DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY

Fall 2026 Class Schedule

Courses are subject to change. Check Caesar for the most up-to-date list of the current quarter.

Fall 2026 course descriptions

PHIL 101-7-20: College Seminar: Einstein and Gödel: Philosophy, Physics, and Mathematics

This course, designed for students with and without physics, mathematics, or philosophical background, is about discoveries in physics and logic, and how they affected, and were affected by, philosophy. It also will tell a story about a beautiful friendship, brilliant people doing selfish things, evil people doing terrible things, and tragic endings.

Albert Einstein’s theories of relativity of 1905 and 1915 reshaped physics and how we thought about our knowledge of the world. Kurt Gödel’s incompleteness theorems of 1931 did something similar to thinking about mathematics more generally. After Einstein and Gödel became friends in Princeton, Gödel provided solutions to Einstein’s equations that show, at least theoretically, the possibility of a certain kind of time travel. Those are the discoveries and the friendship. We will examine all of these, and the selfish, terrible, and tragic parts, through engagement with history, philosophical and scientific texts, and even a little poetry. Along the way we’ll reflect on what habits foster doing our best work (in a healthy way).

PHIL 101-7-21: College Seminar: The State of Nature

 In the social contract tradition in political philosophy, exemplified by theorists like Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau, the idea of the "state of nature" plays an important role. The state of nature refers to the condition of human beings prior to the development of formal political institutions. For social contract theorists, the justification of political authority hinges on the state's ability to solve the problems that befall us in our natural, pre-political condition. Perhaps needless to say, there have been some developments in our understanding of non-state societies since the heyday of the social contract tradition some three hundred years ago. In this seminar, we will read the classic social contract theorists alongside recent work from anthropologists, historians, and political scientists. Our aim will be to better understand the pre-political condition of our species and to explore the moral and political implications of that condition for us today.

PHIL 101-7-22: College Seminar: Gender, Politics, & Reproduction

This writing seminar provides an overview to the role of reproductive politics in historical and contemporary feminist philosophy and theory, with a focus both on rights claims, and activist experiments with paradigms beyond the language of rights. Taking as our starting point the end of the (federal) constitutional right to abortion in the U.S. in 2022, we consider arguments concerning its significance within North American law and politics. We also engage trans-border and further perspectives contributed by an international outlook. The course offers an introduction to a cross-disciplinary area of study: we will encounter arguments from a range of fields such as legal studies, political and media theory, Black studies and decolonial thought, history, philosophical theories of biopower, and activist dimensions. We will consider the development in both national and trans-national contexts of different paradigms including intersectionality, reproductive justice, the politics of collective care, and the plural activisms of Latin America\'s "green wave" movements.

PHIL 101-7-23: College Seminar: Data, Technology, and Society

Through technologies like smartphones, social media, and Large Language Models, we produce digital traces of our everyday lives. Most of this data is collected and analyzed by governments, businesses, and scientists who use algorithms and data analytics to make decisions that impact our lives. There are two broad narratives about the societal implications of big data and technology. On one hand, technologies can improve health, increase access to education, produce economic efficiency and growth, and stimulate more green energy projects. On the other hand, when governments or companies use algorithms and machine learning to supplement or even supplant human decision-making, fundamental values like responsibility, fairness, and authenticity may be at risk. Will Big Data and machine learning usher in a new age of enlightenment and prosperity or undermine our values and result in an erosion of autonomy, self-determination, and workers’ rights?

In addition to the academic content, this College Seminar will focus on improving the critical reading, thinking, and time-management skills that will serve you well in your future Northwestern courses. We will also focus on setting and evaluating your own academic goals for the quarter. This seminar may serve as a space of social and advising support to aid in your transition to university and the increased academic expectations of college-level work. We will discuss grades and perfectionism, resources for help during challenges, unwritten professional norms in professor-student interactions, maintaining academic integrity, and identifying credible sources.

PHIL 110: Introduction to Philosophy

In this class we will discuss a variety of philosophical topics including free will, issues in ethics and social philosophy, and the significance of life and death.

PHIL 150: Elementary Logic I

(A) My shoes are blue or red. (B) They are not blue. Therefore, (C) they are red. The "therefore" indicates that the transition from (A) and (B) to (C) is an inference: we accept (C) based on (A) and (B). Moreover, it is a good inference. And it is good because of the form of the statements involved: the goodness doesn't depend on our talking about shoes and colors, only on how "or" and "not" work.

Logic asks the question: which inferences are good inferences? And even more: which inferences are good ones because of their form? In this class we look at two basic ways to represent sentences, and ways of characterizing relations of truth among these representations. We'll also learn to reason within our representations, in a regimented way that allows for mechanical verification. Along the way we'll reflect on the philosophical uses, and import, of what we develop.

PHIL 224: Philosophy, Race,& Racism

This course provides a broad overview of philosophical discussions about race and racism. In the course, we will engage theoretical questions such as: What do we mean when we say “race”?; Is there a concept of race that undergirds users’ many different conceptions of race?; Do races exist, and what are races if they do exist?; What is implicit bias?; and What is racism? We will also engage practical questions such as: What is the relationship between race and health?; Do we have good reasons to prescribe medications in accordance with race?; Is it moral to believe that humans are divided into races?; What ought we to do with race and race-talk given overriding moral concerns?; Are implicit racial biases morally condemnable?; How does race and racial perceptions impact law?; and Is racism permanent?

PHIL 259: Introduction to Metaphysics

Metaphysics concerns the structure of reality. It asks questions like: Do entities like electrons and minds exist in the same way as a tree or a water bottle? What distinguishes kinds like H2O and lions from categories like ‘animals at the Lincoln Park Zoo’? Are race and gender real and in what way? How should we understand claims about possibilities, such as ‘If kangaroos did not have tails, they would fall over’? Can absences be causes? And how do social structures (that is, social practices, social roles, institutions) cause social outcomes?

