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Course Info for PHIL - 285 - 01, Spring 2025
Class number: 2840 Title: 20th Cent Analytic Philosophy Department: Philosophy
Career: Undergraduate Component: Lecture Session: Regular
Instructor's Permission Required: No Grading Basis: Regular Units: 1.00
Enrollment limited to 29 Current enrollment: 8 Available seats: 21
Start date: Tuesday, January 21, 2025 End date: Friday, May 9, 2025 Mode of Instruction: In Person
Schedule: T: 1:30PM-4:10PM, MECC - 232 Instructor(s): Theurer, Kari
Prerequisite(s): None
Distribution Requirement: Meets Humanities Requirement
Course Description:
Early analytic philosophers were frustrated by philosophical disputes that they perceived as hopelessly obscure and unclear. They aimed to radically reshape philosophy by grounding it in science, logic, or ordinary language. We will aim to understand these attempts by thinking through the following questions. Are you ever justified in believing a philosophical claim that contradicts common sense? Is Sherlock Holmes "real"? Are numbers real? Where are they? What is truth? How should we evaluate claims - like those of math, logic, or ethics - that don't seem to depend on science for their truth? Are all philosophical disputes ultimately just linguistic disagreements? As we think through these questions, we will come to understand the driving forces that shaped analytic philosophy as we understand it today.