141 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 0824Landscape of American Thought3
America once was envisioned by its colonizers as a new world, as a city upon a hill beckoning to humanity. After centuries of conquest, enslavement, immigration, and political struggle, conditions for sustaining this early vision continue to evolve. Explore the emergence of some of the most distinctive and influential American voices to inform our national debate about freedom, the individual, race, democracy, and oppression, as it has unfolded over the past two centuries. Through consideration of selected works of some of the most renowned figures to shape the landscape of American public discourse, we return to face the question of the promise of America, as it plays out today in the thought of some of the leading public intellectuals of our time. NOTE: This course fulfills the U.S. Society (GU) requirement for students under GenEd and American Culture (AC) for students under Core. Students cannot receive credit for this course if they have successfully completed Philosophy 0924.
What is it to be human? To have human experiences and values? What is it like to walk in the shoes of others who may not share our experiences and values? In what ways, if any, do we treat others unequally in the social and political spheres, and are these unequal treatments justified? This course examines a range of answers to these questions and more. Potential topics include, but are not limited to: different historical and cultural perspectives on being human; issues related to the human self, justice, morality, and the socio-cultural; and the relationships between the human condition and broader facets of contemporary life. Traditional historical and contemporary philosophical works, as well as influential literary, empirical, and cinematic pieces, will be used to explore, analyze, and propose answers to what it is to be human. Philosophy of the Human is a 3 credit hour Human Behavior General Education course. NOTE: This course fulfills the Human Behavior (GB) requirement for students under GenEd and Individual & Society (IN) for students under Core. Students cannot receive credit for this course if they have successfully completed PHIL 0939.
As we blend philosophical inquiry into the nature of several of the arts and the roles they play in society with analyses of particular artistic practices, we shall critically examine questions like these: Is the main goal of art to imitate or represent the world? If so, do painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, movies, music, dance, theater, performance art, literature, handicrafts, fashion, bodily ornamentation and the like, provide knowledge about ourselves and the world around us? What is - or should be - the relationship between art and some of the other great domains of human thought, action, and concerns such as religion or the realm of social and political relations, especially matters concerning gender, sexuality, class, race, morality, and community? Do the arts or artistic institutions have specific social functions? For example, is there a connection between museums, imperialism, and nationalism? Are films embedded in networks of commodity production? Are there specifically urban or global dimension to these questions? NOTE: This course fulfills the Arts (GA) requirement for students under GenEd and Arts (AR) for students under Core. Students cannot receive credit for this course if they have successfully completed Philosophy 0947.
The impacts of climate change fall disproportionately on frontline communities, including the Global South, communities of color, the poor, women, and the young, including college students. How should the impacts and burdens of climate change be distributed? How do environmental loss, damage, and danger transform issues of diversity and oppression in the 21st century? What kind of response to climate change would be fair? How much must each of us change in order to make a fair response possible? This course offers an accessible, in depth introduction to ethical problems about climate justice, with attention to environmental racism, indigenous rights, gender, age, and other aspects of diversity, and to the role of individuals and institutions in climate change. Students cannot receive credit for this course if they have successfully completed PHIL 0977.
PHIL 0878Asians, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders in the United States: Race, Diversity, and Identity3
Who are Asians, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) in the American context? How have AAPIs shaped the making of state and society in the United States in terms of culture, law, economics, and politics? What major crises and historical events have generated racism and racialized stereotyping against AAPI communities? How have AAPI minorities mobilized against exclusion, racism, and marginalization to advance new interests and goals, especially when juxtaposed with other minority groups and social forces? What is the future of AAPIs in America? This course introduces students to the tapestry of AAPI experiences in America. It recovers their importance through lectures and discussions, based upon careful analysis of written texts and creative materials. (This course is equivalent to POLS 0878 and POLS 0978.)
What is it to be human? To have human experiences and values? What is it like to walk in the shoes of others who may not share our experiences and values? In what ways, if any, do we treat others unequally in the social and political spheres, and are these unequal treatments justified? This course examines a range of answers to these questions and more. Potential topics include, but are not limited to: different historical and cultural perspectives on being human; issues related to the human self, justice, morality, and the socio-cultural; and the relationships between the human condition and broader facets of contemporary life. Traditional historical and contemporary philosophical works, as well as influential literary, empirical, and cinematic pieces, will be used to explore, analyze, and propose answers to what it is to be human. Philosophy of the Human is a 3 credit hour Human Behavior General Education course. NOTE: This course fulfills the Human Behavior (GB) requirement for students under GenEd and Individual & Society (IN) for students under Core. Students cannot receive credit for this course if they have successfully completed PHIL 0839.
