Canisius College

PHI 225 N —Logic — Chanderbhan TR 1:00-2:15
Sound reasoning is important in every career and, indeed, is crucial for good living.  This course provides the tools necessary to distinguish correct from incorrect reasoning.  It focuses on evaluating deductive reasoning in ordinary language; also covered are informal fallacies and inductive argumentation by analogy.  This course contains a component on analytical reasoning that may be helpful for pre-law students planning to take the LSAT.

PHI 241 B — Ethics: Traditions in moral reasoning — Djuth MWF 9:00-9:50
Core Curriculum Ethics Attribute
A survey of principal traditions in moral reasoning with attention to moral principles and their applications to contemporary social realities

PHI 241 C — Ethics: Traditions In Moral Reasoning — Chanderbhan MWF 10:00-10:50
Core Curriculum Ethics Attribute
A survey of principal traditions in moral reasoning with attention to moral principles and their applications to contemporary social realities

PHI 241 F — Ethics: Traditions In Moral Reasoning — Zeis MWF 1:00-1:50
Core Curriculum Ethics Attribute
A survey of principal traditions in moral reasoning with attention to moral principles and their applications to contemporary social realities

PHI 241 ONL — Ethics: Traditions In Moral Reasoning — Djuth W 6:00-8:45
Core Curriculum Ethics Attribute
This course also is a survey of principal traditions in moral reasoning with attention to moral principles and their applications to contemporary social realities.  PHI 241 ONL is not a self-paced online course.  It meets weekly online on Wednesday evenings from 6 to 8:45 except on days when exams are given.  Exams are given in a classroom on campus.  In the spring semester we will use web conferencing to communicate with each other.

PHI 242 D — Ethical Issues In Business — Walsh MWF 11:00-11:50
Core Curriculum Ethics Attribute  
The continuing economic downturn is a powerful reminder of the impact that business practices can have on all our lives.  This course asks if the ethics of business is incompatible with the business of ethics.  We examine the ethical implications of the relationships between businesses and their shareholders, employees and society at large.  This course asks the important question of whether ethics is simply an obstacle that must be overcome in the pursuit of profit or if an ethical critique of role of business in society can or should fundamentally constrain the way businesses operate.

PHI 242 R — Ethical Issues In Business — Walsh M 6:00-8:45
Core Curriculum Ethics Attribute  
The continuing economic downturn is a powerful reminder of the impact that business practices can have on all our lives.  This course asks if the ethics of business is incompatible with the business of ethics.  We examine the ethical implications of the relationships between businesses and their shareholders, employees and society at large.  This course asks the important question of whether ethics is simply an obstacle that must be overcome in the pursuit of profit or if an ethical critique of role of business in society can or should fundamentally constrain the way businesses operate.

PHI 243 C — Bio-Medical Ethics — Reed MWF 10:00-10:50
Core Curriculum Ethics Attribute
This course is designed to advance reasoned analysis in an effort to clarify and resolve some of the central dilemmas which arise in the field of medical ethics.  Students will be introduced to diverse points of view in medical ethics by considering paradigmatic cases in the field of medicine and responses to those cases by doctors, philosophers, and policy-makers.  Among the areas we will consider are: informed consent, truth-telling, confidentiality, genetic and reproductive control, allocation of scarce medical resources, abortion, euthanasia, and the right to healthcare.  The course intends to acquaint students with the main issues in contemporary bioethics and to allow students to respond to these issues critically and courageously.

PHI 244 MSL — Environmental Ethics — Halady TR 11:30-12:45
Core Curriculum Ethics Attribute
Service Learning option
There is a significant moral difference between kicking a rock and kicking your younger sibling in the face.  We can characterize this difference as a difference in moral status.  Younger siblings have moral status, and so we must take their interests and well-being into account when deciding how to interact with them.  Rocks do not have moral status, and so we do not do wrong if we do not factor them into our moral decision making.  The question of who or what bears moral status, then, is the question of who counts morally.  Justice requires that whenever we decide to treat two things, or two kinds of things, in morally different ways, that we do so for good, principled, non-arbitrary reasons.  As both individuals and as a society, we often make a moral distinction between humans on one hand, and non-human animals, plants and other forms of non-animal life, and ecosystems on the other.  Humans count, while the rest do not.  We also generally assume that this distinction is just.  This course examines these assumptions, as well as a variety of other positions, concerning who and what bears moral status, and why.  We also examine and evaluate the implications for these various positions of our practical decision making.  There are two main goals to this class.  The first is to help students to develop a justice-based framework for asking questions about who or what bears moral status, and why.  The second is to apply this framework to practical questions about human use and interaction with the non-human world.

