INTRODUCTION TO REASONING AND PERSUASION
50:730:101:91
T 11:10 am – 12:30 pm
Hybrid – some meetings online
Professor Young
GEN ED: LQR (Logical & Quantitative Reasoning)
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.
INTRODUCTION TO CURRENT MORAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES
50:730:105:90
Online
Professor Young
Gen Ed: EAV (Ethics & Values)
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 2:00 pm – 3:20 pm
Professor Rooney
GEN ED: EAV (Ethics & Values)
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 Agule
GEN ED: EAV (Ethics & Values)
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 Monday
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).
History of Philosophy I
50:730:211:01
M/W 12:30 pm – 1:50 pm
Professor Betz
GEN ED: HAC (Heritages and Civilizations)
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.
AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY
50:730:218:01
T/TH 11:10 am – 12:20 pm
Professor Rooney
GEN ED: USW (US in the World)
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.
DEBATE ETHICAL ISSUES ACROSS DISCIPLINES
50:730:240:01
T/TH 11:10 am – 12:30 pm
Professor Betz
GEN ED: EAV (Ethics & Values), XPL (Experiential Learning)
Critical examination within social philosophy of sex, gender, sexual identity, and sexuality. Topics include ways we understand sexual attraction and desire, how we determine our sexual identity, 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 transgenderism.
PHILOSOPHY OF SEX, GENDER, & SEXUALITY
50:730:247:01
Cross-listed with 50:443:297:01
M/W 9:35 am – 10:55 am
Professor Betz
GEN ED: EAV (Ethics & Values), DIV (Diversity)
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
50:730:249:01
M/W/F 10:20 am – 11:15
Professor Young
GEN ED: EAV (Ethics & Values)
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.
50:730:249:90
Professor Gentzel
GEN ED: EAV
50:730:249:92
Online
Professor Gentzel
GEN ED: EAV
50:730:249:94
Online
Professor Gentzel
GEN ED: EAV
50:730:249:96
Online
Professor Denehy
GEN ED: EAV
PHILOSOPHICAL AND RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES ON CHILDHOOD
50:730:284:90
Cross-listed with 50:163:284:90/50:840:284:90
Online
Professor Wall
GEN ED: HAC (Heritage & Civilization)
This course explores the meaning and significance of childhood in society from a variety of philosophical and religious perspectives. The first half of the course critically examines some of the most influential writings on childhood in history from antiquity to modernity. We ask how these classic texts respond to such questions as the nature of childhood, the aims of child-rearing, and responsibilities to and of children. The second half investigates some of the central philosophical and religious issues concerning childhood today. It examines such issues as the changing purposes of families, children’s relations to culture, and children’s rights and political participation.
Philosophy of Science
50:730:334:91
T 9:35 am – 10:55 am
Hybrid – some meetings online
Professor Denehy
GEN ED: PLS (Physical & Life Sciences)
Examination of major philosophical issues concerning science. Topics selected from among science and pseudoscience; scientific explanation, method, theories, laws, and falsification; scope and limits of science; revolutions in science; science and ethics.
Political Philosophy
50:730:342:91
W 2:05 pm – 3:25
Hybrid – some meetings online
Professor Sacks
GEN ED: EAV (Ethics & Values)
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.