Instructor: Dr. Jeff Freelin

Course Description:  

This class is designed in part to help students confront some issues that arise out of the human condition, with an eye toward constructing a reasonable and consistent world view. To this end, this class will survey an array of answers to questions like: 1) What sorts of things can we know, and how can we know them? 2) Do humans act freely when we choose to do something, or are our actions such that we could not have done otherwise? 3) Can moral claims be true or false for all, or is the truth of moral claims just a matter of opinion? 4) How ought material goods and honors be divided in society? 5) Is it rational to believe that God exists?

 Instructor: Dr. Andrew Melnyk

Course Description:

Without assuming any prior familiarity with philosophy, the course will teach you how to think philosophically about (i) the nature and extent of knowledge, (ii) the existence of God, and (iii) the existence and nature of free will. By the end of the course, you should

• be able to talk intelligently about some fundamental philosophical questions, possible  answers to these questions, and the pros and cons of each answer
• be able to say which answers you think are best, and why
• be better at reading carefully, thinking abstractly, and both critically analyzing and constructing complex reasoning.

This course does not aim to persuade you of my own particular philosophical views, and you will never be graded on your agreement or disagreement with them.  All that matters about your philosophical views is that you arrive at them after reflecting carefully on the best arguments for and against them.

 Instructor: Dr. Kenny Shields

Course Description:

“What should I do?” Each day you answer this question, even if you’re sometimes doubtful about your answer. The question may be unavoidable—but how you answer it is not! Reflecting about the nature of this question and how best to answer it is what a class in ethics is all about. While we will be considering some traditional moral ideas and arguments, I want to emphasize that this course is designed to help you develop your ability to think deeply and broadly. In the best of cases, the new connections and insights you discover in this class can transform your life.

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, Alice Nyarko, Archangelo Quintaneiro and Tianqen Ren

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. André Ariew

This is an introductory course in critical thinking. In every academic discipline and in every walk of life reasons are given for believing claims to be true. But not all reasons are alike: some are good, some are not so good, some are downright bad. How do we tell the difference between good and bad reasons? The answer is to learn some good reasoning rules and methods. This is the aim of the course. By mastering rules and methods of good reasoning, students will acquire the ability to sharpen their judgment and decision-making skills for use both in and out of the classroom.

The course is designed to be a foundational course of your college education. That's a bold statement, but it’s true. Everything you learn in college will be implicitly or explicitly based on reasons. Hence, a course that teaches you the rules of reasoning counts as a foundational course. Every citizen should take a course like this. Again, that's a bold statement. But if you cannot reason properly, then your life choices will be poor. In this course, you will acquire the tools of reasoning and learn how to use them for thinking more effectively about the world.

Course Goals: At the end of the semester you should be able to...

1. Analyze the logical structure of an argument.
2. Determine whether an argument is deductively valid (hence truth preserving) or not.
3. Identify the various ways to test hypotheses.
4. Test the probability that a hypothesis is true given some evidence in its favor.
5. Determine the best course of action given information about the likely outcomes associated with each option.

Instructor: Dr. Michael Schneider

Bizarre hypotheses abound at the frontiers of theoretical physics! Is the universe fundamentally stringy? What if there really is no such thing as dark matter? Do we live in an inflationary multiverse? Did spacefaring aliens maybe litter in our astronomical backyard? In this course, we consider how such wild proposals get taken up as contributions in science that are serious enough to make it into the public eye, as well as introduce three competing epistemological frameworks that have been proposed through the past century as adequate to judge such wild proposals: falsification, eliminative reasoning, and meta-empirical assessment.

Instructor: Mr. Alok Tiwari

In this course, we will critically discuss theories of human nature. We’ll consider the religious theories found in the Bible and Islam as well as Hinduism and Buddhism. We’ll also consider the classical philosophical theories of Plato and Aristotle, as well as modern theories of Marxism and Darwinism. We will assess each theory for its views on the nature of the universe, the nature of humanity, the ills of humanity, and the proposed cure for these problems.

Instructor: Dr. Hernán 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.

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

Instructor: Mr. Se Yong Bae

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.

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. Hernán Medina

Course Description:

Whether it is determining if abortion should be allowed, or what the proper way to treat people and animals in research is, or if genetical modification is a good idea, we invariably rely on moral arguments. The innovations in medical technology and the ways in which medicine itself progresses pose the questions that this course in medical ethics addresses. We will engage in the philosophical study of morality (i.e., in very general terms, what’s judged as morally good, what’s judged as morally bad, and what are the reasons for those judgements), which will provide applicable tools to address those ethical questions posed by medicine. 

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

Instructor: Dr. Hannah Rubin

Course Description:

Game theory is the study of strategic decision making, used to analyze decisions in situations where the outcome of your choice depends on the choices of others. Studying game theory can aid in your understanding of how to make rational decisions in various situations during your everyday life. Game theory is also used to study decision making in a variety of academic fields including economics, politics, biology, and philosophy.

Instructor: Dr. Jeff Freelin

Course Description:

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.

