Faculty Profile
Jeff Engelhardt
Associate Professor of Philosophy (2014)
Contact Information
East College Room 205
717.254.8301
https://sites.google.com/site/virtualjeffengelhardt/home
Bio
I'm interested in human minds, how to study them, and how they interact with broader social structures. Over the past year or so, I've been trying to figure out how a particular theory of concepts, social externalism, might help us understand systemic oppression. Other recent published work concerns the mind-body problem in philosophy, more general metaphysical questions about minds, and the nature of causation.
Education
- B.A., Saint Peter's College, 2004
- Ph.D., Georgetown University, 2011
2022-2023 Academic Year
Fall 2022
PHIL 101 Intro to Philosophy
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.
PHIL 304 Philosophy of Language
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.
PHIL 550 Independent Research
Spring 2023
PHIL 103 Logic
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.
PHIL 202 17th & 18th Century Philosophy
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.Prerequisite: one prior course in philosophy or permission of the instructor.
PHIL 301 Metaphysics
This seminar will treat key issues in metaphysics, such as the self and personal identity, free will, universals and particulars, causation, reductionism, naturalism, realism and anti-realism, and the very possibility of metaphysics. Prerequisites: three prior courses in philosophy, at least two at the 200 level, or permission of the instructor.
PHIL 500 Independent Study
PHIL 550 Independent Research
