Instructor: Dr. Alex Radulescu

Course Description:  

This class is about the Declaration of Independence. This is a very interesting document, and many people have written about it, both within academia and without. Even if you disagree about its importance (and many do), it certainly has been influential in American history. Ours will be a philosophical approach: we’ll be interested in what the text says, and whether there are any good arguments for or against the claims it seems to make.  Consider this most famous sentence of the Declaration: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The texts we will be reading are all, to some extent, about ideas that can be found here. 

René Descartes’s Meditations talk about what we can be properly said to know, and the relation between that, science, and God. John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government was read by Jefferson, and many ideas in it are echoed in the Declaration (and many are not). Locke’s A Letter Concerning Toleration discusses the relation between religion and state. John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty talks about the notion of liberty. Consider this class an introduction to both philosophy and the Declaration of Independence.

 Instructor: Dr. Michael Schneider

Course Description:

Life can be hectic. But in between the cracks of our scheduled obligations—work, social commitments, and so on—are brief moments of quiet, contemplative reflection. These moments are moments to voice the Big Questions: questions that frame and color the significance that we attach to our everyday lives and our actions, our choices and our passions. Why are we here? Who am I? Does anything ever really end? What does it mean to be happy? Can I ever know anything with certainty, and how do I make decisions in an uncertain world? There may be time in between the cracks of our scheduled obligations to raise such questions, but it is rare that those moments extend long enough to explore any possible answers. This course carves out a dedicated time in our schedules to do so. It also introduces critical thinking strategies that philosophers have drawn on, in mulling over one further crucial question: how do we even begin to answer them?

 Instructor: Dr. Kenny Boyce

Course Description:

Moral philosophers seek reasoned answers to questions about how we should live, what we should value, and the nature of morality. For example, is morality objective or relative to culture? Are we morally required to be vegetarians? What is social justice? Is abortion ever morally permissible? As an introduction to philosophical ethics, we shall charitably interpret and evaluate reasoned answers to these (and other) questions. We shall then work on developing our own reasoned answers through essay writing.

Note: This course counts towards the Philosophy Department’s popular Certificate in Ethical Theory and Practice.

Instructor: Dr. Troy Hall

Course Description:

Do you ever ask yourself whether or not you are doing the right thing? Whether or not you are an ethical person? Whether or not you should eat meat, give some of your money to the needy, or work for more justice? Do you wonder if right and wrong are just up to you and your feelings or are just simply part of the society you grew up in? Or is morality objective? 

Well, these are big and important questions, and this class is meant to help you to get to the bottom of them!

Note: This course counts towards the Philosophy Department’s popular Certificate in Ethical Theory and Practice.

Instructor: Dr. Marta Heckel

Course Description:

We tend to think that it’s wrong to lie, steal, and murder, but right to tell the truth, be generous, and kind. But why do we think these things? What reasons do we have? What do we even mean by “right” and “wrong”? In this course, we will engage in philosophical discussions about right and wrong, using texts from throughout history, from ancient Greece to contemporary America. Students will learn to articulate positions of different philosophers; to understand arguments and texts; evaluate, defend, and criticize arguments of their own and of others; and think critically about philosophical issues.

Note: This course counts towards the Philosophy Department’s popular Certificate in Ethical Theory and Practice.

Instructor: Francisco de Assis Mariano and Nathaniel Stagg

Instructor: Dr. Philip Robbins

Course Description:

This course provides the tools you need to reason better when deciding what to believe and what to do. It draws from several fields: cognitive psychology, behavioral economics, logic, probability, and decision theory. We will consider empirical evidence about ‘heuristics and biases’ — spontaneous judgments that can be predictably irrational. And we will study what good deductive, causal, and probabilistic reasoning looks like. But the goal of the course is entirely practical: to develop effective reasoning skills with clear applications in your personal and professional life. The course is open to students from all areas of the University interested in improving their reasoning ability and their ability to construct and recognize compelling arguments. These skills may be helpful in a wide variety of university subjects and extra-academic pursuits, indeed, in everyday life more generally.

