Courses
Arts and Letters
Philosophy (PHIL)
- PHIL-P 100 Introduction to Philosophy (3 cr.) Perennial problems of philosophy, including problems in ethics, in epistemology and metaphysics, in philosophy of religion. Major emphases appear in the Schedule of Classes.
- PHIL-P 113 Introducation to Debate, Argument, and Persuasion (3 cr.) Introduction to Debate, Argument, and Persuasion will give students the opportunity to develop basic skills in oral argument and debate, as well as in logical and critical thinking. The course will emphasize daily exercises designed to promote the abilities of students in the areas of persuasive, informative, and critical speech. Further, students will learn how to frame arguments in both prepared and spontaneous formats, both individually and in groups.
- PHIL-P 140 Introduction to Ethics (3 cr.) The study of classical ethics texts by Aristotle, Kant, Mill, and many others. Examination of some contemporary moral issues.
- PHIL-P 145 Introduction to Social and Political Philosophy (3 cr.) Fundamental problems of social and political philosophy: the nature of the state, political obligation, freedom and liberty, equality, justice, rights, social change, revolution, and community. Readings from classical and contemporary sources.
- PHIL-P 150 Elementary Logic (3 cr.) Development of critical tools for the analysis and evaluation of arguments.
- PHIL-P 170 Intro to Asian Philosophy (3 cr.) Survey of select philosophical traditions of India, China, and Japan, including Vedanta, Mahayana Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. Topics include the nature of reality, ethical responsibility, and the role of the "self" in creating ignorance and attaining enlightenment.
- PHIL-P 200 Problems of Philosophy (3 cr.) P: ENG-W 131. Important problems at the center of rational reflection upon human experience, including issues in ethics, aesthetics, political philosophy, philosophy of religion, metaphysics, epistemology, and/or the history of philosophical thought. Emphasis upon interpretation, critical analysis, and evaluation of philosophical texts from contemporary and/or historical perspectives. Topics vary. Introductory level.
- PHIL-P 237 Environmental Ethics (3 cr.) P: ENG-W 131. An introductory consideration of philosophical views regarding the extent of human responsibility for the natural environment.
- PHIL-P 240 Business and Morality (3 cr.) P: ENG-W 131. Fundamental issues of moral philosophy in a business context. Application of moral theory to issues such as the ethics of investment, moral assessment of corporations, and duties of vocation.
- PHIL-P 251 Intermediate Symbolic Logic (3 cr.) P: ENG-W 131. Identity, definite descriptions, properties of formal theories, elementary set theory.
- PHIL-P 302 Medieval Philosophy (3 cr.) P: ENG-W131; 3 credit hours in philosophy. A survey including Augustine, Boethius, Anselm, Abelard, Bonaventure, Aquinas, Duns Scotus, Ockham, and Nicholas of Cusa.
- PHIL-P 304 Nineteenth-Century Philosophy (3 cr.) P: ENG-W 131; 3 credit hours in philosophy. Selected survey of post-Kantian philosophy, including Hegel, Marx, Kierkegaard, Mill.
- PHIL-P 306 Business Ethics (3 cr.) A philosophical examination of ethical issues which 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.
- PHIL-P 310 Topics in Metaphysics (3 cr.) P: ENG-W 131; 3 credit hours of philosophy. Topics such as existence, individuation, contingency, universals and particulars, causality, determinism, space, time, events and change, relation of mental and physical.
- PHIL-P 313 Theories of Knowledge (3 cr.) P: ENG-W 131; 3 credit hours in philosophy. Topics such as the nature of knowledge; the relation of knowledge and belief, of knowledge and evidence, of knowledge and certainty; and the problem of skepticism.
- PHIL-P 314 Modern Philosophy (3 cr.) P: ENG-W 131; 3 credit hours in philosophy. A study of Western philosophy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, dealing with such philosophers as Bacon, Descartes, Berkeley, Hume, Leibniz, and Kant.
- PHIL-P 316 Twentieth Century Philosophy (3 cr.) P: ENG-W 131; 3 credit hours in philosophy. Study of select problems in twentieth century philosophy.
- PHIL-P 319 American Pragmatism (3 cr.) P: ENG-W 131; 3 credits of philosophy. Examination of the central doctrines of Peirce, James, Dewey, Mead.
- PHIL-P 320 Philosophy and Language (3 cr.) P: ENG-W 131; 3 credit hours in philosophy. A study of selected philosophical problems concerning language and their bearing on traditional problems in philosophy.
- PHIL-P 330 Marxist Philosophy (3 cr.) P: ENG-W 131; 3 credit hours in philosophy. An examination of major philosophical issues in Marxist theory. Historical materialism and the critique of idealism in metaphysics, the theory of knowledge, ethics, and social science. Discussion of both classical and contemporary sources.
- PHIL-P 333 Philosophy Seminar (3 cr.) P: ENG-W 270 or ENG-W 290; 6 credit hours in philosophy. Careful collaborative study of selected texts from the history of philosophy in a seminar format. Course may be repeated for credit.
- PHIL-P 334 Buddhist Philosophy (3 cr.) P: ENG-W 131; 3 credit hours of philosophy. An examination of the basic philosophical concepts of early Buddhism and their subsequent development in India, Japan, and Tibet. Implications of the Buddhist view of reality for knowledge, the self, and ethical responsibility will be explored.
