Introduction to Current Moral and Social Issues
50:730:105:01
T/Th 2:00 pm – 3:20 pm
Professor Young
Gen Ed: EAV
Introduction to moral theory and application to selected contemporary issues. Possible topics include abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, punishment, equality, sexism, racism, affirmative action, privacy, obligations to the world’s needy, treatment of animals, drug use, and the meaning of life.
Introduction to Philosophy
50:730:111:01
T/TH 11:10 am – 12:30 pm
Professor Betz
Gen Ed: EAV
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.
Introduction to Philosophy
50:730:111:02
M/W 9:35 am – 10:55 am
Professor Betz
Gen Ed: EAV
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.
Reading Seminar
50:730:190:01
M 2:00 pm – 4:20 pm (meets every other week)
Professor Agule
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
50:730:201:01
M/W 9:35 am – 10:55 am
Professor Agule
Gen Ed: LQR
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.
History of Philosophy II
50:730:212:01
T/TH 2:00 pm – 3:20 pm
Professor Betz
Gen Ed: HAC
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.
Nature of Mind
50:730:221:01
T/Th 11:10 am – 12:30 pm
Professor Rooney
Gen Ed: EAV
What is the mind? Is it part of physical reality, or something separate? Can science explain the nature of the mind? Is it possible for a properly programmed computer to have a mind? If the mind is completely physical, is it located entirely in the brain? We will investigate these questions, and contrast philosophical approaches to them with the methods employed in neuroscience and empirical psychology.
Self and Identity
50:730:222:01
T/Th 9:35 am – 10:55 am
Professor Rooney
Gen Ed: EAV
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
T/Th 2:00 pm – 3:20 pm
Professor Rooney
Gen Ed: EAV
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.
BIOMEDICAL ETHICS
50:730:249:90
Online
Professor Gentzel
Gen Ed: EAV
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.
50:730:249:92
Online
Professor Gentzel
Gen Ed: EAV
50:730:249:94
Online
Professor Young
Gen Ed: EAV
50:730:249:96
Online
Professor Gentzel
Gen Ed: EAV
50:730:249:98
Online
Professor Denehy
Gen Ed: EAV
Exploration of moral issues in medicine and medical research. The 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.
Eating Right: The Ethics of Food Choices and Food Policy
50:730:252:01
M/W 12:30 pm – 1:50 pm
Professor Betz
Gen Ed: EAV
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.
Philosophy of Law
50:730:258:01
M/W 12:30 pm – 1:50 pm
Professor Agule
Gen Ed: EAV
Introduction to philosophical issues concerning the nature of law and its relation to morality and to power. Focuses on the concept of justice and punishment, the function of law, and types of legal argument. Legal materials include cases drawn from constitutional law, contracts, torts, and criminal law.
Philosophical Ideas in Film
50:730:264:90
Online
Professor Young
GEN ED: AAI
An exploration of classic philosophical questions as represented in film. Possible topics include (but are not limited to) truth, skepticism, relativism, personal identity, determinism, artificial intelligence, and the problem of evil. Film representations of these classic questions will be identified and evaluated from the perspective of various philosophers, possibly including Plato, Russell, James, Descartes, Berkeley, Kant, Locke, Hume, and others.
Ethics of War Conflict
50:730:330:01
T/Th 3:35 pm – 4:55 pm
Professor Sacks
Gen Ed: EAV
Exploration of moral issues raised by collective violence through critical examination of the traditional theories of just war. Topics may include foundations of the right of self-defense, notions of a just cause for war, preventive war, humanitarian intervention, distinction between legitimate and illegitimate targets of attack, basis of moral liability to attack in war, terrorism, interrogational torture, and the relation between the morality of war and the law of war.
Evil
50:730:333:90
cross listed with 50:840:333:90
Online
Professor Wall
Gen Ed: EAV
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.