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The list of subjects I am happy to supervise on is here. Below are materials for the courses I teach now or have taught in the past several years.

Social and Political Philosophy II

Materials for the second part of the course in the history of political thought.
Syllabus | Study questions | Hegel on charisma

Ethics

Materials for a sophomore course in moral philosophy.
Syllabus | Study questions
Lectures 2024: 0. Sense of justice | 1. Parents and principles | 2. Social intuitionism | 3. Brains and morals I | 4. Brains and morals II | 5. Justice as fairness | 6. Contractualism | 7. Critique of utilitarianism | 8. Character and moral theory | 9. Equality I | 11. Moral Luck I | 12. Moral Luck II
Lectures 2023: 0. Sense of justice | 1. Parents and principles | 2. Social intuitionism | 3. Brains and morals I | 4. Brains and morals II | 5. Justice as fairness | 6. Contractualism | 7. Character and moral theory | 8. Love | 9. Moral realism | 10. Debunking | 11. Against debunking | 12. Epistemology of debunking I | 13. Epistemology of debunking II | 14. Epistemology of debunking III | 15. Excuses | 16. Responsibility | 17. Coercion
Lectures 2022: 0. Sense of justice | 1. Acting from duty | 2. Apriority of morality | 3. Maxims and imperatives | 4. Categorical imperative FLN | 5. Categorical imperative FH | 6. Freedom | 7. Freedom and morality | 8. Duties and virtues | 9. Schiller, Fichte | 10. Hegel | 11. Sidgwick | 12. Foot | 13. McDowell | 14. Scanlon | 15. Egoism, amoralism, rationalism | 16. Singer, Kohlberg | 17. Haidt | 18. Greene | 19. Greene II | 20. Greene III | 21. Street
Lectures 2019: 0. Sense of justice | 1. Acting from duty | 2. Apriority of morality | 3. Maxims and imperatives | 4. Categorical imperative FLN | 5. Categorical imperative FH, FA | 6. Freedom | 7. Freedom and morality | 8. Morality and freedom (KpV) | 9. Duties and virtues | 10. Schiller: Beauty, freedom, morality | 11. Fichte: Morality, conviction | 12. Fichte: Freedom, society | 13. Hegel: Free will, conscience | 14. Hegel: Ethical life | 15. Foot: Hypothetical imperatives | 16. McDowell: Virtue and reason | 17. McDowell: Virtue and reason II | 18. McDowell: Virtue and reason III | 19. Evolutionism | 20. Critique of evolutionism | 21. Relativism and convention | 22. Evolutionary debunking

Social and Political Philosophy I

Materials for the course in the history of political thought.
Syllabus | Study questions

Metaphysics

Materials for a joint graduate and senior year course.
Syllabus | Final essay PHIL531
Lectures 2023: 1. Hume | 2. Carnap | 3. Quine | 4. Nagel | 6. Wilkins | 7. Origins of life | 8. Fine-tuning | 9. Freedom | 10. Mystery of freedom | 11. Vihvelin | 12. Greene and Cohen | 13. Fatalism I | 14. Fatalism II | 15. Merricks I | 16. Merricks II | 17. Merricks III | 18. McTaggart I | 19. McTaggart II | 20. Dummett on McTaggart | 21. Dummett  | 22. Time travel | 23. Possible worlds
Lectures 2022: 1. Leibniz | 2. Hobbes | 3. D'Holbach | 4. Rachels | 5. Kant | 6. Schopenhauer | 7. van Inwagen | 8. Vihvelin | 9. Greene and Cohen | 10. Fatalism I | 11. Fatalism II | 12. Merricks I | 13. Merricks II | 14. Dummett | 15. Hume | 16. Carnap | 17. Strawson I | 18. Stroud | 19. Strawson II | 20. Goodman | 21. Boghossian | 22. Dawkins | 23. Grice | 24. White | 27. Wilkins
Lectures 2021: 1. Leibniz | 2. Hobbes | 3. D'Holbach | 4. Rachels, Kant | 5. Vihvelin | 6. Merricks I | 7. Merricks II | 8. Greene and Cohen | 9. Goodman | 10. Boghossian | 11. Davidson | 12. Putnam | 13. Dummett | 14. Carnap | 15. Quine on Carnap | 16. Quine | 17. Hirsch
Lectures 2019: 1. Sextus, Carnap | 2. Truth by convention I | 3. Truth by convention II | 4. Truth by convention III | 5. Ontological relativity I | 6. Ontological relativity II | 7. Things and theories | 8. Yablo on Carnap
Lectures 2018: 0. Introduction | 1. Cosmological arguments | 2. Design argument I | 3. Design argument II | 4. Origins of life | 5. Sextus, Carnap | 6. Quine on Carnap | 7. Ontological relativity | 8. Things and theories | 9. Yablo on Carnap | 10. Ontology and make-believe | 11. Truth and epistemology | 12. Nominalism and indispensability | 13. Mathematical fictionalism | 14. Modal realism | 15. Liberal platonism | 16. Unreality of time I | 17. Unreality of time II | 18. Time and change | 19. Dummett on McTaggart | 20. Spaces and times | 21. Tense | 22. Presentism
Lectures 2017: 1. Cosmological arguments | 2. Design argument I | 3. Design argument II | 4. Origins of life | 5. Carnap's frameworks | 6. Quine's critique | 7. Ontological relativity | 8. Things and theories | 9. Modal realism | 10. Liberal platonism | 11. Mathematical existence | 12. Figuralism | 13. Mathematical applicability | 14. Unreality of time | 15. Dummett on McTaggart | 16. Spaces and times | 17. Tense and change | 18. Presentism | 19. Natural kinds | 20. Ground
Lectures 2016: 1. Cosmological arguments | 2. Design argument | 3. Linguistic frameworks | 4. Quine's critique | 5. Ontological relativity | 6. Modal realism | 7. Liberal platonism | 8. Mathematical existence | 9. Figuralism | 10. Mathematical applicability | 11. Unreality of time | 12. Dummett on McTaggart | 13. Tense | 14. Spaces and times | 15. Presentism | 16. Causation | 17. Natural kinds | 18. Determinism | 19. Free will

