INTRODUCTION TO LOGIC, REASON, AND PERSUASION
Course# 50:730:101:01
W 2:05 pm – 3:25 pm
Professor Young
Course is being taught online, synchronously
Development of skills in reasoning. Consideration of what an argument is, how arguments go wrong, and what makes an argument valid. Application of techniques for clarifying meaning, evaluating, and constructing arguments. Enrollment not open to students who have taken 50:730:201.
Fulfills the Gen ED requirements: LQR
INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
Course # 50:730:111:01
W 12:30 pm – 1:50 pm
Professor Rooney
Course is being taught online, synchronously
Course# 50:730:111:02
Online
Professor Gentzel
Course# 50:730:111:03
W 12:30 pm – 1:50 pm
Professor Sacks
Course being taught online, synchronously
An exploration of central philosophical problems, such as truth, justice, mind, and person, with a view to surveying the field and locating particular philosophical specialties within it such as logic, ethics, and metaphysics.
Fulfills the Gen ED requirements: LQR
READING SEMINAR
Course# 50:730:190:01
M 12:30 pm – 2:20 pm , meets every other Monday
Professor Agule
Course being taught online, synchronously
In this small, seminar-style course, students will work through either one significant book or a similarly substantive collection of essays, with the topic varying by semester. Students will engage in intensive close reading of the philosophical texts, identifying particular arguments, premises, and claims for assessment during student discussion in the seminar meetings. The course meets for 1/3 the time of a regular course, that is, on average one hour a week (or two hours every other week). This course can be repeated up to three times for credit. (Note that there is also a similar course in Religion, 50:840:190, which can be taken up to an additional three times).
SYMBOLIC LOGIC
Course # 50:730:201:01
W 9:35 am – 10:55am
Professor Agule
Course is being taught online, synchronously
An introduction to modern symbolic logic, with an emphasis on methods for the evaluation and construction of deductive arguments, and on the concepts of validity, consistency, and implication. Additional topics may be selected from among the following: informal fallacies, logic and ordinary language, induction, the scientific method, syllogistic logic, and the relation between logic and other areas in philosophy.
Fulfills the Gen ED requirements: LQR
HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY II
Course# 50:730:212:01
Online
Professor Betz
Course is taught online, asynchronously
The development of philosophy from its modern beginnings in Descartes. Readings selected from the classical modern period, from Descartes through Kant. Topics include the relationship between mind and body, the origins and extent of human knowledge, skepticism and belief, and the nature of personal identity.
Fulfills Gen Ed Requirements: HAC
AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY
Course# 50:730:218:90
Th 2:00 pm – 3:20 pm
Professor Rooney
Course is taught online, synchronously
Introduction to the contributions of American philosophers in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries to inquiries into the nature of experience, truth, goodness, and society, with particular attention paid to the tradition of American pragmatism. Readings selected from among Emerson, Peirce, James, Dewey, Mead, Royce, Lewis, Rorty, and Putnam.
Fulfills Gen Ed Requirements: USW
ETHICS
Course# 50:730:226:90
Online
Professor Chwang
An examination of fundamental issues in ethical theory through the works of contemporary philosophers and key figures in the History of ethics such as Aristotle, Kant, and Mill. Topics may include human goodness, moral obligation, rights and duties, the relation of happiness to duties, the idea of role obligations specific to professional contexts, and the possibility of objective justifications of value judgments as contrasted with views from moral nihilists, skeptics, and relativists.
Fulfills the Gen Ed Requirement: EAV
DEBATE ETHICAL ISSUES ACROSS DISCIPLINES
Course# 50:730:240:01
T/TH 11:10 am – 12:30 pm
Kim Moran and Professor Betz
Course is Online, synchronously
This course trains students in ethical reasoning and argumentation through both the study of ethics as a discipline and the practice of ethical debate in an ethics bowl competition. Students gain not only an understanding of ethical ideas and argumentation, but also skills in constructing arguments, oral communication, close reading, community outreach, and event organization.
Fulfills Gen Ed Requirements: EAV
BIOMEDICAL ETHICS
Course# 50:730:249:01
Online
Professor Gentzel
Online
Course# 50:730:249:02
Professor Gentzel
Online
Course# 50:730:249:03
Professor Young
Online
Course# 50:730:249:04
Professor Denehy
Online
Course# 50:730:249:05
Professor Denehy
Course# 50:730:249:H1 (Honors Course)
Professor Chwang
Exploration of moral issues in medicine and medical research. Course will typically focus on issues raised by the creation and termination of life and include topics such as abortion, stem cell research, cloning, prenatal screening for disability, right to medical care, human experimentation, genetic enhancement and eugenics, animal experimentation, the diagnosis of death, and euthanasia.
ETHICS OF FOOD
Course# 50:730:252:H1 (Honors Course)
Online
Professor Betz
Course is Online, Asynchronous
Exploration of ethical issues concerning individual food choices, food policies, and the cultural importance of culinary traditions. Course will analyze arguments concerning vegetarian and vegan diets, for organic and/or local food choices, and about policies we should collectively adopt to shape the processing, marketing, and sale of food within communities.
Fulfills the Gen Ed Requirement: EAV
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
Course# 50:730:342:01
W 2:05 pm – 3:25 pm
Professor Sacks
Course is Online, Synchronously
Critical examination of the philosophical problems involved in theories of the state and its relationship to citizens. Topics include the nature and justification of political obligations, natural rights, justice, anarchism, and the development of political ideals of communism, socialism, liberalism, and democracy. Satisfies requirement in ethical/political/social theory for Philosophy Major and Minor. Formerly 50:730:319.
Fulfills the Gen Ed Requirements: EAV
INDEPENDENT STUDIES
Course# 50:730:389:01
Professor Agule
Course# 50:730:389:02
Professor Betz
Course# 50:730:389:03
Professor Chwang
An individual reading and research project under the guidance of a member of the philosophy department in an area of interest to the department. Prerequisite: Permission of department.