College of Arts and
Sciences

Professor Jane L. Winer, Dean

Department of Philosophy

Associate Professor Daniel O. Nathan, Chairperson.

Peirce Professor Ketner; Professor Averill; Associate Professors Curzer, Ransdell, and Schaller; Assistant Professor Thomasson; Visiting Assistant Professors Lewis and Webb.

This department offers study in the following graduate degree program: PHILOSOPHY, Master of Arts. The master's degree program is aimed at providing a broad background in philosophy while encouraging complementary work in an approved minor field of study.

A student in this program may choose a plan of study involving 27 hours of graduate course work plus at least 6 hours of thesis, or 36 hours of graduate courses. At least 6 and at most 12 of these graduate hours must be taken in a minor field outside of philosophy. On approval of the student's departmental advisor, the minor field may be drawn from a wide range of areas in the sciences, arts, humanities, or business. In special circumstances a student may substitute philosophy courses for the minor requirement with prior approval of the department.

For specific information on admission to the program, prospective students should contact the Department of Philosophy and the Graduate School. Students from fields other than philosophy are encouraged to apply although they may be required to complete a certain amount of philosophy leveling work during their first semester of enrollment.

Courses in Philosophy. (PHIL)

5301. Studies in Greek Philosophy (3:3:0). Studies in the Pre-Socratics, Plato, Aristotle, and Hellenistic philosophy. May be repeated as topic varies.

5302. Studies in Modern Philosophy (1600-1800) (3:3:0). Studies in major philosophical works of the modern period drawn from such philosophers as Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. May be repeated as topic varies.

5305. Studies in American Philosophy (3:3:0). Studies in major American philosophers and philosophical movements from colonial times to the present. May be repeated as topic varies.

5308. Basic Issues in Contemporary Philosophy (3:3:0). Major philosophical theories and controversies of the twentieth century. Works will be drawn from such philosophers as Wittgenstein, Russell, Heidegger, Husserl, Quine, Davidson, and Kripke. May be repeated as topic varies.

5310. History of Aesthetics (3:3:0). Major philosophical theories of art and beauty from classical Greece to the twentieth century.

5311. Issues in Logic and Epistemology (3:3:0). A study of one or two questions about the justification of our knowledge of the external world, the mind, mathematics, or logic. May be repeated as topic varies.

5314. Contemporary Aesthetics (3:3:0). Current problems in aesthetics: the nature of a work of art, of aesthetic experience and judgment; issues of interpretation and evaluation in the arts.

5320. Seminar in Ethics (3:3:0). Selected topics in ethical theory: relativism, moral reasons, the nature of moral value, deontological and teleological ethics. May be repeated as topic varies.

5321. Social and Political Philosophy (3:3:0). Study of selected social or political philosophers or of selected topics such as justice, liberty, equality, liberalism, conservatism, and rights. May be repeated as topic varies.

5322. Law and Philosophy (3:3:0). Study of works of legal philosophers and central issues in philosophy of law such as legal obligation, nature of law, interpretation, privacy, law and morality. May be repeated as topic varies.

5330. Philosophy of Science (3:3:0). Methodological and conceptual issues in the physical and social sciences. Emphasis upon a scientific investigation as a way of knowing. May be repeated as topic varies.

5331. Philosophical Psychology (3:3:0). Central issues in philosophy of the mind, including the nature of the mental and the relation between mental and physical. Emphasis on thought and perception.

5340. Seminar in Metaphysics (3:3:0). An intensive study of one or two topics which include the nature of existence, cause, identity, kinds and their instances, change, and/or mind. May be repeated as topic varies.

5341. Great Figures in Philosophy (3:3:0). In-depth study of the works of just one or two great philosophers. May be repeated as topic varies.

6000. Master's Thesis (V1-6).

7000. Research (V1-12).


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