Intermediate Logic

Materials for a self-contained senior undergraduate course. Topics include propositional calculus, predicate calculus, trees, metalogical results, Turing machines, incompleteness of arithmetic.
Introduction | Sentence calculus | Predicate calculus | Modal logic | Incompleteness | Assignments

Moral Psychology

Materials for a joint graduate and senior year course.
Course description | Study questions | Final essay
Lectures 2021: 1. Evolution and realism | 2. Debunking | 3. Hypocrisy I | 4. Hypocrisy II | 5. Hypocrisy III | 6. Morality and condemnation I | 7. Morality and condemnation II | 8. Self-love | 9. Internalism and externalism | 10. Empathy | 11. Altruism and hedonism | 12. Evolution of altruism

Philosophy of Language

Materials for a senior year course.
Course description | Final essay
Lectures 2020: 1. Sense and reference I | 2. Sense and reference II | 3. Thought I | 4. Thought II | 5. Sense and tone | 6. Descriptivism and proper names | 7. Critique of descriptivism | 8. Summary of Kripke's critique | 9. Causal theory of reference | 10. Indeterminacy of translation | 11. Indeterminacy of translation II | 12. Davidson's theory of meaning | 13. Searle's critique | 14. The rule-following paradox | 15. The sceptical solution | 16. The naturalist solution | 17. Performatives | 18. Intention and convention | 19. Gricean meaning
Study questions: Carroll | Sense and reference | Thoughts | Dummett | Naming and necessity | Davidson | Searle | Millikan
Lectures 2019: 0. Introduction | 1. Sense and reference I | 2. Sense and reference II | 3. Thought I | 4. Thought II | 5. Sense and tone | 6. Descriptivism and proper names | 7. Critique of descriptivism | 8. Summary of Kripke's critique | 9. Causal theory of reference | 10. Indeterminacy of translation | 11. Indeterminacy of translation II | 12. Searle's critique | 13. The rule-following paradox | 14. The sceptical solution | 15. The naturalist solution | 16. Meaning naturalised | 17. Performatives | 18. Speech acts | 19. Gricean meaning | 20. Intention and convention | 21. The Gricean programme | 22. Implicatures and maxims
Lectures 2018: 1. Sense and reference I | 2. Sense and reference II | 3. Thought I | 4. Thought II | 5. Sense and tone | 6. Naming and necessity I | 7. Naming and necessity II | 8. Naming and necessity III | 9. Critique of Kripke | 10. Nominal descriptivism I | 11. Nominal descriptivism II | 12. Significance of names | 14. Speech acts | 15. Gricean meaning
Lectures 2017: 1. Sense and reference I | 2. Sense and reference II | 3. Sense and tone | 4. Naming and necessity I | 5. Naming and necessity II | 6. Naming and necessity III | 7. Critique of Kripke | 8. Nominal descriptivism I | 9. Nominal descriptivism II | 10. Significance of names | 11. Demonstratives | 12. Assertion I | 13. Assertion II | 14. First person | 15. Reference of 'I' | 16. Indeterminacy of translation | 17. Critique of Quine I | 18. Critique of Quine II | 19. Two dogmas | Quine quotes

