PHIL 11001 INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY (DIVG) (KHUM) 3 Credit Hours
An introduction to the diverse methods and subject matters in philosophy. Topics may include: What are the arguments for the existence of God? Do humans have free will? Can we know anything with certainty, and how do we know anything at all? Is what we see real, or might it be only an illusion? What makes a person a person - their mind, or their physical attributes? Is the mind the brain, or is it something else?
Prerequisite: None.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Attributes: Diversity Global, Kent Core Humanities, TAG Arts and Humanities, Transfer Module Humanities
PHIL 11009 CRITICAL THINKING (KADL) 3 Credit Hours
Critical thinking is essential to every aspect of life, whether reading a news report or editorial, examining a contract or other legal document, or entering into a debate. This course teaches the strategies of “cognitive self-defense” that allow students to see past false claims and avoid being deceived by misleading rhetorical strategies. The course also examines the role of argument in reasoning, including types of arguments and the ways in which mistakes in reasoning can lead us astray. Examples from everyday life illustrate the sorts of complex reasoning that are a crucial part of practical decision-making.
Prerequisite: None.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Attributes: Kent Core Additional, TAG Arts and Humanities
PHIL 20095 SPECIAL TOPICS 3 Credit Hours
(Repeatable for credit) Sophomore level course with variable content of philosophical interest.
Prerequisite: None.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 21001 INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS (DIVG) (KHUM) 3 Credit Hours
What makes an action morally right or morally wrong, and who gets to decide? Is ethics about performing actions that are morally right, or is it about being a virtuous person? This course examines at least three competing theories about ethics, including challenges to each theory. Students get to decide which theory they think is best, but every theory presents its own strengths and weaknesses.
Prerequisite: None.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Attributes: Diversity Global, Kent Core Humanities, TAG Arts and Humanities, Transfer Module Humanities
PHIL 21002 INTRODUCTION TO FORMAL LOGIC (KMCR) 3 Credit Hours
This course is designed to sharpen students' reasoning skills and to help them better understand the structure of reasoning in general. To do this, it introduces students to some formal languages, such as Propositional Logic and Predicate Logic, that represent the logical structure of deductive reasoning. Unlike natural languages such as English, these formal languages allow students to focus on the general structure of different types of arguments, without discussing the content of any particular argument. Course covers both the construction of formal proofs in these languages, and translation between them and English. The study of formal logic contributes to effective and persuasive reasoning, not only in philosophy, but in any discipline or context. It also provides effective tools for evaluating the strength of English-language arguments. The skills that students acquire in this course are thus widely applicable in their personal, professional and academic lives.
Prerequisite: Minimum 35 ALEKS math score; or minimum 22 ACT math score; or minimum 530 SAT math score; or MATH 00022 with a minimum C grade.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Attributes: Kent Core Mathematics and Critical Reasoning, TAG Arts and Humanities, Transfer Module Mathematics
PHIL 30015 MEDICINE AND MORALITY 3 Credit Hours
A philosophical exploration of at least three issues related to current medical practices, which may include ethical, religious, legal and clinical aspects. Topics may include: abortion, the use of genetic technologies, organ donation and transplantation, the use of human research subjects, or end-of-life decision-making.
Prerequisite: None.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 30025 ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS (ELR) 3 Credit Hours
A philosophical examination of ethical issues in environmental studies, including topics such as: animal ethics and the sources of our food; the value of nature and environmental aesthetics; sustainability and biodiversity; ecofeminism, social justice and radical ecology; and the human response to climate change. The course is designed to complement fields of study such as geography, environmental studies and biology. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Attributes: Experiential Learning Requirement
PHIL 31002 MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY (WIC) 3 Credit Hours
Examination of issues in medieval thought, such as the existence and nature of God, the relationship between faith and reason, the problem of universals, and the nature of causality. Selections from philosophers such as Augustine, Boethius, Aquinas, Abelard, Avicenna, Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham.
Prerequisite: At least one of PHIL 11009 or PHIL 21002 or PHIL 41038; and at least one of PHIL 11001 or PHIL 21001.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Attributes: Writing Intensive Course
PHIL 31011 ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY 3 Credit Hours
Examination of ancient philosophy, including Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle, and those who inherited their philosophy. The ancients made the move from explanation based on myth to philosophical explanation. What did that move involve? How did the ancient philosophers answer questions about the nature of reality, what exists, the reliability of the senses and the types of things in the world? How did they conceive of the good life?
