Quyen Pham

Social philosophy

The Structure of the Social World
(PHIL 165, Harvard, Fall 2024, 2025, & 2026)

Philosophy is taking an exciting social turn. This course will take you on a tour through the vast and quickly expanding field that is social ontology—from social entities, such as clubs, teams, families, and businesses, to social categories such as gender and race, and finally to social phenomena as varied as money and music. We will examine the reality and nature of these elements of the social world in the context of foundational metaphysical questions such as identity, composition, and persistence, while considering the significance of different answers to these questions for related ethical and political issues such as agency, responsibility, and justice.

This course has been approved to fulfill the requirements for Harvard’s Certificate for Civic Engagement.

Gender, Race, & Social Reality
(PHIL 165S, Harvard, Spring 2026 & 2027)

What is gender, and what is race? How many sexes and genders are there, and are there really distinct races? In what ways are gender and race similar and yet very different? This course will introduce you to major connected themes and philosophical perspectives in classic and contemporary discussions about gender and race, through foundational questions about their reality, nature, and intersection, as well as practical issues concerning morality, personal identity, and social justice.

This course was also offered as an intensive 7-week course (PHIL S178) at the Harvard Summer School in Summer 2025.

The Individual & the Social
(FYSEMR 66F, Harvard, Spring 2025 & 2026)

How are we related to the groups that we are part of? How do we keep our individuality while sharing a common identity? What opportunities and challenges arise as people come together to form something greater than themselves?

We will explore this special relation between the individual and the social, and its conceptual and practical implications for our life and society, through various philosophical perspectives on issues from metaphysics and epistemology to ethics and politics, while drawing insights from sociology, psychology, economics, and more.

Our investigation of the social will start small. What does it mean for two people to walk together, or to belong in a circle of friends? What does it take for a rock band or sports team to stay the same over time? How does a committee make a decision when members disagree? Can a company be responsible for something while none of its associates is? We will then turn to larger groups and bigger issues. Can we better explain our behaviors and experiences by thinking not just about our personal qualities, but our positions as members of particular classes, genders, or races? What kind of harm or wrong is done when people are placed into one category or fail to be placed into another, or when the world is designed for some kinds of people but not others? And how do answers to these questions help us make sense of current societal structures and work to change them for the better?

Metaphysics

Metaphysics
(PHIL 164, Harvard, Fall 2024, 2025, & 2026)

Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that asks and seeks to answer questions about the most fundamental aspects of reality: What kinds of things are there? When do two things make up another thing? What does it mean for one thing to be like another? How do things change while still being themselves? This course will introduce you to some of the most basic concepts and tools of metaphysics that will enable you to understand questions such as these and attempts to answer them, and ultimately to pose your own questions and craft your own answers. We will begin by investigating the nature and structure of ordinary objects, such as tables and chairs. We will then turn to questions concerning objects in space and time, as well as the nature and structure of space and time themselves. Along the way, we will also consider more curious entities such as holes and clouds, and explore connections to theology, mathematics, physics, and science fiction, from the idea of extra spatial dimensions to the possibility of time travel.

Introduction to philosophy

Worlds, Times, & Lives: Philosophy Through Science Fiction
(PHIL 29, Harvard, Spring 2027)

In this course, we will look through the lens of science fiction to examine modern and classic philosophical issues, from the possibility of time travel, the multiverse, or simulated reality, to the problem of free will, personal identity, and artificial sentience. Through thinking about other worlds, times, and human and non-human lives, we will be asking metaphysical as well as epistemological and ethical questions—about what is real or possible as well as what is knowable and valuable—and see how literary imaginations become sharper when considered in the context of a theory and how philosophical arguments become clearer and more vivid when considered in the form of a story.

History of philosophy

Philosophy Through Dialogue
(PHIL 97, Harvard, Spring 2025)

Philosophy has always been a great conversation, and this course will take you on a tour through history and around the world of some of the most interactive pieces of philosophy, including dialogues and adjacent forms of philosophical discourse, from letters and correspondences to debates and court opinions. Through these texts, you will develop high levels of analytic reading and writing skills as well as listening, speaking, and ultimately conversing philosophically. We will also explore a range of topics within philosophy, while regularly reflecting on the various ways literary and narrative devices can engage audiences and enrich philosophical ideas, as well as their potential pitfalls.

Metaphysics

Issues in Space & Time
(PHIL 236, USC, Spring 2023, as TA for Andrew Bacon)

Critical thinking & logic

Reasoning & Argument
(PHIL 122A & B, USC, Spring 2020)

History of philosophy

The Meaning of Life
(PHIL 168, USC, Spring 2018 & Fall 2019, as TA for Stephen Finlay)

Existentialism in Philosophy, Literature, & Film
(PHIL 255, USC, Fall 2023, as TA for Edwin McCann)

History of Western Philosophy: Ancient Period
(PHIL 315, USC, Spring 2024)

Ancient Foundations of Western Thought
(PHIL 104, USC, Fall 2022, as TA for John Dreher)

The Process of Change in Science
(CORE 103, USC, Fall 2017, as TA for Edwin McCann)