Some additional information about this semester's courses can be found at the Arts and Sciences course descriptions page.
Fall 2023 (Term 2241)
PHIL 0010 Concepts of Human Nature (20775)
TBA
TH 12:00-12:50
No course description available.
PHIL 0080 Introduction to Philosophical Problems (19814)
TBA
TH 10:00-10:50
No course description available.
PHIL 0200 History of Ancient Philosophy (20396)
Jacob Rosen
TH 11:00-11:50
The goal of this course is to offer an introduction to ancient Greek philosophy. We will start by examining the sorts of philosophical questions that interested the first Greek philosophers, the so-called Presocratics. These were primarily questions about natural philosophy, especially the first causes of the world and the place of human beings in it. The Presocratics will provide us with a background for exploring the complex figure of Socrates and his account of a good life. What should we care for in order to live well, Socrates wondered: money, political power, or something else? He argued that, in order to live well, we should care for our soul. But what is a soul, and what does it mean to care for it? To answer these questions, we will examine Plato’s psychology and metaphysics and Aristotle’s criticism of them. Despite their differences, both Plato and Aristotle thought that, in order to have a good life, a human being needs to be virtuous. Should we conclude from this that virtue is all one needs to be happy? We will end the course by considering two different answers to this question: that of the Epicureans, and that of the Stoics.
PHIL 0275 Introduction of Chinese Philosophy (31814)
Sabrina Hao
MW 6:00-7:15
This course aims to survey the main ideas in Chinese philosophy at an introductory level. We will mainly focus on the classical period, from which we will read about Laozi's Taoism, Kongzi's Confucianism, Mozi's Mohism, and their respective successors. We will see how Confucianism and Taoism contrast each other yet together influence the development of Chinese philosophy. During the last weeks of the semester, we will also briefly go through some important ideas in Chinese Buddhism, neo-Confucianism, and modern Chinese philosophy.
PHIL 0300 Introduction to Ethics (10347)
Nandi Theunissen
TH 1:00-1:50
No course description available.
PHIL 0350 Philosophy and Public Issues (22707)
TBA
TH 9:00-9:50
No course description available.
Travis McKenna
H 6:00-8:30
PHIL 0380 Women and Philosophy (22716)
Kathleen Cook
TH 11:00-12:15
What did philosophers of the past, women and men, have to say about women’s nature, moral character, education, and the roles they should play in society? How did these philosophers argue for their views? In this course we will consider women as both subject matter for, and participants in, a number of debates in the history of western philosophy from ancient Greece through the 19th century. Our reading will include selections from works by Xenophon, Plato, Aristotle, Musonius Rufus, Christine de Pizan, Anna Maria van Schurman, Sor Juana de la Cruz, Rene Descartes, John Locke, Mary Astell, Francois Poulain de la Barre, Dorotha Christiane Erxleben, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant, Mary Wollstonecraft, John Stuart Mill, and Harriet Taylor.
PHIL 0440 Minds and Machines (28555)
TBA
MW 1:00-1:50
No course description available.
PHIL 0450 Theories of Knowledge and Reality (30767)
TBA
MW 1:00-1:50
No course description available.
PHIL 0473 Philosophy of Religion (24951)
Brock Bahler
TH 9:30-10:45
This course will examine arguments for and against the existence of God, as well as other topics central to philosophy of religion including the nature of religious experiences, the relation of faith to reason, interreligious dialogue, religion and civil rights, decolonial responses to the abuses of religion, and religious responses to evil (theodicy). Students will develop a working knowledge of the issues by reading and discussing traditional and contemporary scholars.
PHIL 0473 Philosophy of Religion (24952)
Brock Bahler
MW 3:00-4:15
This course will examine arguments for and against the existence of God, as well as other topics central to philosophy of religion including the nature of religious experiences, the relation of faith to reason, interreligious dialogue, religion and civil rights, decolonial responses to the abuses of religion, and religious responses to evil (theodicy). Students will develop a working knowledge of the issues by reading and discussing traditional and contemporary scholars.
PHIL 0500 Introduction of Logic
TBA
TH 2:00-2:50
No course description available.
Sara Magrin
TH 9:30-10:45
Ned Howells-Whitaker
W 6:00-8:30
PHIL 1170 Kant (23600)
Thomas Pendlebury
TH 11:00-12:15
An introduction to Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. Themes include Kant’s conception of human knowledge, the character of his critical investigation, and the meaning of his doctrine of transcendental idealism.
Mark Wilson
TH 11:00-12:15
PHIL 1300 Ethical Theory (28748)
Nandi Theunissen
TH 4:00-5:15
No course description available.
PHIL 1310 History of Ethics (30778)
Stephen Engstrom
MW 4:30-5:45
No course description available.
