The Philosophy Faculty invites you to join us during the Spring 2010 semester to experience an excursion into discerning a deeper understanding of everyday life. Besides 26 sections of PHI 101 Introduction to Philosophy, we are offering a wide range of courses at the PHI 200 level — Field 2 courses — many treating various moral concerns and contemporary issues of social justice. All PHI 200 courses may be taken for Core credit and some have an ethics attribute. Please note our new course numbering.
We are also offering upper level philosophy courses at the PHI 300 level, the only prerequisite is at least one other philosophy course. The topics range from history of philosophy to philosophy of science and philosophy and film. Please join us in a continuing conversation about important concerns of our times.
Core Foundation Course
PHI 101 - INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
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TBA FOREST REED FOREST LOUGHEAD TBA LOUGHEAD REED TBA PRYBA TBA TBA McLAUGHLIN TBA McLAUGHLIN HAVIS HALADY HAVIS JACUZZO MUKHERJEE SIMMONDS BOGER MUKHERJEE TAYLOR MORAN WALSH |
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8:00-8:50 9:00-9:50 9:00-9:50 10:00-10:50 10:00-10:50 10:00-10:50 11:00-11:50 11:00-11:50 11:00-11:50 12:00-12:50 12:00-12:50 1:00-1:50 1:00-1:50 2:00-2:50 2:00-2:50 8:30-9:45 8:30-9:45 10:00-11:15 10:00-11:15 11:30-12:45 11:30-12:45 1:00-2:15 1:00-2:15 2:30-3:45 6:00-8:45 6:00-8:45 |
FIELD 2 COURSES, Some With CORE ATTRIBUTES
PHI 221 — Critical Thinking — Jacuzzo
TR 8:30-9:45
Critical thinking is the art and science of determining the truth or falsity of important propositions that are not known to be true or false. This course offers students the means of mastering, acquiring, and enhancing knowledge in respect of distinguishing true propositions from false propositions.
PHI 225 — Logic — Schultz-Aldrich
TR 1:00-2:15; TR 2:30-3:45
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. There are two sections of logic offered. Only the 1 p.m. section contains a component on analytical reasoning, which may be helpful for pre-law students who plan to take the LSAT.
In both sections assigned exercises are gone over extensively in class. Discussion and questions are encouraged. The course is intensive rather than extensive: a limited amount of material must be learned thoroughly. This is done through assignments, quizzes, discussion, and a final examination.
PHI 241 — Ethics: Traditions In Moral Reasoning — Djuth
MWF 9:00-9:50; W 6:00-8:45
A survey of principal traditions in moral reasoning with attention to moral principles and their applications to contemporary social realities
This course serves to satisfy a Field 2 Philosophy course with an ethics attribute.
PHI 242 — Ethical Issues In Business — Pryba
MWF 11:00-11:50
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.
This course serves to satisfy a Field 2 Philosophy course with an ethics attribute.
PHI 243 — Bio-Medical Ethics — Taylor
MWF 8:00-8:50
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 each chapter of our required texts amidst discussion of its key ethical issues. Curiosity about how the case develops should pull students through the ethical analysis. Students are encouraged to do their own thinking about the moral dilemmas discussed in class.
In this course special attention will be given to demonstrate the need to ground an ethic of medicine in a specific philosophy of medicine, that is, in a philosophy of the interpersonal relationship between physician and patient in the "clinical encounter" — that moment when a decision and action must be taken which will be for the good of the patient, both technically and morally. Students should leave this course with a significant grasp of how a basic knowledge of ethical theories and allied principles shape moral reasoning about the selected medical ethical issues analyzed this semester.
This course serves to satisfy a Field 2 Philosophy course with an ethics attribute.
PHI 245 — Animal Ethics — Zeis
MWF 9:00-9:50
This course treats a wide range of moral issues concerning our treatment of animals including: animal rights and welfare, vegetarianism, euthanasia, animal experimentation, animal management, stewardship, and our obligation to animals in the wild.
This course is required for students in the Animal Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation program; it also serves to satisfy a Field 2 Philosophy course with an ethics attribute.
PHI 252 — Happiness, Virtue & The Good Life — Reed
MWF 1:00-1:50
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 Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Hume, Nietzsche, and Sartre. Along the way, we will discuss experience machines, grass counters, Mother Teresa, drug addicts, sadomasochism, and the eternal recurrence of Groundhog’s day.
This course serves to satisfy a Field 2 Philosophy course with an ethics attribute.
PHI 261 — Philosophy Of Law — Djuth
MWF 10:00-10:50
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 — Philosophy Of Human Rights — Boger
TR 2:30-3:45
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 273 — Race & Philosophy — Havis
TR 11:30-12:45
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 — Social & Political Philosphy — Simmonds
R 6:00-8:45
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.