As we blend philosophical inquiry into the nature of several of the arts and the roles they play in society with analyses of particular artistic practices, we shall critically examine questions like these: Is the main goal of art to imitate or represent the world? If so, do painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, movies, music, dance, theater, performance art, literature, handicrafts, fashion, bodily ornamentation and the like, provide knowledge about ourselves and the world around us? What is - or should be - the relationship between art and some of the other great domains of human thought, action, and concerns such as religion or the realm of social and political relations, especially matters concerning gender, sexuality, class, race, morality, and community? Do the arts or artistic institutions have specific social functions? For example, is there a connection between museums, imperialism, and nationalism? Are films embedded in networks of commodity production? Are there specifically urban or global dimension to these questions? (This is an Honors course.) NOTE: This course fulfills the Arts (GA) requirement for students under GenEd and Arts (AR) for students under Core. Students cannot receive credit for this course if they have successfully completed Philosophy 0847.
PHIL 0977Honors Climate Change and Climate Justice3
The impacts of climate change fall disproportionately on frontline communities, including the Global South, communities of color, the poor, women, and the young, including college students. How should the impacts and burdens of climate change be distributed? How do environmental loss, damage, and danger transform issues of diversity and oppression in the 21st century? What kind of response to climate change would be fair? How much must each of us change in order to make a fair response possible? This course offers an accessible, in depth introduction to ethical problems about climate justice, with attention to environmental racism, indigenous rights, gender, age, and other aspects of diversity, and to the role of individuals and institutions in climate change. Students cannot receive credit for this course if they have successfully completed PHIL 0877.
PHIL 1001Philosophical Challenges to the Individual3
This course combines historical and contemporary sources to study individuals and their social settings. Thus it introduces the basic issues of ethics, and social and political philosophy. It serves as the entry course not only for further study of these fields, but also for the study of business and professional ethics and philosophy of law. NOTE: (1) Philosophy majors or minors who have taken 1101 (0100), Introduction to Philosophy, should not take this course. (2) This course can be used to satisfy the university Core Individual & Society (IN) requirement. Although it may be usable towards graduation as a major requirement or university elective, it cannot be used to satisfy any of the university GenEd requirements. See your advisor for further information.
A course in reasoning well: logically and critically. Increase your ability to read something and decide if it should persuade or be rejected. How to back up what you say with evidence and/or good arguments. While the course is not a "prep" for the LSAT's, and other exams that test critical abilities, it focuses directly on the skills necessary to do well in them. NOTE: Philosophy majors or minors who have taken 1066 (C066), Introduction to Logic should not take this course.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
Besides treating the major issues internal to the arts and their criticism (e.g., definitions of art and aesthetic experience, artistic expression, form, representation, critical interpretation and evaluation), the course also deals with wider questions of the social function and value of the arts, several of which relate to current issues of gender, race, and ethnicity. NOTE: This course can be used to satisfy the university Core Arts (AR) requirement. Although it may be usable towards graduation as a major requirement or university elective, it cannot be used to satisfy any of the university GenEd requirements. See your advisor for further information.
Recommended for pre-law and pre-social administration students. The course provides a basic grounding in moral and legal philosophy, and addresses issues on which both touch, such as capital punishment, affirmative action, sexual behavior, and the right to welfare. NOTE: This course can be used to satisfy the university Core Individual & Society (IN) requirement. Although it may be usable towards graduation as a major requirement or university elective, it cannot be used to satisfy any of the university GenEd requirements. See your advisor for further information.
The major figures and central problems of American philosophy will be surveyed historically, with a view to examining what is distinctive in American thought and how American philosophy relates to its natural cultural context. NOTE: This course can be used to satisfy the university Core American Culture (AC) requirement. Although it may be usable towards graduation as a major requirement or university elective, it cannot be used to satisfy any of the university GenEd requirements. See your advisor for further information.
