The following descriptions of courses being offered by the Philosophy Department in Spring 2026 were submitted by the course instructors (with the exception of bracketed descriptions “[ ]” which are from the course catalog). Specific information regarding the dates, times, and locations of these courses may be found in the Registrar’s official Schedule of Courses for Spring 2026.
1000-Level Courses
PHI 1322 The Idea of Happiness (Quest I) — N. Rothschild
Every person wants to live well. What is it, though, to live well? What sorts of things make our lives good? These, and related questions were fundamental to philosophy at its inception. Socrates famously declared that the unexamined life is not worth living, thereby calling attention to the need to think seriously about fundamental matters of value in order to live a genuinely worthwhile life. Nor has there ever been a time when philosophy, art, literature, history—or any other form of human culture—has not been guided by the question of how we ought to live in order to attain genuine happiness.
This Quest 1 course addresses that question which we cannot help but ask ourselves, “How should I live?” Drawing primarily on the disciplines of Philosophy and Classics, in conjunction with close analysis of works of literature, drama, and film, this course will expose students to both historical and contemporary perspectives on well-being and happiness. The readings have been selected to represent a number of distinct perspectives, both philosophical and non-philosophical, and to help students think for themselves about the kind of lives they want to live. Many texts will be historical, and students will be encouraged to find in these texts material relevant to their own lives, not despite, but because of the fundamentally different assumptions and commitments that animate views which are up to thousands of years old.
PHI 1680 AI, Philosophy & Society (Quest I) — D. Grant
In the past few years, the capabilities of AI-based systems have grown explosively due to the development of a new technology, large language models. These systems, known informally as “chatbots,” are trained on a significant portion of the text and images that humanity has collectively produced over centuries. As a result, they have developed the ability to perform tasks that we normally associate with human-level intelligence, such as writing essays, writing computer programs, and passing graduate-level exams. In this course, we will explore the philosophical and social implications of this powerful new technology. Are chatbots intelligent in the same sense that we are intelligent? Will they take jobs previously held by highly skilled human workers, such as lawyers, doctors, and software engineers? Could we fall in love with chatbots, and could they fall in love with us? Why are so many of the experts developing chatbots concerned that they might destroy humanity? What can we do to stop them from destroying humanity? Will we one day be able to “upload” our minds to computer servers, in effect becoming chatbots ourselves? As we explore these questions, we will engage with research from several academic disciplines, including computer science, psychology, philosophy, and economics. Assignments will focus on original research into existing AI-based technologies as well as critical reflection on how we want AI to shape society going forward.
2000-Level Courses
PHI 2010 Introduction to Philosophy — B. Beddor
Does God exist? How do you know you are not dreaming right now? What makes you the same person you were five minutes ago? Do we have free will? Is eating meat morally wrong?
This course will introduce you to the kinds of questions philosophers think about and the tools they use to answer them. It will also help you develop the ability to analyze complex arguments and evaluate them critically. Readings will include both historical and contemporary texts.
This course is a State Core General Education Humanities (GenEd-H) course in which students are able to earn a Writing Requirement credit (WR).
PHI 2010 Introduction to Philosophy — L. Grant
Does God exist? Do we have free will? Is eating meat morally wrong? How do you know that you’re not dreaming right now? Could you survive the death of your body?
This course will introduce you to the kinds of questions philosophers think about and the tools they use to answer them. It will also help you develop a variety of useful skills, such as writing clearly and persuasively, constructing and evaluating arguments, and breaking down complex ideas to make them easier to understand. Readings will include both historical and contemporary texts.
The course counts towards the Humanities (H) general education requirement and the Writing (W) requirement (4000 words).
PHI 2010 Introduction to Philosophy — J. Rick
If you’re reading this, you might be doing so because you’re looking for the answer to some questions. That’s good! Asking questions is a very philosophical thing to do! Now, maybe one of your questions is the following: What is this Introduction to Philosophy course going to be about? Well, you know how sometimes people answer a question with a question? Here’s an answer to your question with a series of five questions – ones that we’ll be exploring in this course by way of introducing ourselves to some of philosophy’s urgent and enduring inquiries: Should I believe in God? Should I believe in anything? How should I live? How should we live? The first two questions explore perennial topics in the philosophical subfields of metaphysics and epistemology, while the latter two questions explore perennial topics in the philosophical subfields of ethics and political theory. These four questions will be our touchstones in this course, as we examine both classical and contemporary philosophical texts, but boundless others will surely emerge. This course counts towards the Humanities (H) general education requirement and the Writing (W) requirement.
