Below are specific descriptions of what the professor currently plans to do in the course. For other 1000 and 2000 level course descriptions, please see the "Courses" link on the left menu bar under "Undergraduate Program."
PHIL 2050: PHILOSOPHICAL THINKING
Staff TR 9:30-10:45
Staff MW 12:00-1:15
Philosophical methods, concepts, skills, and principles. For example: sentential logic, regress and reductio arguments, paradigm-case arguments, types of supervenience, Leibniz's Law, necessity versus apriority. Applications to important philosophical texts.
PHIL 3000: Mortal Questions: Search/Meaning
Staff TR 9:30-10:45
Examinations of topics central to living a meaningful life, such as life-goals, death, work, spirituality, money and ownership, emotions, friendship, and love. Readings from selected philosophers.
PHIL 3010: History of Western Philosophy I: Ancient and Medieval
Prof. Tim O’Keefe MW 1:30-2:45
Staff TR 2:30-3:45
This course will be an introduction to some of the major figures in ancient Greek philosophy: Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, the Stoics, and the Pyrrhonian skeptics. We will also look at how the Medieval philosophers Augustine and Aquinas try to appropriate the doctrines of pagan philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle and use them within the context of Christian belief.
PHIL 3020: History of Western Philosophy II: Modern
Staff MW 12:00-1:15
If there was ever a turning point in the history of philosophy — a time after which nothing was ever quite the same — we might point to Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy. “First philosophy” is the Aristotelian term for metaphysics (the general philosophical investigation into the nature of reality), and Descartes was responding to centuries of philosophical inquiry that took its cue from Aristotle. This course is a historical survey of metaphysics and epistemology — with continual glances to the impact of religion and theology on these subjects — in the early modern period.
PHIL 3030: History of Western Philosophy III: 19th and 20th Century
Prof. Andrew Altman TR 11:00-12:15
An examination of seven of the major thinkers of the past two centuries: Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Marx, Freud, and Dewey. These guys are HEAVYWEIGHTS. They take on the BIG questions. They develop VERY CONTROVERSIAL and VERY INFLUENTIAL ideas. And they disagree with one another about almost everything. Watch them slug it out. Get in a few licks yourself. Among the questions to be addressed are: What is the meaning of human history? What is human nature? What is the nature of reality? What are the scope and limits of human knowledge? Why is human life filled with such pain and despair? What is the key to overcoming pain and despair? Is human life really all about sex? What's a nice American boy like John Dewey doing among all those wacky European thinkers?
PHIL 3720: Contemporary Moral Problems
Staff TR 9:30-10:45
Staff MW 3:00-4:15
Selected moral issues, such as abortion, euthanasia, environmentalism, genetic engineering, feminism, animal rights, gay and lesbian rights, and political violence. Brief coverage of ethical theories as they relate to the issues at hand.
PHIL 3730: Business Ethics
Sections See GoSolar for details
This course explores how ethical considerations such as justice, loyalty, obedience, honesty, and other moral principles may bear on the choices of persons who lead (or are part of) businesses, and how such principles may conflict. The course will consider the ethical consideration capitalist markets raise for business organizations (including the ethics in advertising and marketing). We will also study competing accounts of human rights and how such rights might shape organizational structures in light of personal privacy and institutional needs.
PHIL 3855: Topics in Political Theory: The Political Philosophy of Plato, Aristotle and Hobbes
Prof. Peter Lindsay MW 3:00-4:15
This course covers the political philosophy of Plato, Aristotle and Hobbes. The primary focus is on what these thinkers had to say on such questions as: What is the good life? What makes political power legitimate? Why should we obey political authority? Special emphasis will be put on the contributions these thinkers made to Western conceptions of democracy, equality, human nature, citizenship, etc., as well as the continuing relevance of the texts for explaining contemporary political events.
PHIL 4030/6030: Topics in Ancient Philosophy: Epicurus
Prof. Tim O’Keefe MW 3:00-4:15
This course is an introduction to Epicureanism, one of the major philosophical systems, along with Stoicism and academic skepticism, competing for the allegiances of thoughtful people in the Hellenistic world. This course will range fairly broadly over Epicurus (resolutely materialistic and reductionist) metaphysics, (empiricist and anti-skeptical) epistemology, and (egoistic and hedonistic) ethics. Some particular topics to be covered include: Why we should favor mechanistic explanations of phenomena to teleological ones that refer to the will of the gods, inherent purpose in nature, or the like; Why the mind is identical to a bodily organ and death is annihilation; How a random atomic swerve helps preserve our freedom; Why skepticism is unlivable and self-refuting; Why living a simple life and reducing your desires leads to the most pleasant life; Why you have to love your friends as much as yourself (and in what sense) for the purposes of obtaining pleasure for yourself; Why realizing that death is annihilation should help relieve the fear of death.
