| PHIL 102-01 |
Introduction to Ethics
Instructor: Jim Sias
Course Description:
An introduction to the philosophical study of morality, focusing on concepts of right and wrong, virtue and vice, and wellbeing. This course provides students the opportunity to hone their ethical reasoning skills by critically examining how some of historys most influential philosophers thought about issues in morality. Students will also develop more general skills, such as evaluating philosophical arguments, and expressing and defending their own ideas in writing.
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10:30 AM-11:20 AM, MWF
BOSLER 208 |
| PHIL 103-01 |
Logic
Instructor: Chauncey Maher
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.Offered every semester, or every three out of four semesters.
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10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR
EASTC 411 |
| PHIL 104-01 |
Practical Ethics
Instructor: Amy McKiernan
Course Description:
This course introduces students to contemporary debates in practical ethics. Course materials investigate how theoretical approaches to ethics apply to practical issues, including discussions of animal ethics, environmental ethics, reproductive ethics, civil disobedience, and the ethics of mass incarceration and the death penalty. This course is best suited for students interested in thinking about the relationship between ethical theory and practice, with an emphasis on how power, privilege, and responsibility intersect in our everyday lives.
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11:30 AM-12:20 PM, MWF
EASTC 411 |
| PHIL 113-01 |
Colonization, Identity, Knowledge
Instructor: Jeff Engelhardt
Course Description:
Part of the Sicily Mosaic. Colonization has shaped the modern world. This course explores how it has affected knowledge practices and conceptions of identity. How are colonization and its legacies taught in schools, discussed in news media, regarded by scholars? How has colonization affected racial identities, gender, and sexual orientation? How do the identities of colonizer and colonized affect knowledge, consciousness, and other features of human minds? We'll focus on colonization and its effects in North America, Africa, and the Mediterranean. We'll read major works by Frantz Fanon, Charles Mills, Antonio Gramsci, and W.E.B Du Bois.
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10:30 AM-11:45 AM, TR
DENNY 317 |
| PHIL 113-02 |
Prepared for a Life of Meaning
Instructor: Gene Assaf, Emily Kelahan
Course Description:
Cross-listed with INBM 190-01. This course was inspired by a course taught by Ernie Parizeau, a retired entrepreneur who decided to help liberal arts graduates think about planning their lives as they get ready to leave college. This course aims to leverage your liberal arts education and to help you prepare for a meaningful life by exploring critical aspects of your post-college plans, and by practicing essential life and work skills. We will learn key concepts by reading and discussing literature in philosophy, psychology, education, leadership, and sociology. You will tackle assignments designed to develop skills and cultivate sound judgment, equipping you with tools to navigate life after graduation. We will discuss the seemingly small things (writing thank you notes, financial budgeting and fixing a tire) and larger issues (directing your professional life, pursuing fulfilling activities, establishing lifelong friendships). We will have several guests-people who created nonprofits, who ran public companies, and who took different paths to find fulfillment. Importantly, we will have guests who took risks, made mistakes and still navigated to find some sort of success. To assist in and test your post-college plans, you will establish a personalized Board of Advisors to support you in making life decisions and overcoming life's challenges. You will leave the course with a toolkit to help you tackle the ambiguities of life.
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01:30 PM-04:30 PM, T
DENNY 311 |
| PHIL 180-01 |
Political Philosophy
Instructor: John Harles
Course Description:
Cross-listed with POSC 180-01. An introduction to the history of political thought, focused on such problems as the nature of justice, the meaning of freedom, the requirements of equality, the prevalence of moral dilemmas in political life, the question of whether we ought to obey the law, and the importance of power in politics. We will also discuss how these issues continue to resonate today.This course is cross-listed as POSC 180.
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09:00 AM-10:15 AM, TR
DENNY 313 |
| PHIL 180-02 |
Political Philosophy
Instructor: Jonathan Baughman
Course Description:
Cross-listed with POSC 180-02. An introduction to the history of political thought, focused on such problems as the nature of justice, the meaning of freedom, the requirements of equality, the prevalence of moral dilemmas in political life, the question of whether we ought to obey the law, and the importance of power in politics. We will also discuss how these issues continue to resonate today.This course is cross-listed as POSC 180.
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03:00 PM-04:15 PM, MR
STERN 103 |
| PHIL 202-01 |
17th and 18th Century Philosophy
Instructor: Emily Kelahan
Course Description:
This course treats the Rationalists, Empiricists and Kant, with particular emphasis on issues in epistemology and metaphysics, such as the possibility and limits of human knowledge, the role of sense perception and reason in knowledge, the nature of substance, God and reality.
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10:30 AM-11:20 AM, MWF
EASTC 314 |
| PHIL 256-01 |
Philosophy of Mind
Instructor: Jeff Engelhardt
Course Description:
This course investigates the nature of the mind and its relation to the brain, body, and the surrounding world. Analyses of these topics will draw on information from fields such as psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, or computer science.
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03:00 PM-04:15 PM, TF
EASTC 314 |
| PHIL 258-01 |
Philosophy of Data
Instructor: Emily Kelahan
Course Description:
Cross-listed with DATA 198-01. This an introduction to philosophical issues arising in data science. Students will discuss, read and write about some important ethical issues that arise in the practice of data sciences, such as discrimination, privacy, consent, trust, and justice. To help clarify those issues, students will also learn about some connected issues in the epistemology and metaphysics of data science, such as the nature of statistical inference and of algorithms. Prerequisites: MATH 121 or DATA/COMP/MATH 180 or ECON 298. This course is cross-listed as DATA 198. Offered every semester.