The meaning of such logical notions as the validity of arguments, the equivalence of statements, and the inconsistency of sets of statements. Symbolization of the logically relevant features of statements and testing of arguments for validity, sets for inconsistency, etc. Development of logical theory in connection with these notions and techniques. NOTE: (1) Students who have taken Philosophy 1055 (0055), Critical Thinking, should consult with an advisor before taking this course. (2) This course can be used to satisfy the university Core Quantitative Reasoning B (QB) requirement. Although it may be usable towards graduation as a major requirement or university elective, it cannot be used to satisfy any of the university GenEd requirements. See your advisor for further information.
Systematic and comparative study of representative philosophies of India, China, Japan, and Western Europe. NOTE: This course can be used to satisfy the university Core International Studies (IS) requirement. Although it may be usable towards graduation as a major requirement or university elective, it cannot be used to satisfy any of the university GenEd requirements. See your advisor for further information. In addition to meeting the university Core International Studies requirement, this course meets the Non-Western/Third World IS requirement for Communication Sciences majors.
A study of scientific method by critical examination of cases of scientific work in their social, political, and psychological context. Attention to the values and ethical concerns in scientific inquiry. NOTE: This course can be used to satisfy the university Core Science & Technology Second Level (SB) requirement.
Philosophical problems in the works of great thinkers from ancient times to present. Selected questions concern the nature of reality, human freedom, the foundations of knowledge, standards of value, and the existence of God. NOTE: Students who have taken 1001 (C050), Challenges to the Individual should consult with an advisor before taking this course.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
This course is an introduction to philosophy that focuses on the reading, thinking, and writing skills needed for the study of philosophy. The course concentrates on close readings of a few texts rather than a broad survey of the philosophical tradition. NOTE: This course fulfills one of the two writing requirements for the major.
Besides treating the major issues internal to the arts and their criticism (e.g., definitions of art and aesthetic experience, artistic expression, form, representation, critical interpretation and evaluation), the course also deals with wider questions of the social function and value of the arts, several of which relate to current issues of gender, race, and ethnicity.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
Honors version of 1062 (C062). NOTE: This course can be used to satisfy the university Core Individual & Society (IN) requirement. Although it may be usable towards graduation as a major requirement or university elective, it cannot be used to satisfy any of the university GenEd requirements. See your advisor for further information.
Honors version of 1066 (C066). NOTE: This course can be used to satisfy the university Core Quantitative Reasoning B (QB) requirement. Although it may be usable towards graduation as a major requirement or university elective, it cannot be used to satisfy any of the university GenEd requirements. See your advisor for further information.
A study of scientific method by critical examination of cases of scientific work in their social, political, and psychological context. Attention to the values and ethical concerns in scientific inquiry. NOTE: This course can be used to satisfy the university Core Science & Technology Second Level (SB) requirement.
An introduction to major schools of ethical theory such as utilitarian ethics, deontological ethics, virtue ethics, and the ethics of care. Specific problems from metaethics and applied ethics may also be treated.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
PHIL 2125Philosophy of African-American Experiences3
An introduction to African-American philosophy and the issues around which it has developed: the meaning of racial identity, concepts of personhood, the nature of racial oppression and its relation to gender and class oppression, strategies for black liberation. We will pay close attention to the ways in which African American philosophy is simultaneously a development of and a radical critique of Anglo-European philosophy. NOTE: This course can be used to satisfy the university Core Studies in Race (RS) requirement. Although it may be usable towards graduation as a major requirement or university elective, it cannot be used to satisfy any of the university GenEd requirements. See your advisor for further information.