Instructor: Dr. Andrew Melnyk

Course Description:

We will study the nature of arguments, i.e., bits of reasoning.  An argument has a job or function: to provide someone with some reason to think that something is the case.  A good argument is one that does its job. Arguments are useful not only because they enable us to get other people to think certain things, but also because they enable us to figure out what we ourselves have reason to think.  By the end of this course, you should be able to read a passage containing an argument and then both (1) explain precisely how the reasoning in the passage is supposed to work and (2) assess how good a reason to believe the conclusion is provided by the premises.  You should also be able to (3) construct good arguments of your own. The course aims to improve the ways in which you reason, rather than to fill your heads with more facts. Knowing facts is indispensable for assessing arguments, but this course will not much increase your factual knowledge.

Instructor: Dr. Claire Horisk

People often get away with belittling others if they frame their speech as jokes---speech that would be condemned if stated seriously. "It's just a joke," they say. But what is different or special about joking? And if jokes about lawyers and politicians are morally acceptable, then what is wrong with joking about race or gender? Furthermore, if we may joke about a politician's shirts, may we joke about his weight? 

In this course, we will explore these questions using Professor Horisk’s recently published book, Dangerous Jokes, which develops a novel and compelling argument that lays bare the power of demeaning jokes in ordinary conversations. Horisk draws on her expertise in philosophy of language and on evidence from other disciplines to explain how the element of humor---so often used as a defence---makes jokes more potent than regular speech in communicating prejudice and reinforcing social hierarchies. She addresses the morality of telling, being amused by, and laughing at, derogatory jokes, as well as the morality of listening to demeaning speech. Students in the course will explore Horisk’s thesis that "it's just a joke" is not an excuse for demeaning humor. 

Instructor: Dr. Robert Johnson

This course examines philosophical problems having to do with film. Topic may include the nature of film, the differences between fiction and documentary film, ethical issues with film, and filmmaking.

Instructor: Dr. Hernan Medina

Course Description:

A lot of philosophers claim that almost every human being has asked themselves what the meaning of life is. Among these philosophers, Albert Camus famously said: “Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy.” I doubt that almost every human being has asked that question. However, I’m sure that some of us have asked what the meaning of life is. And I hope that during and after this course some of us will. This course has two main goals: first, understanding why the question of the meaning of life is worth asking; second, get you to philosophically reflect on the meaning of life and how your area of expertise (career, major, passion) relates to a meaningful life.

Instructor: To Be Announced

Note: This course counts towards the Philosophy Department’s popular Certificate in Ethical Theory and Practice.

Instructor: Dr. Troy Hall

Course Description:

This extremely popular course considers issues of patient autonomy, consent, healthcare rights, abortion, euthanasia, and animal and human research from an agenda-free perspective. It is also perfect as a first philosophy or ethics course, as fundamental ethical theories are explained before integrating them with medical cases. Many students have reported that taking this course was a positive transformative experience for them at Mizzou. Taught by College of Arts and Science Green and Purple Chalk teaching awards-winner Dr. Troy Hall.

Note: This course counts toward Philosophy's Certificate in Ethical Theory and Practice.

Instructor: Dr. Claire Horisk

Course Description:

Do you love solving puzzles like Sudoku? Then this is a great course for you. We will learn how to solve logical puzzles, by learning a formal logical language and formal methods of evaluating arguments. Having logical abilities is great for anyone who needs to reason—and that is all of us—and is an especially useful skill if you are interested in law, business, or linguistics. Logic also serves as a fundamental basis for computer science and artificial intelligence.

Instructor: Dr. Philip Robbins

Course Description:

Cognitive science is a many-splendored thing. It draws on a variety of disciplines, including psychology, neuroscience, computer science, linguistics, anthropology, and — last but not least — philosophy. The purpose of this course is to introduce the central questions of cognitive science, the conceptual and empirical tools used to investigate those questions, and some of the answers that have emerged so far. After an initial overview of the foundations of the cognitive-scientific enterprise as a whole, we will see what particular sectors of it have to say about mental capacities such as language, categorization, reasoning, social cognition, and consciousness.