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12:30 PM-01:20 PM, MWF
ALTHSE 08 |
| PHIL 261-01 |
Philosophy of Humor
Instructor: Jim Sias
Course Description:
Examination of specific problem, author, text, or movement.Prerequisites: Two prior courses in philosophy.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, TF
EASTC 301 |
| PHIL 261-02 |
Moderation or Radicalism: How Do We Achieve Equality?
Instructor: Chauncey Maher
Course Description:
Black-white inequality has persisted in the United States since before its founding. How do we achieve equality? Some argue that incremental change builds lasting progress and avoids dangerous backlash. Others insist that "Wait" always means "Never," and that grave moral wrongs demand immediate action, even if it is disruptive. This course examines both views. Starting with the famous debate between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois, we will consider each side in turn. This will include engaging with recent work by historians, psychologists, sociologists, economists, and philosophers. We will consider many important questions. How does segregation contribute to inequality? Is liberalism inadequate for dealing with inequality? Is racism permanent? Can a compelling case be made for reparations? When is civil disobedience called for? Might violent protest ever be legitimate? Might imagination have a special role in effective social movements? Through careful reading, discussion, and writing, you'll develop skills for thinking clearly about answers to these questions.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR
EASTC 314 |
| PHIL 261-03 |
Environmental Ethics
Instructor: Amy McKiernan
Course Description:
Examination of specific problem, author, text, or movement.Prerequisites: Two prior courses in philosophy.
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03:00 PM-04:15 PM, MR
EASTC 314 |
| PHIL 261-04 |
Judith Butler
Instructor: Dan Schubert
Course Description:
Cross-listed with SOCI 313-01 and WGSS 302-02. The work of Judith Butler on gender, sexuality, performativity, precarity, ability, grievability, and the self has been influential across the social sciences and humanities for the last 40 years. In this WID course, we seek to follow the development of these ideas in their work, and to think about the ways in which they can inform our understandings of both academic issues and contemporary social reality. The multidisciplinary impact of Butler's work is reflected in the multidisciplinary composition of the student body in this course, and it is my hope that we will learn not only from Butler, but from one another and our different disciplinary ways of knowing.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR
DENNY 304 |
| PHIL 261-05 |
From Paintbrushes to Deepfakes: The History of Truth and the (Photographic) Image
Instructor: Samuel Driver
Course Description:
Cross-listed with ARTH 205-03, FMST 220-05 and RUSS 260-01. "From Paintbrushes to Deepfakes" explores the evolving relationship between photography and truth from the medium's earliest days to present-day technologies of image generation and digital manipulation. This interdisciplinary course examines how photography sits at the center of both art history and the history of science, tracing how our conceptualization of photographic images and their claims to truth have developed over time. Students will develop critical foundations for analyzing both theoretical questions around photography and history and contemporary challenges, including visual disinformation and deepfakes. The course draws from diverse fields, including philosophy, art history, cultural studies, cognitive science, and media studies, engaging with a substantial breadth of scholars, practitioners, and theoreticians. Through these texts and in-class discussions, students will develop a broad interdisciplinary framework for navigating and analyzing contemporary and historical image cultures. Taught in English. No previous disciplinary knowledge required.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR
BOSLER 315 |
| PHIL 261-06 |
Life and Death
Instructor: Susan Feldman
Course Description:
Is there life on other planets? Is there life after death? Could AI agents be alive? Are ecosystems alive? In this course, we will explore our concepts and proposed definitions of life and death, the values attached to them, the moral responses they evoke, the scientific and social aspects they entail. Topics considered may include: the multiple definitions of life and death and how they intersect with our common-sense understanding; macroscopic views, taking units of life as ecosystems, populations, the earth as a whole; microscopic views, considering microbes, viruses and prions; artificial and synthetic life; the search for extra-terrestrial life; the relation and value of human life to other life-forms. Readings will include works from classic and contemporary philosophy as well as pieces from science and fiction.
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01:30 PM-04:30 PM, W
EASTC 301 |
| PHIL 302-01 |
Ethical Theory
Instructor: Jim Sias
Course Description:
This seminar will explore major issues or texts in classical or contemporary moral philosophy. Prerequisites: three prior courses in philosophy, at least two at the 200 level, or permission of the instructor. Offered at least once every two years.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR
BOSLER 321 |
| PHIL 304-01 |
Philosophy of Language
Instructor: Jeff Engelhardt
Course Description:
What is the meaning of a word? How is it related to the thing or things it picks out? Can we provide a systematic account of the meaning of every sentence of a natural language (such as English, Japanese or Hebrew)? What is the relationship between what words mean and what we get across with them? In what sense, if at all, do we follow rules when we use language? This course is a seminar in which we will consider these sorts of questions among others. Prerequisites: three prior courses in philosophy, including 103 (Logic) and two at the 200 level, or permission of the instructor. Offered every two years.
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01:30 PM-02:45 PM, MR
EASTC 108 |
| PHIL 500-01 |
The Philosophy of Autobiography
Instructor: Amy McKiernan
Course Description:
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| PHIL 500-03 |
Ethical Theory
Instructor: Jim Sias
Course Description:
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| PHIL 500-04 |
Intermediate Logic
Instructor: Jeff Engelhardt
Course Description:
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| PHIL 550-01 |
Independent Research
Instructor: Jeff Engelhardt
Course Description:
Permission of Instructor Required. Part of the Sicily Mosaic.
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| PHIL 560-01 |
Research in Philosophy of Neuroscience
Instructor: Chauncey Maher
Course Description:
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