PHIL 1315 Applied Ethics (30779)
Japa Pallikkathayil
TH 1:00-2:15
This course will consider how different ethical theories treat various practical issues. Possible topics include: duties to animals, abortion, poverty, prostitution and assisted suicide. The course examines two questions: What should we think about these issues? And which ethical theory is correct? The course explores how the answers to these two questions are related.
PHIL 1317 Philosophy of Race and Religion (31360)
Brock Bahler
TH 1:00-2:15
This course is a philosophical exploration of the intersections of race, racism, and religious thought. It begins with an analysis of the modern philosophical and religious ideologies that gave rise to the idea of race during colonialism, traces the entanglement of Western philosophy and Christian theology with racist political ideologies, and presents critical responses to race from African-American, Latin American, Asian, and Indigenous philosophers and liberation theologians.
PHIL 1360 Biomedical Ethics (30780)
TBA
H 6:00-8:30
No course description available.
PHIL 1400 Rights and Human Rights (23827)
Tom Berry
T 6:00-8:30
No course description available.
PHIL 1410 Philosophy of Action (30781)
Michael Thompson
TH 2:30-3:45
No course description available.
Mark Wilson
TH 2:30-3:45
PHIL 1610 Introduction to Philosophy of Science
Robert Batterman
MW 1:00-1:50
No course description available.
3-23-2023
Summer 2023 (Term 2237)
6-Week 1 (5/15-6/24)
In this course, we will talk about some of the important questions that often occur to us in everyday life: What makes someone a good person? Do I have to give to charity, and if so, why? What makes me who I am? Do I have to obey the law if I won't get caught? Who should I listen to when I decide what to think?
We will discover that trying to get clear and well-reasoned answers to these questions will require some skills in philosophy and we'll read some philosophers wrestling with these and other questions. Our goal will be to improve our ability to reason and communicate clearly when we answer important questions like these, so that we can develop a better sense of how we want to live our lives.
This course in an introduction to ancient philosophy. It will focus on the works of Plato and Aristotle. We will look at a broad range of themes: knowledge and appearances, virtue and ethics, justice and politics, perception and science, and poetry and drama. Plato and Aristotles’ works on these themes constitute the foundation of our modern understanding of science, politics, ethics, and art. Using a combination of original texts and secondary sources, we try to get a handle on what particular dialogues and passages say about these topics, and sometimes how Plato’s and Aristotles writings coincide or contrast about particular ideas. This will be a discussion based seminar, thus the required texts (in hardcopy) will be used during class meetings.
This is an introductory course considering questions of right and wrong. The first part of the course will cover three influential kinds of ethical theories—deontology, consequentialism, and virtue ethics. The second part will address some moral problems of serious interest today, including criminal punishment, animal rights, and procreative enhancement. Finally, the third part will address questions about the relationship between morality and rationality (e.g. is it rational to be moral?). We will read both contemporary and historical texts.
This course is an introduction to political philosophy, with a focus on the question "What is a good society?" To this end, we will discuss some (alleged) key components of a good society, including Welfare, Liberty, Democracy, Equality, and Justice. We will read excerpts from various historical and contemporary texts for inspiration, including, to name a few, Plato, Hobbes, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx and John Rawls. The main focus of this course is on obtaining a better overall understanding of what a good society is.
No course description available.
6-Week 2 (6/26-8/5)
No course description available.
The early modern period in philosophy spans the 17th and 18th centuries, beginning with Descartes and ending with Kant. It was the time of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment. The rapid progress of science raised many philosophical questions which still resonate today, questions about mind and matter, science and religion.
the limits of human knowledge?
Philosophy is often thought of as an abstract and theoretical discipline with little connection to the real issues we face as a society. This impression, however, is false: philosophy can offer us valuable tools for thinking about and addressing the problems and questions we encounter in our sociopolitical context, and philosophers have much to say about social issues. In this course, we will examine the philosophical dimensions of several of the most pressing of these issues. Specifically, we will discuss four broad topics:
· Race and racism
· Multiculturalism, identity, and assimilation
· Climate change and other environmental and animal rights issues
· Sex, rape, and consent
Within these topics, we will give particular attention to specific issues. For instance, in the context of race and racism we will discuss what efforts (if any) we should take to rectify past racist wrongs.
The immediate philosophical aim of this course is to help you (and me!) develop considered philosophical views about these difficult issues. But it will also hopefully provide you with philosophical tools and perspectives that can be applied to a broad range of issues, public and private, and an understanding of more general and abstract philosophical questions about concepts like justice, freedom, and responsibility.
Besides the philosophical aim, this course also has a content-neutral aim: developing valuable skills like the ability to read and understand difficult material, to write informatively and persuasively, and to engage in productive discussions with your peers. To that end, the course will involve several written assessments and a meaningful (but not overly heavy—I prefer quality over quantity) amount of reading. Furthermore, classes will be structured so as to promote discussion rather than being primarily lecture-focused.
This class does not presuppose any philosophical background.
No course description available.
3-15-2023