PHIL 001-001 INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
Professor Steven Gross,
Lecture: Monday, Wednesday – 2:00-3:00
Registration Required for Lecture and Recitation

RECITATIONS:

PHIL 001-201 Friday 10:00-11:00 Staff
PHIL 001-202 Friday 12:00-1:00 Staff

An introductory examination of four important philosophical topics: free will and determinism, arguments for and against the existence of God, scepticism and the nature of scientific reasoning, and moral relativism.
GENERAL REQUIREMENT II: HISTORY & TRADITION

PHIL 001-301 INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY (FRESHMAN SEMINAR)
Dr. Curtis Bowman,
Seminar: Monday, Wednesday – 3:00-4:30
Enrollment Restricted to Freshmen

In this course we will investigate the topic of philosophical anthropology, i.e., the philosophical study of what it is to be human, as a means of introducing students to philosophy in general. We will do this by looking at several traditional themes: ethics, freedom, and death. Since these issues concern everyone, we can begin to develop a philosophical view of what it is to be human by studying them in some detail.
GENERAL REQUIREMENT II: HISTORY & TRADITION


PHIL 001-302 INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY (FRESHMAN SEMINAR)
Dr. Thomas Meyer,
Seminar: Tuesday, Thursday – 3:00-4:30
Enrollment Restricted to Freshmen

An introduction to such topics as our knowledge of the material world, the relation of mind and body, the existence of God, the nature of morality.
GENERAL REQUIREMENT II: HISTORY & TRADITION






PHIL 001-303 INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY (FRESHMAN SEMINAR)
Instructor: Melina Bell,
Seminar: Tuesday, Thursday – 10:30-12:00
Enrollment Restricted to Freshmen

An introductory survey of some central philosophical issues, including: Is there a God? What is the relationship between the mind and the body? Are free will and determinism incompatible? Readings will be taken from both contemporary and historical sources.
GENERAL REQUIREMENT II: HISTORY & TRADITION


PHIL 004-001 HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY
Professor Karen Detlefsen,
Lecture: Monday, Wednesday – 10:00-11:00
Registration Required for Lecture and Recitation
WATU Credit Optional - See Instructor

RECITATIONS:

PHIL 004-201 Friday - 10:00-11:00 Staff
PHIL 004-202 Friday - 10:00-11:00 Staff (WATU)
PHIL 004-203 Friday - 12:00-1:00 Staff
PHIL 004-204 Friday - 1:00-2:00 Staff (WATU)
PHIL 004-205 Friday - 10:00-11:00 Staff
PHIL 004-206 Friday - 12:00-1:00 Staff (WATU)

This course will present a survey of some of the centrally important works of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century philosophy. We will focus on metaphysics and epistemology, and one of our guiding questions will be how various philosophers tried to account for human freedom in a deterministic natural world. Our readings will include work from Descartes, Leibniz, Hume and Kant.
GENERAL REQUIREMENT II: HISTORY & TRADITION

PHIL 005-401 – FORMAL LOGIC I
Professor Scott Weinstein,
Lecture: Monday, Wednesday, Friday – 11:00-12:00
Cross listed with: PHIL 505-401

Introduction to truth-functional logic and quantificational logic. Discussion of identity, descriptions, formalized theories, completeness, and decidability.
GENERAL REQUIREMENT IV: FORMAL REASONING & ANALYSIS






PHIL 006-401 FORMAL LOGIC II
Professor Andre Scedrov,
Lecture: Monday, Wednesday, Friday – 11:00-12:00
Cross Listed with: PHIL 506-401, MATH 570-401

Propositional logic: semantics, formal deductions, resolution method. First order logic: validity, models, formal deductions; Godel’s completeness theorem, Lowenheim-Skolem theorem: cut-elimination, Herbrand’s theorem, resolution method. Computability: finite automata, Turing machines, Godel’s incompleteness theorems. Algorithmically unsolvable problems in mathematics.


