Course Descriptions

Phil 1000: General Introduction to Philosophy (3)
Can the existence of God be proved? Can it be disproved? What happens to you when you die? Is there no more to a person than his or her physical body? Is your mind just your physical brain, or is it something else? What is knowledge? Do we really have any? Can there be ethical knowledge? Are there ethical facts? Or is ethics all relative? These are the kinds of questions this course will help you to begin thinking about. Andrew Melnyk is the course director.

Phil 1100: Introduction to Ethics (3)
An introduction to different theories about what makes actions right rather than wrong, what things are good. Readings may include Plato, Aristotle, Kant and Mill. Peter Markie is the course director.

Phil 1150: Introduction to Bioethics (3)
This course philosophically investigates ethical issues of biological health, reproduction, technology and research. Issues studied may include: just health care, euthanasia, eugenics, the human genome project, genetic engineering, cloning, and stem cell research. Peter Markie is the course director.

Phil 1200: Logic and Reasoning (3)
Methods of analyzing and evaluating arguments of all types. Uses both informal and formal techniques. Identifies informal fallacies and introduces elementary symbolic logic. Claire Horisk is the course director.

Phil 2000: Philosophical Ideas in Literature (3)
Philosophical ideas and issues revolving around human freedom as these ideas and issues are embodied in great literary works from Plato through Dostoyevsky to Burgess.

Phil 2005: Topics in Philosophy (1-3)
Organized study of philosophical issues to which no regular course is devoted. Subjects and earnable credit may vary from semester to semester. Prerequisite: sophomore standing or consent of instructor.

Phil 2100: Philosophy East and West (3)
Compares the interpretation and role of philosophical concepts such as experience, reason, permanence, change, immortality, soul, God, etc., in Indian, Chinese and European traditions.

Phil 2200: Philosophy and Intellectual Revolution (3)
The course will discuss several intellectual revolutions in thought. The impact, direct or indirect, of scientific views of the world on the view of human nature is one area. Here thinkings such as Copernicus, Galileo, Freud, Searle and the Churchlands will be examined. Another change in thought is the change in view of our nation as expressed in Wills' book, Lincoln at Gettysburg. We shall conclude with a study of the topic of human responsibility as discussed by Sartre, King, and Wittgenstein.

Phil 2300: Philosophy and Human Nature (3)
Human existence, its nature, condition, foundations and significance according to contemporary philosophies such as existentialism, pragmatism, Marxism, positivism, theism, etc.

Phil 2400: Ethics and the Professions (3)

Phil 2410: Philosophies of War and Peace (3)
Moral issues about the recourse to war by the nation and the individual's obligations to participate. The nature of peace, social and personal. Special attention to the Vietnam War and the nuclear age. Prerequisite: sophomore standing.

Phil 2420: Ethical Issues in Business (3)
Major theories of moral obligation and justice and their application to business practices. Corporate responsibility, government regulation, investment and production, advertisement, the environment, preferential hiring, etc., through case studies, legal opinions and philosophical analysis. Prerequisite: sophomore standing.

Phil 2430: Contemporary Moral Issues (3)
Review of the major contemporary ethical theories and their contribution to the resolution of major social issues such as euthanasia, suicide, abortion, capital punishment, violence and war. Emphasis on nature, interests, and rights of persons. Prerequisite: sophomore standing.

PHIL 2500: Philosophy and Gender (3)
A critical examination of central ideas and themes in feminist philosophical thought. Topics may include: sex, marriage, parenthood, reproduction, body image, pornography, prostitution. Prerequisite: sophomore standing.

Phil 2600: Rational Decisions (3)
Principles for making decisions in a rational way. Special attention to principles that use probabilities and utilities. Some discussion of decisions made in conjunction with other people, and decisions made for other people. Prerequisites: sophomore standing and grade of C or better in MATH 1100/1120.

Phil 2700: Elementary Logic (3)
Introduces a symbolic language for representing the structure of arguments. Presents precise rules for demonstrating the validity of arguments. Covers natural deduction for sentence and predicate logic. Develops skill in constructing derivations. Prerequisite: sophomore standing and grade of C or better in Math 1100/1120.

Phil 2800: Introduction to Cognitive Science (3)
Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary study of the mind. After an overview of the foundations of cognitive science as a whole, we will see what particular sectors of it have to say about mental capacities such as vision, language, categorization, and social cognition. Prerequisite: sophomore standing and grade of C or better in Psych 1000.