Instructor: Dr. Troy Hall

Course Description:

This popular course counts as a Diversity Intensive Course. Truly a course for everyone, Environmental Ethics explores our relationship to each other and the natural world. A perfect first philosophy course or ethics course, cutting edge contemporary topics such as animal ethics, sustainability, environmental justice and racism, ecofeminism, deep ecology, and eco-terrorism are covered in an agenda-free way. Taught by College of Arts and Science Green and Purple Chalk teaching awards-winner Dr. Troy Hall.

Note: This course counts toward Philosophy's Certificate in Ethical Theory and Practice.

Instructor: Dr. Marta Heckel

Course Description:

This course is an introduction to ancient western philosophy, focusing on the most influential philosophical ideas and texts of Ancient Greece and Rome. The aim of the course is for students to gain an understanding of key views and arguments of ancient western philosophy, and to engage critically with them; to understand arguments and texts; evaluate, defend, and criticize arguments of your own and of others; and think critically about philosophical issues. We’ll cover Plato, Aristotle, Skepticism, Stoicism, and Epicureanism, and consider questions such as: What is virtue? What is friendship? What are the basic building blocks of reality? How much can we know about the world external to our own minds? Is the unexamined life worth living?

Instructor: Dr. Troy Hall

Course Description:

Death. Dread. Anxiety. Power. Freedom. Responsibility. Authenticity. Rebellion. Such are the categories of our concrete lived experience, and they are the foundation of the philosophical movement called Existentialism. Join College of Arts and Science Green and Purple Chalk teaching awards-winner Dr. Troy Hall as we plumb the depths of what it means to be an individual as understood by Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre, Heidegger, Camus, and others. 

Pre-requisites: it is recommended that you have taken at least one philosophy course or a course in the Honors College humanities sequence. Please contact Dr. Hall if you have any questions about your readiness for the course.

Note: This course counts toward Philosophy's Certificate in Ethical Theory and Practice.

Instructor: Dr. Alex Radulescu

Course Description:

The bulk of this course will be dedicated to Saul Kripke, one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century. We will talk about a sort of ‘best of’ of themes in the second half of that century: how proper names work, how we think about individual people or things, what necessity is, what aprioricity is, what is (not) the right account of belief, and what it is to follow a rule (if there is such a thing). We will read his two books, and his most widely read paper, ``A Puzzle about Belief''. We will spend most of the semester reading texts written decades ago, but our principal goal is neither historical nor scholarly. Rather, we will use them as they have been used since then: as inspiration for much needed reflection on our thinking about the world.

Instructor: Dr. Kenneth Boyce

Course Description:

This course pertains to the philosophical discipline of metaphysics, which involves the reasoned exploration of the nature of reality.  It asks questions such as “What sorts of things exist?”  “Do only material things exist?”  “Are there things like numbers?”  “If so, what are they like?”  “What is the nature of time?”  “Is time travel possible?”  “What does it take for the same thing to continue to exist over time?”  “What sorts of things are we?”  “Are we merely bodies or brains, souls, or something else?”  “Do we have free will?” In this class, we will explore these and many other related questions.

Instructor: Dr. Mike Schneider

Course Description:

Behind nearly all of the technology and social organization of modern society are reliable accounts of how the bits and pieces of the natural and social world fit together. These accounts, taken altogether, form the corpus of modern science. Philosophy of science is the study of how we develop, use, and understand those accounts. For instance, how do we introduce new accounts into the collection? Under what circumstances do we discard old accounts, in favor of the new? And what should we conclude about the world as a whole when, as is often the case, two extraordinarily useful accounts seem mutually contradictory? In this course, we will embrace an open-minded approach to answering such questions. They may or may not have satisfying answers. The goal, in any case, is not to raise skepticism, but to seek understanding: what is it about the social institution, culture, or methods of science that distinguish it, as a purveyor of knowledge about the natural and social world?

