Philosophy Courses

Course Offerings Fall 2013

Course Code	Title/Instructor	Meets
PHIL 101-01	Intro to Philosophy Instructor: Chauncey Maher Course Description: An introduction to Western philosophy through an examination of problems arising in primary sources. How major philosophers in the tradition have treated such questions as the scope of human reason, the assumptions of scientific method, the nature of moral action, or the connections between faith and reason.	0930:MWF EASTC 405
PHIL 101-02	Intro to Philosophy Instructor: Susan Feldman, PHIL STAFF Course Description: An introduction to Western philosophy through an examination of problems arising in primary sources. How major philosophers in the tradition have treated such questions as the scope of human reason, the assumptions of scientific method, the nature of moral action, or the connections between faith and reason.	0900:TR DENNY 311
PHIL 102-01	Moral Problems Instructor: Susan Feldman, James Sias Course Description: This course is designed to encourage students to think carefully about some of the most hotly contested social and moral problems facing us today. Topics may include issues ranging from the morality of killing enemy noncombatants and the permissibility of euthanasia and abortion to the moral problems associated with racial profiling, torture, and world hunger. The goal throughout will be to focus on the interplay between the relevant science, moral philosophy, and public policy so that students can develop nuanced and informed opinions of their own about some of our most pressing applied ethical issues facing us today.The course fulfills the DIV 1.a. distribution requirement. Offered every semester.	1030:MWF EASTC 405
PHIL 103-01	Logic Instructor: Susan Feldman Course Description: The study and practice of forms and methods of argumentation in ordinary and symbolic languages,focusing on elements of symbolic logic and critical reasoning, including analysis and assessment of arguments in English, symbolizing sentences and arguments,constructing formal proofs of validity in sentential and quantificational logic.This course fulfills the DIV 1.a. distribution requirement and the QR graduation requirement. Offered every semester, or every three or four semesters.	0900:TR DENNY 103
PHIL 201-01	Ancient Philosophy Instructor: Chauncey Maher Course Description: This course is an introduction to central questions, claims and arguments in ancient philosophy, centering on the work of Plato and Aristotle. Potential questions include: What is the value of reason and knowledge? What is knowledge? Is it always better to be just than unjust? What constitutes a good human life? What kind of thing is a human being?Prerequisite: one prior course in philosophy or permission of the instructor.	1030:TR EASTC 301
PHIL 205-01	Topics in Asian Philosophy Instructor: Crispin Sartwell Course Description: This course focuses on the characteristics and problems of thought in Asia, with emphasis on methods of comparative philosophy and close examination of works and movements within a major tradition (in different semesters: China, India, Japan, Buddhist schools).Prerequisite: one prior course in philosophy or permission of the instructor.	1330:TF EASTC 301
PHIL 210-01	Philosophy of Feminism Instructor: Susan Feldman Course Description: Cross-listed with WGST 210-01.	1500:TF EASTC 301
PHIL 215-01	Existentialism Instructor: Susan Feldman, PHIL STAFF Course Description: A study of existenntialist thinkers, including Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre, de Beauvoir, and Camus, who treat the human condition as irreducibly individual and yet philosophically communicable, and for whom the experience of the existing individual is of primary importance in issues ranging from one's relationship to God to the inevitability of death. Prerequisite: one prior course in philosophy or permission of the instructor. Offered every two years.	1500:MR EASTC 300
PHIL 255-01	Philosophy of Law Instructor: Douglas Edlin Course Description: Cross-listed with LAWP 255-01.	0930:MWF DENNY 103
PHIL 261-01	Realism: Theory and Object Instructor: Crispin Sartwell Course Description: Cross-listed with ARTH 391-01. The most ancient theory of art, held by both Plato and Aristotle, asserts that works of art are imitations of real things. The program of representing the world accurately was also central to Renaissance art practice, and accurate representation was held by figures such as Alberti and Leonardo to be a source of empirical knowledge. On the other hand, many recent theorists have argued that this idea is confused or impossible to apply. In this course, we will examine both the theoretical and the pictorial history of these ideas, including the work of modern and post-modern art theorists such as Nelson Goodman and Ernst Gombrich, as well as realist traditions such as Dutch painting and science of the 17th century	1030:TR WEISS 221
PHIL 275-01	Beauty Instructor: Crispin Sartwell Course Description: Cross-listed with ARTH 375-01.	1500:MR WEISS 221
PHIL 302-01	Ethical Theory Instructor: Susan Feldman, James Sias Course Description: This seminar will explore some of the major developments in classical and contemporary moral philosophy. Both first order ethical theories as well as issues in meta-ethics will be discussed. Prerequisites: two prior courses in philosophy, at least one at the 200-level, or permission of the instructor. This course fulfills the DIV 1.a. distribution requirement and the WR graduation requirement. This course fulfills the WR graduation requirement. Offered at least once every two years.	1330:MR EASTC 212
PHIL 401-01	Senior Seminar Instructor: Susan Feldman Course Description: A seminar focusing in depth on a selected philosophical topic, author or text with special emphasis on student philosophical writing and voice. Prerequisites: three prior courses in philosophy, at least one at the 300-level, or permission of the instructor. This course fulfills the DIV 1.a. distribution requirement.	1330:W EASTC 212