Phil 3000: Ancient Western Philosophy (3)
The thought of the major philosophers of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds on the nature of the universe, human nature, epistemology, society and morality, in its cultural context. Plato and Aristotle will be emphasized, but the Presocratics, Sophists, Stoics, Epicureans, Plotinus and Augustine will also be examined. To challenge students to think through their own values, they will be asked to write a paper on their own way of life in dialogue with Classical and Judo-Christian deals.

Phil 3100: Medieval Philosophy (3)
Major thinkers from St. Augustine through 14th century Ockhamists.

Phil 3200: Modern Philosophy (3)
Surveys critical and speculative thinking of modern period including Descartes, Hume and Kant in relation to scientific, religious and social movements.

Phil 3300: Between Kant and Hegel (3)
Focus on the philosophic accomplishments of this very brief and yet extremely fertile period of the Enlightenment's transformation through Romanticism. Prerequisite: sophomore standing.

Phil 3400: 19th Century Philosophy (3)
This course begins with a brief look at Hegel as a stage setting for later developments in this turbulent century. The main focus will then be on Schopenhauer, Marx, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. Intellectual movements to be considered include romanticism, positivism and existentialism.

Phil 3500: Existentialism (3)
Ideas about human existence and its relation to nature and society, religion, art and ethics, in the writing of existential thinkers, including Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, de Beauvoir, and Camus. Students have the opportunity to respond to each philosophy in the writing exercises.

Phil 3600: 20th Century Philosophy (3)
This course will be a survey of some of the notable philosophers/thinkers whose contributions have been make in the twentieth century. Prerequisite: sophomore standing.

Phil 3700: Selected Modern Philosophers (3)

Phil 3800: Selected Contemporary Philosophers (3)
Advanced study of a particular contemporary philosopher or philosophers. May be taken twice fro credit with permission of the department. Prerequisite: sophomore standing.

Phil 4001/7001: Topics (Philosophy credit)

Phil 4005/7005: Topics (Humanities credit)

Phil 4100/7100: Philosophy of Language (3)
Examination of contemporary views of the relationship between language, minds, and the world. (Questions to be discussed include: What is meaning? Is linguistic meaning different from the meaning of non-linguistic symptoms and signs? What can be communicated through language? How does human language differ from non-human communication systems? How is language-learning possible? What is the function of grammar? Can attention to language solve problems in other areas of philosophy?) Prerequisites: junior standing; PHIL 2700 or instructor's consent.

Phil 4110/7110: Intermediate Logic (3)
Presents the method of truth trees for sentence and predicate logic. Examines proofs concerning the decidability, soundness, and completeness of formal systems. Prerequisites: junior standing and PHIL 2700, or graduate standing.

Phil 4120/7120: Advanced Logic (3)
Elementary set theory. Modal logic, the logic of possibility and necessity. Prerequisites: junior standing and PHIL 2700 or Phil 4110, or graduate standing.

Phil 4200/7200: Metaphysics. (3)
Metaphysics studies what there is and how things are, most generally speaking. Topics may include realism versus nominalism, substance and attribute, facts, modality, identity and causality. Previous work in Philosophy 1, 204, or 205 recommended. Prerequisite: junior standing.

Phil 4210/7210: Philosophy of Mind (3)
Are minds non-physical objects, distinct from our bodies and brains? How could a purely material object have views about the world, reason, and feel? Is it possible in principle to construct a computer which does all these things? After looking briefly at the dualist idea that we are enabled to think and feel by our possession of a non-physical mind, we will then examine rival ideas, including the idea, apparently consistent with materialism, that having a mind is no more (and no less) than running the right computer program.

Phil 4220: Philosophy of Religion (3)
Examination of the claims of religion, and the arguments offered for and against them.

Phil 4300/7300: Epistemology (3)
An examination of basic issues in epistemology as they are treated in the work of contemporary philosophers. Topics to be examined include the nature of knowledge, the structure of knowledge, the relation between knowledge and justification, the nature of justification, and naturalism in epistemology. Prerequisite: junior standing.

Phil 4420/7420: Philosophy of Biology (3)
A survey of philosophical problems arising from consideration of evolutionary theory and the biological sciences. Topics may include reductionism, sociobiology, biological laws, and epistemic problems relating to evolutionary theory. Prerequisite: junior standing.

Phil 4400/7400: Philosophy of Science (3)
Why believe what scientists tell us about the world? Is there such a thing as the scientific method. And, if so, what role does observation play in it? In what sense, if any do the scientific theories of today represent an improvement over those of 100, 500 or 2,000 years ago? To address these basic questions about rationality and progress in science we will study a range of contemporary theories and arguments in the philosophy of science. Requirements include: ten short papers; one term paper plus revision; final essay examination.