Instructor: Dr. Hernan Medina Botero

Course Description:

Individuals within society are subjected to political authority. Decisions and policies coming from authorities shape different aspects of our lives and impose duties and obligations, both on the authorities and on the people subjected to authorities. We should expect political authority to be legitimate in some sense. Legitimacy of political authority is the first topic we will be concerned with in this course. A second topic—one that shaped most of the discussions in political philosophy after the appearance of John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice in 1971—is justice, which Rawls conceived of as a virtue of social institutions and arrangements. After Rawls, criticism has emerged concerning the idea of justice, its role in society, and the different ways in which contemporary societies have failed to provide it. In this course, we will philosophically reflect on both topics: the legitimacy of political authority, and justice.

Note: This course counts towards the Philosophy Department’s popular Certificate in Ethical Theory and Practice.

Instructor: Dr. Robert Johnson

Course Description:

What is law? Are there pre- or trans-legal rights? Is punishment justifiable? How can judicial decisions be justified? What are the relations between law and morality?

Note: This course counts towards the Philosophy Department’s popular Certificate in Ethical Theory and Practice.

Instructor: Dr. M Folescu

Course Description:

An introduction to aesthetics focusing on issues in the philosophy and psychology of art. Topics include theories of aesthetic appreciation and interpretation, the objectivity of aesthetic judgment, the nature of beauty and the sublime, and the neural basis of aesthetic experience.

Instructor: Dr. Bina Gupta

Course Description:

This is a self-paced course. Students have up to 6 months from the start date to complete the course. The course will be delivered online through Canvas. 

The course constitutes a historical-critical analysis of selected philosophies of India and China. The primary emphasis will be placed upon the historical development of Asian philosophies within the classical period. It will explore a broad range of philosophical issues discussed in the Vedas, Upaniṣads, the Bhagavad Gītā, Therāvāda Buddhism, the Advaita Vedanta, the Confucian Analects, and the Tao Te Ching. 

The primary goal of the course is to bring out the theoretical, discursive rigor of Indian/Asian philosophy, using analytic, exegetical, and phenomenological methodologies. The course is intended to correct several common misconceptions about Asian philosophy, such as the idea that Asian philosophy lacks theoretical rigor, that it is theology at best, and that it is motivated by practical concerns rather than the disinterested search for theoretical knowledge that characterizes Western philosophy. It will demonstrate that there exist an amazing variety of epistemological, metaphysical, and ethical conceptions in Asian philosophy. These conceptions contain very sophisticated arguments and counterarguments that were advanced by the defenders of each thesis and its opponents.

To be specific, the course will

• describe the Asian cultural context in which the philosophical issues arose;

• articulate the different ways in which basic philosophic issues have been considered in Asia;

• distinguish between the styles and methodologies of Asian philosophers;

• explain the difference between Asian philosophy and religion; and

• explain that such binary oppositions as theoretical-practical, intellect-intuition perpetuate the myth that Asian/Indian philosophy is radically different from Western philosophy, so it is not a proper philosophical enterprise.

Instructor: Dr. Philip Robbins

Instructor: Various Departmental Faculty

Instructor: Various Departmental Faculty

Instructor: Dr. Hannah Rubin

Course Description:

Our beliefs are not determined solely by our solitary activities, but are affected by our social situation in various ways. Acknowledging this leads to several questions about how social context affects belief. How do beliefs spread throughout a community? Are certain people better positioned than others to convince the community of their point of view? How can a community of seemingly rational people become polarized? Philosophers are starting to answer these and related questions using mathematical models. This course will focus on agent-based modeling, a methodology in this tradition that seeks to explain the emergence of phenomena in a population (e.g. polarization) with reference to the behavior of individuals within that population (e.g. who they listen to, what they count as good evidence). Though agent-based modeling is used across disciplines to explain a variety of phenomena – e.g. predator-prey interactions, traffic patterns, or wealth distribution – we will focus on modeling social believers to answer questions in social epistemology, philosophy of science, political philosophy, etc. 

In addition to reading philosophical work, this course will include weekly instruction on how to program agent-based models using NetLogo. There is no previous programming knowledge assumed; NetLogo is known for being an extremely user-friendly programming language that is not too difficult to learn. Learning to code is not only potentially useful for one’s own research; exposure to actual code is helpful for evaluating work in the area.

Instructor: Dr. Andre Ariew