Prerequisite: PHIL 11001 or PHIL 21001; and PHIL 11009 or PHIL 21002 or PHIL 41038.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 31012 EARLY MODERN PHILOSOPHY 3 Credit Hours
The course features selections from rationalists such as Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz, and empiricists such as Locke, Berkeley and Hume, of the early modern philosophical period. Rationalists believe that all knowledge is grounded in a priori knowledge of necessary principles. Empiricists believe that knowledge is grounded in sensory experience. How did these differences shape their wider views of the world?
Prerequisite: PHIL 11001 or PHIL 21001; and PHIL 11009 or PHIL 21002 or PHIL 41038.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 31013 LATE MODERN PHILOSOPHY 3 Credit Hours
The course explores the development of 19th century German idealism by thinkers such as Fichte, Hegel and Schelling, whose work was prompted by Kant’s transcendental idealism understood as critique or as the examination of the conditions for the possibility of knowledge acquisition as a touchstone for understanding the relationship among metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and political philosophy. The course thus begins with Kant’s critical project before turning to its reception and the various 19th century responses to it. Additional selections from Kant’s ethical and political writings may supplement this reading. The course may also cover additional figures, such as Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Marx, whose work, in turn, is a response to German idealism itself.
Prerequisite: PHIL 11001 or PHIL 21001; and PHIL 11009 or PHIL 21002 or PHIL 41038.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 31030 EXISTENTIALISM 3 Credit Hours
Examination of the themes of existentialism, which include absurdity, freedom, and the individual's relationship to the world. Philosophers studied may include Sartre, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Camus, de Beauvoir, Ortega y Gasset, Marcel, and Tillich. Students with junior standing or above, who have not taken a Philosophy course, should contact the department for a prerequisite override.
Prerequisite: One course in philosophy.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 31035 PHILOSOPHY AND JUSTICE (DIVD) 3 Credit Hours
Consideration of topics and issues relevant to the concept of justice, as addressed by a range of classical and contemporary philosophers. Topics may include the nature of justice from feminist, libertarian, liberal, socialist, communitarian, egalitarian, and social welfare perspectives; and the application of these perspectives to practical issues such as affirmative action, democracy, equal pay, environmental justice, just war, criminal justice, civil disobedience, tort law and poverty. Students with junior standing or above, who have not taken a Philosophy [PHIL] course, should contact the department for a prerequisite override.
Prerequisite: One course in philosophy.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Attributes: Diversity Domestic
PHIL 31040 FEMINIST PHILOSOPHY (DIVD) 3 Credit Hours
The course introduces feminist philosophy understood as social critique: a critique of unjust, exclusionary, and oppressive systemic practices surrounding sex, sexuality, and gender. As such, the course focuses on issues such as gender identity, sexual difference, the sex and gender binaries, gendered experience, trans embodiment, and LGBTQI marginalization. The course asks whether, and if so, how, feminist theory (more broadly) and feminist philosophy (more narrowly) could draw on canonical philosophical texts, traditions, and figures. The course focuses extensively on contemporary approaches, including queer, race, and gay and lesbian theory. Students with junior standing or above, who have not taken a philosophy course, should contact the department for a prerequisite override.
Prerequisite: One course in philosophy.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Attributes: Diversity Domestic
PHIL 31050 PHILOSOPHY THROUGH LITERATURE 3 Credit Hours
This course introduces several philosophical problems via an examination of those problems and themes in works of literature. The course combines philosophical essays with works of poetry, short novels, and short stories, so as to expose students to diverse perspectives on complex philosophical problems. Students with junior standing or above, who have not taken a philosophy course should contact the department for a prerequisite override.
Prerequisite: One course in philosophy.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 31060 PHILOSOPHY OF ART AND BEAUTY (ELR) 3 Credit Hours
Investigation of concepts such as the artistic object and creative expression, and examination and critique of a range of theories designed to solve various problems in the field of aesthetics, or the study of the nature and principles of artistic beauty. Examples drawn from diverse genres such as the visual arts, drama, music, and dance provide the context for discussion of topics including what makes something beautiful and what is involved in an act of creativity. Students with junior standing or above, who have not taken a Philosophy course, should contact the department for a prerequisite override.
Prerequisite: One course in philosophy.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Attributes: Experiential Learning Requirement
PHIL 31070 AFRICAN AND AFRICAN-AMERICAN PHILOSOPHIES (DIVD) 3 Credit Hours
(Cross-listed with AFS 30010) Exploration of philosophical issues in African and African-American or Black thoughts systems. Topics may include the examination of the issue of the existence of a Black philosophy, the nature of traditional African knowledge, beliefs about personhood, the basis and rationality of witchcraft or other metaphysical beliefs, communalism, the nature of Black moral and aesthetic values, and contemporary analysis of race, racism, slavery, civil rights, pan-Africanism, and criticisms of colonialism, Black development, democratic governance and social policies regarding Blacks. Students with junior standing or above, who have not taken a Philosophy course, should contact the department for a prerequisite override.
