31 courses with the subject PH, 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.
PH 200Intro to Philosophy: Ancient & Medieval3
Philosophy aims at wisdom by means of reasoning from one’s experience. Philosophy is a way of knowing the natures of things, and so is at the basis of science, education, and politics. This course has three parts. First, you learn about the philosophical way of knowing by reading some of its founding documents, such as Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Physics. Then you consider whether faith is compatible with reason by examining such topics as the existence of God, the nature of faith, science and religion, and the problem of evil. Third, throughout the course you will learn philosophical skills of logical reasoning and common fallacies to avoid. Offered every semester.
This course is an introduction to philosophy and its role in the intellectual life and in human society. Philosophy aims at wisdom by means of reason. We will gain insights from philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Boethius, and Aquinas on fundamental reality, the nature of human society, and the happy life. This course focuses on developing habits of discussion and writing that maximize understanding.
An introductory survey of basic philosophical problems and schools of thought from the modern and contemporary periods. A substantial treatment of philosophers such as Descartes, Hume, Kant, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, and Heidegger will be included. Special emphasis on the reading of selections from these philosophers’ works. Offered every semester.
Logic organizes and strengthens one's intellectual life. This course teaches the skills of crafting definitions, clarifying propositions, judging whether arguments are valid, strong, fallacious, or weak, and presenting one's own arguments in a logical way.
This course provides an overview of the develpment of ancient and medieval philosophy on central topics such as wisdom and the good life. The course focuses on the philosophers who influenced or challenged the philosophy of Aristotle and of Aquinas. Philosophers studied might include Epicurus, Cicero, Sextus, Empiricus, Poltinus, Augustine, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Anselm, Al-Ghazali, Scotus, Ockham, and Suarez.
How should humans live? We will consider this question by studying the main approaches to ethics such as those represented by Aristotle, Aquinas, Kant, Mill, and Nietzsche. We will apply these approaches to at least one contemporary ethical issue. Topics may include happiness, virtue, love, friendship, natural law, duty, utility, and sexuality. This course provides the conceptual background for further studies in bioethics, business ethics, law, politics, and related topics. Offered every semester.
How should humans live? We will consider this question by studying the main approaches to ethics such as those represented by Aristotle, Aquinas, Kant, Mill, and Nietzsche. And we wil apply these approaches to at least one contemporary ethical issue. Topics may include happiness, virtue, love, friendship, natural law, duty, utility, valuation, and sexuality. This course provides the conceptual background for further studies in contemporary ethical issues, business ethics, and related topics. Offered every year.
This course surveys modern and contemporary answers to central questions such as: Does knowledge start from reason or experience? Are there minds, matter, and God? What is being? What is a good human life? Do humans have a purpose? How does language shape thought? What makes possibilities possible? The emphasis of this course is on the contemporary consequences of these traditions, and on the possibility of finding a middle ground in these debates. Offered every Spring.
Emphasis on the meaning of truth and our attainment of it, the role of perception and belief, the cause of error, the nature of science and the diversity of human knowledge. Includes consideration of philosophers such as Aristotle, Kant, G.E. Moore, W.V. Quine, B. Russell, and H. Putnam. Offered every other year.
Philosophy 200 or 201 A study of theories about human knowledge and cognitive acts, both sensory and intellectual.
PH 305Phil of Science and Nature3
This course addresses philosophical questions at the foundation of the natural sciences such as, "What is nature?", "What is change?", and "What is science?" First, we will lead up to a discussion of evolution by studying actuality and potentiality, form and matter, substance and accident, cause and effect, time and motion, nature and chance, natural kinds and species. Then we will discuss the difference between science and non-science, the way scientific theories are confirmed, the role of trust in science, and the influence of science on society. This course provides the conceptual background for further philosophical studies of human nature, ethics, epistemology, and metaphysics. Offered every Spring.
This course examines the nature and origins of faith, current challenges to the rationality of faith (posed by alternatives such as materialism, evidentialism, scientism, fideism, and pluralism), and common arguments for and against religious belief, such as arguments for God’s existence, the problem of evil, arguments for and against believing in miracles, and arguments that religious belief and practice are either good or bad (moral or immoral, healthy or unhealthy, oppressive or liberating). Offered every Spring.
This is a course in epistemology, the study of what knowledge is, whether we have any, the different ways of knowing and different objects of knowledge, and the structure of the sciences. As a result, it also studies the nature of truth, cognition, belief, justification, induction, and certainty. Topics may include relativism, skepticism, disagreement, evidentialism, contextualism, virtue epistemology, and social epistemology. Offered every Spring.
This is a course in metaphysics, the study of the most fundamental principles of reality. What is being? What caused the universe? In order to explain existence, natures, change, universal truths, and evil, we will develop a deeper understanding of principles of nature such as actuality and potentiality, form and matter, substance and accident, cause and effect, essence and existence, necessity and contingency, mind and body. Offered every Fall.
In this course, we will watch and study a number of films with important philosophical content and themes, such how we come to know what is real, the afterlife, what makes for a happy and complete life, the existence of God and what difference He makes in our lives, ethics in the face of extreme hardship, and the existence of artificial and extraterrestrial life.
Our study of the relation between mind and body will lead naturally into a study of will and intellect, emotion, free choice, and human action. We will consider whether the mind depends on the body, and whether humans have an immortal soul. Other topics studied may include nature and convention, language and concepts, personality and community. This course provides the conceptual background for further philosophical studies of ethics, politics, aesthetics, and epistemology. Offered every Fall.