PHI 2010 Introduction to Philosophy — M. Robitzsch
This course introduces students to the discipline of philosophy. After an initial discussion of what philosophy is, the course will turn to methods and techniques that are essential for understanding philosophical ideas. The main part of the course will then introduce students to different subdisciplines of philosophy by dealing with select questions philosophers have grappled with. Examples include the following: What is morally right and wrong? How should we live our lives? (Ethics) How do we know that the external world exists? What is knowledge? (Epistemology) Does God exist? What makes it true that a person at one time is identical to a person at another time? (Metaphysics).
PHI 2631 Ethics and Innovation — J. Simpson
This course is designed to familiarize students with ethics and some of the ethical issues surrounding innovation. We will discuss ethical concerns arising from innovations in data science, modern warfare, and the food industry. We will also discuss the main theories in meta-ethics and normative ethics. Discussion topics include, inter alia, racial bias in machine learning, the black box problem for machine learning, the attention economy, the ethics of eating factory-farmed meat, technological unemployment, and moral responsibility for autonomous weapons systems. (H) (WR)
3000-Level Courses
PHH 3100 Ancient Greek Philosophy — M. Robitzsch
In the History of Western Philosophy, antiquity is generally defined as the period that spans from the activity of the first natural philosophers of the early 6th century BCE to the closing of the (Platonic) Academy by Emperor Justinian in 529 CE. This course offers an introduction to the major philosophical questions of this period and the different answers philosophers gave to them, focusing especially on the works of the Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, and the Stoics.
PHH 3400 Modern Philosophy — C. Goldhaber
The early modern era was an exciting time in the history of European thought. Sudden developments in the natural sciences overturned ancient theories of nature and our place in it, calling for radically new approaches. The intellectual atmosphere was full of optimism about rejecting authority and prejudice, and about thinking through things for oneself. Carried by this enthusiasm, philosophers developed novel and competing theories about the nature of mind, matter, morals, and much more. They did so in systematic ways, helping to reveal important links between philosophy’s many topics.
This course introduces you to the history of early modern European philosophy, focusing especially, though not exclusively, on four philosophers from that era: René Descartes, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, David Hume, and Immanuel Kant. The selection of readings balances exposure to the traditional philosophical canon with a new narratives approach, highlighting women philosophers and topics in social and practical philosophy. Through interpretation of historical texts, you will develop your writing and argumentative skills, as well as form and defend views on central philosophical topics.
PHH 3400 Modern Philosophy — J. Rick
Modern Philosophy is an introduction to seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European philosophy. In the first half of the term, we will focus on Early Modern-to-Modern theories of metaphysics and epistemology. In the second half of the term, we will turn our attention towards Early Modern-to-Modern theories of ethics and political philosophy. The thinkers we will cover will include René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, Thomas Hobbes, Elisabeth of Bohemia, John Locke, David Hume, Lady Mary Shepherd, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
PHI 3114 Reasoning — G. Ray
Philosophy is especially concerned with bringing reason to bear on tough questions. Philosophical texts and discourse are rich in reasoned case-making in the form of argumentation and dialogic disputation. In this course, we will develop our skill in the identification and extraction of arguments from philosophical texts. This is primarily a skill-building class. We focus on practical techniques that help us understand and will make central use of diagrammatic techniques for representing the structure of arguments. We will learn strategies for understanding challenging arguments and developing clear, defensible interpretations/criticisms of them. As a bonus, along the way, we will have considered and discussed many renown arguments in philosophy. Finally, we will turn things around and show how these very same techniques make writing a thesis-defense essay dramatically easy. (You will never look on a paper assignment the same way again!) Time permitting, we will also learn about different kinds of case-making and argument, and ways these may characteristically differ in different areas (e.g. law). The skills gained in this class will improve your own reasoning skills and critical discernment. The content of this course will be of value to every student. (Note: This is not a course in logic and no training in logic is presupposed. Students of logic will learn a fundamental complementary skill.) <https://meta.phil.ufl.edu/class/reasoning-promo/>
PHI 3130 Symbolic Logic — R. Borges
[Systematic study of forms of deduction. Techniques and topics include truth-functional analysis and quantification.]PHI 3300 Theory of Knowledge — R. Borges
[Studies the central topics and concepts of the theory of knowledge, including the analysis of the concepts of knowledge, truth, justification and related concepts, the nature of empirical knowledge, the problem of skepticism, the nature of a priori knowledge, and the structure of the justification of our beliefs.]PHI 33650 Moral Philosophy — J. Ahlberg
In this course we will read some of the influential theories, classical texts, and contemporary reflections in the field of moral philosophy. Our exploration will primarily focus on the questions of normative ethics, such as: What fundamental principles, if any, should govern our ethical decisions? What constitutes a good life, or makes a human being good? What kinds of human relationships are worth having or striving for?
