2025 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 23 – August 1
- When, and why, are we morally required to obey the law? Are we ever required to disobey the law – and, if so, why and how?
- How should a society deal with crime? We will study the debate between advocates of prison reform and advocates of 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?
Philos 6 - Introduction to Political Philosophy
*ONLINE COURSE*
Instructor: Hannah Widmaier
We’ll begin by considering some big questions: How should a society be structured in order to be just? And what is social justice to begin with? This will set us up to pursue and explore a number of particular, and particularly acute, issues about social justice:
Philos 7 - Introduction to Philosophy of Mind
*ONLINE COURSE*
Instructor: Alex Pelaez
Can machines think? If so, how would we know? What about other human minds—how can we be sure that others have subjective experiences like our own? And what about our own minds—what and how do we even know about them? These questions drive the trajectory of this course as we investigate some of the most fascinating puzzles in the philosophy of mind.
We’ll make two key features of the mind especially salient—its ability to compute and its capacity for subjective experience—and we’ll investigate the tension that arises when we try to account for both of them. In Module 1, we explore the similarities and differences between computing machines and human minds, introducing core philosophical terminology and techniques for reconstructing and analyzing arguments. As we consider whether machines can think or understand, we’ll also confront deeper epistemological questions: How can we know whether others—human or machine—have minds? This skeptical stance sets the stage for Module 2, where we follow Descartes’ method of working from the ground up to argue that minds exist. We’ll analyze three key arguments in favor of dualism and grapple with strong objections, including challenges to the coherence of the mind-body distinction. In Module 3, we turn to physicalist theories of the mind as an alternative to dualism, exploring what makes them intuitive, plausible, or compelling, and we will consider whether they can fully capture the subjective, first-person nature of consciousness.
Can machines think—or even have minds? How would we know? This course dives into the philosophy of mind, exploring the tension between the brain’s computational power and the mystery of subjective experience. We’ll debate whether AI can truly think, analyze classic arguments for and against dualism, and evaluate physicalist theories of consciousness. Along the way, we’ll confront deep questions about intelligence, skepticism, and what it means to have a mind.
Syllabus TBA
Philos 31 - Logic, First Course
Instructor: Seungtaek Lee
In this course, we will learn a new language: symbolic logic. This very simple yet powerful language has proven extremely helpful for identifying, analyzing, and evaluating arguments in ordinary languages like English, Farsi, or Korean. Compare the following two arguments: ‘If Amy stole the car, then Brie is innocent; Amy stole the car; therefore, Brie is innocent’ vs. ‘If Amy stole the car, then Brie is innocent; Brie is innocent; therefore, Amy stole the car’. The first argument is good reasoning, but the second is not—the possibility of a third suspect remains. To figure this out, we don’t need to know who Amy and Brie are or what has actually happened. This is because the goodness or badness of an argument is determined by its logical structure rather than its specific content. Symbolic logic allows us to perspicuously represent these structures, avoiding the ambiguities and complexities of ordinary languages: ‘P → Q; P; ∴ Q’ vs. ‘P → Q; Q; ∴ P’. Hence, throughout this course, we will explore such questions as: What are logical structures? How do we distinguish good arguments from bad ones? How do we translate ordinary language sentences into symbolic logic? How do we prove or disprove the goodness of an argument? By the end of the course, you will be equipped with essential tools for any rational inquiry, from academic research to everyday reasoning—and perhaps even for life.
Philos C119 - Topics in History of Philosophy: Being with Others in a Mad World
- Selected philosophical issues arising from psychological theories of perception and attention.
- Nature of attention and the limit it imposes on our perceptual capacities.
- The connection between attention and consciousness.
- Philosophical accounts of introspection and problems concerning self-knowledge
- The relation between attention, introspection, and perception.
Philos 129- Philosophy of Psychology
*ONLINE COURSE*
Instructor: Alonso R. Molina
This course covers:
Syllabus TBA
Philos C156 - Topics in Political Philosophy: The Value of Democracy and Democratic Community
*IN-PERSON COURSE*
Instructor: Samuel Pensler
This course is a philosophical inquiry into the nature, justification, and limitations of democratic government in the current political moment. Over the last decade, authoritarian-nationalist popular political movements have swelled in many countries, especially in established constitutional democracies. This ascendancy has largely taken place not by revolution but through the very democratic institutions these movements threaten to upend, such as fair elections and a free political discourse in which denizens enjoy broad freedom of communication, protest, and the press.
What do we, as citizens, stand to lose if our democratic rights and institutions are undermined or disappear? How compelling are the reasons in favor of upholding and strengthening democracy? Students enrolled in this course will pursue such questions– questions that, as democratic citizens, we must face.
