20 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 110Critical Thinking3
Meets GOAL 4. This course teaches students how to employ good reasoning skills and how to avoid being fooled by bad reasoning and rhetorical tricks. Competencies acquired in the course include the following: Identifying, evaluating, and constructing arguments; identifying informal fallacies; testing syllogisms and propositional arguments for validity and overall cogency; and assessing and constructing position papers. Grade or P/NC. Offered each semester. Course Registration
Meets GOAL 6 (Humanities). An introduction to major areas in philosophy, considering some fundamental problems and concepts. Typical issues include some of the following: the existence of God, what we can know, what reality is, how mind and body are related, whether or not we have free will. Traditional and intellectually chic theories on these or other topics are critically reviewed. Grade or P/NC. Offered each semester. Course Registration
Meets GOAL 6 (Humanities) and GOAL 9. A practical course in ethics, involving concrete issues and their impact on the individual, society, and social policy. Topics may include abortion, euthanasia, sexuality and sexual morality, feminism, welfare, capital punishment, pornography and censorship, animal rights, world hunger, war, and terrorism. Grade or P/NC. Offered annually. Course Registration
PHIL 140Introduction to War, Peace, and Terrorism3
Meets GOAL 6 (Humanities) and GOAL 9. An introductory course exploring issues concerning war, peace, and terrorism from the perspectives of moral and political philosophy. Guest speakers present points of view. Topics usually include causes and justifications of war, conditions for peace, and whether terrorism is ever justified. Further topics may include conscientious objection, varieties of pacifism and nonviolent resistance, land mines, child soldiers, suicide terrorists, mercenaries, genocide, and international arms sales. Grade or P/NC. Offered annually. Course Registration
Meets GOAL 6 (Humanities). A study of the philosophical ideas, values, and world views of ancient Greece, especially its views on the nature of the universe, humanity, knowledge, religion, ethics, and politics. Theories from the Presocratics, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle will be critically examined and contrasted with contemporary beliefs and values. Grade or P/NC. Offered annually. Course Registration
Meets GOAL 6 (Humanities) and GOAL 9 This course explores the foundations, principles, and challenges of democracy. Topics include the nature and forms of democratic authority, the balance of freedom and equality, the risks of populism and polarization, and the role of citizens in protecting democratic institutions. By engaging with historical and contemporary debates, students will critically examine the ideals and vulnerabilities of democracy in an ever-changing world. Grade or P/NC. Offered at department discretion. Course Registration
Meets GOAL 9. This course is an overview of the ethical responsibilities of healthcare professionals. Students will explore the significance of general ethical principles that are especially relevant in the context of health care (such as autonomy, informed consent, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and confidentiality) and will apply these concepts to a number of ongoing ethical debates related to the healthcare professions (including caring for vulnerable populations, end-of-life decision making, and reproductive ethics). Grade or P/NC. Offered each semester as needed. Course Registration
Meets GOAL 6 (Humanities) and GOAL 9. A study of major ethical theories, concepts, and issues; for instance, Kantianism, utilitarianism, ethical relativism, concepts of justice, human rights, moral responsibility, and free will. Grade or P/NC. Offered annually. Course Registration
Meets GOAL 6 (Humanities) and GOAL 9. An introduction to ethical theory and reasoning and their application to business decisions. Topics addressed are economic justice and the rights and obligations of employers, employees, and consumers. Issues include product liability, privacy, exploitation, and obligations to future generations and the environment. Grade or P/NC. Offered annually. Course Registration
Meets GOAL 6 (Humanities) and GOAL 10. A critical investigation into our rights and ethical responsibilities with respect to nature. Topics include the moral status of nature, its value, and the sustainability of our consumption, population, and pollution growth given their effects on the environment and future generations. Grade or P/NC. Offered annually. Course Registration
Meets GOAL 6 (Humanities). Examines basic issues in the philosophy and foundations of science, such as the testing of hypotheses, the construction and confirmation of theories, the nature of scientific explanation, and the concept of laws of nature. The course also investigates the distinction between science and pseudoscience and studies to what extent each has influenced recent public policy, social debates, and school curricula. Grade or P/NC. Offered annually. Course Registration
Meets GOAL 6 (Humanities). A variable-content course considering salient problems in philosophy. Grade or P/NC. Offered at department discretion. Repeatable as topics change. Course Registration
Meets GOAL 6 (Humanities) and GOAL 9. This course explores foundational concepts, arguments, and debates in the philosophy of religion. Topics include the attributes of God, classical arguments for and against the existence of God, the problem of evil, the rationality of religious belief, the ethics of faith, and the relationship between religion and morality. Students will engage critically with both historical and contemporary texts to develop their understanding of key debates on these topics. Grade or P/NC. Offered at department discretion. Course Registration
Meets GOAL 6 (Humanities). An introduction to the fundamental concepts and issues in the philosophy of art. Topics include: The definition of art, art’s role and function, taste and judgment, interpretation and intention, representation and expression. The course covers a wide range of views and spans the length of Western philosophy, within the larger realm of social, political, moral, gender, and scientific issues. Grade only. Offered at department discretion. Course Registration
Meets GOAL 6 (Humanities). This course examines the main themes of early modern philosophy by investigating the views of some of the principal European philosophers of the 17th and 18th centuries: the rationalism of such philosophers as Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz; the empiricism of Locke, Berkeley, and Hume; and the constructivism of Kant. Grade or P/NC. Offered annually. Course Registration
Meets GOAL 6 (Humanities) and GOAL 9. Ethical issues in health care; for example, abortion, termination of treatment, euthanasia, truth-telling and confidentiality, medical experimentation and informed consent, transplant surgery, artificial insemination, surrogate pregnancy, the allocation of medical resources. Grade or P/NC. Offered annually. Course Registration
Meets GOAL 6 (Humanities) and GOAL 9. Consideration of the philosophical foundations of law and coercive legal systems. Topics may include the nature of law, theories of judicial interpretation, concepts of responsibility and liability, theories of criminalization and punishment, issues of discrimination and equality, the relation between law and morality, the obligation to obey the law, and civil disobedience. Grade or P/NC. Offered at department discretion. Course Registration
Meets GOAL 6 (Humanities) and GOAL 9. At the junction of ethics, philosophy of law, and political philosophy, this course investigates the just-war tradition and its modern application in the acts and laws of war. Topics may include historical developments in just-war tradition, conditions for just-war and just-fighting, preventive war, humanitarian military intervention, nuclear weapons, guerrilla warfare, terrorism and counter-terrorism, and treatment of terrorist suspects. Grade or P/NC. Offered at department discretion. Course Registration
Meets GOAL 6 (Humanities) and GOAL 9. This course explores philosophical and ethical issues surrounding human sexuality, romantic relationships, and marriage. Topics may include the following: the nature of romantic love, sexual desire, rape culture, objectification, perversion, marriage equality, feminist critiques of marriage, polygamy, pornography, prostitution, and BDSM-relationships. Students will be encouraged to critically analyze and assess societal norms surrounding sex and love, and will be required to write philosophical essays on these and other related topics. Grade or P/NC. Offered annually. Course Registration