PHIL 008-401 THE SOCIAL CONTRACT
Professor Samuel Freeman,
Lecture: Monday, Wednesday – 12:00-1:00
Registration Required for Lecture and Recitation
Cross Listed with: PPE 008-401

RECITATIONS:

PHIL 008-402 Friday – 12:00-1:00 Staff
Cross listed w/PPE 008-402
PHIL 008-403 Friday – 10:00-11:00 Staff
Cross listed w/PPE 008-403
PHIL 008-404 Friday – 12:00-1:00 Staff
Cross listed w/PPE 008-404
PHIL 008-405 Friday – 2:00-3:00 Staff
Cross listed w/PPE 008-405
PHIL 008-406 Friday – 1:00-2:00 Staff
Cross listed w/PPE 008-406
PHIL 008-407 Friday – 11:00-12:00 Staff
Cross listed w/PPE 008-407

This course examines the role of social contract doctrines in Western thought and culture. We will focus on the political writings of the major modern proponents of social contract theory: Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and John Rawls. We will contrast their views with the utilitarian tradition, as represented by the political and economic philosophy of David Hume and Adam Smith. The relationship between social contract doctrine and the theory of rational choice is also discussed, as well as contemporary libertarianism. The course is designed to provide an introduction to some of the main issues in modern political philosophy. It is a requirement for the PPE major.
GENERAL REQUIREMENT I: SOCIETY






PHIL 009-301 WRITING ABOUT PHILOSOPHY
Instructor: Dr. Milton W. Meyer,
Seminar: Tuesday, Thursday – 1:30-3 :00
FULFILLS THE COLLEGE WRITING REQUIREMENT

PHIL 009-302 WRITING ABOUT THE MEANING OF LIFE
Instructor: Michael Elazar,
Seminar: Tuesday, Thursday – 10:30-12:00
FULFILLS THE COLLEGE WRITING REQUIREMENT

PHIL 009-303 WRITING ABOUT MORAL ISSUES
Instructor: Marc Cohen,
Seminar: Tuesday, Thursday – 12:00-1:30
FULFILLS THE COLLEGE WRITING REQUIREMENT

Discussion of several contemporary ethical topics such as limitations on freedom of expression, civil disobedience, affirmative action, privacy rights, treat of animals, euthanasia, health care distribution, informed consent, and obligations to future generations. Readings from philosophical and non-philosophical sources. MAY NOT BE COUNTED TOWARD A PHILOSOPHY MAJOR
RESTRICTED TO FRESHMEN AND SOPHOMORES


PHIL 072-001 BIOMEDICAL ETHICS
Professor Glenn McGee,
Lecture: Monday, Wednesday -- 11:00-12:00
Registration Required for Lecture and Recitation

RECITATIONS:

PHIL 072-201 Friday – 11:00-12:00 Staff
PHIL 072-202 Friday – 1.00-2:00 Staff
PHIL 072-203 Friday – 10:00-11:00 Staff
PHIL 072-204 Friday – 12:00-1:00 Staff

This course introduces the practical implications of moral theory for health care and biomedical research. Course involves two hours of interactive lecture and one of small group discussion each week, and close reading of philosophical texts as well as clinical journal articles. Topics of clinical and research medicine to be covered this semester include assisted suicide, human cloning, gene therapy research, payment of human subjects in research, distribution of scarce resources, and stem cell research. It is strongly recommended that students complete PHIL 001, Introduction to Philosophy, prior to enrollment. After course fills, over-enrollment will be for philosophy majors and minors only.
DISTRIBUTION I: SOCIETY



PHIL 209-301 PLATO
Professor Charles Kahn,
Seminar: Tuesday, Thursday – 10:30-12:00

Reading and discussion of Plato’s major dialogues, with special attention to moral philosophy and metaphysics. Topics will include the dialogue form and the relation between literature and philosophy in Plato’s work. Readings include Gorgias, Laches, Euthyphro, Protagoras, Symposium, Phaedo, Phaedrus, Timaeus and passages from the Republic.
DISTRIBUTION II: HISTORY & TRADITION