Philos 166 - Philosophy of Law
*ONLINE COURSE*
Instructor: Kyle Scott
This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the interdisciplinary study of the role of law and legal institutions in society. We begin with fundamental questions about the nature of law, justice, and legal interpretation, focusing on key debates in natural law and legal positivism. From there, we examine the role of constitutional, criminal, and tort law in society through a range of theoretical and applied perspectives. The course concludes with an examination of critical approaches to law, including feminist jurisprudence, critical legal studies, and intersectionality. Students will engage with classic and contemporary texts, legal case studies, and pressing questions about rights, punishment, and the limits of state legitimacy. This course invites participants to critically evaluate how laws shape, and are shaped by, broader social, political, and ethical systems.
Philos M187 - Topics in Feminist Philosophy: Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood
Instructor: Colleen Hanson
You were once a fetus. Were you, as a fetus, part of, or merely contained in, your mother? Pregnancy poses philosophical problems that are deep – some general and some particular. This course explores some, with a central focus on this general parthood question. In the first half of the course, we survey key metaphysical perspectives on this, examining various views of containment, parthood, process, and even a hylomorphic view, which contends that your mother was part of you. In the second half, we turn more particularly to ask: What is it like to be pregnant? Do any of our candidate metaphysical views capture how people describe the embodied experience of pregnancy? Here, we examine the subjective experience of pregnancy, asking how first-person perspectives might inform or challenge different metaphysical accounts of the parthood question, such as when a surrogate says that she is a mere container for the surrogate fetus, but felt like her biological children were part of her. The course concludes by exploring some broader social, practical, political, and ethical implications of how we understand the relationship between fetus and gestator. We consider implications in topics such as surrogate pregnancy, how respect for autonomy might be compromised in maternity care, and the postpartum experience.
Syllabus TBA
Session C: August 4 – September 12
Philos 3 - Historical Introduction to Philosophy
*ONLINE COURSE – ASYNCHRONOUS LECTURES*
Instructor: Khalilah Walters
Historical introduction to Western philosophy based on classical texts dealing with major problems, related thematically and studied in chronological order: properties of rational argument, existence of God, problem of knowledge, nature of causality, relation between mind and body, possibility of justice, and others.
Syllabus TBA
Philos 7 - Introduction to Philosophy of Mind
*ONLINE COURSE*
Instructor: Zeynep Yildiz
Introductory study of philosophical issues about nature of the mind and its relation to the body, including materialism, functionalism, behaviorism, determinism and free will, nature of psychological knowledge.
Syllabus TBA
Philos 22 - Introduction to Ethical Theory
*ONLINE COURSE*
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 like abortion, animal rights, and global poverty.
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.
Syllabus TBA
Philos C127A- Philosophy of Language
*ONLINE COURSE*
Instructor: James Gu
This course will be organized around key developments in the theories of meaning and reference from Frege to (nearly) the present. Our work will be divided into two complementary parts.
In Part I of the course we will adopt a semi-historical approach and make our way through the much-celebrated Frege-Russell-Kripke cycle. Topics to be covered in this part include: Frege’s sinn vs. bedeutung distinction, Russell’s theory of descriptions, and Kripke’s landmark anti-descriptivist revolution.
In Part II of this course we will ditch our historian hat and dive headfirst into what is widely considered to be the crowning achievement of 20th century philosophy of language: Montague semantics. Here we will adopt a hands-on approach and construct a fully predictive & scientific theory of meaning for natural language (e.g., English, Farsi, Korean, etc.). Topics to be covered in this part include: the fundamentals of natural language semantics, the paradoxes of modal auxiliaries, and the clause-embedding behavior of attitude verbs.
Syllabus TBA
Philos 155A- Medical Ethics
Instructor: Mikaela Mackenzie
Examination of philosophical issues raised by problems of medical ethics, such as abortion, euthanasia, and medical experimentation.
Syllabus TBA
Philos 174 - Knowing, Believing, and Being Fooled: Topics in the Theory of Knowledge
Instructor: Jenny Wu
This six-week course offers an applied introduction to central issues in traditional and social epistemology, examining how knowledge, belief, and justification are affected by social and pragmatic contexts. Topics include peer disagreement, the influence of non-epistemic factors on belief, testimony, legal epistemology, and epistemic wrongdoings (e.g., gaslighting). We will also explore foundational epistemological debates, such as internalism vs. externalism in justification and the Gettier problem, with an emphasis on the role of truth in theoretical rationality. Designed with depth and rigor, this course will help students critically evaluate arguments and engage in precise dialectics. Particularly suited to pre-law students, it highlights connections between epistemic concepts and legal theory and practice.
Syllabus TBA
Philos 177A - Existentialism
*ONLINE COURSE*
Instructor: Nefeli Ralli
This course begins with that provocation. What use is philosophy if it cannot speak to despair, indecision, or the silent drift of days? Too often, philosophical systems circle above life, abstract and untethered, though existentialism refuses that disconnection. It does not treat anxiety, alienation, and absurdity as background noise but as the very ground from which reflection begins. It asks how we act amidst suffering: how we resist the roles we’ve inherited, break from evasions, and begin to live—with the responsibility to respond, the creative power to shape ourselves, and a refusal to be victims of our history.
Syllabus TBA