In exploring these questions, this course will expose students to the terminology, concepts, methodologies and theories used within philosophical ethics. Assignments will emphasize the communication of knowledge, ideas, and reasoning clearly and effectively in written and oral forms appropriate to the discipline. Throughout the course students will analyze information carefully and logically from multiple perspectives, using discipline specific methods, and develop reasoned solutions to problems.
PHI 3650 is required of all Philosophy majors and meets an area requirement for the Philosophy minor. A minimum grade of C is required for credit toward the Philosophy major or minor.
PHI 3681 Ethics, Data, and Technology — C. Buckner
This course exposes students to important interactions between ethics, contemporary data science, and emerging social issues. Students will grapple with foundational concepts in ethics and data science. The course begins with a brief introduction to ethical issues in data science. The course then pairs theoretical discussions of ethics with concrete issues in emerging technologies. Discussion topics include bias in machine learning, the black box problem for machine learning and interpretability methods designed to confront it, machine learning and privacy, concerns about the reproducibility of machine learning research methods, human work assisted or replaced by AI, copyright and computational creativity in generative AI, principles and strategies for AI regulation and policy, and moral responsibility for autonomous artificial agents.
PHI 3681 Ethics, Data, and Technology — D. Grant
In this course, we will explore questions about how emerging technologies should be designed and regulated. Should we be concerned about the fact that technology companies gather vast amounts of data about our online activities? What does it mean to say that a machine learning algorithm is a “black box,” and is there something unfair about using such algorithms to decide how to treat people? As we investigate these and other questions about emerging technologies, we will draw on concepts and readings from a variety of different fields, including philosophy, economics, computer science, data science, and law.
PHI 3681 Ethics, Data, and Technology — P. Kieval
This course explores the ethical and political dimensions of contemporary data science and artificial intelligence (AI), focusing especially on technological advances based on “deep learning” techniques in computer science. In just a few years, these systems have come to have profound effects on our daily lives, but our philosophical understanding remains underdeveloped. We will examine real-world case studies to engage with ethical and political questions surrounding the development and deployment of AI. Questions we will explore are: in what senses are these systems biased, and when is their bias ethically problematic? Can we explain the workings of these vastly complex systems in a way that answers to our existing scientific, legal, and ethical practices? What incentives drive the political economy of AI research and development, and how should we regulate these systems? And finally: how can we cope with the radical changes these systems are bringing to our social, political, and economic lives without losing our fundamental humanity?
PHI 3681 Ethics, Data, and Technology — A. Ross
[Addresses ethical issues related to data science, algorithmic decision-making, and artificial intelligence. Pairs theoretical discussions of ethics, economics, and policy-making with concrete issues in emerging technologies.]PHI 3681 Ethics, Data, and Technology (Online) — S. Sturm
This course exposes students to important interactions between ethics, contemporary data science, and emerging social issues. Students will grapple with foundational concepts in ethics and data science, pairing theoretical discussions of ethics with concrete issues in emerging data-driven technologies. Discussion topics include racial bias in machine learning, the black box problem for machine learning, mass surveillance and privacy, technological unemployment, and autonomous weapons systems.
PHI 3930 Special Topics: Philosophy and the Cinema — R. Ray
This course will ask us to think together about questions raised by the cinema in general and by particular movies:
- What counts as “acting”?
