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Philosophy Courses
PHIL 100 Introduction to Philosophy +
Description:
An introductory examination of the problems and scope of philosophy. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 108 Moral and Social Problems +
Description:
Important moral and social issues of current concern are examined and debated. The course covers several problems each semester from a list including criminal punishment, war, abortion, racism, violence, the death penalty, private property, sexism, animal rights, the environment, and hunger. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 109G Moral Debate in Society +
Description:
This course studies some contemporary problems of social ethics, particularly abortion, the death penalty, affirmative action, and world hunger and global justice. It introduces various positions on these issues, and the justifications that have been offered to support them. This course develops each student's ability to articulate a position clearly and defend it persuasively. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 110G Equality and Justice +
Description:
This course examines several forms of inequality: oppression and exclusion based on race and gender; the differences between born and unborn humans, and between humans and non human animals; and inequality in access to social goods such as health care. Participants examine issues of moral inclusion, justice and rights that underlie these inequalities. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
PHIL 130G Privacy +
Description:
This course examines several of the current threats to privacy in the computer age related to drug testing, the assembling of personal information dossiers, genetic screening, privacy on the Internet, medical records, and workplace concerns. It makes use of philosophical, legal, and privacy rights. This course may count toward the major in philosophy. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 150 Critical Thinking +
Description:
This course is an introduction to argumentation and reasoning. It focuses on the kinds of arguments and reasoning one is likely to encounter in public and social debate, scientific and legal settings, as well as in the media. The primary objective of this course is to improve student ability to critically evaluate the arguments of others as well as to construct persuasive arguments of their own. Furthermore, students should leave the course with critical thinking tools that can be applied in nearly every area of study. To this end, the course will explore different forms of arguments, e.g., deductive and inductive arguments, the role of language in arguments and reasoning, numerical and probabilistic reasoning, cognitive and perceptual biases, the scientific method, and social aspects of critical thinking. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 200 African Philosophy +
Description:
Through a comparison of the concepts of personhood and morality in the United States, the Akan of Ghana and the NSO of Cameroon, this course offers an alternative perspective on such perennial moral, legal and cultural issues as abortion, polygamy and religion. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
PHIL 207G The Meaning of Life +
Description:
Reading in this course centers around this question: Does life have meaning? If so, what is it? The course considers whether the question is coherent and whether religion, morality or the search for knowledge are possible answers to it. It also considers arguments that life is meaningless. Finally, discussions focus on what the rational attitude toward death should be. This course may count toward the major in philosophy. Capabilities addressed: Critical reading, critical thinking, clear writing. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 208 Existential Themes in Philosophy and Literature +
Description:
This course introduces the area of philosophical and humanistic studies by means of a consideration of existentialist ideas in both literature and philosophy. Issues will be chosen from a list including the self in relation to others; authenticity, self-deception, and bad faith; freedom and responsibility; death and the meaning of life; and the possibility of objective knowledge. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 211 Ancient Philosophy +
Description:
This class is an introduction to Greek philosophy, from early Greek philosophy through to the Hellenistic period, with emphasis on the Presocratics, Plato, and Aristotle. It covers early theories about the nature of the cosmos, the good life, politics, theology, epistemology, appearance and reality. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 212 Modern Philosophy +
Description:
The views of the continental rationalists-Descartes, Spinoza, Leibnitz-and the British Empiricists-Locke, Berkeley, Hume-in relation to general intellectual developments from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 215 Philosophical Foundations of Public Policy +
Description:
This course explores several central philosophical frameworks underlying contemporary public policy debates, including various conceptions of social justice and human rights, utilitarian theory and decision theory. The role of philosophy in public policy will be illustrated through an analysis of such contemporary issues as foreign policy and human rights, tax policy, cost benefit analysis, environmental and health care issues, workfare, world population problems, and the dangerous mentally ill. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 216 The History of Ethics +
Description:
This course focuses on four or five philosophers whose impact on the development of Western thinking about ethics has been substantial, e.g., Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Kant, and Nietzsche. The following are the sorts of questions with which they were preoccupied, and upon which we focus in reading them: Is there a single ideal life which all human beings should strive to live-and if so, what does it consist in? What are the virtues that human beings should exemplify? Why should one live a moral life? Are there objective moral standards-and if so, how does one discover what they are? What roles do reason and the emotions, respectively, play in the moral life? Special attention is given to the role that one's metaphysical views and one's views of human nature play in shaping one's theory of ethics. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 218 Major Social and Political Thinkers +
Description:
The primary concern of this course is historical: the elucidation of the political and social theories of some of the major figures of the Western tradition (e.g., Plato, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Rousseau, and Marx). Emphasis is given to the continuing relevance of these philosophers and political scientists. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 220 Environmental Ethics +
Description:
An examination of humanity's place in the natural world and its implications for ethics. Topics include the environmental crisis and the need for a new environmental ethic, the ethical dimensions of environmental policy issues, human-centered ethics, obligations to future generations, the intrinsic value of the natural world, animal rights, wilderness, and preservation of species. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 222 Moral Issues in Medicine +
Description:
Concepts of health, illness and healing, under different paradigms of medicine. Is medicine an art or science? What is the impact of medical technology on human life and death? What is considered ''natural''? Attention is given to issues in human reproduction (e.g. in vitro fertilization, conception, abortion). Questions of authority, accountability in doctor-patient relationships, patient advocacy, self help, right to health care or to refuse treatment. Social and political questions of health care organization. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 224 The Philosophy of Art +
Description:
Late twentieth-century art has insistently challenged us to come to terms with our understanding of the very nature of the art work. This course is a survey of the major theories of the nature of art, with special emphasis on the views that art is a matter of representing or imitating reality, that art is a form of catharsis, that art is a matter of the expression of emotion, that art is a special kind of symbolic form. It also addresses such questions as the role of art history in a theory of aesthetic interpretation, the problem of forgery, the issue of artistic responsibility and the recent debates over censorship of the arts. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 225L The Philosophy of Religion +
Description:
This course is an introduction to several fundamental problems and concepts in philosophy of religion. Looking at the major world religions from West to East, the course explores the concepts of God and the Divine, religion and spirituality, mysticism, the role of religious experience and religious language/doctrine, the understandings, forms and aims of religious and spiritual practice, the problem of evil, the relationship of the human being and the divine etc. In the spirit of religious pluralism, this philosophy of religion course is addressed to students of all faiths, as well as agnostics and atheists, who are not afraid to ask challenging questions about what they believe. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 227 Existentialism and Phenomenology +
Description:
An inquiry into the broad philosophical movement of existentialism, through a reading of major existentialist thinkers including Sartre, Beauvoir, Camus, Merleau-Ponty, Marcel, Kierkegaard, Jaspers and Heidegger. Topics to be discussed include authenticity and freedom, self-deception, the absurd, the critique of Cartesianism, subjectivity and objectivity, and death and the meaning of life. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 230 Philosophy and Feminism +
Description:
Different philosophical theories of feminist issues, including women's rights, whether women have a separate or special place in the family and social order, gender differences and biological factors in human nature, theories of patriarchy, how gender and world view are related. Readings from classical and contemporary philosophers and feminist thinkers. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 250 Formal Logic +
Description:
The study of valid reasoning using formal methods of proof with truth functions, deductions, and quantifiers. Analysis of the logical structure of language related to philosophical questions of truth, paradox, and reference. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 255 The Mystery of Consciousness +
Description:
Consciousness has been described as the last great mystery. In this course students will read philosophers who attempt to clarify why it seems so mysterious, including some who argue that it will never be possible to explain consciousness scientifically. On the positive side, student swill consider philosophical approaches to understanding consciousness in terms of mental representations and will examine how cognitive science has re-conceptualized the role of consciousness in our brains. The course will also look at several interesting scientific discoveries and consciousness and discuss their philosophical significance. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 265 Sanity and Madness +