Prerequisite: One course in philosophy.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Attributes: Diversity Domestic
PHIL 31072 AMERICAN INDIAN PHILOSOPHIES (DIVD) 3 Credit Hours
Examination of philosophical issues and themes in American Indian world views with attention given to the reflections of contemporary native scholars. Students with junior standing or above, who have not taken a Philosophy course should contact the department for a prerequisite override.
Prerequisite: One course in philosophy.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Attributes: Diversity Domestic
PHIL 31075 PHILOSOPHY AND CULTURE (DIVG) 3 Credit Hours
Critical examination of various philosophical ideas and issues from diverse cultural perspectives. Topics include pluralism, coexistence, toleration and relativism. Students with junior standing or above who have not taken a Philosophy (PHIL) course should contact the department for a prerequisite override.
Prerequisite: One course in philosophy.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Attributes: Diversity Global
PHIL 31080 FOUNDATIONS IN THE HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE 3 Credit Hours
(Cross-listed with HIST 31500) An introduction to the study of science as a social, cultural, and historical phenomenon with an emphasis on the history of science primarily in western civilization since 1500 and the major philosophical approaches to science developed in the twentieth century.
Prerequisite: None.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 31091 PHILOSOPHERS IN DEPTH (WIC) 3 Credit Hours
(Repeatable for credit) This course introduces students to the work and influence of one philosopher, in depth. The choice of philosopher whose work is investigated varies by instructor. The course serves as a counterbalance to the broad introduction to the history of philosophy that students receive in the history of philosophy sequence. In this course, students learn to work carefully with primary sources, along with learning the requirements of academic philosophical writing. Students exhibit their understanding of the course content and mastery of philosophical writing through a variety of short and long assignments.
Prerequisite: PHIL 11001 or PHIL 21001; and PHIL 11009 or PHIL 21002 or PHIL 41038.
Schedule Type: Seminar
Contact Hours: 3 other
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Attributes: Writing Intensive Course
PHIL 32091 SEMINAR: PHILOSOPHICAL REFLECTIONS 3 Credit Hours
Junior-level seminar with variable topics of philosophical interest. Please check the departmental website or contact the instructor regarding each semester's topic. Students with junior standing or above, who have not taken a Philosophy [PHIL] course, should contact the department for a prerequisite override.
Prerequisite: One course in philosophy.
Schedule Type: Seminar
Contact Hours: 3 other
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 40005 HEALTH CARE ETHICS 3 Credit Hours
Ethical problems in health care critically assessed, and consideration of how these specific ethical problems illuminate the ethical enterprise. Students with junior standing or above, who have not taken a philosophy course, should contact the department for a prerequisite override.
Prerequisite: One course in philosophy.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 40093 VARIABLE TITLE WORKSHOP IN PHILOSOPHY 1-6 Credit Hours
(Repeatable for credit)
Prerequisite: Permission.
Schedule Type: Workshop
Contact Hours: 1-6 other
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
PHIL 41010 PROBLEMS IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 51010) Philosophical examination of issues and problems presented by various writers in philosophy of religion.
Prerequisite: Any Philosophy (PHIL) 30000-level course.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 41020 SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 51020) Critical examination of classical and contemporary philosophical theories of the nature of society, and the state as political system that best represents a well-organized society. Topics may include the nature, existence, and justification of the state, the issue of political obligation, theories of anarchism, utopia, democracy, liberalism, communitarianism, citizenship, and patriotism, and examination of the nature of the social and political values or notions of rights, equality, and liberty.
Prerequisite: Any Philosophy (PHIL) 30000-level course.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 41025 PHILOSOPHY OF LAW 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 51025) Critical examination of the nature, features, foundation, and function of law. Topics may include the debate between natural law theory and legal positivism, with respect to whether law and moral are necessarily connected, as well as the nature of judicial decision, constitution interpretation, the basis and elements of criminal, civil law (contract, tort) law, the grounds for obeying or disobeying bad laws, and analysis of some supreme court cases which raise philosophical issues about the nature and function of law.
Prerequisite: Any Philosophy (PHIL) 30000-level course.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 41030 ETHICAL THEORY 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 51030) In this course, students will explore developments in the dominant normative theories of 20th and 21st century Anglo-American ethics, including consequentialism, deontology, virtue ethics, ethics of care, and varieties of contract theory.
