17 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.
Selected important philosophic works; the main problems of philosophy, the natures of reality, valuing, and knowing.
Formal and informal reasoning, deductive and inductive; traditional and symbolic techniques for distinguishing correct from incorrect reasoning.
The concepts of goodness, right, duty, obligation, responsibility, and freedom; important moral theories of the Western tradition; contemporary moral issues in light of these theories.
An examination of major areas of contemporary feminist philosophy, with special attention to the interaction between multiple forms of oppression, including racism, homophobia, and class-based oppression. Taught: Alternate years
Goals: Understanding of the wide variety of viewpoints represented by a variety of philosophical traditions, and the development of students’ own critical perspectives on the issues raised. Content: Fundamental questions about reality, knowledge, ethics, and society as explored by diverse traditions across several continents.
Goals: (1) To gain a sympathetic yet critical understanding of the views of the philosophers studied; (2) to gain an overview of the context and development of philosophical thought in this period; (3) to see how the philosophies of this period relate to issues and problems in contemporary life; and (4) to provide opportunities for reading, understanding, and responding to philosophical texts. Content: Our “Modern” world was born with the revolutions which took place in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe: the scientific revolution and the political revolutions in England and France. In this course we will examine some of the answers given to questions raised by these events: How can we know anything for certain? What is the nature of the reality studied by the new sciences? What should be the relationship between Faith and Reason? And what justifies the power of the state over the individual? The writings of major figures in the Enlightenment tradition and its critics will allow us to explore several answers to these questions, and enable us to examine connections between the questions themselves.
Goals: Understanding some of the major themes in contemporary philosophy of science and developing students’ own critical perspectives on the issues discussed. Content: Philosophical issues about the nature, scope, and meaning of modern science. We will address such questions as: does scientific progress come about in a steady, cumulative manner or by making radical “paradigm shifts”? Does science tell us the nature of objective reality, or does it merely give us useful tools? Can science be “value-free” or is it only a part of a social context? Taught: Alternate years
The nature and problems of religious thought including the existence of God, religious experience, faith, and reason. Taught: Alternate years
Goals: Students will gain an understanding of a broad variety of historical and contemporary views on topics connected to the philosophy of mind, and develop skills enabling them to formulate and support their own perspective on the issues raised. Content: Historical and contemporary works on the reality, nature, essence, and existence of the self. Topics will include the nature of the human consciousness; the relation between mind, brain, and body (including the implications of cognitive neuroscience and artificial intelligence); the criteria of personal identity; and the ontological status of positional categories such as race, gender, and sexuality.
An examination of some of the different ways people have thought about the natural world and our relationship to it. Some of the views discussed will be: nature as a mechanism, a divine creation, and a source of values. We will consider multicultural, feminist, and postmodern challenges to the modern scientific conception of nature. Taught: Alternate years
Definitions of African Philosophy, discussions of ethnophilosophy, problems of language in Africa, and connections with African American and feminist philosophies. Taught: Alternate years
Goals: To introduce students to the critical study of ethical questions emerging out of the rapidly changing fields of the biological sciences, biotechnology, medical research, and the health care industry. Content: This course will offer students an introduction to bioethics through a close examination of some of the most important debates currently ongoing in the field. Topics will include abortion, euthanasia, genetic enhancement, the ethics of medical and scientific experimentation, and the impact of racism, sexism, and ableism on the health care system. Throughout the course, we will focus on both the philosophical arguments that structure these contemporary ethical debates as well as the broader societal beliefs and public policies that inform them.
Philosophical issues in social, political, and legal systems, including problems such as the justification of power and the development of the concept of human rights.
Aesthetic issues from the point of view of the creator as well as appreciator, including questions of artistic truth, meaning, beauty, value, criticism, and judgment applied to the range of art media.
Goals: To understand the concepts, principles, and practices of nonviolence. Content: Focus on understanding the concepts, principles, and practices of nonviolence emphasizing theorists and practitioners of nonviolent direct action including Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Thich Nhat Hanh, and others, attentive to the contexts in which they emerge. Course participants will pursue independent research on nonviolence for presentation to the seminar.
How can we answer fundamental questions about values, knowledge, and reality? This course will provide students with the opportunity to develop the skills of critical thinking, close reading, and conceptual analysis. We will work individually and collaboratively to examine, evaluate, and construct arguments that engage with the scholarly literature and to improve our ability to communicate with non-academic audiences. This course will explore a wide variety of examples of philosophical inquiry, across a range of approaches and subject areas. Methods examined may include linguistic, logical, and contextual analysis as well as consideration of the roles of personal experience, narrative, and experiment in exploring fundamental theoretical questions.
Advanced value theory, broadly conceived, studied through selected classical and contemporary sources.
Source: Hamline University's catalog, linked per course · table learning_unit · CourseShelf publish 61
