Description: Feminism is a social-political movement which aims to end sexism and gender-based oppression. In this discussion focused seminar, we will explore a range of philosophical approaches to theorizing about gender-based oppression. We will survey some key conceptual tools activists and scholars have developed to help us understand how gender shapes our social world (social construction, intersectionality, reproductive labor, epistemic injustice) and consider how we can apply these tools to real-life situations. We will also look at some of the challenges and possibilities which arise in feminist efforts to resist gender-based oppression and work towards a society without oppression and exploitation.

Some of the questions we will examine include:

• What is misogyny?

• How does gender-based oppression intersect with and reinforce other forms of oppression, such as racism, classism, and ableism?

• What is the relationship between gender-based oppression and transphobia?

• Is objectification always morally impermissible?

• How does gender-based oppression shape how we use language and who is viewed as a credible source of testimony?

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What is the nature of freedom? Why is democracy valuable? When is civil disobedience justified? What does it mean to have self-determination? In this course, we will explore the history of social and political philosophy in America from the bottom up—investigating some of the philosophical ideas that inspired and shaped key social movements and political struggles in America, as well as their contemporary relevance.

We will explore early American thinking about democracy, women’s rights, labor and exploitation, the abolition of slavery and fight for civil rights, and Native American struggles for land and self-determination, with a focus on the 19th and early 20th Centuries. Drawing on both traditional and non-traditional philosophical texts—including speeches, autobiographies, and essays—we will examine some of the central debates about freedom, equality, democracy, and justice which animated American history. Some key thinkers whose ideas we will discuss include Fredrick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Henry David Thoreau, Emma Goldman, John Dewey, and W.E.B. Du Bois.

Language is a central part of social life: the language we speak shapes the way we think, allows us to communicate with others, lets us express ideas, beliefs, and attitudes, and enables us to perform actions like orders, apologies, and promises. Sometimes we use language cooperatively—to share information or to coordinate action. But in other contexts, we use language to insinuate, subordinate, mislead, bullshit, and silence others. In this course, we will explore philosophical approaches to theorizing about the different roles language plays in our lives. We will survey key concepts and frameworks philosophers of language have developed to help us understand how language works and then use these tools to analyze ethical and political uses of language.

Some of the questions we will examine include:

• What is the point of having a language?

• When is something implied rather than meant?

• How can language be used to insinuate or dogwhistle?

• Can speech be used to subordinate or silence?

• What is the meaning of “oops!”?

• Is it possible to fully translate meanings across languages?

• What is lost when a language becomes extinct?

Description: We all want to live in a just society, but what would a just society actually look like? In this introductory lecture-based course, we will examine a range of historical and contemporary philosophical approaches to answering this question.

We will consider some foundational questions about the nature of justice—Why is equality valuable? What is the nature and extent of legitimate governmental authority? Who has been excluded from full membership in our political communities? How do oppression and exploitation shape our social lives? We will also discuss a variety of applied issues at the intersection of morality, law, and politics, such as civil disobedience, algorithmic injustice, freedom of speech, prisons, and issues of justice in the workplace.

Our goal in this course will be both to learn about the different ways philosophers have wrestled with questions about how we should live together, and also to think about how we should answer these questions for ourselves. Active participation in lecture discussions and quizzes will be a key course requirement.

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Description: Language is a central part of social life: it allows us to communicate with others, lets us express ideas, beliefs, and attitudes, and enables us to perform actions like orders, refusals, and promises. But language can also be used to perpetuate oppression: words can wound, subordinate, marginalize, silence, essentialize, and derogate. In this course, we will examine how power shapes language use. Drawing on tools developed by social and political philosophers and philosophers of language, we will explore the different ways our practices of language use can draw on, reinforce, and generate oppressive power relations. Some examples include slurs, silencing, insinuation, dog-whistles, generics, and hermeneutical injustice. We will also investigate how language can be used to resist and counteract oppression and consider the conditions required for freedom of speech. This course will not assume background in the philosophy of language.

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Description: Murphy (2002) describes concepts as “the glue that holds our mental world together.” Concepts like human, gender, time, justice, number, and knowledge play a central role in how we think, what we think about, and how we communicate. In this course, we will explore how concepts mediate the relationship between language, our minds, and the world around us.

Some of the questions we will examine include:

• What are concepts?

• Are some concepts innate?

• Do concepts shape how we perceive the world

• Can animals have concepts? What about machines?

• Are concepts ‘in the head’, or out in the world

• Can concepts be biased

• Can we change our concepts? If we can, what kinds of concepts should we have?

Over the term, we will examine the tools and theories that philosophers of language and mind have developed to address these questions. We will also engage with research in cognitive science, psychology, and linguistics, and watch the 2016 film Arrival.

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