Introductory Courses - Open to Freshman. No Prerequisites.

PHIL 101 - Introduction to Philosophy
Karen Bennett
An introduction to basic issues and methods in philosophy. Topics will include the following:  the existence of God (what evidence would belief in God require?  And how can Gods existence be reconciled with the amount of pain and suffering in the world?), knowledge of the external world (can we be sure that we are not dreaming, or in the Matrix?), freedom of the will (do you really have a choice about what classes you take next semester?), some basic questions in ethics (what, if anything, makes an action right or wrong?), and possibly an application thereof (e.g. is vegetarianism morally obligatory?)

PHIL 145 - Contemporary Moral Issues
Peter Sutton
Description to be listed

PHIL 201 - Puzzles and Paradoxes
Matti Eklund
The course provides an overview of a number of famous philosophical puzzles and paradoxes and important attempts to solve them. Among the paradoxes we will discuss are Zeno’s paradoxes of space, time and motion, the paradox of the heap, the liar paradox, Russell’s set-theoretic paradox, and paradoxes of knowledge and rationality.

PHIL 211 - Ancient Philosophy
Gail Fine
This course examines the origin and development of Western philosophy in Ancient Greece and Rome. We will study some of the central ideas of the Pre-Socratics, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and the Hellenistic philosophers (Epicureans, Stoics, and Skeptics). Questions to be considered include: What are the nature and limits of knowledge? Is knowledge even possible? How reliable is perception? What are the basic entities in the universe: atoms, Platonic Forms or Aristotelian substances? Is moral knowledge possible? What is the nature of happiness and what sort of life will make people happy? Do human beings have free will? Ought we to fear death?

PHIL 249 - Feminism and Philosophy
Neelam Sethi
This class will examine a variety of feminist attempts to understand and explain the various ways in which traditional philosophy relfects bias against women. We will also consider a variety of feminist viewpoints and examine how these are used to address "real life" issues regarding sexuality, violence, family structure, identity, peace and war.

PHIL 251 - Introduction to Philosophy of Art
Christy Mag Uidhir
This course will be an introduction to the core issues in contemporary analytic philosophy of art. The areas covered will include defintions of art, the ontology of art, the nature of art interpretation and evaluation, aesthetic properties, and fictionality. Special attention will be given to issues in the philosophy of literature and the philosophy of music.

PHIL 262 - Introduction to Philosophy of Mind
Nico Silins
We will evaluate views about the nature of mental states and about their relation to the brain, behavior, and the world. Questions we will consider include: are mental states the same as states of our brains? If not, what is the relation between them and states of our brains? How is it possible for mental states to cause our behavior? We will pay special attention to questions about the nature of consciousness and about the degree to which consciousness can be understood in physical terms.

PHIL 263 - Religion and Reason
Derk Pereboom
In this course we will examine the most prominent arguments for the existence of God – the ontological, cosmological, teleological arguments, and the argument from religious experience – and the most significant arguments against the existence of God – the arguments from evil and from divine hiddenness. We will then consider ways in which belief in God might contribute to meaning and fulfilment in life, and whether these ways might provide reasons for believing in God. Course readings will be from both historical and contemporary sources.

PHIL 270 - Truth and Interpretation
Brian Weatherson
An introduction to a variety of issues in semantics and in the related philosophical literature. Topics include: the nature of semantic representations; the relationship between meaning and the world; word-meaning; the interaction of semantics and pragmatics.

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Intermediate or Advanced Courses - Some courses have prerequisites.

PHIL 310 - Aristotle
Christopher Shields
Description to be listed.

PHIL 315 - Medieval Philosophy
Scott MacDonald
A selective survey of Western philosophical thought from the fourth to the fourteenth century. Topics include the problem of universals, the theory of knowledge and truth, the nature of free choice and practical reasoning, and philosophical theology. Readings (in translation) include Augustine, Boethius, Anselm, Abelard, Aquinas, Scotus, and Ockham. Some attention will be given to the development of ideas across the period and the influence of non-Western traditions on the West. Prerequisite: One previous philosophy course.

PHIL 318 - Origins of Analytic Philosophy
Matti Eklund
We will cover some of the important texts from the early years of analytic philosophy. Among the authors we will read are Frege, Russell, the early Wittgenstein, and Frank Ramsey. We will also cover some important secondary literature. The emphasis will be on are foundational issues in metaphysics, philosophy of language and philosophy of mathematics. Prerequisite: Two previous philosophy courses or permission of instructor.

PHIL 330 - Foundations of Mathematics
Harold Hodes
This will be a course on the set theory of Zermelo and Fraenkel: the basic concepts, set-theoretic construction of the Natural, Integral, Rational and Real Numbers, cardinality, and time permitting the ordinals. Text: Enderton's "Elements of Set Theory".

PHIL 332 - Philosophy of Language
Wylie Breckenridge
The course is an introduction to, and an overview of, philosophy of language. We will pay special attention to contemporary work on semantic theory, and its bearing on philosophical issues. Topics to be covered include reference, context-sensitivity, and implicature.

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Advanced Courses and Seminars - Primarly for major and graduate students.

PHIL 409 - German Philosophical Texts
Andrew Chignell
Reading and translation of philosophical texts in German. Prerequsite: Basic reading (not necessarily speaking) knowledge of German and permission of instructor.

PHIL 410 - Latin Philosophical Texts
Scott MacDonald
Reading and translation of philosophical texts in Latin. Prerequisite: Knowledge of Latin and permission of instructor.

PHIL 411 - Greek Philosophical Texts
Christopher Shields
Reading and translation of philosophical texts in Greek. Prerequisite: Knowledge of Greek and permission of instructor.

PHIL 417 - Topics in German Philosophy
Michelle Kosch
Description to be listed.

PHIL 432 - Topics in Logic
Harold Hodes
This course will focus on intuitionistic logic, including (1) its relationships to classicial logic, some "intermediate logics" between intuitionistic and classical, and a modal logic. We'll consider (2) both proof-theoretic and model-theoretic characterizations of the consequence relations for these logics, (3) algebraic/topological (and time permitting, categorial) characterizations of intuitionistic consequence. (4) We'll also look at how certain mathematical theories have been developed on the basis of intuitionistic logic. Prerequisites: one course in logic or instructor's permission.

PHIL 441 - Contemporary Ethical Theory
Nicholas Sturgeon
Topic: Moral realism and its critics.

PHIL 464 - Topics in Metaphysics
Derk Pereboom
Topic: Free Will. What must agents be like in order to be morally responsible for their actions? Plausibly, they must be able to exercise some type of control in action, and this ability has traditionally been conceived as a kind of freedom of the will. In this course we will attempt to discern the exact nature of the freedom of the will required for moral responsibility, and to determine whether we could have this freedom given what we know about ourselves and the world. The course readings will mainly be from the analytic philosophical tradition since 1960, while there will be some reference to the work of Spinoza, Hume, and Kant on this topic.

PHIL 611 - Grad Seminar: Ancient Philosophy
Christopher Shields
Description to be listed.

PHIL 662 - Grad Seminar: Philosophy of Perception
Nico Silins
A survey of contemporary work in the philosophy of perception.