Introductory Courses - Open to Freshman. No prerequisites.
PHIL 101 - Introduction to Philosophy
Brian Weatherson
An introduction to basic issues and methods in philosophy, focusing on questions about philosophy of religion and philosophy of mind. The first part of the course will look at whether God's existence is consistent with the amount of suffering we see, and whether the existence of a divine designer is the best explanation of the world we find. The second part will look at questions about minds, especially whether minds are identical to bodies, and whether machines can do what minds do.PHIL 212 - Modern Philosophy
Tim Bloser
A survey course covering some or all the following figures in the 17th and 18th centuries: Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. We will focus on their views in epistemology (ideas, skepticism, belief, science) but also consider their metaphysics (bodies, causation, natural laws, personal identity).PHIL 245 - Ethics and Health Care
Neelam Sethi
An introduction to the philosophical study of ethical problems that arise from the practice of medicine as such or that arise in response to developments within medicine and the larger world.PHIL 263 - Religion and Reason (also RELST 262)
Scott MacDonald
What must (or could) God be like, and what reasons do we have for thinking that a being of that sort actually exists? What difference would (or could) the existence of God make to our lives? This course examines the idea, shared by several major world religions, that God must be an absolutely perfect being. What attributes must a perfect being have? Must it have a mind, be a person, care for human beings? Is the concept of a perfect being coherent? Is the existence of a perfect being compatible with the presence of evil in the world and the existence of human freedom? Does human morality depend in any important way on the nature or will of a perfect being? Is a perfect being among the things that actually inhabit our universe? The course approaches these questions with the tools and methods of philosophical reason and through readings drawn from both classic texts and contemporary philosophical discussion.
PHIL 286 - Science and Human Nature (also S&TS 286)
Richard Boyd
Examination of attempts in the biological and social sciences to offer scientific theories of human nature and human potential and to apply such theories to explain important social and psychological phenomena.
Intermediate or Advanced Courses - Some courses have prerequisites.
PHIL 310 - Aristotle (also CLASS 339)
Gabor Betegh
An examination of the philosophical significance of Aristotles major works, especially in natural philosophy, philosophy of mind, and metaphysics.PHIL 316 - Kant
Michelle Kosch
Description to be listed.PHIL 341 - Ethical Theory
Nicholas Sturgeon
Topic: Consequentialism and its critics. This course will examine one of the deepest divides in modern philosophical debates about ethics, between those who think the moral evaluation of acts, character traits and social institutions ultimately depends solely on their good or bad consequences, and critics who find this approach fundamentally misguided.PHIL 342 - Law, Society, and Morality
Michele Moody-Adams
Description to be listed.PHIL 351 - Aesthetics
Andrew McGonigal
This course will examine key issues in aesthetics and the philosophy of art. The course divides roughly into two sections: The Nature of Art, and The Value of Art. In the first section, we examine a range of related issues in the metaphysics of art and beauty. What kind of thing is a portrait, or a symphony, or a fictional character? How do these things relate to the activities of artists, audiences and critics? What kinds of distinctive properties do they have, and how should we understand the nature of such properties? In the second section, we will discuss the nature of aesthetic value, and its relation to moral and epistemic value. In what sense, if any, is the value of an aesthetic object an objective matter? Ought artworks to be assessed ethically? Can art yield a distinctive type of knowledge, or other epistemic good?PHIL 364 - Metaphysics
Brian Weatherson
We will look at a number of contemporary debates in metaphysics, including debates between reductionists and anti-reductionists about nomological concepts, competing theories of persistence and issues about material constitution. We will pay some attention to higher level debates about whether we should expect there to be objective answers to the questions we are investigating.
Advanced Courses and Seminars - Primarly for major and graduate students.
PHIL 409 - German Philosophical Texts
Michelle Kosch
Reading and translation of philosophical texts in German.
Pre-requisites: Basic reading (not necessarily speaking) knowledge of German.PHIL 410 - Latin Philosophical Texts (also RELST 410)
Scott MacDonald
Reading and translation of philosophical texts in Latin.
Pre-requisites: Basic reading (not necessarily speaking) knowledge of Latin.PHIL 411 - Greek Philosophical Texts (also CLASS 611)
Staff
Reading and translation of philosophical texts in Greek.
Pre-requisites: Basic reading (not necessarily speaking) knowledge of Greek.PHIL 413 - Ancient Philosophy (also CLASS 442)
Gabor Betegh
We shall discuss the doctrines and arguments of thinkers like Thales, Anaximander, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Zeno, Empedocles, Anaxagoras and Democritus. Topics will include: How did philosophy as an autonomous discipline emerge? What were the specific topics and argumentative methods of the first philosophers? How did they define themselves with respect to other domains of culture (religion, poetry, medicine etc.)? What were their views about the nature, sources and limits of knowledge? How did the first discussions about the basic constituents and structure of the world turn into metaphysics?PHIL 462- Philosophy of Mind
Andrew McGonigal
This course will focus on theories of concepts. Topics covered will include e.g.: concepts and psychological explanation; possession-condition approaches to concepts; the metaphysics of concepts; concepts and normativity; the conceptual/non-conceptual distinction; pleonastic accounts of concepts. A substantial part of the course will involve a detailed evaluation of recent work on the subject by Jerry Fodor and Christopher Peacocke, although we will also work through material by e.g. Georges Rey, Jos Luis Bermdez, and Stephen Schiffer.PHIL 481 - Problems in Philosophy of Science
Richard Boyd
Topics in the philosophy of science.PHIL 643 - Social and Political Philosophy
Richard Miller
Topic for 2007: International justice. We will discuss leading current controversies over international economic justice; morality and war; cultural diversity and human rights; global governance, social movements and democratic values; the moral significance of global power structures; and the moral status of sovereignty, patriotism and nationalism.PHIL 661 - Epistemology
Carl Ginet
Topic: Timothy Williamson's book, Knowledge and Its Limits