Prerequisite: Any Philosophy (PHIL) 30000-level course.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 41033 PHILOSOPHY OF IMAGINATION 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 51033) Drawing from a variety of approaches and figures in the history of philosophy, the course examines the imagination as a distinctive faculty and type of consciousness. Some of the central questions of the course are: How does the imagination relate to perception, judgment, or memory? How are we to understand the work of the imagination from an epistemic, metaphysical, moral, or aesthetic point of view? What role, if any, does the imagination play in scientific and philosophical inquiry?
Prerequisite: Any Philosophy (PHIL) 30000-level course.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 41034 PHILOSOPHY OF PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 51034) This course addresses the question, “What are mental disorders?” using the methods of philosophy. We consider metaphysical questions such as, “Are mental disorders natural kinds or social kinds?” and “Can we provide a reductionist account of mental disorder?”, questions from Philosophy of Mind such as, “Can a theory of mind-brain dualism accommodate the possibility of mental disorder?”, and ethical questions such as, “How can we hold people with personality disorders responsible for their actions without blaming them?” By addressing the nature of mental disorder from a variety of philosophical angles, we will examine not only how each subfield answers the question in isolation, but also how each subfield might complement or contradict other philosophical approaches.
Prerequisite: Any Philosophy (PHIL) 30000-level course.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 41035 PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 51035) What is science? What are its distinctive aims and methods, and how do they bolster the epistemic authority of scientific theories? Do sociological, historical, and cultural factors play a major role in the advancement of scientific thought? These questions, and others like them, define the philosophy of science - a branch of philosophy that deals with the metaphysical, epistemological, and normative issues that arise in the study of scientific practice.
Prerequisite: Any Philosophy (PHIL) 30000-level course.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 41036 PHILOSOPHY OF COGNITIVE SCIENCE 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 51036) In this course, students focus on issues at the interface of philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, and artificial intelligence. These fields, which comprise contemporary cognitive science, present the philosopher with an opportunity to clarify foundational concepts, such as computation, innateness, language, perception, and learning. Ultimately, the goal of the course is to understand various proposals about how neural computation could amount to human intelligence and consciousness.
Prerequisite: Any Philosophy (PHIL) 30000-level course.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 41037 RENAISSANCE AND EARLY MODERN PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 51037) An investigation of the work of the most important European philosophers of the 15th-17th centuries, with a particular emphasis on the interrelation between philosophy and science in their thought, and on the influence of Greek philosophy on the intellectual life of the time.
Prerequisite: Any Philosophy (PHIL) 30000-level course.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 41038 INTERMEDIATE LOGIC 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 51038) (Cross-listed with CS 41038 and MATH 41038 and MATH 51038) A detailed, systematic study of symbolic logic for philosophy majors, mathematics majors, computer science majors, and anyone else interested in advanced study in logic. The aim of the course is twofold: first, to develop a facility in understanding and using symbolic logic for various purposes, and second, to understand and appreciate symbolic logic as an area of study in itself. Topics include the distinction between syntactic, object-level proofs and semantic, meta-level proofs, the distinction between axiomatic systems and natural deduction systems of object-level proofs, various systems of modal logic, and some non-classical logics. Students with junior standing or above, who have not taken a Philosophy course, should contact the department for a prerequisite override.
Prerequisite: PHIL 21002.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 41040 EPISTEMOLOGY 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 51040) What is the difference between merely believing something to be the case and knowing it to be the case? In this course students examine various theories designed to answer this question and evaluate their respective strengths and weaknesses. The course will cover the Gettier problem that questions the traditional definition of knowledge as justified true belief, the debate between foundationalism and coherentism, the debate between internalism and externalism about justification, naturalized epistemology, and virtue epistemology.
Prerequisite: Any Philosophy (PHIL) 30000-level course.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 41042 METAPHYSICS 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 51042) Covers several topics in contemporary analytic metaphysics. Topics may include existence, identity, things and their persistence over time, the nature of modalities and possible worlds, and the relationship between material parts and wholes.
Prerequisite: Any Philosophy (PHIL) 30000-level course.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 41045 METALOGIC 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 51045) (Cross-listed with CS 41045 and CS 51045 and MATH 41045 and MATH 51045) A detailed, systematic study of metalogic for philosophy majors, mathematics majors, computer science majors, and anyone else interested in advanced study in logic. Topics include the soundness and completeness of the propositional and predicate calculi, the decidablility of propositional calculus, the undecidability of predicate calculus, Gödel’s incompleteness proof for languages capable of expressing arithmetic, the co-extensionality of the set of general recursive functions, abacus computable functions, and Turing computable functions, and the philosophical motivations for the ChurchTuring Thesis that all computable functions are Turing computable.
