Undergraduate Courses in Philosophy
- 1050 Introduction to Philosophy. 3 hours. Survey of leading figures in the history of philosophy (from Ancient Greece, Medieval Europe, the Renaissance, Enlightenment, and 20th century) and an examination of central areas of philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, human nature, ethics, political theory, and aesthetics. Satisfies the Humanities requirement of the University Core Curriculum.
- 1400 Introduction to Contemporary Moral Issues. 3 hours. Survey of basic ethical theories and exploration of such issues as abortion, euthanasia, national security and civil liberties, affirmative action, the death penalty, extramarital sex, pornography, animal rights, world hunger, and the environment. Satisfies the Humanities requirement of the University Core Curriculum.
1800 Philosophy of Self. 3 hours. An examination of the nature of the self through a reading of classical and contemporary sources. Topics may include, the relation of mind and body, the soul, self and society, non-Western notions of self, freedom and determinism, the unconscious, gender and race. - 2050 Introduction to Logic. 3 hours. Focus on critical thinking to develop the skills for making sound arguments and for evaluating the arguments of others in order to recognize the difference between arbitrary and well-reasoned judgments. Topics include deductive and inductive modes of practical reasoning, common fallacies, rules of inference, and the formal rules of logic. Satisfies the Humanities requirement of the University Core Curriculum.
- 2070 Great Religions. 3 hours. Philosophical and social dimensions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity, Humanism and Islam. Emphasizes the diversity of religious experience and traditions.
- 2100 Introduction to Judaism (formerly PHIL 3573). 3 hours. Examines the beliefs, practices, laws, and movements of Judaism from Biblical times to the present, emphasizing the impact of modernity on the central texts and traditions.
- 2310 Introduction to Ancient Philosophy. 3 hours. An introduction to the worldview of Antiquity through an examination of the metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical views in Ancient Greek philosophy including the pre-Socratics, Plato, and Aristotle. Satisfies the Humanities requirement of the University Core Curriculum.
- 2330 Introduction to Modern Philosophy. 3 hours. No longer offered after Fall 2009. An examination of metaphysical, epistemological and ethical views in the Modern Period, focusing on the writings of the Rationalists and the Empiricists. Satisfies the Humanities requirement of the University Core Curriculum. No longer offered after Fall 2009.
- 2400 Religion and American Society. 3 hours. Selected topics in the relationship of religion to society in the United States. Subjects covered include the development of religious pluralism in the United States, the role and contributions of religious minorities, religion and civil rights, religion and gender issues and religious response to cultural change. Satisfies the Cross-Cultural, Diversity and Global Studies requirement of the University Core Curriculum.
- 2500 Contemporary Environmental Issues. 3 hours. Explores ethical, ecological, and political dimensions of such international environmental issues as atmospheric and water pollution, global climate change, industrial agriculture, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and the relationship between environmental issues and social and political concerns. Satisfies the Humanities requirement of the University Core Curriculum.
- 2600 Ethics In Science 3 hours. Survey of the philosophical relationships between ethics (including political and cultural values) and science (as a practice and form of inquiry). Topics include research ethics, experimentation on animals, biotechnology, information technology, gender in science, religion and science, and science policy. Satisfies the Social and Behavioral Sciences requirement of the University Core Curriculum.
- 3100 Aesthetics. 3 hours. An examination of the theories of the beauty of nature and art in the history of philosophy as represented by or found in painting, sculpture, music, literature, film, and television to understand the nature of aesthetic experience, artistic expression, and the relation of art to nature, truth, ethics, culture, technology, and gender.
- 3110 Epistemology. 3 hours. Examines the nature of knowledge and justification. Issues include the relationship between knowledge and opinion, skepticism and the possibility of knowledge, the nature of truth and meaning, the roles of perception, social construction, and gender and ethnicity in knowing and believing.
- 3120 Social & Political Philosophy. 3 hours. Examines how people should live together in communities and what legitimate governing institutions best promote the ideals of freedom, justice, rights, democracy, equality, and happiness. Topics include civil and human rights, social contract theory, economic justice, group identity, race, and gender.