Introduction to Philosophy II

Materials for a first year course.
Course description
Annotated text: Berkeley: Three Dialogues
Lectures 2017: 1. Idealism I | 2. Idealism II | 3. Scepticism I | 4. Scepticism II | 5. Critique of idealism | 6. Matter as logical construction | 7. Objects and experience | 8. Naturalism I | 9. Naturalism II | 10. Freedom I | 11. Freedom II | 12. Freedom and morality | 13. Freedom and resentment I | 14. Freedom and resentment II | 15. Alternate possibilities | 16. Desire and will | 17. Moral luck I | 18. Moral luck II | 19. Utilitarianism
Lectures 2013: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16

Philosophy of Science

Materials for a senior year course.
Course description
Lectures 2016: 1. Early empiricism I | 2. Early empiricism II | 3. Conventionalism I | 4. Conventionalism II | 5. Conventionalism III | 6. Theory and evidence | 7. Induction I | 8. Induction II | 9. Natural kinds | 10. D-N explanation | 11. Unification and biology | 12. Mechanistic explanation | 13. Scientific change | 14. Change and Darwinism | 15. Creationism and Darwinism | 16. Creationism and likelihoods | 18. Biological laws | 19. Biological reduction | 20. Biology and culture | 21. Scientific realism
Lectures 2015: 1. Early empiricism I | 2. Early empiricism II | 3. Conventionalism I | 4. Conventionalism II | 5. Conventionalism III | 6. Operationalism | 7. Verificationism | 8. Structure of theories | 9. Observation, induction | 10. New riddle of induction | 11. Analyticity I | 12. Analyticity II | 13. Naturalism | 14. Explanation I | 15. Explanation II | 16. Explanation III | 17. Laws I | 18. Laws II | 19. Scientific change | 20. Evolutionary theory | 21. Creationism | 22. Biological contingency
Annotated texts: Helmholtz on geometry | Poincaré on geometry | Einstein on geometry | Reichenbach on geometry | Bridgman on operationalism | Reichenbach on verification | Carnap on theories | Hempel on theories | Goodman on induction | Carnap on analyticity | Quine on dogmas | Quine on naturalism | Cartwright on laws | Lange on laws | Beatty on biological laws
Lectures 2014: 1. Origins of empiricism | 2. Positivism | 3. Nature of geometry | 4. Operationalism | 5. Induction | 6. Testability | 7. Explanation I | 8. Explanation II | 9. Laws | 10. Global reduction | 11. Local reduction | 12. Scientific change | 13. Scientific realism | 14. Science and objectivity

The Empiricists

Materials for a course on British Empiricists.
Course description | Final essay
Annotated texts: Berkeley: Three Dialogues
Lectures 2016: 1. Innate ideas | 2. Innate ideas II | 3. Primary and secondary qualities | 4. Primary and secondary qualities II | 5. Abstraction and essence | 6. Identity | 7. Personal identity | 8. Freedom | 9. Depth, size perception | 10. Moon illusion | 11. Sensible qualities | 12. Resemblance | 13. God | 14. Objections and replies | 15. Hume's method | 16. Copy principle | 17. Relations | 18. Causation | 19. Induction | 20. The external world | 21. The external world II

Philosophy of Social Enquiry

Materials for a graduate course for students in the faculty of social sciences.
Course description
Lectures 2018: 2. Objectivity | 3. Thought collectives

Kant

Materials for a course I taught in the fall 2009.
Course description | Assignments | Midterm essay | Final essay

History of Modern Philosophy: Empiricists

Syllabi and essay questions for the Oxford course 0101.
Download: pdf

History of Modern Philosophy: Rationalists

Syllabi and essay questions for the Oxford course 0111.
Download: html

Philosophy of Science and Psychology

Syllabi and essay questions for the Oxford course 0105.
Download: html

Logic for Mods and Prelims

Problem sheets for the Oxford introductory logic course based on Hodges' book.
Download: html

The Philosophy of Kant

Syllabi and essay questions for an Oxford course on the first Critique.
Download: html

Frege, Russell, early Wittgenstein

Syllabi and essay questions for an Oxford course on the mighty triple.
Download: html

Formal Logic

Problem sheets for the first part of the Oxford advanced logic course.
Download: pdf

Metamathematics

Problem sheets for the second part of the Oxford advanced logic course.
Download: pdf

Philosophy of Mathematics

Syllabi and essay questions for an Oxford course.
Download: html

Philosophy of Social Science

Fragmentary syllabi and essay questions for an Oxford course.
Download: pdf

The Later Wittgenstein

Syllabi and essay questions for an Oxford course.
Download: pdf

Aesthetics and Literary Criticism

Syllabi and essay questions for an Oxford course.
Download: html

Note


Feel free to use any of the materials in this section.