Prerequisite: PHIL 41038.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 41048 METAETHICS 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 51048) Metaethics is the study of the nature and justification of moral judgments, as distinct from ethics, which aims to articulate principles, criteria, or alternative approaches to understanding and achieving goodness and right action. Metaethics examines the concepts, ontology, psychology, and modes of justification employed within ethics. This course will explore recent developments about such questions as: which, if any, ethical judgments can be true or false; whether we can know true ethical statements; and to what kinds of properties, if any, ethical judgments and beliefs refer.
Prerequisite: Any Philosophy (PHIL) 30000-level course.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 41050 ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 51040) Focuses on the history and continued evolution of analytic philosophy. Readings include works by philosophers such as Frege, Russell, Moore, Wittgenstein, Schlick, Carnap, Ryle, Austin, Strawson, Grice, Quine, Davidson, Kripke, Putnam, and others. The aim of the course is (i) to understand the theses and themes that commonly arise in analytic philosophy, their philosophical motivations, and the problems they face, and (ii) to become familiar with the methodologies used by analytic philosophers including (but not limited to) logical analysis, appeals to ordinary language, the use of thought experiments, and the use of possible world semantics.
Prerequisite: Any Philosophy (PHIL) 30000-level course.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 41055 PHENOMENOLOGY 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 51055) In-depth study of the phenomenological movement in twentieth-century philosophy, from its origin in the thought of Edmund Husserl and his contemporaries, through such canonical thinkers as Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, to various contemporary developments. Substantial time is also devoted to considering applications of phenomenology to various disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, and arts. This is in keeping with the overall focus in this seminar on phenomenology not only as a philosophical school, but also as a methodology with broad and diverse applications.
Prerequisite: Any Philosophy (PHIL) 30000-level course.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 41060 PRAGMATISM 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 51060) As America’s distinctive “home-grown” philosophy, pragmatism embodies the values of action, problem-solving, and consensus-building within a pluralistic society. The core of this course examines the seminal works of the classical American pragmatists: Peirce, James, and Dewey. Special attention will be devoted to a phenomenology of experience that undercuts the dualisms of mind and matter, subject and object, self and world.
Prerequisite: Any Philosophy (PHIL) 30000-level course.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 41065 PLATO 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 51065) Detailed examination of selected Platonic dialogues, with some attention to Plato's development and dismissal of certain pre-Socratic (and Socratic) themes.
Prerequisite: Any Philosophy (PHIL) 30000-level course.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 41070 ARISTOTLE 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 51070) Detailed examination of selected works of Aristotle, with some attention given to Aristotle's development and dismissal of certain pre-Socratic and Platonic themes.
Prerequisite: Any Philosophy (PHIL) 30000-level course.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 41076 CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 51076) Investigation of some figure, issue or theme in continental philosophy from Descartes to present.
Prerequisite: Any Philosophy (PHIL) 30000-level course.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 41080 PHILOSOPHY AND ART: 1890 - PRESENT 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 51080) Exploring, with emphasis on the modern age, philosophical conceptions of art in their interplays with, especially, practicing artists' attitudes toward theory.
Prerequisite: None.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 41091 SEMINAR IN WORLD PHILOSOPHY 3 Credit Hours
(Repeatable for credit) (Slashed with PHIL 51091) Intensive primary-source reading and critical appreciation of the significant works of one or more philosophical figures or one or more philosophical issues from traditions outside the Western canon.
Prerequisite: One of the following courses: PHIL 31001 or PHIL 31002 or PHIL 31003 or PHIL 31004 or PHIL 31005 or PHIL 31006 or PHIL 31010 or PHIL 31020.
Schedule Type: Seminar
Contact Hours: 3 other
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 41491 SEMINAR IN ASIAN PHILOSOPHY (DIVG) 3 Credit Hours
(Repeatable for credit) (Slashed with PHIL 51491) Intensive primary-source reading and critical appreciation of the significant works of one or more philosophical figures or one or more philosophical issues from traditions in Asian philosophy.
Prerequisite: Any Philosophy (PHIL) 30000-level course.
Schedule Type: Seminar
Contact Hours: 3 other
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Attributes: Diversity Global
PHIL 41591 SEMINAR IN THE HISTORY OF ETHICS 3 Credit Hours
(Repeatable for credit) (Slashed with PHIL 51591) Intensive primary-source reading and critical appreciation of the significant works of one or more philosophical figures or one or more philosophical issues from traditions in the history of ethics.
