*Subject to change without notice.
PHIL 700-01: Seminar in Selected Problems
Topic: Myth of the Given
Tuesday, 3:30-6:15 p.m.
Prof. Mohammad Azadpur
In this course, we begin with a study of Wilfrid Sellars’s famous attack on the Myth of the Given, and then transition to the appropriations of his alleged Hegelian project by the so-called “Pittsburgh School”. More specifically, we focus on the inferentialism of Robert Brandom and the neo-empiricism of John McDowell as two possible ways of inheriting from Sellars. We examine the central writings of Brandom and McDowell, their public debates, as well as their receptions by other important contemporary philosophers, such as Richard Rorty, Hubert Dreyfus, Jürgen Habermas, Sabina Lovibund, Akeel Bilgrami, and Hannah Ginsborg.
PHIL 715: Seminar in Philosophical Writing
Monday, 9:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Prof. Caitlin Dolan
In this course we will study some of the advanced analytic, interpretive, and expressive skills essential to the writing of philosophy.
Every week all students will read the assigned texts and submit a reconstruction of an argument from that text assigned by the instructor. Three times during the semester (one for each module of readings) students will also write an objection to that argument, to be shared with all students in advance of the weekly class meeting and presented at that meeting. All students will read these objections and come to class prepared to discuss them.
As a practicum, each student must attend at least 3 hours’ worth of philosophy presentations during the course of the semester and write one page about the experience. Opportunities to do so include the department colloquium series, the Pacific Division meeting of the American Philosophy Association, and TEMPO 2026, a Modern philosophy conference being hosted at SFSU.
At the start of every class period, there will also be time set aside to discuss various topics in professional philosophy.
PHIL 795: Early Modern Philosophy
Topic: Mysticism and Modern Philosophy
Monday, 12:30 – 3:15 p.m.
Prof. Alice Sowaal
Mysticism is integral to all aspects of philosophy in the years 1500-1800, which are commonly talked of as the period of "the early modern" philosophy. So-called “rationalist” philosophers seamlessly incorporated tenets of mysticism into their theories, and empiricist philosophers often thought of mystics as their foils. In addition, mysticism played a dual role in the colonial project: colonial missionaries proclaimed one kind of Christian mysticism and met with another when they attempted to evangelize Indigenous people of the Americas.
We will study scholarly assessments of medieval mystics who influenced early modern European philosophizing. We will connect these to the examination of European mystics who developed a kind of philosophical "prophetic activism" that they used to resist the dispossession of their lands.
In addition, we will examine the conflict between two mystical theories: those brought by Catholic missionaries to what is now known of as Brazil and those held by the Amer-Indigenous of those lands.
Along the way, we will study interpretations of the various wounds that mysticisms aim to heal, including the effects of proto-colonialism (within Europe) and the effects of slavery and colonialism on lands that became known as the Americas.
PHIL 820: Philosophy of Mind
Tuesday, 12:30 – 3:15 p.m.
Prof. Carlos Montemayor
We will study in depth the epistemic status of phenomenal consciousness, particularly issues regarding so-called “cognitive penetration” and the norms of rationality in perception. Students will be able to skillfully evaluate and assess central issues in philosophy of mind and epistemology, interpret arguments about these topics at an advanced level, understand the main arguments in favor of philosophical views about the mind, develop their own assessment of these views, and engage in criticism.
PHIL 858: Contemporary Political Philosophy
Thursday, 12:30-3:15 p.m.
Prof. Kurt Nutting
Contemporary political philosophers have inherited from our predecessors in antiquity the concept of the tyrant, and the corruption of republics has been a recurring theme in political philosophy beginning no later than Plato and Aristotle, continuing in the republicans of classical Rome and Renaissance Italy, to the theorists of the eighteenth-century democratic revolutions, and to liberal-democratic and socialist theorists in modern times.
In recent years, political theorists and philosophers, and empirical political scientists, have focused more and more on the rise of authoritarian and autocratic features, even in previously liberal and democratic regimes, on democratic “backsliding,” and on possible citizen responses to undemocratic and authoritarian regimes.
I want us to see how political philosophy and theory might help us understand these phenomena and, of equal importance, how we might productively and actively respond to them.
PHIL 890-01 Current Issues in Philosophy
Topic: The Ethics and Politics of Human-Animal Relationships
Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. (Online, Synchronous)
Prof. Shelley Wilcox
This seminar will explore the ethics and politics of human-animal relationships. We will begin by exploring key debates in contemporary animal ethics and political theory. Building on this foundation, we will review recent empirical and philosophical research on the communicative, affective, and cognitive capacities of nonhuman animals, asking how such findings shape our understanding of animals’ moral status and the conditions they need to flourish.
We will then turn to the normative dimensions of human–animal relationships, with special attention to domesticated animal and liminal animals. What kinds of relationships between humans and domestic animals are morally appropriate or desirable? Do such relationships require us to rethink social categories like friendship, companionship, or citizenship? And to what extent are humans permitted—or obligated—to intervene in the lives of domestic or liminal animals? To what extent and in what ways are humans permitted or required to intervene in the lives of domestic or liminal animals?
Finally, we will assess how different theoretical approaches address concrete ethical and political questions, including pet ownership, the consumption of meat and animal products, animal labor, reproductive control, cloning, and euthanasia.
PHIL 890-01 Current Issues in Philosophy
Topic: Philosophy of Experimentation
Thursday, 3:30 - 6:15 p.m.
Prof. Arezoo Islami
This course offers a unique opportunity to engage directly with the contemporary international movement in the phenomenology of science. Co-taught with Harald Wiltsche, one of the foremost scholars in the field, we will examine how scientific knowledge emerges from lived experience, embodiment, and the lifeworld. The seminar highlights the often-overlooked dialogue between phenomenology and analytic philosophy of science, inviting students to rethink the foundations, meaning, and limits of scientific inquiry while developing research at the forefront of this evolving field. Readings will include chapters from the 2025 Special Issue on Phenomenological Approaches to Quantum Mechanics, Steven French’s 2023 book, and Oxford Handbook of the Phenomenology of Science (forthcoming).