- 3200 Philosophy in Literature. 3 hours. Examination of how philosophical themes arise in works of literary fiction and the differences between a philosophical and literary approach. Topics include personal identity, consciousness, Stoicism, skepticism, mysticism, free will, ethics and justice, life and death, and God.
- 3250 Philosophy of Science. 3 hours. Examination of what science is and how it works. Topics including the nature of scientific explanation, the distinction between science and pseudo-science, scientific progress, the aims of science, and the role of social and economic values in scientific theories and practices.
- 3260 Philosophy of Social Science. 3 hours. Examination of the methodologies and criteria of knowledge, truth, and values in the social sciences. Topics include an analysis of the nature of action, rationality, agency, social meaning, and interpretation.
- 3300 Symbolic Logic. 3 hours. Symbolic analysis applied to logical problems, propositional logic, predicate logic, and modal logic.
- 3310 Ancient Philosophy.Advanced examination of selected philosophical thought from the pre-Socratics through Plotinus including Plato and Aristotle.
- 3320 Medieval Philosophy.Advanced examination of selected philosophical thought from Saint Augustine to the Renaissance. Philosophers might include Boethius, Anselm, Avicenna, Averroes, Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham.
- 3330Modern Philosophy.Advanced examination of selected philosophical thought from the Renaissance to the 19th century including Continental rationalism, British Empiricism, and Kant.
- 3340 19th-Century Philosophy. Examination of major figures in European philosophy such as Hegel, Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, Marx, , and Nietzsche. Topics include the nature of knowledge, religion, the role of history, political economy, and the relationship of the individual to society.
- 3350 Early 20th-Century Philosophy. Selected major figures and themes in Anglo-American and Continental philosophy including analytic philosophy, logical positivism, linguistic analysis, ordinary language philosophy, process philosophy, existentialism, phenomenology, pragmatism, and post-Analytic philosophy.
- 3360 American Philosophy.Examination of the major American philosophies, including pragmatism and process philosophy. Figures might include C.S. Pierce, William James, John Dewey, George Herbert Mead, Alfred North Whitehead, Hilary Putnam, and Richard Rorty. .
- 3400 Ethical Theories. 3 hours. Analysis of the important historical and contemporary theories of appropriate human conduct through a reading of major philosophers such as Aristotle, Aquinas, Hobbes, Hume, Kant, Mill, and Nietzsche.
- 3500 Christianity and Philosophy. 3 hours.
A Philosophical study of Christianity from its origins to the present, including Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and Protestantism. Topics may include faith and reason, nature and grace, love, evil, and religious truth.
- 3570 Hebrew Bible. 3 hours. Philosophical and ethical concepts of the Hebrew Bible compared with ancient pagan thought and subsequent Western culture. Concepts discussed include creation, revelation, holiness, faith, covenant, prophecy, idolatry, chosen people, justice, mercy, truth, and peace.
- 3573 Introduction to Judaism. Changed to PHIL 2100.
- 3575 Judaic Religion and Philosophy. 3 hours. An introduction to a wide range of Judaic texts -- biblical, medieval, and modern -- that address Jewish law, history, and thought from diverse points of view.
- 3580 Philosophy of Early Christian Thought. 3 hours. Selected first-century Christian documents in light of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Roman mystery religions, and biblical and extra-biblical Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek writings.
- 3585 South Asian Philosophy & Religion. 3 hours. Philosophical study of South Asian philosophical and religious thought from earliest times to the present: the Indus Valley civilization, Vedic, religion, the development of Jainism, Buddhism and the devotional Hinduism, the philosophical schools, medieval Indian thought, Sikhism, and modern Indian philosophy.
- 3590 East Asian Philosophy & Religion. 3 hours. Philosophical study of East Asia from earliest times to the present, including ancient Chinese religion; Taoist, Confucian, Mohist and Legalist philosophies; Chinese Buddhism and Neo-Confucianism; the influence of Shinto, Buddhism and Neo-Confucianism upon medieval Japan; and Japanese philosophy since the Meiji Restoration.