Phil 4410/7410: Philosophy of History (3)

Phil 4500/7500: Theories of Ethics (3)
This will be an advanced study in ethics. Topics will include whether moral judgments are expressive or descriptive, whether they are grounded in feeling or reason, whether and what kind of gap there is between what is and what ought to be, or between facts and values, whether there is more to practical reason than instrumental rationality, and so on.

Phil 4510/7510: Medical Ethics (3)
Considers moral issues posed by developments in biological sciences and medical technology. Topics may include: genetic engineering, abortion, euthanasia, and distribution of health care.

Phil 4600: Political and Social Philosophy (3)
How should income, wealth, and desirable positions be distributed in society? What is the basis of political authority? This course will address such questions on the basis of a thorough examination of the main theories of contemporary Anglo-American social and political philosophy: welfare liberalism, libertarianism, Marxism, utilitarianism, communitarianism, and feminism.

Phil 4610/7610: Philosophy of Law (3)
First, what is the fundamental nature of law? Second, what are the appropriate limits of legal regulation? Third, how should the notion of responsibility be defined in the criminal law, when may people be punished and how may they be punished? We will examine a variety of views, some historical, most contemporary, on all three issues.

Phil 4620/7620: Marxism (3)
A philosophical examination of (a) the notion of critique as seen in Marx's early and middle writings, and (b) specific topics by such authors as Lenin, Lukacs and Plekhanov.

Phil 4700/7700: Aesthetics (3)

Phil 4800/7800: Asian Philosophy (3)
This course traces the origins of Indian and Chinese philosophical world views. Included are the major ideas in Hindu, Jaina, and Buddhist thought in India, and Taoism and Confucianism in China. Emphasis is placed on the diverse, assimilative, and pragmatic nature of Indian thought and its impact on contemporary Asian philosophy.

Phil 4810/7810: Philosophy of India (3)
General development of Indian philosophy.

Phil 4820/7820: Contemporary Indian Philosophy (3)
Indian philosophical traditions as represented in backgrounds of Gandhi, Tagore, Ramkrishna, and philosophical systems of Radharkrishnan, Aurobindo, etc.

Phil 4850/7850: Special Readings (1-3)

Phil 4950/7950: Senior Seminar (3)
A capstone course required of and only open to senior philosophy majors. Course content will vary, depending on the professor teaching the course. Prerequisite: senior Philosophy major.

Phil 4998/7998: Honors (3)
Special work for Honors candidates.

Phil 8090: Research (credit arranged)
Research not leading to thesis.

Phil 8100: Protoseminar in Philosophy (3)
Introduction to graduate level work in philosophy. Required of all students entering the program, in the first year. An intensive workshop focused on skills rather than any particular philosophical content. Prerequisite: restricted to first year graduate students.

Phil 8210: Teaching of Philosophy (1)
Objectives, planning and conducting class, testing and grading, resolution of problems for courses in philosophy. Critique of students' performances as teachers

Phil 8300: Dissertation Seminar (1)
The course will address writing and time management for PhD students writing a dissertation. Also discussed will be preparation for the academic job market in philosophy, especially the development of an application dossier.

Phil 8510: Metaphysics: A Survey (3)
A graduate-level survey of central issues in metaphysics.

Phil 9040: Indian Philosophy (3)
Reality, levels of being, status of the world, nature of knowledge in Indian philosophy in relations to Advaita Vendanta system of Samkara.

Phil 9050: Plato (3)
A survey of Plato's thought, in the light of contemporary Plato scholarship.

Phil 9060: Aristotle (3)
Intensive study of selections from the Organon, Physics, Metaphysics, Politics, and Poetics, and the entire Nichomachean Ethics, with attention to contemporary commentaries.

Phil 9070: Medieval Thinkers (3)

Phil 9090: Research (credit arranged)
Work toward preparation of thesis or dissertation.

Phil 9110: The Rationalists (3)
This course will survey main views and positions of Descartes and Leibniz. Some sessions will be devoted to Descartes' distinctive claim that no material thing can think because it is the wrong kind of thing to do so and to Leibniz' distinctive claim that every thing, even so-called material things, is somehow conscious. These two positions foreshadow some contemporary lines to the effect that thinking can't occur "in" physical things and that thinking can, under certain conditions to be sure, occur in everything.

Phil 9120: The Empiricists (3)
Central topics in the metaphysics and epistemology of Locke, Berkeley and Hume as they relate to contemporary views. Topics will include idealism and phenomenalism, abstract general ideas, identity, substance, real and nominal essences, the primary/secondary quality distinction, causality and induction.