Upper Level Philosophy Courses Requiring At Least One PHI 200 Level Course
PHI 302 — Medieval Philosophy — Spencer
TR 10:00-11:15
In this course we will explore part of the vast heritage of the philosophy of the medieval period (350-1400 AD). We will focus in particular on questions about human knowledge that were raised during that period. A central problem for medieval philosophers, as it is for philosophers today, was the problem of how human beings can have knowledge of various things. The problem of knowledge includes several related questions. These include questions about our knowledge of universals, the nature of the human person, the relationship between faith and reason, and the question of whether humans can know anything about God. Philosophers still raise each of these questions today, and deeper insight into such matters can be gained by studying the medieval philosophers. Among the philosophers whom we will read are Augustine, Avicenna, Maimonides, Abelard, Aquinas, Bonaventure, Scotus, and Ockham. Selections from these and other philosophers’ writings will be considered against the backdrop of the colorful history of the period, as well as the tensions which existed during that time between philosophy, and the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic faiths. The aim of the course is for students to gain an appreciation for the questions that were raised in this period in their historical context, to understand the basic positions of some of the thinkers of the period, and to understand how these positions and conflicts still influence us today.
This course may be selected to fulfill an elective in the European Studies Program.
This course may be selected to fulfill an elective in the Catholic Studies Program.
PHI 304 — 19th Century Philosophy — Boger
MWF 11:30-12:45
With a focus on 19th century European philosophy, this course examines the nature and limits of human knowledge and the nature of reality. Topics include — skepticism vs objectivism; whether thought determines being or being determines thought; on the origin of values and whether they are objective or relative; on the character of history, whether determined or the result of human agency; on the knowability or unknowability of God and the consequences of either for human beings; on whether God is an independently existing being or an hypostatization of human thought; on the relationship between lordship and bondage; Nietzschean nihilism; dialectical and historical materialism; on a tension between the individual and civilization; the origin of phenomenology. These topics are examined as represented in various traditions of philosophy, including — Objective & Subjective Idealisms; Mechanical & Dialectical Materialisms; Empiricism; Rationalism; Skepticism; Nihilism; Deontological and Utilitarian ethics; Phenomenology. Readings and discussions treat each philosopher’s concern with ethics — and determining the philosophical definition of person — and with the consequences of philosophical positions for the individual and society as well as with epistemology and metaphysics in connection with ethics. There is a concern to examine the relationship between a given ethic or a political philosophy and its corresponding ontological underpinning. Principal philosophers studied include — Immanuel Kant, G. W. F. Hegel, Ludwig Feuerbach, Søren Kierkegaard, Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels, John Stuart Mill, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Henri Bergson, V. I. Lenin, Edmund Husserl.
This course may be selected to fulfill an elective in the European Studies Program.
PHI 322 — Philosophy Of Science — Halady
TR 10:00-11:15
Our discussions will begin with looking briefly at the nature of the sciences. In particular, we will ask what problems motivated their development, and what methodological practices developed as a response to these problems. We then proceed to investigate some of the major topics in 20th Century philosophy of science, including — empiricism, the logic of science, the nature of scientific explanation, the status of scientific theories, and historical/feminist/postmodern critiques of science. A principal concern will focus on the practical evaluation of scientific claims and literature — primary examples will draw from the clinical investigation of complementary/alternative medicine, as well as the evolution/creationism debate. Most course work will be collaborative in nature and will include in-class student debates.
PHI 367 — Advanced Topics In Catholic Philosophy — Forest
MWF 12:00-12:50
This course will focus on the philosophy of the Canadian Jesuit Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984) and the worldview given in his 1957 work Insight: A Study of Human Understanding. Lonergan explores cognitional activity in a experiential approach. The goal is for the reader to recognize his or her own cognitive operations in act. From this, Lonergan develops a metaphysics and tries to present a coherent worldview that takes account of scientific methodologies, common sense patterns of thinking, form of bias, and ultimately a sense of self-awareness. There is a concern to connect Lonergan’s view to other Catholic and non-Catholic philosophical movements in the 20th Century. In the largest sense, Lonergan works with major ideas from Aristotle and Aquinas, Newton and Darwin, and the post-Kantian traditions. The course includes frequent writing experiments in the first half of the course, a major paper, and an exam or two.
This course may be selected to fulfill an elective in the Catholic Studies Program.
PHI 397 — Philosophy & Film — Loughead & Shambu
TR 1:00-2:15
This course treats film as a rich, multi-faceted and international art form. A deep and critical engagement with films requires a thorough understanding of film form--of exactly how films do what they do. We can see film form in action--concretely--through mise-en-scène: all the elements of visual style including composition, camera movement, placement and movement of actors, sets and decor, and lighting. This course will foreground auteurism, using it to examine how formal strategies interact with the personal styles and visions of filmmakers. Alongside watching and discussing the films, we will study various philosophical movements such as: phenomenology, existentialism, deconstruction, feminism and psychoanalysis. The philosophers may include: Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, Heidegger, Sartre, De Beauvoir, Foucault, Butler, Derrida and Freud. The filmmakers may include: Hitchcock, Bresson, Denis, Fassbinder, Ray, and Varda.
This course may be selected to fulfill an elective in the Women's Studies Program.