Fall 2020 Courses
PHIL 1010: Introduction to Philosophy: The Meaning of Life
What does it mean to live a good life? This course will challenge students to think about why they have come to college, what their next steps are, how a liberal arts education can prepare them for what comes down the road, and what is ultimately meaningful in life.
The course will include philosophical, literary, and psychological examinations of happiness, freedom (how do we make transformative life decisions), the value of college education, materialism/consumerism, and resilience in the face of suffering and mortality.
In short, you will work at answering the fundamental question: What is the meaning of it all?
| Instructor: TBD | Multiple sections are available. Check the class search for details. Remote Learning |
link to flyer |
PHIL 1210: Critical Reasoning
Need some exercise? Critical reasoning is a form of mental gymnastics. It helps to solve problems, ask questions, organize our thoughts, and express ourselves clearly and defensibly. Interested in learning argument construction and analysis, a little logic, something about fallacies, and an occasional look at problems and places in the world?
A study of the principles of correct reasoning: induction, deduction, formal and informal fallacies. Critical reasoning is excellent preparation for the LSAT and the reasoning portions of other examinations for graduate study.
| Instructor: Dr. Rory Conces | TR; Sec 1: 10:00—11:15 AM Sec 2: 11:30 AM—12:45 PM Remote Learning |
link to flyer |
MEDH 1000: Intro to Medical Humanities
Medical Humanities explores the humanistic aspects of health, illness, and medicine through the integration of humanities, social science and fine arts perspectives. Topics may include: history of medicine, ethics of medicine and biomedical research, patient and heath care provider narratives, sociology of medicine (e.g., race and medicine, health literacy), literature and medicine, philosophy of medicine, empathy, end of life issues, and healing arts.
This class fulfills Humanities & Fine Arts General Education requirements.
| Instructor: Dr. Joseph McCaffrey | MW 4:00—5:15 PM, Remote Learning | link to flyer |
PHIL 2010: Symbolic Logic
This course investigates the structure of reasoning that lies at the core of thought, language, and communication.
This course covers the central aspects of propositional logic and predicate logic. We study both semantics (i.e., interpretive relations between language and subject matter including notions such as truth and reference) and syntax (i.e., formal relations between elements of language). We learn how to construct and translate formal languages and explore the basis of both semantic and syntactic inference. We also explore foundational issues in logical metatheory. Throughout the course, we discuss broad philosophical themes such as the purpose of language, constraints on translation, and nature of meaning itself.
Understanding logic is key to understanding everything! It is also excellent preparation for the LSAT and other examinations for graduate study.
| Instructor: Dr. William J. Melanson | MW 1:00—2:15 PM, Partially Online | link to flyer |
PHIL 2030: Introduction to Ethics
What is right? What is good? What should you do? In this class, students learn essential moral distinctions and influential moral theories and learn to apply these in the deliberation of complex ethical issues. At the heart of it all is discussion. Discussion of the theories and their application is central to learning how to reason about ethical problems and make moral progress.
| Instructor: TBD | Multiple sections are available. Check the class search for details. Remote Learning |
link to flyer |
PHIL 3110-820: Ancient Greek Philosophy
What is it to lead an examined life? What did Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, the Stoics, and others think about the nature of the universe and how to live a good life?
This course is a survey of philosophy from its beginning to the Middle Ages: pre-Socratics, Plato, Aristotle, Cynics, Epicureans, Stoics, Skeptics, Neo-Platonists.
| Instructor: Dr. Laura Grams | TR 10:00—11:15 AM, Remote Learning | link to flyer |
PHIL 3130: History of Modern Philosophy
An examination of the leading philosophical ideas of the 17th and 18th centuries: Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume and Kant. This course also fulfills the writing requirements for philosophy majors.
Prereq: 6 hours in Philosophy or permission.
Dr. Andrew Newman's main research interests are in metaphysics and the philosophy of physics, particularly the theory of universals and related problems concerning particulars, the notion of substance, and causality.
| Instructor: Dr. Andrew Newman | MW 2:30—3:45 PM, ASH 290 | link to flyer |
PHIL 3210: Social Philosophy
An examination of the problems and concepts of social and political philosophy. Topics will include:
- Theories of Justice (Mill, Rawls, Nozick)
- Martha C. Nussbaum on Political Emotions
- Ethno-Nationalist Conflicts and Nation Building
- Intellectuals and Peace Building
- Ahmet Altan on Imprisonment
- Wendy Brown on Walls and Sovereignty
- Human Rights and Interventionism
This course is crosslisted with INST 4140.
| Instructor: Dr. Rory Conces | MW 1:00—2:15 PM, Remote Learning | link to flyer |
PHIL 3250: Limits of Consciousness
We all live lives rich in subjective experience. And yet consciousness is often considered one of the most mysterious and unexplained features of our world. Limits of Consciousness examines the philosophy, neuroscience, and psychology of consciousness.
Topics we may explore include: what is consciousness? What are different kinds of consciousness? Is there such a thing as unconscious perception? What are the major scientific theories of consciousness, and are they any good? Where is consciousness located in the brain? Are animals conscious? This class is an interdisciplinary inquiry into the nature of consciousness and whether and how science can explain it.
This course is crosslisted with PSYC 4250.
| Instructor: Dr. Joseph McCaffrey | TR; Sec 820: 2:30—3:45 PM Sec 002: 4:00—5:15 PM Remote Learning |
link to flyer |
PHIL 3500-002: Health Justice
Some people enjoy good health, while others suffer illness. These inequalities are not only a matter of individual good or ill fortune, but also a matter of choices we make about how to structure our society: whether we provide public healthcare free of charge, how we regulate private providers, and how we distribute access to crucial goods like housing, nutrition, education, and clean air. The topic of this course is health justice: what would be a just way for states to evaluate competing policy choices in light of their various impacts on human health? Readings will be drawn primarily from contemporary political philosophy.
| Instructor: Dr. Robert Steel | TR 11:30 AM—12:45 PM | link to flyer |
PHIL 3600: Theory of Knowledge
This course investigates the fundamental structures of justification, knowledge, and understanding, and related questions such as: What is the nature of trust? When should you rely on expert opinion? When is majority opinion a good gauge of truth? How should disagreement with others impact your views? What is the basis for skepticism and why is it so attractive? What is the aim of theorizing and what is required of a good explanation? Are feelings of confidence, certainty, and understanding reliable?
All in all, we will consider how we ought to believe.
This course is an examination of the nature and limits of human knowledge and related issues such as skepticism, certainty, rationality and perception, and the problem of other minds.
| Instructor: Dr. William J. Melanson | TR 1:00—2:15 PM, Partially Online | link to flyer |
PHIL 3700: Metaphysics
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things or reality, including questions about being, substance, time and space, causation, change, and identity (which are presupposed in the special sciences but do not belong to any one of them).
Some representative views from the history of philosophy will be covered as well as contemporary debates. The course includes examination of the relation of metaphysical positions to other areas of knowledge and belief and the critical evaluation of metaphysics as an intellectual enterprise.
| Instructor: Dr. Andrew Newman | MW 1:00—2:15 PM, Roskens Hall 112 | link to flyer |
PHIL 4000: Philosophical Writing
This is the capstone course of the philosophy major, designed to teach students to write at an advanced level. Students will present their own writing and critique the writing of others, under close guidance of the instructor.
By the end of the seminar, each student will have produced a "journal-length" (approximately 20 page) paper on a philosophical topic, and gained extensive experience in revising papers and editing the work of others.
| Instructor: Dr. Andrew Newman | MW 10:00—11:15 AM, ASH 290 | link to flyer |