Description:
This course looks at a number of questions about insanity or ''madness'': What it is like, how it should be described and regarded, therapeutic and curative responses to it, and what special treatment-if any-its sufferers deserve. We pay particular attention to the claims of the so-called ''anti-psychiatry'' movement, to Foucault and contemporary post-modernist writing, and to feminist analyses of the relation between madness and gender. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 281 Special Topics +
Description:
A sophomore level course offering selected topics in philosophy. Course content varies and will be announced prior to registration. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
PHIL 286 What is Freedom? +
Description:
Freedom is arguable the central value of modern Western societies. but what is freedom? This course tries to answer this question by approaching the concept of freedom from three distinct points of view, metaphysical, moral-psychological, and political. The course first takes up the questions of free will, of whether or not subjects are genuinely free to choose between different courses of action. The course then investigates the relationship between freedom and moral responsibility. Lastly, the course asks about the meaning of political freedom. Is political freedom secured by the having of certain fundamental rights, or does it also require that one live in a democratic society. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 287 Equality +
Description:
Examination of the ideals of social equality and equal respect in the context of actual inequalities of gender, race, and sexual orientation. Topics are drawn from the following: The nature of equality; racism and racial inequality; justice and the division of labor in the family; sex roles; affirmative action; sexual harassment; sexual orientation and the family; sameness, difference, and equality. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
PHIL 290 The Philosophy of Law +
Description:
This course explores fundamental questions concerning the nature of law and the relation between law and justice. It examines questions concerning the source of the obligation to obey law, the limits of the obligation to law, and the moral conditions that make law possible. This exploration leads to an examination such of different judicial philosophies of constitutional interpretation as original intent, judicial restraint, and judicial activism. The course continues with a study of some perplexing questions about the meaning of equality and justice as they arise in legal cases dealing with race and/or gender. Some offerings of this course conclude with an exploration of the moral basis of international law by way of a critical analysis of the Nuremberg Trial. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 295 Caribbean Philosophy +
Description:
This course explores philosophy through the lens of Caribbean thought. It will look closely at some of the most fundamental questions in the history of Caribbean thought and culture. Students will consider the meaning of the Caribbean as a geopolitical space, identities forged and conceived of in the Caribbean, social and political philosophies that emerge as a result of colonialism and globalization. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
PHIL 297 Asian Philosophy +
Description:
This course introduces students to some of the principal philosophical traditions of India and China. It examines the belief- systems of Hinduism and Buddhism in both India and China, as well as Taoism. Participants also explore in somewhat more detail the Hindu school of Advaita Vedanta in the work of Sankara, and the Madhyamika Buddhism of Nagarjuna. Traditional topics to be addressed include metaphysics, the theory of self (or not-self), relations of world and mind, the status of God (or the lack thereof), the situation of women in these religions, the goal of philosophy, and others. Comparisons among these traditions and with Western thought are attempted and encouraged, but no prior knowledge of specific traditions is assumed. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 299 Public Health Ethics +
Description:
Public health refers to society's organized measures to improve population health. Some public health measures are quite intrusive. For example, seatbelt laws or restrictions on the sale of large scale sodas. Some think that these measures are unjustified because it should be up to the individual to choose how to lead his or her life. By examining the initiatives and laws designed to reduce tobacco use, we will examine how a government's obligation to respect individual freedom should be weighed against an obligation to prevent disease and improve population health. Other public health measures seem woefully inadequate given the inequalities that affect disadvantaged groups in society. For example, risk factors for obesity are not simply linked to personal choice, but to food security and access to healthy foods. By examining the data on health disparities and social determinants of health, we will explore how far a government's obligations should extend to narrow inequalities that put certain groups at increased risk of disease and poor health outcomes. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
PHIL 311 Medieval Philosophy: Islamic, Jewish, Christian +
Description:
In this course we will read one or two major medieval Christian philosophers (e.g., Augustine and Aquinas), one or two major medieval Muslim philosophers (e.g. al-Ghazali and ibn Rushd [Averroes]) and one or two major medieval Jewish philosophers (e.g., Saadia and Maimonides). We will focus on some or all of the following themes: God's existence, God's nature, God's justice, the creation of the universe, the priority of reason versus faith, the literal versus metaphorical nature of religious language, and the soul's immortality. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 318 Race and Racism +
Description:
This course examines the genesis of the idea of ''race'' as a way of viewing human differences from the 16th to the 19th centuries. It also explores conceptions of ''racism'' in relation to such contemporary phenomena as white privilege, ''institutional racism,'' race and crime, race and intelligence, affirmative action, racial hostility among non-''white'' groups, ''internalized racism,'' race and class, and anti-immigrant hostility. Finally, the course looks at the notion of ''mixed race'' persons, their place in the hierarchy of racism and their role in challenging the concept of ''race'' itself. Though the course focuses primarily on whites and African Americans, racism as it bears on Native Americans, Asian Americans and Latinos is also considered. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
PHIL 327 Meaning and Being +
Description:
Exploration of themes in recent European philosophy, such as the self and the social world, anti-Cartesianism, subjectivity, language, and embodiment. Special attention to the life-world, being-in-the-world, and forms of life. Readings from such philosophers as Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty and Wittgenstein. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
PHIL 333 Ethical Theory +
Description:
A study of some of the major contemporary approaches to issues of right and wrong, good and bad, and good character: utilitarianism, deontology, the ethics of care, virtue ethics, feminist ethics, and issues of current importance in ethics-relativism, moral excellence, gender differences in morality. A systematic rather than historical approach. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 340 Speech Acts +
Description:
Speech Act Theory, pioneered by 20th century philosopher including Wittgenstein, Austin, Grice, and Searle, looks at ordinary language in terms of action, treats meaning as a matter of use, and emphasizes the power of language to shape social and material reality. Issues include how individual intentions shape meaning, how social conventions crate, shape, limit, or enhance individual meaning, the question of authority--its grounding and its scope, and more. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
PHIL 344 The Philosophy of Mind +
PHIL 345 Theory of Knowledge +
Description:
Knowledge-its nature, forms, methods, scope, and validation. What are the relations of knowledge and justification to sense experience? For example, does knowledge of our surroundings rest upon a foundation of sense experience? Is knowledge of the so-called ''truths of reason'' in some way independent of evidence provided by sense experience? How is a body of knowledge related to an individual knower? Does the justification of one's beliefs depend upon what psychology reveals about the reliability of methods for acquiring the beliefs? Readings from contemporary sources. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
PHIL 346 The Philosophy of Science +
Description:
The nature of scientific explanation, with attention to the social and philosophical aspects of scientific methodology. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
PHIL 347 Problems of Metaphysics +
PHIL 348 The Self +
PHIL 351 Plato +
Description:
Plato's ethics, metaphysics, and theory of knowledge in the Phaedo, Republic, Theaetetus, Cratylus, Parmenides, Sophist, Statesman, and Philebus, as a solution to problems raised by his predecessors, notably the Pythagoreans, Heraclitus, Parmenides, and the Sophists. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
PHIL 364 Philosophy of War and Peace +
Description:
This class will take up key philosophical questions that arise in the context of waging war and making peace. Themes covered include just war theory (the morality of going to war, the orality of fighting, the morality of post war arrangements), transitional justice and how countries come to terms with their past, the moral psychology of war (the philosophical coherence f concepts like courage, cowardice, valor, glory, the meaning of peace and its different permutations, the plausibility of pacifism and the attractions of war as a way of life. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 376 Consent +
Description:
Consent plays an important role in our lives. It gives us the moral and legal power to transform our relationships with others: by requiring that we give valid consent to certain acts, we're protected from unwanted interference, while the ability to grant it allows us to transform what might otherwise be a crime into a benefit. While most philosophers agree about the value and power of consent, they disagree about the conditions necessary for valid consent, the ways in which consent can be vitiated, and the content of policies, regulations, and laws designed to govern it. The primary purpose of this course is to provide an advanced survey of this disagreement, with a special focus on consent to medical procedures and to sexual relations. This course offers opportunities for collaborative, civic engagement, and a major assignment in this course may be included in a Writing Proficiency Requirement portfolio. This is a hands-on, interactive course designed with the support of the Mellon Foundation. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