PHI 245 L — Annimal Ethics — Halady TR 10:00-11:15
Core Curriculum Ethics Attribute
This is a required course for students in the Animal Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation program as well as a core ethics attribute elective for students in other programs.  A wide range of moral issues concerning our treatment of animals will be the focus, including: animal rights and welfare, vegetarianism, euthanasia, animal experimentation, animal management, stewardship, and our obligation to animals in the wild.  Brief surveys of ethical theories and theories on animal cognition will also be presented as foundational for reasonable discussion of these moral issues.

PHI 246 E — Ethics Of Technology — Hicks MWF 12:00-12:50
Core Curriculum Ethics Attribute
Over the last century, technology has become especially ubiquitous.  Television, cellular phones, medical breakthroughs, and the internet — just to name a few — have assumed a prominent and enduring place in modern life.  Yet we rarely take the opportunity to reflect on these technologies and their relation to ourselves and our society.  In this class, we will examine in what ways technological innovations make us better or worse.  What unwanted or unnoticed effects does the use of technology have in our lives?  What presuppositions do technologies make?  How do we balance moral responsibility with the rapidly increasing demand for new and better technology?  How does technology change the way we relate to our world?  These are a few of the questions that we will consider by critically examining selected essays, articles, and movies that explore the controversies surrounding technology.  Among the controversies we will examine are nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, robotics, genetic enhancement, reproductive technologies, information technologies, and domestic technologies.  The aim of the course is not only to give students the opportunity to think critically and independently about technology, but also to make students more responsible and courageous members of a technological society.

PHI 252 D — Happiness, Virtue & Good Life — Taylor MWF 11:00-11:50
Core Curriculum Ethics Attribute
We all want to be happy, but what is happiness and how do we find it?  Does happiness depend on one’s state of mind, one’s circumstances, or both?  Is happiness in one’s control?  Does happiness consist in pleasure, virtue, friendship, family, achievement, work, money, glory, contemplating God, or something else?  Is happiness necessary for a good life?  Can a person be immoral and still live a happy, worthwhile life?  What is the best way of life?  This course examines such questions through the lens of philosophy.  In particular we will explore some competing conceptions of the good life as represented in some movies and proposed by such philosophers as Aristotle, Epictetus, Aquinas, Montaigne, Mill, and Nietzsche.  Along the way, we will discuss conjoined twins, experience machines, fly catchers, Mother Teresa, drug addicts, sadomasochism, and the eternal recurrence of Groundhog Day.

PHI 261 C — Philosophy Of Law — Djuth MWF 10:00-10:50
Core Curriculum Justice Attribute
This course examines the concepts and principles for describing and understanding legal systems, and the relationships between law and legal systems, society and morality.  It serves those pursuing careers in law, criminal justice, public affairs, politics, the social sciences, and philosophy.

PHI 271 B — Philosophy Of Human Rights — Otto MWF 9:00-9:50
Core Curriculum Justice Attribute
Concerns of human rights are part of global politics.  This course asks whether human rights transcend political orders or are tied to political systems of national sovereignty.  It also addresses the dynamic of cultural relativism vs absolutism that informs the debate about whether human rights are Western and Eurocentric or whether they can truly be applied universally to all human beings.

PHI 271 N — Philosophy Of Human Rights — Johnston TR 1:00-2:15
Core Curriculum Justice Attribute
Concerns of human rights are part of global politics.  This course asks whether human rights transcend political orders or are tied to political systems of national sovereignty.  It also addresses the dynamic of cultural relativism vs absolutism that informs the debate about whether human rights are Western and Eurocentric or whether they can truly be applied universally to all human beings.

PHI 272 E — Gender & Philosophy — TBA MWF 12:00-12:15
Core Curriculum Justice Attribute
Credit for Women’s Studies Program
The course studies feminist theories and analyzes the role that gender plays in society and in the formation of the masculine and feminine subjects; an examination of notions of power, structure and work; and gender as performance and representation.