Prerequisite: Any Philosophy (PHIL) 30000-level course.
Schedule Type: Seminar
Contact Hours: 3 other
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 49995 SPECIAL TOPICS 2,3 Credit Hours
(Repeatable for credit when topic varies)
Prerequisite: Special approval.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 2-3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 49996 INDIVIDUAL INVESTIGATION 1-3 Credit Hours
(Repeatable for credit with departmental approval prior to registration)
Prerequisite: Departmental special approval prior to registration.
Schedule Type: Individual Investigation
Contact Hours: 1-3 other
Grade Mode: Standard Letter-IP
PHIL 49999 SENIOR HONORS PROJECT (ELR) 2,3 Credit Hours
(Repeated registration permitted with departmental approval prior to registration) Thesis or other independent study or creative project.
Prerequisite: Departmental permission before registration.
Schedule Type: Senior Project/Honors Thesis
Contact Hours: 2-3 other
Grade Mode: Standard Letter-IP
Attributes: Experiential Learning Requirement
PHIL 50005 HEALTH CARE ETHICS 3 Credit Hours
Ethical problems in health care critically assessed and consideration of how these specific ethical problems illuminate the ethical enterprise.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 50093 VARIABLE TITLE WORKSHOP IN PHILOSOPHY 1-6 Credit Hours
(Repeatable for credit)
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Workshop
Contact Hours: 3 other
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
PHIL 51010 PROBLEMS IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 41010) Philosophical examination of issues and problems presented by various writers in philosophy of religion.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 51020 SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 41020) Critical examination of classical and contemporary philosophical theories of the nature of society, and the state as political system that best represents a well-organized society. Topics may include the nature, existence, and justification of the state, the issue of political obligation, theories of anarchism, utopia, democracy, liberalism, communitarianism, citizenship, and patriotism, and examination of the nature of the social and political values or notions of rights, equality, and liberty.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 51025 PHILOSOPHY OF LAW 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 41025) Critical examination of the nature, features, foundation, and function of law. Topics may include the debate between natural law theory and legal positivism, with respect to whether law and moral are necessarily connected, as well as the nature of judicial decision, constitution interpretation, the basis and elements of criminal, civil law (contract, tort) law, the grounds for obeying or disobeying bad laws, and analysis of some supreme court cases which raise philosophical issues about the nature and function of law.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 51030 ETHICAL THEORY 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 41030) In this course, students will explore developments in the dominant normative theories of 20th and 21st century Anglo-American ethics, including consequentialism, deontology, virtue ethics, ethics of care, and varieties of contract theory.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 51033 PHILOSOPHY OF IMAGINATION 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 41033) Drawing from a variety of approaches and figures in the history of philosophy, the course examines the imagination as a distinctive faculty and type of consciousness. Some of the central questions of the course are: How does the imagination relate to perception, judgment, or memory? How are we to understand the work of the imagination from an epistemic, metaphysical, moral, or aesthetic point of view? What role, if any, does the imagination play in scientific and philosophical inquiry?
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 51034 PHILOSOPHY OF PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIARTY 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 51034) This course addresses the question, “What are mental disorders?” using the methods of philosophy. We consider metaphysical questions such as, “Are mental disorders natural kinds or social kinds?” and “Can we provide a reductionist account of mental disorder?”, questions from Philosophy of Mind such as, “Can a theory of mind-brain dualism accommodate the possibility of mental disorder?”, and ethical questions such as, “How can we hold people with personality disorders responsible for their actions without blaming them?” By addressing the nature of mental disorder from a variety of philosophical angles, we will examine not only how each subfield answers the question in isolation, but also how each subfield might complement or contradict other philosophical approaches.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 51035 PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 41035) What is science? What are its distinctive aims and methods, and how do they bolster the epistemic authority of scientific theories? Do sociological, historical, and cultural factors play a major role in the advancement of scientific thought? These questions, and others like them, define the philosophy of science - a branch of philosophy that deals with the metaphysical, epistemological, and normative issues that arise in the study of scientific practice.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 51036 PHILOSOPHY OF COGNITIVE SCIENCE 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 41036) In this course, students focus on issues at the interface of philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, and artificial intelligence. These fields, which comprise contemporary cognitive science, present the philosopher with an opportunity to clarify foundational concepts, such as computation, innateness, language, perception, and learning. Ultimately, the goal of the course is to understand various proposals about how neural computation could amount to human intelligence and consciousness.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 51037 RENAISSANCE AND EARLY MODERN PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 41037) An investigation of the work of the most important European philosophers of the 15th-17th centuries, with a particular emphasis on the interrelation between philosophy and science in their thought, and on the influence of Greek philosophy on the intellectual life of the time.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 51038 INTERMEDIATE LOGIC 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 41038) (Cross-listed with CS 41038 and MATH 41038 and MATH 51038) A detailed, systematic study of symbolic logic for philosophy majors, mathematics majors, computer science majors, and anyone else interested in advanced study in logic. The aim of the course is twofold: first, to develop a facility in understanding and using symbolic logic for various purposes, and second, to understand and appreciate symbolic logic as an area of study in itself. Topics include the distinction between syntactic, object-level proofs and semantic, meta-level proofs, the distinction between axiomatic systems and natural deduction systems of object-level proofs, various systems of modal logic, and some non-classical logics.