400/500 level
Courses at the 400 level (often taught in conjunction with 500 level graduate courses) are smaller topics seminars. They allow students to engage in sustained conversations around more specialized topics and pursue original avenues of research. Most 400 and 500-level topics courses may be taken more than once if the course content is different from year to year, or section to section.
To enroll in a course at the 400 level, you must have complete 6 credits in philosophy, 3 of which must be at the 200 level or higher.
Fall 2026
PHIL 405/505 - Topics in Philosophy of Mind / Philosophy of Mind: The ‘Illusion’ of Consciousness
Instructor: Dr. Luke Kersten; T R 12:30 - 13:50
Could you be wrong about what you experience? How would you know? Illusionism is the view that phenomenal consciousness is an introspective illusion; that the ‘what-it-is-likeness’ of experience is not exactly what we think it is. Covering historical precursors, contemporary philosophical and empirical formulations, criticisms, and a wide array of potential implications, this course will provide an in-depth survey and assessment of an intriguing but highly controversial view of consciousness. Topics of focus include the nature of phenomenal experience, the hard problem of consciousness, the possibility of introspective error, the role of metacognition, and the reach of scientific explanations in consciousness, amongst many others.
PHIL 450/550 - Topics in Ethics / Moral Philosophy: Intergenerational Ethics
Instructor: Dr. Jennifer Welchman; R 14:00 - 16:50
What do we owe the members of distant generations? Are we obliged to preserve resources for future generations? Are we obliged to maintain monuments, institutions, and ways of life passed down to us from the past? If so, these intergenerational obligations can conflict both with each other and with our obligations to existing generations. What grounds can be offered in support of claims that we have intergenerational obligations and that these obligations may override our own interests and/or duties to contemporaries?
No text book is required for this course. Grades will be based on short writing assignments, in-class participation assignments, and a final paper.
PHIL 470/570 - Topics in Social and Political Philosophy / Social and Political Philosophy: Political Communities and Liberalism
Instructor: Dr. Jorge Sanchez Perez; W 14:00 - 16:50
The global political landscape is changing radically. States are changing demographically, and their political and military positions are shifting. All this, while the main normative Western political theory, Liberalism, seems unable to gain ground with non-Westerners and looks weaker and weaker in the global sphere. In this seminar, we will approach the phenomenon of political communities from a philosophical perspective, and we will work towards an understanding of Liberalism as a by-product of one very concrete form of political community, the State. We will then move on to understand how Liberalism engages with its most relevant competition, Marxism and Fascism.
PHIL 488/594 - Current Research in Philosophy / Selected Problems in Philosophy: Feminist Philosophies of Disability
Instructor: Dr. Kim Q. Hall; T 14:00 - 16:50
This course offers an advanced introduction to feminist philosophical engagements with the interdisciplinary fields of disability studies and crip theories. We will focus on contributions to epistemic injustice and disability, disability bioethics, disability justice, and embodiment. Our investigation of this area of philosophy will be informed by thinking about disability at the intersections of feminist, queer, trans, and critical race philosophies.
Winter 2027
PHIL 400/500 - Topics in Metaphysics: Personal Identity
Instructor: Dr. Phil Corkum; T 14:00 - 16:50
What makes you you? In what sense are you the same person as you were in childhood? Traditional philosophical discussion of personal identity asks how persons survive over time, viewing the question of personal identity as falling under the more general topic of the persistence of any object. As such, the philosophical discussion of personal identity might seem far removed from ordinary questions of identity, selfhood, and lived experience. But a rival family of views takes personal identity to be constituted by narrative. You are the protagonist of your story. These views connect personal identity with topics of agency, authenticity, and embodiment. After surveying the topics of identity, persistence, and traditional views of personal identity cashed out in terms of identity and persistence, we’ll study boosters and knockers of narrative approaches. Students will gain both facility with the techniques of contemporary philosophy and exposure to a broad range of issues in metaphysics.
PHIL 440/540 - Topics in Ancient Philosophy: Philosophy in Ancient Rome
Instructor: Dr. Jack Zupko; R 14:00 - 16:50
Ancient philosophy in the western tradition has always meant the philosophy of ancient Greece and Rome, but the Roman or Latin side is usually neglected. This seminar will consider the less familiar and relatively underappreciated Roman contribution to philosophy. We will look at what made Roman thought distinct and explore its subtler but no less significant impact on posterity. Topics will include: the Roman idea of the philosopher; Pythagoreanism as a founding myth; the meaning of eclecticism and the 'Romanizing' of popular Greek systems of thought such as Epicureanism, Stoicism, and Skepticism; and the transformation of ethics by early Christian thinkers. We will read works by famous authors such as Cicero, Lucretius, Seneca, and Epictetus, as well as selections from lesser-known thinkers such as Porphyry and Apuleius.
PHIL 450/550 - Topics in Ethics / Moral Philosophy: Ethics and Communication under Conditions of Polarization and Organized Misinformation
Instructor: Dr. Howard Nye; M 14:00 - 16:50
Our societies face pressing social and ethical problems in the form of the climate and ecological emergency, public health crises, and deep economic inequality. Reaching agreement on reasonable solutions to these problems is stymied to an important degree by declining trust in institutions, a pandemic of organized misinformation, and the rise of authoritarian politics in troubled democracies.
In this seminar we examine the ethical theory and practice of successful communication about ethically important issues across polarized divides under conditions of organized misinformation and distrust, drawing on work in ethics and moral psychology and informed by nonideal theory and relevant work in social and political epistemology. Particular attention will be paid to the role of communication in building political coalitions, sustaining public trust, and enabling collective action. Case studies will be drawn from environmental and climate action, public health policy, economic policy and social provision, and animal protection.
PHIL 488/594 - Current Research in Philosophy / Selected Problems in Philosophy: Meditation and Mind in Indian Philosophy
Instructor: Dr. Neil Dalal; W 14:00 - 16:50
The modern industries of mindfulness, wellness, and performance enhancement have extracted meditation techniques from Indian philosophical traditions as means to control cognitive flows, induce positive mental states and traits, increase productivity, and alleviate anxiety, depression, and addiction; however modern meditation movements are now far removed from their root traditions. Much has been lost in this process, particularly that most Indian traditions do not isolate meditation from philosophical study, and that the majority of their meditational / contemplative practices have not come under the scientific or popular gaze.
This course examines the rich philosophical contexts in which Indian philosophers rooted these practices. We will study classical Indian approaches (Buddhist, Yogic, and Vedāntic) to mind and meditation, and explore topics such as introspection, reflexivity, metacognition, and memory. Students will critically question how the first personal stance of meditation may or may not function as a philosophical method. Do meditation practices successfully provide a method for exploring the structures of our mind, identity, and experience? How might meditation operate as a means of insight by itself or in combination with third person methods? How might we apply meditation towards moral philosophy and the cultivation of moral virtues or happiness? This course explores primary and secondary texts on Indian philosophy as well as some clinical psychology and neuroscience of meditation, and incorporates our own experimentation with different meditation techniques as a phenomenological inquiry into first-personal consciousness.