosophical questions raised by cognitive science. Students will acquire a comprehensive grasp of the main issues in this field. We will discuss questions such as: Is the mind a computer? Are we rational? What is consciousness?

John Norton: HPS 2156 Empiricism in Science [H,P]

In the early twentieth century, influential empiricist philosophies of science were introduced by Carnap and the logical positivists and Reichenbach and logical empiricists. This seminar will survey the earlier history of these philosophies, their early twentieth century expressions, their later developments and consequences.

Raphael Scholl: HPS 2103 History and Philosophy of Science Core

This course will consider the nature of integrated history and philosophy of science. Through key exemplars, we will critically explore different strategies for researching and writing history and philosophy of science.