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 51040 EPISTEMOLOGY 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 41040) What is the difference between merely believing something to be the case and knowing it to be the case? In this course students examine various theories designed to answer this question and evaluate their respective strengths and weaknesses. The course will cover the Gettier problem that questions the traditional definition of knowledge as justified true belief, the debate between foundationalism and coherentism, the debate between internalism and externalism about justification, naturalized epistemology, and virtue epistemology.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 51042 METAPHYSICS 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 41042) Covers several topics in contemporary analytic metaphysics. Topics may include existence, identity, things and their persistence over time, the nature of modalities and possible worlds, and the relationship between material parts and wholes.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 51045 METALOGIC 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 41045) (Cross-listed with CS 41045 and CS 51045 and MATH 41045 and MATH 51045) A detailed, systematic study of metalogic for philosophy majors, mathematics majors, computer science majors, and anyone else interested in advanced study in logic. Topics include the soundness and completeness of the propositional and predicate calculi, the decidablility of propositional calculus, the undecidability of predicate calculus, Gödel’s incompleteness proof for languages capable of expressing arithmetic, the co-extensionality of the set of general recursive functions, abacus computable functions, and Turing computable functions, and the philosophical motivations for the ChurchTuring Thesis that all computable functions are Turing computable.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 51048 METAETHICS 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 41048) Metaethics is the study of the nature and justification of moral judgments, as distinct from ethics, which aims to articulate principles, criteria, or alternative approaches to understanding and achieving goodness and right action. Metaethics examines the concepts, ontology, psychology, and modes of justification employed within ethics. This course will explore recent developments about such questions as: which, if any, ethical judgments can be true or false; whether we can know true ethical statements; and to what kinds of properties, if any, ethical judgments and beliefs refer.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 51050 ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 41050) Focuses on the history and continued evolution of analytic philosophy. Readings include works by philosophers such as Frege, Russell, Moore, Wittgenstein, Schlick, Carnap, Ryle, Austin, Strawson, Grice, Quine, Davidson, Kripke, Putnam, and others. The aim of the course is (i) to understand the theses and themes that commonly arise in analytic philosophy, their philosophical motivations, and the problems they face, and (ii) to become familiar with the methodologies used by analytic philosophers including (but not limited to) logical analysis, appeals to ordinary language, the use of thought experiments, and the use of possible world semantics.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 51055 PHENOMENOLOGY 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 41055) In-depth study of the phenomenological movement in twentieth-century philosophy, from its origin in the thought of Edmund Husserl and his contemporaries, through such canonical thinkers as Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, to various contemporary developments. Substantial time is also devoted to considering applications of phenomenology to various disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, and arts. This is in keeping with the overall focus in this seminar on phenomenology not only as a philosophical school, but also as a methodology with broad and diverse applications.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 51060 PRAGMATISM 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 41060) As America’ s distinctive “home-grown” philosophy, pragmatism embodies the values of action, problem-solving, and consensus-building within a pluralistic society. The core of this course examines the seminal works of the classical American pragmatists: Peirce, James, and Dewey. Special attention will be devoted to a phenomenology of experience that undercuts the dualisms of mind and matter, subject and object, self and world.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 51065 PLATO 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 51065) Detailed examination of selected platonic dialogues, with some attention to Plato's development and dismissal of certain pre-Socratic (and Socratic) themes.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 51070 ARISTOTLE 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 41070) Detailed examination of selected works of Aristotle, with some attention given to Aristotle's development and dismissal of certain pre-Socratic and Platonic themes.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 51076 CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 41076) Investigation of some figure, issue or theme in continental philosophy from Descartes to present.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 51080 PHILOSOPHY AND ART: 1890 - PRESENT 3 Credit Hours
(Slashed with PHIL 41080) Exploring, with emphasis, on the modern age philosophical conceptions of art in their interplays with, especially, practicing artists' attitudes toward theory.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 51091 SEMINAR IN WORLD PHILOSOPHY 3 Credit Hours
(Repeatable for credit) (Slashed with PHIL 41091) Intensive primary-source reading and critical appreciation of the significant works of one or more philosophical figures or one or more philosophical issues from traditions outside the Western canon.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Seminar
Contact Hours: 3 other
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 51491 SEMINAR IN ASIAN PHILOSOPHY 3 Credit Hours
(Repeatable for credit) (Slashed with PHIL 41491) Intensive primary-source reading and critical appreciation of the significant works of one or more philosophical figures or one or more philosophical issues from traditions in Asian philosophy.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Seminar
Contact Hours: 3 other
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 51591 SEMINAR IN THE HISTORY OF ETHICS 3 Credit Hours
(Repeatable for credit) (Slashed with PHIL 41591) Intensive primary-source reading and critical appreciation of the significant works of one or more philosophical figures or one or more philosophical issues from traditions in the history of ethics.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Seminar
Contact Hours: 3 other
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 59995 SPECIAL TOPICS 3 Credit Hours
(Repeatable for credit) When content varies, may be repeated for credit.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 59996 INDIVIDUAL INVESTIGATION 1-3 Credit Hours
(Repeatable for credit with department approval)
Prerequisite: Graduate standing; and special approval.
