A survey of important issues in contemporary political philosophy, with a particular focus on the questions of social justice and political legitimacy. An end-of-term module focuses on the politics and AI and data in spring 2023 and on the political dimensions of our relation with the natural world in fall 2023.
An overview of important developments in French philosophy from the 16th century to the 1960s. In spring 2023 we pay particular attention to the quest for foundations and origins. In fall 2023 we pay particular attention to philosophical accounts of the human condition.
Université Paris I, Master LOPHISC, Automne 2022
Ce cours propose une introduction au dialogue entre la philosophie et les autres disciplines des sciences cognitives (en particulier la psychologie, les neurosciences et l’anthropologie) à travers l’étude de plusieurs questions controversées qui chacune remettent en cause un aspect de la théorie historiquement dominante de l’esprit. Après une introduction des éléments essentiels de cette théorie, des points de vue méthodologiques qui la sous-tendent, et de certains arguments importants en sa faveur, le cours abordera des problèmes récemment débattus: la question de la modularité du système perceptuel, la question du rôle des représentations dans la cognition, l’architecture de l’esprit humain, le problème dit “du cadre”, et le rôle des structures sociales dans le développement de la cognition humaine.
PSL Research University, Licence 2, Printemps 2016 et 2017
avec Michael Murez
Une introduction à la philosophie contemporaine de l'esprit, en lien avec les développements en science cognitive. Les thèmes abordés incluent la théorie représentationnelle de l'esprit, le language de la pensée, le connectionisme, la cognition située, les représentations mentales, la conscience, l'inné et l'acquis, et la modularité de l'esprit.
NYU (Washington square), Summers 2013 and 2014
An introduction to recent philosophy of mind and cognitive science. How do our minds, our thoughts, and our experiences, fit into the world described by physics, chemistry, and biology? Could a machine, a physical device, whether made of silicon or neurons, think? Could it reason, represent its environment, enjoy conscious experiences? Drawing on readings in recent philosophy and cognitive science, we will explore different proposals to answer these questions, and to flesh out and critically examine the idea that our brains and nervous systems give rise to our mental lives. Topics will include the computer model of the mind, neural nets, the relationship between thinking and the body or the environment at large, how mental states may represent the world, the relationship between thought and consciousness, and the relationship between the science of the mind and our everyday picture of it.
NYU (Washington square), Summer 2012
An introduction to the study of artificial formal languages, especially propositional and predicate logic, and to their relevance to everyday reasoning and argumentation. The practical applications of formal languages range from mathematics to computer science and artificial intelligence. Their philosophical interest lies in how they help us formulate possible answers to questions such as: What distinguishes good from bad arguments? What are the different forms arguments may take? What does it mean for one statement to logically follow from another? What does it mean for a statement to be a logical truth? In the last part of the course, we will also begin to see how and why logicians and philosophers engage in metalogical reasoning about formal languages themselves.
Textbook: David Barker-Plummer, Jon Barwise & John Etchemendy, Language, Proof and Logic, CSLI, 2nd ed., 2011.
I T.A.-ed for the following courses during my PhD: