82 courses with the subject PHIL, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
PHIL 115Becoming a Person4
Who am I? What makes me me? Who gets to say who I am? How do personal qualities, relations with others, and social categories like race, gender, gender identity, ethnicity and class come together to form my personal and social identity? How does who I am inform what I know and don’t know? Does who I am give me specific responsibilities? If so, what are they? This course invites you to explore multiple dimensions of who you are using philosophical ideas and tools. Attributes: CSD: Identity (CI)
An introduction to philosophical questioning through a study of perennial issues in philosophy. Questions that might be treated: truth, freedom and responsibility, God, love, being, knowledge, death. Topics in this course may be treated in the context of introductory philosophical texts, past and present, or through a methodological approach to philosophical problems. Equivalent courses: HONR 250C, PHIL 180 Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Encounter1/2 - Truth
An introduction to philosophical questioning through a study of what it means to be human. Are humans "merely" animals? What's the relationship between self-interest and the common good? What's the relationship between reason and emotions? What is a soul? What is the meaning of life? Equivalent courses: HONR 250L Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Encounter1/2 - Truth
An introduction to philosophical questioning through a study of the human in society. Questions that might be treated: the meaning of society; individual and society; society and law; economy and society; work as social phenomenon; society and freedom; world of culture and society; violence and nonviolence; philosophy of power; philosophy of conflict in community; political philosophy. Equivalent courses: HONR 250J, PHIL 130 Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Encounter1/2-Justice
From the beginnings of human thought, imaginative literature—poetry, stories, plays and novels—has been a means for humans to reflect on profound questions: How should we live our lives? Can life put us in touch with higher truths, or is this world all there is? Is imagination the opposite of truth or a means of discovering it? How well do we know ourselves? Do we have a moral duty to other persons? Can I be responsible for suffering that I have not caused myself? We will read a number of novels, plays, and short stories ranging from classic literature to contemporary fiction, seeking to discover how imaginative writing is related to serious philosophical thought. Readings for the first half of the course focus on issues of truth, and in the second half, issues of justice. Attributes: Human Experience (HE)
This course uses literature to inquire philosophically into “Otherness” and “Difference” in human experience and thought. It explores how we should live our lives by examining what the stories we tell about those lives—in novels, short stories, essays, and plays—reveal about how we view otherness and difference in human community—asking specifically whether “truth” might be found more in story than in fact. It fulfills the Cultural and Social Difference: Identity (CI) requirement and includes practice in and reflection on collaborative learning and oral presentation. Attributes: CSD: Identity (CI)
This course explores philosophical questions surrounding race and ethnicity and gender and how the boundaries around these identities are enforced and resisted. We examine the historical evolution of racial and gender concepts up to the present day. This deeper philosophical understanding will be used to discuss contemporary topics like disparities in health, immigration policies, and barriers to political participation. Attributes: CSD: Identity (CI)
This course is an introduction to formal symbolic logic. It focuses on the development of a symbolic language to capture the structure of natural- language arguments, in order to evaluate the validity of those arguments. Topics include truth functions, truth tables, natural deduction, and how logic relates to arguments in regular life. Equivalent courses: PHIL 110, PHIL 279B Attributes: Abstract Structures (AS), Thematic Encounter1/2 - Truth
PHIL Electives 24 Total Hours 36 Reasoning courses fall into the "Knowing" category of courses Additional Details about PHIL Electives: • At least 4 elective credits must be "Knowing" courses • At least 8 elective credits must be "Living" courses. • A minimum of 20 credits must be at the 300 Level • No more than 8 credits at the 100 level may count towards the major without permission from the Department Chair. List of courses in "Knowing" and "Living" categories: Code Title Hours
You can’t be human without running into ethical questions on a daily basis. Most of us learn basic ethics as children, but basic ethics isn’t enough for many problems we encounter. To equip students to think well about less obvious ethical situations, this course provides an overview of tools and concepts provided by influential moral theories. Students will learn to recognize when ethical questions arise and will practice using multiple frameworks to illuminate ethical situations and guide ethical decisions. Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Encounter1/2-Justice PHIL 270OA Introduction to Systematic Philosophy (3 Credits) Systematic study of the nature, methods and aims of philosophy as a distinctive discipline. Basic concepts of logic (truth, validity, soundness, deductive and inductive argumentation, the principle of non-contradiction, logical form and basic patterns in argumentation, etc.). Meaning and language use; disputes and definitions; recognising fallacies; the manipulation of language and meaning; rhetorical strategies. Exercises in the analysis of reasoning.