- How would we teach a child to distinguish between documentary and fiction?
- Does it matter what an actor is thinking about when he or she performs a scene?
- Should we try to define film genres?
- How is “pretending” related to “acting”? To “lying”? To courtship?
- For what things is photography better suited than painting?
- Why can the same script yield entirely different results in the hands of different directors, in a way that a play may not?
- How do we learn the rules of certain activities? Can we tell by observation whether a rule is being properly obeyed?
- How do our standards of measurement function?
- Can you pretend to be yourself?
- If Wittgenstein is right to say that “The human body is the best picture of the human soul,” and that “An `inner process’ stands in need of outward criteria,” how can we assess someone whose behavior is contradictory?
- How do Emerson’s ideas get realized in Holiday and The Philadelphia Story?
- When does it become important to distinguish between an excuse and a justification?
To address these and other questions, we will use the work of certain philosophers: Plato, Wittgenstein, J.L. Austin, Emerson, and Stanley Cavell. Films will include People on Sunday, 1001 Grams, Anatomy of a Murder, The Lady Eve, Holiday, The Philadelphia Story, Blow-Up, The Rules of the Game, Vertigo, It Happened One Night, and Close-Up.
4000-Level Courses
PHH 4644 Continental Philosophy — N. Rothschild
A study of selected works by 19th and 20th century continental philosophers. Specifically, this course will read texts by Nietzsche, Freud, Marx, and Foucault. These texts will be used to call into question the view that the individual is the ground of human thought and action. Taken together the course materials challenge the target understanding of the subject along three axes. First, they deny that an individual mind is a unity, contending instead that there are sub-personal sources of action, and that the unity of the individual subject is, if possible, an achievement. Second, these texts argue that human thought and action is possible only insofar as it is located within a wider context of intelligibility such as that provided by a particular social structure or form of life. Third, these texts argue that the subject is historically constituted due to the dependence of subjectivity on shared practices. What it is to be a subject is determined by how we understand ourselves, and the concepts in terms of which we understand ourselves are constituted by shared practices that can and do change.
PHH 4930 Seminar in a Major Philosopher: Kant — C. Goldhaber
Kant is plausibly the most influential philosopher of the Western philosophical canon. His philosophy is viewed as a synthesis of the rationalist and empiricist traditions which came before him, and as containing seeds for the analytic and continental traditions which would follow. This course gives an overview of his breakthrough masterpiece in theoretical philosophy, the Critique of Pure Reason. We will explore central topics, such as Kant’s critique of metaphysics, his Copernican turn, synthetic a priori judgment, the two stems of cognition, transcendental idealism, apperception (self-consciousness), transcendental illusion, the antinomies, and the discipline of pure reason.
PHI 4320 Philosophy of Mind — L. Grant
Psychology and cognitive science are concerned primarily with how the mind operates. Philosophy of Mind, in contrast, is concerned primarily with what the mind is. This course introduces students to some of the central, classic problems in the philosophy of mind, focusing on issues concerning the relationship between the mental and the physical, and the nature of consciousness. We will ask questions like: Could there be minds without brains? What does it take to have a mind? Can science fully explain how it feels to have experiences, like being hungry or seeing red?
The main aim of this course is to have you think about these and related questions in a philosophically rigorous way. This means formulating arguments, articulating opposing views, and above all, thinking critically.
Though this course will serve as an introduction to these issues, it is nonetheless only suitable for advanced undergraduates with a few philosophy courses under their belt; this is conceptually very difficult material. However, with effort, this course should also be deeply rewarding, and equip you with many new conceptual tools that will be valuable in any area of philosophy.
PHI 4930 Special Topics: Animal Minds — A. Ross
[Examination of the ways in which humans are products of both culture and nature, focusing on our moral and political practices. Topics may cover the evolutionary underpinnings (both biological and cultural) of our moral practices and political convictions as well as our treatment of and relationships with nonhuman animals. Incorporates literary and other works from the Western canon.]PHI 4930 Special Topics: Latin American Thought — L. Lomelí
Latin American Thought offers a comprehensive overview, as well as an in-depth discussion, of the most influential Latin American thinkers and their works.