College of Arts and Sciences
Departments
History, Philosophy, Political Science, and Religious Studies
Philosophy and Religious Studies
Philosophy Courses
General introductory courses include:
- PHIL-P 100
- PHIL-P 135
- PHIL-P 221
Courses in logic include:
- PHIL-P 150
- PHIL-P 250
History of philosophy courses include:
- PHIL-P 201
- PHIL-P 211
- PHIL-P 301
- PHIL-P 304
- PHIL-P 316
Courses in ethics include:
- PHIL-P 140
- PHIL-P 306
- PHIL-P 342
- PHIL-P 393
Special philosophy courses include:
- PHIL-P 246
- PHIL-P 335
- PHIL-P 346
- PHIL-P 360
- PHIL-P 371
- PHIL-P 383
- PHIL-P 490
PHIL-P 310 is classified as an epistemology and metaphysics course
PHIL-P 343 is classified as a social and political philosophy course
- PHIL-P 100 Introduction to Philosophy (3 cr.) Perennial problems of philosophy, including problems in ethics, in epistemology and metaphysics, and in philosophy of religion. (Fall, Spring, Summer I and II)
- PHIL-P 135 Introduction to Phenomenology and Existentialism (3 cr.) Existentialism as a philosophical movement founded on phenomenology. Philosophical themes and their development, applications, or exemplifications in existentialist literature. Course presupposes no particular knowledge of philosophy. Readings from some or all of the following: Buber, Camus, Heidegger, Husserl, Jaspers, Kierkegaard, Marcel, Nietzsche, Sartre. (Occasionally)
- PHIL-P 140 Introduction to Ethics (3 cr.) Some ancient, medieval, or modern philosophers' answers to ethical problems (e.g., nature of good and evil, relation of duty to self-interest, objectivity of moral judgments). (Fall, Spring, Summer I and II)
- PHIL-P 150 Elementary Logic (3 cr.) Development of critical tools for the evaluation of arguments. Not a prerequisite for PHIL-P 250. (Fall, Spring, Summer I and II)
- PHIL-P 200 Problems in Philosophy (3 cr.) A study of special, experimental, or timely topics drawn from the full range of philosophical discussion and designed to engage interests unmet in the regular curriculum. May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6credit hours. (Occasionally)
- PHIL-P 201 Ancient Greek Philosophy (3 cr.) Selective survey of ancient Greek philosophy (Pre-Socratics, Plato, Aristotle). (Annually)
- PHIL-P 206 Philosophy of Religion (3 cr.) A survey of the main topics in the philosophy of religion, such as arguments for or against the existence of God, divine attributes, the problem of evil, miracles, immortality, and the connection between religion and morality. (Occasionally)
- PHIL-P 211 Modern Philosophy: Descartes through Kant (3 cr.) P: 3 credit hours of philosophy. Selective survey of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century philosophy, including some or all of Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant. (Occasionally)
- PHIL-P 246 Introduction to Philosophy and Art (3 cr.) Introduction to the philosophical study of art and the relationship between art and philosophy. Topics include the nature of a work of art, the role of emotions in art, the interpretation and appreciation of art, and the way philosophy is expressed in art. (Annually)
- PHIL-P 250 Introductory Symbolic Logic (3 cr.) Propositional logic and first-order quantificational logic. (Occasionally)
- PHIL-P 301 Medieval Philosophy (3 cr.) P: 3 credit hours of philosophy. A survey, including Augustine, Boethius, Anselm, Abelard, Bonaventure, Aquinas, Duns Scotus, Ockham, and Nicholas of Cusa. (Occasionally)
- PHIL-P 304 Nineteenth-Century Philosophy (3 cr.) P: 3 credit hours of philosophy. Selective survey of postKantian philosophy including Hegel, Marx, Kierkegaard, Mill. (Occasionally)
- PHIL-P 306 Business Ethics (3 cr.) A philosophical examination of ethical issues that arise in the context of business. Moral theory will be applied to such problems as the ethical evaluation of corporations, what constitutes fair profit, and truth in advertising. (Fall, Spring, Summer I and II)
- PHIL-P 310 Metaphysics (3 cr.) P: 3 credit hours of philosophy. Topics such as existence, individuation, contingency, universals and particulars, monism-pluralism, Platonism-nominalism, idealism-realism. (Occasionally)
- PHIL-P 316 Twentieth-Century Philosophy (3 cr.) A survey of representative philosophical approaches to problems of the present age, such as pragmatism, process and analytic philosophy, phenomenology, existentialism, neo-Marxism, and non-Western philosophy. (Occasionally)
- PHIL-P 335 Phenomenology and Existentialism (3 cr.) P: 3 credit hours of philosophy. Selected readings from Buber, Camus, Heidegger, Husserl, Jaspers, Kierkegaard, Marcel, Nietzsche, Sartre, and others. (Occasionally)
- PHIL-P 339 Contemporary Issues in Human Rights (3 cr.) This course examines human rights. Using the International Bill of Human Rights, concepts such as "dignity" and "respect" are applied directly to the local level. One objective is to link disagreement over rights and corresponding duties with differences in perception. Furthermore, accountability-securing measures are assessed in connection with failed state theory. (Occasionally)
- PHIL-P 342 Problems of Ethics (3 cr.) P: 3 credit hours of philosophy May concentrate on a single large problem, such as whether utilitarianism is an adequate ethical theory or several more or less independent problems, such as the nature of goodness and the objectivity of moral judgments. (Occasionally)
- PHIL-P 343 Classics in Social and Political Philosophy (3 cr.) P: 3 credit hours of philosophy Readings from Plato and Aristotle to Hobbes, Locke, Hegel, and Marx. Topics include the ideal state, the nature and proper ends of the state, natural law and natural rights, the social contract theory, and the notion of community. (Occasionally)
- PHIL-P 346 Philosophy and Art (3 cr.) P: 3 credit hours of philosophy Selected philosophical problems concerning art and art criticism. Topics such as the definition of art, expression, representation, style, form and content, and the aesthetic and the cognitive. (Occasionally)
- PHIL-P 360 Introduction to Philosophy of Mind (3 cr.) P: 3 credit hours of philosophy Selected topics from among the following: the nature of mental phenomena (e.g., thinking, volition, perception, emotion); and the mind-body problem (e.g., dualism, behaviorism, materialism). (Occasionally)
- PHIL-P 383 Topics in Philosophy (variable title) (3 cr.) An advanced study of special, experimental, or timely topics drawn from the full range of philosophical discussion and designed to engage interests unmet in the regular curriculum. (Occasionally)
- PHIL-P 393 Biomedical Ethics (3 cr.) A philosophical consideration of ethical problems that arise in current biomedical practice; for instance, abortion, euthanasia, determination of death, consent to treatment, and professional responsibilities in connection with research, experimentation, and health care delivery. (Fall, Spring, Summer I and II)
- PHIL-P 490 Readings in Philosophy (1-3 cr.) P: consent of instructor Intensive study of selected authors, topics, and problems. (Occasionally)
- PHIL-P 117 Atheism and the Question of God's Existence (3 cr.) Explores the central arguments, concepts, and responses surrounding atheism and agnosticism. Topics include an examination of the arguments supporting theism, deductive and inductive atheology, and the existence of evil, faith, miracles, and morality. (Annually)