An overview of recent and current thinking about philosophically relevant problems of and in the present-day world. Normally a few key texts will be focused upon, drawn from writing of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Environment, racial tension, globalization, economy, the nature of power, generational conflict, and the persistence of war are some typical topics.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
This course addresses major issues internal to the arts and their criticism such as definitions of art and aesthetic experience, artistic expression, form, representation, critical interpretation and evaluation. The course may also address more specific issues such as the relationship of art and race, art and freedom of expression, art and morality. NOTE: Students who have taken PHIL 2931 will not earn additional credits for this course.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
This course explores a range of philosophical questions about biology, such as: What is the nature of biological explanation? Are there laws of biology? Is the current debate about creationism and intelligent design a scientific debate? Is there a unique taxonomy of biological organisms? Has human nature evolved? What is genetic determinism and is there any evidence for it? This course is geared toward scientifically-minded philosophers, philosophically-minded scientists, and everyone in between. Duplicate credit warning: Students who have taken PHIL 2941 will not receive credit for taking PHIL 2141.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
This class is concerned with the study of knowledge, otherwise known as epistemology. What is knowledge? How do we come to know things? Do we really know anything? What are the limits of human knowledge? In this course we will explore these questions. More specifically, we will examine the traditional theory of knowledge, influential counterexamples to the traditional theory of knowledge, evidentialist theories of justification, nonevidentialist theories of justification, skepticism about our knowledge of the world, and how certain social factors play a role in the acquisition of knowledge.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
An introductory overview of the most important issues in contemporary philosophy of mind and cognitive studies. Especially aimed at students of Psychology.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
This course covers major themes in feminist philosophy through canonical and recent texts. Themes include the sex/gender distinction; oppression, equality and justice; work and family; feminist care ethics; pornography and prostitution; sex-positivity and sex-negativity; feminist epistemology and feminist critiques of science. Throughout the course, discussions will consider the intersection of gender with race, class, disability, global location, sexuality, and age.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
An examination of such issues as the source of obligation to obey the state, natural rights, the limits of governmental authority, and the justification of various forms of government. Readings drawn from classical and contemporary sources.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
A study of the ethical dimensions of several contemporary environmental controversies. The course examines the major theoretical approaches to environmental ethics, including human-centered (anthropocentric), animal-centered (zoocentric), and nature-centered (biocentric and ecocentric) value systems, as well as the most important critiques of these ethical approaches. The course will also address specific issues such as biodiversity and wilderness preservation; human use of animals as food, entertainment, and research subjects; environmental racism and toxic dumping; sustainable development, population and consumption. NOTE: Students will receive credit only one time for any of the following course numbers: ENST 2157, ENST 2957, PHIL 2157, or PHIL 2957.
A historical and critical study of the thought of selected philosophers from Descartes to Hume emphasizing their treatment of such topics as perception, the mind/body relationship, the structure of knowledge, and personal identity.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
This course focuses on basic evaluative and normative concepts such as good and bad, right and wrong, which are central to domains such as ethics, aesthetics, economics, and political philosophy. From semester to semester the course will select one or more of these concepts and explore them in depth. Note: This course was previously offered as PHIL 3225; students who received credit for that course number will not earn additional credits.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
This course addresses major issues internal to the arts and their criticism such as definitions of art and aesthetic experience, artistic expression, form, representation, critical interpretation and evaluation. The course may also address more specific issues such as the relationship of art and race, art and freedom of expression, art and morality. NOTE: Students who have taken PHIL 2131 will not earn additional credits for this course.
This course explores a range of philosophical questions about biology, such as: What is the nature of biological explanation? Are there laws of biology? Is the current debate about creationism and intelligent design a scientific debate? Is there a unique taxonomy of biological organisms? Has human nature evolved? What is genetic determinism and is there any evidence for it? This course is geared toward scientifically-minded philosophers, philosophically minded scientists, and everyone in between. Duplicate credit warning: Students who have taken PHIL 2141 will not receive credit for taking PHIL 2941.
A study of the ethical dimensions of several contemporary environmental controversies. The course examines the major theoretical approaches to environmental ethics, including human-centered (anthropocentric), animal-centered (zoocentric), and nature-centered (biocentric and ecocentric) value systems, as well as the most important critiques of these ethical approaches. The course will also address specific issues such as biodiversity and wilderness preservation; human use of animals as food, entertainment, and research subjects; environmental racism and toxic dumping; sustainable development, population and consumption.