Phil 9130: Kant (3)
Critique of Pure Reason: historical context, meaning and cohesion of its claims, critical assessment of them.

Phil 9210: Hegel (3)
Phenomenology of Spirit: historical context, meaning and cohesion of its claims, critical assessment of them.

Phil 9220: Marxism (3)
Basic works of Marx and his successors.

Phil 9230: Whitehead (3)
Process and Reality, and other works. Contributions to metaphysics, theology, epistemology, and philosophy of science.

Phil 9240: Russell and Wittgenstein (3)
Each initially defends, but then rejects logical atomism. Metaphysical and epistemological themes of such intellectual phases and shifts of one or both philosophers.

Phil 9250: Heidegger (3)
Being and Time. Historical context, meaning and cohesion of its claims, critical assessment of them.

Phil 9260: Existentialism (3)
The philosophy of Sartre and one or more other philosophers from the existentialist tradition.

Phil 9270: Phenomenology (3)
The phenomenological method and some of its results. Special attention to Husserl and variants in the work of Heidegger, Sartre, Schutz and others.

Phil 9280: Recent Anglo-American Philosophy (3)
Various topics in contemporary Anglo-American philosophy.

Phil 9290: Recent Continental Philosophy (3)
Topics on which current philosophers on the European continent are concentrating.

Phil 9310: Applied Ethics (3)

Phil 9320: Social and Political Philosophy (3)
Leading political philosophers from renaissance through social contract theory, with some important commentary pieces. Prerequisite: graduate standing or permission of the instructor.

Phil 9330: Aesthetics (3)
Theories of art and beauty, the aesthetic experience, the physical work of art, the role of the artist; art and other human concerns.

Phil 9340: Topics in the History of Ethics (3)
Advanced Study of the ethical views of major historical figures, ancient and/or modern.

Phil 9350: History of Eastern Ethics (3)
The course will be a historical survey of major eastern ethical theories. It will explore a broad range of ethical theories that developed in Asia: Hindu and Buddhist in India; Taoism and Confucianism in China; and Zen in Japan.

Phil 9510: Decision Theory (3)
Principles for making rational decisions, including principles of expected utility theory, game theory, and social choice theory. A survey of basic ideas and an introduction to selected research topics.

Phil 9520: Ethical Theory (3)
This course surveys central issues in contemporary metaethics. Topics include debates over the metaphysics and epistemology of morals, the nature of moral language and of moral justification. Authors may include Darwall, Harman, Mackie, Boyd, Sturgeon, Smith, Railton, Wiggins, McDowell, Blackburn, and Gibbard. Prerequisite: graduate standing or permission of the instructor.

Phil 9610: Metaphysics (3)
A survey of some of the important literature and issues of the 20th century. Authors such as Wittgenstein, Moore, Sellars, Quine, and Strawson will be discussed; topics such as the nature and knowledge of reality will be discussed.

Phil 9710: Philosophy of Mind and Psychology (3)
There is a certain way it feels when one has a bodily sensation (e.g. a pain, itch or tingle) or a perceptual sensation (e.g. as when smelling gasoline), each different kind of sensation possessing a distinctive way it feels. The question we will be investigating is whether this so-called qualitative character of sensations can be accommodated by a physicalist account of the mind, or whether, in order to accommodate it, one must endorse some kind of dualism.

Phil 9720: Foundations of Cognitive Science (3)
Examination of philosophical questions arising in cognitive science concerning, for instance, the nature of computation and representation, inter-disciplinary relations, the nature of cognitive scientific explanation, and its relation to folk psychological explanation.

Phil 9820: Epistemology (3)
An examination of basic issues in contemporary epistemology especially those regarding the nature of knowledge and epistemic justification. Topics examined include the definition of knowledge, the Foundationalism/Coherentism debate, the nature of epistemic justification, and naturalistic epistemology.

Phil 9830: Philosophy of Science (3)
A survey of contemporary philosophy of science covering Logical Empiricist accounts of science popular around the middle of the century, the New Fuzziness associated most strongly with Thomas Kuhn in the early 1960s, and recent attempts to develop realist accounts according to which science is indeed progressive and a genuine source of knowledge.

Phil 9840: Philosophy of Language (3)
Topics of current interest in the philosophy of language.

Phil 9850: Philosophy of Biology (3)
Philosophical problems relating to the life sciences, with attention given especially to explanation and reductionism in biology.

Phil 9887: Seminar in Logic (3)
Topics of current interest in logic. Generally one of the following: inductive logic, set theory, conditionals, epistemic logic, or formal semantics. Prerequisite: PHIL 4110 graduate standing in Philosophy.

Phil 9901: Seminar (3)