Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature

Course Number
PHIL 181
About the Course

Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature pairs central texts from Western philosophical tradition (including works by Plato, Aristotle, Epictetus, Hobbes, Kant, Mill, Rawls, and Nozick) with recent findings in cognitive science and related fields. The course is structured around three intertwined sets of topics: Happiness and Flourishing; Morality and Justice; and Political Legitimacy and Social Structures.

Course Structure

This Yale College course, taught on campus twice per week for 50 minutes, was recorded for Open Yale Courses in Spring 2011.

Course Materials
Download all course pages [zip - 10MB]

Syllabus

Professor
Description

Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature pairs central texts from Western philosophical tradition (including works by Plato, Aristotle, Epictetus, Hobbes, Kant, Mill, Rawls, and Nozick) with recent findings in cognitive science and related fields. The course is structured around three intertwined sets of topics: Happiness and Flourishing; Morality and Justice; and Political Legitimacy and Social Structures.

Texts

Required texts

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, translated Terence Irwin. Hackett Publishing, 2000.

Blackburn, Simon. The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, second edition. Oxford University Press, 2008.

Epictetus. The Handbook (The Encheiridion), translated by Nicholas White. Hackett Publishing, 1983.

Haidt, Jonathan. The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom. Basic Books, 2006

Plato, Republic, trans. G.M.A. Grube and C.D.C. Reeve. Hackett Publishing, 1992.

Shay, Jonathan. Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character. Simon & Schuster, 1995.

Course Packet/Online

Annas, Julia. “The Phenomenology of Virtue,” Phenomenology and Cognitive Sciences 7, 2008.

Ariely, Dan. Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions. Harper Collins, 2008.

Ariely, Dan and Klaus Wertenbroch. “Procrastination, Deadlines, and Performance: Self-Control by Precommittment,” Psychological Science Vol. 13:3, 2002.

Batson, Daniel C. “Moral Masquerades Experimental Exploration of the Nature of Moral Motivation,” Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, Vol. 7, 2008, pp. 51-66.

Boethius. The Consolations of Philosophy, Bobbs-Merrill, 1962.

Boorse, Christopher and Roy Sorensen. “Ducking Harm,” The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 85, No. 3, March, 1988. pp.115-134.

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. TED talk “Flow.” http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_on_flow.html (19-minute video)

Darley, John and Thane S. Pittman. “The Psychology of Compensatory and Retributive Justice,” Personality and Social Psychology Review, Vol. 7, No. 4, 2003, pp. 324-336.

Doris, John. “Persons, Situations, and Virtue Ethics.” Noûs 32, 1998.                                                                           

Evans, Jonathan St. B. T. “In two minds: dual-process accounts of reasoning.” Trends in Cognitive Science, vol 7, (2003), pp. 454-459

Freud, Sigmund. The Ego and the Id. ed. James Strachey. W. W. Norton & Company; The Standard Edition edition (September 17, 1990)

Gendler, Tamar Szabó. “Alief and Belief,” Journal of Philosophy (2008), pp. 634-663.

Gendler, Tamar, Susanna Siegel and Steven M. Cahn, eds. The Elements of Philosophy: Readings from Past and Present. Oxford University Press, 2008.

Homer, The Iliad. Viking, 1990.

Hume, David. Treatise on Human Nature, eds. David Norton and Mary J. Norton. Oxford University Press, 2000.

Kahneman, Daniel. “A Perspective on Judgment and Choice: Mapping Bounded Rationality.” American Psychologist, 58 (2003), pp. 697-720.

Kahneman, Daniel. Nobel Prize Lecture “Maps of Bounded Rationality.” http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/2002/kahneman-lecture.html (38-minute video)

Kant, Immanuel. “The Right to Punish,” an excerpt from The Philosophy of Law (Rechtslehre). trans. W. Hastie, 1887, pp. 194-198.

Kazdin, Alan. Behavior Modification in Applied Settings. Dorsey Press, 1980.

Kazdin, Alan. Parenting the Defiant Child. Houghton Mifflin, 2008.

LeGuin, Ursula. “The Ones who Walk Away from Omelas: Variations on a Theme by William James” New Directions 3, 1973.

Lewis, David. “The Punishment that Leaves Something to Chance” Philosophy and Public Affairs Vol. 18, No. 1, Winter, 1989, pp. 53-67.

Milgram, Stanley. “Behavioral study of obedience.” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, Vol. 67 (1963), pp. 371-378, reprinted in Elliot Aronson, ed. The Social Animal, pp. 26-40.

Nozick, Robert. “Love’s Bond,” from The Examined Life: Philosophical Meditations. Simon & Schuster, 1989.

Plato, Phaedrus, trans. and ed. R. Hackforth. Cambridge University Press, 1972.

Rawls, John. “Two Concepts of Punishment,” an excerpt from “Two Concepts of Rules,” Philosophical Review 64: 1955, pp. 3-13.

Stockdale, James “Courage Under Fire: Testing Epictetus in the Laboratory.” Speech delivered at King’s College, 15 November 1993.

Sunstein, Cass. “Moral Heuristics,” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 28, 2005, pp. 531-542.

Thomson, Judith Jarvis. “The Trolley Problem” The Yale Law Journal, Vol. 94, No. 6, May 1985.

Requirements

All students must read the assignment for each class, attend lecture regularly and participate actively in weekly sections.

Students will be expected to complete ten brief directed exercises roughly one exercise per week; equivalent to very short problem sets), write two short essays (approximately 1000 words each), and take a final exam, for which all questions will be distributed in advance.

Grading

Attendance and participation: 10%
Brief directed exercises: 35%
Two essays: 20% (stronger essay: 15% + weaker essay: 10%)
Final Exam: 30%