Current Philosophy Courses

Search via Schedules or Catalog.

SPRING 2013 Courses

PHIL 195-01A– Topics in Philosophy -- Sexual Ethics
MWF 3:00-3:50
Prof. Mulder

(meets first half of the semester)
(cross-listed with Women's Studies)

What is sex and why does it matter? What does it mean to objectify, or use, someone? What is consent and how does it function? What moral position should we take on issues of homosexuality and same-sex marriage? In this class, we'll ask these questions and more in an effort to develop a philosophical vision of sexuality. Our goal will be to develop our views on these matters into coherent and consistent theories (and there are several ways one might do that). All perspectives are invited to join the conversation and will be taken seriously and charitably.

PHIL 200–01A - Informal Logic
TR 4:30-5:50
Prof. LaPorte

(meets first half of the semester)

PHIL 200–01B - Informal Logic
TR 4:30-5:50
Prof. LaPorte

(meets last half of the semester)

There is a difference between a good argument for a conclusion and a good conclusion. In this class, we will be looking at what makes an argument good: i.e., what makes for good reasoning.

Students will learn about arguments by addressing arguments that have been offered by philosophers. Throughout this course, students will be asked to use an understanding of basic logic to formulate and criticize line-by-line arguments taken from philosophy texts.

With respect to the basic logic, students will learn some common valid argument forms. They will learn what an argument is, what validity is, what soundness is. They will also learn truth tables. They will learn how arguments may be convincing or unconvincing (since an argument may be unconvincing even if valid and sound). They will learn some traditional fallacies of reasoning (e.g., false analogy, post-hoc, etc.).

Students will learn to extract, explain, and evaluate arguments. Extracting an argument involves putting an argument in an explicit form. Explaining it involves finding support from the text for each premise in the argument. Evaluating the argument involves testing it for validity and then assessing whether it is sound or convincing, and if not why not.

Although the material from which we clarify and criticize arguments will be philosophical material, the primary aim of the course will to gain familiarity with how fruitfully to address an argument. So it is a course in analytical reasoning.

This course may be of some help to you if you plan to take a standardized test, such as the LSAT, that has a section on analytical reasoning. It will also be of interest to philosophers (both because of the philosophical arguments we address and because of the focus on reasoning), or practitioners of other disciplines that use a lot of arguments, and to people who are just interested in arguments and reasoning.

PHIL 230 – Ancient Philosophy
MWF 11:00-11:50
Prof. Bassett

Note: Partial fulfillment of the Cultural Heritage requirement.

This course is an introduction to Western philosophy from its beginning in ancient Greece to Europe during the Middle Ages. Philosophy is the “love of wisdom” or the quest for meaning. Philosophy addresses what might be called the “big questions” of human existence: Who am I and what is real? What is the source of my existence and the existence of the world? What is my purpose and how ought I live in order to achieve it? How can we achieve happiness as individuals and as a society? What is happiness and what is a just society? What is the best way to answer these questions in order to acquire knowledge? Can we acquire knowledge? What is knowledge? In this course we will look at the ways in which the greatest thinkers in our early cultural history -- Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epictetus, Epicurus, Plotinus, Augustine and Aquinas -- have attempted to answer these questions and to frame a meaningful view of human existence and the world we inhabit.

PHIL 232 – Modern Philosophy
TR 1:30-2:50
Prof. Dell'Olio

This course is an introduction to philosophical thought in the west during the modern period of our cultural history, a period characterized by its attempt to break away from traditional forms of authority, whether religious, social, or intellectual. Authors to be studied include Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Pascal, Voltaire, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Mill, Mary Wollstonecraft, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. The philosophers we will encounter in this course responded to the challenges of cultural change by formulating new conceptions of reality, knowledge, religion, the self, morality, the meaning of life, and the very nature of philosophy itself. These philosophers not only altered the way we view the world, but they put forward ideas that continue to challenge our common ways of thinking.

PHIL 295 - WORLD PHILOSOPHIES
TR 9:30-10:50
4 credits
Prof. Dell'Olio

This course is an introduction to philosophy in a global context. We will consider the classical philosophical traditions of Greece and Rome, India, China, and Japan. We will be mostly concerned with the great texts of these philosophical traditions and what they have to say about humanity’s perennial questions: What is real? Who am I? What can I know? How should I live? What is the nature of the Divine? What is enlightenment and how can I achieve it? We will attempt to understand the answers offered to these questions by the great minds and texts of these traditions with some attention to each tradition’s cultural and historical context. We will also compare and contrast the answers provided by each tradition with an eye to what each one has to offer us today for our own quest for wisdom.


This course satisfies the Cultural Heritage I, Cultural Diversity, and GLobal Learning International requirements.

PHIL 325 -- PHILOSOPHY OF MIND
TR 1:30-2:50
4 credits
Prof. Perovich

The nature of the human mind has long been a focus of philosophical, scientific, and popular interest: nothing is more central to our understanding of who we are than our understanding of the mind, and nothing is more central to the philosophical thought of recent years than the philosophy of mind. This course introduces the fundamental philosophical issues currently associated with the mind. It does so partly through introductory level material and partly through the reading of important articles by the leading philosophers in the area. We will treat such central topics in the philosophy of mind as the relation of mind to body, whether the mind can be understood in purely physical terms, the nature of consciousness, and whether computers provide us with the proper model for understanding the mind. We will also address the related question of free will. Class discussion of these issues will be encouraged: any lecturing will serve mainly to guarantee a shared understanding of the readings and to set the stage for conversation about them. Students will be asked to evaluate the wide variety of different views in this area and will be given the opportunity to respond to what they study by working toward their own understanding of what the mind is.