Issues in philosophy of religion, including the nature of religion, the relation between reason and faith, concepts of God and proofs of the existence of God, religious and mystical experience, the nature of religious language, the problem of evil, the relation of religion to morality, concepts of death and immortality, conflicting truth-claims of different religions, and interreligious dialogue. NOTE: This course is equivalent to REL 3002; students can receive credits only one time for either course.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
The course deals with issues related to lawyers and the practice of law such as professional ethics, legal reasoning and the nature of legal education. NOTE: Requires permission of instructor to register. Students must consult with the instructor in the Fall to arrange an internship placement.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
Wars cause tremendous and unconscionable damage, yet according to just war theory, they can be justified, either as a form of self-defense (and the defense of others), or as a means of securing the conditions for a future peace. In this course, we will undertake a critical examination of just war theory and consider some of the moral complexities surrounding the issues of war and peace. Related issues may be discussed, such as the moral status of terrorism, torture, drone combat, and nonviolent resistance.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
The meaning of life and death, freedom and anxiety, joy and suffering, faith and despair -- these and other dimensions of the human condition will be explored. The course covers existential philosophers such as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Camus, and Sartre, though it may also focus on existentialism in film, existentialism in theater and literature, or non-Western philosophies of existence.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
An introduction to the meta theory of the elementary logic of predicates and quantifiers (familiarity with which is presupposed). Proofs that a standard derivation system is sound and complete are central.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.Pre-requisites: Minimum grade of C- in (PHIL 1066 or PHIL 1966)
Basic issues in the current philosophy of science, and particularly various accounts of such key notions of science as hypotheses, confirmation, laws, causation, explanation, and theories.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
Philosophy of Medicine is a new and growing field in philosophy of science and the medical humanities, which looks at the specific characteristics of theories in medicine and ways of knowing in medicine. It asks questions such as: What is the meaning of illness and of health? Are some diseases (e.g. end stage renal disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, ADHD) partly or wholly socially constructed? What are the differences between conventional and alternative or non-Western approaches to illness and healing? What is "evidence based medicine," and what are its limitations? What is the new technique of "narrative medicine?" What is meant by claiming that medicine is an "art" as well as a science? We will learn about the "biopsychosocial" model of clinical care, causation and genetic disease, the classification of diseases and phenomenological accounts of illness.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
Issues in ethical theory that have come to prominence since the 20th century. Both meta-ethical issues (about the meaning and justification of ethical statements) and normative issues (about obligation, responsibility, and goodness) will be examined.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
This course focuses on basic concepts in ethics. For example, good and bad, right and wrong are among the most basic ethical concepts. Other basic ethical concepts include: freedom, justice, morality, practical reason, happiness, obligation, duty, rights, value, conscience, care, trust, and friendship. From semester to semester the course will select one or more of these concepts and examine them in depth. The standard method of examination in philosophy is conceptual analysis, that is, the analysis of concepts. But depending on the concepts chosen, the examination will be informed or supplemented by the study of language, psychology, or history.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
A study of the major works in the history of moral philosophy selected from among the writings of such philosophers as Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Spinoza, Hume, Kant, Mill, Nietzsche, Moore.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
The modern concept of 'race' has been highly influential ever since it appeared as an allegedly scientific foundation for the hierarchical categorization of human populations. Despite the refutation of the idea of race as a biological basis for human differentiation, the idea of 'race' continues to exert influence over our social world under a different (non-biological) guise. In this class, we will discuss the evolution and contemporary impact of the modern concept of race. In doing so, we will engage and reflect upon contemporary debates in the philosophy of race. This course will examine central debates in the philosophy of race: 1) what is race?, 2) what is racial identity?, and 3) what is racism? And, we will discuss three contemporary social problems affecting racialized communities: mass incarceration, racial inequality, and the humanitarian crisis in the U.S. southern border.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