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 focuses on some of the most influential philosophical ideas and texts from the early modern period of history in Europe, and will cover such figures as Descartes and Kant. The aim of the course is for students to gain an understanding of key views and arguments of modern philosophy and to engage critically with them; to understand arguments and texts; evaluate, defend, and criticize arguments of their own and of others; and think critically about philosophical issues.

Instructor: Dr. Troy Hall

Course Description:

The 19th Century saw a historically unmatched profusion of philosophical activity, the consequences of which have been decisive for modernity. Both a stand-alone course and prequel to PHIL 3500 Existentialism (taught each fall semester), 19th-Century Philosophy will focus on two important traditions: German Idealism and its critics (Hegel, Schopenhauer, and Marx) and American philosophy—Transcendentalism and early Pragmatism. Note: though Kierkegaard and Nietzsche are clearly important figures of the 19th Century, they are covered in the previously mentioned Existentialism course. Join multiple teaching award-winner Dr. Troy Hall for an adventure into some of the most profound and controversial thinkers in the history of philosophy.

Instructor: Dr. Alex Radulescu

Course Description:

This class will focus on representation, as it occurs in language, in the mind, and in the arts. Are these different topics? Well, that's up for debate too. We will address such questions as how names name, how we manage to think about water and sofas and arthritis, and how lines on a canvas manage to represent a tree, or a feeling, or an abstract concept. We will also look at the role of representation in a broad story about cognition and the value that aboutness has in our lives. We will mainly be reading texts by Kripke, Putnam, Burge, and Wollheim.

Instructor: Dr. Alex Radulescu

Course Description:

Introductory logic classes discuss various ways to determine whether an argument is valid or not. These may include proofs, trees, truth tables, or models. In this class, we show that these various methods yield the same results: that an argument is valid if and only if any and all of these methods say that it is valid. Understanding this relation between proof theory and model theory, and understanding how to show that it holds, leads to a deeper understanding of first order logic. In the last part of the course, we will also be introducing modal logic – the logic of necessity and possibility. This is a tool that is used and taken for granted in much of the philosophy that has been done since the second half of the 20th century.

Instructor: Dr. Kenny Boyce

Course Description:

This class takes a philosophical approach to issues posed by the major world religions concerning God, ourselves, and the nature of reality. Could the Ultimate transcend our ability to describe it? Does Buddhist metaphysics call into question the correctness of our logic? Are the traditional divine attributes (omnipotence, omniscience, and perfect goodness) individually coherent? Are they compatible with one other? Does the problem of evil provide good reason to deny the existence of God? Could we have free will even if God knows the future? What might the afterlife actually be like? Does faith conflict with reason?  Must religion be at odds with science? These are just a few of the questions we will explore during this course.

Instructor: Dr. Kenny Shields

Course Description:

Objects seem to move in space. But the idea that there are general principles that explain the movement of objects in space—the idea of physics—is a product of scientific inquiry. Similarly, actions seem to be right or wrong. But the idea that there are general principles that explain the rightness or wrongness of actions—the idea of normative ethics—is a product of philosophical inquiry. This is a course in normative ethics.

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

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. André Ariew

Course Description:

There are two aspects of this capstone seminar, the passionate and the productive. There is a reason why you decided to major or double major in philosophy. Perhaps you have a big question that you want to explore about yourself or the universe. Perhaps you like the process of thinking critically, no matter what the topic is. For your capstone seminar at Mizzou’s philosophy department, we’ll tap into your passion for philosophy. Course content is up to you. Think of it this way: if you were stuck on desert island what essays or books would you have like to have brought with you? The course is a student-led seminar (as opposed to a lecture course). With my guidance, you, the students, will choose the daily topics and materials—essays, chapters, movies, documentaries, podcasts, videos. You will lead class discussion on the materials you chose. You can count on the rest of the class to be fully engaged, having read and commented on the material beforehand and ready for discussion. I’m with you every step of the way: consulting on choice of topics and materials, helping you digest the material, and giving you tips on how to lead a successful seminar. 

The second aspect of the seminar is about production. By the end of the semester, you will have created a product related to a philosophical topic of your choice, to be included in your undergraduate portfolio. Most of you will write an essay, but you there are other forms of production suitable for this assignment: a podcast, video, wiki-page, etc. Regardless of the product, the method of production is the same. The objective is related to the capstone idea: you will show off the critical thinking skills that you developed throughout your undergraduate career at Mizzou and honed during the semester. 

Course Objectives:

• To think like a philosopher, and understand a topic or question through analytic engagement.
• To critically evaluate, write, and discuss academic writings.
• To develop research skills of choosing good questions, writing a literature review, and creating a product.

Instructor: Dr. Kenny Boyce

Course Description:

Considers theories and arguments in contemporary philosophy of mind, focusing on the nature of mental states, their relation to brain states and the plausibility of various materialist theories of the mind.

Instructor: Various Departmental Faculty

Instructor: Various Departmental Faculty

Instructor: Dr. M Folescu

Course Description:

Epistemological and metaphysical doctrines of Locke, Berkeley and Hume.

Instructor: Dr. Kenny Boyce

Theories of the categories and structures of reality, e.g., appearance and reality, causality, space and time, God, Nature, the human being.

Instructor: Dr. Gualtiero Piccinini

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.