Supervised reading or research at the lower-division level. Permission of department chair required. Consult department for applicability towards major requirements. Not available to first-year students.
Reading and discussion of philosophic works, moderated by a member of the Philosophy Department. Interested faculty and staff in other areas are welcome to participate as well. Each section of this course is typically devoted to a single work, but occasionally a group of smaller works by a single author may be selected. S/U grading only. May be repeated for credit. CSBSJU Undergraduate Academic Catalog 2026-2027 393
Introduction to philosophical thought about morality. Topics include major ethical theories (e.g. virtue ethics, consequentialism, deontology, care ethics), as well as big concepts such as rights and responsibilities, values and obligations, good and evil, right and wrong. Equivalent courses: PHIL 359 Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Encounter3 - Justice,
This course investigates a variety of ethical issues that arise from consideration of the relation between humans and the non-human natural world (i.e., the environment, animals, land, ecosystems, wilderness areas). This course will introduce students to the basic concepts of environmental ethics, to specific ethical issues associated with environmental policy, and to philosophical theorizing about the environment. Equivalent courses: COLG 370IA, PHIL 243 Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Encounter3 - Justice,
An examination of ethical questions raised by health-care practice and recent advances in medical technology. Both ethical theory and ethical decision-making will be addressed. Possible topics include: confidentiality, informed consent, genetic engineering, reproductive technology and death and dying issues. Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Encounter3 - Justice
This course will examine ethical and social issues associated with contemporary American business. Responsibilities of businesses to employees, consumers and the society at large will be considered. Questions of individual moral responsibility and questions of social justice and public policy will be addressed. Students will examine these issues from the point of view of a variety of stakeholders: business management, employees, investors, consumers, and citizens. previous course in management, accounting, philosophy, or economics. Equivalent courses: PHIL 362
Raphael’s famous fresco The School of Athens accurately depicts the world of Ancient Philosophy. The painting features a multitude of ancient thinkers involved in conversation, writing, or meditation in a beautiful public space. The focal point of the painting is the two central figures of Plato and Aristotle, who will also serve as the foundation for this course, which aims to help students become knowledgeable participants in the conversations and practices that pursue truth, virtue and the good that shaped the beginnings of Western philosophy. The course approaches philosophy not simply as an academic discipline, but as a “way of life.” Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Encounter3 - Truth
Philosophy on the European continent followed no one pattern in the 19th century. G.W.F. Hegel, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Nietzsche make this century one of the most varied in the history of philosophy. This course will focus on one or more thinkers to explore European thought of that epoch. This course can be repeated for credit, with the approval of the department chair, when content varies.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
4
Credits (max)
4
Credit unit
Credits
Type
course
Repeatable
can be repeated for credit, with the approval of the department chair, when content varies.
An introduction to the Classical Chinese tradition of philosophy. Students will study in particular the two Confucian Classics, the Analects and the Mencius (Mengzi), and the two Taoist Classics, the Tao Te Ching and the Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi) - texts that have shaped the culture and civilization not just of China, but of Korea and Japan as well. A question guiding discussion throughout the semester is whether these ancient teachings might still offer insight and guidance to contemporary students. We attend especially closely to this question in the final weeks of the semester by reading commentary on these classical texts written by contemporary English language scholars. Equivalent courses: HONR 250W Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Encounter3 - Truth
While philosophy sometimes seems opposed to religious faith, their relation has often been friendly, as “faith seeking understanding.” Philosophical reflection on religious belief critically examines the claims of faith as well as attempts to discredit or dismiss the claims of faith. This course will explore this tradition through one or more lenses: philosophical reflection on: a) the validity of religious experience, b) the reasonableness of belief in God, c) the problem of evil or reconciling the experience of evil and suffering with religious belief, or d) other historica or emerging themes in the philosophy of religion. The course will consider also the perspective of theology in responding to philosophical reflection. Alternate years. INTG XXXG) and (HONR 101 or HONR 110 or HONR 220A or INTG 100 or INTG 200 or INTG 205 or INTG XXXF) Equivalent courses: HONR 250F, PHIL 146, PHIL 246, THEO 329F Attributes: Theological Integration (TI), Writing Requirement (WR)
PHIL 350Buddhist Philosophy and Christian Contemplation4
This course will examine the philosophical, psychological, and practical points of intersection between Buddhism (with an emphasis on Zen Buddhism) and the tradition of Christian contemplation (with an emphasis on the writings of Fr. Thomas Merton, OSCO). Students will learn how the doctrinal differences between the two traditions co-exist with profound similarities in their understanding of human psychology and motivation, their recommendations for developing a disciplined and composed mind, and their understanding of the insights made possible by such a mind.
