2026 Summer Courses in Philosophy
Enrollment is open for UCLA summer courses. Current UCLA Students can enroll at MyUCLA. Visiting students can register at summer.ucla.edu.
Session A: June 22 – July 31
Philos 7 - Introduction to Philosophy of Mind
*ONLINE COURSE*
MWF 1:00 – 2:20PM
Instructor: Seungtaek Lee
In this course, we will explore the most fundamental questions in the philosophy of mind, such as: What is a mind? What distinguishes minded beings like humans from ordinary physical objects like rocks or chairs? Do computers have minds—if not, why not? Is a brain necessary for having a mind? How are the mind and the brain related to each other? Do chatbots (e.g. ChatGPT) understand what they produce? Can we ever figure out the answer to this question? Setting aside machines, what about other human beings? Can we fully understand what it is like to be another person at all? The course will revolve around three central themes: mind-body identity, cognition, and consciousness. In the first unit, we will ask whether the mind and brain are one and the same. Arguments for and against the negative and positive answers will be introduced and examined. In the second unit, we will explore the idea that minds are best understood as computers. The focus will be on what this exactly means and whether (or to what extent) it is convincing. In the third unit, we will turn to the nature of subjective experience and what it bears on the theories discussed in the first two units. By the end of the course, students will be able to approach these intellectually challenging but significant questions with care and rigor and to critically engage with major philosophical theories and arguments in the philosophy of mind
Philos 22 - Introduction to Ethical Theory
*ONLINE COURSE*
MWF 10:00 – 11:20AM
Instructor: Sare Ghorbani Khaledi
There are key questions in life. What does it mean to live a good life? How should we treat others? What makes an action right or wrong? How do we balance the demands of duty and the pursuit of happiness? What is virtue, and why be virtuous?
This course introduces the foundational theories of ethics through close engagement with classical texts by Aristotle, Kant, and Mill. We will explore how these philosophers approach these questions and consider the implications of their theories for contemporary issues.
Through readings, discussions, and written assignments, you will develop the analytical tools to critically evaluate ethical arguments and articulate your own moral perspectives. No prior background in philosophy is required, just a willingness to think deeply and engage with challenging ideas! I look forward to the journey with you.
Philos C119 - Topics in History of Philosophy: The Will in Western Philosophy
*ONLINE COURSE*
TR 10:45 AM – 12:50PM
Instructor: James Johnson
You at least sometimes do what you will. You are held responsible for things you have willingly brought about, and sometimes for things you haven’t. Sometimes you are weak and act against your will. Or so it seems! What is our human will? How does it help explain our freedom, our moral responsibility, and the possibility of our weak-willed action? This course examines conceptions of the will in the history of western thought in connection with these questions central to our humanity.
Our primary focus is on treatments of the will offered by Aristotle and the Stoics, Plotinus, and Augustine, the late medievals, Descartes and Cudworth, and on how the conception develops and changes. In our discussion we will relate their positions to those of contemporary philosophers, and see how a conversation between past and present offers insight in both directions — on these topics central to our life.
Philos 161 - Philosophy in Literature: Approaching Kafka
*ONLINE COURSE*
MWF 10:45 AM – 12:50 PM
Instructor: Jürgen Lipps
Hopeless individuals crumbling under the might of a faceless, industrialized bureaucracy. All-powerful judges issuing sentences of indefinite punishment to the dumbfounded, broken accused. The impossibility of intimacy. These are the marks of Kafka’s world. As our own world becomes decidedly more like Kafka’s—more Kafkaesque—with each passing day, the imperative to read his work asserts itself with renewed force. Just how to approach and read Kafka adequately, however, remains an open question. Here is our problem: On the one hand, we need to read Kafka. On the other hand, we don’t know how. For philosophers, this challenge is posed in a unique way, since Kafka’s works both naturally provoke and resist philosophical interpretation. This precise dilemma marks the point of departure for this course. In it, we will explore the question of philosophical interpretation of literature by reading Kafka’s works alongside interpretive essays by philosophers and critics such as Adorno, Arendt, Benjamin, Butler, Hamacher, and Ronell.
Philos 166 - Philosophy of Law
*ONLINE COURSE*
TR 1:00 – 3:05PM
Instructor: Hannah Widmaier
The law has a profound and pervasive influence on our lives, affecting the actions that are available to us, the material and political conditions under which we act, and our relationships with each other. In this course, we will examine a number of related questions about legal morality and the law’s impact on our moral lives:
- On what basis do we have a moral duty to obey the law?
- When and how might the duty of legal obedience be vitiated, such that we are morally permitted to disobey the law? Further: under what conditions might we be decisively obligated to disobey the law?
- What are the morally significant differences between civil disobedience, uncivil disobedience, and conscientious refusal? When and how might these activities be morally justified? How should the state treat those who engage in these forms of disobedience?
- What are the proper aims and justification of state-imposed punishment for lawbreaking? To what extent is punishment consistent with the aim of “restorative justice”?
Philos 174 - Topics in Theory of Knowledge: Knowing, Believing, and Being Fooled
*ONLINE COURSE*
TR 3:15 – 5:20PM
Instructor: Jenny Wu
This six-week course offers an applied introduction to central issues in traditional and social epistemology, focusing on how knowledge, belief, and rational confidence are shaped under conditions of social pressure, disagreement, and strategic influence. Topics include epistemic conflict and peer disagreement, testimony and persuasion, epistemic wrongdoing (e.g., gaslighting), rational self-doubt, and negotiation. The course draws on foundational epistemological debates—such as internalism vs. externalism about justification—and employs both conceptual analysis and formal tools, including Bayesian models, to examine rationality in real-world contexts.
- What is the relationship between existence and essence?
- What does it mean to be authentic?
- Do life and death have inherent meaning?