- PHIL-P 335 Phenomenology and Existentialism (3 cr.) P: ENG-W 131; 3 credit hours in philosophy. An overview of the main problems, themes, and foundational texts of Phenomenology and Existentialism, as well as intensive study of the writings of several of the most prominent thinkers in these movements. Selected readings from Buber, Camus, de Beauvoir, Heidegger, Husserl, Jaspers, Kierkegaard, Marcel, Merleau-Ponty, Nietzsche, Sartre, and others.
- PHIL-P 336 Analytic Philosophy (3 cr.) P: ENG-W 131; 3 credit hours in philosophy. Selected readings from Russell, Moore, Wittgenstein, Carnap, Ryle, and others. Topics include realism, logical atomism, logical positivism, and ordinary language philosophy.
- PHIL-P 338 Philosophy, Technology, and Human Values (3 cr.) P: ENG-W 131; 3 credit hours in philosophy. A philosophical study of the role of technology in modern society, including consideration of the relationships between technology and human values.
- PHIL-P 340 Classics in Ethics (3 cr.) P: ENG-W 131: 3 credit hours of philosophy. Readings from Plato and Aristotle to Kant, Mill, and Nietzsche. Topics include virtue and human nature, pleasure and the good, the role of reason in ethics, the objectivity of moral principles, and the relation of religion to ethics.
- PHIL-P 342 Problems of Ethics (3 cr.) P: ENG-W 131; 3 credit hours of philosophy. May concentrate on a single large issue (e.g., whether utilitarianism is an adequate ethical theory), or several more or less independent issues (e.g., the nature of goodness, the relation of good to ought, the objectivity of moral judgments, moral responsibility, moral emotions, concepts of virtue, cultural conflicts of value, the nature of moral discourse).
- PHIL-P 343 Classics in Social and Political Philosophy (3 cr.) P: ENG-W 131; 3 credit hours in 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 right, social contract theory, and the notion of community.
- PHIL-P 345 Problems in Social and Political Philosophy (3 cr.) P: ENG-W 131; 3 credit hours in philosophy. Intensive study of one or more problems such as civil disobedience, participatory democracy, conscience and authority, law and morality.
- PHIL-P 360 Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind (3 cr.) P: 6 credits in Philosophy, or permission of the instructor. Selected topics from among the following: the nature of mental phenomena (e.g. thinking, volition, perception, emotion); the mind-body problem (e.g. dualism, behaviorism, functionalism), connections to cognitive science issues in psychology; linguistics, and artificial intelligence; computational theories of mind.
- PHIL-P 371 Philosophy of Religion (3 cr.) P: ENG-W 131; 3 credit hours of Philosophy. Topics such as the nature of religion, religious experience, the status of claims of religious knowledge, the nature and existence of God.
- PHIL-P 374 Early Chinese Philosophy (3 cr.) P: ENG-W 131; 3 credits of philosophy. Origins of Chinese philosophical traditions in the classical schools of Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism, and Legalism. Explores contrasting agendas of early Chinese and Western traditions.
- PHIL-P 393 Biomedical Ethics (3 cr.) A philosophical consideration of ethical problems that arise in current biomedical practice, e.g. with regard to abortion, euthanasia, determination of death, consent to treatment, and professional responsibilities in connection with research, experimentation, and health care delivery
- PHIL-P 394 Feminist Philosophy (3 cr.) P: ENG-W 131; 3 credits of philosophy. A study of gender from the perspective of feminist philosophy. Topics include sexism, oppression, body, sex and sexuality, knowledge and value, race and class, as well as various gender-focused themes in popular culture.
- PHIL-P 401 History of Philosophy: Special Topics (3 cr.) P: ENG-W 131; 3 credit hours in philosophy. Special topics, such as developing views on one or more of the following subjects: substance, nature, essence, dialectics. May be repeated once with different topic.
- PHIL-P 410 Ancient Greek Philosophy (3 cr.) P: ENG-W 131; 3 credit hours in philosophy. A study of the earliest period of Western philosophy, dealing with such figures as the pre-Socratics, Plato, and Aristotle.
- PHIL-P 435 Contemporary Continental Philosophy (3 cr.) P: ENG-W 131; 3 credits of philosophy. Study of the work of philosophers in contemporary continental philosophy, including figures such as Foucault, Derrida, Eco, and Habermas.
- PHIL-P 490 Readings in Philosophy (1-3 cr.) P: ENG-W 131; 3 credits of philosophy; and consent of instructor. Intensive study of selected authors, topics, and problems.
- PHIL-P 495 Senior Proseminar in Philosophy (1-4 cr.) P: ENG-W 270 or ENG-W 290; 9 credit hours in Philosophy; and senior status. For philosophy majors in their senior year of study. The proseminar will concentrate of issue(s) and figure(s) selected by the student and faculty involved. The emphasis will be on the preparation, formal presentation and discussion of papers.
- PHIL-X 303 Introduction to Philosophy of Science (3 cr.) P: ENG-W 131; 3 credits in Philosophy. Scientific explanation, discovery, and theory testing. Do logic and mathematics have empirical content? Philosophical issues in the sciences: causality, space-time, free will, and science of human behavior.