Fall 2025 Courses

Last updated April 15, 2025

All course offerings can be confirmed on the Directory of Classes and are subject to change. Please check this page and the Directory of Classes for updates. Past course offerings can be found in the Courses dropdown menu.

*NOTES*

—MA and PhD students in the Department of Philosophy cannot count an undergraduate course towards their degree.

—All students must receive the instructor's permission to register for individual supervised research/independent study and quodlibetal study sections.

Undergraduate Lectures

PHIL UN1001 Introduction to Philosophy
Survey of some of the central problems, key figures, and great works in both traditional and contemporary philosophy. Topics and texts will vary with instructor and semester.
Section 001
C. Prodoehl
TR 2:40pm-3:55pm; 328 Milbank Hall (Barnard)
Section 002
Instructor TBD
MW 10:10am-11:25am; 327 Milbank Hall (Barnard)
Section 003
Instructor TBD
MW 4:10pm-5:25pm; 203 Diana Center

PHIL UN2003 Introduction to Philosophy of Art
L. Goehr
MW 8:40am-9:55am; Location TBD

PHIL UN2101 History of Philosophy I
D. Jagannathan
TR 11:40am-12:55pm; Location TBD
Corequisites: PHIL V2111 Required Discussion Section (0 points). Exposition and analysis of the positions of the major philosophers from the pre-Socratics through Augustine. This course has unrestricted enrollment.

PHIL UN2655 Cognitive Science and Philosophy
B. Fleig-Goldstein
TR 11:40am-12:55pm; Location TBD
This course will survey a number of topics at the intersection of cognitive science and philosophy. Potential topics include free will, consciousness, embodied cognition, artificial intelligence, neural networks, and the language of thought.

PHIL UN2685 Introduction to Philosophy of Language
K. Lewis
MW 2:400pm-3:55pm; 207 Milbank Hall (Barnard)
This course gives students an introduction to various topics in the Philosophy of Language.

PHIL UN3251 Kant
C. Bowman
TR 1:10pm-2:25pm; 140 Horace Mann
Explores the connections between theoretical and practical reason in Kant's thinking with special attention to the Critique of Pure Reason and the project of transcendental philosophy.

PHIL UN3353 European Social Philosophy
A. Honneth
TR 10:10am-11:25am; Location TBD
Prerequisites: one philosophy course. A survey of Eurpoean social philosophy from the 18th to the 20th century, with special attention to theories of capitalism and the normative concepts (freedom, alienation, human flourishing) that inform them. Also: the relationship between civil society and the state.

PHIL UN3552 Philosophical Problems of Climate Change
T. Williamson
MW 4:10pm-5:25pm; Location TBD
The aim of the course is to identify as clearly as possible the factors (methodological, economic, ethical, and social) that make climate change policy so difficult, and to explore possible solutions. Fulfills the Economics/Philosophy of science requirement. *Open only to juniors and seniors

PHIL UN3411 Symbolic Logic
T. Lando
MW 10:10am-11:25; Location TBD
Corequisites: PHILV3413 Required Discussion Section (0 points). Advanced introduction to classical sentential and predicate logic. No previous acquaintance with logic is required; nonetheless a willingness to master technicalities and to work at a certain level of abstraction is desirable.

PHIL UN3576 Physics and Philosophy
D. Albert
MW 4:10pm-5:25pm; Location TBD
Philosophical problems at the foundations of quantum theory, especially those having to do with the uncertainty of relations and nature of quantum mechanical indeterminacy. Exploration of a variety of interpretation and hidden variable theory.

PHIL UN3601 Metaphysics
A. Varzi
TR 11:40am-12:55pm; Location TBD
Corequisites: PHIL V3611 Required Discussion Section (0 points). Systematic treatment of some major topics in metaphysics (e.g. modality, causation, identity through time, particulars and universals). Readings from contemporary authors.

PHIL UN3701 Ethics
Instructor TBD
MW 1:10pm-2:25pm; LL003 Barnard Hall
Prerequisites: one course in philosophy. Corequisites: PHIL V3711 Required Discussion Section (0 points). This course is mainly an introduction to three influential approaches to normative ethics: utilitarianism, deontological views, and virtue ethics. We also consider the ethics of care, and selected topics in meta-ethics.

Majors Seminar

Required of senior majors, but also open to junior majors, and junior and senior concentrators who have taken at least four philosophy courses. This exploration will typically involve writing a substantial research paper. Capped at 20 students with preference to philosophy majors.

PHIL UN3912 Section 001
Imagination and Politics
M. Moody-Adams
M 2:10pm-4:00pm; 716 Philosophy Hall

PHIL UN3912 Section 002
M. Fusco
R 2:10pm-4:00pm; 716 Philosophy Hall

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PHIL BC4050
Moral Psychology
F. Russell
M 6:10pm-8:00pm; 306 Milbank Hall (Barnard)
Intensive study of a philosophical issue or topic, or of a philosopher, group of philosophers, or philosophical school or movement. Open only to Barnard senior philosophy majors.

4000-Level Seminars

4000-level courses are open to advanced undergraduate students and graduate students.

