2024-2025 Academic Year

Fall 2024

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 104 Practical Ethics
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.

PHIL 210 Philosophy of Feminism
Critical examination of key issues concerning the status and roles of women and of the developing theories which describe and explain gender-related phenomena and prescribe change for the future. Prerequisite: one prior course in philosophy or permission of the instructor.

Spring 2025

DATA 198 Philosophy of Data
Cross-listed with PHIL 258-01.

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.

PHIL 258 Philosophy of Data
Cross-listed with DATA 198-01.

PHIL 261 Philosophy of Work
Philosophy of Work Yard work. Housework. Working out. Working it. Work seems to be much more than performing a job for compensation. Work is central to our modern lives, but what exactly is it? What's its value? Under what conditions is it performed, by whom, and are those conditions acceptable? What are the various working relationships in which we find ourselves and what do we owe to whom? How is it different from play and leisure? Is there too much work? Is there enough? Who gets to work? Who has to work? What is the proper place of work in a human life? Philosophy of Work will guide students through a variety of answers to these questions and will hone their ability to develop their own positions through consideration of normative case studies (e.g., mouse jigglers and mouse jiggler surveillance, intellectual property litigation, FTC banning noncompetes, paying student athletes, etc.)

MEST 500 Independent Study

PHIL 500 Independent Study