In this course, we will cover philosophical views on ontology (what exists), fundamental levels of reality, natural and social kinds, the nature of race and gender, possibility and necessity, and causation. There will be particular emphasis on scientific and social aspects of reality.

PHIL 261: Introduction to Political Philosophy

This course offers an introduction to political philosophy by tracing prominent themes in the writings of Ancient Greek philosophers to contemporary theorists. Students will be introduced to key concepts and themes in political philosophy including: the state of nature, social contract theory, the relationship between the individual and state, justice, freedom, democracy, and feminist criticisms of liberalism. Readings will include works by Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Mill, Rawls and Nussbaum.

PHIL 269: Bioethics

This course is a study of moral and political problems related to biomedicine and biotechnology. In the first part of the course, we will study the ethics of the physician-patient relationship. We will consider what values ought to govern that relationship, how those values may conflict, and how such conflicts are best resolved. In the second part of the course, we will turn to some specific ethical challenges related to biotechnology, including abortion, genetic manipulation, and physician-assisted suicide. We will close the course by surveying the field of public health ethics, with particular attention to ethical issues related to global pandemic preparedness and response.

PHIL 273-1: Brady: The Moral Life

What does morality require of us? Does acting morally amount to consistently bringing about the best consequences that we can? Or are there other important considerations that we should take into account when thinking about how to act well? When we are trying to figure out how to act, what questions should we be asking ourselves? Drawing on both classic and contemporary readings in philosophy, as well as our own experiences, we will ask what it means to live a moral life in different spheres and situations. Do we have, or can we justify, special obligations to our friends and family? Do our professional and other roles shape what we have reason to do? How do we understand our obligations towards strangers? Is there some unified way to understand the reasons that should guide us in all of these spheres, or do they operate independently?

PHIL 324: Studies in Africal American Philosophy

This course examines philosophical reflections on art within the Black American intellectual tradition, with particular attention to debates over the political function, cultural grounding, and aesthetic value of Black artistic production. By bringing philosophy into sustained dialogue with literature, music, visual art, and performance, the course foregrounds a central tension—namely, whether Black art ought to serve explicitly political ends such as racial uplift, resistance, or revolution, or whether it should be understood as an autonomous domain of creative expression. We trace this problem from early formulations in W. E. B. Du Bois and Alain Locke through mid-century interventions by Richard Wright and into the Black Arts Movement, where thinkers like Hoyt Fuller and Addison Gayle Jr. argue for a distinctly Black aesthetic rooted in political struggle and cultural self-determination. These debates are placed in conversation with later contributions from Toni Morrison, bell hooks, Saidiya Hartman, and others who complicate the relationship between art, identity, and power. While investigating this central tension, we raise fundamental questions about beauty, propaganda, authenticity, representation, and freedom under conditions of racial domination. And so additional questions include: what is Black art; how do oppression and resistance shape aesthetic form; what is the relationship between art and racial identity; and how do Black artists and thinkers challenge dominant aesthetic standards?

PHIL 325: Philosophy of Mind

In this course we will be exploring several of the core topics philosophers have addressed in connection with the nature of mind and it place in nature. These include the nature of consciousness, the mind-body problem, the nature of thought and other psychological states, and the nature of the self.

PHIL 390: Indigenous Philosophy

This course will present some of the central themes in Indigenous Philosophy, with a primary focus on Native American thought. Topics will include Indigenous perspectives on identity, knowledge, reality and humans' place within it, ethics, justice, and our obligations to the natural world. Readings will include both historical and contemporary perspectives.

PHIL 397: HONKOL: Advanced Research Methods

The student will also participate in a senior thesis project research seminar colloquium, PHIL 397 (Advanced Research Methods Honors Colloquium or "HONKOL", for short). It is led by the honors convener and divided in two parts. Part 1 consists in one quarter (the Fall quarter of their sequence) of meeting once a week for 2 hours to discuss the research project in a collaborative research-group environment with all other advanced research students in the Honors program and other independent study research projects as well as the Honors Convener. Part 2 takes place in the Spring quarter of the 4th year in three 2h (minimum) sessions to prepare and organize the presentation of the research results at PHILfest.

PHIL 401: Proseminar

PHIL 410-1: Iris Murdoch's Ethical Theory

Iris Murdoch believes that we are naturally solipsists, and argues that the views that dominated philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and ethics in her day tended to encourage us in this solipsism. She thinks that we need a richer set of ethical concepts than these views afford us if we are to see clearly, think well, and live freely. Such concepts come embedded in the stories that we tell and accept about what is most fundamentally going on in the world. Murdoch's tells a story on which the world is filled with real, individual people, each with a value beyond price. We learn their value through love, which also provides our only means of escape from solipsism.

We will consider the primary themes of Murdoch's ethical theory and their systematic relationship. We will set her thinking in the context of her own philosophical milieu, considering her relationship to both early analytic and existentialist thought. And we will put her in conversation with later thinkers including Bernard Williams, John Rawls, Thomas Nagel, Christine Korsgaard, and Pamela Hieronymi.

PHIL 410-2: Protest and Resistance

In this seminar we will study theories of protest and resistance in the contemporary literature in social epistemology and social and political philosophy. We will examine protest and resistance as forms of address and action that can take multiple forms (civil & uncivil, discursive & non-discursive, etc.), leading to different kinds of interventions aiming at different kinds of social change. In addition to political resistance, we will also study the kinds of epistemic, affective, and aesthetic resistance needed to fight social exclusions and oppressive ideologies. Readings will include Judith Butler, Robin Celikates, José Medina, Michele Moody-Adams, and Erin Pineda, among others.