INTRODUCTION TO LOGIC, REASON, AND PERSUASION
50:730:101:01
T/TH 2:00 pm – 3:20 pm
Professor Young

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.

INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
50:730:111:01
M/W 12:30 pm – 1:50 pm                                                                                                     
Professor Betz

50:730:111:02
M/W 2:05 pm – 3:25 pm
Professor Betz

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.

HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY I
50:730:211:01
T/TH 11:10 am – 12:30 pm
Professor Betz

50:730:212:02
M/W 12:30 pm – 1:50 pm
Professor Rooney

The beginnings and early developments of Western philosophy. Readings selected from among the pre-Socratics, Plato, Aristotle, Sextus-Empiricus, Plotinus, Augustine, Maimonides, Aquinas, and Occam. Topics may include the nature of argument, knowledge, political loyalty and political dissent, justice, normative ethics, causality, the nature of the self, and the existence of God.

SELF AND IDENTITY
50:730:222:01
T/TH 9:35 am – 10:55 am
Professor Denehy

An exploration of the nature of the self, with emphasis on the conditions for remaining the same person over time and the relation between selfhood and moral responsibility.

ETHICS
50:730:226:01
M/W 9:35 am – 10:55 am
Professor Rooney

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.

PHILOSOPHY OF SEX, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY
50:730:247:01
T/TH 2:00 pm – 3:20 pm
Professor Betz

Critical examination within social philosophy of sex, gender, and sexuality. Topics include ways we understand sexual attraction and desire, the relationship between biological sex and gender roles, ideas of femininity and masculinity as they are reinforced through cultural and social norms, the regulation of sexuality and marriage, the publicity of sex and sexuality, and the relationship and tension between multiculturalism and feminism. Class includes applications of concepts to contemporary debates concerning parenting, pornography, sex education, same sex marriage, harassment law, and sexual reassignment.

BIOMEDICAL ETHICS
50:730:249:90
Professor Sacks

50:730:249:91
Professor Denehy

50:730:249:92
Professor Denehy

50:730:249:93
Professor Gentzel

50:730:249:94
Professor Gentzel

50:730:249:95
Professor Gentzel

50:730:249:96
Professor Young

50:730:249:97
Professor Young

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 AND BUSINESS
50:730:251:90
Professor Sacks

Social and moral problems that arise in the context of business: profit motive, corporate social responsibility, use and abuse of corporate power, truth in advertising, consumer rights, strikes, stockholders’ rights, preferential hiring. Contemporary case studies augmented with basic texts in ethics.

ETHICS AND THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY
50:730:329:01
Professor Rooney

Exploration of moral and social issues pertaining to emerging technologies. Topics covered include human enhancement, artificial intelligence, robotics, reproductive technology and cloning, and artificial life.

EVIL
50:730:333:01
M/W 2:05 pm – 3:25 pm
Professor Wall

Examines the phenomenon and meaning of evil, especially “moral” evil. Key questions pursued are how evil may be explained, why humanity is capable of It in the first place, whether it belongs to some or all people, how to differentiate its perpetrators and its victims, whether evil is compatible with the existence of a good God, and how one may judge the difference between evil and good. These and other fundamental questions are pursued through a wide range of classic, historical, and contemporary texts and in relation to examples of evil in today’s world. Enrollment not open to students who have taken 50:840:333.

INDEPENDENT STUDY IN PHILOSOPHY
50:730:389:01 and 02
By Arrangement

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.