PHIL 4075/6075: Topics in 19th Century: Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit
Prof. Sebastian Rand MW 1:30-2:45
The Phenomenology of Spirit is Hegel’s most influential work, and is often regarded as one of the most difficult texts of the Western philosophical canon. In it Hegel attempts to demonstrate the self-correcting structure of normativity as such, and thereby to prepare the way for the exhibition of the self-grounding nature of human reason, institutions, and culture (which exhibition occupies his later works). This demonstration requires a philosophical treatment of the entirety of (what Hegel regards as) the modern Western human experience and its history. Our object in this class will be to confront and comprehend as much of this treatment as possible.
PHIL 4100/6100: Epistemology
Steve Jacobson TR 11:00-12:15
The course will cover classical and contemporary discussions regarding knowledge and justified belief. Roughly the first third or half of the course will be a survey of classical topics in epistemology--the problems of the external world, other minds, induction, for example. The remainder of the course will concentrate on contemporary discussions of topics such as the Gettier problem, skepticism, foundationalism, coherentism, reliabilism, contextualism, the internalist/externalist debate, theories of truth, verificationism, feminist and naturalized epistemology.
PHIL 4130/6130: Philosophy of Science
Prof. Andrea Scarantino TR 5:30-6:45
This class will begin with the problem of demarcation: What is the distinction between science (e.g. astronomy) and pseudo-science (e.g. astrology)? We will then consider a number of questions central to the scientific enterprise. What amounts to a scientific explanation of a phenomenon? How do you confirm a scientific hypothesis? What are laws, and do all scientific disciplines have them? Are successful scientific theories really telling us what the world is like? We will conclude our investigation with an analysis of the specific philosophical problems raised by neuropsychology.
PHIL 4520: Symbolic Logic
Prof. Sebastian Rand MW 3:00-4:15
This class presents a standard contemporary version of the modern logics first developed by Boole, Frege, Peirce, Russell, and others. Students will learn to translate natural-language sentences into symbolic notation, compute truth tables, and construct proofs, for both sentential and first-order predicate logics. The skills acquired in this class are essential for advanced work in philosophy; mastering the basics of symbolic logic is particularly useful for students preparing for the LSAT or other similar standardized tests.
PHIL 6520: Symbolic Logic
Prof. Sebastian Rand MW 12:00-1:15
This class presents standard first-order deductive logic in the sentential and predicate calculus, along with sentential modal logic, and metalogic (including model theoretic semantics) for both. The texts is Mates, Elementary Logic, Second Edition. This course is required for graduate students, who must take it in their first semester.
PHIL 4700/6700: Ethics
Prof. Andrew I. Cohen TR 2:30-3:45
A study of some leading historical and contemporary theories of what the good is, how we can know it, and what evaluative statements mean. The figures we study may include Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Hobbes, Hume, Kant, Mill, and some contemporary theorists such as Moore, Hare, Mackie, Gauthier, and Rawls. Class will be discussion/lecture. Student participation will be most welcome and often solicited. Course grade will be based on two critical essays, participation in class (including in-class presentations), summaries and critical reviews of readings, preparation of discussion questions, and a cumulative final examination. Graduate students will be asked to do more of each and prepare sample final examination questions.
PHIL 4800/6800: Social and Political Philosophy
Prof. Andrew J. Cohen TR 1:00-2:15
Drawing on selected recent works in social and political philosophy, we will discuss the Ethics of Taxation Policy and Political Redistribution of Welfare Goods. Our goal will be to determine if the state should engage in redistribution of resources and, if it should, how it should (and how much it should). This will involve discussing various fundamental moral questions regarding society and government.
PHIL 8000: Seminar in Philosophy: Philosophy, Mental Health and Mental Disorder
Prof. George Graham M 4:30-7:00
Vulnerability to mental disorder lies at the root of the instability of our mental lives. This seminar explores leading mental disorders and examines philosophical problems associated with the study of mental illness. Among topics to be considered: incomprehensibility of religious delusions, decay of personhood in pathologies of self-identity, decisional incapacity in addiction, emotional ill-being in clinical anxiety, negative self-appraisal in depression, and irrationality of the paranoid world view.
PHIL 8330: Seminar in Philosophy of Mind: Moral Psychology
Prof. Eddy Nahmias F 9:30-12:00
This course explores the relevance of recent scientific research on moral judgment and action to philosophical questions in moral psychology. In addition to cutting-edge work, we will read historical literature in philosophy and psychology that sets the stage for modern debates. Topics include: virtue ethics and research on character traits, reason and emotion in moral judgment, the reliability of moral intuitions, debates about egoism and altruism, and scientific challenges to free action.
PHIL 8820: Seminar in Philosophy of Law
Prof. Andrew Altman TR 4:00-5:15
This seminar will focus on human rights and international justice. It will examine contemporary works in philosophy, law, and political theory that address such questions as: What are human rights? Which rights are properly counted as human rights? Is there a human right to democracy? When are territories entitled to secede and form new states? Is it is good idea to have international tribunals that prosecute and punish persons for crimes such as genocide and crimes against humanity? When is humanitarian intervention justified? Is political assassination ever permissible as a means of protecting human rights? Does international justice require rich countries to transfer much of their wealth to poor countries?