PHIL 331 – Philosophy of Religion
TR 3:00-4:20
Prof. Mulder

(cross-listed with REL 364)
(All students should register under PHIL 330)

In this course we’ll have a look at some classical views of God and arguments for God’s existence, and some challenges to religious faith. Under the latter heading, we’ll consider some issues like the problem of divine foreknowledge, the problem of evil, faith and reason, miracles, and the so-called problem of religious diversity. We’ll finish by exploring some themes in philosophical theology on particular Christian doctrines like Trinity, Incarnation, Atonement, petitionary prayer, whether there is a hell, and whether there is a purgatory. Here the focus will be on what these doctrines are supposed to mean and whether and how challenges to them can be met. We may even turn our philosophical eye to liturgy and issues in sexual ethics if there is time and interest. (This course is cross-listed with Religion 364. All students should register for Philosophy 331.)

PHIL 343 – 20th Century Political Philosophy:
Political Evil and the Rights of Humans
TR 12:00-1:20
Prof. Allis

(cross-listed with POL 343.
All students should register under POL 343)

The 20th century saw remarkable developments in many places around the globe in civil rights and women’s rights. At the same time, the 20th century was also perhaps the bloodiest century in human history in terms of state-sponsored killing. During the 20th century, there emerged on a wider scale the practices of terrorism, genocide, and ethnic cleansing. Such realities have led some observers to argue that “political evil” is the single most important concern facing the world in the 21st century.

But what might we mean by “political evil”? Are we talking about evil within the individual human soul, or are we talking about political, social, and economic structures that leave people in impossible situations? And how might we respond to and work with instances of “political evil” such as terrorism, genocide, and ethnic cleansing?

Then in a world in which “political evil” exists, what are the rights of human beings who suffer such evil? What is a right? How did rights come about? What might an emphasis on rights accomplish, and what difficulties might an insistence on rights create? What might be the role of force, if any, in the promotion of rights? Can a focus on rights actually serve to diminish the suffering that comes with political evil?

All are welcome to join in this exploration of political evil and the rights of humans.

PHIL 373 – Aesthetics: Beauty, the Arts and Controversy
MWF 12:00-12:50
Prof. Simon

This course will investigate of some of the philosophical issues raised by the arts, beauty and the sublime: What is art? What is beauty? Can an object or performance have high aesthetic value without being beautiful? Is there a connection between the beautiful and the sublime? How are the arts to be understood, appreciated and evaluated? In what way can works of art and artistic performances be said to possess meaning or truth? What is the role for the arts in our lives? Both historical and contemporary views will be studied. The course will explore how philosophical ideas apply to works drawn from many different artistic fields: visual arts, dance, theatre, music and literature.

PHIL 490 -- INDEPENDENT STUDIES
2 to 4 credits
Prof. Dell'Olio

(written permission of professor required)

Prerequisite: Departmental approval of a student proposed project prior to enrollment in the course. Such a project might be an internship; but in any case it would include a significant piece of philosophic writing. A student intending to enroll in PHIL 490 should plan ahead to study with the professor whose expertise and interests most clearly correspond to the student’s interests and intentions.

Spring 2013

Requirements for the major:

(1) PHIL 200 - Informal Logic or PHIL 201 - Logic
(2) At least one List II course
(3) At least one List III course
(4) At least one List IV course
(5) At least one additional course
(6) PHIL 450. Seminar in Philosophy.

Total of at least 24 credits in Philosophy (which can include 2 credit courses).

Requirements for the minor:

(1) PHIL 200 - Informal Logic or COMM 160 or PHIL 201 - Logic
(2) At least two of the following:

(a) A List II course
(b) A List III course
(c) A List IV course

(3) At least one additional course

Total of at least 16 credits in Philosophy (which can include 2 credit courses).

COURSE CATEGORY LIST

List II - Knowledge & Belief

PHIL 320 - Knowledge & Belief
PHIL 325 - Philosophy of Mind
PHIL 331 - Philosophy of Religion
PHIL 360 - Philosophy of Science


List III - Values & Human Condition

PHIL 241 - Phil of India & Tibet
PHIL 242 - Phil of China & Japan
PHIL 343 - 20th Century Political Thought
PHIL 344 - 20th Century Ethics
PHIL 373 - Aesthetics
PHIL 375 - Philosophy of Law
PHIL 380 - Existentialism
PHIL 385 - Postmodernism


List IV - History of Philosophy

PHIL 230 - Ancient Philosophy
PHIL 231 - Medieval Philosophy
PHIL 232 - Modern Philosophy
PHIL 233 - 19th Century Philosophy
PHIL 341 - Ancient & Medieval Political Thought
PHIL 342 - Modern Political Thought

2-credit class

PHIL 195 - Intro to Philosophy

Note: Only one (1) cross-listed course (4 credits) offered by another department may count towards the major and minor.