- 3600 Philosophy of Religion. 3 hours. Examines the concepts, belief systems, and practices of religions. Topics include religious experience, faith and reason, arguments for God’s existence, the problem of evil, religious language, life after death, miracles, religion and science, and the conflicting claims of different religions
- 3650 Religion & Science. 3 hours. An examination of the complex historical and contemporary relationship between sciences and religions. Historical elements focus on the rise of modern science and “the Galileo Affair.” Contemporary issues may include cosmology, religion and ecology, intelligent design and evolution, stem cell research, and artificial intelligence.
- 3700 Science, Technology, and Society. 3 hours.
An examination of the interconnections among science, technology, and society and the ways they mutually shape one another to the benefit and detriment of social life and the environment. Topics include the social values of science and technology; technology and social progress; expertise and democracy; colonialism; and environmental justice.
- 3800 Philosophy of Mind. 3 hours. Examination of the nature of perception and consciousness, the nature of mental events and mental states, and the relationship of the mind to the brain and the body. Topics include free will versus determinism, scientific reductivism, holism, the unconscious, behaviorism, artificial intelligence, free will, and the self.
- 3900 Philosophy of Food. 3 hours.
An examination of the philosophical dimensions of food, agriculture, animals, eating, and taste to explore the nature and meaning of food, how we experience it, the social role it plays, its moral and political dimensions, and how we judge it to be delicious or awful.
- 4400 Metaphysics. 3 hours. Examination of the ultimate nature of reality and the terms used to understand it such as existence, substance, causality, space, time, and identity. Themes include idealism, realism, naturalism, and process metaphysics. Figures might include Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Locke, Leibniz, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Whitehead, and Derrida.
- 4450 Philosophy of Ecology. 3 hours. Traces the development of ecology from its roots in 19th Century natural history through general ecology, restoration ecology, deep ecology, and social ecology. The course examines the central philosophical concepts of biological and cultural diversity; the relations between societies and their environments; non-Western conceptions of nature and society.
- 4500 Existentialism. 3 hours. Examination of humanity’s place in the natural and social worlds. Emphasis on problems on freedom, authenticity, alienation, anxiety, affirmation, morality, religion, and atheism. Figures typically include, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger and Sartre.
- 4550Philosophy of Science & Technology. 3 hours. Examines the relationship between science and technology; the role of experiment and instrumentation in scientific practice; the social construction of scientific knowledge and technical artifacts; the nature of technology in human perception and experience; the relationship of biotechnology, information technology, and nanotechnology to society.
- 4600 Phenomenology. 3 hours. The study of human experience and of the ways things present themselves to us in and through such experience. Examines phenomenology as a method of inquiry, a philosophical movement, and a study of the structures and conditions of experience Figures typically include Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Ricoeur.
- 4650Philosophy of Water. 3 hours. An examination of water issues at the interface of science, policy, philosophy, art and culture. Philosophical approaches include ethics, aesthetics and ontology of water, epistemological analyses of water conflicts, local and global governance theories.
- 4700 Environmental Ethics. 3 hours. An examination of appropriate human interventions in the natural world. Topics include the history of ideas behind environmental thought, the legal and moral standing of nature, animal rights and welfare, deep ecology, social ecology, environmental justice.
- 4750 Philosophy & Public Policy. 3 hours. This course explores how moral theory, political philosophy, and philosophy of science and technology can clarify issues in public policy. Topics may include the nature of government, the instruments of public policy, democracy and the economy, social costs and benefits, science and technology policy, computers and information policy, food and water policy, environmental and development policy.
- 4800 Postmodernism. 3 hours. An examination of contemporary philosophers and writers who question the premise of Enlightenment thought that Reason will liberate us from superstition, tradition, and hardships imposed by nature. Topics may include a critique of foundationalism, representational epistemology, historical progress, and Eurocentrism.
- 4900-4910 Special Problems. 1-3 hours each.
- 4960 Proseminar in Philosophy. 3 hours. Advanced study of specific figures, themes, or problems in philosophy and religion studies. May be repeated for credit as topics vary each semester.
- 4970 Capstone Seminar. 3 hours. Seminar on philosophical writing and argument focusing on the comparative study of important figures in the history of philosophy. Prerequisite(s): senior standing and consent of department. Required course for all philosophy majors. This class only meets during Fall Semesters.
