Courses Taught
SPRING 2024
Philosophy, Religion, and Existential Commitments in Society
PAST SEMESTERS
PHIL 11 - Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion
This course addresses basic questions in the philosophy of religion, primarily from the Western philosophical tradition. For example, does God exist? Should we believe in God? What is the relationship between religious belief and scientific knowledge? How should a just God punish us for our moral wrongdoing? What is forgiveness, and what does it mean to say that God forgives? Finally, is morality based on God’s commands?
The course material will be arranged topically, rather than historically, and will be divided into four sections: arguments for and against the existence of God, epistemology, metaphysics, and morality.
PHIL 100 - Philosophical Methods
This course is restricted to Philosophy majors. It is intended to improve the student’s ability to read and write philosophy. Special emphasis will be placed on developing analytic skills. There will be short written assignments each week, as well as a longer final paper, which will focus on the essays we are reading.
In addition to two hours of lecture, students will meet in tutorials with a teaching assistant in order to discuss the reading, their weekly writing assignment, and the preparation for the final paper. This term, the readings will focus on problems related to free will.
PHIL 141 / PHL 371 - Philosophy and Game Theory
This course deals with applications of game theory and rational choice theory to philosophical problems, as well as with paradoxes and problems introduced by these theories. After introducing the basic concepts of game theory, the first part of the course will be devoted to problems of cooperation and convention: how people manage to coordinate their actions for mutual benefit, e.g. drive on the same side of the road, carry out a project together, or use language. The next section will explore non-cooperative games, such as the Prisoner’s Dilemma; the possible application of these games to moral problems; and the need for and execution of a social contract. Finally, we turn to problems dealing with groups, such as the problem of collective action, and some issues in group decision making.
PHIL 290 - Graduate Seminar: Decision Theory: Time, Persons, and States of Nature
What are the constraints on rational preferences? This course will consider various answers and approaches to this question within decision theory.
In decision theory, the question of what it is rational to prefer or decide is tied up both with what it is rational to believe and with what it is rational to desire. The first section of the course will examine proposed constraints on beliefs, desires, and preferences at a time by a single individual. We will examine standard decision theory and its axioms, as well as various ways to argue for these axioms. We will also examine significant challenges to the theory. The second section of the course will consider constraints on preferences, beliefs, and desires across time, including both forward-looking constraints, such as “reflection principles,” and backwards-looking constraints, such as following through on commitments; and related puzzles. The third section of the course will consider constraints across persons. We will consider whether the existence of disagreement - with a peer, or with one’s counterfactual self - should compel a rational epistemic agent to change her beliefs. Finally, we will examine what, if any, relations there are among problems of decision making across time, across persons, and across possible worlds.
This course is intended for graduate students in philosophy; no background in decision theory or formal epistemology is required. One of my goals in teaching this course is to introduce “newcomers” to the subject. I will simplify the technical material for easier accessibility, but students wishing to go more in depth will have the opportunity.
PHIL 290 - Syllabus
PHIL 290 - Graduate Seminar: Decision Theory: Paradoxes and Alternatives
This seminar will explore classical decision theory and the alternatives that have arisen in recent years, in response to problems surrounding (1) risk-aversion; (2) non-sharp probabilities; (3) infinite utilities; and (4) acts that are evidence for outcomes but not causally efficacious. We will work through selections from my forthcoming book as well as a number of articles, both classic and recent.
PHIL 290 - Graduate Seminar: Decision Theory: Preferences, Beliefs, and Desires
At its core, decision theory is a mathematical theory that relates preference, belief, and desire. This theory is used in a variety of ways: to guide action, to explain and predict behavior, to normatively assess choices, and to gain access to mental states. However, before it can be adequate for any of these purposes, its theoretical core needs to be expanded upon. In particular, the notions of preference, belief, and desire all need to be interpreted.
This seminar explores foundational issues in decision theory. In particular, we will focus on debates surrounding the analysis of preference, belief, and desire. Topics include the relationship between preference and behavior; the relationship between desire and reason; incommensurable values; substantive theories of utility; whether degrees of belief can be vague; and other issues. In addition to their importance to decision theory, these debates touch on issues in ethics, epistemology, and philosophy of mind.
Requirements: graduate status or permission of the instructor. No background in decision theory is required, but students should be comfortable with technical material.
PHIL 290 - Graduate Seminar: Social Choice Theory: Social Welfare & Individual Preferences
This seminar explores connection between social welfare and individual preferences. What bearing does preference satisfaction have on well-being? Which normative principles are important to respect in social distributions, and how are these principles represented in formal theories about determining social welfare? In particular, we will consider how equality matters to the value of a social distribution; and whether a social distribution should respect Pareto optimality, the idea that if everyone prefers x to y then x is socially preferred to y. We will also consider the question of how interpersonal considerations in picking a social distribution relate to individual considerations in picking a gamble, and the question of what individual preferences in decision-making under risk reveal about social preferences. Finally, we will consider the distribution of value over time.
This course is intended for graduate students in philosophy, but advanced undergraduates may enroll with permission. No background in decision, game, or social choice theory is required, but a general facility with technical material is assumed.
PHIL 290 - Foundations for Beneficial AI
Instructors: Stuart Russell (CS); Lara Buchak and Wesley Holliday (Philosophy); Shachar Kariv (Economics).
This interdisciplinary course examines the application of ideas from philosophy and economics to decision making by AI systems on behalf of humans, and in particular to the problem of ensuring that increasingly intelligent AI systems remain beneficial to humans.
Solving this problem requires designing AI systems whose objective is to satisfy human preferences while remaining necessarily uncertain as to what those preferences are. The course will study issues arising when applying these principles to make decisions on behalf of multiple humans and real (rather than idealized) humans.
Topics include utility theory, bounded rationality, utilitarianism, altruism, interpersonal comparisons of utility, preference learning, plasticity of human preferences, epistemic uncertainty about preferences, decision making under risk, social choice theory, and inequality.
Students will read papers from the literature in AI, philosophy, and economics and will work in interdisciplinary teams to develop substantial analyses in one or more of these areas. No advanced mathematical background is assumed, but students should be comfortable with formal arguments involving axioms and proofs.
PHIL 290 - Syllabus
PHIL 290 - Graduate Seminar: Philosophy of Religion: The Nature, Ethics, & Rationality of Faith
This seminar will examine different approaches, both historical and contemporary, to the question of what faith is. Several guiding questions will be important as we examine each approach. Is religious faith the same attitude as mundane faith? What is the relationship between faith and belief, between faith and knowledge, and between faith and doubt? Does having faith require going against the evidence? When is faith rationally required or rationally impermissible? When is faith morally required or morally impermissible? To what extent is faith an attitude that is essential to ordinary human lives, and why?
PHIL 290 - Graduate Seminar: Science & Religion
This course will explore the questions about the relationship between science and religion. If we take current science seriously, what room, if any, is left for religion? We will look at the assumptions behind doing science and the assumptions behind practicing religion, and examine whether these conflict. We will also examine whether evolutionary theory leaves room for the existence of a God who intervenes; whether the “fine-tuning” of the physical constants is evidence for God’s existence and whether the Anthropic Principle constitutes a good reply to the fine-tuning argument; and whether one can survive one’s own death. Finally, we will examine what faith is and the relationship between faith, religious belief, and evidence.
This course is intended for graduate students in philosophy, but advanced undergraduates may enroll with permission. No background in philosophy of religion or philosophy of science is required.