PHIL 226-401 PHILOSOPHY OF BIOLOGY
Professor Zoltan Domotor,
Lecture: Monday, Wednesday, Friday – 11:00-12:00
Cross listed with: HSSC 266-401

Introduction to contemporary philosophical and biological problems of evolutionary theory (levels and units of selection, fitness and adaptation, biological individuals and species), genetics (Watson-Crick molecular vs. Mendelian), and levels of organization and their autonomy and description. Special attention will be paid to the conceptual structure of biological theories, their autonomy, incompleteness, deterministic and statistical formulations, obstructions to reductionist efforts, metaphysics of functional explanation, and relational biology. Other topics include: Theoretical order and hierarchy in biology, information and macromolecular action, biological progress, sociobiology, evolutionary ethics, and the ethical dimensions of biological research. Course work: A midterm quiz and final exam (in class exam or analytic term paper, chosen by the student). Some background in biology is recommended but not required.


PHIL 342-301 METAPHYSICS
Professor James F. Ross,
Seminar: Tuesday, Thursday – 12:00-1:30

Explorations of some issues concerning properties, qualities, holes, truth, necessity and impossibility, the human mind and animal perception, with a manuscript (by the teacher) and further readings from a recent collection from Duns Scotus and William of Ockham (c.1300). There are three short papers (3-5 pages), one 12-15 page paper on a book or problem to be selected by the student with the teacher’s advice , with a take-home final exam based on the assigned readings. Seminar style discussions.
PHILOSOPHY MAJORS ONLY






PHIL 372-301 TOPICS IN ETHICS
Professor Ulrike Heuer,
Seminar: Tuesday, Thursday -- 3:00-4:30

In this course we will examine different contemporary positions in theoretical ethics, focusing on topics such as relativism, objectivity in ethics, the significance of disagreement and the nature of practical conflicts. Authors include J. Mackie, B. Williams, G. Harman, T. Scanlon, C. Wright, T. Nagel.
PHILOSOPHY MAJORS ONLY
DISTRIBUTION I: SOCIETY

PHIL 425-401 PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Professor Zoltan Domotor,
Lecture: Wednesday – 3:00-6:00
Cross listed with: HSSC 425-401

Historically oriented survey and contemporary analysis of the basic concepts and arguments in philosophy of science. An in-depth examination of the nature of scientific theories, their confirmation and theory-world relations, laws of nature and their role in unification and explanation, causation, and teleology, reductionism and supervenience, values and objectivity. Additional topics covered include arguments concerning scientific realism, the ontological status of theoretical entities, the Quine-Duhem thesis, Kuhn’s paradigm shifts, Bayesianism, and the success of science. PREREQUISITE: BACKGROUND IN ELEMENTARY LOGIC AND SOME RUDIMENTS OF SCIENCE.

PHIL 473-301 PRACTICAL REASONS AND VALUES
Professor Ulrike Heuer,
Seminar: Wednesday – 3:00-6:00

What are practical reasons? How are they related to values (if at all)? We will discuss subjects such as what is normativity?, What is the nature of values?, moral particularism, rational explanation of actions. Authors include: J. McDowell, J. Dancy, J. Raz, D. Parfit, T. Scanlon, C. Korsgaard, D. Davidson.

PHIL 505-401 FORMAL LOGIC I
Professor Scott Weinstein,
Seminar: Monday, Wednesday, Friday – 11:00-12:00
Cross Listed with: PHIL 005-401

Introduction to truth-functional logic and quantificational logic. Discussion of identity, descriptions, formalized theories, completeness, and decidability.
UNDERGRADUATES NEEDS PERMISSION


PHIL 506-401 FORMAL LOGIC II

Professor Andre Scedrov,

PPE 008-401 THE SOCIAL CONTRACT
Professor Samuel Freeman,
Lecture: Monday, Wednesday – 12:00-1:00
Registration Required for Lecture and Recitation
Cross Listed with: PHIL 008-401

RECITATIONS:

PPE 008-402 Friday 12:00-1:00
Cross listed w/PHIL 008-402
PPE 008-403 Friday 10:00-11:00
Cross listed w/PHIL 008-403
PPE 008-404 Friday 12:00-1:00
Cross listed w/PHIL 008-404
PPE 008-405 Friday 2:00-3:00
Cross listed w/PHIL 008-405
PPE 008-406 Friday 1:00-2:00
Cross listed w/PHIL 008-406
PPE 008-407 Friday 11:00-12:00
Cross listed w/PHIL 008-407

This course examines the role of social contract doctrines in Western thought and culture. We will focus on the political writings of the major modern proponents of social contract theory: Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and John Rawls. We will contrast their views with the utilitarian tradition, as represented by the political and economic philosophy of David Hume and Adam Smith. The relationship between social contract doctrine and the theory of rational choice is also discussed, as well as contemporary libertarianism. The course is designed to provide an introduction to some of the main issues in modern political philosophy. It is a requirement for the PPE major.
GENERAL REQUIREMENT I: SOCIETY


PPE 475-301 PROPERTY, JUSTICE & THE GOOD SOCIETY
Professor Richard Boyd,
Seminar: Tuesday, Thursday – 10:30-12:00

This course will consider the various justifications–historical or contemporary–for the institution of private property, as well as the broader standing of property rights in competing visions of the good society. We will discuss issues such as the “naturalness” or “conventionality” of property rights; the legitimacy of extending or limiting private property; the link between property rights claims and other sorts of human rights; and whether the most compelling justification of private property hinges on its value as an individual or as a collective good. Readings will include classical and contemporary
authors such as Locke, Hume, Prudhoe, Rawls, Nozick, Cohen and Hayek. Class sessions will incorporate lecture, discussion and student presentations.
PPE MAJORS ONLY


COLLEGE OF GENERAL STUDIES

PHIL 002-601 ETHICS
Dr. Gary Purpura,
Seminar: Tuesday – 6:30-9:10

As the title suggests, the purpose of this course is to provide you with an introduction to the philosophical study of morality. We will explore the following questions: What, if anything, motivates us to be morally good? What is the source of a moral code’s authority? Are particular moral rules, such as the rule against killing innocent people, based on reason, emotion, self-interest, or something else? How do we determine whether someone has acted morally? Do considerations of morality conflict with human happiness or are they necessary for such happiness? How are we to come to decisions about moral matters?
GENERAL REQUIREMENT I: SOCIETY

PHIL 003-601 HISTORY OF ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY
Dr. Toomas Puhvel,
Seminar: Monday – 6:30-9:10

This course will examine the writings of the Presocratics, Plato and Aristotle on topics such as knowledge, the nature of reality and ethics. Particular attention will be paid to the question of what the various figures to be studied took to be the nature and proper task of philosophy itself. GENERAL REQUIREMENT II: HISTORY & TRADITION


PHIL 026-601 PHILOSOPHY OF SPACE AND TIME
Professor Murad Akhundov,
Seminar: Tuesday, Thursday – 5:30-7:10

A study of the historical introduction to the philosophy of space and time from ancient Greek conceptions to modern scientific theories: from Democritus, Zeno and Aristotle to Descartes, Galileo and Newton. Some lectures will be devoted to the Crisis of the Mechanical Worldview (conceptions of absolute and relative space, time and motion) and the Origin of the Modern Science. We will consider the philosophical problems of the theory of relativity, quantum mechanics and relativistic cosmology; four-dimensional unification of space and time, the beginning of time, etc. No previous physics or philosophy will be presupposed, and only high school mathematics will be used.
GENERAL REQUIREMENT SCIENCE STUDIES


PHIL 055-601 EXISTENTIALISM
Dr. Thomas Meyer,
Seminar: Thursday – 6:30-9:10

This course examines the struggle for self-respect and its failure.
DISTRIBUTION REQUIREMENT II: HISTORY & TRADITION