This course looks at the way that the search for security and the claim to possession of absolute truth can lead to violence. The way of thinking involved in technology easily structures the world so that whatever does not fit into that framework is discounted and ignored and treated violently, as the philosopher Martin Heidegger shows. How does such an attitude lead to violence? Finally, the course will look at the nonviolent ethical response which the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas demands from the person who hears the call of the poor and the oppressed when they cry out against their oppression and poverty. Alternate years. Equivalent courses: PCST 343, PHIL 343
This course will consider some of the central conceptual and normative issues in the area of jurisprudence. Concepts such as legal responsibility, negligence, causality, cruel and unusual punishment, etc., will be considered. Frameworks for legal decision-making will be developed and applied.
Philosophy of Mind explores a number of issues of interest to contemporary philosophers of mind and cognitive scientists. It is designed with a particular interdisciplinary aim: to examine how the empirical work of scientists informs the theories of contemporary philosophers. The course is designed around three topics: the relationship between the mind and the body; issues of personal identity and the self; and the nature of our concepts and mental representations. As we discuss these topics, we will be examining the ways these metaphysical questions are intertwined with questions of gender and race. Courses (CS) you first must complete the following Integrations requirements; Learning Foundations (LF), Theological Encounter (TE), and Cultural and Social Difference: identity (CI). Equivalent courses: PHIL 368E, PHIL 368I Attributes: CSD: Systems (CS)
PHIL 370SA Modern European Mind (3 Credits) Formative political, social and philosophical ideas of thinkers of past centuries are examined. Writers who originated or popularized them include Kant, Mill, Bentham, Hegel, Marx, Engels and Popper. Attributes: Human Experience (HE)
Supervised reading or research at the upper-division level. Permission of department chair and completion and/or concurrent registration of 12 credits within the department required. Consult department for applicability towards major requirements. Not available to first-year students.
This course will introduce students to competing feminist conceptions of justice that envision a world free of systems of privilege, power, and oppression and in which the dignity and value of all persons is upheld. We will also examine feminist critiques of justice theory which argue that feminist conceptions of justice must be supplemented by alternate moral frames (e.g. care ethics, embodied feminism, an explicit grappling with intersectionality) if we are to secure the flourishing of self and human and nonhuman others. Focus Course. You must take a Cultural and Social Difference: Identity (CI) course prior to or at the same time as Thematic Focus Courses. Equivalent courses: PHIL 325 Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Focus - Justice
PHIL 379AThe Quest for Truth in Modern Philosophy4
Modern Philosophy is not “modern” in the everyday sense, but studies the 17th and 18th century shift in European thought away from the influence that classical thinkers had come to have, especially as their works were reinterpreted and incorporated into the religious dominion that Judeo- Christian and Islamic paradigms exercised over philosophical thought. This shift involved a radical re-appraisal of the human subject as thinker and knower. Even those thinkers skeptical of the human capacity to grasp absolute truths upheld the authority of human reason to understand its own limits and to assert itself as the ultimate judge of where and how “truth” could be claimed—though they disagreed significantly on these limits. These philosophers asserted an independence and autonomy for human reason that paved the way for later declarations of political freedoms. Thinkers studied include Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, and Kant. Identity (CI). CI course may be taken prior to or concurrently with Focus Course. Equivalent courses: PHIL 334 Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Focus - Truth
Epistemology, or the study of knowledge, is the philosophical discipline which studies the nature of knowledge and how it is acquired. This course will focus on feminist epistemology and the ways in which gender influences our conceptions of knowledge, knowers, and our practices of knowledge acquisition and justification, with a special emphasis on the sciences. Central to the topics of the course will be an examination of epistemic questions around racial and gender oppression. Identity (CI). CI course may be taken prior to or concurrently with Focus Course. Equivalent courses: HONR 350S, PHIL 364 Attributes: Human Experience (HE), Thematic Focus - Truth
