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Kaufman, Daniel Patrick

Associate Professor

Positions

Research Areas research areas

Research

research overview

  • Professor Kaufman's research currently focuses on theories of matter, material objects, and individuation, and modality in 17th-century philosophy.

keywords

  • 17th-century philosophy, especially ontology and metaphysics of matter and material objects, individuation, identity, and modality

Publications

selected publications

Teaching

courses taught

  • PHIL 1000 - Introduction to Philosophy
    Primary Instructor - Fall 2019 / Fall 2023
    Introduces students to the most fundamental questions of human existence, either topically or through various major figures in philosophy. Topics may include free will, the mind-body problem, the nature of the self, the existence of God, knowledge of the external world, the nature of morality, the meaning of life.
  • PHIL 1020 - Introduction to Western Philosophy: Modern
    Primary Instructor - Spring 2019 / Spring 2024
    Introduces several philosophical texts and doctrines of 17th and 18th century Europe. Gives special attention to the connection between philosophical ideas and the wider historical milieu: social, political and literary. PHIL 1010 and PHIL 1020 may be taken in either order.
  • PHIL 1200 - Contemporary Social Problems
    Primary Instructor - Fall 2018 / Spring 2020 / Fall 2020
    Examines competing positions in debates over a wide variety of controversial moral, social and political issues. Topics may include: abortion, world poverty, animal rights, immigration, physician-assisted suicide, freedom of religion, hate speech, cloning, income inequality, pornography, gun rights, racial profiling, capital punishment, overpopulation, prostitution, drug legalization, torture. Formerly titled 'Philosophy and Society.'
  • PHIL 3010 - History of Modern Philosophy
    Primary Instructor - Spring 2018 / Fall 2018 / Spring 2019 / Spring 2020 / Fall 2020 / Spring 2021 / Fall 2022 / Spring 2023 / Spring 2024
    Introduces modern philosophy, focusing on the period from Descartes through Kant. In addition to careful analysis of philosophical arguments, attention is paid to the ways in which philosophers responded to and participated in major developments in the 17th and 18th century, such as the scientific revolution. Recommended prerequisite: 6 hours of philosophy coursework.
  • PHIL 3600 - Philosophy of Religion
    Primary Instructor - Fall 2023
    Explores fundamental questions concerning major world religions, especially the Abrahamic religions. Possible topics include: the divine'attributes (Is perfect goodness compatible with the existence of hell? Can God be truly omnipotent?), the problem of evil, divine'hiddenness and evidence of the existence of God, religious experience, the legitimacy of faith, the dilemma of freedom and divine'foreknowledge, God and morality, tensions between religion and science, conceptions of the self in Abrahamic religions and in'Buddhism. Recommended prerequisite: 6 hours of philosophy coursework.
  • PHIL 4020 - Topics in the History of Philosophy
    Primary Instructor - Fall 2019
    Examines a specific philosophical problem over an extended historical period. Recommended prerequisites: 12 hours of philosophy course work including PHIL 3000 and PHIL 3010. May be repeated up to 9 total credit hours. Same as PHIL 5020.
  • PHIL 5020 - Topics in the History of Philosophy
    Primary Instructor - Fall 2019
    Examines a specific philosophical problem over an extended historical period. May be repeated up to 9 total credit hours. Same as PHIL 4020.
  • PHIL 6000 - Seminar in the History of Philosophy
    Primary Instructor - Spring 2018 / Spring 2021 / Spring 2023
    Studies advanced topics in the history of philosophy. Content varies by semester, but may extend to any period in the history of philosophy, from the Presocratics into the modern era. May be repeated up to 12 total credit hours.

Background

International Activities