Instructor: Dr. Jeff Freelin

Course Description:  

The central goal of the course is to learn critical thinking skills that are used by living philosophers and that will be useful in all your courses and throughout your life. We will learn these skills while considering philosophical questions from different areas of philosophy, so that we meet a second goal, learning that philosophy isn’t just about reading the work of famous thinkers in the past; it is a living discipline with active researchers who consider a broad range of issues. For example, these questions include: Do you know that the objects and events you experience are real, or is Elon Musk right in thinking we are probably living in a simulated reality? What should you believe, particularly when the source of knowledge is what other people tell you? Does the internet raise new problems about knowledge, because of its social nature? What does the moral principle “do the greatest good for the greatest number” omit about morality, and how is this relevant to programming and purchasing self-driving cars? Do you understand what you think and feel better than you understand what other people think and feel? What does it mean to say that a group of people is oppressed?  

Although many of these problems have their roots in the history of philosophy, and we will learn about the work of some notable historical figures, especially the 17th-century French philosopher Rene Descartes, most of the readings for the course were written by living philosophers specifically for undergraduates. 

 Instructor: Dr. Michael Schneider

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). A useful contrast will be found in Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan, where we see a radically different understanding of the relationship between the state and its citizens. 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. 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.

Instructor: Dr. Hernan Medina 

Course Description:

Most of us agree that lying, stealing, and killing are morally wrong actions. Similarly, we usually agree that being honest, kind, or ready to help is morally good. But why do we classify some actions as morally right and others as morally wrong? What reasons do we have for this classification? Do we even have a clear idea of what “right” and “wrong” mean? This course aims to introduce students to Ethics (also called Moral Philosophy) by philosophically analyzing these questions.

Instructor: Dr. Jeff Freelin

Instructor: Dr. Andre Ariew

Course Description:

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, and some are downright bad. How do we tell the difference between good and bad reasoning? 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 foundational for 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.

Instructor: Mr. Christian Culak

Course Description:

How can I tell whether a risk is worth it? Do my words express what I mean? Am I prone to rational mistakes? This course provides the tools and practice for answering these questions and reasoning well in everyday life. Such tools include basic principles of logic, rules for assessing arguments, and probability-value calculations for making rational decisions. But logical thinkers also know how not to reason. So, we will also study how sources of poor reasoning, such as bias, and rational mistakes, such as bad generalizations, can impede logical thinking.

Instructor: Dr. Claire Horisk

Course Description:

We would all rather be informed than misinformed. But lots of things stand in our way—misleading evidence, deceptive arguments, unreliable testimony, and even the structure of the human mind. This course is an introduction to the art and science of thinking. What sorts of evidence should we take seriously? What arguments should persuade us, rather than beguile us? How can we distinguish a reliable source of information from an unreliable source? Which of our cognitive habits might mislead us? The course does not tell you what to think, but it will teach you skills and tools that that you can use to think about pretty much anything.

Instructor: Mr. Alok Tiwari

Course Description:

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. 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: Dr. Andrew Melnyk

Course Description:

A course both for those enthusiastically contemplating a career in business and for those who wouldn’t dream of pursuing a career in business!  The fundamental question the course will address is whether it is possible for an ethically decent person to pursue a career in business.  We will read and critically evaluate two books.  The first (Honorable Business: A Framework for Business in a Just and Humane Society by James Otteson) argues that it is possible.  The second (Why Not Socialism? by G.A. Cohen) argues for the ethical superiority of some form of socialism.

Note: this course counts towards the Philosophy Department’s Certificate in Ethical Theory and Practice. For more information, go here: https://philosophy.missouri.edu/undergrad/certificate-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 the Certificate in Ethical Theory and Practice offered by the Philosophy Department. For more information, go here: https://philosophy.missouri.edu/undergrad/certificate-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. 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. 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 the new Certificate in Ethical Theory and Practice offered by the Philosophy Department.  For more information, go here: https://philosophy.missouri.edu/undergrad/certificate-ethical-theory-and-practice.

Instructor: Dr. Robert Johnson

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. This makes selecting authors for the course difficult. Tentatively, the Spring 2024 offering will focus on German Idealism and its critics (Hegel, Marx, and Schopenhauer) and 19th-century American philosophy—Transcendentalism and early Pragmatism. Note: though Kierkegaard and Nietzsche are clearly important figures of the 19th Century, they are covered in the quasi-sequel to this course, PHIL 3500 Existentialism (taught each Fall semester).

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 Abell.

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.

Instructor: Dr. Hannah Rubin

Course Description:

Our mental states—our beliefs, thoughts, wants, emotions, and sensations—seem to be produced in us by our interactions with the world, and in turn to explain why we act as we do. But we also know that these same interactions with the world put our brains into electro-chemical states that go on to cause our behavior.  It’s then tempting to suspect that our mental states in some sense are (certain of) our brain states.  Such a view, however, raises all sorts of difficult questions.  How could each of us be aware of our own sensations (e.g., pains) in a way that no one else can be aware of them if they’re just brain states that in principle anyone could observe?  How could mere electro-chemical states be, like our beliefs and wants, about things, including things that don’t exist (e.g., Santa Claus)?  There’s something it’s like to smell gasoline or see a rose, but how could there be anything it’s like for the neurons in one’s brain to be sending and receiving chemical and electrical signals?  This course aims to acquaint students with the best of contemporary thinking on these central questions in philosophy of mind.  Together we shall read, analyze, and evaluate substantial items of philosophical literature at the rate of roughly one a week. 

Instructor: Dr. Kenny Boyce

Instructor: Dr. Hannah Rubin

Course Description:

For the last 400 years scientific research has provided us with a reliable understanding of the world. Nevertheless in the 21st century science confronts a crisis of public trust. True, scientists make mistakes, and sometimes widely accepted findings turn out to be wrong. Does it follow that the mistrust of science is warranted, and that its reliability should be questioned? Why and to what extent should we trust science? The overall aim of this course is to answer these questions by turning to methodological issues, such as the sources of scientific knowledge, objectivity, and how science generates explanation and understanding. Moreover, we will ask what other values do or should affect scientific conduct. We will look at the nature of scientific theories and laws, the role of computer simulation, and the nature of models. We will examine these issues with a critical eye. The course is a training ground not for apologists but for philosophers who are interested in the wider questions about the extent to which science provides reliable knowledge.

Instructor: Dr. Bina Gupta

Course Description:

This is a self-paced course. Students will have up to 21 weeks from the start date to complete it. The course will be delivered online through Canvas. 

 This course constitutes a historical-critical analysis of selected philosophies of India and China. The primary emphasis will be placed on the historical development of Asian philosophies within the classical period. It will explore a broad range of philosophical doctrines, e.g., karma, consciousness, reality, knowledge, etc., discussed in the Vedas and Upanishads, Advaita Vedanta, the Bhagavad Gita, Theravada Buddhism, 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, and intellect-intuition perpetuate the myth that Asian/Indian philosophy is radically different from Western philosophy, so it is not a proper philosophical enterprise.

The approach will be both historical and critical: (1) the attempt will be made to understand each philosophical school in its integrity, to enter into the fundamental doctrines of each school, with an open mind to grasp the system as a philosophical whole; (2) each system will be subject to rigorous philosophical criticism, first, of an internal sort, to reveal fundamental inconsistencies between the different assumptions of the system, and secondly, of an external sort, which discloses the limitations of a given system when judged by reference to the phases of human experience and knowledge to which it fails to do justice.