Philosophy Courses -- Spring 2010
PHIL 2300/001 BEGINNING PHILOSOPHY 10:00-10:50 MWF ENG/PHIL 160
002 BEGINNING PHILOSOPHY 11:00-11:50 MWG ENG/PHIL 163
DARREN HICK
This is a general introduction to philosophy, designed to acquaint students with certain significant problems as they are considered by major philosophical figures. These are not esoteric questions but instead ones central to ordinary human experience. Students will be encouraged to formulate and defend their own answers to these questions, using the concepts and methods of inquiry introduced in the course. This process will help improve students’ abilities to think more critically and to communicate with greater clarity and precision.
PHIL 2300/003 BEGINNING PHILOSOPHY 9:00-9:50 MWF ENG/PHIL 151
STAFF
This is a general introduction to philosophy, designed to acquaint students with certain significant problems as they are considered by major philosophical figures. These are not esoteric questions but instead ones central to ordinary human experience. Students will be encouraged to formulate and defend their own answers to these questions, using the concepts and methods of inquiry introduced in the course. This process will help improve students’ abilities to think more critically and to communicate with greater clarity and precision.
PHIL 2310/001 LOGIC 11:00-12:20 TR ENG/PHIL 160
SUNGSU KIM
In this course, we will study two logical systems, sentential logic and quantificational logic. We will start by examining some key concepts that characterize deductive reasoning. We will then construct our first logical system, sentential logic. We will study the language of sentential logic, which makes us able to represent logical forms of statements. We will then develop formal methods that allow us to analyze logical properties of the system, including derivation rules that “generate” a conclusion from a given set of premises. After studying sentential logic, we will examine an extension of sentential logic, quantificational logic. We will study its language, relevant formal methods for analysis, and also derivation rules.
PHIL 2310/002 LOGIC 11:00-11:50 MWF ENG/PHIL 160
DAVID GRAY
Development of formal methods for evaluating deductive reasoning. Additional topics may include uses of language, definition, nondeductive inference. Satisfies the Core Curriculum mathematics requirement. (in conjunction with a mathematics course).
PHIL 2310/003 LOGIC 10:00-10:50 MWF ENG/PHIL 153
STAFF
Development of formal methods for evaluating deductive reasoning. Additional topics may include uses of language, definition, nondeductive inference. Satisfies the Core Curriculum mathematics requirement. (in conjunction with a mathematics course).
PHIL 2320-001 INTRO TO ETHICS 11:00-12:20 TR ENG/PHIL 001
002 INTRO TO ETHICS 2:00-3:20 TR ENG/PHIL 001
HOWARD CURZER
The class will compare and contrast the moral theories of Mill, Kant, and Aristotle. We will also apply each of these famous moral theories to the contemporary moral problems of abortion, economic justice, and marriage. Thus, we will use, as well as contemplate, three theories. And we will end up examining not just one, but three different perspectives on each problem.
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Moral Theory |
Philosopher |
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Abortion |
Justice |
Marriage |
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Virtue Ethics |
Aristotle |
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Utilitarianism |
Mill |
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Deontology |
Kant |
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PHIL 2320/003 Intro to Ethics 1:00-1:50 MWF ENG/PHIL 151
JEREMY SCHWARTZ
How should we live? What is a good life? Ought I to forgo my own interests for the interests of another? Is it sometimes permissible to kill innocent human beings? Is it permissible to kill animals for food? Ethical philosophy attempts to answer these sorts of questions through reason and reflection. Within current ethical philosophy, there are three major schools of thought on how these sorts of questions should be answered, utilitarianism, virtue theory, and deontology. While each of these attempts to shed light on all of these questions merely through reason and reflection, each of them arrives at very different answers to these questions. In this class, we will investigate utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue theory in some detail by closely reading both the founding texts of each of the ethical theories as well as reading some modern re-interpretations and criticisms. In addition, in the last part of the class, we will seek to apply these theories to three test cases: abortion, animal rights, and global poverty. The application to test cases should both shed light on our intuitions about these morally contested issues but also shed light on the ethical theories themselves.
PHIL 2320/004 Intro to Ethics 11:00-11:50 MWF ENG/PHIL 153
STAFF
Discussion of moral problems and theories of morality. Includes the application of philosophical techniques to issues of contemporary moral concern.
PHIL 2350/001 World Religions & Phil. 9:00-9:50 MWF ENG/PHIL 163
MARK WEBB
This course is a study of seven major world religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. We will study the doctrines and practices of each of these religions; then, for each religion, we will critically examine some element of doctrine or practice to see if it can be justified. For example, we will critically examine the doctrines of karma and reincarnation, the doctrine of monotheism, the problem of evil, and the doctrine of the incarnation. This course satisfies the multiculturalism requirement.
PHIL 3303/001 Modern European Phil. 12:30-1:50 TR ENG/PHIL 151
FRANCESCA DI POPPA
This course will offer an overview of the major philosophical debates in the age from Bacon to Kant (early 17th to late 18th century). Among the topics covered, issue in metaphysics and epistemology (such as the problem of causation and the quest for a clear and certain knowledge), ethics (questions on duty and human happiness), religious epistemology and some political thought. We will read, among others, Descartes, Bacon, Malebranche, Hobbes, Spinoza, Leibniz and Kant.
PHIL 3321/001 Philosophy of Law 11:00-12:20 TR ENG/PHIL 151
DANIEL NATHAN
The United States Supreme Court regularly sends down decisions that engage broad popular interest. Court decisions have lately addressed the death penalty, gun control, homosexual rights, and the government’s use of torture and intrusive surveillance techniques
Each of these decisions has been viewed by the general public as highly controversial, and has generated a broad spectrum of political and personal responses. But popular political views rarely reflect an understanding of the nature of law and legal systems, or a familiarity with the Court’s reasoning in relevant previous cases, or even a superficial acquaintance with philosophically and legally reasonable views of the ideas of justice, privacy, or liberty. This course will try to remedy some of these gaps in understanding, first by studying the nature of law and its relation to morality, then by turning its focus to the nature of justice, privacy, and liberty in specific relation to the legal issues raised by Supreme Court cases during the past several years.
PHIL 3325/001 Environmental Ethics 9:30-10:50 TR ENG/PHIL 153
DAN PERRY
The course explores the values, rights, responsibilities and status of entities exploring traditional and alternative ethical approaches to environmental issues. Subjects include: anthropocentric frameworks to natural resource protection; ancient and religious views of animals and the environment; ethics of cost-benefit analysis; social equality and risk management; rights of non-human species; animal welfare and experimentation; responsibilities to, and rights of future generations; ethical considerations of sustainable development & energy use; deep vs. narrow environmentalism; economic and non-economic value of wilderness; eco-feminism.
PHIL 3330/001 Philosophy of Science 1:00-1:50 MWF ENG/PHIL 163
DAVID GRAY
An introduction to central issues in the philosophy of science through the study of its recent history. By progressing from the logical positivists to contemporary theorists, we will examine how our understanding of the nature of scientific theories has developed through the 20th century. Topics will include the nature of scientific explanation, evidence, inductive reasoning, paradigm shifts, naturalism, and the ontological status of theoretical entities scientific theories. Readings will include Schlick, Hume, Goodman, Popper, Kuhn, Lakatos, Laudan, Quine, Hempel, Kitcher, Van Frassen, Godfrey-Smith, and others.
PHIL 4321/001 Political Philosophy 12:00-12:50 MWF ENG/PHIL 151
WALTER SCHALLER
Much of contemporary political philosophy has been influenced by the social contract philosophers of the 17th and 18th centuries. We shall read the three leading social contract theories–Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau–and a leading critic–David Hume. Of particular interest will be their accounts of political obligation (why are we obligated to obey the law?), property (is property a natural right or a conventional right?), and what it means to say that there is a ‘social contract’ (e.g., who ‘signs’ the contract? Who is obligated by it?).
PHIL 4330/001 Epistemology 9:30-10:50 TR ENG/PHIL 150
CHRIS HOM
Epistemology studies the nature and scope of knowledge. This course will examine the closely related concepts of knowledge, belief, certainty, justification, rationality, inference, and perception. The central questions in this course are:
• What is knowledge (as opposed to belief or opinion)?
• Are we capable of knowledge, and to what extent?
• When is it rational to have a particular belief?
• What, if anything, justifies logic, science, and perception as sources of knowledge?
• Should epistemology be a branch of cognitive science?
• Will attempts to define ordinary language concepts like “knowledge” succeed?
These questions will be asked within a traditional analytic framework, and students will be exposed to the central problems, positions and outlooks in contemporary epistemology.
PHIL 5302/001 Studies in Modern Phil. 2:00-3:20 MW ENG/PHIL 153
JEREMY SCHWARTZ
Besides for being historically influential, Kant's ethics continues to be one of the important live options in contemporary ethics. It is the explicit source of many contemporary deontologists, and even non-deontologist must take into account such Kantian ideas as moral motivation, humanity as an end-in-itself, and autonomy. In meta-ethics, Kant's idea that morality can be grounded in practical reason is a live alternative that is defended by many contemporary philosophers. In this seminar, we will investigate the source of all these thoughts by reading much of Kant's published work on ethics. Although much time will be spent trying to understand Kant's normative ethics, we will also spend more time than is perhaps usual trying to understand Kant's argument for the foundation of the supreme principle of morality
PHIL 5302/002 Studies in Modern Phil. 3:30-4:50 TR ENG/PHIL 152
FRANCESCA DI POPPA
This course will focus on the questions of epistemology loosely intended in the age from Bacon to Kant (early 17th to late 18th century). At the beginning of the 17th century there was a great enthusiasm for the geometrical method, which philosophers thought would, if properly used, answer all kinds of philosophical questions and solve all philosophical disputes for good. As we know, that did not happen. We will see the dream disintegrate: from the grandiose constructions of Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz we will move to the caustic criticism of Hume and the solutions offered by Reid and Kant.
The class will also address issues of religious and moral epistemology.
PHIL 5314/001 Contemporary Aesthetics 9:30-10:50 TR ENG/PHIL 264
DARREN HICK
In this course, we will focus on contemporary philosophical problems in the arts, with particular focus on the interrelated roles played by art, artist, and audience, as well as by society at large. We will seek to answer such questions as: What makes art, art? How are the various arts different? How are they alike? Who is the artist? Who is the audience? Who determines what properties a work has, and if it is any good? Is art the proper subject of ethical inquiry? How should we think of government sponsorship and censorship of the arts?
PHIL 5320/001 Seminar in Ethics 3:30-5:00 MW ENG/PHIL 150
WALTER SCHALLER
Much of contemporary political philosophy has been influenced by the social contract philosophers of the 17th and 18th centuries. We shall read the three leading social contract theories–Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau–and a leading critic–David Hume. Of particular interest will be their accounts of political obligation (why are we obligated to obey the law?), property (is property a natural right or a conventional right?), and what it means to say that there is a ‘social contract’ (e.g., who ‘signs’ the contract? Who is obligated by it?).
PHIL 5333/001 Seminar in Phil. Of Language 5:00-8:00 T ENG/PHIL 153
CHRISTOPHER HOM
The seminar will address the question: to what extent is the meaning of language context dependent? We will work to frame the question in considerably more detail by closely examining such linguistic expressions as indexicals, quantifiers, comparative adjectives, knowledge attributions, moral attributions, aesthetic attributions, and expressive terms. A previous course in philosophy of language (e.g. PHIL 4331) is recommended.
PHIL 5340/001 Seminar in Metaphysics 2:00-3:20 TR ENG/PHIL 264
SUNGSU KIM
There are at least two fundamentally different concepts of causation: causation as “dependence” and causation as “production.” These two different concepts of causation seem closely related to different characterizations of causation. In this course, we will examine several prominent accounts of causation: conditional, counterfactual, probabilistic, intervention, and physical process accounts of causation. We will discuss strengths and weaknesses of each account by considering some general issues that are related to the two concepts of causation: negative causation, redundant causation, transitivity of causation, etc. We will also discuss the relation between macro- and micro- causations.