PHI 273 U — Race & Philosophy — Simmonds-Price R  6:00-8:45
Core Curriculum Justice Attribute
This course studies the philosophical assumptions underlying concepts of race that treats designations of racial identities, the political effects of racial classification, the ethics of race, the metaphysical legitimacy and social reality of racial classifications.  In addition, Hip Hop theory is used as a lens for exploring the intersections between race, identity, gender, and class.

PHI 274 L — Social & Political Philosophy — TBA TR 10:00-11:15
Core Curriculum Justice Attribute
This course examines basic questions concerning human values, social organization, and the principles of political association.  It has a special concern to examine modern political issues and their historical antecedents and examines some key political and social concepts: equality, liberty, legitimization, social class, race relations, social justice, cultural tradition and cultural meaning.  There is a particular emphasis on the political and social upheavals associated with the formation of modern society, the rise of democratic republics displacing feudalism, the radical critique of a new capitalist society, the beginnings of a critique of white supremacy, and an early philosophical assessment of modernity.

PHI 274 O — Social & Political Philosophy — TBA TR 2:30-3:45
Core Curriculum Justice Attribute
This course examines basic questions concerning human values, social organization, and the principles of political association.  It has a special concern to examine modern political issues and their historical antecedents and examines some key political and social concepts: equality, liberty, legitimization, social class, race relations, social justice, cultural tradition and cultural meaning.  There is a particular emphasis on the political and social upheavals associated with the formation of modern society, the rise of democratic republics displacing feudalism, the radical critique of a new capitalist society, the beginnings of a critique of white supremacy, and an early philosophical assessment of modernity.

PHI 285 M — African American Philosophy — Havis TR 11:30-12:45
Traditionally considered an objective enterprise, philosophy is not usually associated with race or ethnicity. Africana Philosophy, however, calls into question philosophy’s neutrality and asserts that the distinctive experience of Black people in the Americas fosters unique philosophical perspectives. These perspectives not only engender alternative philosophies but call into question the nature of philosophy itself. From this perspective, philosophy must move beyond abstract ideas to counter processes of dehumanization and marginalization. The course  will examine Black Philosophy’s foundational theories as a means of understanding and investigating the ethical, social, and political implications of race. Theories of social uplift, social change, and resistance will provide a framework for understanding the questions and assertions that have become central to African diasporic world-views. Among the questions that we will explore are: What is race?; What, if any, are the defining features of blackness?; What makes Black Philosophy Black?; How has race been used to increase group solidarity?

PHI 286 F — Latin American Philosophy — Rivera-Berruz MWF 1:00-1:50
Core Curriculum Justice Attribute
Credit for Latin American Studies Program
Latin American philosophy is inherently concerned with the pursuit of justice at the social, political and epistemic levels. Latin American philosophy is a critical, theoretical reflection on the peoples, governments, spiritual and mental environments, and social atmosphere of the Latin American region.  This examination takes into consideration (1) the history of European colonialism and North American neo-imperialism, (2) the nation building movement of the early 19th century, (3) the various political reforms and “developmentalist” discourses of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and (4) contemporary concerns pertaining to popular social movements and the plight of Latino/as in the United States and the Caribbean.  The topics to be explored in this course may include: indigenous rights; ethical responses to colonization and the creation of “human rights discourse”; national autonomy and liberation; religious freedom and secularism; the process of decolonization and post-colonial theory; the possible recognition of an autochthonous “Latin American philosophy,” i.e. a unique way of practicing philosophy that is arises from within the Latin American experience; multiculturalism; and more.

PHI 303 O — Early Modern Philosophy — Reed TR 2:30-3:45
Credit for European Studies Program
The middle ages are sometimes said to be the “dark” ages, overthrown by a period of enlightenment that marks the beginning of the modern era.  Political, religious, and scientific revolutions in the 16th century and following forced philosophers and others to come to grips with a new understanding of the world around them.  This course examines the development of early modern philosophy through a historical survey of philosophical problems from the 17th and 18th centuries, focusing especially on the works of Descartes, Locke, Leibniz, Spinoza, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant.  Among the questions we will consider are: what is knowledge and what is its foundation?  What is the mind, and how is the mind connected to the body?  How do we know if the external world exists?  How do we know if God exists?  Is freedom compatible with the idea that every event has a cause?  The principal aim of the course is for students to understand and critically engage the answers given to these questions by philosophers in the modern period.