PHIL GU4337 Early Twentieth Century Philosophy
Section 001 Ramsey
J. Collins
MW 1:10pm-2:25pm; Location TBD
Section 002 Frege Russell Wittgenstein, early Analytic Philosophy
H. Gaifman
MW 6:10pm-7:25pm; 716 Philosophy Hall

PHIL GU4424 Modal Logic
T. Lando
MW 2:40pm-3:55pm; Location TBD

PHIL GU4561 Probability & Decision Theory
J. Collins
MW 6:10pm-7:25pm; Location TBD
Examines interpretations and applications of the calculus of probability including applications as a measure of degree of belief, degree of confirmation, relative frequency, a theoretical property of systems, and other notions of objective probability or chance. Attention to epistimological questions such as Hume's problem of induction, Goodman's problem of projectibility, and the paradox of confirmation.

PHIL GU4763 Feminist, Social, and Political Philosophy
K. Lewis
W 10:10am-12:00pm; 716 Philosophy Hall
This course explores different ways in which social and political settings affect our language – what we can do with our words and what our words mean – as well as ways in which our language affects our social and political setting – the effects of people saying things, or saying things using certain words, or words with specific meanings.  Topics and texts may vary with instructor and semester.

PHIL GU4802 Math Logic II—Incompleteness
J. Clarke-Doane
TR 6:10pm-7:25pm; Location TBD

PHIL GU4947 Classical Indian Philosophy
A. Aitken
M 2:10pm-4:00pm; Location TBD
Pre-requisite: at least one course in philosophy. In this course, we will read primary sources drawn from philosophers representing the Vedānta, Sāṃkhya, Vaiśeṣika, Nyāya, Mīmāṃsā, Buddhist, Jain, and Cārvāka traditions ranging from approximately the sixth century BCE up to the fifteenth century. We will analyze arguments defending some of the central commitments of these traditions together with challenges mounted by competing schools of thought. This will offer a sense of the dynamic, dialectical, and dialogical nature of the intellectual landscape of Classical Sanskrit Philosophy and provide an introduction to some of the issues that mattered most to these philosophers. Topics will include the existence and nature of the self, the relation between consciousness and matter, fundamental ontology, external world realism vs. idealism, and the existence of a creator God. We will also inquire into the basic dichotomy of identity and difference, which in turn drives debates between monistic and pluralistic worldviews. The semester will conclude by considering disputes over whether there are definitive answers to these sorts of questions at all.

Graduate Lectures

PHIL GR5415 Symbolic Logic
T. Lando
MW 10:10am-11:25am; Location TBD
Advanced introduction to classical sentential and predicate logic. No previous acquaintance with logic is required; nonetheless a willingness to master technicalities and to work at a certain level of abstraction is desirable. Note: Due to significant overlap, students may receive credit for only one of the following three courses: PHIL UN3411, UN3415, GR5415.

Graduate Seminars

PHIL GR6050 Methods and Problems
M. Fusco
T 12:10pm-2:00pm; 716 Philosophy Hall
This class covers classic readings in contemporary philosophy, selections from historical authors that bear on today’s debates, and influential recent contributions in a range of subfields such as metaphysics, philosophy of mind, epistemology, logic, philosophy of language, philosophy of science, philosophy of mathematics, and philosophy of cognitive science. This course is restricted to MA and PhD students in Philosophy only.

PHIL GR6551 Philosophy of Science 
D. Albert
T 6:10pm-8:00pm; 716 Philosophy Hall

PHIL GR9180 Topics in Moral Philosophy
A. Honneth
W 4:10pm-6:00pm; 716 Philosophy Hall
Prerequisites: the instructor's permission. At least one foundational course in moral philosophy is recommended as background for this course. In this seminar we will take up several questions about moral understanding and insight. Questions we will consider include: Can trusting moral testimony ever be rational or right? Are the reasons to be cautions about relying on moral testimony moral reasons or epistemic reasons (or both)? What assumptions about moral knowledge do critics and defenders of moral testimony make? How does moral knowledge differ, if it does, from moral understanding? Is there such a thing as moral expertise? Is there any reason to think that moral expertise is more problematic than other kinds of expertise? Can emotions inform us about value? Under what conditions, if any, can emotions contribute to our understanding of value? Under what conditions are emotions impediments to moral knowledge or understanding? Can fictions help us gain moral insight? Can pictures ever be legitimate tools of moral persuasion?

PHIL GR9239 Descrying the World in Physics
J. Clarke-Doane
W 6:10pm-8:00pm; 716 Philosophy Hall

PHIL GR9485 Philosophy of Language
H. Gaifman
T 6:10pm-8:00pm; Location TBD

PHIL GR9515 Topics in Metaphysics
A. Varzi
W 2:10pm-4:00pm; 716 Philosophy Hall

PHIL GR9750 Topics in Political Philosophy
M. Moody-Adams
T 2:10pm4:00pm; 716 Philosophy Hall
The topic of this course is the problems and possibilities of democratic citizenship

PHIL GR9985 Proposal Preparation Seminar
K. Vogt
F 10:10am-12:00pm; 716 Philosophy Hall