PHIL 379 Reality and Illusion, East and West +
Description:
It is ordinary believed, either consciously or subconsciously, that ''reality'' is being experienced and known by way of perceptions of things under optimal conditions. What is this reality believed to be like (say, causally governed? Dualistic? Independent?)? Are those characteristics immediately present in perceptions? Is it the only reality that there is? In this course, these questions will be explored and investigated through close examinations of philosophical works from both East (e.g., Buddhist and Daoist writings) and West (e.g., Plato, Hume, Schopenhauer). More Info
Offered in:- TBA
PHIL 380 Social & Political Philosophy +
Description:
Representative problems and themes of social and political philosophy, especially the concepts of human rights, liberty, justice, equality, law, social obligation and the social contract. These topics are explored through the work of classical and contemporary political and social philosophers. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
PHIL 381 Special Topics +
PHIL 395 International Ethics +
Description:
This course examines moral and political arguments concerning government and individual actions in the area of foreign policy, international relations, and global economic policy. Questions considered include: When, if ever, is war or intervention justified? Does justice require redistribution of wealth around the globe? Do universal human rights exist? Can they be enforced? More Info
Offered in:- TBA
PHIL 397 Marxist Philosophy +
Description:
A philosophical exploration of the thought of Karl Marx, based on a reading of his early and mature works. Topics discussed are idealism and materialism; the relation between theory and practice; dialectic; alienation; ideology; class; the analysis of capitalism; reification; and some contemporary theories, including critical theory and socialist feminism. Other theorists read include Lenin, Engels, Mao Tse Tung, Lukacs, Braverman, EP Thompson, Marcuse, and Gorz. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 418 The Ideas of Constitutional Democracy +
Description:
This course focuses on philosophical questions raised by the remarkable contemporary diffusion of constitutional democracy. What is the proper conception of ''constitutionalism''? Of ''democracy''? Of their surprising combination in ''constitutional democracy''? What institutions, legal structures, political arrangements and practices are required for, conducive towards, or antithetical to constitutional democracy? And, what method or methods should we adopt in approaching these vast and various questions? More Info
Offered in:- TBA
PHIL 440 Philosophy of Language +
Description:
This course examines 20th century analytic approaches to understanding the role of language in understanding mind, self, and world. Questions about the interplay between semantics and pragmatics will be addressed throughout the course, while focusing on questions about meaning, reference, truth, and the varieties of actions we accomplish through what we say. Topics include Russell's theory of descriptions and its critics, speech acts, and inferentialism. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 450 Rights +
Description:
This course examines a range of contemporary theories, including those of Rawls, Nozick, Feinberg, and Dworkin. It outlines the classical tradition, and introduces the work of legal positivists like Austin and Hart. Emphasis is placed on alternatives to rights based theories and on criticisms of rights systems, such as that put forward by contemporary communitarians, virtue theorists, and feminist theorists. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 452 Aristotle +
Description:
Aristotle's philosophy as a response to Plato's views about meaning, being, knowledge, ideas, number and the good. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
PHIL 455 Hegel and German Idealism +
Description:
This course is an introduction to the philosophy of Hegel and to the Hegelian tradition, through a reading of Hegel's major work, The Phenomenology of Spirit. Other readings for the course include excerpts of The Science of Logic and The Philosophy of Right, as well as important critical sources. More Info
Offered in:PHIL 462 The Critical Philosophy of Immanuel Kant +
PHIL 475 Philosophy Capstone +
Description:
The Philosophy Capstone is an advanced philosophy class offered across various topics which includes a longer writing project (of approximately 20 pages). The longer writing project aims to equip students with skills and habits essential to higher-level scholarly work: formulating and clarifying a philosophical question from scratch, composing and revising cogent philosophical prose, interpreting and analyzing complex texts, engaging with opposing arguments, using appropriate practices of style and documentation, giving and receiving constructive feedback. It requires a level of independence beyond what is expected in typical undergraduate assignments, crucial for developing as a philosopher and an independent thinker. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
PHIL 478 Independent Study I +
PHIL 479 Independent Study II +
Description:
Study of a particular area of this subject under the supervision of a faculty member. Students wishing to register must do so through the department. More Info
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