PHI 345 CSL — Justice And The Environment — Halady MWF 10:00-10:50
Core Curriculum Justice Attribute
This course examines theories of justice as they relate to questions and problems that arise from the human use of and relationship to our natural environment.  It does so in three stages.  First, the course examines classical theories of justice, which focus on our relationships with other humans.  Classical theories of justice provide inspiration for the environmental justice movement, which works toward more equitable access for humans to environmental resources like clear air, clear water, and abundant green spaces, as well as morally acceptable levels of exposure to environmental harms such as pollution.  Classical theories of justice tend to overlook justice with regard to humans' treatment of the non-human world, including non-human animals and ecosystems.  The second part of this course draws upon contemporary environmental theory to critique classical theories of justice, and seeks to expand our understanding of justice to include what previous accounts left out.  Though mainstream environmental theory works to expand human moral consciousness to include the non-human world, it does not radically reconsider our understanding of justice itself.  The third part of this course embarks upon a re-evaluation of the very notion of justice from the perspective of ecological feminism.  Ecofeminism seeks to re-orient our moral consciousness, moving our thinking about justice away from abstract, universal principles to our concrete experiences of care and interdependence.  Reading assignments draw upon both historical and contemporary philosophical sources.  Writing assignments throughout the semester center around a field project that engages students in local democratic grassroots organizations working for environmental justice in the City of Buffalo.

PHI 399 SM — Ethics, Justice, And Problem Of Poverty — Forest M 1:00-3:45
This is a Core Curriculum Capstone Course
Open to all students from all majors, this core capstone course was partly designed for Business Majors.  We will consider several rival versions of our moral self-understanding and several rival versions of how to address contemporary moral problems.  Our goal is to apply these different approaches to the problem of world poverty.  Since by current estimates, over 1.7 billion people live in absolute poverty [less than $1.25 per day], how do different economic approaches to these problems entail different conceptions of justice and of the living well?  The course considers our position as moral beings in a poverty stricken world.

PHI 399 M — Ethics, Justice, And Problem Of Poverty — Johnston TR 11:30-12:45
This is a Core Curriculum Capstone Course
This course synthesizes the learning experiences from having completed the components of the Core Curriculum.  The course has two parts.  The first part takes up consideration of two texts that provide a strong yet accessible background in ethics, justice, and diversity: (1) Kwame Anthony Appiah: Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers; and (2) Michael Sandel: Justice.  The second part of the course examines the controversy between two development economists; here the texts are: (3) Jeffrey Sachs The End of Poverty; and (4) William Easterly: The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good.  The emphasis then is on global awareness.  Examining the controversy between Sachs and Easterly raises concern about how good will and a commitment to justice by themselves seem not to entail clear and easy solutions to the problem of world poverty.

PHI 399 N — Ethics, Justice, And Problem Of Poverty — Forest TR 1:00-2:15
This is a Core Curriculum Capstone Course
Open to all students from all majors, this core capstone course was partly designed for Business Majors.  We will consider several rival versions of our moral self-understanding and several rival versions of how to address contemporary moral problems.  Our goal is to apply these different approaches to the problem of world poverty.  Since by current estimates, over 1.7 billion people live in absolute poverty [less than $1.25 per day], how do different economic approaches to these problems entail different conceptions of justice and of the living well?  The course considers our position as moral beings in a poverty stricken world.

PHI 405 L — Problem Of Evil — Chanderbhan TR 10:00-11:15
The problem of evil is one of the most striking and difficult problems for theists who hold God to be all-good, all-powerful, and all-loving to answer.  Many attempts to broach this topic have been made throughout the history of philosophy, particularly in the western philosophical and theological tradition (e.g., Augustine, Boethius, Saadia Gaon, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Aquinas, Leibniz, Hume, etc.).  In this seminar, we will focus on different aspects of this problem: (a) its formulation, (b) answers throughout history and across cultures (e.g., Buddhism, Hinduism), and (d) current philosophical (e.g., Eleonore Stump, Wandering in Darkness: Narrative and the Problem of Suffering) and popular / "religious" perspectives (e.g., Richard Dawkins, Rob Bell's Love Wins) on the problem.

PHI 451 — Thesis Guidance — Various TBA