Splash Biography

Try and calculate 48÷2(9+2). Did you get 2 or 288? Or neither? You might have seen this 'math' problem before on Facebook. Around 2011 it became a glorified meme, causing tons of Interneters to smash their keyboards. In this class we'll explore our concept of arithmetic. I'll offer a mathematical treatment of the foundation of arithmetic (Peano Arithmetic), and using this conceptual/mathematical framework we'll ask what justifications there are for either answer.

Can logic prove that human minds are something more than machines? Gödel famously proved in 1931 that all logical systems which are powerful enough to do simple arithmetic must be in some sense defective. This has lead some philosophers to argue that the human mind can 'see past' these defects, while machines can't. Hence we humans are not simply machines. In this class we'll look at the incompleteness theorems, and you'll get the flavor of how they are proved. Then we'll discuss whether the mind is a machine or not, focusing on what these incompleteness theorems tell us about our own mind.

This class will be a philosophical introduction to thinking philosophically about philosophy. What is philosophy? Does it work? Is it useful? We will interrogate these questions and more in an informal discussion style class. Basically, this will serve as an introduction to philosophy as an academic discipline and a college major. Any student who is interested in philosophy and in what a philosophy major actually does and learns will definitely enjoy him/herself! What can we know? What ought we do? What can we hope for?

Immanuel Kant, a late 18th century German philosopher, posited that there is such a thing as the "moral law", a law that governs how we ought to act, and that this "moral law" is given by reason and reason alone. In this class I will give a brief overview of Kant’s rationalist moral theory, as well as the intellectual climate prior to Kant, and we’ll discuss whether or not reason can actually serve as the true moral guide. No familiarity with Kant, or with philosophy in general will be assumed. But come ready to think!