This course explores the ethical, social, political, and legal implications of new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), large language models (LLMs), and robotics. The course will cover general topics such as algorithmic bias, superintelligence, and ethics for robots, as well as specific ethical issues that arise from the use of AI in contexts such as transportation, healthcare, warfare, and law enforcement. In addition, students will study the societal impacts of these new technologies on employment, political discourse, artistic creation, and scientific research.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
This course surveys central ideas and debates in the Latin American and Latinx philosophical traditions. We will pay special attention to the impact of European colonialism in the production and reception of philosophical ideas in Latin America and Latinx communities in the US. This survey ranges from pre-colonial indigenous philosophy to the present. We will discuss classical and contemporary Andean and Mesoamerican indigenous philosophies and why they are often not treated on par with Western forms of knowledge. We will also cover philosophical debates in colonial and post-colonial Latin America. We will examine how the colonial experience shaped Latin American philosophers' ideas around race, gender, nationhood, education, progress, and authenticity. We will also reflect on aspects of the lived experience of Latinxs in the United States, such as immigration and the controversies around Latinx identity. NOTE: Students may receive credit for only one of the following: PHIL 3229 or LAS 3229.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
A study of major works in the history of aesthetics selected from such philosophers as Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Kant, Schopenhauer, Hegel, Dewey, Bell, Collingwood, Beardsley, Langer, Dickie, Danto, and contemporary figures.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
An introduction to philosophical problems arising in the examination of legal systems, including questions and theories about the nature of law itself, about legal responsibility and legal punishment, and about standards of fairness in settling legal disputes.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
Formerly known as Philosophy of Psychology; students may not receive additional credits under the new title. Throughout its history, philosophy has taken an interest in psychology. In the theory of knowledge, philosophers have been concerned with cognition and its particular forms and components: perception, belief, concepts, and reasoning. In ethics, philosophers have been concerned with action and emotion. And in metaphysics, they have been interested in the nature of the mind itself and consciousness. Central to this course are topics and questions at the intersection of philosophy and contemporary empirical psychology. The choice of topics varies from semester to semester.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
Exploration of ethical issues generated by the application of scientific and technological advances to the preservation, destruction, and programming of human life. Topics may include: ethics of medical research, abortion, euthanasia, behavior control, allocation of scarce medical resources, and the ethics of patient-physician interaction. NOTE: Students who have taken PHIL 3949 will not earn additional credits for this course.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
This course takes a philosophical approach to the historical development of economic thought. It starts with the major thinkers of classical economic thought: Smith, Ricardo, Malthus, and Mill and Marx. It then deals with the marginalist revolution of the late 19th century and the rise of neoclassical model in economics thought (Jevons and Marshall). From there it considers a range of more "philosophical" 20th century economists like Keynes, Friedman, and Sen as well as less orthodox figures like Thorstein Veblen, Karl Polanyi, Joan Robinson, Friedrich Hayek, and Joseph Schumpeter. Throughout, the emphasis will be on contextualizing these economic theorists within the larger development of political, social, legal, and moral philosophy.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
Independent study for undergraduates with one of the professors in the department. NOTE: Arrangements with that professor must be made before signing up for the course.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may be repeated for additional credit.
This course is an exploration of ethical issues generated by the application of scientific and technological advances to the preservation, destruction, and programming of human life. Topics may include: ethics of medical research, abortion, euthanasia, behavior control, allocation of scarce medical resources, and the ethics of patient-physician interaction. NOTE: Students who have taken PHIL 3249 will not earn additional credits for this course.
This course studies the major value questions that are addressed in contemporary theories of the nature of society and the state, including the requirements of justice in the distribution of benefits and burdens within a political society, and the justification of democracy as not only processes of majority rule but as involving participation and deliberation among citizens. The recognition of cultural identities and the role of gender and race are considered, and proposed norms of inclusiveness and diversity are analyzed. The course goes on to take up the challenge posed for philosophical theory by globalization in its economic and ecological impacts, and analyzes the norms of human rights and solidarity across borders that may be relevant in this new context. An emphasis will be placed on alternative philosophical frameworks within contemporary social and political philosophy, such as contractarianism, consequentialism, and care ethics. Readings will include such philosophers as John Rawls, Jurgen Habermas, Thomas Pogge, Iris Marion Young, and Nancy Fraser.