PHIL 080-601 AESTHETICS
Dr. Curtis Bowman,
Seminar: Wednesday – 6:30-9:10

Aesthetics is concerned with the philosophical questions that arise when we reflect on the nature of art and our experience of it. What makes something a work of art? What is the relationship between artists and their artworks? Can we give reasons for our judgments about artworks, or are our claims about art mere expressions of our preferences? What role does art play in our lives? These are some of the questions that we will consider in this course.
GENERAL REQUIREMENT III: ARTS & LETTERS


PHIL 488-640 THE IDEA OF NATIONALISM
Professor Stephen Steinberg,
Seminar: Monday – 6:30-9:10

This course will explore–from a philosophical perspective–the nature of national and group identity, the alleged right of every group to national self-determination, and the contemporary moral and ethnopolitical conflicts that these ideas shape. We will examine the beliefs of a variety of nationalist movements, both contemporary and historical, such as American, German, Jewish, Palestinian, Irish, and a variety of Third World nationalisms, to get a clearer idea of what the idea of nationalism is and why it so often gives rise to seemingly irresolvable conflicts. In the process, we will explore such questions as: What is a nation or ethnic group? How are claims to national self-determination to be justified and evaluated? How do nations differ from states, peoples, groups, communities, or citizenries? Does every identifiable ethnic or national group have a valid claim to a nation-state of its own, to cultural autonomy, to territory, or to recognition by others? How does nationalism relate to notions of “chosenness” or ethnic and cultural superiority? Is national self-determination compatible with our commitments to individualism, rationality, and universalism? Does the recognition of claims to national or ethnic identity confer special rights, responsibilities or privileges? How are such claims to be viewed in the light of contemporary phenomena such as mass migration, ethnopolitical conflict, genocide, apartheid, civil war, and terrorism? Nationalism has been the most important geo-political phenomenon of the past two hundred years. Its continuing power has been amply demonstrated by recent events in the United States, the Balkans, the former Soviet Union, Africa, and on the Indian subcontinent. This course will help us gain a clearer understanding of the meaning, philosophical foundations, and moral implications of these ubiquitous claims to group and national self-determination.
PERMISSION NEEDED FROM CGS OFFICE

PHIL 573-690 CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS OF BIOETHICS

Professor David Magnus,

Seminar: Tuesday – 4:30-7:00

This course examines the various theoretical approaches to bioethics, and critically assesses their underpinnings. Topics to be covered include an examination of various versions of utilitarianism; deontological theories; virtue ethics, ethics of care; the fundamental principles of bioethics (autonomy, beneficence, distributive justice, non-maleficence); casuistry, and pragmatism. The course will include discussion of some key ethical concepts, namely confidentiality and informed consent. Reference back to concrete cases will ground the philosophical theories and ideas throughout the course.
PERMISSION NEEDED FROM CGS OFFICE


PHIL 573-691 CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS OF BIOETHICS
Professor David Magnus,
Seminar: Thursday – 4:30-7:00

Same course description as PHIL 573-690.
PERMISSION NEEDED FROM CGS OFFICE


PHIL 574-690 TOPICS IN BIOETHICS
Professor Art Caplan,

Seminar: Wednesday – 4:30-7:00

PERMISSION NEEDED FROM CGS OFFICE


PHIL 574-691 TOPICS IN BIOETHICS: DEATH AND DYING
Instructor: Autumn Fiester,
Seminar: Monday – 4:30-7:00

This course will focus on the philosophical issues surrounding death and the process of dying. It will integrate theoretical reflections written by philosophers with more applied works written by clinicians and social scientists. In the theoretical component of the course we will ask questions such as: why is death bad?, what effect does awareness of mortality have on living?, is there such a thing as a “good death”?, what makes a death tragic? In the second component of the course, we will explore the ways in which social, historical and healthcare factors affect how we die. Students will be challenged to explore their own attitudes about dying and death.
PERMISSION NEEDED FROM CGS OFFICE

Department of Philosophy Home Page
Last Edited: 11/01/01