Schedule Type: Individual Investigation
Contact Hours: 1-3 other
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory-IP
PHIL 60191 GRADUATE SEMINAR 3 Credit Hours
(Repeatable for credit) Intensive primary-source reading and critical appreciation of the significant works of one or more philosophical figures or one or more philosophical issues.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Seminar
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 60201 SEMINAR:HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 3 Credit Hours
Intensive primary-source reading and critical appreciation of the significant works of one or more historical philosophers (other than Plato and Aristotle) or one or more historical philosophical issues.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 61000 RESPONSIBLE CONDUCT OF RESEARCH 1 Credit Hour
(Cross-listed with BMS 61000 and BMS 71000) Introduction into professional and ethical conduct of research. Topics include codes and laws governing research, identification of scientific misconduct, plagiarism, authorship and intellectual properties, ethical animal and human research.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 1 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 61050 PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE 3 Credit Hours
Critical examination of nature and function of language especially in relation to mental function and development.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 61056 HERMENEUTICS 3 Credit Hours
Critical appreciation of the theories and practices of interpretation comprehended according to certain classical, current and emergent philosophic styles and traditions.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 69101 PROSEMINAR: PROFESSIONAL AND PEDAGOGICAL TRAINING 3 Credit Hours
(Repeatable for credit) Students participate in the preparation and planning of the annual Graduate Student Conference, receive professional training and mentoring, and work closely with faculty to write and revise a philosophical essay suitable for use as a writing sample or conference presentation.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Seminar
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
PHIL 69194 COLLEGE TEACHING OF PHILOSOPHY 1 Credit Hour
(Repeatable for credit) Discussion, critique and development of concepts to guide the teaching of philosophy including concepts of procedures and tactics for planning, pacing, presenting, representing and reviewing philosophic texts figures and issues.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 1 lecture
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory-IP
PHIL 69198 FIRST YEAR PAPER 1 Credit Hour
Research paper for graduate students conducted under direction of the advisory group.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Research
Contact Hours: 1 other
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory-IP
PHIL 69199 THESIS I 2-6 Credit Hours
Thesis students must register for a total of 6 hours, 2 to 6 hours in a single semester distributed over several semesters if desired.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing; and departmental special approval before registration.
Schedule Type: Masters Thesis
Contact Hours: 2-6 other
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory-IP
PHIL 69299 THESIS II 2 Credit Hours
Thesis students must continue registration each semester until all degree requirements are met.
Prerequisite: PHIL 69199; and graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Masters Thesis
Contact Hours: 3 other
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory-IP
PHIL 69995 SPECIAL TOPICS 3 Credit Hours
(Repeatable for credit) Selected topics in Philosophy.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing; and special approval.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Contact Hours: 3 lecture
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
PHIL 69997 COLLOQUIUM 1 Credit Hour
(Repeatable for credit) Student, faculty and invited guests participate in conference-like contexts to present and discuss issues of current philosophic interest.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Schedule Type: Colloquium
Contact Hours: 1 other
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory-IP
PHIL 69998 RESEARCH 1-15 Credit Hours
(Repeatable for credit) Research or individual investigation for master's level graduate students. Credits earned may be applied toward meeting degree requirements.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing; and special approval.
Schedule Type: Research
Contact Hours: 1-15 other
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory-IP