This course traces that development from ground-breaking thinkers such as Heraclitus and Parmenides to Socrates and the four main schools of ancient philosophy (Platonist, Aristotelian, Stoic, and Epicurean) and then the assessment of those schools by Cicero, Plotinus, and Sextus Empiricus. One theme of the course is the interconnection between metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics.
PH200 or HO202 The earliest philosophers sought happiness by seeking wisdom, and so inspired a philosophical tradition of investigating the nature of humanity, virtue, God, matter and form, and the natures themselves.
PH 340Catholic Social Teaching3
The course includes readings from scripture, papal encyclicals, episcopal statements and the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. The course explores the meaning of principles such as solidarity and social justice, as well as specific topics such as the family, the economy, wealth & poverty, law & government, international relations, and the environment.
TH 205 or equivalent An introduction to Catholic Social Teaching, which guides Christians in living the gospel faithfully amidst the larger society and contributing to its common good.
PH 345Medieval Philosphy3
This course traces that development in Christian thinkers (such as St. Augustine and St. Anselm), Islamic thinkers (such as Al-Farabi, Avicenna, and Al-Ghazali) and Jewish thinkers like Maimonides to the scholastic synthesis of Bonaventure, Aquinas, Scotus, and Ockham. One theme of the course is the interconnection between metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics.
PH200 or HO202 Medieval philosophers continued the classical tradition, but with radical new insights into faith, wisdom, God, and the heights to which human nature can aspire.
PH 350Philos of Art and Beauty3
This course in aesthetics is a study of beauty with a focus on the historical development of the fine arts. We will learn to articulate principles of beauty in critiquing art, architecture, music, literature, and liturgy.
This course will sharpen your reasoning skills, give you a more complete understanding of valid reasoning, and expose you to formal tools frequently used by philosophers in their work. It is a continuation of PH202, requiring no other prior knowledge of philosophy. We will study first-order predicate logic and set theory. Other topics may include soundness and completeness for propositional and first-order logics, modal logic, relations, identity, Gödel’s incompleteness theorems, translation from natural language, or other issues in philosophy of language, and application of some of these ideas to issues in metaphysics and natural theology. Offered upon sufficient demand.
This course will build on the theories of ethics introduced in PH 250 by applying those theories to difficult, real-life moral questions confronted routinely by individuals and societies, such as questions surrounding abortion, euthanasia, gender and sexuality, capital punishment, immigration, the minimum wage, universal healthcare, religious freedom, environmentalism, artificial intelligence, racism, war, and gun ownership. Such an examination will help broaden and deepen one’s understanding of the moral theories available to answer such questions. Along the way, we will study important principles such as the principle of double effect, which allow us to think more precisely about such questions. Offered upon sufficient demand.
PH 387Integralism vs Liberalism: Religion and Politics3
Then we will study arguments opposing liberalism, especially the Catholic integralist tradition, with an emphasis on understanding the nature of an integralist regime, the motivation for it (including the alleged "failure of liberalism"), and ultimately, the moral justification and political prudence of it (or lack thereof). We will read both classical and contemporary texts in the tradition.
PH200 In this course, we will review some of the key arguments in support of liberalism's approach to religious toleration and the separation of church and state.
PH 401Classical Polical Philosophy3
Examination of major themes of classical political philosophy through intensive reading of Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Politics. Offered every other year. Cf. PO 401.
Natural theology is the study of God’s existence, nature, attributes, and actions from the perspective of reason. Topics may include arguments for the existence of God, divine simplicity, perfection, eternity, omniscience, will, providence, omnipotence, emanation, and conservation. The course might also include a consideration of theistic personalist and open theology alternatives to classical theism. Offered every Spring.
How do you know who your parents are? How do you know whether someone forgives you? How do you know about geography, history, and quantum physics? You know about these things by trusting other people. In this course, we will see how philosophers explain such knowledge, starting with Plato, and ending with several contemporary thinkers. We will see why ancient philosophers said that you cannot have knowledge by trust, and why Christian philosophers such as Augustine and Aquinas said that you can. Finally, we will consider recent attempts to explain such knowledge by a listener’s careful inference, or by default acceptance, or by sensing a speaker’s trustworthiness. (Each class we will discuss what a text says, and whether what it says is true. You will be evaluated by participation in discussions and by two essays.)
We will revisit key philosophical concepts (such as substance, happiness, God, human nature, persons and justice) and consider the theological development of those concepts (as in the doctrines of transubstantiation, the beatific vision, the Blessed Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Atonement). Our goal is to seek understanding of such concepts through typical philosophical methods of definition and argumentation.
Pre-requisite: Senior class standing Students will write a 4,000-word thesis in philosophy, and present it publicly upon completion. Students will also learn about the intellectual life, best practices in academic writing and presentations, and applying for graduate school. Offered every Fall.
Pre-requisite: Senior class standing Students will write a 4,000-word thesis in philosophy, and present it publicly upon completion. Students will also learn about the intellectual life, best practices in academic writing and presentations, and applying for graduate school. Offered every Fall.
Individual readings on a topic in philosophy selected in consultation with and studied under the guidance of a department faculty member. Offered as needed.
Permission of the department chair Individual readings and research in an area selected in conference with a departmental faculty member and studied under his/her guidance.