Selected philosophical themes as they appear in classical and modern literature. Frequently the themes concern the "enlightenment project," "modernism," and their critics.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
An examination of the philosophical issues concerning the nature and importance of the arts and artistic practice, including questions about the nature of aesthetic experience, the definition of art, representation and expression in art, the ontological status of artworks, truth and reference in art, and the values of art.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
An examination of knowledge and belief. The specific subtopics involving them include truth, perception, innate ideas, justification, induction, the a priori, mathematical knowledge and rationalism versus empiricism.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
An examination of the most general features of the universe. Topics include the character of truth, the existence of abstract entities, the nature of persons, free will, the existence or non-existence of God, ontological commitment, the relation of philosophy to science, causation, modal properties, reality and appearance, and various forms of realism and anti-realism.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
An examination of the character of mental and psychological states. Specific issues may include the nature of persons, relations between natural and psychological sciences, action, mental content and its relation to language.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
The study of theories of meaning and meaningfulness. Selected topics may include reference, vagueness, speech act theory, and metaphor. NOTE: Students who have taken PHIL 4951 will not earn additional credit for this course.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
Phenomenology and existentialism, with emphasis on such 20th century philosophers as Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Foucault, Derrida, and other post-structuralists.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
This course is devoted to selected topics in 17th and 18th century philosophers in the Rationalist tradition such as Descartes, Spinoza, Malebranche and Leibniz.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
Independent study for undergraduates with one of the professors in the department. NOTE: Arrangements with that professor must be made before signing up for the course.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
1
Credits (max)
6
Credit unit
Credit Hour
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may be repeated for additional credit.
This course will go through the soundness and completeness proofs for a first-order deductive system (i.e., the kind used in intro logic). The main goal of the course will be to deepen the students' understanding of logic by acquainting them with these formal results. But we'll also try to spend a little time on some philosophical issues (e.g., what, if anything, does logic have to do with reasoning).
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
Basic issues in the current philosophy of science, and particularly various accounts of such key notations of science as hypotheses, confirmation, laws, causation, explanation, and theories.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
PHIL 5217Feminist Epistemology and the Philosophy of Science3
This course explores the effects of gender on scientific creativity, method and decision making. Thomas Kuhn, in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), was one of the first to show that political, social and psychological factors affect scientific change. Feminist criticisms of science, developed over the last thirty years, are one way in which his views have been developed. We will examine cases from a wide range of sciences to see where, and how, gender influences scientific practice. The complex relations between gender, race, class and nationality will also be discussed in relation to these issues. Central questions of the course will be: How pervasive is gender bias in science? Can gender bias be eliminated, and is it desirable to do so? Does the reduction of gender bias require an increased representation of women in science? Can the popular view that science is objective, truth-seeking and progressive be maintained in the face of findings of gender bias? We will read from the work of Evelyn Fox Keller, Donna Haraway, Sandra Harding, Helen Longino, Alison Wylie and others.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
Issues in ethical theory that have come to prominence in the 20th century. Both meta-ethical issues (about the meaning and justification of ethical statements) and normative issues (about obligation, responsibility, and goodness) will be examined.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
PHIL 5223Feminist Ethics and Political Philosophy3
An examination of feminism's contribution to ethics, political philosophy, and legal theory. Issues may include: the role of care versus that of justice in determining moral obligations; the nature and causes of women's oppression (including the difference between the sexual oppression experienced by white women and the additional forms of oppression to which women of color/third-world women are subject); pornography and prostitution; equality and difference; essentialism as it pertains to gender and race; feminist jurisprudence; postmodern feminism.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
The course examines the foundations of ethical value, including the metaphysics of ethical value, the semantics of ethical language, normativity, and the relation between kinds of value such as instrumental, final, intrinsic, and extrinsic as well as personal, ethical, moral, and prudential.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
Selected philosophical themes as they appear in classical and modern literature. Frequently the themes concern the "enlightenment project," "modernism," and their critics.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
A study of major works in the history of aesthetics selected from such philosophers as Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Kant, Schopenhauer, Hegel, Dewey, Bell, Collingwood, Beardsley, Langer, Dickie, Danto, and contemporary figures.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
A study of the major works in the history of moral philosophy selected from among the writings of such philosophers as Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Spinoza, Hume, Kant, Mill, Nietzsche, Moore.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
An examination of knowledge and belief. The specific subtopics involving them include truth, perception, innate ideas, justification, induction, the priori, mathematical knowledge and rationalism versus empiricism.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
An examination of the most general features of the universe. Topics include the character of truth, the existence of abstract entities, the nature of persons, free will, the existence or non-existence of God, ontological commitment, the relation of philosophy to science, causation, modal properties, reality and appearance, and various forms of realism and anti-realism.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
An introduction to philosophical problems arising in the examination of legal statements, including questions and theories about the nature of law itself, about legal responsibility and legal punishment, and about standards of fairness in settling legal disputes.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
An examination of the character of mental and psychological states. Specific issues may include the nature of persons, relations between natural and psychological sciences, action, mental content, and its relation to language.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
Exploration of ethical issues generated by the application of scientific and technological advances to the preservation, destruction, and programming of human life. Topics may include: ethics of medical research, abortion, euthanasia, behavior control, allocation of scarce medical resources, and the ethics of patient-physician interaction.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
The course examines select topics in the philosophy of psychology such as philosophical treatments of the nature of cognition, perception, and sensation, as well as emotion, intention, action, and moral psychology.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may be repeated for additional credit.