- Is there objective truth?
- What is required to have freedom in this world?
- How does mortality affect our actions?
Philos 177A - Existentialism
*ONLINE COURSE*
TR 10:45 AM – 12:50PM
Instructor: Alonso Molina
Existentialism is one of the most prominent intellectual movements of the twentieth century. Its impact extends beyond philosophy, shaping literature, film, psychology, anthropology, feminism, ethics, and political theory, among other disciplines. This course examines the key problems to which existentialism responds, with a focus on the central concepts and arguments advanced by existentialist thinkers.
Here are a few of the guiding questions:
Through close reading and critical analysis of primary existentialist texts, we will evaluate classic answers to these and other fundamental questions in existentialist philosophy. Our goal is to gain a solid understanding of key existentialist views.
- What is social justice?
- When, and why, are we morally required to obey or disobey the law?
- What are the arguments for and against prison reform and prison abolition?
- How should the state treat reproductive freedom, parental rights, and parental obligations?
- What, if anything, should the state do to promote gender equality?
- Do we have a right to somewhere to live? What implications would such a right have with respect to property, homelessness, and immigration?
Session C: August 3 – September 11
Philos 6 - Introduction of Political Philosophy
*ONLINE COURSE *
MWF 11:30 AM – 12:50 PM
Instructor: Jonah Ragir
Syllabus TBA
- Metaphysics of Mind: What is the nature of the mind? Are minds physical entities, or are they immaterial like a soul? What are mental states such as beliefs, desires, and intentions?
- Consciousness: What does it mean to be a conscious creature? How can consciousness be studied, and what would it take to construct an empirical science of consciousness?
- Mental Content: How does the mind represent the world? What makes our thoughts meaningful or about things? What determines the content of beliefs, desires etc…?
- Operations of the Mind: Is the mind a kind of computer? If so, what kind? How should we understand computational models of cognition, and what do recent advances in artificial intelligence, such as large language models like ChatGPT, tell us about the nature of minds?
Philos 7 - Introduction to Philosophy of Mind
*ONLINE COURSE*
MWF 10:00 – 11:20AM
Instructor: Kenny Galbraith
This course provides a general introduction to central topics and debates in the Philosophy of Mind. The course is organized around a set of thematic units, each corresponding to core philosophical questions about the nature and workings of the mind:
While each of these themes is philosophically significant in its own right, a central goal of the course is to equip students with the conceptual tools needed to evaluate contemporary questions at the intersection of philosophy, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence. In particular, the course will devote special attention to theorizing about whether large language models can genuinely be said to have minds.
Philos 31 - Logic, First Course
*ONLINE COURSE*
MW 2:30 – 4:35PM
Instructor: James Gu
The emergence of predicate logic in the 19th century (due to the efforts of Boole, Peirce, Frege, and Schröder) is often described by scholars as a ‘discovery’. Evidently, the aptness of such a description is predicated upon the assumption that certain logics can be said to describe ‘natural’ objects, and that a logician working from the comforts of their home can somehow discover the rules of logic in much the same ways that a physicist might discover the laws of physics. In this course we will examine the extent to which the system of classical (first-order) predicate logic can be said to constitute a natural logic that is native to the human mind. Practically, our task is split into two (unequal) parts. We will begin (in weeks I~IV) by familiarizing ourselves with the formal aspects of first-order predicate logic (e.g., its language, deductive system, & semantics). After attaining a certain degree of technical fluency with predicate logic itself, we will (in week V~VI) look at why certain (Generative) linguists think that such a logic must be native to the Human Language Faculty (HLF).
Philos 129 - Philosophy of Psychology
*ONLINE COURSE*
TR 3:15 – 5:20PM
Instructor: Mona Fazeli
We are creatures that perceive the world around us, have feelings about it, and reason and solve
problems within it. One way of putting this is to say that we have minds. But what sort of thing is a
mind that can do all that? This course approaches that question through philosophy of psychology. It
examines how psychology, as the scientific study of the mind, explains mental life and what
philosophical questions those explanations raise.
To give the course a clear focus, we will look primarily at mental representations, which are, roughly,
bits of information the mind carries about the world. First, we will ask what mental representations
are, and how they differ from other aspects of mental life, such as sensation and consciousness.
Second, we will look at different kinds of mental representations and ask how they are formed, how
they are processed, what structure they have, and how they are used in problem–solving and reasoning.
Third, we will study how the systems that produce these representations are related: do they work
independently, or do they interact with one another? Finally, we will ask what psychological theories
of reasoning can tell us about when our reasoning goes well and when it goes wrong.
Philos 155A - Medical Ethics
*ONLINE COURSE*
MW 2:30 – 4:35PM
Instructor: Akacia Brillon
How should we assess the fairness of the current distribution of healthcare resources in the U.S.? When the distribution of healthcare resources is unjust, what moral obligations arise on the part of the state? How are citizens’ obligations affected? Throughout this course, we’ll tackle considerations of justice raised by specific issues, such as distributive justice in healthcare, commercial surrogacy, abortion, genetic screening, and end-of-life decision-making. By engaging in thoughtful consideration of what justice looks like in specific contexts, this course aims to equip you with the resources to think through current challenges to realizing a just healthcare system.
Philos 171 - Topics in Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence: Machine Intelligence and Human Values
*ONLINE COURSE*
TR 10:45 AM – 12:50 PM
Instructor: Paul Talma
What is intelligence, and could a machine possess it? Beginning with the foundational works of Turing, Putnam, and Fodor, we will explore the computational theory of mind in its classical and connectionist guises. We will then interrogate the cognitive capacities of current AI systems before turning to the social and political questions they raise.
The course will equip you to think through complex and pressing questions raised by modern AI systems. It will also help you refine two important skills: rigorous argumentation and clear expression.