This course focuses on philosophical topics concerning the nature of language. Broadly, these topics include semantics (theory of linguistic meaning), syntax (theory of linguistic structure), and pragmatics (theory of linguistic use). The precise content varies according to the instructor.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may be repeated for a total of 6 credit.
Problems of historical knowledge, e.g., problems about the historian's claim to explain historical events (causation in history, reasons for actions, challenges to the objectivity of history) and problems about historical interpretation (including global interpretations of the historical process, such as Augustine's, Kant's, and Hegel's.)
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
The purpose of this course is to address central themes in philosophy of culture, such as philosophical problems raised by the notion of cultural conditions of possibility, the relation of mythic knowledge to scientific and philosophical knowledge, the role of signs and symbols in theories of culture, the philosophical significance of psychoanalysis, and the distinction between a philosophical anthropology and anthropological theory. This course will be topical in nature, which means that it can be taken each year as different dimensions of the subject receive focus.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
Phenomenology and existentialism, with emphasis on such 20th century philosophers as Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Foucault, Derrida, and other post-structuralists.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
This course will examine Greek philosophical conceptions of pleasure and hedonism. We will begin with some Presocratic material, then move to Plato (selections from Gorgias, Protagoras, Republic). We will examine Plato's Philebus in its entirety. Thereafter, we will look at Aristotle's treatments in Nicomachean Ethics VII and X, including Eudoxus' arguments, as well as Rhetoric I. Finally, we will consider the hedonism of the Cyrenaics and Epicureans.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
The general plan of the seminar is to explore the master thinkers of continental aesthetics from an analytic vantage and against the dominant themes of Anglo-American aesthetics. I anticipate drawing on a good selection of continental authors and a specimen or two of a more sustained treatment. This would involve, for instance, a selection among the classic figures spanning Kant and Hegel, phenomenology, hermeneutics, structuralism, post-structuralism, and the Frankfurt-critical school at least. Proposals of topics or figures are welcome.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
PHIL 8721Seminar in Social and Political Philosophy3
This seminar will examine three core approaches in contemporary political philosophy--Rawlsian contractarianism, Habermassian critical social theory, and feminist political theory--and will critically analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each through a study of their main exponents. Since recent controversies in social and political philosophy have tended to focus on global issues, some attention will be given to how these three approaches address questions of global justice, political ecology, and cooperation and solidarity across borders. The seminar will proceed through a close study of key texts from each approach and will involve oral presentations by participants and an original research paper. Readings will include John Rawls, Thomas Pogge, Jurgen Habermas, Iris Marion Young, Alison Jaggar, and Nancy Fraser.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may be repeated for a total of 6 credit.
Examination of current views of such topics as materialistic accounts of mind, intentionality, the analysis of specific mental phenomena (e.g., belief, consciousness, emotion, desire), ascription of mental attributes to machines.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
For the most part, we will closely study disputes surrounding foundationalism. Originally a theory about justified belief, foundationalism has become a watchword in wider cultural wars. Because its wider use is not wholly unrelated to its original use in the theory of knowledge, it is certainly something on which we should try to achieve clarity. A recent anthology entitled Contemporary Debates in Epistemology, edited by Matthias Steup & Ernest Sosa contains essays, pro and con, on various aspects of this issue, written by a number of leading epistemologists, and with both defenses and critiques of each of the positions involved. The topics in the anthology cover, among other things, the nature of justification, a priori knowledge, perception, skepticism, the ethics of belief, truth, and context. The hope is that we can work through the 11 sections of this text to achieve a better grasp of the issues and their broader implications for our understanding.
Subject
PHIL
Credits (min)
3
Credits (max)
3
Credit unit
Credit Hours
Type
course
Repeatable
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
